Corruption Information 1105
The politics of greed is what keeps this world wrapped in corruption. If you want to stick around for a while longer, I suggest you educate yourself and try to do something constructive to help save what little good, honesty, and trust we have left.
A motto for us old vets: Take one with you!
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Go to 12598
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3656.html
The Great Depression 2008 - It can't happen to us....can it?”
Economics / Economic Depression
Feb 09, 2008 - 02:28 AM
By: Andy_Sutton
Webster's defines complacency as “1.satisfaction or contentment 2. smug self-satisfaction” There is probably not a better word to describe the current state of perception with regard to economic and financial malady. I had an interesting conversation the other night about exactly this topic and the individual I was speaking with had an overriding belief that we cannot suffer economically simply because the current generation is not prepared to deal with it. While I certainly agree with the latter assertion, the former continues to baffle me. I am certainly not prepared to deal with a lengthy hospital stay as the result of a horrific car crash, but that alone doesn't cloak me in immunity from having an accident. The reasoning is so broken and flawed, yet it is often all we get in terms of a perception of what is going on.
This disconnect begets a discussion of why exactly it is that society has chosen to believe itself to be immune from bad things. It is odd in itself that when you talk to individuals, they seem to be acutely aware of many of the challenges facing us, but when you put all the individuals together and create a society, we act as though the party will indeed last forever. We are certainly dealing with a situation in which the intelligence of the whole is by far less than the sum of all its parts. Here's a little bit of déjà vu for you, compliments of Wikipedia:
“ In the 1920s, Americans consumers and businesses relied on cheap credit, the former to purchase consumer goods such as automobiles and furniture and the later for capital investment to increase production. This fueled strong short-term growth but created consumer and commercial debt. People and businesses who were deeply in debt when price deflation occurred or demand for their product decreased often risked default. Many drastically cut current spending to keep up time payments, thus lowering demand for new products. Businesses began to fail as construction work and factory orders plunged.”
Sound familiar anyone? See any price deflation going on? The Wilshire 5000 has only lost about 2.5 TRILLION dollars in value in the last two months or so. What about the loss in home equity? Another trillion or two? Who knows, but I think you get the point. We are seeing almost to the final utterance the same play we saw unfold in 1929. Were those folks any more prepared for the Great Depression than we are today? I'd argue that while they were perhaps a bit better equipped to provide for their own sustenance that American society in the 1920's was as complacent as we are today. When the realization of history's coup de grace hits, we will be caught as unaware as our ancestors were back in 1929.
Here are some other examples of what Alan Greenspan likes to call ‘irrational exuberance' in the 1920's:
"We will not have any more crashes in our time."
John Maynard Keynes in 1927 (The authenticity of this one is a little suspect) DOW ~ 175
"There will be no interruption of our permanent prosperity."
Myron E. Forbes, President, Pierce Arrow Motor Car Co., January 12, 1928 – DOW ~ 200
"There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash." - Irving Fisher, leading U.S. economist, New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929 – DOW ~ 375
"All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed... and may only be opened in the presence of an agent of the I.R.S." - President F.D. Roosevelt, 1933 – DOW ~ 65
Tuesday morning we received news that according to the Institute of Supply Management, the service portion of our economy underwent a significant contraction during the month of December. This is alarming given the fact that December is normally one of the busiest times of the year. Even still, a trip past the local mall provides a busy scene. People are streaming in and out, carrying boxes and bags of imported trinkets to their imported cars. They will then use imported gasoline to drive to their home, the mortgage of which is likely to be owned by a foreign investor. Yet the average American citizen sees nothing wrong with this picture. Or could it be that they don't even see the picture at all? The media has certainly been playing the role of absentee informant in recent years, choosing to focus on such insipid topics as Britney Spears' latest rehab stint rather than the important business at hand.
Here now, are some quotes from this generation's 1929..in 2007 and 2008:
“It is encouraging that inflation expectations appear to be contained,” Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke – Testimony to Congress – March 28 th , 2007 – DOW ~ 12,500, Headline CPI-U ~ 2.8% Y/Y
"As I think you know, I believe very strongly that a strong dollar is in our nation's interest, and I'm a big believer in currencies being set in a competitive, open marketplace," - Henry Paulson – Secretary of the Treasury – USDX ~ 81.50
““We are making history. What has passed the Congress in record time is a gift to the middle class and those who aspire to it in our country.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the $168 Billion tax ‘rebate' while the middle class is spending their Wal-Mart Christmas gift cards on food and other necessities.
They're making history all right. Too bad it will end up being the WRONG kind. How can we ever hope to focus the population on the urgency of our current predicament when our leaders are willing to make it worse by handing our freebies, bailing out those who willingly make poor investment choices and telling us everything can be ‘free' if we'll only pull their lever on election day?
Or am I putting the cart in front of the horse? Perhaps a contrarian opinion might be that our leaders are giving the public exactly what it wants. In either case, I am quite certain that our state of unpreparedness will not constitute a free pass from the negative effects of a recession or a retraction of any of the financial excesses we've enjoyed over the past few decades.
Go to 12597
http://worldnews2005.tripod.com/id22.html
COMMENTARY BY KAFKA:
Electrical Conductive Plasma Environment
Over North America and other countries, aircraft are spraying / aerosoling chemicals and other substances into our atmosphere we breathe. The nature of the military / government aerosol programs are highly secretive and built on disingenuous explanations and lies originating at the highest levels of government and military.
As a result, our atmosphere has been changed from its normal condition into a deadly electrical conductive plasma environment. The modified chemical and electrical structure of the atmosphere is detrimentally effecting Earth soils, plant life, animal and human health. Government continues to stonewall and lie to American people.
Fox News reports green lightning in storms. Barium aerosol ionizes green as it electrically conducts from ground to sky.
We are first to report another casuality of released aerosol and substance from modified commercial, military and CIA contract aircraft. Evidence indicates build up of conductive oily powder substance on computer power supply circuits and motherboard or mainboard circuits are causing catastrophic failure of machine modules and resultant catastrophic component failure. Usually the power supply and motherboard will fail together rendering the entire computer machine destroyed. Repair technicians will never suspect the component failure was caused by aerosol from the sky.
We believe this condition is more evident in home and business computers because of the millions of computer machines in operation. The electrical conductive, oily powder aerosol is infiltrating everything, including our lungs.
Our country and American people are in desperate trouble. Millions are asleep and may not survive - the gathering is upon us.
--Kafka
COMMENTARY BY KAFKA:
THE COMING MONETARY COLLAPSE
Based on all information sources we are of the opinion that the Federal Reserve Note, our money system, is in a serious state of collapse. Again, the United States of America money system is collapsing and government continues to misrepresent this event to the people. Congress and bankers continue to perform in exactly the same manner that set up the collapse conditions we now face.
We believe within the next few weeks and months it will be obvious to all people that have eyes to see and ears to hear the truth. We were asked what event in past history would compare to the Federal Reserve Note, our "dollar" collapsing, degrading to worthless paper. Our answer was the Confederacy in 1865. But the collapse of the Confederate country and money system will not begin to equal the magnitude and seriousness of the coming U.S. currency, Federal Reserve Note collapse. Nothing is past history will compare to the coming collapse with its far reaching consequences worldwide. We cannot imagine the repercussions of the coming currency collapse. There is no safety net.
Go to 12596
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3657.html
Sovereign Wealth Funds - The Last Bastion's of “Dumb Money”?
Stock-Markets / Financial Markets
Feb 09, 2008 - 02:46 AM
By: Anthony_Cherniawski
In recent months, Wall Street has taken comfort in the idea that Sovereign Wealth Funds will come riding to the rescue of banks that are up to their eyeballs in subprime sludge. First Citigroup, then Merrill Lynch and a host of other commercial banks have reported receiving “injections” of capital to help them reinvigorate their balance sheets. Some $40 to $60 billion of new capital has been promised.
