Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Monday 05.31.2010
Memorial Day 2010
Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally (2009)
Witness to War Preserving the Oral Hisories of Combat Veterans
The Witness to War Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to preserving the stories and unique experiences of combat veterans. It was founded in an attempt to answer the unanswerable: What was it like to be there?
These are the stories of scared 18 and 19 year olds thrust into circumstances of such intensity and violence, that they became the defining moments of their lives.
Ron Paul: The Founding Fathers Were Libertarian
Barack Obama's credibility hits rock bottom after oil spill and Sestak scandal
by Toby Harnden in Washington - Telegraph.co.uk
The combination of Obama's passivity over the Gulf oil spill catastrophe and his cynical political maneuverings could spell disaster for him, argues Toby Harnden
The first thing Barack Obama probably should have done was to order the livestreaming Oil Spill Cam to be turned off. As the President insisted to Americans that he was "singularly focused" on staunching the flow, there was that mesmerizing image on their television screens of plumes of hydrocarbons gushing relentlessly into the Gulf of Mexico.
When any political leader feels they have to declare that they are "fully engaged" in an issue, it is clear that they are in trouble. Talking about it undermines the very point you are trying to make - not to mention that pesky Oil Spill Cam showing that, 38 days into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, not a whole lot had been achieved.
Sestak vs. the White House: Issa on High-Stakes Dodgeball
BP says crude may continue flowing into gulf until August
By David S. Hilzenrath and Matt DeLong - Washington Post
As BP prepared to implement another fallback plan to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Obama administration and BP officials said crude could continue flowing into the Gulf of Mexico until August. The "American people need to know that it is possible we will have oil leaking from this well until August when the relief wells will be finished," presidential adviser Carol Browner said on the CBS show Face the Nation.
BP Oil Spill: Chemical Dispersants Threaten Gulf
By JUSTIN VOGT, The Fiscal Times
A fter 38 days of suspense, anxiety and frustration, Gulf Coast residents are hoping that BP's latest attempt to stop the oil leaking from its blown-out Deepwater Horizon well will succeed. But even as reports emerge that the "top kill" may be working, experts are focusing on another aspect of the disaster: its potential impacts on public health.
BP's controversial decision to break down the oil and keep it from reaching the shore by applying massive quantities of toxic chemicals known as dispersants has set off alarms among ecologists and other scientists who think the government and BP have yet to sufficiently address this possible threat.
U.S. Plans 'for Worst' in Gulf, Seeing Risk in Leak Strategy
By JOSEPH BERGER and LESLIE KAUFMAN - NYTimes.com
After the failure of an effort to seal off a well spewing oil one mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico, a top Obama administration environmental official said the government is "prepared for the worst" in case oil keeps gushing until relief wells are finished sometime in August.
The chance that some oil will continue to leak for months was underscored by the managing director of BP, Robert Dudley, who described plans to put in place a second version of a containment dome, a strategy that failed earlier this month. Mr. Dudley, speaking on ABC's "This Week" program, said that attempt had given the company's engineers valuable lessons that would be applied to the new dome. But he added that even if it worked, some oil would seep out until the relief wells provided an"end point" by cutting off the flow beneath the seabed.
BP fails to plug oil well with "top kill"
Ed Stoddard and Mary Milliken
La./HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Saturday the complex "top kill" maneuver to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in U.S. history already in its 40th day.
"We have not been able to stop the flow," said Doug Suttles, the London-based oil giant's chief operating officer. "We have made the decision to move on to the next option," he added. That next option is called the lower marine riser package cap, one that captures oil from the well rather than plug it. Suttles said it could take four days or longer to show results.
Did North Korea Torpedo Oil Rig In US Gulf?
The destruction of a BP oil rig in the Gulf Coast has led to a lot of speculation and rumor-mongering on the Internet, focusing on the possibility that rogue Communist dictatorship North Korea was at fault.An explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20th killed 11 people and eventually collapsed the rig into the Gulf, sending 5,000 barrels of oil a day out and into the water.
Pres Obama "Armed Swat Teams To Inspect Oil Rigs In Gulf"
Obama Sends Bomb, Mars Experts to Fix BP Oil Spill
By Jessica Resnick-Ault and Katarzyna Klimasinska
May 14 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu signaled his lack of confidence in the industry experts trying to control BP Plc’s leaking oil well by hand-picking a team of scientists with reputations for creative problem solving.Dispatched to Houston by President Barack Obama to deal with the crisis, Chu said Wednesday that five "extraordinarily intelligent" scientists from around the country will help BP and industry experts think of back-up plans to cut off oil from the well, leaking 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below sea-level.
US Orders Blackout Over North Korean Torpedoing Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Rig By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A grim report circulating in the Kremlin today written by Russia’s Northern Fleet is reporting that the United States has ordered a complete media blackout over North Korea’s torpedoing of the giant Deepwater Horizon oil platform owned by the World’s largest offshore drilling contractor Transocean that was built and financed by South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., that has caused great loss of life, untold billions in economic damage to the South Korean economy, and an environmental catastrophe to the United States.Most important to understand about this latest attack by North Korea against its South Korean enemy is that under the existing “laws of war” it was a permissible action as they remain in a state of war against each other due to South Korea’s refusal to sign the 1953 Armistice ending the Korean War.
Oil spill: BP admits its latest attempt to stem the leak has failed
By Philip Sherwell in New Orleans and Kamal Ahmed - Telegraph.co.uk
BP has admitted that its latest effort to stem the 40-day flow of oil into the Gulf has failed.
Speaking at a news conference at Fourchon Beach in Louisiana, Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, said that attempts to plug the oil leak with a mixture of mud and debris had done nothing to stem the flow. The attempt was later abandoned. "I don't think the amount of oil coming out has changed," said Mr Suttles. "Just by watching it, we don't believe it's changed."
BP, Obama face clamor to halt oil spill "crime"
Ed Stoddard and Sarah Irwin
Louisiana (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers and the American public clamored on Sunday for BP and the Obama administration to do more to save the U.S. Gulf Coast from an out-of-control oil spill that one congressman called an "environmental crime".
The failure on Saturday of a "top kill" technique attempted by British-based BP to try to seal its leaking Gulf of Mexico well unleashed a surge of anger and frustration that poses a major domestic challenge for President Barack Obama,
Obama, who has called the leaking BP well a "manmade disaster", is trying to fend off criticism that his administration acted too slowly in its response to the nearly six-week-old spill, now known to be the worst in U.S. history.
Documents Show Early Worries About Safety of Rig
By IAN URBINA - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON - Internal documents from BP show that there were serious problems and safety concerns with the Deepwater Horizon rig far earlier than those the company described to Congress last week. The problems involved the well casing and the blowout preventer, which are considered critical pieces in the chain of events that led to the disaster on the rig. The documents show that in March, after several weeks of problems on the rig, BP was struggling with a loss of "well control." And as far back as 11 months ago, it was concerned about the well casing and the blowout preventer.
Why gold is world's lowest risk investment
By Stewart Thomson - CommodityOnline.com
Those sure that Tuesday's Dow action marked the bottom, (the "hammer" on the candle charts) were shocked 24hrs later, as the Dow posted a mirror image reversal day to the downside. This morning the Dow is once again surging, stunning the bears.
This is classic whipsaw action, a saw operated by the banksters, cleaning both shorts and longs off the stock market souvlaki stick. It is also only example number 800 billion, of why you must allocate your capital in a pyramid formation, not a huge price plop.
Market instability may push gold prices sharply
CommodityOnline.com
Gold prices may move between $1,180 and $1,230 this week, although there still is potential for gold to head toward $1,250. Prices moved back above $1,200 last week as investment demand surged. Prices below this level drew buying interest. Combined exchange traded fund gold holdings were a record 62.85 million ounces as of 27 May, up 1.64 million ounces from the end of the previous week. This was the largest weekly increase since February 2009. Gold prices also were aided by the contract roll in the New York market. While investor concerns over European sovereign debt problems remain, the level of anxiety seems to have eased, which could allow for prices to ease a bit this week.
The Depression Of 2011? 23 Economic Warning Signs
From Financial Authorities All Over The Globe
Could the world economy be headed for a depression in 2011? As inconceivable as that may seem to a lot of people, the truth is that top economists and governmental authorities all over the globe say that the economic warning signs are there and that we need to start paying attention to them. The two primary ingredients for a depression are debt and fear, and the reality is that we have both of them in abundance in the financial world today. In response to the global financial meltdown of 2007 and 2008, governments around the world spent unprecedented amounts of money and got into a ton of debt. All of that spending did help bail out the global banking system, but now that an increasing number of governments around the world are in need of bailouts themselves, what is going to happen? We have already seen the fear that is generated when one small little nation like Greece even hints at defaulting. When it becomes apparent that quite a few governments around the globe cannot handle their debt burdens, what kind of shockwave is that going to send through financial markets?
The U.S. Government Bond Bubble
By: Moses Kim
What follows will read like an indictment on our entire economic system. But underlying my (relatively mild) harangue is an observation that people are ignoring the most obvious bubble out there; that is, the bubble in U.S. government bonds. The following is my attempt to figure out why. Efficiency Market Theory
Let's face it, markets are inefficient. The efficient market theory, manufactured from the ivory towers of academia, poses perhaps the greatest threat to the stability of our system. Here's why.
What Is It About the Sestak Mess That Sounds So Familiar?
By John Lillpop - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
As the cover up of the Sestak fiasco absorbs more and more of President Obama‰Ûªs time and energy, one has a vague recollection of a similar crisis involving a senate seat some where in the bowels of the American heartland. A recent crisis it was, if memory serves.
Unfortunately, age diminishes the ability to immediately recall every finite detail, but as the haze clears ever so slightly, one remembers that the previous scandal involved a vacant U.S. Senate seat in-was it Illinois?
By gosh, I believe it was.
Connect the dots!
Preparing for What's Next
By David Galland, GoldSeek.com
Oh, what a tangled web we live in. On one side of the Atlantic, there is a fundamentally broke European Union. On the other, the world's largest debtor nation, these United States.
Rotate the globe and you discover China, the world's most populous nation: a nation whose economy is desperately dependent on export revenues, without which its government may find it hard to meet the population's soaring aspirations. And who is China's largest trading partner? The European Union, that's who.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall,
When is the Next AIG to Fall? | Marc Faber
Uncertainty Reigns Supreme
by John Browne - FinancialSense.com
Just a few weeks ago, most financial analysts continued to insist that the road to recovery stretched far into the future. Now, uncertainty has returned with a vengeance and the stock market has booked its first official 10% correction since this tenuous 'bull' market began in the spring of 2009. In recent days, markets have shown signs of life - but nascent rallies have been quickly smothered. I believe there are five fundamental reasons for this persistent uncertainty. First, the world's second most held currency, the euro, is threatened with possible extinction. The massive $750 billion bailout package for Greece will not cure Greece's dependence on entitlements, and will likely only buy time until a debt restructuring.
The Path to Hyperinflation
Jordan Roy-Byrne, CMT - 321Gold.com
As we've discussed recently, persistent deflationary forces do not augur for a repeat of Japan circa 1990s or the US in the 1930s. Instead, because of the inability of government's to finance their current and future debt burden (there is a dearth of domestic savings and global capital), deflationary forces will ultimately lead to severe inflation or hyperinflation. In today's piece, I explain how this will happen but in various stages.
In the first stage, the economy enters a recession after a large credit bubble. The recession and end of the credit bubble lead to deflation. As a result, the US Dollar and US Treasuries outperform. Think 2008.
BankWatch: Big Banks Face Financial Doomsday in 2012
By PALLAVI GOGOI - DailyFinance.com
The cost of borrowing funds for the largest American banks is going to skyrocket in the coming years -- and that's just the beginning of their troubles. A confluence of factors are coming to a head: First, the credit ratings of large Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C) are all under siege due to aspects of the financial reform bill, which was passed by the Senate last week. Second, that bill will restrict their lucrative derivatives and trading businesses, which is sure to put a crimp on their earnings. Finally, the vast amounts of government-backed cheap capital that these banks raised in the financial markets in 2009, will all have to be refinanced in 2012 at interest rates that could be as much as five times higher than those they got last year.
The Great Deceit
Kenneth J. Gerbino - 321Gold.com
It is the paper money created out of thin air that creates the unfair distribution of wealth that is making the middle class fall more behind and the poor more poor. Newly created money and credit in a paper money system benefits those that can access the money first and buy capital goods and real property at one price before the new money circulates and makes all prices go up. Wages also do not keep up with inflation and that creates another squeeze on the middle class.
Euro bailout "welfare for the rich" - Jim Rogers
Spain orders banks to come clean on debts to restore shattered faith
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk The Bank of Spain has ordered the country's lenders to face up to bad debts and set aside reserves of up to 30pc on property holdings in a bid to restore global confidence in the Spanish financial system after weeks of investor flight.
The new rules target the savings banks or cajas that account for the lion's share of the €445bn (£377bn) of property debt accumulated during the credit boom, when real interest rates were negative. The authorities acted after severe strains in the inter-bank market had begun to raise questions about the ability of Spanish lenders to access routine funds from global peers. Deutsche Bank said Spanish lenders need to refinance €125bn by late 2011. "Liquidity is our main area of concern. Savings banks are in a very weak and risky position," it said.
Spain is trapped in a 'perverse spiral' as wage cuts deepen the crisis
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk The Spanish Inquisition used to burn Englishmen in Sevilla's Plaza de San Francisco when they had the chance. There must have been some nostalgia for this practice when the news hit that Fitch Ratings had stripped the country of its AAA status.
The downgrade could not have come at a more dreadful moment. The EU's Û750bn "shield" for eurozone debtors has halted an incipient run on Club Med banks, but it has failed to restore full confidence for the obvious reason that such a guarantee cannot plausibly be extended from Greece to Portugal and then to Spain. The sums are too large, the number of solvent creditors too reduced, the intra-EMU politics too poisonous.
How Far Will Europe's Economic Tremors Reach?
By PAUL J. LIM - NYTimes.com
THE debt crisis in Europe has already had a significant psychological impact on Wall Street, sending the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index down 10.5 percent from its April high. But if investors are afraid that Europe's woes could retard the recovery in the United States, a question arises: What does the crisis in Europe really mean for domestic growth? The answer depends on which aspect of the crisis you're looking at. The possibility of another shock to global financial institutions is certainly cause for concern, as we shall see. But if investors focus solely on the fundamental health of Europe's economy, and its ties to the United States, the situation may not look all that worrisome.
European Market Overview
Geithner tells Europe: emulate China
The Sidney Morning Herald - AU
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday Europe should follow China's lead and boost growth since US consumers can no longer support the global economy alone. Geithner also said ahead of a summit of the G20 group of leading economies in Canada in late June that the United States and Europe were in "broad agreement" over the need to put into place tighter lending rules for banks.
Federal Reserve Is Intervening in the Currency Markets While Wall Street Whines about Reform
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
I think we all already knew this, but I wanted to bookmark it on my site for some future occasion when the government and the Fed deny it, probably in a response to a question from Ron Paul. The question I have in my mind is where does this show up on their books, and what other markets are they active in?
It also seems a bit ironic, since the current topic of discussion on Bloomberg TV is "investor trust in freefall?" The consensus of the talking heads is that Wall Street's holy men are under attack by evil governments, particularly those of the European persuasion, and the odd US regulatory agency.
Wall Street's War - RollingStone.com
Congress looked serious about finance reform - until America's biggest banks unleashed an army of 2,000 paid lobbyists
This article originally appeared in RS 1106 from June 10, 2010.
It's early May in Washington, and something very weird is in the air. As Chris Dodd, Harry Reid and the rest of the compulsive dealmakers in the Senate barrel toward the finish line of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act - the massive, year-in-the-making effort to clean up the Wall Street crime swamp - word starts to spread on Capitol Hill that somebody forgot to kill the important reforms in the bill. As of the first week in May, the legislation still contains aggressive measures that could cost once- indomitable behemoths like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase tens of billions of dollars. Somehow, the bill has escaped the usual Senate-whorehouse orgy of mutual back-scratching, fine-print compromises and freeway-wide loopholes that screw any chance of meaningful change.
Senate Considers Union Pension Bailout
By Christopher Neefus - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - A Senate committee will consider on Thursday a bill introduced by Sen. Robert Casey (D-Pa.) that critics say would create a taxpayer-backed bailout of multi-employer pension funds that are in critical financial condition. "Pension plans across the country have taken major losses because of the near economic collapse and the decline in the stock market," Casey said in a statement upon introducing the bill in March. "My legislation would help correct these problems to protect the pensions of workers and unburden companies stuck paying a crippling expense that threatens its existence and the jobs of its employees."
Obama Talks Left To Move Right, As Wall Street Criminals Are Given A Free Pass And Reforms Are Watered Down
By Danny Schechter - MediaChannel.org
Is The President The Kind of Leader Chairman Mao Warned Us About?
We now know that it was the Obama Administration, led by the President himself, who used techniques well understood and denounced decades earlier by none other than Mao TseTung.
He talked left, to move right.
In several high profile speeches, he lashed out at Wall Street for its greed and mendacity, proposing financial reforms that appeared to be hard hitting, if only because of the way the lobbyists for the financial services industry squealed about them.
But even as he was feigning left, he and his main economic operative, Tim Geithner, were moving right, to kill off amendments that the bankers hated, like Senator Bernie Sanders's proposal for a deep audit of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Brown-Kaufman Amendment that would have broken up the six biggest banks in America.
Wall Street Operative Geithner Rebuffed in Berlin on Mission to Make World Safe for Derivatives
Webster G. Tarpley - TARPLEY.net
On the most important stop of last week's desperate mission to make the world safe for derivatives, US Treasury Secretary Geithner has been dealt a decisive rebuff. Geithner's obvious attempt to sabotage the recent prohibition enacted by the German government against naked credit default swaps (among the most toxic of derivatives) was rejected in Berlin on Thursday by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.
Tarpley: "A casino economy of globalization"
Social Security's Accounting Fiction
By GEORGE HAGER - FinancialTimes.com
I must be missing something. I've read the blog pieces here by Henry Aaron and Larry Haas in which they take issue with a March 24 story in The New York Times noting that Social Security is operating in the red this year, taking in less money than it pays out. Henry and Larry say The Times is wrong. I disagree. The story is correct. (Every bit as correct, by the way, as the virtually identical story my USA TODAY colleague Richard Wolf wrote back on Feb. 8.)
Let's take a look at Henry Aaron's math. He says Social Security is projected to take in $819 billion in income this year against expenses of $714 billion, leaving a hefty surplus and a growing trust fund. Where do those revenues come from? He says there are three sources: payroll tax revenues, taxes on Social Security benefits and interest on the trust fund. The problem is that only two of these are real money, in the sense that they're "revenues" created by the Social Security system. Those interest payments aren't "real," and without them, Social Security is running a deficit.
Three American cities on the brink of broke
By Sara Behunek - CNNMoney.com
FORTUNE -- Several downtrodden cities are on the verge of defaulting on their debt, putting financially encumbered states and taxpayers on the hook to pick up the tab. The National League of Cities says municipal governments will probably come up $56 billion to $83 billion short between now and 2012. That's the tab for decades of binge spending; municipal defaults could be our collective hangover.
Municipal bonds, issued to fund public projects such as roads and public buildings, have historically been seen as one of the safest places to invest, which is why 80% of municipal bond holders are individual households and mutual fund investors, explains Jeffrey Cleveland, municipal bond analyst at Payden & Rygel Investment Management.
Bankers' 'doomsday scenarios' under fire
By Chris Giles in London - FT.com
Banks are exaggerating the economic effects of the regulations they are likely to face in the coming years, the economist running an international impact study has told the Financial Times.
In a pre-emptive blast before the banks launch their own lobbying effort on June 10, Stephen Cecchetti, chief economic adviser to the Bank for International Settlements, said the banks' "doomsday scenarios" were based on their assuming "the maximum impact of the maximum change with the minimum behavioural change".
As Harvard Law Dean, Kagan Did Not Require Study of U.S. Constitutional Law But Did Require Study of International and Foreign Law
By Pete Winn, Senior Writer/Editor
(CNSNews.com) - Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama's choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, is best known for moving Harvard Law School away from the 100-year old "case-law method" of legal study. But in the process, critics say, she moved the nation's premier law school away from requiring the study of U.S. constitutional law towards the study of the laws of foreign nations and international law. As dean, Kagan won approval from the faculty in 2006 to make major changes to the Harvard Law's curriculum.
Fox News Freedom Watch's Judge Napolitano w/ Paul Armentano, the Deputy Director of NORML
Net Neutrality: Unwarranted Intervention
Mises Daily: by Fernando Herrera-Gonzalez
With the recent sentence on the Comcast affair, it seems that the debate about net-neutrality regulation has paused. Feeling the carpet pulled out from under it, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is struggling to find a new legal ground for its intervention. In the meantime, the stakeholders should reflect on the consequences a lobbying success would bring: the creation of regulations on net neutrality. The position of telecom operators is clear enough, as they have opposed from the beginning this attack on their assets and their businesses.
We Are On the Brink of a New Age of Rage
On May 21, 2010, Simon Schama published a commentary piece in the Financial Times. Its title, On the Brink of a New Age of Rage caught my attention, and my regular readers I'm quite sure will soon know why, if they don't know already.
For anyone new to Mandelman Matters, let's just say that I'm angry about what's been allowed to go on in this country, angry at the bankers that have become our American oligarchy, angry that the people haven't already done more to put the fear of God into our elected representatives, and angry that our government has done little in an attempt to reverse our course and stop the foreclosure crisis, and failed at what little they have attempted. But... I'm also fearful about the future.
I'm fearful that we have become a country so polarized by our media and our own beliefs, that we now require tragedy on at least the scale of 9/11 to bring us together to fight a common enemy. Anything less, and we're as likely to direct our anger at sideline issues, as we are to become absorbed in who's winning and losing on America Idol.
IRS wants a cut of online sales on eBay, Craigslist
By Tom Herman for The Washington Post
Many people think of online auction sites, such as eBay and Craigslist, as virtual garage sales -- a convenient way to clean out cluttered closets and attics stuffed with old clothes, books and knickknacks inherited from Aunt Gladys. But if you're a frequent or big-time seller, the government might consider your proceeds to be income and could come after you for taxes.
Huge profits result from foreclosure procedure
By RICHARD WILNER - NYPost.com
A new gold rush is sweeping the country -- only this time the speculators are looking to get fat off the $4 billion home foreclosure industry by promising banks a streamlined and low-cost method to kick folks out of their homes.
In the last two years, as the mortgage meltdown intensified, four companies have gone public or filed papers to go public -- each looking to get their hands on cash to help grow into a national powerhouse quickly to take advantage of the soft housing market.
Totalitarian Collectivism: Part 10 -- GLOBAL CONTROLLERS
By James Hall - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
As difficult as it is for most people to deal with the savage events that shape and manipulate humanity, it is nearly impossible to get the multitude to admit that they are expendable bondage slaves to a global system of hideous design and sinister purpose. The illusion that governments, serve the people is a total denial of history and especially, current events. Human nature requires an eternal struggle against the evil committed in the name of the "public good". Honesty about their plight under the boot of oppression is too hard to digest. The cause of their captivity refuses to identify their own role and compliance within the cancerous organism that rules the planet.
Kyrgyzstan at the Cross-Roads
Written by Uddipan Mukherjee - OilPrice.com
Not only should Kyrgyzstan's future after the April ousting of the government be a central focus, but the future of the other 'stans' as well
When riots broke out in Petrograd, it was March 8, 1917. The subalterns clashed with Tsar's infantrymen. In the process, 40 people were killed. But any 'revolution' can claim a resounding success and more to be embedded in the annals of History, if and only if the civilians and the army act in unison. And that's what happened on that day in St. Petersburg.
2nd Iceland Volcano Issues Warning
A second, much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs that it may be about to erupt, scientists have warned. Since the start of the Eyjafjallajškull eruption, which caused cancellations of thousands of flights in Europe because of a giant ash cloud, there has been much speculation about neighboring Katla. An initial research paper by the University College of London Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction said: "Analysis of the seismic energy released around Katla over the last decade or so is interpreted as providing evidence of a rising ... intrusive magma body on the western flank of the volcano."
2010 On Track to Be Deadliest Year for U.S. Forces in Almost Nine-Year-Long Afghanistan War
By Edwin Mora
(CNSNews.com) -- 137 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan since the first of the year, making the first five months of 2010 the deadliest January-through-May period of any year of the almost nine-year-long war. The 137 casualties so far this year more than double the 59 that occurred last year from January through May. Thus far, 2009 has been the deadliest year of the war, but the high current casualty count for this year, and the heavy fighting anticipated in Kandahar this summer, put 2010 on track to be even deadlier.
Gaza aid flotilla 'leaves Cyprus'
A flotilla of ships sailing towards Gaza with aid and activists on board has left Cyprus and will reach its destination on Monday, organisers say.
But Israel says it will stop the boats, calling the campaign a "provocation intended to delegitimise Israel". The Palestinian territory has been under an Israeli and Egyptian economic blockade for almost three years, with only limited humanitarian aid allowed. The activists, from the Free Gaza Movement, want to break the blockade. Israel imposed the measures after the Islamist movement Hamas took power in Gaza.
China fails to censure North Korea at warship summit China has held back from censuring North Korea at a summit in South Korea dominated by the issue of a sunken warship.
South Korea has accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan, which sank on 26 March with the loss of 46 lives. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the priority was to reduce tensions and avoid a clash over the incident. But he did not mention North Korea by name or show support for possible UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
BP's 'top kill' mission halts the oil gush - but is it stable?
Andrew Clark in New York and Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent - The Guardian.co.uk,
Experts warn that leak is far from being permanently fixed as weather service predicts unusually strong hurricane season
A delicate "top kill" operation by BP tentatively halted the gush of oil and gas from its ruptured Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, although experts warned that the underwater leak was still far from being permanently fixed. Engineers were due last night to begin a second round of pumping thick drilling mud at high speed into the ocean floor, which lies 5,000 feet (1,500 metres) under the surface of the sea about 50 miles off Louisiana. Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer, insisted that the operation was going to plan, but admitted: "What we do know is that we have not yet stopped the flow."
For a safe haven, there's not much that's as good as gold these days
By Thomas Molloy - Independent.ie
SHARESCOPE has always had reservations about gold. There seems to be something incredibly childish about hoarding a substance that has few practical uses and whose price depends on how many Chinese girls decide to buy bracelets. Still, Sharescope did not believe it was possible for the things to get quite as messy in the West as they are today or for gold to outperform almost every other asset class over the past decade. For all sorts of reasons, gold is now a good hedge against calamity and deserves a place in most portfolios.
How the Euro Drives Gold, The U.S. Dollar and U.S. Treasury Bonds
Cliff Wachtel - SeekingAlpha.com
For the past and coming weeks, to predict moves in gold and the US dollar, watch the euro, for volatility in the euro is what is driving both gold and the dollar. That's the asset that is showing the most volatility and markets are watching it, and for good reason. In the past month the EU debt crisis has proven to even the doubters that it is indeed the primary threat to the global economy and banking system, and further deterioration will leave no one unscathed.
Greek Scramble For Physical Brings Gold Price To $1,700 Per Ounce
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
And there are those who wonder how Sprott's PHYS could have traded at "ludicrous" NAV premium of over 20%. Coinupdate.com reports that prices at which the Greek Central Bank is selling one ounce gold equivalents are as high as $1,700 (40% over spot), and prices on the black markets are even higher. The punchline, as Athens slowly returns to a forced gold standard: " A popular spot for street vendors to sell their coins is near the Athens Stock Exchange. There the traders wait for citizens to bring payments received from unloading their paper assets like stocks and bonds." That's good - downtown Manhattan close to the NYSE has some free space for gold vendors to set up shop as well, they just need to push some of the frontrunning/collocation boxes off to the side. And in other rhetorical ruminations, is it safe to say that the last days of the fiat experiment are among us now that people themselves are bypassing the government and enforcing their own gold standard?
Inflation vs. gold vs. deflation
Author: Barry Sergeant - MineWeb.net US core consumer price inflation hits its lowest point in 49 years, so which is the major worry - inflation or deflation?
JOHANNESBURG - US core consumer price inflation has fallen to under 1%, the lowest annual rate recorded in 49 years, posing a dilemma of sorts for scaremongers warning of hyperinflation, blamed on "incessant printing of money" by central banks. Gold bullion, say the gold bugs, is the answer to fiat money, and the best hedge against rampant inflation.
It seems that if anything, disinflation could be the big issue for investors to fret about. The outcome over which emerges is crucial to practically all investment decisions. Economists generally agree that while a low inflation rate is generally acceptable, disinflation can be positively dangerous. The phenomenon demoralizes everyone, from central bankers to workers, who worry about whether they will soon have no pay at all.
The Deflationary Consequences of M3 Money Supply
By: Andy Sutton - MarketOracle.co.uk
Given the fact that we sit on the precipice of a holiday weekend, every attempt will be made to keep this short and to the point. M3 growth has collapsed. We had pointed this out several months ago and again more recently amidst a barrage of protest emails that the printing press always wins the battle with the deflationary black hole. To date, the black hole is winning hands down. The reasons are nebulous and complex, but the point is that our broadest monetary aggregate is now shrinking. This does not bode well for our economic prospects moving forward.
US money supply plunges at 1930s pace as Obama eyes fresh stimulus
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk The M3 money supply in the United States is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the biggest fiscal blitz in history.
The M3 figures - which include broad range of bank accounts and are tracked by British and European monetarists for warning signals about the direction of the US economy a year or so in advance - began shrinking last summer. The pace has since quickened. The stock of money fell from $14.2 trillion to $13.9 trillion in the three months to April, amounting to an annual rate of contraction of 9.6pc. The assets of insitutional money market funds fell at a 37pc rate, the sharpest drop ever.
(Hyper-)Deflation followed by (Hyper-)Inflation?
By: Richard Johnsson - SafeHaven.com
While most analysts and commentators seem to have been expecting higher inflation and even hyperinflation, the latest US money supply statistics rather indicate deflation, or even hyperdeflation. The US money supply fell by an annualized rate of 9.6 percent according to the latest statistics and the rate is accelerating. This is a decline not seen since the 1930's and this comes at a time of the zero interest rates, gigantic stimulus packages all over the world and the Fed and other central banks monetizing debt at levels unheard of. So what's really happening? Why don't we see higher inflation or hyperinflation like so many experts have predicted? Can anyone explain this?
The Path to Hyperinflation
By: Jordan Roy-Byrne, CMT - GoldSeek.com
As we've discussed recently, persistent deflationary forces do not augur for a repeat of Japan circa 1990s or the US in the 1930s. Instead, because of the inability of government's to finance their current and future debt burden (there is a dearth of domestic savings and global capital), deflationary forces will ultimately lead to severe inflation or hyperinflation. In today's missive, we explain how this will happen but in various stages.
In the first stage, the economy enters a recession after a large credit bubble. The recession and end of the credit bubble lead to deflation. As a result, the US Dollar and US Treasuries outperform. Think 2008.
Christie Says N.J. 'Careening Toward Becoming Greece'
By Terrence Dopp - BusinessWeek.com
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the state is "careening our way toward becoming Greece" and can't afford the cost of benefits and pensions for current workers.
The governor, speaking today to members of the Manhattan Institute, said his state must reduce its tax burden and control government spending. He has proposed a constitutional amendment to cap growth in property taxes, the main source of funding for schools and towns, at 2.5 percent a year. "Higher taxes are not going to solve the problem," said Christie, a Republican who took office Jan. 19. "We've got to change the course."
Is Europe heading for a meltdown?
Edmund Conway - SilverBearCafe.com
This financial crisis is worse than the sub-prime crash of 2008 because the sums are so much bigger and it is governments that are in dire straits. Edmund Conway explains the dangers. Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor, summed it up best: "Dealing with a banking crisis was difficult enough," he said the other week, "but at least there were public-sector balance sheets on to which the problems could be moved. Once you move into sovereign debt, there is no answer; there's no backstop."
Credit-Based Speculative Economy Imploding on a Global Scale
Written by Charles Hugh Smith - OilPrice.com
A slow-growth real economy has been replaced with a credit-based speculative financial economy dependent on low interest rates and systemic fraud to survive. It is now imploding on a global scale.
Governments around the world have attempted to replace the real economy of value produced with a financial model based on credit growth and speculation. They have failed, and their constructs are imploding before our eyes.
Greece, Portugal and Spain Are the Least of Our Economic, Financial Challenges By: Paul L Kasriel - MarketOracle.co.uk
After hitting a cycle high of 1217.28 on April 23, 2010, the S&P 500 stock market index fell by 10.65% in the following 20 trading days. The media would have you believe that the ongoing "official" correction in the U.S. equities market is all about the southern member states of the Euro-zone - Greece, Portugal and Spain (GPS). Although concern about the economically-weak and highly-indebted Euro-zone states have played a role in the U.S. equities market correction, we think there is more to the correction than GPS. Moreover, we believe that the problems of these challenged Euro-zone members will not have a significant effect on U.S. or global economic activity in the foreseeable future. China might, but not Greece, Portugal and Spain.
Geithner in Europe
Spiegel.de
US and EU Oceans Apart on Fiscal Policy
Europe is eager to begin paying down sovereign debt. The US wants to see Germany and France continue stimulus measures. With Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Germany on Thursday, the trans-Atlantic differences in fiscal policy have become difficult to ignore.
The two were eager to demonstrate unanimity. US Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner and his German counterpart, Finance Minister Wolfgang SchŠuble, went before the press in Berlin on Thursday and announced that they had reached "broad agreement" on the need to regulate the global financial system.
Liquidity Forecast for the World Economies
Bob chapman - the International Forecaster
European rescue of economy not unlike the Fed rescue, war a real threat, echoes of the loss of the gold standard, another reflationary wave to come, currencies to succumb, consequences of Europe for Americans, US banking system under significant stress, new T-bills to sell, election funding changes, more about real property defaults...
Treasury Sells 1.5B Citi Shares
By: Zacks Investment Research
Yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the completion of its sale of 1.5 billion shares or 19.5% of its total holdings in Citigroup Inc. for gross proceeds of around $6.2 billion. The trading plan, announced on April 26, had Morgan Stanley acting as the sales agent.
The Treasury also plans to sell another 1.5 billion shares as it continues to wind down its holding in Citi. While the shares were received by the Treasury as part of its efforts to rescue Citi through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the Treasury is now looking for the appropriate time and market conditions for selling its stake in Citi to maximize profits from its investment in the company.
An American Concept: Crushing Debt
By David Galland, GoldSeek.com
Commenting on the European crisis - because this has gone well past being one that can be termed "Greek" - the New York Times cited a senior U.S. official on the significant role the U.S., including Obama himself, played in getting Europe's leadership to agree to a bailout approaching one trillion. One particularly telling quote...
The U.S. officials began talking to their counterparts about an American concept: overwhelming force. "It's all about psychology," said the senior official.
Funny how these things work, isn't it? In response to its own debt crisis, the U.S. mirrors the failed Japanese experiment in quantitative easing, except that we look to "fix" the flaw in that experiment with the overwhelming force of trillions upon trillions of unsupported spending, in the process making the idea of unleashing a money flood an "American concept." Europe, desperate and without the advantage of the time needed to witness the ultimate consequences of the latest American concept, agreed to a money flood of its own with the result that it, too, plans on taking on nearly a trillion dollars in new debt.
Bohemian Rhapsody
By Jan Puhl in Prague - Spiegel.de
The Prince Who Would Be Kingmaker
Voters in the Czech Republic are heading to the polls this week to elect a new government. With a political stalemate between the country's two traditional leading parties, a 71-year-old prince with ties to the Hapsburgs could emerge as kingmaker. Karel von Schwarzenberg has pledged to end the EU country's political impasse and to battle rampant corruption with his newly formed party.
The prince is "peeved." In fact, he is becoming increasingly "peeved." Which is why, on this particular evening, Karel von Schwarzenberg is in a smoky pub in Novo Dvorska, a Prague suburb filled with communist-era prefab concrete apartment blocks. He has filled his pipe with tobacco and now he is ready to answer the questions of the people sitting at his table. "In this country, politicians behave irresponsibly," he says. But not Schwarzenberg -- he's different, and everyone should know this. "I want to get things moving just one more time," says the aristocrat, who is campaigning in the Czech elections, which will take place on Friday and Saturday.
The Fine Print of Central Banking
Mises Daily: May 27, 2010 by Jonathan M. Finegold Catalan
Since the rise of Hugo Chavez, Venezuela has become a superstar of sorts. It frequently makes headline news, whether due to some type of utility shortage, some political scandal, or a corruption case. The most common perception of Venezuela is one of economic peril. Indeed, analysts have been predicting the government's collapse since at least 2007. While Chavez's Venezuela has survived so far, most agree that its economy limps on one leg and that default is only a matter of time.
Political Money
Mises Daily: May 27, 2010 by Sir Ernest Benn
The year 1937 and thereabouts will stand out in financial history as a very remarkable period. It brought us to the end of one chapter, one might wish the last chapter, in the history of the political effort to control money. For five or six years previously the [British] government had succeeded in imposing a policy of cheap money, and by all the rules, cheap money having then served its purpose, the tide or pendulum should have swung in the opposite direction. But by 1937 the pundits and professors of the Treasury, for London as well as Washington has its brain trust, had secured so firm a hold upon the temporary occupants of political places as to persuade them that a continuance of cheap money was still desirable.
Bond Sales Fall to Least in Decade, Yields Soar
By Bryan Keogh and Sonja Cheung
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Companies sold the least amount of bonds in a decade this month as concern that the burgeoning sovereign debt crisis in Europe will slow the global economy drove up relative borrowing costs by the most since the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s collapse.
