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Date Sent: 2009-08-05
Freedom's Phoenix Global Edition for Wednesday, August 5, 2009 |
4409 Arrested again while covering Pastor Anderson's case in Yuma, AZ
4409 & RV crew being arrested near Yuma, Arizona (UPDATE 1) -- Treasuries Fall as U.S. Sets Auction Amounts, May Expand TIPS -- The FDIC Is in Trouble -- Mario versus the Pope -- Libertarianism 101: Who is David Nolan? -- Since When Does The WSJ Edit Page Want To Bring Back Glass-Steagall? (C) -- Depopulation by Inoculation (Part 1): Motive and Intent -- Marine Early Recovery Signs -- NuVinci Continous Transmission -- Washington quietly mulls new quarantine regulations - do you have enough food stored? -- Where's the Media's Reporting of the Details of the Health Care Plan? -- Dems Cap and Trade “Energy” Bill Will Raise Electricity Rates 20% -- 5 Reasons Why Obama Will Hike Middle-Class Taxes -- U.S. Economy: Service Industries Shrank at Faster Pace in July -- The Second Wave of the Credit Crisis -- "Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock" - August 5th 2009 -- AP NewsBreak: Paul seeking US Senate seat from Ky. -- Who Is Geithner Kidding? -- Census Bureau: Fines & Harassment For Refusal to Answer Intrusive Questions -- Warren Buffett's firms got $95 billion of bailout cash -- Deutsche Bank: Construction Loan Defaults to Skyrocket -- Mish: ISM Shows Recession Not Over Yet -- Five Reasons the Market Could Crash This Fall -- Stocks Bear Market NOT Over, Stocks WILL Crash this Fall! -- Bernanke’s Exit Dilemma Does anyone really believe the Fed will contract the money supply as the ec -- Russian PM Vladimir Putin Plays Macho Man in Siberia -- Bernie Madoff and Goldman Sachs -- Fed Buys $7.25 Billion In Treasurys -- National Debt Cap Will Need to Rise, Treasury Predicts -- General Electric to pay $50M in SEC settlement --
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Treasuries Fall as U.S. Sets Auction Amounts, May Expand TIPS
08/05/2009
•
Bloomberg
Treasuries declined for a third day after the U.S. announced it will sell a record $75 billion of notes and bonds at next week’s auctions and indicated plans to expand issuance of inflation-indexed securities.
Thirty-year bond yields touched their highest levels in a week as the government signaled it’s considering the introduction of 30-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and ending 20-year TIPS as it finances unprecedented budget deficits. U.S. service industries contracted at a faster pace in July, suggesting recovery from the deepest slump since the Great Depression may be slow.
“The curve is steepening as a lot of people want to stay away from the belly and the long end,”
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News Link • Federal Reserve
The FDIC Is in Trouble
08/05/2009
•
Safe Haven
As we all know, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees depositors that they'll get their money back if a bank fails, at least up to a certain amount. To fund its operations, the FDIC collects small fees from the banks that are held in reserve for the purpose of taking over troubled banks and paying off depositors.
Since the Great Depression, a period marked by widespread runs on banks, the FDIC has done a good job of fulfilling its mandate. So how are they doing in this crisis?
In a nutshell, they are in trouble.
The FDIC insures 8,246 institutions, with $13.5 trillion in assets. Not all of them are going bankrupt, of course. Yet as of late July, a disturbing 64 banks had gone belly up this year - the most since 1992 - costing the FDIC $12.5 billion. At the end of Q1, the agency was already asking for emergency funding.
And worse, much worse, is likely yet to come. The following chart shows the total assets on the books of the FDIC's list of 305 trouble
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News Link • New World Order
Mario versus the Pope
08/05/2009
•
Economic Policy Journal
All onboard! Mario Rizzo has read Pope Benedict XVI’s enclyclical, Caritas in Veritate, and reaches the following conclusion:
Benedict XVI has made a number of judgments: (1) It is morally obligatory for those who have abundance to help others who are poor; (2) The state " welfare state " is an appropriate institution to do this; (3) Such aid should not be left largely/ mainly/exclusively) to the voluntary of other individuals or private agencies created for that purpose; (4) The free movement of capital and the greater prosperity it brings does not more than offset the value of welfare state handouts...So where is the papal encyclical? At least three out the four constituent points above are not matters of specific Church competence. Yet the pope relies on all four.