After having stepped to the plate so willingly last year, the Sovereign Funds are now having second thoughts. The $8 billion loan to Citigroup made last year was more than likely made to protect their prior investments from an outright collapse. And the Chinese are becoming more sophisticated about their money as well. They are growing resentful that they are being considered the last bastion of “dumb money” for troubled banks. They may be right.
Lets get the record straight. These Sovereign Funds are not buying the subprime mortgages. They are lending money to these banks so that they, in turn, can lend money to us. It might disturb people to know that Citigroup agreed to pay the Sovereign Fund of Dubai 11%. What interest rate will Citi have to charge its customers to meet overhead and pay back that loan?
Consumer borrowing is slowing down.
WASHINGTON (AP ) -- Consumers increased their borrowing in December at the slowest pace in eight months - additional evidence that economic activity was slowing significantly at the end of last year. For all of 2007, consumer credit rose at the fastest clip in three years.
Consumer credit, as measured by the Federal Reserve, does not include any debt secured by real estate, such as mortgages or home equity loans. The December report showed that revolving credit, the category that includes credit cards, rose at an annual rate of 2.7 percent in December, a significant slowdown from a 13.7 percent jump in November.
Unfortunately, consumers haven't yet come to the realization that these loans have to be repaid.
Bank failures…prepare yourself for them.
U.S. News & World Report tells us that, “A tiny bank in Kansas City, Mo., has become the first bank in the country to fail this year—but it's unlikely to be the last.” Smaller banks with limited resources will likely have the most trouble this year, especially those that have made large commercial real estate loans. A banker reports to me that many businesses are now in arrears on their payments, since they are not being paid for work already done.
How well is your bank doing? I cannot answer that question, but Veribanc, Inc. will be out soon with their 4 th quarter report on banks. They are an independent rating service and rely on subscriber fees to pay the bills. The cost of a report is $10.00 for the first bank and each additional report has a reduced fee. They may be reached at (800) 442-2657 or by email at service@veribanc.com .
Reining in egregious credit card practices.
The House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee introduced new legislation yesterday to curb unfair credit card practices. Increasing numbers of consumers are falling into arrears on their credit cards, causing an onslaught of fees and higher interest rates. Companies are cutting back on employees, causing even on-time payments to be credited late. Will the bill make it to a vote? Let your voice be heard.
Is the “recovery” faltering?
Wall Street pundits are arguing whether investors should pile back in to the market to take advantage of the “recovery” that they claim is taking place. Not so fast! Recoveries seldom come in this kind of environment. The S&P 500 is in the process of a “retest” of the January lows. Today the Commerce Department reports that wholesale inventories increased 1.1% in December. This is the largest gain in inventories since August 2006. What is more, sales at wholesalers dropped .7% in December, the largest decline in 11 months. It appears that shoppers sat on their wallets in the month of December, the single most important month of the year for wholesalers.
Who else is sitting on his wallet?
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett is reported to be sitting on his wallet , too. The world's second wealthiest investor has created his wealth by buying good companies at low prices. He thinks there's more pain to come before he's ready to put his money to work.
Volatility takes bonds south.
A surprisingly low turnout at the treasury auction yesterday surprised traders. This was startling because the auction was a small one and it was expected that there would be no trouble finding bids for the offering. Foreign central banks appeared to be especially disinterested in submitting bids at this auction. Last week I noted the increasing volatility in bonds and suggested this could not be positive for bonds. The near-term trend is now down.
Who's in charge here?
Is it the buyers or the sellers? Last week appeared to be a top of sorts for gold. Despite lower prices a week later, it still isn't evident whether the buyers or the sellers are in charge. Today's news headline trumpets the rise of gold. The World Gold Council anticipates a 30% rise in ownership of the gold exchange traded funds, but caution that continued interest is dependent on new highs in the price of gold bullion.
The Nikkei ends a very bad week.
Feb. 8 ( Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks fell, ending their worst week in a month, led by industrial stocks after machinery orders fell three times more than expected in December.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted trading of Topix index futures halfway through the trading day due to a computer malfunction. Transactions stopped on contracts expiring in March at 10:59 a.m. local time, the bourse said in a faxed statement. Hmmm. Do I sense that it could have been worse had they not halted the market?
Go to 12595
http://www.rense.com/general80/fuse.htm
Bush Lights Fuse On Another
Constitutional Principle
Ex Post Facto Laws
by Ted Lang
2-10-8
Woodrow Wilson held a Ph. D. but wasn't bright enough to restrain his bad judgment in supporting the Federal Reserve System and its guarantee of citizen reimbursement via the unconstitutional income tax. And as he failed in this, in spite of all his marvelous and outstanding education, and couldn't see through the international bankers' plan to enslave American government and its people, he failed to see also the benefits provided by a strict adherence to the United States Constitution and the combined genius of the Founding Fathers.
This is offered to short circuit dismissal of idiotic behavior that passes for acceptance relying upon the consideration of an idiot's superior education. Offering "What have I done?" eleven years after the fact doesn't erase an idiotic act and elevate it instead to a "mistake." And considering the oath of office our long line of chief executive idiots have taken in swearing to uphold the Constitution, this also fails to excuse idiotic and unconstitutional behavior all the more. All that these powerful, dangerous fools had to do was simply follow the job description they swore on a bible to uphold, preserve and protect.
Graduate degrees from prestigious "American" institutions of higher learning notwithstanding, it is one thing to be educated and thus informed, and yet entirely another to analyze situations and when necessary act intelligently to the best of one's ability within the prescribed legal parameters of one's station. Any power-laden fool can really screw up, as Woodrow Wilson came to learn, albeit far too late. And arrogant warmongers, Lincoln and FDR, never came to realize their damage to America's beautiful plan for individual freedom.
At first glance, Harvard Law School would seem to be one of the best, if not the best, law school in the United States. Yet a former Republican Congressman, John LeBoutillier, obviously railing against its "liberalness" at a time when that term meant something, wrote a book entitled, Harvard Hates America. And considering the tortured use of the English language, intellectual "law genius" Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law's most publicly recognized spokesman, recommended, sanctioned and eventually helped "legitimize" the torture of human beings without a warrant, without a statement of charges, without evidence, without a trial by a jury of one's peers, and other egregious expediencies, to provide the state with unlimited powers over anyone that falls prey to its deadly clutches.
And then we have, of course, another outstanding example of a Harvard Law School achiever: former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Viva Gonzales! Viva Harvard Law! By the way, where the hell is Gonzales these days? Shouldn't he be on trial somewhere for selectively firing attorneys that didn't toe the GOP line and selectively execute the unconstitutional "laws" of the Cheney-Bush criminal dictatorship? Oh, that's right I forgot. This is the America of the Projected New Age Communism!
In spite of Bush's outstanding education, and in spite of the glitter and polish of his Ivy League MBA when compared to my run-of-the-mill MBA, the guy can't eat a pretzel properly and continually falls off his bicycle. He has neither a moral nor constitutional compass, both of which serve admirably to sharpen non-incriminating extemporaneous verbal responses to aggressive journalistic inquiry. He has just about acquired the ability to read a speech!
But aggressive journalistic inquiry in these here United States today is sadly lacking, thanks to the communist gatekeeping of The New York Times. And where real journalism thrives, namely Europe, our "Potemkin President" is heavily shielded and protected by imperial storm troopers of the intergalactic empire, and thereby secure from assaults of intelligent inquiry by true, aggressive journalists.