Borrowers issued $61.1 billion of debt in currencies from dollars to yen, a third of April's tally and the least since December 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At least 13 companies withdrew offerings, including New York-based retailer Jones Apparel Group Inc. and theater chain operator Regal Entertainment Group.
Fixing oil disaster my responsibility, Obama says
By JENNIFER LOVEN, TOM RAUM - AP via MSNBC
WASHINGTON - On the defensive more than five weeks into the nation's worst-ever oil spill, President Barack Obama insisted Thursday that his administration, not oil giant BP, was calling the shots in the still-unsuccessful response. "I take responsibility. It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down," Obama declared at a news conference in the East Room of the White House. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill dominated the hour-long session. He called the spill an "unprecedented disaster" and blasted a "scandalously close relationship" he said has persisted between Big Oil and government regulators.
10 Things You Need (But Don't Want) To Know About the BP Oil Spill
AlterNet / By Daniela Perdomo
How the owner of the exploded oil rig has made $270 million off the disaster, and nine other shocking, depressing facts about the oil spill.
May 27, 2010 | It's been 37 days since BP's offshore oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, crude oil has been hemorrhaging into ocean waters and wreaking unknown havoc on our ecosystem -- unknown because there is no accurate estimate of how many barrels of oil are contaminating the Gulf.
Though BP officially admits to only a few thousand barrels spilled each day, expert estimates peg the damage at 60,000 barrels or over 2.5 million gallons daily. (Perhaps we'd know more if BP hadn't barred independent engineers from inspecting the breach.) Measures to quell the gusher have proved lackluster at best, and unlike the country's last big oil spill -- Exxon-Valdez in 1989 -- the oil is coming from the ground, not a tanker, so we have no idea how much more oil could continue to pollute the Gulf's waters.
U.S. oil agency chief quits
AP - MSNBC.com
Departure follows criticism for lax oversight of BP, oil industry
WASHINGTON - The head of the troubled agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned under pressure Thursday as President Barack Obama moved more aggressively to take charge of the Gulf oil spill. The departure of Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum was announced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at a congressional hearing where Birnbaum had been scheduled to testify but didn't show up. Birnbaum resigned "on her own terms and her own volition," Salazar told lawmakers.
Obama Extends Moratorium as MMS Chief Steps Down
By Julianna Goldman and Edwin Chen
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will cancel a plan to drill for oil off Virginia's coast and extend for six months a moratorium on new deepwater drilling permits, as the head of agency responsible for issuing the permits stepped down.
In addition, planned drilling by Royal Dutch Shell Plc of exploratory wells in the Arctic off Alaska will be delayed while a presidential commission studies the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in an effort to determine how to prevent any future disasters, according an administration aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcement.
Estimates Suggest Spill Is Biggest in U.S. History
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON - NYTimes.com
NEW ORLEANS - A federal team created to produce a more precise estimate of the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has determined that the rate is at least twice what was previously acknowledged and possibly five times as much, officials said on Thursday. If the team's estimates are accurate, this spill would be far bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 and the worst in United States history.
The Corporate Stranglehold: How BP Will Make out Like Bandits from Its Massive, Still Gushing Oil Disaster
AlterNet / By Zach Carter The existing $75 million cap on damages for offshore drilling companies is a bailout every bit as disgusting as those recently bestowed upon Wall Street
You've got to hand it to BP. After witnessing the Great Financial Crash of 2008, it seemed like it would be decades before any corporation could eclipse Wall Street's reckless rush to place its own short-term profits ahead of the public interest. But the epic drilling disaster off the Louisiana coast demonstrates that many of the problems that wrecked Wall Street are deeply embedded in other sectors of the American economy. Over the past 30 years, corporate titans have so thoroughly corrupted the notion of "free markets" that many of the world's riskiest businesses are not only insulated from regulatory supervision, they have been immunized from even minimum standards of market discipline.
BP blamed in 8,000 spill reports, federal data shows
By Bill Allison - Sunlight Foundation British Petroleum and its subsidiaries have been the subject of roughly 8,000 reported incidents of spills, emissions and leaks of oil, chemicals and gases into the environment, according to a government database.
The National Response Center, which takes reports on oil spills, radiation leaks, chemical emissions and other environmental accidents, shows dozens of reports stemming from the April 20 explosion at British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon. In addition to the crude oil flowing into the gulf , benzene, ethylbenzene, caustic soda solution and six other chemicals have been released into the water and air, according to incident reports submitted to the National Response Center.
Start Spreadin' the Ooze! Hurricane Season Could Be Strongest Ever, Say Top Meteorologists
FOXNews.com
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issues its 2010 hurricane season forecast, predicting one of the strongest seasons on record -- and reiterating fears that the Gulf oil spill may be impacted by the severe weather.
Hurricane season for the western Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico begins June 1 and lasts through Nov. 30. That's when about 90 percent of the storms make themselves present, and the predictions for this season are grim -- which could wreak further havoc on the Gulf Coast.
NOAA's forecast predicts as many as 23 named storms during the Atlantic hurricane season, with three to seven becoming serious enough to be classified as major hurricanes. Named storms come with top winds of 39 mph or higher. The agency worries that as many as 14 could turn into hurricanes, with winds in excess of 74 mph, and three to seven could be Category 3, 4 or 5 storms with winds of at least 111 mph.
Dr. Hansimian's Hurricane Forecast
'Top Kill'' Effort Seems to Be Working, U.S. Says Cautiously
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS and JOHN M. BRODER - NYTimes.com
HOUSTON - The latest effort to plug a gushing underwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be working, officials and engineers said on Thursday morning, though definitive word on its success was still hours away. At the same time, government experts said that the flow of oil from the well, which has been gushing since an explosion and fire wrecked a drilling rig in late April, was several times worse than the preliminary estimate by BP, the oil company responsible for the rig and the well. If these new estimates prove to be accurate, the spill would be far bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 and the worst in United States history.
Birmingham gas prices up 30 cents Memorial Day weekend over last year
BIRMINGHAM BUSINESS JOURNAL
The average gasoline price for the coming Memorial Day weekend will average 30 cents per gallon higher than last year, according to a release from GasBuddy.com and BirminghamGasPrices.com. The website estimates the average price across the United States will be $2.75 per gallon - but that's the cheapest on record since 2006. However, despite the uptick, much of the U.S. will see falling prices after the holiday, continuing a downward trend. In Birmingham, prices have fallen 15.7 cents per gallon from $2.76 a gallon earlier this month to $2.60 yesterday. Prices Wednesday were 32.9 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.
Revised budget shortfall grows to $577 million
PORTLAND BUSINESS JOURNAL
Oregon's budget shortfall, which will likely result in a massive round of state spending cuts, is actually bigger than state economists projected. The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis said Thursday the shortfall is actually $577 million, as opposed to the $563 million reported on Monday. The revised revenue forecast reflects a change in the amount of revenues the state collects from its cigarette tax.
Housing Market Update: When Will House Prices Recover?
From theTrumpet.com Not any time soon.
Remember when all those government economists and National Association of Realtors analysts were saying that housing prices wouldn't recover until the first half of 2009? Then it was by 2010? Now the truth is coming out. No one knows when housing prices will recover-if ever.
According to mortgage-bond legend Lewis Ranieri, don't expect a meaningful rebound in house prices for at least three to five years: "There is another big leg down and the question is how long does it stay."
Don't be quick to dismiss what Ranieri says, because he is possibly the one individual who is arguably just as responsible for America's great housing bubble as former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan (who lowered interest rates to record lows to try to get us to spend our way out of a recession), the politicians (who forced banks to lend to unqualified individuals) and the investment ratings agencies (that rated subprime mortgages as triple-A safe).
The Mall Is Undead, but Maybe Not for Long
BY GREG LINDSAY - FastCompany.com
Is the mall dead? And if so, is it permanently dead? That question hung in the air on the last day of the annual Congress for the New Urbanism. "We have too much retail," said Francis Scire, a senior leasing executive at Simon Property Group, the nation's largest mall owner. "I think the mall's sick, and hopefully on the way to recovery with some adaptation."
A similar event taking place in Las Vegas a day later--the semi-annual meeting of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the world's largest gathering of mall developers--offered a far healthier outlook. The number of malls in this country actually grew last year, to 104,990 shopping centers with 7.2 billion square feet of retail space, according to a study released this week by ICSC. Malls comprise nearly half of all retail, and retail, in turn, is the largest segment ($2.98 trillion) of a commercial real estate market in the process of melting down. "Prospects for the retail real estate industry appear to be improving, and the sector, in time, will likely regain its investment luster," ICSC's chief economist has concluded.
Slow-motion recovery keeps unemployment high
By JEANNINE AVERSA - AP via MSNBC
WASHINGTON - High unemployment isn't going away.
The slow pace of economic growth shows the recovery is too weak to generate enough jobs for 15.3 million unemployed people. Layoffs are contributing to the problem. That's evident from an elevated number of weekly claims for jobless aid. Two government reports Thursday offered new evidence on all of those fronts.
What's Really Wrong with the Healthcare Industry
Mises Daily: May 26, 2010 by Vijay Boyapati The Morality of Healthcare Reform
One of the most important factors animating the libertarian rejection of public policy in general is the recognition that any state action must ultimately resort to the use or threat of aggression. As Ludwig von Mises observed,
It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.
Was Rambo Right?
BY RON UNZ - The American Conservative Hundreds of POWs may have been left to die in Vietnam, abandoned by their government-and our media.
In the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign, I clicked an ambiguous link on an obscure website and stumbled into a parallel universe.
During the previous two years of that long election cycle, the media narrative surrounding Sen. John McCain had been one of unblemished heroism and selfless devotion to his fellow servicemen. Thousands of stories on television and in print had told of his brutal torture at the hands of his North Vietnamese captors, his steely refusal to crack, and his later political career aimed at serving the needs of fellow Vietnam veterans. This storyline had first reached the national stage during his 2000 campaign, then returned with even greater force as he successfully sought the 2008 Republican nomination. Seemingly accepted by all, this history became a centerpiece of his campaign. McCain's supporters touted his heroism as proof that he possessed the character to be entrusted with America's highest office, while his detractors merely sought to change the subject.
"READY FOR WAR," "U.S. Military told to get ready in Korea Standoff, Obama orders commanders to prepare 'to deter future aggression.'" By Drudge and MSNBC
"U.S. Begins Massive Military Build Up Around Iran, Sending Up To 4 New Carrier Groups In Region" by Tyler Durden
"Clinton: Korea Must Face 'Consequences' For Sunken Warship"
Homeland Security, Northeast Intelligence Network: "The Syrian Missile Crisis: Threat of War Very Real"
"The Expanding U.S. War in Pakistan" by Jeremy Scahill
"Yemen, Latest War Front?" by CBS News
These are but a very few of the recent headlines about more U.S. war, but the Iranian and Korean situations are the most dangerous, and the threats against Iran I think the most real.
United States wars are virtually all wars of aggression, so it is quite evident that U.S. wars are "fought" for reasons other than self-defense. That means there are ulterior motives involved that are not related to moral behavior, but instead to nefarious intent. This is a disturbing revelation, and one little understood by the American masses. It is one however, that if more understood, could literally blow the lid off the notion that the purposeful buildup of the military-industrial complex is for the defense of this nation! This thought scares the life out of those in power who need to keep the populace scared to death at all times in order to propagate their crimes.
Netanyahu: Time for direct talks with Palestinians
By SYLVIE CORBET - MSNBC
PARIS - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday it's time to move to direct talks with the Palestinians and that he will raise the issue with President Barack Obama in Washington next week. Netanyahu, after talks in Paris with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said he wants to move beyond indirect "proximity talks" that are being mediated by the United States. "We want to move as speedily as possible to direct talks because the kind of problem that we have with the Palestinians can be resolved in peace and can be arranged only if we sit down together," Netanyahu told reporters at the French presidential palace.
Russia's War Games Preparing for Conflict with the East
Written by Simon Saradzhyan - OilPrice.com
Russia should tackle negative socio-economic and demographic trends in the Far East and Siberia instead of reacting to China's continuing rise if it wants to head off the chances of conflict in the region.
Next month will see the Russian armed forces stage an operational-strategic exercise dubbed "Vostok-2010" (East-2010), called "the main event of the combat training"in 2010 in a press release by the Russian Defense Ministry.
Thousands of soldiers from the army, including the CBRN Protection Forces, the navy, air force, airborne troops and other elements of the Russian armed forces will participate in the joint exercise of the Far Eastern and Siberian Military districts in mid-June.
First Patriot Missiles Already in Poland
Global Research, May 26, 2010
The US Patriot air defence batteries and around 100 American troops have arrived in the town of Morag, northern Poland, 60 kilometers from the Russian Kaliningrad border. Since early morning soldiers of the US 5th Battalion and 7th Air Defence Artillery have been unloading the missiles from 37 train carriages. "It's an important day for Poland and the United States, for our common goals and interests," said U.S. ambassador to Poland Lee Feinstein.
The first Patriots arrived in Poland after the SOFA agreement (Supplemental Status of Forces Agreement) at the beginning of this year. The US soldiers will train Polish troops on how to use the Patriot defence system. The American soldiers accompanied the the battery from Kaiserslautern in Germany last night.
2nd Iceland volcano issues ominous warning
MSNBC.com
Scientists say a more powerful Katla volcano is 'close to failure'
LONDON - A second, much larger volcano in Iceland is showing signs that it may be about to erupt, scientists have warned. Since the start of the Eyjafjallajškull eruption, which caused cancellations of thousands of flights in Europe because of a giant ash cloud, there has been much speculation about neighboring Katla. An initial research paper by the University College of London Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction said: "Analysis of the seismic energy released around Katla over the last decade or so is interpreted as providing evidence of a rising ... intrusive magma body on the western flank of the volcano."
N. Korea scraps anti-clash pact with South
By KELLY OLSEN - AP - MSNBC.com
'Prompt physical strikes' will be made if ship strays into North's waters
SEOUL, South Korea - Military tension on the Korean peninsula rose Thursday after North Korea threatened to attack any South Korean ships entering its waters and Seoul held anti-submarine drills in response to the March sinking of a navy vessel blamed on Pyongyang. Separately, the chief U.S. military commander in South Korea criticized the North over the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan in which 46 sailors died, telling the communist country to stop its aggressive actions.
As Pyongyang ends non-belligerence with Seoul, Beijing remains silent
AsiaNews.it
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The North Korean government this morning announced that it will scrap an agreement aimed at preventing accidental naval clashes with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, North Korea's KCNA news agency reported quoting a top officer in the North Korean People's Army. The chairman of the North Korean Chiefs of Staff warned South Korea's armed forces of a swift attack should their troops violate the line between the two Koreas.
The statement is the latest step in escalating tensions between the two Korean states. Yesterday Pyongyang broke off bilateral relations with Seoul, issuing new military threats against South Korea.
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NWO progress report . . . what's next, a guarantee of "Peace and Safety"? Or maybe the world is just throwing a party over the Memorial Day Weekend. Let us remember what MEMORIAL DAY is about - to commemorate the members of the United States armed forces who were killed in war
Yet Another New World Order
Joel Hilliker - theTrumpet.com President Obama wants to "shape an international order." Look out.
Does the world seem a bit out of control? Here is President Obama's idea to get a grip on things: He wants to help "shape an international order," with "stronger international standards and institutions."
He couldn't use "new world order," since that was already taken.
The president issued this latest homage to supranationalism this past Saturday, at a commencement speech at West Point. "[W]e have to shape an international order that can meet the challenges of our generation," he said. "As influence extends to more countries and capitals, we also have to build new partnerships, and shape stronger international standards and institutions." He speaks as though this has never been tried.
From June 9, 2009, the US expressed approval of
the Alliance of Civilizations' purported agenda:
"The United States supports the goals of the Alliance of Civilizations to improve understanding and respect among various religious communities and cultures, and to help counter forces that fuel polarization and extremism. We believe there is value in an ongoing dialogue among cultures and religions, encouraging mutual understanding and tolerance. In fact, President Obama is in Cairo delivering a majorbo address on precisely these issues as I speak. In our view the OSCE has made a positive contribution in this regard in the past, and should continue to do so in the future."
Assistant Secretary Esther Brimmer to Lead U.S. State Department Delegation to the UN-Alliance of Civilizations Forum in Rio de Janeiro, May 28 - 29
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Esther Brimmer will lead the U.S. delegation to the UN-Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) Forum, May 28 - 29, in Rio de Janeiro. The U.S. Department of State announced earlier this month that the United States would join the Alliance of Civilizations Group of Friends. While the United States has sent observer delegations to Alliance meetings and Forums in the past, this is the first event for the United States as a Group of Friends member. The United States decided to join the Alliance in 2010 to further the AoC's goals of improved understanding and cooperation among nations and peoples across the world's many cultures, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism. The goals and activities of the Alliance complement President Obama's vision of active U.S. engagement with other nations and international organizations to advance American security interests and meet the global challenges of the 21st century.
UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum
Rio De Janeiro Forum (27-29 May 2010) ABOUT THE ALLIANCE OF CIVILIZATIONS
The UNAOC mobilize concerted action toward reaffirming a paradigm of mutual respect among peoples of different cultural and religious backgrounds. It aims to bridge the world's divides and to build trust and understanding across cultures and communities worldwide. Established in 2005 as a UN initiative, the Alliance emerged out of a conviction that, in order to achieve sustainable peace, long-standing divisions between cultures need to be addressed.
In April 2007, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Jorge Sampaio, former President of Portugal, as High-Representative for the Alliance. Under his leadership, the Alliance embarked on an extensive program of work which includes a range of practical initiatives and projects.
Welcome to the UN Alliance of Civilizations Forum 2010
The Third Forum of the UNAOC will bring together approximately 2,000 political and corporate leaders, mayors, civil society activists, youth, journalists, foundations, international organizations, and religious leaders in order to agree on joint actions to improve relations across cultures and tackle the root causes of extremism in societies.
The Alliance of Civilizations gaining visibility
The Alliance of Civilizations (AoC) is gaining a level of visibility that its founders could not have imagined, Jorge Sampaio, high representative for the AoC to the UN, has said.
Sampaio told Today's Zaman that membership in the AoC has already reached a number that the original financial and administrative structure can no longer sustain. There are 100 member countries and international organizations in the AoC to date. Co-founded by Turkey and Spain only five years ago, the AoC has become the most visible international organization promoting intercultural dialogue.
Gold Hits 1-Week High on "Massive Flows", Scramble for "Too Few Safe Assets" By: Adrian Ash - GoldSeek.com
THE PRICE OF GOLD in wholesale dealing rose throughout Asian and London trade on Wednesday, touching 1-week highs above $1215 an ounce as world stock markets bounced from their recent plunge. Crude oil also rallied, regaining $70 per barrel. Silver prices caught up with gold, rising 3.3% from last week's finish to $18.68 an ounce. "Support [in gold] still at the April high, continues to limit the downside," reckons Phil Smith in his Reuters Market Technical Analysis from Beijing, noting the sharp rally in gold from last Friday's drop to $1178. Exchange-traded gold trusts are seeing "massive inflows given the current economic climate," says one London dealer.
Strong demand to lift gold above $1,500
Muzaffar Rizvi - KaleejTimes.com
DUBAI - Gold prices will maintain rising trend and may cross $1,500 an ounce by the end of this year on strong demand in China and India, industry players said on Wednesday. They said demand for gold would remain strong this year due to investors' appetite for the yellow metal in the wake of worldwide economic instability, sovereign risk and the threat of a 'double dip' recession. "Pure Gold sees gold prices as high at the moment, but it will go further higher by the year-end. I expect gold prices to go above $1,500 by the end of the year," Firoz Merchant, Chairman of Pure Gold Jewellers, told Khaleej Times. He said high gold prices are an opportunity for customers to continue to increase their confidence in buying gold as an investment and therefore this trend will continue.
US Debt and the Gold Price: Numbers On the Up and Up
By Addison Wiggin - The DailyReckoning.com
05/26/10 Baltimore, Maryland - As we sat down to write this morning, the cell phone began vibrating against the desk. Alice Gomstyn from ABCNews.com wanted to know what we thought about the national debt crossing the $13 trillion threshold.
UhÉthe same as we thought about it crossing $12 trillion less than six months ago. Not good. But what do we know. We've been whistling Dixie on this subject for the better part of our adult lifetime. No one really cares except when these psychological boundaries are crossed tomorrow it'll be business as usual.
Has Gold Become A New Reserve Currency?
For decades, the U.S. dollar has been the reserve currency of the world. This has given the United States an extraordinary amount of economic power, but as the U.S. economy has started to come apart over the past decade, other nations have increasingly sought to move away from the U.S. dollar and find other alternatives. For a long time it was thought that the Euro would become the next great reserve currency of the world. However, the recent Greek debt crisis, along with massive financial instability in nations such as Portugal, Spain and Italy, has caused investors to rapidly lose confidence in the Euro. In fact there are even some whispers that the Euro may not even survive the sovereign debt crisis as it sweeps across Europe. With both the U.S. dollar and the Euro looking shaky, investors have been searching somewhere safe to put their money. Increasingly, they have been turning to gold. So has gold now become a new reserve currency? Will all of this new demand drive the price of gold into unprecedented territory?
Asia's demand for gold soars
Angela Shah - TheNational.ae
Demand for gold in India soared almost sevenfold in the first quarter of the year as investors rushed to the metal as a haven from growing economic and market troubles around the world, the World Gold Council (WGC) said. Consumers in India and China, who have long been heavy investors in the metal, have grown accustomed to soaring prices, the organisation said, leading them to invest even as gold hit new highs. In the first three months of the year, demand for gold in India soared 698 per cent to 193.5 tonnes compared with the same period last year, while Chinese demand rose 11 per cent to 105.2 tonnes.
A little bit of gold could do you a lot of good
Ram N Sahgal, ET Bureau - IndiaTimes.com
MUMBAI: Gold prices in the local bullion market may be vaulting, but traders and analysts say that it should still be a part of the portfolio of retail investors, considering the natural hedge it provides and the returns on investment year to date.
Over a one-year period, gold priced in rupees has yielded a return of 6.7% against a negative 11.3% return by the Sensex, highlighting its status as an alternate asset class during times of uncertainty. Amid high volatility in stocks, gold priced in rupees rose to a record high of 18,846 per 10 gram on Wednesday, mainly on account of a weaker currency and fears that the Eurozone crisis may worsen.
Gold Correction Factors, Hidden Dollar Swap Hammer
By: Jim Willie CB - MarketOracle.co.uk
Let me start the article with a personal note. For the last six years, my pen has put forth a public article almost every week. Since the end of 2009, a change has come from that pattern, for four reasons. First, articles take time and serve as free volleys sent into cyberspace. They are attempts to raise awareness of a broken corrupt system, to encourage increased investment protection by the investment community, and to make repetitive messages that can sink in. Second, many of the warnings have come true of a monetary system in tatters, an insolvent banking system, a failed central bank franchise system, and a discredited amalgam of sovereign bond markets.
Speculators rush for gold as rally of 27% is predicted
NICHOLAS LARKIN AND CLAUDIA CARPENTER - BusinessDay.co.za
SPECULATORS are buying gold faster than the world's biggest producers can mine it, as analysts forecast a 27% rally that may extend the longest run of annual gains since at least 1920. Exchange-traded products backed by bullion added 41,7 tons in the week to May 14, the most in 14 months, data from UBS show. China, Australia and the 15 other countries that are the world's largest miners averaged weekly output of 41,6 tons last year, researcher GFMS estimates. Even though prices have fallen 4,6% to 1191,65 from a record 1249,40/oz since May 14, the median in a Bloomberg survey of 23 traders, analysts and investors shows it will reach 1500 by the end of the year. Gold futures for June delivery fell 3,30 to 1190,70 in New York yesterday. The metal gained 1,5% yesterday, after shedding 4,2% last week.
Seven reasons gold rally will continue
Jeff Nichols - Commodity Online
A few months ago most analysts were skeptical about $1500 an ounce for gold by end of 2010, however, the recent rally in gold coupled with economic uncertainties have forced those who earlier disputed the bullish forecasts to jump on the bandwagon, according to Jeffrey Nichols, Senior Economic Advisor to Rosland Capital and Managing Director of American Precious Metals Advisors
US inflationary policies: The US monetary and fiscal policies are inflation. Official federal debt, now around $12.8 trillion is only a small part of Washington's actual obligations.Off-budget and unfunded future liabilities are another $108 trillio, Jeff Nicols said. So the end result would be higher inflation, currency depreciation and higher gold prices.
Gold moves up on geopolitical tensions
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : Gold prices advanced in Asian trade Wednesday despite a firming dollar as geopolitical tensions in the Korean peninsula boosted its appeal. Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $1204.94 an ounce at 12.00 noon Singapore time while US gold futures for June delivery was at $1205.44 an ounce eat the same time on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The euro fell on Wednesday, slipping back towards a four-year low against the dollar on euro zone fears.
Better touch screens with silver, gold nanowires
By siliconindia news bureau
Washington: Scientists from Stanford University has come up with plastic touch screen coated with silver and gold nanowires, which has more flexibility and durability than the glass touch screen, according to ANI. "Touch screen made from thin plastic coated with silver and gold could be produced more quickly than glass plates-up to 100 times faster," Discovery News quoted Yu Cui, Scientist at Stanford University and co-author of the paper, as saying.
China, India battle for gold market supremacy
By Daniel Wilson
Is gold demand in China slowing down compared to India? India and China are the world's two largest gold consuming nations. China's growing gold market has remained the most-talked about commodity news in recent times as several analysts and Chinese officials have been talking big about the dragon country's plans to step up gold reserves. The Chinese bullion market has been, of course, growing exponentially well, as the country was projected to overtake India in gold consumption.
But can China easily overtake India in gold demand and consumption. It looks, despite the hype, it is not going to be easy for China to outshine India's vibrant, ever-growing and rich gold market. Proof of it is the latest Gold Demand Trends report from the apex global gold body--World Gold Council--that has been published this week.
Peter Schiff: Glenn Beck Doesn't Know That
GOLDLINE Is Ripping People Off!
Warning: Crash dead ahead. Sell. Get liquid. Now.
Paul B. Farrell - SilverBearCafe.com 'Game's in the refrigerator.' Power's turning off. Dow sinking below 6,470
"This game's in the refrigerator! The door's closed, the lights are out, the eggs are cooling, the butter's getting hard and the Jell-O is jiggling ..."
That was legendary Lakers' radio announcer Chick Hearn's signature way of calling a game early, telling fans the home team won ... you can head for the exits before the final buzzer. Chick wrote the book with popular sports phrases like "slam dunk," "air ball," "charity stripe," and a "bunny hop in the pea patch" for a traveling violation.
Don't Doubt Bernanke's Ability to Create Inflation
National Inflation Association
With the Dow Jones now down 11% nominally from its high last month, NIA has been getting hundreds of emails and phone calls asking if there is any way we could be wrong about the threat of hyperinflation in the U.S. and if indeed deflation is the real problem we need to be worried about. The names Nouriel Roubini, Robert Prechter, and Harry Dent get mentioned to us a lot, with many NIA members asking why these so-called "experts" believe deflation is in our future.
Obama's Economic Advisor Lawrence Summers Argues for a Second Stimulus By JONATHAN BERR - DailyFinance.com
Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House's National Economic Council, will bring his case for the "son of the stimulus" to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia Thursday evening. The question is whether members of Congress worried about the critical midterm Congressional elections will have to stomach for the $200 billion spending plan Summers advocates.
Are We About To Witness The Greatest Banking Consolidation In U.S. History?
The Economic Collapse Blog
As the number of bank failures in the United States continues to accelerate, many analysts are warning that we could soon see unprecedented changes in the U.S. banking industry. In fact, there are some economists that are warning that we could be about to witness the greatest banking consolidation in U.S. history. As dozens of small and medium size banks have failed, the megabanks have systematically been gobbling up larger and larger slices of market share. In fact, if current trends continue, it doesn't take much imagination to foresee a future where the entire U.S. banking industry has been consolidated down to between 5 and 10 "superbanks". So would that be so bad? Well, yes it would. It would represent a massive shift in financial power away from the American people to big, global corporate banks. But if you happen to be a fan of big, global corporate banks perhaps you will really love what is about to happen to the U.S. banking industry.
In a Word, the Problem is "Debt"
by Tim Iaconco
Recent developments in the euro zone that increasingly look like they will lead to the restructuring (if not the collapse) of one of the world's major currencies and the potential for this "contagion" to move first north to the U.K. and then west to the U.S. have many people wondering what's gone wrong with the global monetary system.
How could advanced Western economies have run into such trouble?
With trillions of dollars in debt now transferred from public private sector balance sheets onto those of governments (where very different rules apply), could the problems seen in mainland Europe today spread to the British Isles and then to the U.S. where fiscal and economic conditions are, arguably, even worse?
TARP Investments Lead to Huge Losses for U.S. Treasury
By PALLAVI GOGOI - DailyFinance.com
As struggling banks get acquired or fail, the U.S. Treasury is shouldering a growing burden: Its investments in TARP are turning out to be a bust, leading to huge losses. And there are signs of more trouble ahead. Example: When Canada's Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) bought a South Carolina bank earlier this month, it came with a hefty price tag for the U.S. Treasury Department -- a 60% loss in its TARP investment. Turns out, this is only one among several hits that the Treasury and the U.S. taxpayer have taken recently. In fact the string of losses in TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, isn't only large, it's gathering momentum.
Moody's Reiterates U.S. Spending Risks Credit Rating
By Mary Childs
May 25 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government's Aaa bond rating will come under pressure in the future unless additional measures are taken to reduce projected record budget deficits, according to Moody's Investors Service Inc. The U.S. retains its top rating for now because of a "high degree of economic and institutional strength," the New York- based ratings company said in a statement today that was little changed from a credit opinion released in February. The outlook is stable, the statement said.
Bond Distress Highest Since '09 as Sales Vanish
By Bryan Keogh and Kate Haywood
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- The percentage of corporate bonds considered in distress surged this week to the highest since 2009 as investors dumped debt of the neediest borrowers on concern that Europe's fiscal crisis may make it harder for them to refinance.
Some 17 percent of junk bonds yield at least 10 percentage points more than Treasuries, up from 9.2 percent last month, Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Global High-Yield Index shows. The jump is the biggest since the distress ratio rose 11 percentage points in November 2008, two months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed. Bonds of MGM Mirage and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. joined the list in May.
Lehman sues JPMorgan over its collapse
By David Ellis - CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy estate filed suit against JPMorgan Chase Wednesday, alleging that the bank demanded billions of dollars more than it needed in the firm's final days contributing to Lehman's ultimate demise. The suit, filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, contends that Lehman, which was scrambling to stay afloat, invited JP Morgan to assist it in securing emergency financing.
Gerald Celente - Clash of the Economists
on abc6.com May 21, 2010
UK and France reject EU bank plan
By George Parker in London and Nikki Tait in Brussels - FT.com
Britain and France were at odds with other European Union countries on Wednesday over plans to insure against future bank failures, in another sign of the problems in trying to forge a common response to the bloc's economic woes. Michel Barnier, EU internal market commissioner, set out plans for member states to form national funds to help wind up or reorganise failing banks, funded by a levy on the financial sector.
Spain Takes the Spotlight From Greece in Europe's Debt Crisis
By CHARLES WALLACE - DailyFinance.com
First came Greece, which threatened Europe's economy with its staggering 130% debt-to-GDP ratio. Now comes Spain, which also seems to be contributing to the debt crisis in Europe. Unlike Greece, Spain has a low debt-to-GDP ratio. The country's problem is its banks' large real estate debt, fears about Spain's economy, and the fact that its sovereign debt is largely financed abroad. If foreign investors walk away from Spanish bonds, it could cause a sovereign debt crisis for Madrid that could spread to the rest of Europe.
The European Debt Crisis: A Smoke Screen For Bigger Problems
By PETER COHAN - DailyFinance.com
The European Union agreed to a 750 billion euro bailout plan in May to restore confidence in its economic structure. In light of the ongoing instability in global financial markets, that plan doesn't seem to have worked. But a look at how much money the three most-often-cited EU basket cases owe, suggests that the global market sell off must be a response to a different set of problems. Meanwhile, no additional bailouts are needed for now.
Greece tries to renegotiate pensions with EU/IMF
Reuters - ForexYard.com
ATHENS, May 26 (Reuters) - Greece is trying to renegotiate the terms of a drastic pension reform required under the terms of an economic rescue deal agreed this month with the EU and the IMF, senior government officials said.
In the first sign of glitches over the 3-year bailout plan, officials said they wanted the EU and IMF to agree full pensions should be payable after 37 years of contributions instead of 40, as set out in the deal, and allow the reform to be implemented later than foreseen.
"The (EU/IMF) memorandum will be implemented but I want to have the option to negotiate to the end," Labour Minister Andreas Loverdos said in a television interview. "I'm fighting for this, I'm not saying I will win."
Brussels unveils framework for bank levy
By Nikki Tait in Brussels - FT.com
European taxpayers should not have to bear the costs of rescuing ailing banks, a top European Union official said on Wednesday as Brussels formally unveiled its proposal for EU countries to form national funds to insure against future bank failures. The plan, which would be financed by levies on the banking industry, would aim to ensure that future bank failures do not destabilise the financial system. "It is not acceptable that taxpayers should continue to bear the heavy cost of rescuing the banking sector - they should not be in the front line," said Michel Barnier, EU internal market commissioner in Brussels.
What Barack Obama Is Thinking
By Peter Ferrara - American Spectator
tudents of history will recognize the method to President Obama's madness. The parallels in both policy and politics to the Roosevelt Administration are too striking not to be deliberate. President Obama is consciously modeling his Administration on the Roosevelt Administration. But just as the liberals of the 1930s graduated to the New Left of the 1960s, President Obama's policies and politics transcend the liberalism of the 1930s. He is building what Newt Gingrich rightly calls a secular socialist machine in his new book To Save America.
White House Admits BP Disaster Worst Oil Spill in US History
By: Andre Damon - MarketOracle.co.uk
After downplaying for weeks the significance of the Gulf Coast oil spill, the White House admitted on Monday that the Deepwater Horizon disaster constitutes the worst oil spill in US history. The admission from the White House comes as the Obama administration continues to insist that the response to the oil spill remain in the hands of BP.
"I don't think there is any doubt, unfortunately," Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, said Monday on CBS' "The Early Show." Some scientists estimate that the spill has already released 2.5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, ten times more than that released by the Exxon Valdez in 1989.
Obama's oily Katrina
WashingtonTimes.com This administration is not so slick after all
Back in 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama critiqued the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. "There is not a sense of urgency out of this White House and this administration," he declared, two years after the disaster struck. Now, more than a month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank, with a massive oil spill making landfall on the Gulf coast, Louisiana's Gov. Bobby Jindal is the one calling for "more urgency." The only rush in Washington is over where to shift the blame.
Mr. Obama apparently never had a plan for responding to this disaster. The White House seemingly felt that if the administration didn't treat it as a crisis, it would go away. If fingers were to be pointed, they could direct them at BP. That political strategy worked well for a week or so. But BP has failed to come to grips with the spill, and the White House, lacking ready solutions, looks feeble and rudderless.
Transocean argued with BP before blast
By Steve Gelsi
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Transocean supervisors that were aboard the Deepwater Horizion rig told government officials Wednesday about a disagreement with BP officials hours before the blast on Aprl 20 that killed 11 and resulted in the current oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. In a joint hearing held by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service in Louisiana, Douglas Brown, Transocean's chief mechanic on the rig, said that key representatives from both companies had a heated argument in an 11 a.m. meeting on that day, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Brown said Transocean's crew leaders objected to a decision by BP on how to start removing heavy drilling fluid and replace it with lighter sea water from a riser pipe connected to the well head. BP declined to comment on the testimony.
BP Used Riskier Method to Seal Oil Well Before Blast
By IAN URBINA - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON - Several days before the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, BP officials chose, partly for financial reasons, to use a type of casing for the well that the company knew was the riskier of two options, according to a BP document. The concern with the method BP chose, the document said, was that if the cement around the casing pipe did not seal properly, gases could leak all the way to the wellhead, where only a single seal would serve as a barrier. Using a different type of casing would have provided two barriers, according to the document, which was provided to The New York Times by a Congressional investigator.
BP Begins 'Top Kill' to Plug Leaking Gulf Oil Well
By Jim Polson
May 26 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc began its most ambitious attempt to plug a leaking well that has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico for more than a month. BP began pumping mud-like drilling fluid into the well at 2 p.m. New York time, according to a statement. The effort is aimed at tamping down the gusher of oil and natural gas and then sealing the well with cement. Success would bring to an end a leak that has poured millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf and soiled at least 70 miles (113 kilometers) of coastline.
BP says effort to plug well 'proceeding as planned,' but success still uncertain
By Joel Achenbach - Washington Post
The "top kill" is underway, success uncertain. BP engineers are pumping mud at a furious rate into the damaged blowout preventer that sits on the uncapped well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The hazardous-but-high-reward maneuver comes five weeks into the oil spill crisis amid an intensifying atmosphere of political recrimination that has spread from the Gulf Coast to the White House and Congress.
The Top Kill
Written by The Oil Drum - OilPrice.com
A Detailed Guide of BP's plan to Stop the Oil Spill:
The next attempt to shut off the flow from the leaking BP well in the Gulf is still aimed to occur early Wednesday. The attempt will use the "top kill" method to try and kill the well. While I have described this in earlier posts, the Unified Command have put out a video animation of the process, and there was an earlier diagram. So I am going to use these, which are simplified explanations, with some additional comments and tie it in to more facts that came out of briefings today, to try and give a more detailed explanation.