Rizzo's full analysis is here.
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News Link • Bailouts
Since When Does The WSJ Edit Page Want To Bring Back Glass-Steagall? (C)
08/05/2009
•
The Business Insider
It has been a day of firsts, folks.
Today we not only found ourselves nodding along with a Wall Street Journal editorial, but an editorial siding with Andrew J. Hall, the castle-owning commodities trader fighting for his $100 million payday.
And about those "regulators":
In Phibro and Citi, we can see writ small the debate over financial regulation that took place inside the Obama Administration. Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker has been warning for months that such proprietary trading is incompatible"and intolerable"with a taxpayer guarantee against failure. But he was opposed by the Obama Treasury, White House powerhouse Larry Summers, not to mention the ghost of former Treasury Secretary and Citigroup exec Robert Rubin and most of Wall Street.
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News Link • Environment
Marine Early Recovery Signs
08-05-2009
•
arclein
Recover_Under_Appropriate_Management_999.html
An international team of scientists with divergent views on ocean ecosystems has found that efforts to rebuild many of the world's fisheries are worthwhile and starting to pay off in many places around the world. Their study puts into perspective recent reports predicting a total collapse of global fisheries within 40 years.
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robert klein
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News Link • Science
NuVinci Continous Transmission
08-05-2009
•
arclein
The NuVinci CVP represents a quantum leap forward over other CVTs as well as conventional mechanical transmissions. These advantages include:
Higher torque density
Smaller size/weight
Easily scalable
Simpler
More adaptable and versatile
Improved overall performance
Easy to package (less space required)
Lower manufacturing and maintenance costs
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robert klein
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News Link • Activism
Washington quietly mulls new quarantine regulations - do you have enough food stored?
08-05-2009
•
Farm Wars
The Obama administration is quietly dusting off an effort to impose new federal quarantine regulations, which were vigorously resisted by civil liberties organizations and the airline industry when the rules were first proposed by the Bush administration nearly four years ago.
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Barbara Peterson
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News Link • Healthcare
Where's the Media's Reporting of the Details of the Health Care Plan?
08/05/2009
•
Economic Policy Journal
Commenter Nynjadoc makes a number of important points at my Shock: Inside the Healthcare Bill post, including the curious fact that MSM's coverage of the Healthcare bill seems to be very narrow in scope, with no discussion at all about the seeming likely cut off in medical care to the elderly, and the likelihood that private insurance could be eventually eliminated because of the Obama plan. He also notes an intriguing connection between Michelle Obama and big pharma. His points are important enough to reproduce here:
Yes all the diabolic comments are accurate. This bill should be called, instead of Universal Healthcare, Euthanasia/Healthcare.
Second, isn't it odd that it's getting almost NO media outrage. The implications of this make Katrina pale by comparison and yet we're only being allowed to hear about the financial consequences.
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News Link • TAXES: Federal
Dems Cap and Trade “Energy” Bill Will Raise Electricity Rates 20%
08/05/2009
•
Flopping Aces
I thought Obama wasn’t going to raise our taxes?
Tuesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration released their study of the impacts of the Democrat’s Cap and Trade program which recently passed the House of Representatives.
Bloomberg news sorted through the bureaucratic language in the report and found:
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News Link • TAXES: Federal
5 Reasons Why Obama Will Hike Middle-Class Taxes
08/05/2009
•
Economic Policy Journal
James Pethokoukis has put together the following list:
1) Obama knows the budget math doesn’t work.
2) Obama seems to prefer tax hikes to spending cuts.
3) Obama has already tried raising taxes.
4) Obama’s advisers are for higher taxes.
5) Obama doesn’t seem to think high taxes are harmful.
Bottom line, Obama is an egalitarian who believes that to be a upstanding member of your community, you need to turn more and more of your money over to him, so that he can disperse it to unions, Goldman Sachs and the ever expanding government bureaucracy.