Neither Bush, nor his boss, Dick Cheney, have the required legal education and training that a graduate of Harvard Law School would have; that's why criminals with law diplomas from this institution of higher legalized subversion are needed. They legalize illegal laws and illegally invalidate legal laws. Did I really write that? This, of course, explains how Cheney-Bush not only disparage the very name of our nation's rule of law, denigrating it to a mere "goddamned piece of paper" that incessantly gets "thrown" into our rulers' faces, but elevates their contempt all the more when neutered by the Harvard rats' nest of lawyers with criminal intent and a penchant for legalistic trickery and word magic.
This burgeoning legal talent at the disposal of "ShrubCo" quickly provides the regime with legal escape windows and ladders. When the Plame outing clearly violated Title 18, Section 784, part (b), a capital offense during time of war, our foreign invasion policy was changed from the "Global War on Terror [GWOT] and renamed the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism, or GSAVE. Thus, the illegal Iraqi invasion is no longer considered as a war and Title 18 has not been violated. This also validates violating all international treaties against illegal invasions, dispatches UN considerations and protocol, and saves ShrubCo by deploying instead: G. ShrubCo's Armed Violation of Everystate. GWOT will they think of next?
Ask, and ye shall receive from our glorious emperor! Enjoying fair, accurate and factual news from the European press, specifically the Times of London, a real newspaper and not an establishment propaganda rag like the communist New York Times and its subservient TV cable and broadcast "Potemkin" news shows, American and Jewish patriot Sibel Edmonds stood up to the Cheney-Bush criminal dictatorship, the United States Congress of Criminals and Democrats, the Israel lobby, and yes, even The Establishment's "American" MSM.
After the Times of London and their Times Online.com broke and expanded the story of Cheney-Bush's illegal and continuing Title 18 violations in selling nuclear secrets to "our friends" in Turkey, who in turn brokered these to Pakistan and "our ally" Israel, Cheney-Bush's pool of lawyers went quickly to work on this new legal challenge. And when does a nation need enemies when we have friends such as Turkey and Israel? What are friends and allies for if not to steal from one another and knife one another in the back? And Uncle Sap has a real broad back!
It can be suggested that the "highest levels" of American government were unaware of this treason involving BOTH the State Department and the Pentagon. Need proof that this isn't the case? Just observe the behavior of G. Bush IMMEDIATELY after the fact, motivated into immediate action by the heroism of just one, single, solitary Jewish patriot that had the courage to come to her country's aid and try her best to save Americans by exposing the treason and criminality of the Cheney-Bush national crime machine.
Focusing the accusations of Sibel Edmonds upon one Marc Grossman, and airing the nuclear secrets espionage, who was it that immediately responded to this brave citizen's charges and complaint? As I had written
As was the case with ShrubCo changing the name of its imperial invasions after the fact from GWOT to GSAVE, and as was the case in "declassifying" Valerie Plame as a covert operative after her criminal exposure by Cheney, G. Bush is now backpedaling once again to make legal that which was formerly illegal. Neither Bush nor Cheney have the legal brains to do this, so one needs to consider the emergency after-the-fact huddle and damage control conference that was necessary to responsd to the accusations made by Sibel Edmonds and published by the Times of London.
The Times of London broke the nuclear secrets espionage story on Sunday, January 6, 2008. The report related how nuclear secrets were transferred to the Turkish government through diplomats and exchange scientists cleared by Marc Grossman. The exposé heavily implicated the government of Turkey. Clearly, this was an egregious violation of Title 18 during a time of war.
On Wednesday, January 23, 2008, G. Bush issued a "Message to the Congress of the United States," a message that was very, very low key, and very, very subtle, and therefore, almost secret. And jumping immediately to the aid of the president and helping to cover up the treason, was the ever-obedient, subversive, despicable American mass media. Never mind that the message was released through the office of the Press Secretary; the MSM and the communist New York Times summarily ignored it! Talk about a "smoking gun" proving guilt!
The five-paragraph
The memo to Congress opens: " I transmit to the Congress, pursuant to sections 123 b. and 123 d. of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2153(b),(d))(the 'Act'), the text of the proposed Agreement for Cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy (the 'Agreement') together with a copy of the unclassified Nuclear Proliferation Assessment Statement (NPAS) and of my approval of the proposed Agreement and determination that the proposed Agreement will promote, and will not constitute an unreasonable risk to, the common defense and security. The Secretary of State will submit the classified NPAS and accompanying annexes separately in appropriate secure channels."
Now if you and I experience difficulties interpreting this legal mumbo-jumbo, just think of how confusing it is to our "Decider"! Let's take a shot at it: Clearly, an international policy statement and law was issued via due process in 1954. This followed almost immediately after the
As regards the latter point referencing the military and nuclear technology security review requirement, let us now please remember that such technical review capability had been originally the responsibility and mission of such agencies as the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and others, and that Bush II's predecessor, Bill Clinton, jockeyed and manipulated to create a deliberate bureaucratic oversight blur to allow hundreds of millions of dollars into his pockets and the coffers of the Democratic National Committee from the People's Republic of China.
Here's an
More evidence of deliberate bureaucratic manipulation and enfeeblement by the White House was engendered by the
"Domestic and International Export Policies
The Administration agrees with the Committee that the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of COCOM in 1994 has complicated efforts to control transfers of militarily important dual-use goods and technology. In this regard, the Administration agrees with the Committee on the desirability of strengthening the Wassenaar Arrangement to improve international coordination and reporting on the export of militarily useful goods and technology, and to prevent transfers of arms and sensitive dual-use items for military end-uses if the situation in a region, or the behavior of a state is or becomes a cause of serious concern to the participating states. All Wassenaar members currently maintain national policies to prevent such transfers to Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea. We are making a concerted effort this year to strengthen and enhance existing transparency mechanisms and to expand restraint measures.
We do not believe that other countries are prepared to accept a legally binding international regime like COCOM directed against China and we are not seeking such a regime. We note that a COCOM-style veto could act against U.S. interests by letting other countries block U.S. sales to our own security partners. The Administration agrees with the Committee on the need to enact a new Export Administration Act with new penalties. We have operated too long without updated legislation in this very important area. The Administration will work with the appropriate Committees in Congress and U.S. industry to obtain a new Export Administration Act. The Administration believes that the existing dual-use export licensing system allows adequate time for careful review of license applications and provides effective procedures to take account of national security considerations in licensing decisions."
More evidence of the Clinton regime's treasonous technology and military secrets transfers was articulated by none other than former GOP 2008 presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, while acting in his capacity of Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee: "The President has said he acted aggressively in the case of nuclear espionage by China at the Los Alamos laboratory. The record of the Administration's actions says something else. It shows the President's men keeping Wen Ho Lee employed in a sensitive position for some three years after he became the prime espionage suspect and 15 months after the FBI told the Department of Energy that there was no longer any investigative reason to allow the suspect to remain in his position. Once again there is a clear case of what the President said being at odds with the truth." History does repeat itself!
And speaking of Clinton, here's the second paragraph in Bush's brief message: "The Agreement was signed on July 26, 2000, and President Clinton approved and authorized execution and made the determinations required by section 123 b. of the Act (Presidential Determination 2000 26, 65 FR 44403 (July 18, 2000)). However, immediately after signature, U.S. agencies received information that called into question the conclusions that had been drawn in the required NPAS and the original classified annex, specifically, information implicating Turkish private entities in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation. Consequently, the Agreement was not submitted to the Congress and the executive branch undertook a review of the NPAS evaluation."
Seems as what is being said is that due to some unfortunate, unforseeable mere oversight, and bureaucratic differences of opinion, Turkey was somehow unjustly targeted as being out of compliance with US foreign policy regarding technology transfers formerly considered secret. And somehow, Turkey was the only nation wrongly targeted; hence, the immediate need to remedy this situation a little over two weeks after the Edmonds revelation.