Top Kill Animation
Gulf oil spill Results of 'top kill' operation won't be known for 24 hours
LATimes.com
It will be at least 24 hours before BP officials will know whether their high-risk effort to plug the wellhead spewing crude into the gulf has succeeded, the Chief Executive Tony Hayward said Wednesday afternoon. He said the effort is proceeding as planned and cautioned that the televised images of the oil plume do not give an indication of how the operation is going or whether the oil flow is increasing or decreasing. Engineers worked through Tuesday night to prepare for the "top kill" procedure, running diagnostic and other tests to ensure that conditions were right. The effort involves injecting dense drilling mud into the blown-out wellhead and then sealing it with cement.
Following BP's Lead
Bob Herbert - SilverBearCafe.com
I asked the sheriff of St. Bernard Parish, Jack Stephens, if he was at all optimistic about BP stopping the gusher of oil that is fouling the Gulf of Mexico in time to prevent a long-term environmental catastrophe in the southern Louisiana wetlands.
The sun was high in the sky, and the day was hot. The sheriff was in a small boat, patrolling the waterways that wend their way through the delicate marshes. He thought for a long moment. Oil was already seeping into the marshes, getting into the soil and plant life and coating some of the wildlife. "I'll tell you the truth," said Mr. Stephens. "It may already be too late."
Researchers race to produce 3D models of BP oil spill
By Patrick Thibodeau - The Economic Collapse NSF approves supercomputing time as researchers apply storm surge models to oil spread
Computerworld - As the oil from BP's massive spill affects an ever expanding area, scientists have embarked on a crash effort to use one the world's largest supercomputers to forecast, in 3D, how BP's massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill will affect coastal areas.
The National Science Foundation late last week made an emergency allocation of 1 million compute hours - acting within 24 hours of receiving the request - on a supercomputer used at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas to study how the spreading oil from BP's gusher will affect coastlines.
Why Are So Many Horrible Things Happening To America All Of A Sudden?
The End of the American Dream - SilverBearCafe.com
Once upon a time the United States was a land of abundance and prosperity that was truly blessed from sea to shining sea. Tens of millions of Americans enjoyed living the American Dream in a land filled with happy, healthy and prosperous people. But these days it seems as though there are new stories of tragedy and despair almost daily. Whether it is the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, or the horrific flooding in Tennessee, or the tornadoes ripping through the Midwest, or the gut-wrenching economic despair in cities like Detroit, it just seems like a whole lot of horrible things are happening to America all at once. So why is all of this hitting the U.S. right now? Why does it seem like there is just about nowhere in the United States right now that is untouched by a major crisis?
Long-Term Unemployed May Be Out of Luck on Benefits
By DAVID SCHEPP - DailyFinance.com
The nation's lawmakers this week are debating whether to further extend benefits to long-term unemployed Americans. And much like any legislation being muscled through Congress these days, the divisions over the bill's contents fall along ideological lines. More liberal members want to bolster the nation's safety net and establish jobs programs, while conservatives fret about adding a projected $123 billion to the nation's ever-growing debt.
The Hard Truth About Residential Real Estate
Written by Mad Hedge Fund Trader - OilPrice.com
Anyone who believes that housing is on the rebound, and that now is the time to buy, should take a very hard look at the numbers I dredged up for my spring lecture and luncheon tour.
There are 140 million personal residences in the US. Today, there are 26 million homes either directly or indirectly for sale. According to a survey by Zillow.com, a real estate appraisal website, 20 million homeowners plan to sell on any improvement in prices.
Robert Shiller on Housing Double-Dips
by Tim Iacono
This morning's S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index came in about where most housing "realists" thought it might and that group apparently includes one of its creators, Yale economist Robert Shiller, who had a few comments about the latest data. The housing slump isn't over.
Tax credits and historically low mortgage rates have failed to lift home prices so far this year. Prices fell 0.5 percent in March from February, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday.
That marks six straight months of declines - a sign that the housing market is going in reverse. "It looks a little like a double-dip already" economist Robert Shiller said in an interview. "There is a very real possibility of some more decline."
The Other Foreclosure Menace
Fred Schulte, Ben Protess and Lagan Sebert - HuffingtonPost.com
One raw day in early February, Vicki Valentine stood by helplessly as real estate investors snatched her West Baltimore home over what began with an unpaid city water bill of $362.
As snow threatened to fall, she watched a work crew hired by the new owners punch out the lock on her front door. A sheriff's deputy was on the scene while Valentine and her teenage son piled whatever they could into a borrowed car.
Running out of time, Valentine scrambled to pack up clothing and mementos. The home had been her family's for nearly three decades, and her father had paid off the mortgage in 1984. "It's hard to say goodbye to this house," she said. "It's like someone forcing you out of something that belongs to you. I don't get it."
Tapped Out: When Water Bills Force Foreclosure
New $3bn Foreclosure Prevention Program Added to Wall Street Reform Bill
by JON PRIOR - HousingWire.com
The Senate passed the Restoring American Financial Stability Act last week, approving a new program that would reduce mortgage payments for the unemployed.
The program would provide $3bn from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to lend up to $50,000 to unemployed homeowners, who could reasonably resume making payments again within two years. The program was modeled after the Homeowners' Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP) in Pennsylvania.
The Senate passed the bill last week but transplanted its own language into the one passed by the House of Representatives. The status of the reform is still "resolving differences." But, lawmakers hope to have it in front of President Obama to sign by the July 4, 2010 recess.
Democratic House Leader Says America is Already Rationing Health Care By Matt Cover, Staff Writer - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) -- House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the man nominated to run Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Donald Berwick, is qualified to oversee the two massive government health care programs despite Berwick's claim that the government must ration health care. Hoyer added that health care rationing already is happening in America.
At his Tuesday briefing for reporters, CNSNews.com asked Rep. Hoyer, "Donald Berwick -- who's the administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid -- said in a 2009 interview that 'the decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- but the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.' Rationing is something the Democrats were accused of wanting to do during the health care debate. I know you don't have a vote on his nomination but do you support his nomination? Do you think that he's qualified to run CMS?" (CMS is the acronym for the federal government's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.)
ObamaCare Is Unconstitutional * Judge Andrew Napolitano *
Is Arizona's Immigration Law Being Put on ICE?
By Aaron Goldstein - American Spectator
For all the histrionics, hoopla and hysteria that has surrounded Arizona's recently passed immigration enforcement law, it must be noted that its success depends on the co-operation of the federal government and the feds know it.
How else to explain the words of John Morton, Assistant Secretary of State for Homeland Security for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)? Last week, Morton told the Chicago Tribune, "I don't think the Arizona law, or laws like it, are the solution." Morton added that he wasn't of the opinion that the Arizona law represented "good government." So it would appear the federal government will not co-operate with Arizona's efforts to stem the tide of illegal immigration. For all intents and purposes, Morton has put Arizona's immigration law on ICE.
DOJ Lawyers Draft Challenge to AZ Law
by: Mike Levine - FOXNews.com
A team of Justice Department attorneys reviewing the new immigration law in Arizona has recommended that the U.S. government challenge the state law in federal court, but the recommendation faces an uncertain future and tough scrutiny from others in the Justice Department, sources with knowledge of the process tell Fox News.
Staff attorneys within the Justice Department recently sent higher-ups the recommendation. At the same time, the Justice Department's Civil Division, which oversees the majority of immigration enforcement issues for the department, has drafted a "civil complaint" that would be filed in federal court in Arizona, sources said.
Obama Should Visit U.S.-Mexico Border to See the Threat to Americans Firsthand, Republican Senators Say
By Susan Jones, Senior Editor - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - On the same day President Barack Obama announced he was ordering 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, two Republican senators from Arizona said it's about time - and it's too few troops. "We have been calling on President Obama to deploy National Guard troops to the border since March 2009 and are pleased he has finally started to recognize the essential needs of our Southwest states," Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl said in a statement. Obama acted before Republicans could force a congressional vote on sending in the National Guard, the Associated Press reported.
Adding insult to injury at Ground Zero NYC Community Board OKs Ground Zero Mosque Plans
Associated Press - FOXNews.com After hours of contentious public comment, a New York City community board voted late Tuesday to support a plan to build a mosque and cultural center near ground zero.
NEW YORK (AP) - After hours of contentious public comment, a New York City community board voted late Tuesday to support a plan to build a mosque and cultural center near ground zero. "It's a seed of peace," board member Rob Townley said. "We believe that this is significant step in the Muslim community to counteract the hate and fanaticism in the minority of the community."
China May Shield North Korea as Lee, U.S. Seek Action on Ship
By Bloomberg News
May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is likely to resist pressure to acknowledge that North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship when he flies to Seoul tomorrow to meet South Korean President Lee Myung Bak and Japan's Yukio Hatoyama. China hasn't followed South Korea, Japan and the U.S. in blaming North Korea for the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors. Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun yesterday repeated a call for "restraint" by both sides and said China had no "firsthand information" on the sinking.
Is North Korea on the Verge of Collapse?
Written by Bonnie Glaser - OilPrice.com
Despite the posturing of his regime, there are signs that Kim Jong-Il's hold on North Korea may be slipping and international community must be ready. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is considered an international pariah in most nations, but he was welcomed with open arms in China May 3-7. The visit underscored North Korea's isolation: Kim's last foreign visit in 2006 was also to China.
Russia's War Games Preparing for Conflict with the East
Written by Simon Saradzhyan - OilPrice.com
Next month will see the Russian armed forces stage an operational-strategic exercise dubbed "Vostok-2010" (East-2010), called "the main event of the combat training" in 2010 in a press release by the Russian Defense Ministry. Thousands of soldiers from the army, including the CBRN Protection Forces, the navy, air force, airborne troops and other elements of the Russian armed forces will participate in the joint exercise of the Far Eastern and Siberian Military districts in mid-June.
North Korean military 'told to prepare for war'
Tania Branigan in Beijing - guardian.co.uk,
Monitoring group says Kim Jong-il ordered officers to be ready for combat after S Korea blamed Pyongyang for torpedo attack
The North Korean leader has warned his military to prepare for war in case the South attacks, a Seoul-based monitoring group reported today, as tensions remain high on the divided peninsula over accusations that Pyongyang sank a South Korean warship. Kim Jong-il ordered officers to be ready for combat via a broadcast made hours after Seoul blamed the North for the Cheonan disaster, according to North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity. Citing unidentified sources from the North, it said the command was read by General O Kuk Ryol, a confidant of the leader, and broadcast on loudspeakers last week.
S. Korea to proceed with punitive steps against DPRK despite threats:
SEOUL, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government will not back down on its decision to punish the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for sinking its navy warship despite tough talk of Pyongyang including warnings of a war and severing all remaining ties, Seoul said Wednesday.
Amid heightening tension on the divided Korean peninsula following an international probe that publicly accused the DPRK of having deliberately attacked a South Korean corvette and killed 46 sailors, Pyongyang, denying its responsibility, has issued a series of threats involving an "all-out war" against Seoul's moves to punish it for its alleged aggression.
Tensions on Korean Peninsula Add to Global Economic Concerns
By VISHESH KUMAR - DailyFinance.com
Already skittish about Europe's escalating debt crisis, investors had yet another international development to worry about this week. Escalating tensions and war-like rhetoric emanating from the Korean peninsula helped send world stock markets tumbling on Tuesday.
Reports that North Korea was launching combat preparations and cutting off ties with South Korea were the latest news driving a wave of anxiety for investors. The move comes after South Korea -- outraged after the sinking of a naval vessel that killed 46 sailors and was traced to a North Korean torpedo -- vowed to take punitive measures, including halting some trade.
US-South Korea joint naval exercise to increase pressure on North
Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Tania Branigan in Beijing - guardian.co.uk Seoul seeks apology for sinking of warship as Hilary Clinton asks China to back security council resolution
The US will conduct joint naval exercises with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, the Pentagon announced tonight as the two countries revealed measures to increase pressure on North Korea over a torpedo attack which sank a Southern warship.
The announcement of the exercises, which will test the two countries' ability to detect enemy submarines and prevent shipments of nuclear materials, is the first concrete US response to the crisis triggered by the sinking of the Cheonan in March, with the loss of 46 lives. An international panel of experts concluded last week that North Korea torpedoed the South Korean warship.
North Korea freezes relations with South Korea
By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) -- North Korea announced Tuesday a freeze in relations with South Korea and threatened military retaliation in response to alleged intrusions into its waters by the South Korean navy. North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said it would "abrogate the agreement on non-aggression" amid heightened tensions on the divided peninsular over the sinking of a South Korean warship earlier this year.
An official South Korean report accused the Communist North of firing a torpedo at the ship, killing 46 sailors. A North Korean military official accused the South of intruding into North Korean waters in the Yellow Sea from May 14 to 24, the Yonhap news agency reported.
North Korea cuts all ties with the South
Tania Branigan in Beijing - guardian.co.uk Pyongyang expels South Koreans in shared industrial zone as tit-for-tat row unravels last remnants of engagement policy
North Korea today hit back at Seoul by announcing it would sever all links, escalating the standoff over accusations that the North sank a South's warship.
North Korea's state news agency KCNA also reported that Pyongyang would expel all South Koreans from a joint-industrial zone in Kaesong, near the border.
The announcement, leaves relations at their worst point for years. It came as a monitoring group in Seoul reported that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, last week ordered his military to prepare for war in case the South attacks. Military officials in Seoul were unable to confirm the report, and said they had detected no unusual troop movements
Dow tumbles below 10,000 as world watches Korea, EU
By Stephen Bernard, AP Business Writer - USAToday.com
NEW YORK -The Dow Jones industrials plunged below 10,000 Tuesday as investors worrying about a global economic slowdown and tensions between North and South Korea turned away from stocks. The Dow quickly lost more than 200 points and remained there. It has fallen 1,346 points, or more than 12%, from its recent high of 11,205, reached April 26. Key market indexes were off more than 2%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index touched its lowest level of the year earlier in the day, dropping to 1,040.78.
Israeli war jets strike on inoperative Gaza airport
GAZA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- Israeli war jets struck at midnight on Tuesday by air-to-ground missiles the inoperative Gaza airport southeast of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, no injuries reported, witnesses said. The witnesses said that at least three successive airstrikes were carried out after midnight at different targets in the Gaza Strip.
'Recon for attack a warning to Iran'
By HERB KEINON - JerusalemPost
Israeli official: US okay of reconnaissance flights may signal strike.
Reports that the Pentagon has okayed reconnaissance missions over Iran were seen in Jerusalem on Tuesday as the first public signs of practical preparations for a possible US military operation against Iran. The New York Times reported on Monday that Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in the Middle East, ordered an expansion of clandestine military activity in the region. According to the report, "officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate."
No end in sight for euro's slide
By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The euro got no relief Tuesday, continuing its steady slide amid a global stock sell-off as worldwide concerns weighed on the shared currency. The euro has taken a huge hit recently, sliding toward parity versus the U.S. dollar, as debt concerns in European countries have left investors unsettled. The pressure continued Tuesday as global markets took a dive, sending investors to the safe-haven greenback.
Worries Mount on E.C.B.'s Ability to Stem a Panic
By LANDON THOMAS Jr. - NYTimes.com
LONDON - The euro stops with the European Central Bank - or does it?
Amid signs that some fretful deposit holders on Europe's troubled periphery are moving their money to presumably safer German banks, the fear that Europe's central bank and the 16 sometimes fractious nations that back it might not be able to stem a classic bank panic is being voiced on trading floors from Hong Kong to Frankfurt to New York.
Asian investors get cold feet on euro bonds
By Gillian Tett - FT.com
Imagine you have a mountain of spare cash: would you invest it in eurozone government bonds right now? If you are a large Japanese investor, the answer is "maybe not". Last week Barclays Capital, the British investment bank, produced the latest part of a long-running survey of Japanese bond investors, which tries to determine attitudes towards dollar and euro bonds.
Germany After the E.U. and the Russian Scenario
By: STRATFOR - MarketOracle.co.uk
Discussions about Europe currently are focused on the Greek financial crisis and its potential effect on the future of the European Union. Discussions these days involving military matters and Europe appear insignificant and even anachronistic. Certainly, we would agree that the future of the European Union towers over all other considerations at the moment, but we would argue that scenarios for the future of the European Union exist in which military matters are far from archaic.
Merkel's Savage Blitz through Euroland, Germany Pushing Eurozone To Cliffs Edge
By: Mike Whitney - MarketOracle.co.uk
Angela Merkel has let a minor brush-fire on the periphery turn into a raging inferno that's sweeping across the continent. Absent Berlin's fumbling diplomatic effort and its ferocious attachment to Hooverian economics, the Greek matter would have been over by now. Instead, the fire continues to burn while the German Chancellor pushes the eurozone closer and closer to the cliff. And what for; to prove that prodigal spending by the member states (Greece) mustn't go unpunished? Is that what this is all about? Is Merkel really willing to break up the EU just to prove her point and to accommodate her towering sense of self righteousness?
4 More Spanish Savings Banks Reported To Be "Merging" As Spanish Economy Unravels
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
And just when the bulls were hoping for a bounce, expansion.com reports that four new Spanish savings banks are considering a "cold fusion" which is another name for future bailout of one instead of four. The four banks are CajaMurcia, CajaGranada, Sa Nostra, Caixa Penedes and their combined assets amount to over €100 billion. As we expected, this weekend's bailout of Cajasur was Spain's equivalent to the New Century Financial blow up tipping out. Look for the unwind to accelerate now.
Keiser Report: Goldman Sachs, Undeclared Enemy of the State
Shortly After the Comex Close Gold Is Allowed to Trade Above 1200
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
Gold traded all day below 1200, at times rising to within fifty cents of the key strike price of 1200 where a large concentration of call options were clustered. Well, since the call options at 1200 have expired worthless, why bother using the energy to continue to suppress the price? Blatant and arrogant price fixing is done with the cooperation of the regulators at the CFTC who are willing to turn a blind eye to repeated price manipulation by insiders in the US futures markets in precious metals, stock indices, and several key commodities including oil and foodstuffs.
Comex Gold up on safe-haven buying
By Jim Wyckoff
Comex gold futures closed modestly higher Tuesday. The market was supported on safe-haven buying amid keen investor uncertainty presently gripping most markets. However, the sell off in commodity sector Tuesday did limit price gains in gold. June gold closed up $4.00 an ounce at $1,198.00.
The European Union's debt crisis appeared to be ratcheted up a notch Tuesday, following the weekend seizure of a Spanish bank by Spain's bank regulators. Credit spreads in European Union nations are again widening and the Euro currency was under strong selling pressure again Tuesday. There are increasing concerns the EU's debt crisis will spread from Greece to Portugal and Spain, and possibly turn into a worldwide contagion that could sink the world's major economies. Traders have been buying gold with European currencies as a hedge against further weakness of the European currencies. Such will likely continue to be the case as long as the U.S. dollar remains robust against its European counterparts.
Gold Bulls Dig in for Big Rally
by Nicholas Larkin - LewRockwell.com
Speculators are buying gold faster than the world's biggest producers can mine it, as analysts forecast a 27 per cent rally that may extend the longest run of annual gains since at least 1920. Exchange-traded products (ETPs) backed by bullion added 42.5 tonnes in the week to May 14, the most in 14 months, data from UBS shows. China, Australia and the 16 other largest mining nations averaged weekly output of 42.3 tonnes last year, researcher GFMS estimates. Even though prices have fallen 5.8 percent to $US1177.10 from a record $US1249.40 an ounce May 14, the median prediction in a Bloomberg survey of 23 traders, analysts and investors is that it will reach $US1500 by the end of the year.
The New Touch-Face of Vending Machines
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM - NYTimes.com At the Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi, a cash machine dispenses gold. Vending machines in neon-splashed Tokyo have electronic eyes that evaluate customers’ skin and wrinkles to determine whether they are old enough to buy tobacco. In bathrooms at upscale Canadian bars, vending machines with flat irons enable women to defrizz their locks. In Abu Dhabi, the lobby of a luxury hotel has a vending machine that dispenses gold bars and coins at more than $1,000 an ounce.
Gold "Seen Cheap" as Wall Street Slumps; Bulls Driven by "Policy - Not Inflation" By: Adrian Ash - GoldSeek.com
THE PRICE OF GOLD in wholesale dealing rose against all currencies on Tuesday, breaking above $1200 an ounce as world stock markets sank for the third time in 5 sessions. "We are not bullish on gold because of inflation expectations," says Walter de Wet at Standard Bank, "but because of monetary policy. "Inflation-linked bonds now see inflation averaging only 1.18% per year over the next 10 years. [So] we expect monetary policy to remain accommodative for longer. "Accommodative policy favors especially gold."
US Mint: Record sales for gold, silver bullion in May
WASHINGTON (Commodity Online) Gold and silver bullion sales at the United States Mint have reached record levels in May 2010. With about a week left to go, more than 200,000 ounces of gold and more than 3 million ounces of silver have already been sold to the Mint's authorized purchaser network, Coinupdate.com reported. Authorized purchasers are able to buy bullion coins directly from the United States Mint. They subsequently resell the coins to other coin dealers, bullion dealers, or the public, and facilitate a two-way market for the coins.
Gold Prices Volatile; Tug-of-War Persists
ByAlix Steel
NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold prices were volatile Tuesday as prices were caught in a tug-of-war between profit-takers needing cash and bargain hunters buying gold as a safe haven asset. Gold for June delivery was slipping 70 cents to $1,193.30 at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price today has traded as high as $1,197.30 and as low as $1,185.20. The U.S. dollar index was adding 1.15% to $87.20 while the euro kept sinking and was losing 1.24% to $1.22 against the dollar. The spot gold price Tuesday was adding $2, according to Kitco's gold index.
Gold Remains Firm on Geopolitical Risks and Fears of a 'Perfect Storm'
By: GoldCore - MarketOracle.co.uk
Gold's safe haven qualities are again being seen after its higher close yesterday despite falling US equity indices and it remaining robust today (down 0.4% in USD terms) despite sharp falls in Asian and European indices. Some analysts are warning of a "perfect storm" that could again destabilise the global financial and economic system. While "perfect storm" talk may be hyperbole there can be little doubt that the many extreme headwinds have led to a degree of risk similar to that seen after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Soon, US mint's maiden 5-ounce silver bullion coins
ARIZONA, USA (Commodity Online): The U.S. Mint will release its first ever five-ounce .999 fine silver bullion coins later this year.The coins will bear the same designs as the new legal-tender quarters of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The first quarter in the program, honoring Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, was released into the banking system April 19, 2010. Four more quarters will be released this year, with five quarters being released annually through 2021, concluding with the final quarter in 2022. The new quarters will commemorate 56 national parks and sites.
Coins from the U.S. Mint are prestigious and carry an acceptance not found with any other gold or silver bullion coins in the market. The Mint's America the Beautiful Program will be well received as will be the companion five-ounce silver bullion coins
Double-dip fears over worldwide credit stress
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
The global credit system is flashing the most serious warning signals in almost a year on triple fears of a Spanish banking crisis, escalating political risk in Asia, and a second leg to the US housing slump.
Flight to safety drove yields on 10-year German Bunds to 2.56pc, below the levels touched in the depths of the Great Depression. The spreads over peripheral European debt rose sharply again, jumping to 137 basis points for Italy, 157 for Spain and 220 for Ireland. The strains in Europe's sovereign debt markets are nearing levels that forced EU leaders to launch their "shock and awe" rescue package. "If a $1 trillion (£700bn) bail-out did not finally turn sentiment, I struggle to see what can," said Tim Ash, an economist at RBS.
Gerald Celente : Financial Armageddon 2.0
The U.S. Economy Really is in Trouble
MarketOracle.co.uk
Although industrial production has continued to grow manufacturing has started to slow. There were mass layoffs in April with manufacturing taking the lead. The Fed reported that that its index of manufacturing activity for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut had slowed significantly while the Philadelphia Fed reported that manufacturing growth had decelerated and that in May there was a significant drop in orders for manufactured goods. Adding to the woe was a report by The Conference Board that its index of leading economic indicators dropped in April, the first fall in about twelve months. What the devil is going on? Without a doubt this is the worst 'recovery' in post-war history.
Summers: U.S. must balance stimulus, deficits
By Ben Rooney
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The U.S. government must find a balance between supporting the economic recovery and reducing long-term budget deficits, White House economic advisor Lawrence Summers said Monday. While the economy has resumed its growth and the possibility of a depression now seems remote, the government should continue its efforts to spur job growth and boost economic output, said Summers, who is director of the White House National Economic Council.
Beware of the bubble in bonds
By Shawn Tully,
(Fortune) -- Here we go again. In just six weeks the prices of U.S. Treasuries have soared, sending the yields on the 10-year bond from 4% back to 3.2%, close to their levels when terror reigned early last year. Don't let Wall Street's cheerleaders convince you that the sudden drop in the cost of borrowing heralds a new era of moderate inflation that will keep Treasury prices aloft, and interest rates low, for years to come.
Fear index on the rise, eases off 14-month high
By Chavon Sutton
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street's key volatility measure jumped Tuesday as stocks plummeted on persistent worries about the health of European banks and sustainability of the global economic recovery. The CBOE Volatility (VIX) index, or the VIX, was up nearly 6% to 40.60, after rising as high as 43.74 earlier in the trading session. Though up on the day, the index has eased off the 14-month high set last Thursday.
Why there won't be Wall Street perp walks
By David Ellis
Wall Street behind bars - Harder than it looks.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Don't expect Wall Street to give up their tasseled loafers and French cuff dress shirts for orange jumpsuits anytime soon. The Justice Department just abandoned its criminal probe against AIG, which means that executive Joseph Cassano, who once led the firm's troubled financial products division, won't face any charges. Prosecutors have also yet to take any action against Lehman Brothers or other key players in the financial crisis despite pleas from some members of Congress for federal law enforcement officials to investigate the questionable accounting practices at Lehman leading up to its collapse.
Peter Schiff on CNBC -
Is US The Next Greece or Japan? 24 May 2010
Oil sinks below $68 as stock markets, euro fall
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA - AP - MSNBC.com
LONDON - Oil prices sank below $68 a barrel Tuesday on the back of declining share prices and fears of weaker global economic growth. Benchmark crude for July delivery shed $2.36 to $67.85 a barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Monday the contract advanced 17 cents to settle at $70.21. Oil prices tend to rise or fall along with global shares, which indicate investors' outlook on the economy and its growth potential. Stronger growth usually means more demand for crude and higher prices.
Patience runs thin as BP preps untested maneuver to cap oil leak
By the CNN Wire Staff
Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- A top BP official said Tuesday that the oil company has equipment in place to begin diagnostic testing for a maneuver called a "top kill" that could be implemented as early as the following day to stop oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
BP plans a high-pressure injection of thick, viscous fluid twice the density of water into the site of the leak to stop the flow so the well can then be sealed with cement.
BP faces extra $60bn in legal costs as US loses patience with Gulf clean-up Tim Webb and Ed Pilkington - The Guardian Government fines could send oil firm's bill soaring in wake of Deepwater Horizon disaster
The oil disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico could present BP with much higher costs than previously thought as a result of US government penalties of up to $60bn (£40bn), according to City analysts.
The penalties are in addition to BP's already huge bill for the clean-up mission, which stood at $760m yesterday, and potentially unlimited damages payable by the company to fishermen and other affected local communities. BP also faces billions of dollars of lost earnings as a result of its damaged reputation in the US, which could result in it being barred from bidding for future contracts.
Offshore drilling showdown looms
By Steve Hargreaves
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Despite the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the government is under pressure to issue new permits for offshore drilling as early as next week. Permits to drill offshore were suspended last month pending an Interior Department safety review after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drill rig. The safety review is due this Friday, and the Obama administration will use it to help decide when and how drilling should resume. Many argue there should be no new drilling until the investigation is complete. But that will take months. In the meantime, there are thousands of workers who are literally running out of wells to drill.
BP cuts checks for workers' lost wages
By Chavon Sutton
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The scope of the damage from the Gulf Coast oil spill is still hard to calculate, but here's a grim tally: More than 23,000 workers and business owners along the Gulf Coast have filed claims so far for lost income.
BP has made payments already on 9,000 of those claims, disbursing $27.8 million to fishermen, shrimpers, charter boat captains and others whose livelihoods are now in limbo, according to BP spokesman David Nicholas. The company has 420 claims adjusters staffing nearly two dozens processing centers in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
North Slope crude spills from Alaska pipeline
By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) -- Several thousand barrels of North Slope crude oil spilled into a containment area along the Alaska pipeline Tuesday when an open valve at a pump station allowed oil to overflow a tank, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company said. Alyeska said the incident took place about 10:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. ET) during a planned pipeline shutdown while the company was conducting fire command and valve leak testing at the pump station. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said a battery failed to control the valve when power was switched from the main grid during Alyeska's tests. The valve has been closed, shutting off the flow, the department said, but the pipeline remains shut down.
Private pay shrinks to historic lows as gov't payouts rise
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of this year, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds. At the same time, government-provided benefits - from Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs - rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010. Those records reflect a long-term trend accelerated by the recession and the federal stimulus program to counteract the downturn. The result is a major shift in the source of personal income from private wages to government programs.
American Jobbery Act
Dissecting this week's stimulus bill. - WSJ.com
President Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill are publicly fretting about the dangers of spending and debt, which can mean only one thing: Another big spending "stimulus" bill is in the works. And sure enough, the House plans to vote this week on $190 billion in new spending, $134 billion of which it won't even pretend to pay for.
Sander Levin, the new Ways and Means Chairman, calls this exercise the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. Mr. Levin has waited 28 years to ascend to this throne and this is the best he can do? "Jobs" were also the justification in February 2009 for the $862 billion stimulus that has managed to hold the jobless rate down to a mere 9.9%. Maybe Mr. Levin's spending can hold it down to even greater heights.
Don't Rule Out a Double Dip Recession
By CHRISTOPHER WOOD - WSJ.com In addition to Europe's woes, we have slower growth in China and a decline in bank lending and the velocity of money in the U.S.
World financial markets reacted bearishly to Germany's surprise announcement last week banning "naked" short-selling of euro-zone government debt, derivatives and some financial stocks. Short selling is considered naked when it involves the sale of an asset that isn't owned by the seller and isn't borrowed to cover the position while it's held. The news disturbed investors because of the unilateral nature of Germany's action. It's also seen as a potential prelude to other antimarket actions from Germany, or for that matter the U.S. and other Western nations, where the political backlash against free markets continues.
Marc Faber on Bloomberg: Bearish on Everything 5/25/10
Home prices fall 0.5 percent from February to March, a sign of a softening housing market By J.W. ELPHINSTONE - Newser.com
Tax credits and historically low mortgage rates have failed to lift home prices so far this year. Prices fell 0.5 percent in March from February, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city index released Tuesday . The co-creator of the Case-Shiller index, who predicted in 2005 that the housing bubble would burst, is raising concerns that the worst isn't over. That fear is shared by other economists who point to weak job growth, tight credit and many more foreclosures ahead. "I'm worried still about the risk of a double-dip," economist Robert Shiller said in an interview. The month-to-month drop from February to March marked the sixth straight decline. Prices in 13 of the cities fell. Only six metro areas recorded price gains. One, Boston, came in flat.
Home prices fell 0.5 percent from February to March
By Renae Merle - Washington Post
Home prices remained weak through the early months of this year, according to a closely watched housing index released Tuesday, an indication that the housing market continues to struggle despite recent improvements. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index showed that prices of single-family homes were down 0.5 percent between February and March, the sixth consecutive month-over-month decline. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices were flat, according to the index. Prices in 13 of the 20 cities tracked by the index fell in March, including the Washington region where prices were down 0.7 percent. Detroit and Minneapolis saw the largest price declines, 4.1 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.
Many People Who Try to Refinance Won't Be Able To
By JONATHAN BERR- DailyFinance.com
Thinking about refinancing to take advantage of record low interest rates? Be prepared for disappointment. About 30% of refinancing applicants at LendingTree are unable to get approved at the interest rates that they expected because the value of their homes has dropped, according to Cameron Findlay, chief economist at Tree.Com, the parent company of LendingTree.com. The problem isn't surprising given the decline in the U.S. housing market since 2008. "You want the correct underwriting to happen at the front end," says Findlay in an interview. "It's a qualification issue, not a rate issue."
Detroit Begins Demolishing Hundreds Of Vacant Homes
COREY WILLIAMS - AP - HuffingtonPost.com
DETROIT - The war on vacant houses in Detroit took on new force Tuesday as officials announced plans to demolish about 450 of the most dangerous structures within the next two months, and immediately tore into the first home on the list. Crews collapsed the chimney of a two-story bungalow in northwest Detroit in a ceremonial start to the $4.5 million project backed by Wayne County and faith-based groups. It's the latest step in an aggressive effort to rid the city of thousands of vacant homes. "It's part of the rebirth we are going through," County Executive Robert Ficano said, surrounded by other local officials and a dozen religious leaders. "These are havens for drugs and other things."
In-debt grads with no jobs can sidestep student loan trouble
By Sandra Block, USA TODAY
You just graduated, and your parents are so proud of you. Which is a good thing, because there's a good chance that you'll be moving back in with them. This year's college graduates will be entering a wretched job market, where there are, by some estimates, five candidates for every opening. Perhaps this experience will give you the strength to deal with future challenges. But one of those challenges - not falling behind on your student loans - doesn't exactly lead to much character building.
More older Americans start own businesses
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY
YOSEMITE, Calif. - After toiling for three decades in finance, it wouldn't be surprising if 65-year-old Patrick Althizer kicked back and lived off his savings and Social Security. But with a spirit not ready for sedentary retirement - as well as college costs for two daughters - he veered off to a new career path: leading shutterbugs through the stunning waterfall areas of Yosemite National Park. Althizer has embraced his new vocation with enthusiasm. He plastered decals that promote his firm, Photo Safari Yosemite, on the windows of his white Jeep Cherokee, networked with the folks who run local tourist attractions, and at his daughters' behest, joined Facebook to promote his firm, which takes tourists to the best photo-taking spots in the national park.
Pulling the pension plug
Vox Day - SilverBearCafe.com
The Founding Fathers understood the inherent risks of democracy. This is why they did not establish a proper democracy in America, but rather a strictly limited form of representative democracy in a republican structure. They did this in fear of the tyranny of the majority and to place a limit upon the momentary passions of the general public.
However, it has become clear that limited representative democracy has evils of its own that are arguably more pernicious than the vagaries of unlimited democracy. As American history demonstrates, representative democracy rapidly devolves into an system where various interest groups band together and form a kleptocracy wherein the government is little more than a mechanism for transferring wealth from the people to the interest groups.
The Constitution
by ROBERT M. HAMBURGER - Hamburger's Stand
The Constitution of the United States of America was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania and ratified by conventions in each state in the name of "The People." The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times, the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. . . .
Today the Constitution is in trouble from the first word - We - meaning you and me, or, people plural. I can't imagine that our Founding Fathers meant this definition to include corporations. Yet such was the decision of the Chief Justice Robert's Supreme Court late last year. Corporations are now deemed people. The People's power is usurped by this decision with WalMart, Texaco, Goldman Sachs now entitled to the same rights as me and you. Corporations should be in service to People, not one of them.
16 illegals sue Arizona rancher
By Jerry Seper - WashingtonTimes.com
An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border. Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home. His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as "the avenue of choice" for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.
Obama to send more National Guard troops to U.S.-Mexico border
By Michael D. Shear - Washington Post
President Obama will deploy an additional 1,200 National Guard troops to the southern border and request $500 million in extra money for border security, according to an administration official. The decision comes as the White House is seeking Republican support for broad immigration reform this year.
The official said the new resources would provide "immediate enhancement" to the border even as the Obama administration continues to "work with Congress to fix our broken immigration system through comprehensive reform, which would provide lasting and dedicated resources by which to secure our borders and make our communities safer."
Israel arms may not be enough to stop nukes
By Rowan Scarborough - WashingtonTimes.com
As the Obama administration continues to pursue a diplomatic solution for Iran's nuclear weapons program, Israel in recent years has extended the range of its bombers, launched sophisticated spy satellites and developed a more accurate ordnance-dropping system.
The reasons are clear: Israel is now in a position to send scores of F-16Is and F-15Is on the 1,000-mile penetration of Iranian airspace to try to disable the regime's far-flung network of nuclear research and uranium-enrichment facilities.
But a U.S. air-war planner in the Persian Gulf War tells The Washington Times he does not think Israel's relatively small air force - compared with the United States huge bomber and cruise-missile fleet - has the firepower to properly hit all the necessary Iranian targets.
Iran and North Korea March On
By JOHN BOLTON - WSJ.com Pyongyang's behavior shows why we must stop the mullahs from getting the bomb.
Last week, while meandering toward a fourth U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution against Iran, Washington was blindsided by the revival of a previously discarded plan to enrich some of Iran's uranium to higher levels for use in the Tehran research reactor. This proposal-a good deal for Iran when it was proposed last year by the misguided Obama administration-is even better in its latest iteration and does nothing to stop Iran's uranium enrichment program.
The Iranian enrichment deal was brokered by Brazil and Turkey, two of the 10 current nonpermanent Security Council members, and it could pose difficulties for getting the council to adopt another resolution on sanctions. To forestall the debilitating effects of the Brazil-Turkey deal, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promptly circulated to other council members the draft of a sanctions resolution the five permanent members and Germany had spent months negotiating.