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News Link • New World Order
U.S. Economy: Service Industries Shrank at Faster Pace in July
08/05/2009
•
Bloomberg
I am all for FAIR free trade but that is not what American citizens were given with UNFAIR trade agreements, i.e., NAFTA SHAFTA and look we won't even have a service economy. All onboard the New World Order Bus to shared MISERY!
Service industries in the U.S. shrank more than forecast in July, and companies cut another 371,000 jobs, indicating rising unemployment will erode spending.
The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non- manufacturing businesses, which make up almost 90 percent of the economy, fell to 46.4 from 47 in June, according to the Tempe, Arizona-based group. Fifty is the dividing line between expansion and contraction. ADP Employer Services said companies cut staff last month more than economists anticipated.
The reports signal most of the economy has yet to benefit from government programs, such as the cash-for-clunkers plan, aimed at reviving manufacturing. The highest jobless rate in 26- years, stagnating wages, falling home values and mounting bank
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News Link • Bailouts
The Second Wave of the Credit Crisis
08/05/2009
•
Emacs Stock Watch
It's a compelling, comforting storyline.
The stock market is enjoying a bungee-cord bounce the likes of which have not been seen since the '70s, the housing market appears to be reviving, and economic green shoots may be starting to sprout from the fiscal fertilizer the government has spread around.
Not so fast.
Wall Street economists and analysts say they are now bracing for the second wave of the credit crisis, another tsunami of poisonous loans that could swamp the banks and a still floundering economy.
Prices in the $3.5 tn U.S. commercial real estate have fallen about 39% from the peak in mid 2007, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Real Estate, with no signs of the plunge stopping.
The 39% drop in commercial real estate prices has already eclipsed the 27% decrease during the S&L crisis of the late '80s to early '90s. And losses from commercial property loans for housing complexes, strip malls, office buildings, hotels
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News Link • Government
AP NewsBreak: Paul seeking US Senate seat from Ky.
08/05/2009
•
Star Telegram
Great News if you live in Kentucky make sure to exercise your right to vote for him!
A Kentucky ophthalmologist who has been eyeing a U.S. Senate campaign says he will run for the seat now held by Jim Bunning.
Republican Rand Paul of Bowling Green ended months of speculation Wednesday when he told The Associated Press in an interview that he is entering the race. Paul told the AP of his decision in advance of a series of planned media events, including an appearance on national television Wednesday evening.
Paul had been considering running even before the 77-year-old Bunning announced last week that he intends to retire when his second term ends next year.
Paul is the son of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, a Texas lawmaker who ran in last year's Republican primaries.
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Who Is Geithner Kidding?
08/05/2009
•
The Golden Truth
Who Is Geithner Kidding?
The Treasury announced a record $75 billion quarterly refunding auction next week. The number of Treasury auctions have doubled from 36 to 72 over the past year. In the same breath, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "has pledged to reduce government borrowing to a sustainable path once the economy returns to firmer footing."
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/treasury-plans-to-sell-a-record-amount-of-debt-2009-08-05
Seriously, who is he kidding? He made a similar comment to an audience of Chinese university students in his spring trip to China and they laughed at him. The reality is that the Obama Government essentially quadrupled the spending deficit in it's first year from the deficit level in Bush's last term ($500 billion to $2 trillion, roughly).
But I would love to see the real spending numbers, and thus the real deficit, because multi-billion spending programs like the war on terror and the Government takeover of Fannie Mae and Fred
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News Link • Police State
Census Bureau: Fines & Harassment For Refusal to Answer Intrusive Questions
08-05-2009
•
InfoWars.com
The survey, which is sent to 3 million random homes each year, is in addition to the census but demands far more invasive information from citizens, such as how many times they have been married, if they have a toilet that flushes, and how much is left outstanding on their mortgage.
According to one North Texas resident, “The questionnaire also wants answers about where she works, how much money she makes, and what time she leaves for work each day " the hour and minute! “I thought it was intrusive. I don’t have a high regard for the federal government collecting this information anyway,” the woman told CBS 11 News. “You don’t know what they’re going to do with it.”