The final paragraph lights the 90-day fuse. It gives Congress 90 days to object or request clarification, and then it automatically becomes "law." Pretty neat stuff, no? Stroke of the pen, law of the land! But it serves in reality to violate the Constitution's ban against precisely such laws. Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 3 states: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." But then again, Article I is confined to the powers of Congress, thereby exempting such prohibitions in the case of an executive dictatorship.
Just as ShrubCo backpedaled on Plame, and GWOT, and making public that which formerly was secret and in the national interest, Cheney-Bush will now make legal retroactively that which is illegal today. Thus they can, once again, proclaim after-the-fact, that they did nothing wrong. And if Bush wasn't directly involved, just as Clinton was directly involved, why would he have acted so swiftly and so secretly?
Go to 12594
http://www.jonesreport.com/article/02_08/040208_mex_farm_nafta.html
Mexican farmers protest NAFTA
CNN | February 1, 2008
MEXICO CITY-- Hundreds of thousands of farmers clogged central Mexico City Thursday with their slow-moving tractors, protesting the entry of cheap imported corn from the United States and Canada.
On January 1 Mexico repealed all tariffs on corn imported from north of the border as part of a 14-year phaseout under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
The farmers want the government to renegotiate the 1994 free trade agreement, which removed most trade barriers among Mexico, Canada, and the United States, saying livelihoods are at stake.
"NAFTA is very bad, very bad for Mexican consumers and for Mexican producers," said Victor Quintana, head of Democratic Farmers Front, which organized the protest.
The farmers complain that U.S. and Canadian grains are heavily subsidized and therefore undermine Mexican products.
"The NAFTA agreement is in place and that's that," said farmer Armando del Valle. "But all producers should be under equal conditions, and as Mexicans, we are not working under the same terms as our neighbors up north."
Ramon Garcia, who grows corn just outside Mexico City, said he couldn't afford to fertilize his crop this year and had to rent a tractor to till his field. The work is too much work for too little return, he said.
"Corn is too cheap," Garcia said. "For me to make a profit, it has to bring in 15 pesos ($1.4) a kilo, and I can barely get 10."
The farmers say their pleas have fallen on deaf ears in the Mexican government, forcing them to take their protests to the streets.
The government has said NAFTA is working fine and won't be renegotiated but promised to negotiate with farmers to find ways to increase their subsidies.
Grain prices in Mexico have been stable since subsidized U.S. and Canadian grains appeared on the market in January, Mexican officials said -- but still too low for many farmers.
Go to 12593
http://www.jonesreport.com/article/02_08/060208_bush_telecoms.html
Bush: I Will Veto Any Surveillance Bill That Doesn't Protect Telecoms
Paul Kiel / TPM Muckraker | February 6, 2008
Just in case the President's priorities were not clear:
President Bush issued a veto threat Tuesday in the debate to update terrorist surveillance laws, rebuking Democratic plans to deny retroactive legal protections for telecommunications providers that let the government spy on U.S. residents after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks....
The Bush administration's warning was aimed at legislative amendments that would bar retroactive immunity to phone companies and other telecom providers that have given the government access to e-mails and phone calls linked to people in the United States. Without the retroactive protections, the letter noted, telecom providers might be unwilling to help the government track down terror suspects in the future as they were asked to do in the days following the 2001 attacks.
Update: Here's the letter from Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell in which they lay out the president's veto threat.
Go to 12592
http://www.jonesreport.com/article/02_08/030208_mondale_911.html
Walter Mondale and Fmr. Senator Mark Dayton Support New 9/11 Investigation
Nate Clark / We Are Change Minnesota | February 3, 2008
Mark Dayton and Walter Mondale both gave their support to a new investigation of 9/11 after today’s Hillary Clinton rally at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.
When asked the question, “Do you support a new investigation of 9/11?,” former vice president Walter Mondale replied, “Yeah. Why did it happen? We need that ‘phase two’. They never did it.”—identifying the insufficiency of the official findings and calling for a subsequent phase of investigation.
When asked the same question, Mark Dayton replied, “You know, I’m not a senator anymore, but I would support one.” When asked if he had heard the evidence of a cover-up, he replied, “Uh, nothing I would hear would surprise me.”
His response should be expected in light of his public scrutiny of the nature of the official account of the events of 9/11 while serving as senator. On July, 31st 2004 during Senate hearings on the 9/11 Commission Report, Senator Dayton made a noble effort to point out the discrepancies between the time-line of events on 9/11 supplied by NORAD and the (now thoroughly discredited) 9/11 Commission Report. Dayton said before the Commission:
“NORAD’s public chronology on 9/18/01 and the commission testimony twenty months later covered up those truths. They lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 commission to create a false impression of competence, communication, coordination and protection of the American people. And we can set up all the oversight possible at great additional cost to the American taxpayers and it won’t be worth an Enron pension if the people responsible lie to us; if they take the records and doctor them into falsehoods, and if they get away with it.”
How long will the American people have to wait to hear calls for a new investigation from current rather than former elected officials?
Go to 12591
http://www.jonesreport.com/article/02_08/070208_mccain_cheney_gandhi.html
Buchanan: John McCain ‘Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi’
Think Progress | February 7, 2008
On the NBC Today Show, liberal radio host Rachel Maddow, conservative pundit Pat Buchanan, and Democratic strategist Paul Begala discussed the importance of “change” in the upcoming election. Voters want a “clean break from Bush,” argued Maddow. Begala added that McCain does not represent that type of change:
BEGALA: If McCain wins, he’s running for a third term for Bush. He wants to make Bush’s Iraq war permanent, Bush’s economic program permanent.
Buchanan concluded the segment by arguing that McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.” Watch it:
Yesterday, ThinkProgress released a video documenting the fact that the leading Republican candidates are mimicking Bush’s policies and are looking to institute a third Bush term.
Go to 12590
http://www.rense.com/general67/over77.htm
The Overthrow Of The American
Republic - Part 77
Bush & Co. Facing Prosecution
By Sherman H. Skolnick
8-5-5
History repeats. Yet, some in the younger generations do not have the time or patience to look back.
In the fall of 1973, a Special Prosecutor, on the track of the Watergate Affair, had compiled witnesses and evidence, which some contend was leading to the prosecution of President Richard M. Nixon for various Federal Criminal offenses.
Nixon had two options:
(A) He could have his attorneys put together a lawyer-like defense, based supposedly on the law and the facts. [As a stooge and scapegoat for the ultra-rich, he might do that. His bosses, the Ruling Elite, however, rely instead on the Big Fix, blackmail, terror, bribery, political murder.]
(B) Whatever presidential power Nixon supposed he had, he might use to "chop off the heads" of the prosecutorial team---all of them.
The result was called "The Saturday Night Massacre". After August, 1974, when Nixon resigned facing Impeachment, some smaller newspapers carried the statement of the Foreman of a Federal Grand Jury. The Grand Jury, he said, had voted True Bills, Federal Criminal Indictments, against Nixon. But, the Justice Department warned the Foreman and the Grand Jurors, that if the indictment was released, they would be greatly harmed and the federal authorities would not protect them, according to the Foreman.
Connecting the dots might show what choices the Occupant and Resident of the White House, George W. Bush, has, if at all.
1. For several years we have been reseaching and investigating bribery and other malign influences used to procure from a Five-Judge majority of the U.S. Supreme Court the arbitrary and corrupt ruling, December, 2000, installing by way of the case of Bush versus Gore, a fictitious president into the Oval Office.
One of the four dissenting judges, John Paul Stevens, issued the most blistering Dissenting Opinion ever made by a high court judge.
On the other hand, dissenting Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the subject of threats by the Five, deleted from her Dissenting Opinion certain revealing matters.
2. The kingpin of the infamous Five was Judge Antonin Scalia. He and three judges in the federal appeals court in Chicago, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, one step below the high court in Washington, three were professors together and one was law school dean at Rockefeller's University of Chicago Law School.