North Korea elite linked to crime
By Bill Gertz - WashingtonTimes.com
A group of offspring of senior North Korean communist and military leaders, including Kim Jong-il's sons, have been linked by Western intelligence authorities to Pyongyang's illicit activities around the world, including distribution of counterfeit $100 bills and drug trafficking. The unofficial group, known as "Ponghwajo" ("Torch Group"), is led by Oh Se-wan, the son of a senior leader in North Korea's National Defense Commission. That senior leader, Gen. Oh Kuk-ryol, is also a key player in the succession of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to his son Kim Jong-un.
Health Care Law's Hidden Tax Provision: 1099s Could Quintuple in 2012
Written By: Neil deMause - HealthCareNews
An until-now unnoticed provision of the new health care overhaul law could change the way U.S. businesses - including freelance workers - prepare for tax day, causing an avalanche of additional recordkeeping and reporting. According to Section 9006 of the 2,409-page Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, beginning on January 1, 2012 all businesses will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contractors but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year. Currently 1099s need only be issued to individuals, not corporations. The requirement will now include items such as shipping charges, hotel bills, and equipment purchases, all currently exempt from 1099 reporting.
Health care law's massive, hidden tax change
By Neil deMause, The Heartland Institute
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- An all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork. Section 9006 of the health care bill -- just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document -- mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year. The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year. Right now, the IRS Form 1099 is used to document income for individual workers other than wages and salaries. Freelancers receive them each year from their clients, and businesses issue them to the independent contractors they hire.
Obama Administration Imposes Onerous Reporting Rules on American Business
BY WILL.SPENCER - Fort Liberty
The congresspeople who voted for the recently health-care "'reform" legislation admitted to not reading the legislation first. Obama reneged on a promise to make the legislation available online for the American public to read before he signed it. Perhaps these factors explain how a major increase in tax compliance costs for American business was silently slipped into the bill.
In Section 9006 of the bill, and no I am not making that up, all American companies are forced to issue 1099 tax forms to any vendor with which they spend more than $600 in one tax year. This means that almost every independent handyman in America will be issuing a 1099 to Home Depot. This means that every hot dog cart vendor will be issuing 1099's to the stores where he buys hot dogs and relish. The Cato Institute has referred to this change as "a costly, anti-business nightmare."
Lungren Fights For Small Business
Washington DC- Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA), in an effort to assist small businesses in his district and across the nation, introduced legislation to repeal an onerous portion of Obama Care. ÊThe Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act will remove section 9006 of H.R. 3590. Section 9006 would place an unprecedented burden on small business by requiring any business that purchases more than $600 of goods or services from another business to submit a 1099 tax from to the Internal Revenue Service. The mandate is to take effect in 2012.
"Large corporations have whole divisions to handle such transaction paperwork but for a small business, which doesn't have the manpower, this is yet another brick on their back. Everyone agrees that small businesses are job creators and the engine which drives the American economy. I am dumfounded that this Administration is doing all it can to make it more difficult for businesses to succeed rather than doing all it can to help them grow," Lungren said.
H.R.5141 - Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act
Representative Daniel Lungren - R-CA
To repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements for payments of $600 or more to corporations, and for other purposes.
4/26/2010--Introduced.Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal a provision (added by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [PPACA]) that extends to corporations that are not tax-exempt the requirement to report payments of $600 or more.
One false move in Europe could set off global chain reaction
By Howard Schneider and Neil Irwin - Washington Post Staff Writer
If the trouble starts -- and it remains an "if" -- the trigger may well be obscure to the concerns of most Americans: a missed budget projection by the Spanish government, the failure of Greece to hit a deficit-reduction target, a drop in Ireland's economic output. But the knife-edge psychology currently governing global markets has put the future of the U.S. economic recovery in the hands of politicians in an assortment of European capitals. If one or more fail to make the expected progress on cutting budgets, restructuring economies or boosting growth, it could drain confidence in a broad and unsettling way. Credit markets worldwide could lock up and throw the global economy back into recession.
WTO Director General: Global Governance Based on the EU Model
By Daniel Taylor - OldThinkerNews.com
Herman Van Rompuy, the first President of the European Union, recently announced during his installment that 2009 was the first year of global governance. Indeed, 2009 has seen major steps towards global governance. The establishment has also taken severe blows this year, which will be discussed shortly. Pascal Lamy, Director General of the World Trade Organization and frequent attendee of secret Bilderberg meetings, sees the European Union as a testing ground for the machinery of international governance. In a speech in Italy on November 9th, Lamy stated that the EU model should be used on a global scale.
IMF's Global Taxes Can Only Be Enforced Through Global Government
Steve Watson - Prisonplanet.com
Latest proposals part of ongoing centralization into new economic world order
As you will have no doubt read in the headlines today, the IMF has proposed levying two "global" taxes on the world's banks to make sure those greedy guys don't get us into trouble again. If that sounds dubious, it's because it is. In reality what is being proposed, and has been falling into place for some time, is the framework for an unelected global authority with powers above and beyond those of sovereign governments.
Bankers Prepare To Assault Americans With VAT, Transaction Taxes
Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet.com Obama: Value-added tax still on the table despite White House assurances otherwise, campaign promise not to raise taxes for families earning under $250,000 a year
The global banking elite are preparing to assault Americans with two huge new tax increases as President Obama contradicts the assurances of White House aides and his own campaign trail promise by asserting that a VAT tax is still on the table, as the IMF outlines a new tax on financial transactions that is being hailed as a blow to the banks yet represents another stealth tax on the people.
Ron Paul: No More Blank Checks for the Military-Industrial Complex!
Clinton and Geithner Face Hurdles in China Talks
By MARK LANDLER - NYTimes.com
BEIJING Ñ China and the United States opened three days of high-level meetings here on Monday meant to broaden and deepen the ties between the worldÕs largest developed and developing economies. But the opening session instead laid bare a recurring theme between Beijing and Washington: the United States came with a long wish list for China on both economic and security issues, while China mostly wants to be left alone to pursue policies that are turning it into an economic superpower without putting at risk its prized geopolitical stability.
Geithner, 'Uncle' Wang to Spar Over Yuan in China
By Bloomberg News
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Chinese official who is facing Timothy Geithner in Beijing today jokingly calls himself the Treasury secretary's "uncle" because of a family connection. Geithner may one day call him "Premier."
Vice Premier Wang Qishan leads the delegation meeting with Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which is discussing yuan revaluation, Europe's debt crisis and North Korea's nuclear program. Wang, who oversees China's financial sector, is mentioned for membership in the ruling Politburo Standing Committee and as a successor to Premier Wen Jiabao, two China experts say.
Hu Says China Will Move Gradually on Yuan Policy
By Rebecca Christie and Nicole Gaouette
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- President Hu Jintao said that China will move gradually and independently in making changes to the nation's exchange-rate mechanism as talks with the U.S. opened in Beijing today.
China will continue to "steadily advance" reform "under the principles of independent decision-making, controllability and gradual progress," said Hu, 67, echoing language in a May 10 central bank outlook for policy making.
Memories of Munich, Threats from Tehran
By Alan Caruba -CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
By 1938, Hitler had already made plans for the conquest of Europe or at least the parts he could not get without firing a shot. He had annexed Austria earlier that year. In Munich, Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland was handed over to Germany by England, France, and Italy. The Czechs were not invited to participate. Despite the Versailles Treaty after World War One, under the Nazis Germany had rearmed while the rest of Europe looked on.
Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, returned home to claim that he had bought "peace in our time." Well, he had bought a little time but few had any doubts about Hitler's ambitions. Even Joseph Stalin, the Soviet dictator, had bought a little time by signing a secret treaty dividing Poland with Hitler. A year after the Munich treaty, Germany invaded Poland and World War Two began.
Prechter: Bank Reform Will Shrink Credit and Kill the Economy
by Peter Gorenstein - Tech Ticker
The Senate version of financial regulation is bad for business on Wall Street. "Some analysts estimate it could cut the profits of major financial institutions by roughly 20%," reports the Wall Street Journal. It's also bad for the economy, says Robert Prechter, president of Elliott Wave International. Prechter believes the measures are doing the exact opposite of their intention. "Even though they (the government) want credit to expand, because that's the base of inflation, they're doing everything they can to restrict it," he tells Aaron in this clip.
Gold Advances Most in a Week on Demand for Haven Against Euro
By Pham-Duy Nguyen and Nicholas Larkin
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Gold futures rose the most in a week as the euro's tumble revived demand for the metal as a haven. The euro fell as much as 1.8 percent against the dollar after the Bank of Spain took over a failing regional lender. Last week, gold slid 4.2 percent, the most since December, on sales by some investors to cover losses in other markets. "People are going back to the perceived safety of gold because the euro is getting pummeled," said Matt Zeman, a trader at LaSalle Futures Group in Chicago. "People who were forced to liquidate last week to meet margin calls are coming back in."
Gold at $2,000 is very reachable from here
Commodity Online
As he watches the price of gold march inexorably toward $2,000 (and beyond), and keeps an eye on developments in the Western world, S&A Resource Report Editor Matt Badiali tells Gold Report readers in this exclusive interview that it's time to make space in the safe for gold. That's gold to hold, preferably to pass on to one's heirs, but if need be to pay for one's meat and potatoes. As for investments in these troubled times, he's hot about investors adding shares of the booming senior gold mining stocks to their portfolios because "we're going to see them really soar."
Gold sale profit to hit $5.1 billion: IMF
WASHINGTON (Commodity Online): The IMF said on Sunday that it expects to record a profit of $ 5.1 billion from the sale of gold in the financial year ended April 30, 2010. In a statement, the International Monetary Fund, which sold gold to member countries including India last year, said gold sales is a part of the multilateral lending agency's new income model, mainly aimed at increasing its resources to lend to low-income countries. The net income in the 2010 financial year (ended April 30) would include "gold profits estimated at about SDR 3.5 billion ($ 5.1 billion) from part of the limited sale of the fundÕs gold," according to the IMF.
Defaults on Apartment-Building Loans Set Record for U.S. Banks
By Hui-yong Yu
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Defaults on apartment-building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter, almost twice the year-earlier level, as more borrowers failed to repay debt approved near the market peak, said Real Capital Analytics Inc. in a report. Defaults on so-called multifamily mortgages rose from 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter and from 2.4 percent during the same period in 2009, the New York-based real estate research firm said today. Commercial-mortgage defaults also rose in the first quarter for loans against office, retail, hotel and industrial properties, Real Capital said.
Is Your Money Safe? Big Banks Are the "Riskiest," Prechter Says
by Heesun Wee - Tech Ticker
Longtime bear Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave International sees depression and deflation on America's economic horizon. So what's an investor to do? "My whole case is what to get out of," says Prechter, author of Conquer the Crash. "Find a refuge," he tells Aaron in the accompanying segment. "Probably the safest place for most people's money is in Treasury bills or a fund that specializes only in Treasury bills," says Prechter, citing American Century's Capital Preservation Fund as an example. "That's as close to cash as you can get. Actual cash is not a bad idea either," he says.
Treasuries Gain, Yields Approach One-Year Low, on Safety Bid
By Susanne Walker and Paul Dobson
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries rose, pushing 10-year yields toward the lowest level in a year, as concern that Europe's fiscal crisis will slow economic growth boosted demand for the safety of U.S. fixed-income securities. The difference in yield between 2- and 10-year notes reached a seven-month low before the U.S. auctions $113 billion of 2-, 5- and 7-year notes this week. A Bank of Spain takeover of a failing lender heightened speculation Europe's debt crisis was spreading. Treasuries remained higher even as sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose to the highest in five months.
Fed says it won't hold asset sale any time soon
By Mark Felsenthal - Reuters via MSNBC.com Purchased to boost economy in 2009; will wait for recovery to take hold
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Federal Reserve does not expect to sell any of the billions of dollars worth of assets it bought to boost the economy in 2009 until it has started raising interest rates in a strong recovery, it said in its 2009 annual report released on Monday. "The Federal Reserve currently does not anticipate that it will sell any of its securities holdings in the near term, at least until after policy tightening has gotten under way and the economy is clearly in a sustainable recovery," the Fed said.
U.S., Greece, Spain Are in Debt Risk 'Ring of Fire,' Pimco Says
By Candice Zachariahs
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S., Spain and Greece are among developed nations whose borrowings put them in a "ring of fire" amid sovereign debt concerns, said Pacific Investment Management Co., which runs the world's biggest bond fund. The company is investing in emerging markets that will benefit from high savings rates, the absence of debt bubbles and a greater capacity for government spending, said John Wilson, head of the Australian unit of Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, in an e-mailed statement today. The fund manager is targeting bonds including those in Brazil, Mexico and Russia and retaining holdings of inflation-linked Australian debt, he said.
The Greeks Get It
By Chris Hedges - TruthDig.com
Here's to the Greeks. They know what to do when corporations pillage and loot their country. They know what to do when Goldman Sachs and international bankers collude with their power elite to falsify economic data and then make billions betting that the Greek economy will collapse. They know what to do when they are told their pensions, benefits and jobs have to be cut to pay corporate banks, which screwed them in the first place. Call a general strike. Riot. Shut down the city centers. Toss the bastards out. Do not be afraid of the language of class warfare - the rich versus the poor, the oligarchs versus the citizens, the capitalists versus the proletariat. The Greeks, unlike most of us, get it.
Even $1 Trillion Can't Save the Euro, But Gold Is No Haven, Prechter Says by Peter Gorenstein - TechTicker
It looks like it'll take more than a trillion dollars to bring buyers back to the stock market. European markets continue to fall Friday despite Germany's approval of the massive euro zone bailout. The major European indexes are each falling 2% in intraday trading. The euro, however, is getting a slight boost. It's off its recent four-year lows and is now trading for more than $1.25. Still, sentiment remains negative on the future of the euro. Usually a contrarian, Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave International isn't so inclined when it comes to the euro. Near term, the euro might rebound, but he says it's entirely possible the European Union will break up in the next 10 years.
Oil spill bites shrimp
By Lisa Fickenscher - Crain's New York Business
NYC restaurants and wholesalers are facing price increases on shrimp and other shellfish as a result of the Gulf's oil spill. Costs get passed on to consumers.
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is beginning to affect New York City, where prices for shrimp, oysters and clams are nudging upward. And restaurateurs and wholesalers fear that costs could increase a lot more in the coming months. Shortly after the catastrophic accident in the gulf April 20, fish purveyors began paying more for shrimp - a product already in short supply - and for other shellfish, as well.
A MONTH LATER, FEDS ARE ANGRY WITH BP
Since oil began leaking into the Gulf of Mexico more than a month ago, the U.S. government and oil giant BP have been engaged in a marriage of convenience that has left the public - and public commentators - furious at both. The Obama administration is turning up the heat, but it may be too late for the president to escape the charge that this is his Katrina - that is to say a natural disaster for which the government preparation and response were both obviously and horribly ineffective.
Anger Mounts As Oil Seeps Into Gulf Wetlands
BP Delays New Attempt to Stop Oil Leak
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON - NYTimes.com
VENICE, La. - As Louisiana state and local officials continue to hammer BP and the federal agencies responding to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, repeatedly threatening to "take matters into our own hands" if the response falls short, BP said Monday morning that it was further delaying its next attempt to shut off the leak. The oil company has been planning to attempt a procedure known as a top kill, in which heavy fluid would be pumped into the well. Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production, said in an interview on NBC on Monday morning that the top kill would be attempted Wednesday morning. BP had previously said it hoped to execute the procedure on Tuesday.
Canada's Oil Sands Set to Become Biggest Source of U.S. Oil Imports, Report Says
Written by Darrell Delamaide - OilPrice.com
Canadian oil sands will probably become the No. 1 source of U.S. crude oil imports this year, and could make up more than a third of the nation's oil and refined product imports by 2030, according to a new study.
The Role of Canadian Oil Sands in U.S. Oil Supply, a report from Cambridge, Mass.-based IHS CERA, says that in a fast-growth scenario, oil sands could represent 36% of oil imports by 2030, or 20% in a more moderate growth scenario, compared with 8% in 2009. Production of 1.35 million barrels per day (mbd) in 2009 could rise to between 3.1 mbd and 5.7 mbd by then.
Bad cement jobs plague offshore rigs
By MITCH WEISS and JEFF DONN, AP
The tricky process of sealing an offshore oil well with cement - suspected as a major contributor to the Gulf of Mexico disaster - has failed dozens of times in the past, according to an Associated Press investigation. Yet federal regulators give drillers a free hand in this crucial safety step - another example of lax regulation regarding events leading up to the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Federal regulators don't regulate what type of cement is used, leaving it up to oil and gas companies. The drillers are urged to simply follow guidelines of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group. Far more stringent federal and state standards and controls exist on cement work for roads, bridges and buildings.
BP Plans Plug Attempt as Gulf Oil Leak Costs Rise
By Eduard Gismatullin and Jim Polson
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc will try in two days to plug an oil leak off Louisiana's coast by pumping heavy drilling fluids into the damaged well, as cleanup costs of the monthlong spill accelerate.
BP expects to attempt the "top kill" operation on the morning of May 26, Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for exploration and production, said today in an interview on CNN. It is the second time BP has delayed the measure, and Suttles said he rated its chances of working at "six or seven" on a scale in which 10 was certain success.
The Big Picture: Why Is It So Hard to Stop the Oil Gusher, and Why Was Such Extreme Deepwater Drilling Allowed in the First Place?
Washington's Blog
The government failed to properly ensure that BP used adequate safety measures, BP and their contractors were criminally negligent for the oil spill, and BP has tried to cover up the problem.
But why hasn't BP stopped the leak?
Some people assume that BP hasn't stopped the oil leak because it's people are wholly incompetent. Others have asked whether BP's $75 million liability cap is motivating it to stall by taking half-hearted measures until it's relief well drilling is complete. But there is another possible explanation: the geology - as well the deepwater pressures - at the drilling site makes stopping the leak more difficult than we realize.
Author and Peak Oil Activist Michael Ruppert
Very powerful 21 May interview with Michael Ruppert, author of Confronting Collapse. Ruppert speaks of our dire economic condition, society's complete dependence on oil and the tangible steps required to confront the grave global realities standing at our doorstep - to include:
Massive unemployment
Disapearing State pensions
More bailouts
Massive monetary printing
Gvt a servant of the Fed Reserve
Far reaching implications of our current Gulf Oil crisis
Chinese bubble
The Chicago Boys' Free Market Theology
By MICHAEL HUDSON - CounterPunch.org
Many academics recently received a petition signed by 111 University of Chicago faculty members, explaining that "without any announcement to its own community, [the University] has commissioned Ann Beha Architects, a Boston firm, to remake the Chicago Theological Seminary building into a home for the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics (MFIRE) and has renewed aggressive fund-raising activity for the controversial Institute."
Paul Remarks Have Deep Roots
By JONATHAN WEISMAN - WSJ.com
Republican candidate Rand Paul's controversial remarks on the 1964 Civil Rights Act unsettled GOP leaders this week, but they reflect deeply held iconoclastic beliefs held by some in his party, and many in the tea-party movement, that the U.S. government shook its constitutional moorings more than 70 years ago. Mr. Paul and his supporters rushed to emphasize that his remarks did not reflect racism but a sincerely held, libertarian belief that the federal government, starting in the Roosevelt era, gained powers that set the stage for decades of improper intrusions on private businesses.
Servicers Quicken Countrywide Loans Through Foreclosure Process: BarCap by JON PRIOR - HousingWire.com
Mortgage servicers are pushing troubled Countrywide loans through the foreclosure and liquidation processes at a quicker rate since January, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. Countrywide is responsible for 15-to-20% of outstanding subprime and option adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) in the US, a substantial enough portion to drive sector level performance, according to BarCap Countrywide, since acquired by Bank of America entered into a nationwide settlement agreement in October 2008 to provide $8.4bn in foreclosure relief after a slew of state Attorneys General filed similar lawsuits, including California, Connecticut, Illinois, West Virginia, Virginia and Texas.
FHA Home-Financing Volume Sign of 'Very Sick System'
By Jody Shenn and John Gittelsohn
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration, the U.S.-owned mortgage insurer, may be involved in more home-purchase transactions than borrowing financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHA lending last quarter may have topped the combined volume of government-supported Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a home-lending market that's still a "government-financed market," David Stevens, the agency's head, said today at a conference in New York, citing research by consultant Potomac Partners.
Factory employment down 2.5 percent in San Antonio
SAN ANTONIO BUSINESS JOURNAL
Factories throughout San Antonio have reduced their overall payroll levels over the past year, according to data compiled by Manufacturers' News Inc., the publisher of the 2010 Texas Manufacturers Register. The directory indicates that San Antonio manufacturers employed 51,836 workers as of April 2010. This is down 2.5 percent from April 2009. San Antonio is Texas' fourth-highest manufacturing market.
America's Underclass: The Growing Gap Between the Rich and Poor
by Peter Gorenstein - Tech Ticker
Macro economic data suggest the great recession is over. But the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing, thanks, in large part, to a jobless recovery. Wall Street Cheat SheetÕs Damien Hoffman says the growing underclass now accounts for about 10% of the U.S. population. In this clip, he and his brother Derek, who jointly run the Wall Street Cheat Sheet website, point to several signs America is turning into a two-class society:
Brewer asks Obama for additional border aircraft
PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday wrote President Barack Obama asking for more surveillance helicopters, airplanes and drones be deployed to the Mexican border to help combat drug trafficking and human smuggling.
Sam Donaldson Compares AZ to Tiananmen Square
AZ Cracks Down on Teachers With Heavy Accents
After passing the nation's toughest state immigration enforcement law, Arizona's school officials are now cracking down on teachers with heavy accents. The Arizona Department of Education is sending evaluators to audit teachers and their English speaking skills to make sure districts are complying with state and federal laws. Teachers who are not fluent in English, who make grammatical errors while speaking or who have heavy accents will be temporarily reassigned. "As you expect science teachers to know science, math teachers to know math, you expect a teacher who is teaching the kids English to know English," said Tom Home, state superintendent of public instruction.
Congressman Slams "Outrage" Of Calderon Lecture On Immigration
Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet.com
Following Mexican President Felipe Calderon's attack on the second amendment and his lecturing on American immigration policy, Congressman Tom McClintock described Calderon's behavior as an 'outrage' during a speech on the House floor yesterday, pointing out that America treats immigrants far better than the brutal way they are dealt with in Mexico. During a series of speeches, including one in front of Congress, Calderon attacked Arizona's decision to enforce its immigration policy while also calling upon lawmakers to re-enact the assault weapons ban in a bid to disarm the American people as they are integrated into the North American Union system.
U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret Military Acts in Mideast Region
By MARK MAZZETTI - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON - The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.
The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces. Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate.
Clinton Calls for China Cooperation on North Korea
By Nicole Gaouette and Rebecca Christie
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised China for supporting tougher United Nations sanctions against Iran, and said the same cooperation was necessary against North Korea. "North Korea is also a matter of global concern," Clinton said at the opening of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing. "We must work together again to address this challenge." The U.S. is seeking China's backing to punish North Korea for the deadly attack on a South Korean ship in March, an issue that has eclipsed other items on the agenda for the high-level talks. South Korea today said it will seek UN action against North Korea after a report concluded last week that it was behind the torpedoing of a warship that killed 46 sailors.
Lee: NKorea Must Pay for Torpedo Attack on Ship
New MoD Strategic Report Extends Vision to 2040
By Daniel Taylor - Old Thinker News
In 2006, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense published the DCDC Strategic Trends 2007-2036 report, outlining possible scenarios for technology, society and world politics. Among other issues, the 2006 report accurately envisioned a "revolutionary middle class" that would revolt against economic hardship and burdens of debt, and described a future population implanted with brain chips. A new report from the MoD titled Global Strategic Trends - Out to 2040 was published in February of this year, and extends the Ministry's strategic vision to 2040.
Amidst the 168 pages of the report, these are a few highlights. The newest MoD paper, drawing influence from its predecessor, describes rapid changes in society that threaten to "radicalize" individuals who seek to maintain traditions and beliefs, while a global elite "...sits above the level of individual states and influences the global agenda..." By 2040 the MoD envisions a "global society" plagued with tensions brought about by globalization, and high technology exaggerates differences between haves and have nots.
Peace and Stability in the Balkans
Written by Igor Jovanovic - OilPrice.com
The Istanbul Declaration, signed by Turkey, Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, calls for peace and economic development in a bid for regional stability and EU integration. But there are always spoilers.
The presidents of Turkey and Serbia and a member of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Presidency in Istanbul on 24 April signed a declaration advocating peace in Southeastern Europe and proclaiming swift European integration as a common goal.
"We confirm our readiness to take all the necessary steps to secure peace, stability and prosperity in the region," says the document, which was signed by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, his Serbian counterpart Boris Tadic and Bosnian Presidency member Haris Silajdzic.
Obama Calls for Global Government: "A New International Order"Alpha Omega Report via PrisonPlanet.com
On Saturday, President Obama showed his true NWO colors even though he avoided the popular catch phrase "New WORLD Order" by replacing "world" with "International." Both words are synonymous with each other.
During a speech at West Point, Obama pledged to assist in shaping a new "international order" to help secuire America's safety and emphasized his faith in global institutions. He envisions the US taking a prominent role in shaping a new world with Democratic global values.
Regulators shut small Minnesota bank
By MARCY GORDON (AP)
WASHINGTON - Regulators on Friday shut down a small bank in Minnesota, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 73. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Pinehurst Bank, based in St. Paul, Minn., with $61.2 million in assets and $58.3 million in deposits. Coulee Bank, based in La Crosse, Wis., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of the failed bank.The failure of Pinehurst Bank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund about $6 million. With 73 closures so far this year, the pace of bank failures is more than double that of 2009, already a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, regulators had closed 36 banks. The pace has accelerated as losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development.
Despite bank failures, Ga. sheds bank examiners
By SHANNON McCAFFREY Associated Press -MercuryNews.com
ATLANTA-Georgia leads the nation in bank failures, but the state is leaving key bank examiner positions vacant because of a tight budget and there's no sign the jobs will be filled anytime soon. Among states with the highest number of bank failures only Georgia has reduced oversight, according to an Associated Press review and interviews with state officials. Since Oct. 1, 2000, 40 banks in Georgia have collapsed. "Is this a time to be having fewer bank examiners?" asked Joe Brannen, president of the Georgia Bankers Association. "I think just about everyone you ask would say no." Over the last two years six Georgia bank examiner positions have become vacant and haven't been filled, a review of state budget documents found. During that same period, 32 Georgia banks have gone under, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Bank of Spain seizes control of savings bank CajaSur
By MarketWatch
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) - The Bank of Spain on Saturday took control of and appointed an administrator for CajaSur, a savings bank that was hurt by bad property loans, media reports say. Based in the southern city of Cordoba, CajaSur has $16.36 billion of loans outstanding and holds $23.9 billion, or 0.6%, of the assets within Spain's financial system, the reports say. CajaSur on Friday determined not to go ahead with a plan reached in August to merge with a bigger lender, Unicaja of Malaga. The failure of that plan prompted the authorities to take over CajaSur, reports say.
Press TV-On the edge with Max Keiser-05-21-2010 (part1)
Press TV-On the edge with Max Keiser-05-21-2010 (part2)
Bonds ring economic alarm bells
By Chris Isidore, senior writer
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Economists generally aren't worried about the U.S. or global economy falling into another recession. Looking at the bond market, many investors don't agree. The yields on long-term U.S. Treasurys, such as the benchmark 10-year bond, have tumbled sharply over the last six weeks, hitting as low as 3.1% in early trading Friday before they rebounded to 3.2% late in the day. Some experts say this is a sign a lot of major investors are betting on tough times ahead.
U.S. Corporate Bond Sales Slide on Contagion Concern
By Tim Catts
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Sales of U.S. corporate bonds fell 67 percent this week and issuance of high-yield company debt plunged to the lowest this year amid rising investor concern that a $1 trillion rescue package won't help indebted European nations avoid default. Franklin Resources Inc., the manager of the Templeton mutual funds, sold $900 million of notes as it tapped the debt market for the first time in seven years and J.C. Penney Co., the third-largest U.S. department-store chain, issued $400 million of debt to lead $4.69 billion in corporate bond offerings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Goldman Sachs Settlement May Hinge on How SEC Justifies Penalty
By Jesse Westbrook and David Scheer
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Analysts predict Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will pay $1 billion or more to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud suit that triggered a 26 percent drop in the firm's stock. Extracting such a record-setting penalty may be easier said than done. When it comes to presenting a settlement for court approval, the SEC will have to "have a good explanation and justification for the number," said Donald Langevoort, a former SEC attorney who teaches securities law at Georgetown University in Washington.
Global stock markets correct and head for bear territory
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
Stocks reel from Shanghai to Madrid to Sao Paulo to New York
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Stock markets around the world are falling fast from recent peaks - into what are considered corrections or even bear markets - as investors tone down expectations for global growth. The same factors that helped markets rebound a year ago, including record low interest rates and huge government spending programs, are now working against stock investors. Emerging markets countries like Brazil and China are raising rates or reining in credit with other tools. At the same time, investors fear austerity programs forced by large European budget deficits will cool the region's recovery, and by extension, the world's.
Wall Street Corruption: Are People Losing Faith in the Financial System
Written by Michael Snyder - OilPrice.com
In order for a financial system to be able to function properly, it is absolutely essential that the general population has faith in it. After all, who is going to want to invest in the stock market or entrust their money to big financial institutions if there is not at least the perception of honesty and fairness in the financial marketplace?
For decades, the American people did have faith in Wall Street. But now that faith is being shattered by a string of recent revelations. It seems as though the rampant corruption on Wall Street is seeping up almost everywhere now. In fact, some of the things that have come out recently have been absolutely jaw-dropping.
U.S. Says Geithner Will Discuss Europe, Economy in China Talks
By Rebecca Christie
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will tell his Chinese counterparts that Europe's battle with a Greece-triggered debt crisis should have only a small effect on the broader global recovery, a U.S. official told reporters in Beijing. Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are in China for the two-day Strategic and Economic Dialogue, a set of annual high-level talks. Geithner will then depart for London, Berlin and Frankfurt to meet with European officials and reinforce his call for coordinated efforts to fight off the crisis and rein in government spending.
Geithner Claims U.S. Economy Can Withstand Europe's Woes. Really?
By DOUGLAS MCINTYRE - DailyFinance.com
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner put on a brave face trying to convince the global capital markets that Europe's economic situation will have little impact on America's or the world's recovery from deep recession. His case was thin, and he offered almost no rational support. Geithner told the Xinhua news agency of China: "You see some of the challenges in Europe now. But I think we're in a much stronger position to manage those challenges." He also said renewed GDP gains in the U.S. and an acceleration of growth in China were essential to the ongoing improvement of the global economic environment.
Dollar to Become 'Growth Currency' During Next Decade, UBS Says
By Anchalee Worrachate
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar will probably become a "growth currency" during the next 10 years, shedding its haven status of the past decade, as the U.S. economy outperforms Europe and Japan, said UBS AG, the world's second-largest foreign-exchange trader.
The dollar will return to a pattern seen in the early 1980s and late 1990s, when it appreciated as stocks rose, Mansoor Mohi-uddin, global head of foreign-exchange strategy at UBS in Singapore, wrote today in a research report titled "FX Mega- Trends 2010-2020: Dollar Regime Change." Central banks may intervene more frequently in currency markets as price swings, or volatility, intensify, he said in separate reports.
Geithner and 'Uncle' Wang to Spar Over Yuan at Beijing Dialogue
By Bloomberg News
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Chinese official who will face Timothy Geithner in Beijing today jokingly calls himself the Treasury secretary's "uncle" because of a family connection. Geithner may one day call him "Premier." Vice Premier Wang Qishan leads the delegation meeting with Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which will discuss yuan revaluation, Europe's debt crisis and North Korea's nuclear program. Wang, who oversees China's financial sector, is mentioned for membership in China's ruling Politburo Standing Committee and as a successor to Premier Wen Jiabao, two China experts say.
U.S., China discussions this week may be testy
By David J. Lynch, USA TODAY
U.S. officials beginning two days of talks in Beijing today may find their Chinese hosts even less amenable to outside pressure than usual. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are leading a nearly 200-person delegation in talks that will range widely over everything from North Korea to the value of China's currency. Before leaving Washington, U.S. officials said last week they hoped to make progress on a number of fronts, including China's promotion of homegrown technologies at the expense of foreign alternatives.
Geithner Says U.S. Seeks 'More Open' China, Balanced Growth
By Rebecca Christie
May 24 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. and China have a shared goal of a more balanced world economy and stronger ties between the world's largest and third-largest economies. "As we reform the U.S. economy to promote savings and investment, China is reforming its growth model to promote domestic demand and consumption," Geithner said in his opening statement at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue today in Beijing. "Our common interests lie in building a more stable global financial system less prone to crisis."
Gold edges higher for first time in a week
TheAge.com.au
Gold edged higher in Asian trade today in a technical rebound after falling for five straight sessions, but gains were limited as a recovery in risk appetite undermined the precious metal's allure as a safe haven. Spot gold was at $US1179.15 an ounce, up 0.3 per cent from $US1175.15 late in New York on Friday when it fell to a two-week low of $US1166.50. Spot gold hit a record-high $US1248.95 an ounce on May 14. Last week, gold fell 4.6 per cent in its biggest weekly loss since February 2009. Platinum and palladium ran their biggest weekly percentage losses since late 2008, hit hard by fund liquidation on fears the euro zone's debt crisis will crimp global growth.
Danger in Numbers: The Decline of Paper Currency
By The Mogambo Guru - The DailyReckoning.com
05/21/10 Tampa, Florida - I waited until I had sobered up to re-read Agora Financial's 5-Minute Forecast, where it reported that "Bill Clinton shocked us the other day when he came out and suggested the financial crisis would never have happened if the dollar was still tethered to gold." Notice that they used the word "shocked", because that was when I realized that I was too blotto to be likewise "shocked" at such an admission, but was obviously too plastered to feel shock, much less have any sensation left in my lips or even feel myself drooling into my lap.
Will European Central Banks Begin Selling Gold Again?
By: Julian D. W. Phillips - GoldSeek.com
Since the inception of the fourth Central Bank Gold Agreement last year on September 27th, sales by European central banks have been nearly non-existent. But that was before the Û began to implode and fractures appeared in the Eurozone itself. Now governments have to fiercely cut back expenditures. They must do this to the extent that the reaction is certain to be social unrest. As it is, Greece is not only suffering already but its key revenue driver, tourism is suffering badly [25% down already this year] so cutting tax revenues and making government book-balancing even more difficult. To many people out there, the gold holdings of such banks should be sold to shore up such shortfalls. Would European central banks agree?
Collapse of banking system to drive up gold price
By Kenneth J. Gerbino - CommodityOnline.com
There is so much hysteria in the hard money camp on Greece and the European Union that one had better start looking at the facts otherwise it could cost you a lot of money.
Before discussing the Euro, Greece and Gold, let me go over some important concepts:
The economic problems faced by all countries are rooted in paper money systems. In fact, paper money systems are one of the root causes of socialism and socialist thought. Paper money also gives capitalism a bad name. Right now the temporary solutions from bail-outs and printing money will change the short and medium term outlook for many investments. These changes must be analyzed properly. The long term will always get worse from these bail out policies, but making money in the markets means having the good sense not to get carried away by hysteria from the press and gold coin shops (although everyone should buy some gold and silver coins).
Who are real gold owners in the world?
CommodityOnline.com
ST. LOUIS (MineFund.com) -- Half the world's gold in the ground is concentrated in just five countries. Three quarters of all gold reserves are found in just ten nations. Few surprises there; the rankings have been quite static for the past three decades. However, South Africa's dominance has declined rapidly over the last decade and we anticipate it falling from first place by 2011 as more of its resource base falls victim to unkind economics. That will mark the end of an era as the country has dominated the world gold scene for a century and a quarter.
U.S. Mint Bullion Eagle Coins Surge, Despite Plunging Gold and Silver Prices CoinNews.com
Precious metals had a disastrous week, yet U.S. Mint authorized buyers ordered more bullion American Eagle coins during the third week of May than in each of the prior weeks when metals were rallying. New York gold prices finished lower for the fourth consecutive session on Friday, with June futures tumbling to $1,176.10 an ounce, plummeting 4.2 percent this week.
Europe's dilemma: Print money or cut debt?
By Bill Fleckenstein - MSN Money The euro wasn't built for this continuing battle to establish financial rules, pitting more-prudent countries against those requiring bailouts.
Given all the recent chaos in financial markets around the globe, I thought I would step back and try to shed light on the commotion, taking a view from 10,000 feet in an attempt to get to the heart of the issues. What the world is witnessing is the continuing epic battle between the printing press and excessive debt held by governments at the federal, state and local levels, as well as too much leverage on the part of the world's financial institutions.
Why the Euro Crisis Could Go On for Five Years
Written by Mad Hedge Fund Trader - OilPrice.com
You often hear the expression that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. The dromedary that the European Central Bank has is spitting mean and ill tempered. Europe does not have one guy like Ben Bernanke who can take bold, imaginative action in an emergency and has the powers to enforce them. Even the ECB's mission is diluted when compared to Federal Reserve.
Spanish workers take to the streets
The Sidney Morning Herald
Thousands of public sector workers have taken to the streets of Spain to protest a tough government austerity plan aimed at reining in the public deficit and easing fears of a Greek-style debt crisis. Unions called the demonstrations to coincide with a cabinet meeting on Thursday evening to approve the belt-tightening measures, which include pay cuts.
City fears of 'Great Depression Mark II'
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor - Telegraph.co.uk Leading City experts have started raising the prospect of "Great Depression II" amid worries that the European economic crisis could trigger a deeper bout of chaos.
Markets on both sides of the Atlantic dipped to fresh lows as fears surrounding the fate of the euro project transmuted into worries about the wider global economic system. Bill Gross of bond fund Pimco said that hedge funds were starting to liquidate their positions in a bid to preserve their capital - a worrying "mini relapse" towards 2008 territory.
European Single Currency Reaches a Turning Point
by Breffni O'Rourke - OilPrice.com
There have always been doubts about whether the euro could succeed. It presently binds together 16 European Union members, from top world economies like Germany, to stumbling, mismanaged economies like Greece. The current international whirlwind over Greece's indebtedness has revealed the basic flaw in the single currency, namely how to coherently bridge with one monetary value the immense gap between the strongest and weakest economies of the eurozone.
Transformation of the E.U. Has Not Been Painless
By JUDY DEMPSEY - NYTimes.com
BERLIN - Since the collapse of the Communist system two decades ago throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the region has undergone a remarkable economic and political transformation. But change has not come easily. Pushed to introduce market reforms, dismantle inefficient state-owned industries and modernize long-neglected infrastructure, the region's governments have introduced, in varying measure, some very painful changes.
Ron Paul: Stop Bailing Out Foreign Governments!
Sweden Emerges as 'Safe Harbor' From Europe Debt Woes
By Niklas Magnusson and Adam Ewing
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- When the Baltic countries' economies collapsed, investors fled Sweden because of its banks' investments there. Today, they're flocking to the Nordic country as a refuge from debt-ridden southern Europe. Banks in Sweden, including Nordea Bank AB and SEB AB, have less at risk in Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain than most western European countries, Danske Bank A/S figures show. That lending amounted to 2.6 percent of Sweden's gross domestic product at the end of 2009, compared with 43 percent for Ireland and 35 percent for France, according to Danske.
French farmers bring rural reality to Champs Elysées
Lizzy Davies - guardian.co.uk, Paris avenue transformed overnight to highlight crisis in agricultural sector As the busiest, most traffic-friendly road in the French capital, there is usually very little that is field-like about the Champs Elysées, or Elysian Fields. Today, however, the cars that usually speed through the famous avenue were brought to a halt and the cobblestones paved over with grass as la France profonde took over the most urban landscape in the country. By bringing in 8,000 plots of earth and 150,000 plants to the city and installing them, amid sheep and cattle, along three-quarters of a mile of the thoroughfare, struggling farmers are attempting to highlight an aspect of French life which they believe is too often overlooked by Paris.
Europe's deflation torture is a gift to the Far Left
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk If Europe's ultra-Left has so far reaped little dividend from the great "Crisis of Capitalism", this will surely change as the eurozone's 1930s policies of wage deflation sap the credibility of the governing centre and the EU itself.
The tragedy of the interwar years in Germany was that the Social Democrats - then the world's foremost socialist party - became fatally tainted by acquiescing in Bruning's deflation torture from 1930 to 1932. They did so, of course, because they dared not confront the orthodoxies of the Gold Standard. By then the fixed-exchange mechanism had gone horribly wrong - in much the same way that EMU has gone horribly wrong - because the surplus countries were not recycling demand to maintain equilibrium. It had become a job-destruction machine. The result in Germany was the Reichstag election of July 1932 when the Communists and Nazis won over the half the seats.
Gulf Spill Puts US Energy Bill on Slippery Slope
by Llewellyn King - OilPrice.com
With energy, Senate Democrats find themselves between a rock and two hard places. Nonetheless, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have introduced their climate and energy bill.
Its timing is awful. Its fate is uncertain. Yet its sponsors felt it had to be done now.
While the Gulf of Mexico is being damaged by a runaway well, spewing millions of gallons of oil-like bile from hell, any energy bill has the chance that it will be amended to become an anti-energy bill and will fail when hoped-for Republican support evaporates.
A month after Gulf oil spill, why is BP still in charge?
USAToday.com
WASHINGTON (AP) - Days after the Gulf Coast oil spill, the Obama administration pledged to keep its "boot on the throat" of BP to make sure the company did all it could to cap the gushing leak and clean up the spill. But a month after the April 20 explosion, anger is growing about why BP PLC is still in charge of the response. "I'm tired of being nice. I'm tired of working as a team," said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana.
Oil spill: How much is a pelican worth?
By Steve Hargreaves, senior write
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Just how much is a dead pelican worth? BP is about to find out. As the owner of the still-leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the oil giant will pay billions of dollars in damages, much of which will compensate for the birds, fish, mammals and plants that are killed by the accident. Exxon paid nearly a billion dollars in damages into a wildlife conservation fund following the 1989 Valdez disaster, roughly a quarter of the company's entire tab for the spill. "What BP might pay could be much higher," said Linwood Pendleton, director of the Ocean and Coastal Policy program at Duke University's Nicholas Institute.
BP: Effectiveness of pipe effort to slow leak has decreased
COVINGTON, La. (AP) - The dire impact of the massive Gulf spill was apparent Sunday on oil-soaked islands where pelicans nest as several of the birds splashed in the water and preened themselves, apparently trying to clean crude from their feet and wings.
Pelican eggs were glazed with rust-colored gunk in the bird colony, with thick globs floating on top of the water. Nests sat precariously close the mess in mangrove trees. As oil crept farther into the delicate wetlands in Barataria Bay off Louisiana, BP officials said Sunday that one of their efforts to slow the leak wasn't working as effectively as before.
Gulf oil spill: Interior Secretary Ken Salazar 'angry, frustrated' at BP efforts
LATimes.com
"I am angry and I am frustrated that BP has been unable to stop this well from leaking," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Sunday after a visit to the Houston command center where scientists for the oil company and the government have been working to plug the blown-out well that has produced a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Deadline after deadline has been missed," he added. Salazar clarified later that BP has been giving the government schedules, but failing to meet those goals. The Interior secretary noted that he had promised "to keep our boot on the neck" of BP, and would continue to do so.
Using Hay to Solve Gulf Oil Spill
BP Gets Pass From Obama Administration To Potentially Pollute Lake Michigan Written by Wayne Madsen - OilPrice.com
The Obama administration, already charged with providing political cover for BP in the Gulf of Mexico mega-oil disaster, is also charged with allowing BP to renege on agreements between the firm, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the state of Indiana to prevent pollution of Lake Michigan from the firm's Whiting, Indiana refinery near Hammond.
How the Hedge Funds Are Calling the Tune on Oil
Written by Mad Hedge Fund Trader - OilPrice.com
Watching the gut churning $22 plunge in crude (USO) has been fascinating, and gives broader insights into the state of global capital markets as a whole. Just as the Gulf disaster threatens to cap one third of America's least politically risky oil supply, prices have been heading downtown on the Lexington Avenue Express. The environmental disaster equals another Hurricane Katrina in terms of impact on the local economy. The spill could reach Scotland, where the Gulf Stream ends, before it is finally contained.
Obama Mandates Rules to Raise Fuel Standards
By PETER BAKER - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON - President Obama ordered the government on Friday to develop tougher fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks, advancing the fight against climate change without waiting for Congress. Mr. Obama announced the creation of a national policy that will result in less greenhouse gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks for the first time, and will further reduce exhaust from cars and light-duty trucks beyond the requirements he had already put in place.
Senate Passes Reforms Designed to Prevent Worst U.S. Collapse
By Alison Vekshin and Phil Mattingly
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate, bringing Congress to the brink of passing the most comprehensive regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, approved a bill that imposes restrictions on proprietary trading by banks and creates a consumer protection agency designed to prevent lending abuses that triggered the housing collapse and the worst unemployment in almost three decades.
Ray Stevens - Come to the USA
Padded Pensions Add to New York Fiscal Woes
By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH and AMY SCHOENFELD - NYTimes.com
In Yonkers, more than 100 retired police officers and firefighters are collecting pensions greater than their pay when they were working. One of the youngest, Hugo Tassone, retired at 44 with a base pay of about $74,000 a year. His pension is now $101,333 a year. It's what the system promised, said Mr. Tassone, now 47, adding that he did nothing wrong by adding lots of overtime to his base pay shortly before retiring. "I don't understand how the working guy that held up their end of the bargain became the problem," he said.
Last hurrah for home sales?
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch With tax credit going away, can market stand on its own?
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Home sales have jumped in the past few months, with buyers rushing to take advantage of the soon-to-expire federal tax subsidy. But what will happen when the subsidy disappears and the market must stand on its own?In April, sales of existing home probably rose about 5% and sales of new homes likely gained about 3%, according to the median forecast of top economists surveyed by MarketWatch. The existing-home sales will be reported on Monday, while new-home sales will come out on Wednesday.
Phoenix Couple Says Wells Fargo is the Loan Modification Scammer
Yet another Phoenix homeowner is about to lose their home. They say they worked directly with their bank and were scammedÉ by the bankÉ Wells Fargo Bank. This family says they went to a Wells Fargo Loan Modification Workshop where they were told the Trial Modification Lie: Just make three trial payments on time and as agreed and we'll modify your loan. Well, they did. But the bank didn't. Okay, so what, right? Certainly not the first time this has happened. Not even close.
Clothes prices to rise as cotton jumps
By Garry White - Telegraph.co.uk
T-shirt weather has finally arrived, but the cost of buying a new one may be about to soar. Cotton prices all over the world have jumped as a shortage bites. In Asia, the situation is so acute that Pakistan has slapped a 15pc duty on cotton exports and India has banned exports altogether to keep prices under control. India did, however ease restrictions last Friday.
The trend for European clothing groups to ditch local suppliers in favour of low-cost Asian imports has been around for some time. If price rises are sustained, as many expect they will, these increases will eventually have to be passed on to customers. This is likely to be exacerbated by the weakness of sterling, so retailers can either choose to have their margins squeezed or pass the costs on.
Why Google's Multimedia War With Apple Benefits Consumers
By SAM GUSTIN - DailyFinance.com
Google's war with Apple keeps intensifying by the day. During Google's I/O developer conference last week, the Web search titan opened up several new fronts in the conflict, announcing new products or upgrades in mobile, TV and music. And Friday's decision by the Federal Trade Commission approving Google's $750 million acquisition of AdMob means Google can now open up with both barrels on Apple in the nascent battle for mobile ad supremacy. As Newsweek's Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, observed: "Instead of pretending to still be an Apple ally, Google has basically thrown down the gauntlet and admitted that it's engaged in total war with Apple." Lyons, a longtime Apple watcher, said he's ditching his iPhone in favor of a device that runs on Android, Google's fast-growing mobile operating system.
Strange bedfellows for Mexico's Calderon
LATimes.com
You know things are topsy-turvy when Mexico's right-wing president is lauded by leftists here and in the U.S. - and attacked by conservative Republicans with whom he ought to be ideological brethren.
But for President Felipe Calderon, two issues - gun control and immigration, at least as they apply in the neighbor to the north - escape ideological pigeonholing. And so he went before a joint session of the U.S. Congress, urged immigration reform and demanded a ban on the U.S. assault weapons that have been flooding his country, arming brutal drug cartels.
Iran, Sun Tzu and the dominatrix
By Pepe Escobar - Asia Times Let's face it: Hillary Clinton is one hell of a dominatrix.
At first the United States Secretary of State said the Brazil-Turkey mediation to get Iran to accept a nuclear fuel swap was destined to fail. Then the US State Department said it was the "last chance" for an agreement without sanctions. And finally, less than 24 hours after a successful agreement in Tehran, Hillary whips the UN Security Council into submission and triumphantly proclaims to the world a draft resolution for a fourth UN round of sanctions against Iran has been reached.
US scrambles for answers
By Eli Clifton - Asia Times
WASHINGTON - Thursday's formal accusation by South Korea that a North Korean torpedo sunk the warship Cheonan, killing 46 South Korean sailors, has set off a flurry of activity in Washington as politicians and foreign policy experts try to identify an appropriate United States response while balancing the need to maintain a stable relationship with China - the North's biggest sponsor. At the heart of the controversy is not whether North Korea was indeed responsible for the attack - most reports from Seoul and Washington had indicated that it was the only real suspect in the incident - but how South Korea and the US should respond.
S. Korea takes actions against N. Korea
By the CNN Wire Staff
Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced Monday that his country is suspending trade with North Korea and closing its waters to the North's ships in the wake of a report from Seoul that concluded North Korea sank a South Korean warship in March. The announcement came as the U.N. Command investigates whether the sinking violated the armistice between the two nations.
U.S. Presses China to Punish North Korea for Ship
By MARK LANDLER - NYTimes.com
BEIJING - The United States began pressing China on Sunday to back punitive measures against North Korea for its alleged sinking of a South Korean warship, but American officials acknowledged that the Chinese were reluctant to discipline their neighbor. Kicking off three days of high-level economic and security meetings here, the United States also sought to secure Chinese support for United Nations sanctions against Iran that would designate individuals and companies with ties to its nuclear and missile programs.
Government Secrecy vs. Free Press
Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons
Chris McGreal - Guardian.co.uk Exclusive: Secret apartheid-era papers give first official evidence of Israeli nuclear weapons
Secret South African documents reveal that Israel offered to sell nuclear warheads to the apartheid regime, providing the first official documentary evidence of the state's possession of nuclear weapons. The "top secret" minutes of meetings between senior officials from the two countries in 1975 show that South Africa's defence minister, PW Botha, asked for the warheads and Shimon Peres, then Israel's defence minister and now its president, responded by offering them "in three sizes". The two men also signed a broad-ranging agreement governing military ties between the two countries that included a clause declaring that "the very existence of this agreement" was to remain secret.
The memos and minutes that confirm Israel's nuclear stockpile
Chris McGreal - Guardian.co.uk Documents reveal how then-defence minister Shimon Perez tried to sell South Africa's apartheid government the bomb
This cover page of an ISSA (ISrael-South Africa agreement) meeting in Pretoria between Israeli and South African officials on 30 June 1975 establishes the presence of General RF Armstrong, who wrote the nuclear memo
Minutes of third ISSA meeting, 30/6/1975
Minutes from further ISSA meeting
Israel-South Africa agreement
Declassified memo from General RF Armstrong
Letter from Shimon Peres, 11/11/1974
Israel's view on Iran: Diplomacy not the answer for wary nuclear neighbour Rory McCarthy - guardian.co.uk Israel has been pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran and would welcome a hardening of US policy
Israel's government has long tried to raise international concern about Iran's nuclear ambitions and is likely to welcome the new US deployments in the Gulf if it signals a hardening of policy. Israel, itself a major but undeclared nuclear power, has been pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran and is wary of those who argue in favour of dialogue and negotiations.
US mum over China's links to Iran
By Peter J Brown - AsiaTimes
China and the United States have been down a rocky road together over the past two decades with respect to China's missile technology transfers to Iran. Today, China's ongoing contributions to the buildup of Iran's missile forces warrant closer scrutiny.
The opening by Iran of a new missile production plant in March will enable Iran to further quickly expand its supply of Nasr anti-ship missiles. Although no Chinese officials attended the opening ceremony, there are Chinese footprints all around this facility.
Judge Andrew Napolitano - 1/3 -
Natural Rights and The Patriot Act
Judge Andrew Napolitano - 2/3 -
Natural Rights and The Patriot Act
Judge Andrew Napolitano - 3/3 -
Natural Rights and The Patriot Act
Breakup Of U.S. Is Inevitable
By Chuck Baldwin - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
People all over America are discussing freedom's future. In short, they are worried. In fact, many are actually talking about State secession. In coffee shops and cafes, and around dining room tables, millions of people are speaking favorably of states breaking away from the union. Not since the turn of the twentieth century have this many people thought (and spoken) this favorably about the prospect of a State (or group of states) exiting the union. In my mind, this is a good thing.
Even many of those who oppose the prospect of secession understand the increasing tyrannical nature of the current central government in Washington, D.C., and that something must be done about it.
Dictator Of Failed State Lectures Americans About Freedom
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones - Prison Planet.com
Americans were once again forced to endure the dictator of a failed state which represses and subjugates its citizens as a matter of course lecturing the U.S. about how 'his people' were being discriminated against yesterday when unelected Mexican President Felipe Calderón bashed the Arizona illegal immigration law.
Calderon commented, "Such laws as the Arizona law...is forcing our people to face discrimination," during a visit to the White House.
Calderon later attacked the second amendment in a speech to the U.S. Congress, blaming Mexico's spiraling drug violence on guns being smuggled from inside America, while failing to mention the fact that lax border security, something he vehemently supports - but only on American borders - is the primary cause of this problem.
Mexican President Opposes Arizona's SB 1070 on Visit to Capitol Hill -- Others Question His Logic
By Julissa Treviño - CampusProgress.org
As the Justice Department continues its examination of Arizona's newest immigration law, Mexican President Felipe Calderón echoed his country's sentiment on the immigration issue in the U.S. today during a news conference with President Obama.
Calder—n told Obama yesterday, according to the Washington Post, that his country will "retain our firm rejection to criminalize migration" and "oppose firmly" the application of the Arizona law to law-abiding citizens in the United States.
An El Paso news station, KTSM, reported on Calderón's comments on Arizona's immigration law earlier this month, examining Mexico's own harsh immigration policies. No one can doubt that Mexico has, in many ways, stricter policies on both legal and illegal immigrants that the U.S., but Calderón's comments resonate with the opinions of the people of his country.
AZ SB 1070 may be Obama's tipping point on immigration reform
LatinaLista.net -- Maybe it was the fact that the Arizona senate passed SB 1070 and are only waiting for Arizona Governor Brewer to sign it into law -- or do nothing and have it pass into law anyway.
Or maybe it was the fact that Sen. McCain abandoned his long-held position on immigration and decided, for political reasons, to endorse SB 1070. Or it could have been the public scolding he got in the Huffington Post piece penned by Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez.
Two of the nine protesters who chained themselves to the Capitol's doors in protest of SB 1070.
Whatever the source, President Obama seems to have gotten the message that as long as Congress and his administration put immigration reform on the backburner, the chasm of racial tension in this country is only going to get deeper -- and potentially deadly violent.
Pasadena City Council votes to denounce Arizona SB 1070
By Uri Lerner - hispanicla.com
The Pasadena City Council voted 5-2 on Monday (5/17/2010) night to officially denounce the controversial Arizona immigration law. The council showed its support of a letter submitted by Mayor Gordon of Phoenix, AZ calling for denunciation of SB 1070.
A second resolution, calling for the federal government and Congress to act on the issue of immigration was passed unanimously by all members in attendance.
The 5 council members supporting the statement were led by Councilman Victor Gordo, who introduced the motion. Before public comments, Gordo argued that if immigration was taken out of the equation, SB 1070 simply requires Latino American citizens and legal residents to carry documentation of residency or risk arrest if they have a run-in with Police and this is unacceptable.
Ask a Mexican on Following Mexico's Example
By Gustavo Arellano - PhoenixNewTimes.com
Over the past couple of weeks, the Know-Nothing nation has invaded my inbox with the question of why can't the United States follow the stringent immigration laws of Mexico. They're merely parroting a recent column by the reprehensible Michelle Malkin, who thought that bringing up the issue was an original angle to rankle Reconquistas. ÁQue pendeja! The Mexican covered this question back in 2006, so let's hop into the Hot Comal Time Machine and reprint the pregunta y mi answer:
Why shouldn't the United States adopt the same type of anti-illegal immigration laws that Mexico keeps on its books? Illegal aliens in Mexico are felons - so why do Mexicans complain if the U.S. wants to do that as well? Mexico deported over 200,000 Central Americans last year - so why do illegal aliens from Mexico complain if the U.S. deports a few? Foreign nationals in Mexico can't stage massive marches in the streets of Mexico waving the flags of their home countries - in fact, Mexican law prohibits such tactics under penalty of jail time. So how does "The Mexican" respond? Very Hypocritical
White House, Democrats Applaud Mexican President Slamming Arizona Law
FOXNews.com Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday strongly denounced Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants and urged members of Congress to pass "comprehensive immigration reform."
WASHINGTON -- As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer, including Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law. And that isn't sitting well with officials from states along the border. "It was extremely disappointing to have a foreign head of state on the floor of the U.S. Congress exhibiting willful ignorance" over the new law, Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams told Fox News.
"Remember the Alamo" was a battle cry in which the bitterness of the Texans over the massacres by Mexican forces at the Alamo in San Antonio (6 March 1836) and at Goliad (27 March 1836) found expression. Use of the phrase has been attributed both to Gen. Sam Houston (who supposedly used the words in a stirring address to his men on 19 April 1836, two days before the Battle of San Jacinto) and to Col. Sidney Sherman, who fought in the battle.
On SB 1070, Arizona Governor Says She Will Do The 'Right Thing So That Everyone Is Treated Fairly'
Since the Arizona legislature passed the "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act," a bill which will probably end up establishing the harshest set of state immigration laws in the country, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's phone has been reportedly ringing off the hook with residents encouraging her to either sign or veto Senate Bill 1070. Though Brewer has refused to comment on which action she plans on taking, she did assure attendees of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Black and White Ball this Saturday that she will do what is fair.
Jan Brewer Promises To Do "the Right Thing" at Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Event, Chamber's CEO Asks Her To Veto SB 1070
By Stephen Lemons, PhoenixNewTimes.com
Speaking to attendees of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Black and White Ball Saturday night at the downtown Phoenix Sheraton, Governor Jan Brewer refused to say whether or not she would sign state Senator Russell Pearce's police state/anti-immigrant bill SB 1070. But she assured the crowd that she understood its opposition to the measure.
"In regards to Senate Bill 1070," she stated, "I will tell you that I never make comment, like most governors throughout our country, before a bill reaches my desk. But I hear you, and I will assure you that I will do what I believe is the right thing so that everyone is treated fairly."
Why Arizona Should "Racially Profile"
By Selwyn Duke - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
When the Times Square bombing suspect was first reported to be a "white male," I shook my head. I knew that, despite Mayor Bloomberg's asinine musings about how the perpetrator was probably "homegrown" and perhaps someone upset about the healthcare bill, this was nonsense. "It's about as likely as a story about Bill Clinton becoming a monk," I thought.
Of course, this was no great insight. Given that 99 percent of the terrorists bedeviling us today are non-white Muslims, it was just common sense - otherwise known as profiling.
The critics of Arizona's new immigration law complain that it will lead to "racial profiling." In response, the law's defenders point out that the legislation specifically forbids the practice. Both groups are wrong.
They accept two false suppositions. The first is that the practice in question is immoral. The second is that "racial profiling" actually exists.
Agenda 21 Alert: Immigration Theater
Cassandra Anderson - Infowars.com
The purpose of the federal government's neglect of protecting the border with Mexico is so that illegal immigrants can pass through it, virtually at will, in order to create a nearly open border. This accomplishes the globalists' objectives of weakening sovereignty and nationalism, developing economic strife, and fomenting discord between taxpaying citizens and illegal immigrants, which are necessary elements to implement the North American Union. Further, it sets the stage for amnesty and the federal government's immigration bill that would establish a national ID card for all workers, the inroad to REAL ID.
Next on the Contagion List - UMS?
by Bruce Krasting - ZeroHedge.com
I am looking at the tape(s) and it appears to me like everything is cracking up. The most troubling is the widening of sovereign spreads. That beat goes on. With that in mind I looked at who might be next on the list of countries that the wolves (AKA-"Global Bond Investors") close in on. To make a big move on the global financial stability scale I think it would have to be a country whose GDP is north of $1 trillion. Here's the list. Of the 15 names a few (Spain and Italy) are already being pursued by wolves. Russia is not likely to be a problem in this round. Nor is Brazil or Korea. That leaves Mexico.
Political Revolution
By John LeBoutillier - CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
It began last November: Virginia and New Jersey-two states that had gone for Obama in 2008-and then spread to the most liberal of all states, Massachusetts, with the Tea Party break-out victory of Scott Brown in January.
Ten days ago it went to Utah and took out a senior U.S. GOP Senator. In Florida it dislodged a sitting GOP Governor.
Yesterday it spread to Pennsylvania and Kentucky. "It" is the largest manifestation of Americans' unhappiness with the Political Establishment - perhaps ever in American history.
Similarities Between Now And The Great Depression Getting Uncomfortable by Megan McArdle - BusinessInsider.com And if we double dip, we're probably going to trip dip.
I loathe those neat little summary headlines that purport to tell you why things sold off--"Dow Drops 100 points on unemployment worries" and so forth--as if the journalist surveyed all the millions of people who bought and sold stocks and found out why they did what they did. So any attempt to fully explain this morning's ugly market behavior in terms of one factor or another is bound to be deeply flawed.
Collapsing Public Confidence and Gold
By: Moses Kim - GoldSeek.com
As I've mentioned repeatedly in the past, gold is perhaps the most misunderstood asset in the world. Try to explain to people the true nature of gold and expect to be greeted with petulant disdain. It took more than a little arm twisting for me to convince people that gold is a currency and not a commodity. With a bona fide meltdown hitting Europe, people are starting to wake up and smell the roses. Gold will eventually trade at obscene levels because of a collapse in public confidence. Only then will people realize that it was only public confidence that propped up our entire monetary system.
Is Your IRA or 401K a Target of Government Appropriation?
By: Chris Blasi - GoldSeek.com
Will the laws and rules in place to protect individuals in their attempt to set something aside for retirement be safeguarded by the representatives elected to advocate for them in Washington? Will the principles and moral integrity of the political class keep them from appropriating the trillions of dollars held in 401k's and IRA's? I'm not so sure! While the answer is most likely yes, when one realizes the magnitude of the financial predicament the U.S. might well find itself in shortly, it is indeed, conceivable that such an appropriation of private retirement accounts might prove to be too compelling for most politicians to resist.
MARKETS CRUSHED: Here's What You Need To Know
Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com
Once again, fears emanating out of Europe (and China) swamped US markets, which got hammered for the 5th time in 6 days. Ominously, after some modest mid-day nibbling, stocks closed very near the lows of the day.... other key stories:
Europe continues to confirm that there is nobody in charge
The big loser today was oil
All commodities got slammed
The euro absolutely surged today
Nouriel Roubini is calling for a 20% correction.
Financial reform cleared a key hurdle in the Senate
Market is waiting for the next move out of Europe
Gulf oil leak is now in the current loop, which means it's heading straight for Florida.
You Better Read This, Gold & Greece: Not What You Think
By: Kenneth Gerbino - GoldSeek.com
There is so much hysteria in the hard money camp on Greece and the European Union that one had better start looking at the facts otherwise it could cost you a lot of money.
Before discussing the Euro, Greece and Gold, let me go over some important concepts:
The economic problems faced by all countries are rooted in paper money systems. In fact, paper money systems are one of the root causes of socialism and socialist thought. Paper money also gives capitalism a bad name. Right now the temporary solutions from bail-outs and printing money will change the short and medium term outlook for many investments. These changes must be analyzed properly. The long term will always get worse from these bail out policies, but making money in the markets means having the good sense not to get carried away by hysteria from the press and gold coin shops (although everyone should buy some gold and silver coins).
Chinese are buying GOLD!
Patrick Chovanec - BusinessInsider.com It's Official, The Chinese Have Got The Gold Bug Now
According to CCTV, sales of gold for the May Day holiday in Beijing are up 70% over last year, and that sales of gold bars has doubled. It notes that May is a popular season for weddings, which makes it a peak gold-buying period, but attributes this year's increase to jitters over property prices:
Mr. Zhang had planned to invest his money in the property market. But on second thought, he changed his mind . . . [Zhang] said, "The recent measures have been reining in tightly. So I changed my investment plan. I believe the gold market is more stable. It could also avoid investment risks and prevent the threat of the inflation."
Wall Street Threatens Washington as Reform Vote Approaches
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
Europe Acts Pre-emptively Against Fraud
Naked shorting is illegal in the US, and for very good reasons. On a larger scale, it is used for price manipulation, and is the equivalent of counterfeiting. The removal of the uptick rule by the SEC on July 6, 2007, which had been created in 1938 as part of the New Deal regulatory reforms, cleared the way for its more heavy handed uses and control frauds.
The ban on naked short selling was not enforced by regulators who were willing to turn a blind eye to blatant market manipulation. Under the DTCC regime it turned epidemic. The alarm was raised by many whistle blowers who were either ignored or vilified by the corporate media.
Let me be clear on this. I am not opposed to short selling. It is a trade that has many legitimate uses. It is naked short selling that lends itself so readily to abuse, particularly when there are not limits on position sizes and massed selling to drive down prices. The deregulatory movement, based on such lofty principles, has become nothing more than a means to a fraud, systematically knocking down all the regulatory safeguards that were put in place to protect the public during the Great Depression.
U.S. Senate Approves Wall Street Overhaul Bill in 59-39 Vote
By Alison Vekshin and Phil Mattingly
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate approved a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street regulation that would create a consumer protection agency, strengthen oversight of derivative trading and ban proprietary trading at banks.
Senators voted 59-39 today in favor of the measure, which also creates a mechanism for liquidating failing financial firms and a council of financial regulators to monitor markets for threats to the economy. The move sends the legislation into negotiations designed to reconcile differences with the House bill approved in December.
The Unbelievably Rampant Corruption On Wall Street
Economic Collapse - SilverBearCafe.com
In order for a financial system to be able to function properly, it is absolutely essential that the general population has faith in it. After all, who is going to want to invest in the stock market or entrust their money to big financial institutions if there is not at least the perception of honesty and fairness in the financial marketplace? For decades, the American people did have faith in Wall Street. But now that faith is being shattered by a string of recent revelations. It seems as though the rampant corruption on Wall Street is seeping up almost everywhere now. In fact, some of the things that have come out recently have been absolutely jaw-dropping. The truth is that the corruption on Wall Street is much deeper and much more systemic than most of us ever dared to imagine. As the general public digests these recent scandals, it is going to result in a tremendous loss of faith in the U.S. financial system. Once faith in a financial system is lost, it can take years or even decades to get back. So how is the U.S. financial system supposed to work properly when large numbers of people simply do not believe in it anymore?
Dow Drop Likely Caused By Intentional Liquidity Cutoff
Bob Chapman -SilverBearCafe.com
The initial official excuse for such a perceptions drop in the Dow was a wrong keystroke, which is ludicrous. Then there is the almost total control by Goldman Sachs of the market and control via the Supplementary Liquidity Provider. All they have to do is cut off liquidity and the market plunges. Thus, there is no question in our minds that Goldman attacked the market and took it down to let House and Senate members know that they can make the market do whatever they please with the full cooperation of the SEC and CFTC, this convinced lawmakers that the Illuminist threat was very real. There would be no breakup of too big to fail banks and no real audit of the Fed. The public would be thrown a bone. This is a good reason why program trading has to end and why derivatives have to be abolished. This is all a reflection of two sets of justice. One for the elitists and one for us. This also shows us that crime pays. It also proves our country is under the financial control of terrorists.
Geithner to Visit England, Germany to Discuss Crisis
By Christopher Wellisz
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will visit Germany and the U.K. next week to discuss the European debt crisis, the Treasury Department said today in a statement in Washington. Geithner "will meet with European officials to discuss the economic situation in the region and the measures being taken to restore global confidence and financial stability and to promote continued recovery," the Treasury said. Geithner's trip to Europe will follow his visit to Beijing for the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the Treasury said. He will meet with U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in London on May 26.
Pan-European Bank Run Is Now On: Capital Flight From UK To Switzerland, As GBPCHF Intervention Strikes Next
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Yesterday we disclosed that the reason for numerous SNB interventions in the EURCHF was due to billions in deposits rushing out of Germany and seeking the relative stability of Swiss neutrality. A quick look at the trading pattern of the GBPCHF shows that it is now UK depositors who are panicking and shifting their money to unnamed (not so much anymore) Zurich bank vaults. The result: a 300 pip move in the GBPCHF as the SNB rushes to put out this particular capital flight fire. Too bad it only succeeded for about 12 hours. The run on the bank (to another bank) in Europe is now on.
The EU is as doomed as its currency - let's get out from under this collapsing monstrosity By Gerald Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
The European experiment has failed and is only artificially being kept alive on a life-support system of taxpayer-funded bailouts. The euro is now a zombie currency: only the political will of the European nomenklatura keeps it nominally in existence. That is the exact reverse of the proper relationship between a currency and the state: the currency should be the expression of a healthy economy testifying to the legitimacy of the government it represents. Instead, a synthetic European super-state is showing its non-viability and moribundity through the implosion of its currency.
Now Imminent: Britain's Exodus From Europe
Brad MacDonald - theTrumpet.com
Another decades-old prophecy is about to be fulfilled.
The more time that passes since the European Union announced its €750 billion rescue package for the eurozone, the more we seem to discover about the severity of the financial crisis ripping through Europe.
How serious is it?
Last Wednesday Angela Merkel, the normally reserved chancellor of Germany, told the German parliament that "nothing less than the future of Europe is at stake." Extreme measures must be taken, Merkel warned, to "avoid a chain reaction to the European and international financial system …." In Poland the next day, Merkel stated that the crisis was the "greatest test Europe has faced since 1990, if not in the 53 years since the passage of the Treaties of Rome." Think on that: The leader of the most influential country in the EU believes the union could be facing its greatest challenge since its inception over half a century ago.
FDIC: 'Problem' Banks at 775
By MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON - A total of 775 banks, or one-tenth of all U.S. banks, were on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s list of "problem" institutions in the first quarter, as bad loans in the commercial real-estate market weighed on bank balance sheets.
Poor loan performance in other sectors also continued to hurt banks, with the total number of loans at least three months past due climbing for the 16th consecutive quarter, FDIC officials said in a briefing on Thursday. "The banking system still has many problems to work through, and we cannot ignore the possibility of more financial market volatility," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said.
As Washington banks fail, industry jobs decline
PUGET SOUND BUSINESS JOURNAL (SEATTLE) - BY Kirsten Grind
Washington state's banking industry lost more than 2,000 employees over the past two years and is shrinking considerably in the ongoing financial crisis, according to a government report released Thursday. Since 2008, banks have lost a collective $2.9 billion in assets for a total of about $74 billion in assets statewide, and their ranks have shrunk more than 9 percent to about 14,500 employees, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC)'s quarterly banking report. Meanwhile, Washington banks lost a collective $132 million during the first three months of the year, while their percentage of bad loans - known as nonperforming assets - skyrocketed from about 1.2 percent to 7.5 percent in the past two years.
No Bank Is Too Big to Fail, in Theory
By DAN FITZPATRICK - WSJ.com
No bank is too big to fail, according to the Senate financial bill, a fact that will restrict future bailouts for U.S. banking giants and require them to develop liquidation plans.
But the legislation stops short of forcing a breakup of the nation's megabanks, which have amassed even more might since the financial crisis erupted. For example, Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. now hold $3 of every $10 in deposits, up from about $2.
Even with the new requirements, some experts predict that the largest banks still could be rescued by taxpayers. "Is Congress really going to sit on its hands and let the financial system go down in flames?" said Brian Olasov, managing director at law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP in Atlanta. The legislation gives the U.S. government some wiggle room to step in if a giant bank is on the verge of failure, he said.
'Perfect storm' as market tremors hit China, Europe and the US
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Capitulation fever has swept global markets on triple fears of faltering recovery in the US, Chinese credit curbs and Europe's intractable escalating debt crisis.
"It is the perfect storm," said Andrew Roberts, credit strategist at RBS. "People have been too complacent about risky assets. This is a global deflation scare and people need to get ready for falls in US and European bond yields to 2pc." Wall Street shares plunged 3pc after new jobless claims in the US rose to 471,000 last week, the biggest jump in three months. The S&P 500 index of shares fell to 1080, triggering automatic stop-loss sales as it crashed through support on its 200-day moving average.
Why 1,000 bank failures will occur before the Great Recession is over.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) will be the next billion and possibly trillion dollar government bailout. We have the FDIC that insures over 8,000 banks with an insurance fund that is in the negative. From 2000 to October of 2007 only 27 banks were closed down by the FDIC. Nearly eight full years and 27 banks were shut down in the face of epic gambling from the banking industry. Since the recession started, the FDIC has closed down 237 banks with more to come. Without a doubt, given the enormous amount of bad debt and commercial real estate loans we will have 1,000 bank failures by the time this recession is over. Is this so hard to envision? In April, 17 banks were closed and so far in May, 15 banks have seen their doors shut. The rate of bank failures is increasing.
Why will this happen? Because there are at least 763 more banks that are full to toxic waste in the U.S.
Gensler Blames the Math for 'Flash Crash'
By SARAH N. LYNCH - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON-A top regulator gave new details on the sudden May 6 stock plunge, saying heavy trading volume may have led a large trader's computer algorithm to execute a larger sell order than it would on other days.
Regulators have already cited heavy selling in the E-mini Standard & Poor's 500 futures contract as a possible factor in the nearly 1,000-point intraday drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and said one big trader was exclusively entering sell orders for that contract during a key period just before and after the drop.
Dow Theorist Richard Russell: Sell Everything Liquid, You Won't Recognize America By The End Of The Year
Joe Weisenthal - SilverBearCafe.com Richard Russell, the famous writer of the Dow Theory Letters, has a chilling line in today's note:
Do your friends a favor. Tell them to "batten down the hatches" because there's a HARD RAIN coming. Tell them to get out of debt and sell anything they can sell (and don't need) in order to get liquid. Tell them that Richard Russell says that by the end of this year they won't recognize the country. They'll retort, "How the dickens does Russell know - who told him?" Tell them the stock market told him.