These four Rockefeller judges, while on the bench, continue to represent the several billion dollar investment portfolio of Rockefeller's University of Chicago. Included are stocks of major corporations whose litigation is ruled upon by these judges who do not disqualify themselves. Further, by failing to reveal this, these judges violate a federal law requiring a mandatory annual judicial disclosure of income which these judges sign subject to the penalties of perjury.
Particularly arrogant is Judge Scalia. In the law trade he is known as a "Go To Hell Judge".
3. In December, 2000, presenting the position of George W. Bush in the high court case of Bush versus Gore, was Theodore B. Olson, at the time, a private law partner of Eugene Scalia, son of Judge Scalia. Some contend Olson is a "court bagman" in Washington and in the Federal Courthouse in Chicago.
After George W. Bush was thus installed, Olson was made the Solicitor General. In that capacity, he perverted an intellectual property case in the High Court which benefitted Mickey Mouse---Disney---by extending their Copyright 75 years, worth many billions of dollars. Funds from Disney and Coca-Cola were involved in corrupting the Unholy Five on the High Court.
In the 9-11 matter, there is a serious controversy whether Olson's estranged wife Barbara (with whom he apparently had not spoken to for some time) actually spoke from a supposed hi-jacked plane directly to Theodore B. Olson. Was it actually a conversation with a call center operator? Was the American CIA involved? Some think so.
Some continue to aver that Barbara Olson did not perish and has a plastic surgeon new face and a wig. And. moreover, that she is parked in seclusion in an Embassy in Sweden. If so. her emergence some day would pulverize the fake story of 9-11 "Moslem terrorists" like the internal planted explosives that took down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.
4. On my website, www.skolnicksreport.com, is an extensive series, "Coca-Cola, CIA, and the Courts", in part relating to the corruption of the infamous Five on the High Court in Bush versus Gore. Documented there is how Homeland Security and the FBI run a warehouse separate from the U.S. Supreme Court Building. A box of documents sent by registered mail and addressed to one of the dissenting Judges was unlawfully there blocked by the American Gestapo.
Instead the documents were sent to a secret federal tribunal supposedly considering misdeeds and corruption of federal judges. Such tribunals keep no name on the matters submitted to them, no public docket, no results, if any, are publicly disclosed. [Yes, there are such secret tribunals. See parts 9 and 10 of the Coca-Cola series.]
5. A tiny portion of our investigation of the High Court corruption, without mentioning us at all by name, became the subject of a lengthy story in Vanity Fair Magazine, October, 2004 issue. Following this was a forty minute segment about this on the Terri Gross Show on National Public Radio.
Risking their future career, some of the law clerks of the Dissenting four judges in Bush versus Gore reportedly stole private secret records of the Infamous Five showing the malign influence worked on the Judges in installing Bush. Instead of investigating the Five High Court Judicial criminals, Homeland Security and the FBI have been threatening and inflicting harm on the Dissenting Four High Court Judges and their brave law clerks.
6. For the first time in memory, an out-of-town prosecutor was brought in to be the new U.S. Attorney in Chicago. Unlike previous Chicago U.S. Attorneys, Fitzgerald was not one of the local political crowd who hope to leave federal office after a few years and join the corporate gangsters who while prosecutor were protected.. Patrick Fitzgerald was also named as the Special Prosecutor in the case stemming from the outing of deep cover CIA operative Valerie Plame. Her husband. former U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson 4th, was dispatched to the tiny African nation of Niger to find out whether Saddam Hussein was buying yellow cake, that is, uranium, from Niger. Who bothered to note that Iraq has their own ample supply of uranium not used for developing nuclear weapons?
Upon return, Wilson publicly criticized George W. Bush for the fake story about Saddam getting Niger yellow cake.
7. Valerie Plame headed a vast team of more than one hundred covert agents. Some of them were penetration agents, secretly inserted in countries considered by the U.S. as unfriendly in Africa, the Mid-East, and elsewhere.
Also part of her team were upwards of three dozen, or more, biochemists among other things, studying for or against how to use pandemics to minimize "excess population" , that is kill off mere eaters who supposedly do not produce anythimg "useful".
Several of these biochemists were purportedly adjuncts of various foreign counter-intelligence agencies. Since Plame's covert operations cover was blown, several dozen of these biochemists were murdered. A mere coincidence? One of those biochemists murdered, as ordered by Tony Blair for the benefit of George Bush, was Dr. David Kelly, purportedly also with British Counter-Intelligence, MI-6.
8. Overseas, facilities of Coca-Cola act as an American CIA proprietary firm. Covert espionage agents use Coca-Cola's offices and plants as a cover, a place to conveniently hang their hats. The vast Coca-Cola money flow has been used to return to the U.S. to corrupt the High Court case of Bush versus Gore and other high-level litigation.
The Chief Federal Prosecutor in Atlanta, Coke's headquarters, began digging into allegations that Coca-Cola's upper brass were "cooking the books" sort of like Enron. Understanding it was a good time to get out, many of Coke's upper management quit.
The Atlanta Prosecutor perhaps feared forbidden matters would come out at a trial. Such as that the Coke "book cooking" matters related to the malign influence on the Unholy Five on the High Court in Bush versus Gore. A less than brave prosecutor might jeopardize his career making such matters public.
So instead of a trial there was a settlement. How many incriminating Coke documents were dumped into the Atlanta Prosecutor's shredding machine? How many witnesses were told to "Get lost"? What did the Atlanta Prosecutor do with the load of documents we made available to him?
9. A question remains. Did Valerie Plame, or her husband, know that a sizeable portion of the funds for her team's operations worldwide were funneled through American CIA proprietary Coca-Cola? And that the funds corrupted the High Court?
10. Under the supervision of Chicago Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, several federal grand juries have been examining the route of the release of the information that Valerie Plame was a deep cover CIA operative. outing her being a federal criminal offense.
A male prostitute, Jeff Gannon, a reputed journalist, attended George W. Bush press conferences, apparently without having been cleared by the Secret Service and the FBI. Gannon asked Bush "soft ball" questions. There is reaon to believe that "Gannon" is actually Johnny Gosch who disappeared or was kidnapped at age 12 and made part of a ring of teen age prostitutes arranged by pedophile Daddy Bush. Omaha. Chicago, District of Columbia.
In recent years, on one-day passes, Gannon visited George W. Bush's White House apartment some 200 times, according to U.S. Secret Service records which do not note if Gannon left each time after one day.
Available to one or more federal grand juries have been witnesses who support the contentions that Bush himself gave directly to Gannon data as to the deep cover secret role of Valerie Plame; and that Gannon reportedly proceeded to distribute such data to various mass media people and others.
Another grand jury line of inquiry has been that George W, Bush divulged Plame CIA details to Vice President Richard Cheney and that Cheney, in turn, made the information and documents available to his Chief of Staff, "Scooter" Libby tightly entangled with international swindler Marc Rich (alias Reich) and Israeli intelligence, The Mossad. Libby, in turn, made the details known to NBC "Meet The Press" faker Tim Russert but Russert disputes this route. Marc Rich about 1985, with the illegal aid of then Vice President Daddy Bush, fled the U.S.for Zug, Switzerland, just as a federal criminal indictment was about to fall on Rich accusing him of a billion dollar swindle.
At the last minutes of the Clinton administration, in 2001, Mark Rich bribed Bill and Hillary Clinton a reputed one million dollars to pardon Rich, the Clintons being urged to do so because of Marc Rich's work in washing spy funds through the Chicago markets for the unlawful benefit of certain high-level criminals in Israel and elsewhere.
11. From time to time, over the years, Federal Prosecutors in presenting witnesses and evidence behind closed doors, develop problems. Usually, a U.S. District Judge, in secret, is asked to assist. It becomes partly public only rarely when the matter goes on appeal, with a heavily redacted appeal record to the federal appeals court.
Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald was led to believe that, because of her background, Chicago District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow might assist in secretly resolving some of the grand jury problems centered on George W. Bush facing federal criminal prosecution. She, together with the one who later became her husband, early in their careers, they became a team stationed in Indonesia for the American CIA. They were there in the oil-soaked island nation at a time when, at the behest of CIA, one hundred fifty thousand natives were slaughtered on the unproven charges they were "Communists".
As we have in previous postings detailed, the FBI no longer were tight with, and using as pals, the traditional Italian and Sicilian mafia. The Bureau preferred to protect the Russian mafiya, particularly so in Chicago where the Bureau is entangled with the Russian mafiya and uses them for FBI dirty business
The FBI refuses to take action against the Russian mafiya's activities in the Chicago-area in peddling stolen credit cards, superior quality counterfeit paper money, and the Russians, primarily Jews as traitors to their tribe, run the Red Light District with impunity; and the Russian mafiya has taken over the Federal Judge bribery rackets in the Dirksen Building, site of the Chicago Bankruptcy Court, the Chicago U.S. District Court, and the U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit (appeals from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana).
The Russian mafiya as well has taken over the dirty business of buying and selling Chicago Federal Judgeships, an enterprise formerly engaged in by the traditional mafia. [Visit the series, "Coca-Cola, CIA, and The Courts"]
Judge Lefkow and her husband had a bad conflict of interest. however, which apparently interfered with any aid she might be in unknotting grand jury problems behind closed doors. The Judge and her husband had somehow fallen in with the Russian mafiya. Near to the Judge's residence is the Russian Martial Arts Center which somehow boasts on their website and elsewhere that they train U.S. and Russian personnel to be available to the Russian bloody tricks secret political police and commandoes, namely the Spitznaz. Taught for such service is how to subdue enemies with mind-control or to kill enemies with your hands, without using guns.
In February, 2005, Judge Lefkow's mother and husband were found in the Judge's residence brutally murdered. As is their rotten habit, the FBI blamed it all on a "lone assassin", a sometime electrician, a Polish immigrant. The FBI conveniently disregarded the closed circuit video operating in the alley behind various other houses, showing the faces of known Russian mafiya killers, pals of the Chicago FBI and some U.S. Marshals, breaking into the rear of the judge's residence.
12. One or more of the grand juries have concluded their probe and have voted True Bills, Federal Criminal indictments, against George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, "Scooter" Libby, Condoleeza Rice, and Theodore B. Olson; and several media people not previously mentioned in the monopoly press as implicated. Shown as unindicted co-conspirators are two Judges on the U.S. Supreme Court, William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia, who are among the Gang of Five also in Bush versus Gore.
Because of the horrendous consequences involved, the Indictments are suppressed and there may be an extended delay until they appear on the Chicago Federal Court open records.
13. The substance of the details in this story have been confirmed to us as being true and correct by high government officials, with spotless records, of the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
14. To distract from the impending release of the indictments and the naming of the unindicted co-conspirators, the Bush White House has caused deadly rumors to circulate.
Such as, that the FBI is tracking in the District of Columbia and elsewhere that certain supposed "terrorists" have suitcase dirty nukes ready to set off in D.C.
Such as, that Bush will declare Martial Law and suspend Habeas Corpus, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Such as the U.S. will be wracked with financial and domestic anarchy as Bush seeks asylum in Brazil, or Australia, or elsewhere overseas.
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FEDERAL RESERVE JEWS CONTROL AMERICA!
By Brother Nathanael Kapner - Copyright © 2007
All Articles May Be Reproduced Only With Authorship & Link To Real Jew News
(Plagiarists Like “Roy Roger” Take Notice!)
Sources: The International Origins Of The Federal Reserve System, J. Lawrence Broz;
The Rothschilds, Frederic Morton
JEWS CONTROL AMERICA. This is because the Jews own the Federal Reserve Bank. It’s not “federal” at all. It’s privately owned. By Jews!
The money that President George Bush borrows in the billions of $$$ at interest comes from the Jewish money lenders of the Federal Reserve Bank. They look so very professional & so legit don’t they? But don’t fall for it for they are bandits. For how does President George Bush pay for these loans at Jewish high interest hmm? By taxing American Gentiles up the gazoo!
Presidential candidate Ron Paul says that we don’t have to borrow from the Federal Reserve Bank but can print our own $$$ at no interest. Ron Paul says that this is our Constitutional right. But Jews don’t care about our Constitutional rights. All that Jews care about is what serves their own interests.
JEWS THAT RUN THE PRIVATELY-OWNED FEDERAL RESERVE BANK:
1) Ben S. Bernanke: Chairman of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Term ends 2020.
2) Donald L. Kohn: Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Term ends 2016.
3) Randall S. Kroszner: Member of Board of Governors of Federal Reserve.
4) Frederic S. Mishkin: Member of Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Term ends 2014.
5) Alan Greenspan: Advisor to Board of Governors of Federal Reserve. Recent Chairman.
For Historical Background See: “Will Jew Owned Federal Reserve Bank Kill Ron Paul?” Here
‘E PLURIBUS UNUM’ AND THE JEWS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
‘ONE OUT OF MANY’ is what the Federal Reserve Jew Frederic Mishkin’s recently published book, The Next Great Globalization, is all about.
The book’s theme is how poor countries like Mexico can share in the wealth of America and the European Union. Mishkin’s aim is the undermining of national pride, identity, and the blurring of national distinctions by nations having a shared monetary system and shared global values.
The Jew Mishkin is out to destroy all national ideologies, foremostly Christianity, which would oppose his vision of a world whose finances are controlled by Jews. In Mishkin’s purview is the planned North American Union patterned after the European Union which the Rothschilds control.
The Jew-owned Federal Reserve Bank would control the North American Union comprised of America, Mexico, and Canada. The “Amero” has already been minted under the covert auspices of the Jew-owned Federal Reserve Bank.
CENTRAL-BANKING JEWS AND THE ROCKEFELLERS
ROTHSCHILD OIL INTERESTS centered in the Caucasus had as its only competitor, John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in the late 1800s. In 1892, a Jew, (like his contractors), Samuel Marcus, established the Shell Oil Company as the marketing arm for the Rothschild’s Baku Oil so as to compete with Standard Oil for oil rights in the Suez Canal.
In 1902, Marcus’ enterprise called itself the Royal Dutch/Shell Group and had weakened Standard Oil’s markets by introducing kerosene as an oil substitute. John D. Rockefeller then jumped at the offer by the Rothschilds to join the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in a worldwide oil cartel.
The Rothschilds heavily financed John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil by helping him in 1911 to establish prominence of his Chase Manhattan Bank of NY through acquiring the huge Equitable Trust. Chase Manhattan Bank is now one of the co-owners of the Rothschild-controlled Federal Reserve Bank.
THE JEWISH BANKS THAT OWN THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
* Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
* Goldman Sachs Bank of New York
* Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York/Shearson American Express
* Lazard Brothers Bank of Paris
* Israel Moses Sieff Banks of Italy
* Warburg Bank of Hamburg, Germany and Amsterdam
* Lehman Brothers Bank of New York
* Chase Manhattan Bank of New York (David Rockefeller)
HOW CAN WE ELIMINATE THE JEWISH-OWNED FEDERAL RESERVE BANK?
The answer is simple but will involve much sacrifice:
1. Western Civilization must become “Christian” again. Each of us must commit our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord.