WHOA! That's pretty intense! By popular demand, here's more on what he sees in the market. The gist is that the markets recent gyrations are telling him that the economy is in trouble:
CNBC, 02/09/10 - Dow will drop from 10,000 to 6500 says Richard Russell
EPA Orders BP to Use Less-Toxic Oil Dispersant
By Alexis Madriga - Wired.com
The Environmental Protection Agency ordered British Petroleum to change the type of dispersant the company is using to keep oil from reaching American shores. The EPA gave the company 72 hours to switch to a less toxic chemical for use in breaking up oil slicks. Persistent questions about the toxicity of Corexit 9500 have plagued BP over the last several weeks. But the company continued to purchase and use the chemical. On May 5, Wired Science reported on EPA data showing that a competitive product, U.S. Polychemical's Dispersit, appeared to be less toxic and perform better. Corexit is manufactured by Nalco, which has senior management from the major oil companies.
Oil dispersants used in Gulf of Mexico spill causing alarm
By Dennis Pillion, al.com
BP has used almost 600,000 gallons of the oil dispersant Corexit at the surface of the Gulf of Mexico to break-up the slick from the Deepwater Horizon spill, but concerns are growing about the environmental impact of those chemicals on the Gulf ecosystems and human residents of the area.
Federal officials have expressed the need for more toxicology studies on the dispersants, and whether dispersed oil is any less of a threat than non-dispersed oil. One toxicology expert, Dr. William Sawyer, called the products "deodorized kerosene," and a group of Louisiana fisherman and marine toxicologist Riki Ott are asking President Barack Obama to order BP to stop using the compound.
BP, accused of cover-up, says captures more oil
By Anna Driver and Matthew Bigg
HOUSTON/VENICE, La., May 20 (Reuters) - BP Plc said on Thursday it was siphoning off more of the oil gushing from its ruptured Gulf of Mexico well, but the energy giant faced "cover-up" allegations over its struggling response to the catastrophic month-old spill.
"The oil plume escaping from the riser pipe has visibly declined today," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said after the company announced that a mile-long (1.6 km) tube tapping into the larger of two leaks from the well was now capturing 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons/795,000 litres) per day of oil.
However, a live video feed of the leak, provided by BP (BP.L), showed a black plume of crude oil still billowing out into the deep waters.
"It's just not working," U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, who heads the Environment and Public Works Committee, told CNN as she watched the BP video. The California Democrat denounced a "cover-up" of the real size of the oil spill.
BP and Coast Guard Threaten to Arrest Journalists for Covering Oil Polluted Shoreline in Louisiana
Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
The U.S. Coast Guard's motto is "Semper Paratus," Latin for "Always Ready" or "Always Prepared." In the case of BP's Gulf oil disaster, the Coast Guard is apparently always prepared to prevent the media from covering Louisiana's oil-soaked Gulf shoreline.
CBS journalists were threatened with arrest by BP contractors and the Coast Guard when they attempted to film the beach.
"This is BP's rules, it's not ours," someone aboard the boat said. In other words, BP is running the show, not the Coast Guard and the government.
Karl Burkart, writing for Mother Jones, reports numerous, unconfirmed reports of cameras and cell phones being confiscated, scientists with monitoring equipment being turned away, and local reporters blocked from access to public lands impacted by the oil spill.
Benzene the killer! Plans in place to evacuate The Gulf Population
Plans to evacuate the Gulf are BEGINING TO FLY AROUND THE NET.
Benzene, incredible amounts of Benzene are being released into the atmosphere and is a clear and present danger not only for the old and people with respiratory problems but the general Gulf population as a whole.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that benzene is a human carcinogen, and can cause various forms of cancer from prolonged exposure.Exposed to high levels of benzene show association with leukemia cancer; including acute myelogenous leukemia, acute lymphocytic leukemia, and chronic myelogenous leukemia. Benzene-related leukemias have been reported to develop in as short as nine months,(read more below)
This is much more serious than they are letting on, especially as one of the options here is to burn the escaping oil!
Florida Gulf oil spill: Plans to evacuate Tampa Bay area expected to be announced
Hernando County Political Buzz Examiner Maryann Tobin Gulf Oil Spill 2010: Plans to evacuate Tampa Bay area expected to be announced Plans to evacuate the Tampa Bay area are expected to be announced in the coming days as FEMA prepares for what is now being called the worst oil disaster in the history of the world.
Estimates of the rate of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill by skyTruth.com, put more accurate numbers at more than 1 million gallons a day, based on satellite and Coast Guard images.
Since the April 20th explosion, which resulted in the sinking of the rig, there has been more than 21 million gallons of oil pumped into the Gulf of Mexico.
Hurricane season nears as oil leak grows
By Joshua Schneyer - Reuters
More storms than average expected in Atlantic, Gulf
NEW YORK - BP's oil spill could make for one of the highest-stakes U.S. Gulf hurricane seasons on record.
Storms could scuttle cleanup efforts, force containment vessels to retreat, or propel spilled crude and tar balls over vast expanses of sea and beach.
Meteorologists say that climate conditions are ripe for an unusually destructive hurricane season, the storm-prone period that runs from June 1 to the end of November in the Gulf. Oceanographers say that could hurt the clean-up.
White House to create oil spill commission
By ERICA WERNER - AP via MSNBC.com
WASHINGTON - An administration official says the White House will establish a presidential commission to investigate the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
President Barack Obama will establish the commission by executive order. It will be similar to panels created to investigate the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a public announcement.
Fear over Gulf oil spill: What happens if they can't stop it?
By Renee Schoof | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - With a quick solution ominously uncertain, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is on track to become an unprecedented economic and environmental disaster with millions of gallons of oil destroying an ecosystem as well as a way of life.
BP America said Monday that it would take another 75 days to finish one of two relief wells it's drilling to shut down the flow. By then, if the spill doesn't worsen and the relief well stops the leak, some 20 million gallons of oil will be swirling in the gulf, nearly double the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.
Mortgage Data Leaves Bankers Uncertain of Trend
By DAVID STREITFELD - NYTimes.com
Any way you look at it, extraordinary numbers of people are having trouble paying their mortgage. What is less clear is the extent to which the problem is getting worse, better or is simply holding its own. Data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed the mortgage delinquency rate rose in the first quarter to 9.38 percent of all loans outstanding, from 8.22 percent in same period last year.
59 percent of homeowners wouldn't walk away
TheTruthAboutMortgage.com
A new survey from Trulia and RealtyTrac revealed that 59 percent of homeowners wouldn't walk away from their mortgages no matter how deeply underwater they were.
That seems somewhat hard to believe, considering the direct correlation between negative equity and strategic default, but taking a survey and actually going through it all are two very different things. Additionally, just one percent of homeowners said walking away from the mortgage would be their first choice if unable to make mortgage payments. An overwhelming majority (69 percent) would turn to a loan modification before anything else, despite the fact that those seem to be performing quite poorly.
College Grads Flood U.S. Labor Market With Diminished Prospects
By Mike Dorning
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Ten months after graduating from Ohio State University with a civil-engineering degree and three internships, Matt Grant finally has a job -- as a banquet waiter at a Clarion Inn near Akron, Ohio. "It's discouraging right now," said the 24-year-old, who sent out more than 100 applications for engineering positions. "It's getting closer to the Class of 2010, their graduation date. I'm starting to worry more."
Dodd Bill Gives a Pass to Fannie and Freddie
by John Berlau - HumanEvents.com
When it comes to a Senate bill that showers massive regulations and taxes on a variety of U.S. businesses and is justified as preventing the next crisis, Republicans-particularly in the Senate-are not pushing hard enough to fix the liberal policies that were some of the main causes of the last crisis.
Amazingly, Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's "Restoring American Financial Stability Act" doesn't contain anything to rein in the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
SCIENTISTS CREATE 'SYNTHETIC CELL'
A team of U.S. scientists have created what they're calling a "synthetic cell," 'although really it appears to be more of a Franken-cell, if you will, since the cell's genome is artificial but the "recipient cell" is not. All the same, it's still bound to freak some people out. -KA
BBC: Dr [J. Craig] Venter likened the advance to making new software for the cell.
The researchers copied an existing bacterial genome. They sequenced its genetic code and then used "synthesis machines" to chemically construct a copy. Dr Venter told BBC News: "We've now been able to take our synthetic chromosome and transplant it into a recipient cell-a different organism.
Scientists Create First Self-Replicating Synthetic Life
By Rachel Swaby - Wired.com
Man-made DNA has booted up a cell for the first time.
In a feat that is the culmination of two and a half years of tests and adjustments, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute inserted artificial genetic material - chemically printed, synthesized and assembled - into cells that were then able to grow naturally.
"We all had a very good feeling that it was going to work this time," said Venter Institute synthetic biologist Daniel Gibson, co-author of the study published May 20 in Science. "But we were cautiously optimistic because we had so many letdowns following the previous experiments."
South Korea to take lead on next steps after attack: U.S.
(Reuters) - South Korea will be in the lead in deciding how to respond to what it says was a North Korean torpedo attack on one of its warships, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday. Gates, however, rejected any suggestion that the United States was not in a position to respond militarily to North Korean aggression because it is stretched thin by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "If there were a problem in Korea, our main arms would be the Navy and the Air Force and those are not stretched in the same way that the ground forces are," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon, adding the U.S. was consulting with Seoul.
South Korea briefs China on ship sinking blamed on North
(Reuters) - South Korea has briefed the Chinese ambassador on its findings on the sinking of a navy ship widely believed to be the work of North Korea, an issue that has created tension between the two major Asian trading partners. Seoul is sure to formally blame the North on Thursday when it announces the findings by a team of experts that includes investigators from Sweden, Australia and the United States. China, host of on-again, off-again six-party talks aimed at reining in North Korea's nuclear weapons program, is the reclusive state's only major ally and is loath to penalize it for wrongs perceived in South Korea and the West.
Clinton Heads to China in North Korea Torpedo Crisis
By Nicole Gaouette
May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Asia today for talks with China and U.S. allies now focused on how to manage a crisis over suspected North Korean involvement in the sinking of a South Korean warship. Kurt Campbell, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said the "central issue" for Clinton will be getting assessments of how to respond to North Korea after an international probe blamed the communist regime for firing a torpedo that killed 46 South Korean sailors on March 26. The U.S. is "facing a very serious set of circumstances in the coming days," Campbell said in Washington on May 19.
NKorea says SKorea faked evidence of torpedo attack, warns of 'all-out war' if punished Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea, accused of waging the deadliest attack on the South Korean military since the Korean War, flatly denied sinking a warship Thursday and warned that retaliation would mean "all-out war." Evidence presented Thursday to prove North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean ship was fabricated by Seoul, North Korean naval spokesman Col. Pak In Ho told broadcaster APTN in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang. He warned that any move to sanction or strike North Korea would be met with force. "If (South Korea) tries to deal any retaliation or punishment, or if they try sanctions or a strike on us .... we will answer to this with all-out war," he told APTN. An international team of civilian and military investigators declared earlier in Seoul that a North Korean submarine fired a homing torpedo at the Cheonan on March 26, ripping the 1,200-ton ship in two.
Michael Ruppert - Lecture on Zbigniew Brzezinski's 'The Grand Chessboard' - Part 1
Michael Ruppert - Lecture on Zbigniew Brzezinski's 'The Grand Chessboard' - Part 2
'All out war' threatened over North Korea attack on warship Cheonan
by Anne Barrowclough - Times Online.co.uk
North Korea has threatened "all out war" if there is any retaliation from Seoul for the torpedo attack which sank the South Korean warship Cheonan in March.
Pyongyang made the threat as it dismissed as 'fabrication' a report by an international team of investigators which concludes that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine was responsible for the explosion that ripped the 1,200 corvette in two, killing 46 sailors in one of South Korea's worst naval tragedies.
South Korea to officially blame North Korea for March torpedo attack on warship By John Pomfret and Blaine Harden - WashingtonPost.com
South Korea will formally blame North Korea on Thursday for launching a torpedo at one of its warships in March, causing an explosion that killed 46 sailors and heightened tensions in one of the world's most perilous regions, U.S. and East Asian officials said.
South Korea concluded that North Korea was responsible for the attack after investigators from Australia, Britain, Sweden and the United States pieced together portions of the ship at the port of Pyeongtaek, 40 miles southwest of Seoul. The Cheonan sank on March 26 after an explosion rocked the 1,200-ton vessel as it sailed on the Yellow Sea off South Korea's west coast.
Rooney Praises South Korea's Handling of Ship Sinking
Diplomatic Storm Brewing Over Korean Peninsula
By MARK LANDLER - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON - South Korea's formal accusation that a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships, killing 46 sailors, will set off a diplomatic drumbeat to punish North Korea, backed by the United States and other nations, which could end up in the United Nations Security Council.
On Thursday morning in Seoul, the South Korean government presented forensic evidence, including part of a torpedo propeller with what investigators believe is a North Korean serial number.
They said it proved that the underwater explosion that shattered the 1,200-ton corvette, the Cheonan, in March near a disputed sea border with the North was caused by the detonation of a torpedo.
North Korea Blamed for Torpedo That Sank South's Ship
By Bomi Lim
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- A North Korean submarine torpedoed one of South Korea's warships in March, a multinational panel said, a finding that puts pressure on China to support tougher international sanctions against its political ally.
"There is no other plausible explanation," the team investigating the March 26 sinking, the deadliest attack blamed on the nation in more than 20 years, said today in a statement. North Korea denied any involvement, and warned of "all-out war" if more sanctions are imposed, the state owned Korea Central News Agency said.
Will the PIGS Blow Up Europe?
by Patrick J. Buchanan - Taki's Magazine
Among the mega-forces moving the tectonic plates and imperiling the nation-states of the world from above and below are these:
First, ethno-nationalism, which threatens nations with secession and break-up. We see it in the Uighurs of China, the Naga of India, the Baluch of Iran and Pakistan, the Kurds of Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey, the Chechens of the Russian Caucasus and the Walloons of Belgium.
Second, transnationalism. This is the project of global elites who seek to reduce nations to ethno-cultural enclaves in a new world order run by these same bloodless bureaucrats whose loyalty is neither to the land nor people whence they came.
Their work in progress, the European Union, however, is imperiled.
10% of homeowners missed a mortgage payment in Q1
By Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
WASHINGTON - The number of homeowners who missed at least one payment on their mortgage surged to a record in the first quarter of the year.
More than 10% of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment in the January-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday. That number was up from 9.5% in the fourth quarter of last year and 9.1% a year earlier.
Those figures are adjusted for seasonal factors. For example, heating bills and holiday expenses tend to push up mortgage delinquencies near the end of the year. Many of those borrowers become current on their loans again by spring.
Bear Raid In Gold Results in an Historic One Day Liquidation: Höllenmädchen Merkel und die Straßenschreier
According to John Brimelow: "Open interest plunged 21,256 lots, 66.11 tonnes or 3.53%, one of the largest changes in history..."
And this was before the latest round today after this early report.
Open Interest is the total number of contracts for a given future category. When the Open Interest declines on a marked price decrease this is generally considered the net liquidation of long positions. And conversely, on a rising price it is considered short covering. The weekly reports give more insight into who was doing the buying and selling. The report should be daily, and should include specific position changes for traders with aggregate positions higher than 5 percent of any total market for a specific product.
Gold Prices Dip as Investors Go for Cash
ByAlix Steel, TheStreet
NEW YORK (TheStreet ) -- Gold prices Wednesday were falling as investors sold gold for cash to cover losses as Germany's ban on naked short-selling spooked markets.
Gold for June delivery was down $6.80 to $1,207.80 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price Wednesday has traded as high as $1,228.20 and as low as $1,202. The U.S. dollar index was slipping 0.73% to $86.74 as the euro rallied slightly rising 0.97% to $1.23 against the dollar, which some experts consider fair value for the currency. The gold spot price Wednesday was sinking over $19, according to Kitco's gold index.
Bullion can get you out of the US housing mess
By Dr Jeffrey Lewis
Perhaps more than stock and bond investors, precious metals investors must be privy to important macroeconomic indicators. Of the most important is money supply, followed immediately by lending and credit availability. These three factors all come together to establish how expensive or inexpensive paper currencies are and how silver and gold should be relatively priced to their paper counterparts. Fear in Housing
The housing market that pushed the whole economy towards economic calamity is still in full swing today, and many believe the worst is yet to come. Thanks to exotic loans made to homeowners who couldn't afford the lifestyle they wished to have, mortgage resets at higher rates, and presumably higher monthly payments, will continue through late 2012.
$1800 - $2000 gold this year - and $30 silver - James Turk
With a prediction of a $1,800 to $2,000 gold price this year, and $8,000 by 2015, James Turk sticks to his earlier forecasts in presentation at London conference. Author: Lawrence Williams - MineWeb.co.za
LONDON - In the closing keynote on the first full day of the 2010 World Mining Investment Conference in London yesterday, James Turk, founder of Gold Money, opened by reaffirming his prediction made at the end of last year that gold could reach $8,000 an ounce by 2015, based on past patterns of surges in the gold price. What may be even more encouraging for the general investor is that his forecast also suggests that the Dow Jones Index would rise to similar levels as the world finally pulls out of recession, with the gold price matching the Dow index number. When asked at the end of his talk where he felt the gold price would be at the end of the current year, he reckoned around $1,800 to $2,000 - and also predicted that the more volatile silver price would achieve a level of $30 this year.
What Gold Bubble?
Frank Talk - USFunds.com
Gold is getting a lot of attention these days. It's all over the media, the backlog to purchase gold coins from the U.S. Mint is years long, and one gold exchange company even ponied up for a Super Bowl ad.
Many point to this and shout "Bubble!" Gold has risen too far too fast, they say, and soon the euphoria will give way to despair. We've been hearing this since February of last year, when gold was trading around $900. That's more than 25 percent below where it is today. Why didn't the gold "bubble" burst? It could be because there isn't a gold bubble.
Merkel Does Mahathir and Martin Luther: Tilting the Market Table
by Dude . . . where's the Dharma?
In theory, free markets provide "just" prices or a level market table and thus allocate profits such that all market participants are willing to exchange goods freely. This is the basis of the division of labor in a free economy. In practice, speculators are finding they can tip the table as well as any government or church, thus inspiring an increasing unwillingness to play their game.
In 1998, Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohammed imposed capital controls ostensibly to protect Malaysia from speculators like George Soros. Then as now (with respect to German controls, also ostensibly to ward off speculative attacks) the financial press was full of quotes proclaiming the foolishness of such actions. The Church of Free Capital is, apparently, a dogmatic church- nation-states, according to the creed, have no right to impede the flow of holy money, or alter the terms of trade.
Merkel Isolated After Short-Selling Ban Fails to Win Backers
By Tony Czuczka and James Hertling
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel's curbs on government-bond trading proved a step too far for European allies, leaving her isolated as she pushes for a crackdown on euro-area states that flout budget-deficit rules.
Merkel's unilateral effort to control what she called "destructive" markets came 10 days after voters angry at aid for Greece dealt her a regional election setback that cost her control of the federal upper house of parliament. She's now trying to win support for another loan package that's due to go to a parliamentary vote tomorrow, this time on Germany's share of a $1 trillion bailout to backstop the euro.
Germany's 'desperate' short ban triggers capital flight to Switzerland
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
A year ago, Germany's financial regulator BaFin warned that the toxic debts of the country's banks would blow up "like a grenade" once hidden losses from the credit crisis caught up with them.
An internal memo at the time showed that BaFin feared write-offs might top Û800bn (£688bn), twice the reserves of Germany's financial institutions. Nobody paid much attention. But the regulator's shock move on Tuesday night to stop short trading on banks, insurers, eurozone bonds - as well as a ban credit default swaps (CDS) on sovereign debt - has left markets wondering whether the slow fuse on Germany's banking system has finally detonated.
Central Bankers Can't Return to Simpler Times After Bailouts
By Rich Miller
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- When Federal Reserve governors held an emergency conference call with the presidents of the regional Fed banks on May 9 to discuss the spreading Greek debt crisis, some policy makers voiced concern that lending a hand to Europe might not play well in Congress.
The Senate was in the middle of a debate to overhaul the financial system, and some Fed officials said that assisting Europe might encourage lawmakers to rein in the central bank's independence. In the end the Fed approved short-term currency swaps with foreign central banks after Chairman Ben S. Bernanke argued that the Fed needed to do what was best for the U.S. economy and deal with the politics by better explaining its actions, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports in its May 24 issue.
Euro Nears 'Milestone,' May Hit $1.16, Merrill's Fujii Says
By Shigeki Nozawa
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- The euro's five-month decline is bringing it toward an "historical milestone" and a break below that may send it down to $1.16, according to Bank of America- Merrill Lynch.
The 16-nation currency is approaching $1.2134, a 50 percent retracement of its advance from a record low 82.30 U.S. cents in 2000 to its all-time high of $1.6038 in 2008, wrote Tomoko Fujii, a senior foreign-exchange strategist at the U.S. bank, referring to the so-called Fibonacci sequence. If the euro falls below $1.2134, the next target would be the low of $1.1640 reached in November 2005, she said.
The Greek Tragedy Is Just a Sneak Preview of What's Coming to Washington by Ron Holland - LewRockwell.com "The current European debt crisis likely will not end until the euro collapses as a currency and takes the entire European Union with it."
~ Dennis Gartman, hedge fund manager and writer of The Gartman Letter I was just in Greece, where the stupidity and venality of the political class are in full view. The coming repudiation of Greek debt and the credit contagion that will spread among the weaker members of the European Union, including the UK, will ultimately slop over onto the U.S. But while we wait, the process will bring us the answer to a long-simmering question. Will the European Union be a supra-state ruling the formerly independent nations of Europe or will it be a confederation of quasi-independent sovereign nations?
Russia Drops 'Bellicose' Dollar Talk as Greenback Reserves Grow
By Paul Abelsky
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar's ascent against the euro may be stifling Russian efforts to challenge the greenback's dominance as a reserve currency, with policy makers in Moscow allowing the dollar's share of foreign reserves to swell.
Russia's central bank "changed the currency structure of reserves" last quarter, raising the U.S. currency's share by 3 percentage points to 44.5 percent, BNP Paribas said May 18, citing Bank Rossii numbers. The euro's portion fell 3.7 points to 43.8 percent. The figures, part of the central bank's annual report to parliament, aren't official yet, said a Bank Rossii spokesman who declined to be identified, citing bank policy.
Hurricane season may make spill worse
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
As hurricane season looms, forecasters, scientists and residents along the Gulf Coast worry that a major storm could make the oil spill worse. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says a hurricane, or a succession of them, may bring oil up from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and then push it ashore. Forecasters say a season with multiple storms could send oil farther inland and spread it as far as Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Gammel Says Gulf Spill May Continue Another Two Months
Katz Fired From Oil-Spill Team Due to 'Controversial Writings'
by Katarzyna Klimasinska and Jessica Resnick-Ault- LewRockwell.com
Jonathan I. Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis., said he was fired from the team of scientists chosen by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to help BP Plc control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Some of Professor Katz's controversial writings have become a distraction from the critical work of addressing the oil spill," Stephanie Mueller, a spokeswoman for the Energy Department, said in an e-mail today. "Professor Katz will no longer be involved in the department's efforts."
White House Covers Up Menacing Oil "Blob"
Written by Wayne Madsen - OilPrice.com
In an exclusive for Oilprice.com, the Wayne Madsen Report (WMR) has learned from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sources that U.S. Navy submarines deployed to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast have detected what amounts to a frozen oil blob from the oil geyser at the destroyed Deep Horizon off-shore oil rig south of Louisiana. The Navy submarines have trained video cameras on the moving blob, which remains frozen at depths of between 3,000 to 4,000 feet. Because the oil blob is heavier than water, it remains frozen at current depths.
Bird's Eye View: Another GRN Flyover BP Disaster Site
Yesterday, May 10, once again I went on a lengthy flyover over coastal Louisiana and the open waters of the gulf to the site where the Deep Water Horizon sank. This flyover was made possible thanks to the generous support of Jo Billups, GRN member and activist. With me on board the flight were Dr. Carl Safina, President of the Blue Ocean Institute, and Environmental and Nature photographer, Daniel Beltra.
Our mission on this particular flyover was to monitor the ongoing response efforts by BP as well as to survey the impacts of oil on coastal wetlands and beaches. In particular, we were looking to capture footage from the sky of the same area of the coast line where we had been the day before by boat and where we discovered oil impacting the beaches of East Bay just to the east edge of South Pass. I also wanted to see if the birds in the crosshairs that I reported on Monday were still there and if there were any discernible changes in the level of protection to their sensitive habitat.
Fallout from the BP oil spill is spreading. And far from being "cheap" as some pundits suggest, BP's share price could implode if criminal charges are filed. It's not looking good for British Petroleum... or the Gulf of Mexico. In fact it's looking like an outright disaster, about as bad as we feared. And BP's stock - which a number of armchair contrarians quickly dubbed as "cheap" in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill - is at risk of being massacred....
BP is at risk of criminal charges in this oil spill.
BP has been lying through its teeth about the scope of the disaster.
Investigative efforts are turning up smoking guns all over the place.
We could be looking at a new Exxon Valdez every four days.
There could be even worse disasters waiting to happen in the Gulf.
Other drilling platforms and even shipping lanes could be affected.
BP touts containment efforts; heavy oil reaches Louisiana wetlands
By the CNN Wire Staff
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- BP said Wednesday that efforts to contain and clean up oil gushing from a ruptured pipe in the Gulf of Mexico have made a "measurable difference" even as Louisiana's governor announced that thick, heavy oil has begun polluting the state's wetlands and estuaries.
Doug Suttles, BP's chief operating officer for exploration and production, said at a news conference that the company is "very pleased" with the performance of an insertion tube that was put in place over the weekend to suck crude oil from the well and funnel it to a surface vessel.
Criminal Charges Could Cut BP's Stock in Half
Justice Litle, Editorial Director, Taipan Publishing Group
Fallout from the BP oil spill is spreading. And far from being "cheap" as some pundits suggest, BP's share price could implode if criminal charges are filed. It's not looking good for British Petroleum... or the Gulf of Mexico. In fact it's looking like an outright disaster, about as bad as we feared. And BP's stock - which a number of armchair contrarians quickly dubbed as "cheap" in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill - is at risk of being massacred.
Republicans Put Taxpayers 'On Hook' for Oil Spills Like BP's, Obama Says By James Rowley and Jeff Plungis
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans threaten to leave taxpayers "on the hook" for damages from the BP Plc spill in the Gulf of Mexico by blocking legislation to raise the liability limit, President Barack Obama said.
"This maneuver threatens to leave taxpayers, rather than the oil companies, on the hook for future disasters like the BP oil spill," Obama said yesterday in a statement. "I urge the Senate Republicans to stop playing special-interest politics and join in a bipartisan effort to protect taxpayers and demand accountability from the oil companies."
Voters in primaries shake things up for both major parties
Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times Disenchantment shows as incumbent Arlen Specter is defeated and the GOP's handpicked Senate candidate in Kentucky loses to the 'tea party' movement's Rand Paul.
Delivering a powerful message of discontent, voters Tuesday swept out veteran Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, nominated a "tea party" movement founder for a Senate seat in Kentucky and forced Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a runoff for the Democratic nomination in Arkansas.
Looking shell-shocked and speaking to fewer than 100 supporters in a half-empty ballroom, Specter delivered a brief speech in Philadelphia conceding the Democratic race to two-term Rep. Joe Sestak - marking the end of his 30-year Senate career. Specter was a Republican the whole time save the last year, when he switched parties in a failed bid to keep his seat.
Establishment candidates go down in Senate primaries Paul takes Kentucky Republican race; Sestak defeats Specter in Pennsylvania By Robert Schroeder, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Voters in Pennsylvania and Kentucky dealt withering blows to establishment-backed Senate candidates in primary elections Tuesday, in an early measure of anti-incumbent sentiment ahead of November's general election. Eye doctor Rand Paul won Kentucky's Republican Senate primary, defeating Trey Grayson and handing a victory to Paul's tea-party backers. In Pennsylvania, veteran Sen. Arlen Specter lost the Democratic primary to Rep. Joe Sestak after a punishing campaign. Paul, the son of Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul, will face Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in the fall. Sestak will go up against Pat Toomey, another tea-party favorite.
2010: Year of the Political Outsider
Ron Paul and Rand Paul on Fox News
Landslide Rand
By W. James Antle, III - American Spectator
On Tuesday, the Tea Party movement scored its first major statewide victory over the Republican establishment. Bowling Green ophthalmologist Rand Paul trounced Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson by 59 percent to 35 percent, winning the GOP nomination to succeed retiring Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY).
Grayson was the handpicked candidate of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee. In a normal year, that might have assured him the nomination. Instead such ties became a liability, one Grayson exacerbated by demonstrating a sense of entitlement to a Senate seat last seen when Martha Coakley turned up her nose at shaking hands with voters outside Fenway Park.
Democrat Double Taxers
By Eric Peters - American Spectator
No one likes paying for the same thing twice.
So what is it with these High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes that charge people for the privilege of being able to drive on roads and highways financed by motor fuels excise taxes?
They're sprouting up all over the country. Or rather, the infrastructure for charging motorists to use existing roads is sprouting up all over the country. Roads that were built (and continue to be maintained) with money extracted from these same people via motor fuels taxes, which average about 40 cents per gallon
What Happens If Greece Leaves the Euro
by Derek Thompson - The Atlantic
The European Union experiment could be coming to an end. As the euro continues to slide, a wide range of interested parties -- from international investors to op-ed pages -- are seriously considering the once unthinkable: Greece might become the first country to drop the euro. Last week the EU and the European Central Bank unveiled a trillion-dollar bailout plan to stem the "contagion" from Greece's colossal debt burden, but there is not enough money to back up Europe's debts. Greece will almost certainly default and switch to a cheaper currency to avoid a long and painful recession.
Goldman Sachs Hands Clients Losses in 'Top Trades'
By Ye Xie
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. racked up trading profits for itself every day last quarter. Clients who followed the firm's investment advice fared far worse.
Seven of the investment bank's nine "recommended top trades for 2010" have been money losers for investors who adopted the New York-based firm's advice, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from a Goldman Sachs research note sent yesterday. Clients who used the tips lost 14 percent buying the Polish zloty versus the Japanese yen, 9.4 percent buying Chinese stocks in Hong Kong and 9.8 percent trading the British pound against the New Zealand dollar.
Stocks slide after investors focus on Europe woes
Stephen Bernard and Tim Paradis, AP Stocks stumble after investors look past rising euro to unanswered questions about Europe debt
NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks have resumed their slide after investors looked past a rising euro to still unanswered questions about Europe's debt crisis. Stocks had initially stabilized Wednesday after the euro bounced off of a four-year low, but soon turned lower as worries grew about Germany's move to ban certain kinds of short-selling. The sudden announcement late Tuesday from Germany's financial regulator was seen in the markets as another example of disarray in Europe's financial system.
Max Keiser Reports How The Globalist
are Rigging World Markets on Alex Jones Tv 1/4
Max Keiser Reports How The Globalist
are Rigging World Markets on Alex Jones Tv 2/4
Max Keiser Reports How The Globalist
are Rigging World Markets on Alex Jones Tv 3/4
Max Keiser Reports How The Globalist
are Rigging World Markets on Alex Jones Tv 4/4
Geithner says China yuan rise a global issue
(Reuters) - Persuading Beijing to let its yuan currency rise in value is not simply an issue for the United States but one that should interest the whole world, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday. "When they began this process before, what they did is they began a process of gradual appreciation of currency over time. That's a sensible way to manage it," Geithner said on CNBC television. "I think it's in our interest, and China's interest, and the world's interest that they do that," he said ahead of next Monday and Tuesday's meeting in Beijing of the annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue.
Dodd Proposes Delaying Swaps Measure in Rules Bill
By Phil Mattingly
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- A plan to shelve one of the most contentious issues in the U.S. Senate's debate over new rules for Wall Street may clear the way for a final vote on the bill.
The Senate legislation includes a rule that would force banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. to move swaps trading to subsidiaries. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd yesterday introduced an amendment that would delay the measure pending a one-year study of its effects by a new council of regulators. The panel could eliminate the rule two years after enactment if it was found to "have a material adverse effect on the financial markets and economy."
Wall Street reform fails test
By Jennifer Liberto,
WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- After months of negotiation and debate, far-reaching legislation to overhaul the rules of Wall Street failed a key test vote in the Senate on Wednesday, casting a shadow over Democratic efforts to push the effort forward. The measure aims to stop bailouts, shine a light on complex financial products and strengthen consumer protection.
Small businesses' credit card rates now 13.7% higher
By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY
New evidence that banks have sharply increased rates for small-business credit cards has rekindled calls for Congress to intervene.
Over the past six months, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citi and Wells Fargo have raised interest rates for new small-business credit cards offered on the Internet roughly six times faster than rate increases on consumer credit card offers, according to BillShrink.com, a consumer help site that tracks credit card offers.
On average, interest rates for small-business cards were 13.7% higher in April than last October, while rates for consumer cards, on average, were just 2.4% higher.
14.01% of mortgages delinquent or in foreclosure
By Amy Hoak
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The percentage of loans in foreclosure or with at least one payment past due was a non-seasonally-adjusted 14.01% in the first quarter, down from 15.02% in the fourth quarter of 2009, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday. But the seasonally adjusted delinquency rate for mortgages on one- to four-unit residential properties, which includes mortgages at least one payment past due but doesn't include those in foreclosure, rose to 10.06%, from 9.47%. Mortgages in the foreclosure process hit a record high at a non-seasonally-adjusted 4.63%, up from 4.58% in the fourth quarter.
Mortgage delinquencies spike
By Les Christie,
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A dubious distinction was reached during the first three months of 2010: More than 10% of all mortgage borrowers are now behind on their payments. The delinquency rate hit a record of 10.06% in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The seasonally adjusted rate accounts for all mortgages on properties that have up to four units and that are at least one payment late.
Fed in No Rush to Sell Mortgage Assets, Minutes Show
By Scott Lanman
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve policy makers last month said they were in no rush to sell $1.1 trillion of mortgage-backed securities, with a majority preferring to wait until after the central bank starts raising interest rates.
"Most participants favored deferring asset sales for some time," while others wanted to announce a schedule or start sales soon, the Fed said in minutes of its April 27-28 meeting in Washington, released today. Officials lowered their projections for inflation, excluding food and fuel, while keeping forecasts little changed for economic growth and unemployment in 2011 and 2012.
Obama Affirms Commitment to Immigration Overhaul
By Nicholas Johnston and Roger Runningen Obama, Calderon Meet With Drug War, Arizona Immigration Law in Background May 19 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said tightening border security and revamping immigration laws are vital to economic growth in the U.S. and Mexico, as he pledged to "aggressively" pursue cross-border cooperation.
Obama, at a joint news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, said the U.S. government hasn't done enough to address frustration with "a broken immigration system" that has boiled over with steps by states such as Arizona to act on their own. That threatens to disrupt U.S.-Mexico commerce, he said.
Shipping giant UPS preparing to furlough 54 pilots on Sunday in cost-cutting move
By HARRY R. WEBER , Associated Press
ATLANTA - Shipping giant UPS, which said just last month that the improving economy helped boost its first-quarter profit and its outlook for the year, is preparing to furlough dozens of pilots for the first time ever as part of a long-anticipated cost-cutting move.
Robin Hood: A Mostly Intelligent Action Movie with Political Purpose
by Steve Sailer - Taki's Magazine
Sir Ridley Scott's Robin Hood turns out not to be the expected proto-superhero summer blockbuster. Instead, it works best as an intricate political allegory about how the recently defeated New Labourites of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown betrayed England through their stratagems of invade the world, invite the world, and in hock to the world.
It's 1199, and King Richard the Lionheart has bankrupted England with his military adventuring in Muslim lands alongside other Western leaders. Richard's brother and rival, King John, in a na•ve alliance with rapacious foreigners, sets out to tax the freemen of England dry. The true Englishmen finally rise up, demand a great charter of rights from their ruler, and then fight the Continental invaders on the beaches and on the landing grounds.
Gerald Celente on Jeff Rense 13 May 2010
Aspen Movie Map
inventinginteractive.com
Forerunner to GoogleMaps
I don't remember when, or where, I first saw the Aspen Movie Map, but I do remember thinking that it was really cool - representing a new digital media world that I wanted to get involved with. Created in the late 1970's, the Aspen Movie Map was a groundbreaking interactive virtual tour of the real-world city of Aspen, Colorado. Users could navigate the streets, go inside selected buildings, and change the seasons between fall and winter. The project was created by Michael Naimark with Peter Clay and Bob Mohl, under professor Andrew Lippman at MIT's Architecture Machine Group (a predecessor to the Media Lab).
Made by the USA: Thank a G-Man for Today's Tech
How government R&D results in commercial computer technology.
Purpose: Create a multimedia system to quickly acclimate soldiers to new environments. The project ran a car with four cameras through the streets of Aspen, Colo., to film ahead, behind and to both sides, then reproduced the images on touchscreens that enabled viewers to navigate through the city.
Inside the CIA's Extreme Technology Makeover, Part 1
By Thomas Wailgum, CIO.com - PCWorld.com Technology: The 'Lifeblood' of the CIA
Technology is a vital piece of the CIA's overall change, and Tarasiuk knows it. "IT is the lifeblood of this organization," he says. "I'm trying to eliminate the technology iron walls that have existed in the past" inside the agency. However, long-standing interagency rivalries (the FBI and CIA, for instance, have an intense mutual dislike and distrust) won't vanish overnight. Then there are the ongoing controversies, such as allegations that CIA officers tortured detainees and were involved in such activities at secret prisons, or "black sites," in foreign countries.