2. Vote for the Christian candidate Ron Paul who wants to dismantle the Federal Reserve.
3. Tell all your friends that the Jews are robbing America and that they must be stopped!
*** This Will Be The Beginning of Breaking Jewry’s Control of America! ***
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http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8033
The Bush Financial Bust of 2008: “It's All Downhill From Here, Folks”
by Mike Whitney
Global Research, February 8, 2008
"I just saw a picture Bernanke stripped to the waist in the boiler-room shoveling greenbacks into the furnace.” Rob Dawg, Calculated Risk blog-site
On January 14, 2008 the FDIC web site began posting the rules for reimbursing depositors in the event of a bank failure. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is required to “determine the total insured amount for each depositor....as of the day of the failure” and return their money as quickly as possible. The agency is “modernizing its current business processes and procedures for determining deposit insurance coverage in the event of a failure of one of the largest insured depository institutions.”
(http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2008/fil08002.html#body)
The implication is clear, the FDIC has begun the “death watch” on the many banks which are currently drowning in their own red ink. The problem for the FDIC is that it has never supervised a bank failure which exceeded 175,000 accounts. So the impending financial tsunami is likely to be a crash-course in crisis management. Today some of the larger banks have more than 50 million depositors, which will make the FDIC's job nearly impossible.
Good luck.
It's worth noting that, due to a rule change by Congress in 1991, the FDIC is now required to use “the least costly transaction when dealing with a troubled bank. The FDIC won't reimburse uninsured depositors if it means increasing the loss to the deposit insurance fund....As a result, uninsured depositors are protected only if a bank acquiring the failed bank will pay more for all of the deposits than it would for insured deposits only.” (MarketWatch)
Great. That's reassuring. And there's more, too. FDIC Chairman Shiela Bair warned that “as of Sept. 30, there were 65 institutions with assets of $18.5 billion on its list of "problem" institutions;” although she wouldn't give names.
So, what does it all mean?
It means there's going to be an unprecedented wave of bank closures in the US and that people who want to hold on to their life savings are going have to be extra vigilant as the situation continues to deteriorate. And it is deteriorating very quickly.
Right now, many of the country's largest investment banks are holding $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities and other structured investments that are steadily depreciating in value. As these assets wear-away the banks' capital, the likelihood of default becomes greater. This week, Fitch Ratings announced that it will (probably) cut ratings on the 5 main bond insurers (Ambac, MBIA, FGIC, CIFG,SCA) “regardless of their capital levels”. This seemingly innocuous statement has roiled markets and put Wall Street in a panic. If the bond insurers lose their AAA rating (on an estimated $2.4 trillion of bonds) then the banks could lose another $70 billion in downgraded assets. That would increase their losses from the credit crunch--which began in August 2007---to $200 billion with no end in sight. It would also impair their ability to issue loans to even credit worthy customers which will further dampen growth in the larger economy. Structured investments have been the banks' “cash cow” for nearly a decade, but, suddenly, the trend has shifted into reverse. Revenue streams have dried up and capital is being destroyed at an accelerating pace. The $2 trillion market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) is virtually frozen leaving horrendous debts that will have to be written-down leaving the banks' either deeply scarred or insolvent. It's a mess.
There were some interesting developments in a case involving Merrill Lynch last week which sheds a bit of light on the true “market value” of these complex debt-pools called CDOs. The Massachusetts Secretary of State has charged Merrill with “fraud and misrepresentation” for selling them a CDO that was "highly risky and esoteric" and "unsuitable for the City of Springfield.” (Most cities are required by law to only purchase Triple A rated bonds) The city of Springfield bought the CDO less than a year ago for $13.9 million. It is presently valued at $1.2 million---MORE THAN A 90% LOSS IN LESS THAN A YEAR.
Merrill has quietly settled out of court for the full amount and seems genuinely confused by the Massachusetts Secretary of State's apparent anger. A Merrill spokesman said blandly, “We are puzzled by this suit. We have been cooperating with the Secretary of State Galvin's office throughout this inquiry.”
Is it really that hard to understand why people don't like getting ripped of?
This anecdote shows that these exotic mortgage-backed securities are real stinkers. They're worthless. The market for structured debt-instruments has evaporated overnight leaving a massive hole in the banks' balance sheets. The likely outcome will be a rash of defaults followed by greater consolidation of the major players. (re: banking monopolies) The Fed's multi-billion bailout plan; the “Temporary Auction Facility” (TAF) is a quick-fix, but not a permanent solution. The real problem is insolvency, not liquidity.
The smaller banks are dire straights, too. They're bogged down with commercial and residential loans that are defaulting faster than any time since the Great Depression. The Comptroller of the Currency,John Dugan--who is presently investigating commercial real estate loans---discovered that commercial banks “wrote off $524 million in construction and development loans in the third quarter of 2007, almost nine times the amount of 2006”. The commercial real estate market is following residential real estate off a cliff and will undoubtedly be the next shoe to drop.
Dugan found out that, “More than 60% of Florida banks have commercial real estate loans worth more than 300% of their capital, a level that automatically attracts more attention from examiners.” (Wall Street Journal) He said that his office was prepared to intervene if banks with large real estate exposure maintained unreasonably low reserves for bad loans. Dugan is forecasting a steep “increase in bank failures.”
According to Reuters: “Dozens of U.S. banks will fail in the next two years as losses from soured loans mount and regulators crack down on lenders that take too much risk, especially in real estate and construction," predicts Gerard Cassidy, RBC Capital Markets analyst. Apart from the growing losses in commercial and residential real estate, the banks are carrying over $150 billion of “unsyndidated” debt connected to leveraged buyout deals (LBOs) which are presently stuck in the mud. Like CDOs, there's no market for these sketchy transactions which require billions in cheap, easily available credit. They've just become another anvil dragging the banks under.
On January 31, Bloomberg News reported: “Losses from securities linked to subprime mortgages may exceed $265 billion as regional U.S. banks, credit unions and overseas financial institutions write down the value of their holdings.” Standard and Poor's added that “it may cut or reduce ratings of $534 billion of subprime-mortgage securities and CDOs as default rates rise.” Another blow to the banks withering balance sheets. Is it any wonder why the "new loans" spigot has been turned off?
Surprisingly, there's an even bigger threat to the financial system than these staggering losses at the banks. A default by one of the big bond insurers could trigger a meltdown in the credit-default swaps market, which could lead to the implosion of trillions of dollars in derivatives bets. The inability of the under-capitalized monolines (bond insurers) to “make good” on their coverage is likely to set the first domino in motion by increasing the number of downgrades on bond issues and intensifying the credit-paralysis which already is spreading throughout the system.
MSN Money's financial analyst Jim Jubak summed it up like this:
"Actually, I'm worried not so much about the junk-bond market itself as the huge market for a derivative called a credit-default swap, or CDS, built on top of that junk-bond market. Credit-default swaps are a kind of insurance against default, arranged between two parties. One party, the seller, agrees to pay the face value of the policy in case of a default by a specific company. The buyer pays a premium, a fee, to the seller for that protection.
This has grown to be a huge market: The total value of all CDS contracts is something like $450 trillion..... Some studies have put the real credit risk at just 6% of the total, or about $27 trillion. That puts the CDS market at somewhere between two and six times the size of the U.S. economy.
All it will take in the CDS market is enough buyers and sellers deciding they can't rely on this insurance anymore for junk-bond prices to tumble and for companies to find it very expensive or impossible to raise money in this market." (Jim Jubak's Journal; "The Next Banking Crisis is on the Way", MSN Money)
Jubak really nails it here. In fact, this is what Wall Street is really worried about. $450 trillion in cyber-credit has been created through various off balance sheets operations which neither the Fed nor any other regulatory body can control. No one even knows how these abstruse, credit-inventions will perform in a falling market. But, so far, it doesn't look good.
The enormity of the derivatives market ($450 trillion) is the direct result of Greenspan's easy-credit monetary policies as well as the reconfiguring of the markets according to the “structured finance” model. The new model allows banks to run off-balance sheets operations that, in effect, create money out of thin air. Similarly, “synthetic” securitization, in the form of credit default swaps (CDS) has turned out to be another scam to avoid maintaining sufficient capital to cover a sudden rash of defaults. The bottom line is that the banks and non-bank institutions wanted to maximize their profits by keeping all their capital in play rather than maintaining the reserves they'd need in the event of a market downturn.