Bill for Afghan War Could Run Into the Trillions
by Eli Clifton - Antiwar.com
The U.S. Senate is moving forward with a $59 billion spending bill, of which $33.5 billion would be allocated for the war in Afghanistan.
However, some experts in Washington are raising concerns that the war may be unwinnable and that the money being spent on military operations in Afghanistan could be better spent.
"We're making all of the same mistakes the Soviets made during their time in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, and they left in defeat having accomplished none of their purposes," Michael Intriligator, a senior fellow at the Milken Institute, said Monday at a half-day conference hosted by the New America Foundation and Economists for Peace and Security.
Thailand Clashes Persist as Curfew Ends, Fires Burn
By Daniel Ten Kate and Supunnabul Suwannakij
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Thai security forces clashed with rioters at a Bangkok shopping center as an overnight curfew ended, with several fires still burning a day after the forced surrender of anti-government protesters left 16 people dead.
"Physically we can rebuild Bangkok quickly, but I don't know how long it will take to cure the psychological damage," Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said in an interview with Channel 7. "We will never forget May 19 in our life time."
Empire - BRIC: The new world order
April 29, 2010 - Brazil, Russia, India and China are booming whilst many other countries are struggling economically, or even crashing. When their leaders recently convened in Brasilia for their second BRIC summit, they all underlined their commitment to a more democratic global governance. Will the emerging powers change the way the world works, or merely grab a bigger share of it? And what future for Brazil on the world's summit?
Zbigniew Brzezinski Talks New World Order
& Fears The Mass Global Awakening
VAT's Next?
By G. Tracy Mehan, III - AmericanSpectator.com
A European-style value-added tax, or VAT, seems to be heading nowhere fast, notwithstanding Delphic pronouncements by Obama administration officials, including the President himself, which seem to keep it open as a real possibility. The U.S. Senate voted, overwhelmingly (85-13), for a resolution offered by John McCain (R-AZ) which stated that "It is the sense of the Senate that the Value Added Tax is a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery." The VAT is a national sales tax imposed at various stages from production to final consumer purchase.
Pfizer to slash 6,000 jobs, shut 8 plants worldwide
Crain's New York Business The world's biggest drugmaker says it will cut 6,000 jobs and cease operations at eight plants in Ireland, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. by the end of 2015.
(AP) - Pfizer Inc. said Tuesday it will cut 6,000 jobs as it trims its manufacturing capacity worldwide after acquiring smaller rival Wyeth last year.
The world's biggest drugmaker says it will cease operations at eight plants in Ireland, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. by the end of 2015, and reduce operations at six other plants over the next several years. The plants make a range of pharmaceutical and consumer health products. Overall, the company operates 78 plants internationally and employs about 116,000 workers.
The New York-based company said in April it would cut 20,000 jobs as part of the Wyeth integration.
Gulf Oil Leaks Could Gush for Years
Christine Dell'Amore
"We don't have any idea how to stop this," expert says.
If efforts fail to cap the leaking Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico (map), oil could gush for years - poisoning coastal habitats for decades, experts say. Last week the joint federal-industry task force charged with managing the spill tried unsuccessfully to lower a 93-ton containment dome over one of three ruptures in the rig's downed pipe.
Europe's Deliberate Mistake
By Richard Palmer - theTrumpet.com Is Greece's economic collapse a case of accidental death, suicide, or something more sinister?
How did they get it so wrong? Greece's economy is so bad that Greek President Carolos Papoulias said his country has "reached the edge of the abyss." The Greek mess threatens the safety and stability of the entire eurozone. The common currency could be destroyed.
Many commentators - especially the Euroskeptic ones-point out that the project seemed bound to fail from the start. What they miss is that this is literally true. The euro project really was bound to fail - or at least to come close to doing so. It was designed to do so. This may be a crisis, but it is a carefully planned one.
It Could Have Had Class
By: Peter Schiff - GoldSeek.com
Last week, the European Central Bank abandoned all pretense that the euro would be the worthy heir of the Deutsche mark; based on the enormity of the nearly $1 trillion bailout of Greece and the moral hazard it creates for other spendthrift member-states, the euro is instead on its way to becoming the worthy heir of the drachma. While the bailout was intended to restore calm to the continent, thereby strengthening the euro, the result is a currency that has lost its shot at glory. Like Terry Malloy... it coulda been a contender.
Swaps Soar on Germany's 'Act of Desperation': Credit Markets
By Shannon D. Harrington and Pierre Paulden
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- Credit-default swaps soared on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to ban speculation on European government bonds, with the contracts sparking concern among investors about increasing government regulation.
The Markit CDX North America Investment Grade Index Series 14 climbed 12.17 basis points to a mid-price of 120.67 basis points in New York, according to Markit Group Ltd. The increase in the index, which typically rises as investor confidence deteriorates, was the second-largest since March 2009.
German regulator issues naked short-selling ban
By GEIR MOULSON (AP) - 3 hours ago
BERLIN - Germany's market regulator announced a ban Tuesday on so-called naked short-selling of eurozone government debt and shares of major financial companies, a move that came as European officials seek to strengthen control of markets.
The regulator, BaFin, said the ban - which was to take effect at midnight Tuesday and run through March 31 of next year - also would apply to naked credit default swaps involving eurozone debt. The move, it said, was aimed at upholding financial stability amid the continent's persistent debt crisis.
Still, the ban itself appeared to underline markets' concerns about European policymaking, and the euro fell Tuesday evening. It bought around $1.22, after trading well above $1.23 earlier in the day.
Euro, Stocks, Copper Tumble as Germany Bans Naked Short Sales
By Patrick Chu
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The euro slid to a four-year low against the dollar, and stocks and copper tumbled after Germany banned certain bearish investments, fueling speculation that European debt crisis will worsen.
The euro fell below $1.22 for the first time since April 17, 2006, trading at $1.2159 at 10:05 a.m. in Tokyo. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.9 percent to 115.33. Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures decreased 0.9 percent following a 1.4 percent plunge in the U.S. benchmark at yesterday's close in New York. Treasuries surged, sending the 10-year note's yield down 11 basis points to 3.37 percent. Copper for three-month delivery declined 2.7 percent.
Fed to Blame for Gold Surge, Currency Woes
by Ron Paul: Fed Audit Under Fire
The Federal Reserve's practice of indiscriminately printing money is the chief culprit that has led to the surge in gold and demise of the euro, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) told CNBC Monday.
Gold and Silver Intermediate Targets
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
Both Gold and Silver bullion have inverse H&S formations 'working' on their weekly charts with the breakouts above their current necklines. As is easily seen on the gold chart below, this bull market move is a series of inverse head and shoulders bottoming formation as the gold bull struggles to rise against determined shorting from the bullion banks. Each formation is more properly called a 'consolidation formation in an uptrend' rather than a bottom. Gold is currently above the neckline which is around $1200. While it remains above this neckline, the target for this leg of the move would be $1350 as a minimum measuring objective.
Euro near 4-year dollar low as confidence slides
NEW YORK (AP) - The euro recovered slightly from a four-year low and the pound from a 14-month low against the dollar Monday with an economic recovery still fragile. The euro sank as low as $1.2237 in overnight trading, its weakest point since April 2006. In morning trading in New York, it bounced back up to $1.2350, still down from $1.2385 late Friday. The faltering euro dragged down other European currencies. The British pound tumbled to $1.4253, the weakest point since March 2009, in Asian trading before recovering to $1.4437 in the morning in New York, still down significantly from $1.4560 late Friday. The dollar traded at 1.1321 Swiss francs, up from 1.1308 francs late Friday. It had earlier climbed as high as $1.1445 francs, its strongest level since April 2009.
Funds embrace America in flight from risk
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk The world's fund managers have seen the sharpest drop in risk appetite since the dotcom recession, losing faith in the "Goldilocks" recovery as China chokes off credit and the fuse blows on sovereign debt.
The May survey of investors by Bank of America Merrill Lynch showed revulsion towards the euro and European shares as funds battened down the hatches for a global "growth shock", switching their affections to "safe-haven" America in record numbers. "Investors have capitulated on Europe, beaten down by sovereign debt concerns and faltering growth expectations," said Gary Baker, the bank's chief European equity strategist.
There's Always More Money to Print
By The Mogambo Guru - The DailyReckoning.com
05/18/10 Tampa, Florida - In my darker moments, usually just before I go freaking berserk and start yelling and screaming about how "We're freaking doomed!" from the idiotic Obama administration deficit-spending So Freaking Much (SFM) money and the idiocy of the Federal Reserve creating So Freaking Much (SFM) money, all of which is guaranteed - guaranteed! - to make consumer prices rise in a terrifying, catastrophic, ruinous inflationary spiral that will destroy us all, I sometimes get myself in the mood for a nice, long, loud Mogambo Banshee Wail Of Outrage (MBWOO) by merely mulling over the term "dynamic stochastic general equilibrium."
The Threat of Hyperinflation Real or Not?
By: Sol Palha - GoldSeek.com
Higher Gold and Petrol prices are one of the clearest signs that inflationary forces are gathering steam. Do not confuse inflationary forces with inflation; inflation is defined as an increase in the supply of money.
There are several reasons why inflation could become a threat in the years to come
Government spending is going through the roof; they seem to think that we will never have to pay this money back.
Unfunded liabilities for Medicare, social security, etc, add up to over $108 trillion. This is a ticking time bomb for everyone claims that our national debt is high but in comparison to the unfunded liabilities, the national debt is child's play.
As the Fed has dropped interest rates almost to Zero, it has very little firepower left. It could take rates to the negative level and pay people to borrow money; this will really stimulate the economy in the short run before burning it up completely...
Wall Street's flash crash prompts call for circuit breaker
Andrew Clark - The Guardian.co.uk Securities and Exchange Commission sets out plans to steady shares price
A so-called "flash crash" that sent shockwaves around Wall Street this month has prompted US financial regulators to propose a rule requiring a five-minute pause in trading in stocks and shares that experience a sudden move in price of more than 10%. The Securities and Exchange Commission last night set out plans for a "circuit breaker" to be applied across all US exchanges in which action would be frozen for a cooling-off period in stocks experiencing rapid lurches in price.
Roubini Says U.S. May Face Bond 'Vigilantes' Within Three Years
By Jennifer Ryan
May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. may fall victim to bond "vigilantes" targeting indebted nations from the U.K. to Japan in a potential second stage of the financial crisis, New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said.
"Bond market vigilantes have already woken up in Greece, in Spain, in Portugal, in Ireland, in Iceland, and soon enough they could wake up in the U.K., in Japan, in the United States, if we keep on running very large fiscal deficits," Roubini said at an event at the London School of Economics yesterday. "The chances are, they are going to wake up in the United States in the next three years and say, 'this is unsustainable.'"
Goldman to Face SEC Deputy Director in Subprime Suit
By David Glovin
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Lawyers for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will face Lorin Reisner, the deputy director of enforcement for the Securities and Exchange Commission, in the agency's lawsuit over the bank's use of subprime mortgage-backed securities. Reisner today filed a one-sentence "notice of appearance" in federal court in Manhattan, indicating he will participate in the case. Reisner, who worked at the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP before joining the SEC last year, was an assistant U.S. attorney in New York from 1990 to 1994.
The 25 Financial Institutions Most Likely To Default
Gregory White - BusinessInsider.com
Financial firms around the world have been under increased stress due to the sovereign debt crises of Europe and the resulting reduction in confidence in the global economy. We've outlined 25 companies, using data from CMA Datavision, which have the largest risk of default. Notably, Greek banks, Chinese real estate developers, and U.S. subprime giants show up big on the list. That default risk (cumulative probability of default) is measured through fluctuations in the company's CDS rating, and the height of that rating. The spread of each 5-year CDS is also listed.
The New Depression
Many economic observers have justifiably stated that the U.S. is in the midst of the greatest recession facing the nation since the Great Depression. In December of 2008, the National Bureau of Economic Research - the department responsible for categorizing our economic condition - finally acknowledged what most of Americans had known for some time: that the U.S. is officially in a deep and painful recession. It should be noted that no matter how bad things get NEBR refuses to use the term "depression." As the Treasury and Federal Reserve began pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the financial market in the final quarter of 2008, there were many who worried these actions would result in inflation - prices rise as the purchasing power of each dollar falls.
Inflation Destroys Savings
Mises Daily: by Ludwig von Mises and Bettina Bien Greaves
Everything that is done by a government against the purchasing power of the monetary unit is, under present conditions, done against the middle classes and the working classes of the population. Only these people don't know it. And this is the tragedy. The tragedy is that the unions and all these people are supporting a policy that makes all their savings valueless. And this is the great danger of the whole situation.
Keiser Report with Jim Rogers: Banks! Bailout! Scandal!
We're Not Out of the Housing Mess Just Yet
By: Dr. Jeffrey Lewis
Perhaps more than stock and bond investors, precious metals investors must be privy to important macroeconomic indicators. Of the most important is money supply, followed immediately by lending and credit availability. These three factors all come together to establish how expensive or inexpensive paper currencies are and how silver and gold should be relatively priced to their paper counterparts. Fear in Housing
The housing market that pushed the whole economy towards economic calamity is still in full swing today, and many believe the worst is yet to come. Thanks to exotic loans made to homeowners who couldn't afford the lifestyle they wished to have, mortgage resets at higher rates, and presumably higher monthly payments, will continue through late 2012.
Can tiny changes save Social Security? Report: Tweaks to taxes, benefits can eliminate shortfall
By Stephen Ohlemacher - AP via MSNBC.com
WASHINGTON - Social Security faces a $5.3 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years, but a new congressional report says the massive gap could be erased with only modest changes to payroll taxes and benefits. Some of the options are politically dangerous, such as increasing payroll taxes or reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security recipients. Others, such as gradually raising the age when retirees qualify for full benefits, wouldn't be felt for years but would affect millions.
BP 'pressured rig disaster workers to drill faster' The explosions on a BP oil rig which created a vast oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico followed pressure from the company to drill faster, according to one of the last workers to leave the doomed rig.
Safety problems also went unaddressed, according to Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, including damage to one of the rig's most important pieces of safety equipment, the blowout preventer. The fault he describes could have contributed directly to the disaster, which killed 11 people on on April 20.
Janet Napolitano's "Lesson Learned" About Big Government
By John Lillpop CapitolHillCoffeeHouse.com
As the Gulf oil crisis enters its fourth week of unabated failure through the combined efforts of the Obama administration and BP, at least one Obama bureaucrat has had an epiphany about the limitations of big government.
That would be Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, who, in rare moment of candor, admitted what conservatives have always known: As a rule, government run by liberals gets in the way and hinders, rather than helps.
OK, so those were not exactly Nappy's words, or even a reasonable paraphrase.
Still, as reported at politico.com, in part, Napolitano did put a well-deserved ding in the armor of her Marxist boss with these words:
"Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the first of several cabinet officials scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill this week, admitted the government has "limited capability and expertise" in dealing with such disasters in very deep water."
States: Can't Stop the Bleeding
By Robert Morley theTrumpet.com The death of a thousand cuts has arrived. The stimulus money is running out.
Budgets that cannot be balanced. Hidden debts. Poisonous derivative agreements. Union extortionists. Millions of retired public employees still spending money like their pensions are safe.
This is the situation facing America. And be assured: The pain is only starting. As bad as the tax increases and the cuts to public spending have been, they are nothing compared to what is coming. At least that is the conclusion of one of the New York Times's few realist reporters. State debt woes are growing too big to camouflage, warns Mary Williams Walsh, and states are getting desperate.
Conspiracy of Banks Rigging States Came With Crash
By Martin Z. Braun and William Selway
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- A telephone call between a financial adviser in Beverly Hills and a trader in New York was all it took to fleece taxpayers on a water-and-sewer financing deal in West Virginia. The secret conversation was part of a conspiracy stretching across the U.S. by Wall Street banks in the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market.
The New American Consumer Is Terrified Of Debt Even As The Economy Grows by Vincent Fernando, CFA - BusinessInsider.com
Carpe Diem highlights how credit card delinquencies are falling nicely, down four months in a row. "With fewer consumers late on their bills, the outlook for credit losses over the summer may be improving," says Reuters. Moreover, credit card debt fell to a 45-month low, as shown by Carpe Diem's graphic the right. Overall, as we've highlighted before, U.S. households reduced their total debt (inclusive of everything, mortgages, credit cards, etc) by $239 billion in 2009. Yes much of this is due to people defaulting on their obligations, but much needed financial adjustments are being made in the U.S., even if painfully.
Seattle passes Arizona boycott
PHOENIX BUSINESS JOURNAL - BY Mike Sunnucks
Seattle has joined Los Angeles and other U.S. cities in passing an Arizona boycott measure in response to the state's new immigration law, which gives police broader powers to arrest illegal immigrants. The Seattle City Council approved the boycott Monday. The Seattle measure calls for "federal-level immigration reform" and denounces "Arizona State Senate Bill 1070 (Arizona SB1070) as a step in the wrong direction." The measure requests that city agencies "refrain from sending employees to the state of Arizona and refrain from entering into new contracts with businesses headquartered in the state of Arizona."
Ariz. official dares L.A. to stage boycott
By Stephen Dinan - WashingtonTimes.com City would give up quarter of its electricity
The spat over Arizona's new immigration law expanded Tuesday as a state official dared Los Angeles to follow through on its new boycott by agreeing to give up the 25 percent of electricity the city gets from Arizona sources. In a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Gary Pierce said a boycott war is bad for both sides, and said he would "be happy to encourage Arizona utilities to renegotiate your power agreements" to end the electricity flowing to Los Angeles.
Orange County Official Calls California The "Frog In The Sub-Prime Frying Pan", Sees Risk Of Muni Default Crash
by Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com
For a public official, Orange County tax collector Chriss Street is pretty outspoken. He has his own blog with recent posts like: Goldman Sachs is out of lipstick. He also put out this report on the sorry state of California finances, which he describes as the "Frog In The Subprime Frying Pan." If politicians don't come together to do the right thing, he argues, a wave of muni defaults is coming. Note the piece draws extensive comparisons with Greece, so we're clearly not the only ones.
Predatory Mortgage Lending is Still Legal
Peter G. Miller - HuggingtonPost.com
With all the yelling and screaming in Washington regarding financial reform the fact remains that predatory lending remains perfectly legal and will be perfectly legal once a financial reform package is passed. "The Wall Street reform bill in Congress represents the strongest consumer financial protections in history," says President Obama. "You'll be empowered with the clear and concise information you need to make the choices that are best for you. We'll help stop predatory practices, and curb unscrupulous lenders, helping secure your family's financial future." Well, yes and no.
Lowe's dampens hopes for recovery in 2010
Dhanya Skariachan
(Reuters) - Home improvement chain Lowe's Cos issued a disappointing profit forecast for the rest of the year and dampened hopes for robust economic recovery in the second half, sending its shares down 3.8 percent.
The outlook was particularly surprising after Lowe's posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results. It also weighed on shares of larger rival Home Depot, which fell 1.4 percent ahead of its quarterly earnings report, due Tuesday. "If you look at some of the economic estimates that are out there, a lot of them have started to push out when the timeline is for recovery," Lowe's Chief Executive Robert Niblock said on a call with analysts. "So, for example, the thought was originally that home prices would bottom in the second half of 2010."
Senator Arlen Specter Is Defeated in Pennsylvania, AP Says
By John McCormick
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Arlen Specter was defeated in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, bringing an end to his 30-year Senate career a year after he switched from the Republican Party, according to the Associated Press.
Paul, tea party earn win in Kentucky
By ASSOCIATED PRESS - WashingtonTimes.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. | Rand Paul defeated Republican establishment favorite Trey Grayson in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, a closely watched race that was a test of the tea party movement's strength. Paul, the son of former presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, on Tuesday gave a tea party activist a key win in a statewide election that could embolden the fledgling political movement in other states. With 43 percent of precincts reporting, Paul was leading with 60 percent to Grayson's 36 percent.
Schumer Wants China to Join 'Candid, Public' Talks on Yuan Peg
By Sandrine Rastello
May 18 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senator Charles Schumer urged Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to ask China to join a "candid, public dialogue" that subjects the country's currency policy to more international scrutiny.
"China is failing to live up to this commitment" as a member of the International Monetary Fund, Schumer said in a letter released today, before Geithner leaves later this week for talks in Beijing. "Given China's past intransigence on exchange rate reform, we are not similarly optimistic that these high-level meetings will generate any significant breakthrough on this issue."
The Constitution or Utilitarianism?
Mises Daily: Monday, May 17, 2010 by David Gordon
Timothy Roth has in earlier work offered a penetrating criticism of modern welfare economics.[1] In Morality, Political Economy, and American Constitutionalism, he continues and extends this criticism; but he combines this with an unusual thesis. Not only is modern welfare economics wrong, he says: it violates the principles on which the American Republic was established.
The general theme of the book is, then, that both in its public philosophy and in its economics, our republic has strayed far from the Founders' vision. Preoccupation with preference satisfaction É has caused us to ignore, to deny or to forget what the Founders understood. (p. viii)
The Government as Identity Thieves
Texas Straight Talk
by Ron Paul (R), Congressman | FinancialSense.com
The spotlight remains on the Greek sovereign debt crisis as the riots continue. The terms of the Greek bailout from the IMF and Eurozone countries remain contentious with citizens on all sides. Europeans hate having their governments throw public money away as much as Americans do. The Greeks are not happy about having their taxes raised while their pensions and salaries are cut. Meanwhile, it is rumored by the Financial Times, AFP and others that Greece may spend more than it saves from austerity measures on arms deals with Germany, France and the US as a potential condition of receiving bailout funds. If true, it is certainly not unprecedented for the global military industrial complex to benefit from deals made by their friends in the central banking community. After all, war is the health of the state. The last thing big government proponents want is for peace to break out in the world.
U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade
by Arshad Mohammed
(Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto. The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, "operates under the rules of consensus decision-making."
Hitlery Clinton's Un Treaty To Supercede The Second Amendment
Obama [Slick Barry] THINKS he has a legal way to get around the Second Amendment! Not so! Not true! Treaties do not supercede the Bill of Rights! Treaties can not damage our Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms. It was for this very reason that a Bill of Rights was called for and created! Patrick Henry kept the Constitution from being accepted and signed because of the danger that it posed to our gun rights; however, he agreed to accept the 1789 Constitution IF a Bill of Rights were attached to it which would prevent any man-made legislation or other efforts to interfere with our God-given rights. No treaty can supersede the Bill of Rights, no matter what an ignorant president proposes. Man-made laws CAN NOT supersede the endowments man has received from the Creator.
United States Supreme Court Justice, Robert H. Jackson in 1943 said: "The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials, and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights, may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections." The keystone of the Bill of Rights is the Second Amendment. All of the other rights listed in the Bill of Rights, for their own existence, depend upon the existence of the principles within the Second Amendment. The existence of the 1789 Constitution depends upon adherence to the Bill of Rights!
U.S. Sovereignty is NOT over! Constitution Supercedes Treaties...
The WTO Now Controls Our Economy, Fate and Future
Economy In Crisis
The World Trade Organization is a powerful self-serving undemocratic organization, operating with no input or control by us and with no concern for what is in our best interest. The bylaws of the organization supersede our own Constitution, which is a total contradiction to the intent of our Constitution. The U.S. Constitution states that all treaties made under the authority of the United States become supreme law of the land. Our government, under pressure from foreign paid lobbyists, mistakenly invited the WTO to rule over us when they signed the treaty. Now we have no choice but to conform our laws, regulation and administrative procedures to the agreement, instead of to our own Constitution.
Philip J. Crowley
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs
Washington, DC
May 13, 2010
Recognizing the value of the Alliance of Civilizations as an important initiative seeking to improve understanding between cultures and peoples, the United States has joined the 119 member countries and international organizations in the Alliance's Group of Friends.
The Alliance of Civilizations, a joint Spanish-Turkish initiative under the auspices of the United Nations, was created in 2005. It has as its goal improved understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples, and across the world's many cultures, to help counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism.
Angry Protesters Descend on Washington, Target Lobbyists
By BRUCE WATSON - DailyFinance.com
On Monday, the Service Employees International Union, SEIU, stormed Washington, D.C., joining forces with the AFL-CIO and community organizing group National People's Action. A horde of protesters clad in SEIU's distinctive purple T-shirts roved along K Street, dropping in on some of the city's most powerful lobbyists and most prominent banks. SEIU's first visit was to a Bank of America (BAC) branch near Capitol Hill. The protesters filled the lobby, confusing customers and frightening tellers. The bank quickly shut down, and the protesters proceeded to Chinatown, where they blocked the intersection of 14th and K Streets, in the heart of the lobbying district.
Meltup - The beginning of a U.S. currency crisis and hyperinflation.
Happy Days Aren't Here Again
By Moshe Adler - TruthDig.com
The torrent of good news started before the first bailout dollars had even been paid. First, we were told that the bailout would prevent a significant increase in unemployment, and President George W. Bush even balked at extending unemployment benefits. Then we were told that without the bailout, the unemployment rate would reach 25 percent. Less talk about the unemployment rate followed when the story changed and we were told that the recession was actually over, since "the economy" was growing. Next we were told that we had turned the corner because the rate of unemployment was already decreasing. And finally, when the April unemployment figures were released on May 7 and showed that the rate of unemployment increased from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent, the bad news appeared beneath headlines that announced the arrival of what was apparently the best news yet. "Economy Gains Impetus as U.S. Adds 290,000 Jobs," read the headline in The New York Times. In the Los Angeles Times, the headline was "April Hiring Surge Largest in Four Years."
Meredith Whitney: European Banks MUCH Worse Off Than American Banks, Second Half For Stock Market Is Bleak Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com
You've got hundreds of billions of recapitalization's needed in Europe, says Meredith Whitney, who is speaking on CNBC this afternoon. And the fact that Europe is worse than the US is saying something, she says, since she's definitely still not positive on US banks. Other than that, her interview appears to be a rehash of her op-ed arguing that financial reform will kill jobs. "It could be very bad." As for specific aspects of financial reform that concern her: pre-emption (rules that would allow banks to move to different states and take advantage of lower interest rates in some markets) and interchange fees regulation.
Gold bullion is on its way to $1650 per ounce
By Jim Sinclair
Tomorrow is the first day Greece receives a tranche of emergency funding which of course caused some euro short covering from below 1.2236 to the present 1.2394. Recall I gave you the 121 1/2 to 122 1/2 as support under the break of 126. The present relationship, although short term, is that gold is moving in the same direction, of the US dollar. That means that as the US dollar falls markets interpret that as a relief of the euro crisis which results in longs taking profits and shorts establishing positions in gold. A softer dollar today as a product of short covering in the euro for very modest technical and fundaments tidbits means temporarily lower gold as the euro crisis has caused a rush to gold by euro holders. That relationship will stop, but the euro must cease first.
Gold New High
By: Howard Katz - MarketOracle.co.uk
The recent price action in gold provides many examples of good speculation. Indeed, good speculation is not complicated. The main problem with modern speculative analysis is that it is so full of false theories. It reminds me of Ronald Reagan's statement, "Well the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant. It is that they know so much that isn't so." (Of course, in my book that could be a pretty good definition of stupid.) The problem with modern speculation is that there are too many mathematicians in the field who are trying to show off how much mathematics they know. Somebody has to say to them, "Stop, simplify. When you learn a new principle, ask yourself, does this work in practice?" Because, if it doesn't work, then your brokerage account is not going to grow bigger.
Jim Rogers on Goldseek Radio
"Panicking German dealers" on a "Gold Rush Frenzy"
By Rocky Vega - The DailyReckoning.com
5/17/10 Stockholm, Sweden - Over the past few days multiple sources are reporting that German banks are getting cleaned out of their gold bullion supplies. They are being forced to seek additional stock outside of Europe, in particular from South Africa and its popular krugerrand coins. From the Financial Times' coverage of "Germans lead gold rush frenzy" "Panicking German dealers and banks have been desperate to get their hands on krugerrands, the world's most popular gold coin."'We have some extraordinary sales to German customers,' says Deborah Thomson, the Rand treasurer. The refinery, which usually sells 2,000 coins to each customer at a time, says that last week it received an order from one German bank for 30,000 coins. Another bank requested 15,000 coins."
2010's coming stock market crash: 1987 all over again
By Shawn Tully,
(Fortune) -- In two tumultuous weeks in October 1987, the stock market shed nearly one-third of its value in perhaps the second most notorious crash in U.S. history. It could happen again. Don't be deceived by the rebounding economy, any more than the bulls should have been misled by the balmy climate during the late Reagan years. Right now, stocks are extremely vulnerable to the same scenario. The reason: The market is even more overpriced than when thunder struck on that distant Black Monday.
Robert Shiller Discusses U.S. Stocks, Investment Trends
Bank-Failure Tally Grows to 72 for 2010
By ROBIN SIDEL - WSJ.com
State regulators shuttered small banks in Illinois, Missouri, Georgia and Michigan, including a 23-branch community bank that failed despite having received an infusion from the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program. So far this year, 72 banks have collapsed and the spate of failures is expected to continue throughout 2010. Although there are signs that the worst of the financial crisis may be over for the banking industry, financial institutions are still being battered by severe losses on mortgages and commercial real-estate loans.
Roubini: Politics Are Now the Main Problem
By JANE L. LEVERE - DailyFinance.com
Famous for his bearish views, Nouriel Roubini is not overly concerned about a double-dip recession occurring in the U.S. right now. But he is worried about the potential economic impact of the political gridlock he says is crippling Washington. In a conversation last week at the 92nd Street Y in New York with Matthew Bishop, American business editor of The Economist, Roubini, who teaches economics at New York University's Stern School of Business and famously predicted the global economic meltdown back in 2006, said he expected economic growth in the U.S. to be 2% over the next few years, with unemployment hovering between 9% and 10%. "There is a two-thirds probability of my basic scenario of a moderate recovery, maybe a 20% probability of a double-dip," he said.
Now This Is A Deflationary Collapse
Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova - BusinessInsider.com
Dr. Copper's prognoses for the world economy is very grim. Even as the market managed to produce some gains, the bellwether metal got crushed today, and over the last month its taken a monster loss. How come? Well, growth fears, a surging dollar, and perhaps a real slowdown in China to name a few things. A return to recession in Europe isn't helping much.
Currency crisis will spark hyperinflationary depression (Nov 2008)
The World Has No Money, And The Emperor Has No Clothes
Pravda via marketOracle.co.uk
Most of us are aware of the very old fairly tale by Hans Christian Andersen in which two weavers promise an emperor the finest suit of clothes imaginable, but from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "just hopelessly stupid". Well, in the fairy tale it turns out that nobody wants to admit that they are "unfit" or "stupid", so when the emperor parades before his subjects in his imaginary new suit of clothes, it takes a child to cry out: "But he isn't wearing anything at all!"
Well, many of us have been declaring that the world economy "has no clothes" for some time now, but when the anchor of NBC News declares it on national television it gets a bit more attention. During his recent appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, NBC's Brian Williams was asked about the world financial situation. His answer included this shocking statement: "The world has no money, and the Emperor has no clothes."
No Cure for Sovereign Default
By Eric Fry - The DailyReckoning.com
05/17/10 Laguna Beach, California - What happens when the fix is in, but nothing gets fixed? This troubling question has vexed the financial markets for the last several days. One week ago the Eurocrats amassed a $1 trillion war chest (of borrowed money) to "fix" the Greek debt crisis and stabilize the euro. Seven days into the mission, the Greeks are as bankrupt as ever and the euro has tumbled to a new four-year low. The European Central Bank - like British Petroleum - can't seem to figure out how to contain the mess they made, much less how to clean it up for good. Just like the crude oil gushing out of BP's underground well, Europe's sovereign debt crisis continues to gush out of control and threatens to wash up on the shores of Italy, Spain and Portugal.
We Are Still In The Early Stages Of Major Currency Devaluations
By: Miles Banner - MarketOracle.co.uk
For the year the gold price is up 10.25% in US dollars, 22.38% in Euros, and 27.85% in pounds (London PM fix). The HUI gold index is up 13.38% and the SPDR gold shares (GLD) is up 9.61%.
In the aftermath of the recent bail out by the IMF and ECB the markets are continuing to undermine the euro. On Wednesday the Austrian Mint told Reuters that they had sold more gold in the two weeks from 26th April than in the whole first quarter of this year. They went on to say that this demand was coming exclusively from Europe. Despite this increased demand from Europe the gold price has been held from spiking dramatically as bullion banks have rallied to short it. The bullion banks go big on shorts
In opposition to Europe's surge in demand, last week's Commitment of traders (COT) report showed bullion banks are still building huge short positions, betting against a rising gold price. The producers/merchant net short positions for gold commercials are at an all time high.
Ron Paul: Bubbles Will End - Fiat Money Doesn't Last!
It's the EU's Crisis now, but the US Could be Next
By Rocky Vega - The DailyReckoning.com
05/16/10 Stockholm, Sweden - The financial crisis that began in housing, and then with banks and insurers, has now moved onto the balance sheets of nations. And, among the fiscally unsound, it's the euro that is suffering the most. It recently hit a 14-month low in dollar terms, and the ongoing uncertainty facing the EU continues to break records for pessimism. According to MarketWatch:
"In early February, the cost of insuring against a sovereign default in Western Europe exceeded the price of similar protection against default by North American investment-grade companies. That was the first time this had happened, according to data compiled by Markit from the credit derivatives market...
Central Bank Buys Billions in European Debt
By JACK EWING - NYTimes.com
FRANKFURT - The European Central Bank disclosed Monday that it had bought 16.5 billion euros in bonds in the first week since taking the unprecedented step of intervening in markets to halt a sell-off of Greek and other European debt. The bank did not say which countries' debt it was buying, how much it would spend in the future, or whether it bought any corporate bonds. The 16.5 billion euros ($21 billion) was considered a relatively small amount for the market. Analysts said the bank would want to keep investors guessing to maximize the psychological impact of the move.
E.U. faces tough questions as euro continues to slide
By Anthony Faiola - Washington Post
LONDON -- The once-mighty euro, which briefly plunged to a four-year low against the dollar on Monday, may be doomed to keep falling whether or not European leaders can contain the region's roiling debt crisis. The euro clawed back from a deep spiral in Asian trading Monday, closing down 0.2 percent at 1.239 against the dollar. But after its slide of almost 4 percent against the greenback over the past week, analysts say the euro's continued fall over the coming months may be inevitable given the economic turmoil gripping the region.
Euro Hits a 4-Year Low, Unsettling Markets
By CHRISTINE HAUSER and DAVID JOLLY - NYTimes.com
Stocks staged a late rally and closed slightly higher on Monday, rebounding from a broad early decline rooted in concern that Europe's debt problems could slow the global economic recovery. "There was volatility, but people felt pretty comfortable. They were just waiting for a rally," said Bart Barnett, head of listed trading at Morgan Keegan. "Earnings were halfway decent and people were not in such a hurry to sell stocks. I felt like there was a little more confidence in the market today," he said. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped more than 180 points during the day, but started rallying in the afternoon. The index closed up 5.67 points, or 0.05 percent, at 10,625.83.
Everyone's Still Selling PIIG Debt, As PIMCO Warns ECB Intervention May Be "Backfiring"
Joe Weisenthal - BusinessInsider.com
This weekend already has a strange feel to it. After Friday's tailspin in Europe (followed by a more modest, but pronounced decline in the US), it certainly feels like Eurozone leaders should be gathering, working out some kind of solution. But that was last weekend. Ostensibly there's nothing more to do, except for the PIIG nations to tap their aid, and for the ECB to soak up bonds on the secondary market, and then of course just cross your fingers. Except there's clearly a lack of confidence that this will work.
ECB reveals €16.5bn bond purchases
By David Oakley and Peter Garnham and Ralph Atkins - FT.com
The European Central Bank has bought €16.5bn of eurozone government bonds as part of international rescue plan, amid widespread investor concern that the intervention is not yet big enough to stabilise debt markets. The euro on Monday fell to its weakest level against the US dollar since April 2006 in spite of the €750bn international support package and central bank intervention. The euro has fallen 14 per cent against the dollar this year.
Banks dump Greek debt on the ECB as eurozone flashes credit warnings
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk Foreign holders of Greek and Portuguese debt have seized on emergency intervention by the European Central Bank to exit their positions, leaving eurozone taxpayers exposed to the credit risk.
The Bank of New Mellon said its custodial data showed a "sharp acceleration" of net sales of debt from the two countries after the ECB began purchasing €16.5bn of bonds from southern Europe and Ireland in bid to halt market panic. "It rather suggests that investors leapt at the opportunity to clear their balance sheets of intolerable risk," said Neil Mellor, the bank's currency strategist. "This leaves the ECB itself in an unpleasant situation since it now faces a deterioration in its own balance sheet."
Europe's Debt Crisis Casts a Shadow Over China
By KEITH BRADSHER - NYTimes.com
HONG KONG - The pain of the European debt crisis is spreading as the plummeting euro makes Chinese companies less competitive in Europe, their largest market, and complicates any move to break the Chinese currency's peg to the dollar. Chinese policy makers reached a rough consensus early last month about breaking the dollar peg and letting the currency, the renminbi, rise in value somewhat, according to people close to Chinese currency policy makers. Uncoupling the currencies would make American goods more competitive against Chinese products. But for various reasons, China has not yet put that policy into place.
Charlie Rose - Elizabeth Warren
U.S. regulators sued over BP's Atlantis platform
(Reuters) - A consumer group and a whistle-blower asked a U.S. federal court on Monday to stop production at BP Plc's Atlantis platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico until safety documents are produced.