In a deregulated market, the Federal Reserve cannot control the creation of credit by non-bank institutions. As the massive derivatives bubble unwinds, it is likely to have real and disastrous effects on the underlying-productive economy. That's why Jubak and many other market analysts are so concerned. The persistent rise in home foreclosures, means that the derivatives which were levered on the original assets (sometimes exceeding 25-times their value) will vanish down a black hole. As trillions of dollars in virtual-capital are extinguished by a click of the mouse; the prospects of a downward deflationary spiral become more likely.
As economist Nouriel Roubini said:
“One has to realize that there is now a rising probability of a 'catastrophic' financial and economic outcome, i.e. a vicious circle where a deep recession makes the financial losses more severe and where, in turn, large and growing financial losses and a financial meltdown make the recession even more severe. That is why the Fed has thrown caution to the wind and taken a very aggressive approach to risk management.” (Nouriel Roubini EconoMonitor)
"In the fourth quarter of 2007, new foreclosures averaged 2,939 a day, double the pace of a year earlier." (RealtyTrac Inc.) The banks are presently cutting back on home equity loans which provided an additional $600 billion to homeowners last year for personal consumption. Bush's $150 billion “stimulus package” will barely cover a quarter of the amount that is lost. As consumer spending slows and the banks become more constrained in their lending; businesses will face overproduction problems and will have to limit their expansion and lay off workers. This is the downside of “low interest” bubble-making; a painful descent into deflation.
Capital is now being destroyed at a faster pace than it is being created. That's why the Fed is looking for solutions beyond mere rate cuts. Bernanke wants direct government action that will provide immediate stimulus. But that takes political consensus and there's still debate about the gravity of the upcoming recession. The pace of the economic contraction is breathtaking. This week's release of the Institute for Supply Management's Non-Manufacturing Index (ISM) was a shocker. It showed steep declines in all areas of the nation's service sector---including banks, travel companies, contractors, retail stores etc—The Business Activity Index, the New Orders Index, the Employment Index, and the Supplier Delivery Index have all contracted at a “historic” pace. Everyone took a hit.
“The numbers are so terrible, it's beyond belief,” said Scott Anderson, senior economist at Wells Fargo & Co.
The $2 trillion that has been wiped out from falling home prices, the slowdown in lending activity at the banks, the loss $600 billion in home equity loans, and the faltering stock market have all contributed to a noticeable change in the public's attitudes towards spending. Traffic to the shopping malls has slowed to a crawl. Retail shops had their worst January on record. Homeowners are hoarding their earnings to cover basic expenses and to make up for their lack of personal savings. The spending-spigot has been turned off. America's consumer culture is in full-retreat. The slowdown is here. It is now. We are likely to see the sharpest decline in consumer spending in US history. Bush's $150 billion will be too little too late.
America's place in the world has been guaranteed not by what it produces but by what it consumes. The American consumer has been the locomotive that drives the global economy. Now that engine has been derailed by the reckless monetary policies of the Fed and by shortsighted financial innovation. When equity bubbles collapse; everybody pays. Demand for goods and services diminishes, unemployment soars, banks fold, and the economy stalls. That's when governments have to step in and provide programs and resources that keep people working and sustain business activity. Otherwise there will be anarchy. Middle class people are ill-suited for life under a freeway overpass. They need a helping hand from government. Big government. Good-bye, Reagan. Hello, F.D.R.
The Bush stimulus plan is a drop in the bucket. It'll take much, much more. And, we're not holding our breath for a New Deal from George Walker Bush.
Mike Whitney is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Mike Whitney
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http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=8011
Israel jails Russian granny for helping her daughter emigrate back to Russia
by Iran Daily – January 29, 2008 via TBR News.org
A 69-year-old Russian Israeli woman is beginning a six-year jail term in Israel because of helping her granddaughter leave the occupied territories.
Isabella Belfer is the oldest person to be sent to prison in Israel and could spend the rest of her life behind bars, Alalalm.ir reported.
Isabella has been convicted of helping her daughter kidnap her granddaughter and take her out of Israel.
“The punishment is harsher than I think it should be. A woman of her age, of her health condition, who is a grandmother, should never have been punished this harshly,“ Tzion Amir, a leading Israeli lawyer, said.
The case was brought to the courts by Isabella’s son-in-law Yaron Rotem who was married to her daughter, Marina, for two years. The couple had a daughter, Lilach, whom Isabella took to Russia to her mother.
Yaron claims that he doesn’t want to “take Lilach out of Marina ’s hands“, but says that if Marina doesn’t come back to Israel , her mother should go to jail.
Belfer had hoped until the last moment it wouldn’t happen but despite her age, health, and doing what she still believes was the right thing to do, she is going to jail.
“I feel very weak, both morally and physically. I understand that in the end I am going to jail. The question is how long I will survive there or if I will die straight away,“ said the convicted grandmother.
“I would never in my life have imagined that I could go to prison. There is a Russian saying that you can never run away from prison or poverty. I never thought it could be said about me,“ Belfer said.
Israel has witnessed a significant drop in immigrations after 1999 and has set laws to stop migration out of the occupation lands.
In 1999 nearly 77,000 from all over the world immigrated to Israel , but the rate continued to decline and in 2006 only less than 20,000 entered there.
Israeli officials are also worried about the decline in the patriotism of Jewish youth. A poll conducted by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center showed 44 percent of them would seriously think of leaving Israel if it would result in an improved standard of living abroad.
The Israeli regime has an estimated population of 7.1 million, with over 3 million immigrants that entered the occupied territories since 1948.
www.iran-daily.com/1386/3051/html
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http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=8017
Hersh: Israel pressed me to agree Syrian site was nuclear
RAW STORY – February 8, 2008
A new article by veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh offers a detailed examination of the claims that Israel bombed a nuclear facility under construction in Syria last September and finds that none of the evidence stands up to scrutiny.
According to Hersh, "A former senior U.S. intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence, said, 'We don't have any proof of a reactor — no signals intelligence, no human intelligence, no satellite intelligence.'" However, Hersh found that the Israelis were continuing to stand adamantly by their claims:
"When I went to Israel in late December, the government was still maintaining secrecy about the raid, but some current and former officials and military officers were willing to speak without attribution. Most were adamant that Israel’s intelligence had been accurate. 'Don’t you write that there was nothing there!' a senior Israeli official, who is in a position to know the details of the raid on Syria, said, shaking a finger at me. 'The thing in Syria was real.'"
Just one Israeli official expressed doubts, but also brushed them away:
"Retired Brigadier General Shlomo Brom, who served as deputy national-security adviser under Prime Minister Ehud Barak, told me that Israel wouldn’t have acted if it hadn’t been convinced that there was a threat. 'It may have been a perception of a conviction, but there was something there,' Brom said. 'It was the beginning of a nuclear project.' However, by the date of our talk, Brom told me, 'The question of whether it was there or not is not that relevant anymore.'"
One Syrian official suggested to Hersh that the Israelis may have picked up the presence of North Korean laborers at the site and drawn their own conclusions. "'The Israelis may have their own spies and watched the laborers being driven to the area,' the senior officer said. 'The Koreans were not there at night, but slept in their quarters and were driven to the site in the morning. The building was in an isolated area, and the Israelis may have concluded that even if there was a slight chance' — of it being a nuclear facility — 'we'll take that risk.'"
RAW STORY's Larisa Alexandrovna reported last fall that current and former intelligence privately agreed the Syrian facility was not nuclear in nature. Hersh's article is the first major mainstream confirmation of that reporting.
=http://rawstory.com//printstory.php?story=9208
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