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Houston alleges the British oil giant, who operates the ruptured well gushing oil off the Gulf Coast, lacked proper final engineering documents for key subsea equipment for Atlantis. The Atlantis platform, a major facility operated by the British oil giant in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, is more than 150 miles south of New Orleans, in Green Canyon at a water depth of 7,070 feet. The company produces oil and gas from more than 20 fields in the Gulf.
Reid: BP's "Greed" Caused Gulf Oil Spill, 11 Deaths
HARRY REID (D-NV): "Their greed led to 11 horrific and unnecessary deaths. It has harmed an enormous tourism industry, threatened business at countless fisheries and disrupted life for many along the Gulf Coast. As the pollution grows worse, those consequences will only compound."
BP and the 'Little Eichmanns'
By Chris Hedges
Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die. They ruthlessly exploit the natural world and the members of their society in the name of progress until exhaustion or collapse, blind to the fury of their own self-destruction. The oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, estimated to be perhaps as much as 100,000 barrels a day, is part of our foolish death march. It is one more blow delivered by the corporate state, the trade of life for gold. But this time collapse, when it comes, will not be confined to the geography of a decayed civilization. It will be global.
The End of Cheap Oil?
By Bill Bonner - The DailyReckoning.com
05/17/10 Beijing, China - Deep Do-Do Horizon "Following the Gulf disaster it will be a long time before any new permits are issued for drilling for oil in the Gulf" said Rick Rule, at the Family Office get-together this weekend. And this from Bloomberg:
Senators from California, Oregon and Washington introduced legislation to ban oil drilling off the West Coast amid mounting concern about the spill in the Gulf of Mexico. "We believe that offshore oil drilling is simply not worth the risk," Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat of California, told reporters today in Washington. The measure would amend the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to impose a permanent ban on drilling off the three states.
Spanish demonstrate against austerity measures
The Sidney Morning Herald
Thousands of Spaniards demonstrated Sunday in central Madrid against austerity measures that a new poll showed has dented the support for the Socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. As many as 15,000 people joined the march against the belt-tightening measures worth 15 billion euros (18.6 billion dollars) that Zapatero announced in a new bid to shore up Spain's public finances after stocks plunged over fears it could follow Greece into a debt crisis.
Debt overload, and the hunt for a successor to U.S. bonds
By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
Abandoning Treasurys for comparatively safer bets, from Australia to Brazil
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- For generations, holders of bonds issued by Uncle Sam have banked on the bedrock principle of the government's "full faith and credit," which had no peer among other nations. Today, with a financial maelstrom saddling the United States and rival industrial powers with unprecedented debt obligations, even the monolithic dominance of Treasurys is in doubt.
The second debt storm
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
Who will bail out the countries that bailed out the world's corporations?
The debt mountain that brought down some of the world's biggest banks and dragged the international financial system to the brink of disaster has simply shifted to governments. Now it's threatening countries around the globe -- and, if left unchecked, could rip the very fabric of Europe's economic system and wreck economic recoveries in the U.S., China and Latin America.
How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
Toxic CDOs Beset FDIC as Banks Fail
BY ROBIN SIDEL - WSJ.com
The FDIC has inherited hundreds of potentially worthless bonds that have come back to haunt the Wall Street firms that sold them, the credit-rating firms that graded them and the hundreds of small banks that bought them. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and by extension the U.S. taxpayer, owns more than 250 collateralized debt obligations that were purchased by small institutions that later failed. Although the bonds have a book value of more than $400 million, they are a headache for the agency as it grapples with the toxic assets flowing from many banks around the country.
Credit card overhaul cuts bank fees by $5B
By Kathy Chu, USA TODAY
New credit card and overdraft restrictions will save U.S. consumers from being charged at least $5 billion in fees this year alone at the largest U.S. retail banks and credit card companies, a USA TODAY analysis reveals. The analysis - based on institutions' own estimates - comes during a year when new rules are kicking in to address unfair credit card rate increases and steep bank overdraft fees. It highlights the sizable dent these rules will have on an industry blamed for pushing consumers deeper into distress during the recession.
Fidelity National Takeover Talks Fail
By PETER LATTMAN
The pending takeover of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. collapsed late Monday, with a Blackstone Group-led consortium dropping its plan to acquire the financial-data processor, according to a person familiar with the situation. Fidelity National's board had asked for a "substantial increase" above the $32-per-share bid the private-equity firms had proposed, said a person familiar with the deal talks. The two sides couldn't reach an agreement on price, this person said, and the investor group backed out of the deal. Late Monday, Fidelity National shares dropped nearly 10% in after-hours trading, to roughly $26 each. (Fidelity National is unrelated to mutual-fund company Fidelity Investments.)
US to see a double dip in housing: Meredith Whitney
Mortgage Mods Doomed by Back End Debt
By: Diana Olick - CNBC.com
Much like America's waistlines, the Treasury Department's monthly report on the Home Affordable Modification Program continues to grow. What started as a four-page report has now reached ten pages, with the latest addition to the "lender accountability" category: Conversion Rate and Aged Trials as Share of Active Trials. Don't get me wrong, these provide a lot of insight into why so many borrowers are not getting permanent modifications. The top four lenders (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and CitiMortgage) take up the bulk of the bottom slots on the Conversion Rate chart. All four convert less than 26 percent of trial mods to permanent mods.
Home builders' index hits 33-month high
By Rex Nutting, MarketWatch Developers more confident, even with tax credit expiring
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. home builders gained confidence in May in the market for new single-family homes, sending the monthly builder's index to the highest level in 33 months, according to a trade group. The housing market index rose three points in May to 22 after a four-point increase in April, the National Association of Home Builders reported Monday. At 22, the index is at its highest point since August 2007, but it's still very weak in historic context: Before the current downturn, the index had been at 22 or lower just twice in its 25-year history. Read the full release on the NAHB Web site.
More homeowners choose to default on loans
Choosing not to pay has consequences beyond damaged credit scores
By Amy Hoak, MarketWatch
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- "Strategic defaults" are on the rise as more borrowers who are underwater on their home loans decide it's not worth it to stay current on their payments each month. That trend could have repercussions for the housing market, and for borrowers, in the future. Strategic defaults are when borrowers who owe more on their homes than they're currently worth choose to stop paying their mortgage but continue to meet other financial obligations, according to a definition by Morgan Stanley in a research report on the topic.
Florida Family Takes Over Foreclosed Home
Previously Occupied by Mayor
Doctors' Medicare payouts to be cut 21% June 1
By Julianne Pepitone,
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- For the fourth time this year, doctors face a potential huge cut in the fees that the government pays them to treat Medicare patients. Physicians will be hit with a 21% cut in Medicare reimbursements as of June 1, unless lawmakers decide to patch over the issue -- as they've done for years. Congress is now debating the matter, and to stop the cut lawmakers would have to vote to pass a new patch sometime in the next two weeks.
Israel plays wargame assuming Iran has nuclear bomb
By Dan Williams - AlertNet.com
HERZLIYA, Israel, May 17 (Reuters) - A nuclear-armed Iran would blunt Israel's military autonomy, a wargame involving former Israeli generals and diplomats has concluded, though some players predicted Tehran would also exercise restraint. Sunday's event at a campus north of Tel Aviv followed other high-profile Iran simulations in Israel and the United States in recent months. But it broke new ground by assuming the existence of what both countries have pledged to prevent: an Iranian bomb.
Iran's nuclear move may derail U.S. efforts on sanctions Agreement by Iran to send nuclear fuel abroad appears to sap some of the momentum for a new round of U.N. Security Council sanctions.
By Paul Richter, Christi Parsons and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times
An agreement by Iran to send much of its nuclear fuel abroad clouded prospects for U.S.-led plans to impose further economic sanctions on Tehran over its controversial nuclear development program. The proposal, brokered by leaders of Brazil and Turkey during an 18-hour session in Tehran and announced late Sunday, drew a reaction of cautious skepticism from the United States and its Western allies, who questioned whether it goes far enough to address longstanding concerns over the goal of the Iranian nuclear program. Iran says its effort is for civilian energy purposes only, but Western powers believe Tehran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Trilateral Commission Wants War With Iran
Paul Joseph Watson - Prison Planet.com
Trilateral Commission member Mikhail Slobodovsici, a chief adviser to the Russian leadership, unwittingly provided a revealing insight into the plans of the global elite during the group's recent meeting in Dublin Ireland, when he mistakenly told a We Are Change Ireland activist he thought was a fellow TC member that the globalists are planning a war with Iran.
According to Jim Tucker's fascinating report on the story, Slobodovsici also let slip to We Are Change Ireland's Alan Keenan that the Trilateralists and their BIlderberg counterparts are intent on exploiting the economic crisis to finalize plans for a world government, but that this agenda is being severely hampered by so-called "nationalists" who are becoming increasingly aware of the impact that global government will have on their freedom and standards of living.
"We are deciding the future of the world," Slobodovsici told Keenan. "We need a world government," he said, but, referring to Iran, said "we need to get rid of them."
CNN Brings Up Bilderberg & Trilateral Commision Talking Of Who Controls The World
Rick Santelli: Paper Gold Defaults and US Dollar Distortions
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
It is questionable whether Rick Santelli, maverick commentator on CNBC, gave Larry Kudlow the answer he was fishing for. Santelli brings up the question of a divergence between the paper commitments to gold ownership, with the claims outstripping the actual bullion available. Rick keys in on the ETFs, but other disclosures seem to indicate that the problem is much more serious and close than even he might know. The other point he raises of course is the distorted strength in the US dollar because of the outmoded structure in the DX index. It is heavily weighted to the euro, yen and the pound, which is hardly indicative of the state of the world trade or even GDP distribution perhaps.
FINALLY someone tells the truth over on CNBC
Once Bailed-Out Chicago Bank Closes - 2010 Failures at 72
eCreditDaily.com
A Chicago area bank with nearly $3.2 billion in assets - which had received an infusion of $84.8 million in federal bailout funds - was one of four failed banks closed by regulators, bringing this year's total to 72. The 23-branch Midwest Bank and Trust Company, of Elmwood Park, Illinois, had $2.42 billion in total deposits. Firstmerit Bank, of Akron, Ohio, will assume all the Midwest Bank deposits - paying the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. a premium of 0.4 percent - and has agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets. Midwest was among the first community banks to get federal bailout funds.
The Bailout of Big American Banks Has Cost Trillions More Than We've Been Told Washington's Blog - via InfoWars.com
Granted, the $700 billion dollar TARP bailout was a massive bait-and-switch. The government said it was doing it to soak up toxic assets, and then switched to saying it was needed to free up lending. It didn't do that either. Indeed, the Fed doesn't want the banks to lend.
True, as I wrote in March 2009: The bailout money is just going to line the pockets of the wealthy, instead of helping to stabilize the economy or even the companies receiving the bailouts:
Transocean cites 1851 law to limit spill liability
By Chris Kahn - AP - MSNBC.com Company tries to cap what it would pay if it loses lawsuits over rig blast NEW YORK - The company that owns the sunken Deepwater Horizon rig said Thursday it will petition a federal court in Houston to cap its overall liability from the incident at less than $27 million.
If successful, Transocean Ltd. would be left with as much as $533 million in insurance money from the failed venture. That's almost enough to cover the revenue the company was expecting from a three-year contract with BP PLC. However, it has also estimated additional expenses from insurance deductibles, higher insurance premiums and legal fees at about $200 million.
Gulf Oil SPILL: What a Lie
J. Speer-Williams - Infowars.com
Spill? The corporate media continues to call the volcano of continuous gushing oil, in the Gulf, a spill. How insulting. A volcano that shoots out a million gallons of crude oil a day, or a week, is hardly a spill. The common definition of a spill is the liquid that fell out of a container, a one time occurrence, not a massive flow that has no known end. An oil tanker can spill oil; but not Mother Earth, who has been, and still is, continuously gushing oil from 35,000 feet from within her bowels.
Ten-mile oil plume found beneath surface of Gulf of Mexico
Ed Pilkington in New York - guardian.co.uk, Spilled oil coagulating up to 1,300 metres below surface and as far as 20 miles away from sunk Deepwater Horizon rig
Ocean scientists in the Gulf of Mexico have found giant plumes of oil coagulating at up to 1,300 metres below the surface, raising fears that the BP oil spill may be larger than had been thought and that it might create huge "dead zones". Experts from the National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology have been traversing the area around the scene of the Deepwater Horizon, the oil rig that exploded and sank on 20 April.
Louisiana oil spill: toxic chemical fear over BP's clean-up efforts
Peter Beaumont - The Observer Officials, scientists and fishermen warn of threat to sealife in the Gulf of Mexico Scientists have raised urgent new concerns over the latest efforts to mitigate the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused by the oil rig explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon. Latest efforts to limit the environmental damage involve an untried deep-water technique, using a toxic dispersant that they believe may damage ocean life. But the new method has so far only succeeded in ratcheting up the growing controversy surrounding the spill.
BP's own probe finds safety issues on Atlantis rig
By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI and NOAKI SCHWARTZ (AP
HOUSTON - The company whose drilling triggered the Gulf of Mexico oil spill also owns a rig that operated with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents, which one official warned could "lead to catastrophic operator error," records and interviews show. In February, two months before the Deepwater Horizon spill, 19 members of Congress called on the agency that oversees offshore oil drilling to investigate a whistle-blower's complaints about the BP-owned Atlantis, which is stationed in 7,070 feet of water more than 150 miles south of New Orleans.
Survivor Recalls Deepwater Horizon Blast
Tells 60 Minutes "I Knew Something Bad Was Getting Ready To Happen"
(CBS) One of the last to escape the Deepwater Horizon oil rig tells "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley how he got away from the flaming platform and all the things that went wrong leading up to the blowout that killed 11 and caused the still-gushing oil leak. Michael Williams, chief electronics technician on the oil platform, speaks in his first interview in a report to be broadcast this Sunday, May 16, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
BP says it inserts tube into leaking Gulf well
By MarketWatch Success makes it more likely flow can be controlled by pumping it into a ship SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- BP PLC said Sunday it has successfully inserted a tube into the broken pipe leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico and siphoned off some of the oil to a vessel on the surface, according to media reports. That increases the chance that the company will be able to siphon off much of the oil now gushing into the sea, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition. The crude oil was stored on a drill ship and natural gas that accompanied the crude-oil flows was burned using a system on board, the Journal reported.
BP Reports Some Success in Capturing Leaking Oil
By SHAILA DEWAN - NYTimes.com
NEW ORLEANS - After more than three weeks of repeated efforts to stop a gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers achieved some success this weekend when they used a mile-long pipe to capture some of the oil flow and to divert it to a drill ship on the surface some 5,000 feet above the wellhead, company officials said on Sunday.
Insurers warn of price hikes as Deepwater Horizon losses head for $3.5bn Julia Kollewe - The Observer Reinsurers and Lloyd's of London say biggest loss in energy market since Piper Alpha will trigger rate rises
The insurance industry is forecasting a loss of up to $3.5bn (£2.4bn) from the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This will be the biggest energy insurance loss in more than 20 years, and could drive up premiums. According to Lloyd's of London insurer Catlin, the 20 April explosion, which triggered an undersea well leak, will be the biggest loss in the energy market since the explosion of the Piper Alpha platform in 1988. A spiral of reinsurance losses from that disaster cost Lloyd's £8bn between 1988 and 1992.
Geithner Tries to Calm Nerves Over Europe's Uncertain Fate
By JACK EWING and BRIAN KNOWLTON - NYTimes.com
FRANKFURT - Political leaders and central bankers on both sides of the Atlantic struggled over the weekend to persuade jittery investors that Europe would pull through its sovereign debt crisis, saying that it would be helped by a stronger-than-expected economic recovery in the United States. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, said the bank's decision last week to buy government bonds was a response to the worst economic crisis in Europe since World War II - possibly since World War I - and did not signal the start of an expansive monetary policy, with the specter of years of high inflation.
$1T eurozone rescue only buys time
By Juergen Baetz ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN (AP) -- The 750 billion euro ($1 trillion) rescue loan package only bought eurozone countries more time -- it didn't resolve the Continent's underlying debt problem, the European Central Bank's chief economist says. The market turmoil will calm down only if the 16 eurozone member states reform their economies and reduce their deficits, Juergen Stark told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper on Sunday. "We bought time, not more than that," he was quoted as saying, adding the euro was not in danger "but in a critical situation."
Greece mulls action against U.S. banks
By Demetris Nellas AP - WashingtonTimes.com
ATHENS (AP) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou declared he is not ruling out taking legal action against U.S. investment banks for their role in creating the spiraling Greek debt crisis. Both the Greek government and its citizens have blamed international banks for fanning the flames of the debt crisis with comments about Greece's likely default, actions that are causing the country's borrowing costs to soar.
In Europe, recklessness wins again
By Bill Fleckenstein - MSN Money What sort of example is bailed-out Greece setting for the Continent? A strapped Ireland looks on, wondering whether it would be better if every country defaulted.
Only somebody newly roused from a deep slumber would not know that the European Union and European Central Bank had unveiled a plan recently to shock markets into believing that the euro will survive, via a roughly $1 trillion rescue package. The EU and ECB promise to make it not inflationary -- that by means of sterilization. But if they decide to sterilize their bond purchases, I don't see how they'll be able to maintain low interest rates.
Forget the wolf pack - the ongoing euro crisis was caused by EMU
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
Jean-Claude Trichet tells us the world faced a second Lehman crash in the days and hours before EU leaders launched their €720bn (£612bn) defence fund. If the European Central Bank's president is correct, we are in trouble. The EU-IMF package is already unravelling. What will the West do for its next trick?
Mr Trichet was ash-white at the Brussels summit a week ago. He distributed charts of credit stress to every eurozone leader. By the time he had finished his hair-raising discourse, everybody round the table finally understood what they faced. "The markets had ceased to function," he told Der Spiegel. "There is still a risk of contagion. It can happen extremely fast, sometimes within hours."
IMF Urges Rich Nations to Cut Spending, Raise Taxes
By BOB DAVIS
WASHINGTON-The International Monetary Fund warned that wealthy countries need to cut spending substantially and boost taxes to keep debt levels from exploding and to avoid the kind of market reaction that engulfed Greece. "When markets react, they react all of a sudden and sometimes they go overboard," said Carlo Cottarelli, head of the IMF's fiscal affairs department. Athens' borrowing costs have soared and its stock market has tumbled as planned austerity measures have run into resistance. The EU and IMF recently signed off on a €110 billion ($145 billion) rescue package for the country.
The face of Europe is now changed for ever
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk The financial crisis that has engulfed the EU will not be solved by any quick fix As if the formation of the UK's first coalition government in 65 years wasn't enough drama for one week, events have been unfolding on the other side of the Channel that will change Europe's destiny, and perhaps Britain's too, for ever. The EU's 750 billion euro (£644 billion) salvage package might be born of necessity rather than design. But it is nevertheless a watershed development, which places the Continent unambiguously on the path to full fiscal and political union.
Geithner Says Europe's Crisis Won't Hurt U.S. Economy
By DOUGLAS MCINTYRE - DailyFinance.com
Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says the U.S. is unlikely to be hurt by any fallout from the European debt crisis. That's because "our economy is getting stronger. We're seeing a lot of strength, improvement and confidence," he tells Bloomberg TV. But there are reasons why he may be wrong.
The euro dropped below $1.25 this week on concerns that Greece won't be able to adjust its spending and that the Greek crisis would spread to Spain and Portugal. Deutsche Bank (DB) Chief Executive Officer Josef Ackermann expressed skepticism about Greece's financial future. Spain and Portugal have said they will adopt austerity measures.
$3,000 gold price "may yet prove conservative," says Rosie
by Prieur du Plessis - InvestmentPostcards.com
Although gold bullion is both a commodity and currency, it has lately become the world's currency of choice, i.e. a vote of no confidence in fiat paper. This is evident in the fact that the gold price has not only just made an all-time high in US dollar terms ($1,249 on Friday), but also in just about every other currency one cares to mention. I illustrated this in a post a few days ago, entitled "Meet the world's new currency of choice".
Gold is the only neutral currency
By Justice Litle - CommodityOnline.com
Does anyone know how to contact the Inter-Planetary Monetary Fund - the "IPMF"? I'm hoping maybe Alpha Centauri has some spare credit lines we can tap. Because if not, we could be in some seriously deep kimchee here... Seriously though. When the government runs out of money - or rather, the credibility to keep on printing it with abandon - who is left?
Peter Schiff Buy Gold it could go to $10 000/oz CNBC
Are central banks manipulating gold price?
By Daniela Cambone of Kitco News
Montreal (Kitco News) -- The issue of supposed gold market and price manipulation was battled out Saturday by GATA's Bill Murphy and CPM's Jeffrey Christian in a much anticipated debate. The Great Gold Debate - Gold market manipulation or general market forces - You Decide aired on a special edition of Financial Sense Newshour. Moderated by Jim Puplava, the debate aimed to settle the score on gold market manipulation. Is the gold market and price of gold being suppressed by central banks and bullion banks, questioned Puplava. "Or is the fact we operate in a fractional reserve system and there is leverage keeping the price of gold down?" he asked in his opening remarks.
Gold's 'ugly sister' gets a second look
By Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch Silver sparkles as gold plays fairy godmother
Silver's gains in recent months have significantly outpaced gold's, with silver climbing around 30% since early February, compared with gold's nearly 17% price gain. And some analysts say silver hasn't yet caught the attention it deserves. Investors "are not taking notice yet it looks like the world is far more focusing on gold," said Gijsbert Groenewegen, a managing partner at Silver Arrow Capital Management.
Euro; the Worst Is Yet To Come
By: Sol Palha, Tactical Investor - GoldSeek.com
I think it is a given that Greece will have to default, everyone knows this, but they are just playing cat and mouse for now. Most Greeks are dead set against the new Austerity measures and they will likely throw this government out of power for the new changes they have instilled. The next government will cater to the people's needs for fear of receiving the same treatment. Change is not wanted in Greece. The only way to fix this problem is if the nation as a whole understands that they have to go through a painful period of cuts, but as evidenced from the past riots this is not the case. The story below further substantiates our claims.
Volcanic Ash Threatens Travel Disruptions
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - NYTimes.com
LONDON (AP) -- Volcanic ash from Iceland could disrupt air travel in both Britain and Germany in the next few days, officials said Saturday. The British Department of Transport said there was a risk that parts of British airspace could be closed beginning Sunday and those problems could continue through Tuesday. The predictions are based on the continuing eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokul volcano and current wind and weather conditions.
Why is crude oil falling while gold is rising
By Monty Guild - CommodityOnline.com
Earlier this week, the markets cheered the announcement out of Europe of a bailout package by the European Union nations and the International Monetary Fund, and a decision by the European Central Bank to begin buying sovereign debt of weaker states. This bailout plan protects the sovereign bond markets for the short term, but does not solve any of the longer term problems in European bond, stock, and currency markets. In fact, they allow the problems to grow and fester without being addressed.
Is Ben Bernanke Having Fun Yet?
By SEWELL CHAN - NYTimes.com
NINE days ago, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, caught a Friday-night flight from here so he could address 1,100 graduates at the University of South Carolina the next morning about "The Economics of Happiness." After the speech, he took a call in his hotel room from Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, and the next day pledged billions of dollars to help Europe stave off a financial crisis - a flashback to the huge lending programs the Fed put together in 2008 to forestall economic collapse at home.
Bernanke: Why are we still listening to this guy?
Building Is Booming in a City of Empty Houses
By DAVID STREITFELD - NYTimes.com
LAS VEGAS - In a plastic tent under a glorious desert sky, Richard Lee preached the gospel of the second chance. The chance to make money on the next housing boom "is like it's never been," Mr. Lee, a real estate promoter, assured a crowd of agents, investors and bankers. "We're going to come back like you've never seen us before."
Banks Ignore Delinquent Borrowers
By: Diana Olick - CNBC Real Estate Reporter
Some encouraging signs on the foreclosure front may not be as rosy as some are reporting. RealtyTrac, the online foreclosure sale site, shows a 9 percent dip in the number of properties with foreclosure filings in April, month-to-month.
The driver of that dip is a big drop in new notices of default. The final stage of foreclosure, that is bank repossessions (REO) shot up to a new record high, up 45 percent from a year ago.
When I first read the report I thought, okay, we knew there was a big pipeline of loans that would not get modified and would have to come out the end at some point; now is that point. The fact that fewer loans are going into the pipeline should be our focus, and that's a positive. That's what I thought until I interviewed RealtyTrac's Rick Sharga.
Strategic Defaults: A Misnomer
Steven and Debra Wallace - TheEndTimesHoax.com
Obviously, there are three sets of opposing and sometimes conflicting emotions involved in the debate on strategic defaults. Existing homeowners are often fearful there will be a stampede toward the exits and that their home values will suffer a decline. They tend to advocate the moralist position by declaring that others who walk away are immoral for doing so. Non-homeowners are greedily looking for the best value and are anticipating much lower prices. They are licking their chops for a stampede of homeowners who've thrown in the towel. A third set of mixed emotions involve a combination of fear and greed. There are those who see an inevitable stampede coming and don't want to be left behind and they hope to minimize or off-set their losses by walking away now, before their neighbor does, and buying back later when prices are much lower.
Obama Threatens Veto of Obamacare as Cost Estimates Soar Above $1 Trillion MoneyNews.com
Reacting to the surprise announcement that congressional budget referees now predict healthcare reform could top $1 trillion, the Obama administration threatened Wednesday to veto parts of its own healthcare bill. The politically explosive revelation, which is likely to give new impetus to the GOP's repeal movement, came after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said the law potentially could add at least $115 billion to government healthcare spending over the next 10 years.
Millions of jobs that were cut won't likely return
By Christopher S. Rugaber, AP - USAToday.com
WASHINGTON - Fewer construction workers will be needed. Don't expect as many interior designers or advertising copywriters, either. Retailers will get by with leaner staffs. The economy is strengthening. But millions of jobs lost in the recession could be gone for good. And unlike in past recessions, jobs in the beleaguered manufacturing sector aren't the only ones likely lost forever. What sets the Great Recession apart is the variety of jobs that may not return.
Sarah Palin: 'We're all Arizonans now'
Telegraph.co.uk Sarah Palin has defended a new law cracking down on illegal immigration in Arizona claiming: "We're all Arizonans now".
She blamed Barack Obama for the moves, saying tough measures were needed because the federal government wasn't enforcing the law. "It's time for Americans across this great country to stand up and say, 'We're all Arizonans now,"' Palin said. "And in clear unison we say, 'Mr. President: Do your job. Secure our border."'
Texas schools board rewrites US history with lessons promoting God and guns Chris McGreal, Houston - guardian.co.uk, US Christian conservatives drop references to slave trade and sideline Thomas Jefferson who backed church-state separation
Cynthia Dunbar does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.
Ron Paul in Iowa: Freedom is the Answer
Joe Lieberman's Fascist agenda to strip Americans of their Constitutional Rights BlackListedNews.com
Senator Joe Lieberman is sponsoring a Bill with Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown called the "Terrorist Expatriation Act" that would strip terrorist suspects on their citizenship. The bill applies to any American that supports a foreign terrorist organization or any organization that is deemed a supporter of terrorism by an ally of the United States. The bill gives the State Department the power to determine who is a terrorist and strip away their citizenship.
Obama Administration Proposes Rolling Back Fifth and Sixth Amendments
WASHINGTON - President Obama's legal advisers are considering asking Congress to allow the government to detain terrorism suspects longer after their arrests before presenting them to a judge for an initial hearing, according to administration officials familiar with the discussions. If approved, the idea to delay hearings would be attached to broader legislation to allow interrogators to withhold Miranda warnings from terrorism suspects for lengthy periods, as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. proposed last week.
Hispanic Anger Should Be Focused At Globalists
Stephen P. Fuller - Infowars.com
Sure, Robert Rodriguez' new Machete has it all; false flag terror, media sex-psychology, bigoted "progressive" racial stereotyping, and all sandwiched into the ratification of caste system violence in reaction to false populism. But should the Hispanic populations of the world focus their influence at the population of the US or at the globalists?
America has the one of the very best historical lores concerning mankind's search for a finer system of human liberty and balance with the rule of law. The value of a republic consisting of equal protection, balanced justice, property rights, unfettered expression, and connatural liberty is expressed through our shared, yet variable, commodious support of conservative principles, social populism, and the pursuit of responsible citizenship.
Foreign Companies Chafe at China's Restrictions
By KEITH BRADSHER - NYTimes.com
KUNMING, China - Foreign companies doing business in China are increasingly feeling as if the deck is stacked against them. China has filed more than a dozen trade cases to limit imports, imposed a series of "buy Chinese" measures and limited exports of some minerals to force multinationals to move factories to China. Foreign executives in China find themselves increasingly at odds with Chinese officials over these measures, which Westerners view as protectionist and intended to give an edge to Chinese companies. Surveys by Western chambers of commerce of executives show growing disenchantment over the past year and a sense that doing business in China, never easy, is growing harder.
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity: The Birth of a New Currency
by Randy Radic - LewRockwell.com
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity is the title of Ron Paul's essay for a "modern" gold standard. According to Paul, such a standard would end the relentless boom-bust cycle, and maintain the value of King Dollar. However, King Dollar would have to be founded on a monetary standard that eschews government tampering.
Paul begins his treatise by pointing out that "Congress alone is responsible for inflation, and Congress alone can stop it." Which means that the old scapegoats - OPEC, greedy CEOs, labor unions - are not the real cause of inflation. To support his contention, Paul relates a story told by Marco Polo in his travels through China. As Paul states, "Abuse of paper money led to the expulsion of the Mongol dynasty from China."
US Debt and Deficit Numbers Overlooked by the Mainstream
By Addison Wiggin - TheDailyReckoning.com
05/13/10 Baltimore, Maryland - Two big numbers made news yesterday as we approached the market close. No one, to our knowledge, made a connection between the two. But to us, the connection is screamingly obvious. And frankly, your financial future hinges on that connection. Here's the first number: $82.7 billion. That's the deficit the US Treasury posted last month. That's awful for April, which usually records a positive number, thanks to tax receipts flooding in around the 15th. Last year recorded a loss too. But that was only $21 billion. So this year, the bleeding is nearly four times as bad. For the record, the government hasn't posted a monthly surplus since that fateful pre-TARP month of September 2008.
Marine scientists study ocean-floor film of Deepwater oil leak
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent - guardian.co.uk,
One analysis suggests gusher is 70,000 barrels daily, or an Exxon Valdez every four days, and 12 times more powerful than estimates by Coast Guard or BP
Marine scientists were carefully viewing footage of oil and gas billowing out of a ruptured well on the ocean floor today, to try to deliver the first reliable estimates of the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico - it could be as much as 70,000 barrels a day. The video could help resolve the increasingly contentious debate about the scale of the disaster, and the oil companies' willingness to give access to any information. BP has claimed repeatedly there is no way of measuring the scale of the leak. The US Coast Guard, meanwhile, has stuck to an early estimate of 5,000 barrels a day.
Size of Oil Spill in Gulf Underestimated, Scientists Say
By JUSTIN GILLIS - NYTimes.com
Two weeks ago, the government put out a round estimate of the size of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico: 5,000 barrels a day. Repeated endlessly in news reports, it has become conventional wisdom. But scientists and environmental groups are raising sharp questions about that estimate, declaring that the leak must be far larger. They also criticize BP for refusing to use well-known scientific techniques that would give a more precise figure.
Why gold is acting as a currency
By Jim Sinclair
Gold traders today asked if the price should follow the general commodities lower or perform as the only vehicle in a major currency crisis that offers true safety moving higher. Gold will opt on this question to perform as a currency as that is what gold is inherently. With the euro now below $1.26, $1.2150 to $1.2250 is now in the cross hairs of the shorts. How deep do you think the entire Western world problems are when a trillion dollars of shock and awe publicly falls flat on its ass? The answer is incalculable and beyond reprieve.
The Mysterious Stagnation of M2 Money Supply
By The Mogambo Guru - The DailyReckoning.com
05/13/10 Tampa, Florida - I always make sure that I have taken all my pills before I look at the end-of-month money supply figures, which turned out to be a good idea, because M2 growth has been, as they say, quite anemic for the past several months. I think it's bad news, which seems paradoxical because I am always screaming my head off about how inflation in the money supply is a bad thing, because inflation in the money supply causes inflation in prices, which is The Thing To Be Feared (TTTBF) because that is going to destroy us, and yet here I am whining in Real Mogambo Terror (RMT) because the money supply is NOT increasing, thus apparently proving, as my wife says, that I "cannot be pleased."
JP Morgan: Gold Could Now Face 'Unlimited' Demand
Vincent Fernando, CFA - BusinessInsider.com
JP Morgan's John Bridges believes the latest breakout for gold was a huge positive sign for the metal. Euro weakness fears, coupled with dollar weakness fears, could lead to an enormous amount of demand: JP Morgan: A German banker once told us that gold normally trades like a commodity. However, when investors lose confidence in currencies, because the pool of gold is so much smaller than the pool of currencies, demand for gold can effectively become unlimited. We believe the European version of "QE" is generating serious currency worries and led today to the breakout of the gold price above the previous intraday high at $1,226/oz.
Gold steady as investors shun the euro
Reuters via BusinessSpectator.com
SINGAPORE - Gold edged up as investors turned their backs on the euro on worries that belt-tightening in Europe will slow growth, but the metal lacked fresh momentum to surpass a recent record high. Gold was heading for its fourth consecutive weekly rise, equaling a run that ended in late November. Bullion's safe haven appeal has increased on worries a $US1 trillion rescue package to prevent a Greek debt crisis from spreading to other euro zone states would eventually fail.
Gold market is not a bubble yet: John Doody
By Terry Wooten, Interviewed by Daniela Cambone of Kitco News
New York -- (Kitco News) -- Gold isn't in a bubble yet but concerns over inflation, soaring debt and the U.S. dollar have many people eyeing the precious metal as a hedge, according to John Doody, author and publisher of the Gold Stock Analyst. When asked if gold was in the bubble stage, Doody countered with a question of whether taxi drivers were telling their passengers that they should buy gold. If not, he said, "We're not in a bubble. Isn't that the classic definition of a bubble--when everybody has gold?" Doody said it may be on people's minds to buy gold because of the economic crises in Europe , the possibility of inflation and the health of the U.S. dollar. "It may be on people's minds, but we are not there yet," he said.
New "Gold to Go" ATM Launches
By Rocky Vega - The DailyReckoning.com
05/13/10 Stockholm, Sweden - On the run and need a quick 10-gram bar of gold? It's no problem if you live in Abu Dhabi, or are just crashing at The Emirates Palace a $10,000-a-night luxury resort.
OK, maybe it's not a problem you run into very often. It still sounds like an impressive innovation. According to CNBC: "With gold prices at record highs amid fears that the EU's rescue package will drive inflation higher, the ATM monitors the daily price of gold and offers small gold bars that weigh up to 10 grams with customized designs.
Now, a gold coin from Israel
JERUSALEM (Commodity Online): Now, Israel has jumped on to the bandwagon of gold coin business with international gold prices witnessing record levels in the past few days. This move has been long due as Israel has been mulling to launch a gold coin for sometime now. On Wednesday, Israel Coins and Medals Corporation unveiled the first Israeli gold coin, coinciding with Jerusalem Day. According to a press note by the corporation, there was great excitement among both international and Israeli coin collectors on the day of the initial offering of the first Israeli bullion coin. The Tower of David is the first in the Jerusalem of Gold series of gold coins that will be issued annually and depict a treasured historical site in Jerusalem. The coin contains 1 oz. of fine gold and has a face value of NIS 20.
Chinese investors dump real estate for gold
By Jon Nadler
Amid declarations that virtually 'unlimited' demand for gold is possibly in the cards, amid a 97% level of bullishness, amid visions of $15,000 (not a misprint) per ounce gold, and amid written guarantees of a 'new paradigm' having arrived, gold (and its current price) continued to receive a sufficiently high level of media attention to generate some 14,000 headlines over the past week. A simple Google News search will confirm as much. Not to mention the uber-ominous news item about a gold ATM making its debut at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi (the perfect place to make a quick 'withdrawal' in gold while the world around you flames out). Then again, if you just spent $10K on a night's lodging, perhaps the world flaming out is the least of your concerns (for now).
Vote on hedge funds threatens EU-US rift
By FT reporters
European countries led by France and Germany plan to push through controversial hedge fund regulations next week after turning down British pleas to defer a vote in Brussels. The refusal by Paris and Berlin to delay a decision on the new rules, which are opposed by the UK, has set up a bruising early confrontation with David Cameron's new government. The directive has also caused concern in the US. Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, wrote to EU officials in March warning that, if unchanged, the new regulations could trigger a transatlantic rift by unfairly locking US funds out of European markets.
Death of the euro
LewRockwell.com
Europe Has Given Up on the Euro, Says Jim Rogers
Legendary global investor and chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, Jim Rogers said Europe's bailout of indebted nations to overcome the sovereign-debt crisis is just "another nail in the coffin" for the euro as higher spending increases the region's debt.
Speaking in a Bloomberg interview in Singapore on Tuesday, Rogers said "I was stunned," adding "This means that they've given up on the euro, they don't particularly care if they have a sound currency, you have all these countries spending money they don't have and it's now going to continue."
Euro Breaks 14-Month Low as Debt-Cutting Steps May Hurt Growth
By Yoshiaki Nohara and Ron Harui
May 14 (Bloomberg) -- The euro headed for a fourth weekly decline, breaking through the 14-month low reached against the dollar last week, on concern European nations' debt-cutting measures will undermine economic growth.
The 16-nation currency touched the least in a week versus the yen before Greece submits a progress report tomorrow to the European Commission on the implementation of a deficit-red
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