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News Link • Corruption
Warren Buffett's firms got $95 billion of bailout cash
08-05-2009
•
Rawstory.com
The richest man in the world doesn’t need $95 billion dollars.
But apparently, the companies he invests in did. According to a new report, companies in which Warren Buffett owns sizable minority stakes received a whopping $95 billion in Troubled Asset Relief funding, as Buffett was shilling for investments in common stocks.
To be fair, his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, has received no government aid. In fact, Berkshire became a major lender in the wake of frozen US credit markets, injecting $5 billion into General Electric, Goldman Sachs and even motorcycle-maker Harley Davidson at hefty interest rates.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Deutsche Bank: Construction Loan Defaults to Skyrocket
08-05-2009
•
Ritholtz.com/blog
Construction loans are structured with upfront reserves " meaning that it takes much longer for CRE defaults to occur. Low short-term interest rates also means reserves can last longer " BUT, as DB notes, Once reserves are exhausted, defaults will skyrocket.
• By far the riskiest type of loan product in bank portfolios;
• Substantial portion represents loans to homebuilders;
• Market currently penalizing properties with vacancy issues extremely severely;
• Newly constructed (or only partially constructed) properties are the poster children for vacancy problems in CRE;
• Values of most newly constructed properties are down massively;
• Expect extremely high default rates and extremely high loss severity rates, both likely to be in excess of 50%;
• Total expected losses of 25% or more.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Mish: ISM Shows Recession Not Over Yet
08-05-2009
•
Michael Shedlock / Mish
The horn tooters have to wait at least another month before the recession is over judging from the non-manufacturing ISM numbers.
Please consider the July 2009 Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.
The report shows the NMI (Non-Manufacturing Index) dropped .6% in July to 46.4, contracting for the 10th consecutive month at a slightly faster rate.
The table shows that 8 out of 10 Non-Manufacturing components are worse this month than last month. Only deliveries are in the green while inventories are contracting at a slower rate.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Depression
Five Reasons the Market Could Crash This Fall
08/05/2009
•
Seeking Alpha
With all this blather about “green shoots” and economic “recovery” and new “bull market,” I thought I’d inject a little reality into the collective financial dialogue. The following are ALL true, all valid, and all horrifying…
Enjoy.
1) High Frequency Trading Programs account for 70% of market volume
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Stocks Bear Market NOT Over, Stocks WILL Crash this Fall!
08/05/2009
•
The Market Oracle
Yesterday we detailed the different between this current economic contraction, and your usual run of the mill plain vanilla recessions. We also went over the MASSIVE consumer credit contraction that needs to occur before American households have finished de-leveraging.
Today, we’re detailing why stocks will Crash this coming fall. As you know the media is rife with folks calling the end of the recession and the beginning of a new bull market. It’s clear to me that this is a load of nonsense. Today I’ll show you why.
Because a lot of the alleged “analysis” that is backing up the bulls’ claims of a new bull market comes from technical analysis and charts, I’m presenting the below chart from David Rosenberg of Gluskin Shef. It charts today’s bear market over that of 1929-1932.
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Bernanke’s Exit Dilemma
Does anyone really believe the Fed will contract the money supply as the ec
08/04/2009
•
WSJ
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured readers of this page (“The Fed’s Exit Strategy,” July 21) that he has the tools to prevent the huge reserves he’s pumped into the banks from generating an inflation that would abort an economic recovery.
But does the Fed have the guts to use those tools? Will it risk censure from Congress and the Obama administration if it tightens money at the crucial juncture when inflationary omens accompany a reviving economy? Mr. Bernanke signaled the probable choice by writing that “economic conditions are not likely to warrant tighter monetary policy for an extended period.”
The Fed’s past record of judging when and how to use its tools for regulating the money supply is not impressive, particularly in times of economic distress. Its financing of large federal deficits in the mid-1970s sent inflation up to an annual rate approaching 15% before Jimmy Carter repented in October 1979 and installed Paul Volcker at the Fed with orders to kill the mo
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News Link • Foreign Policy
Russian PM Vladimir Putin Plays Macho Man in Siberia
08-05-2009
•
spiegel.de/international/
In the latest installment of Vladimir Putin's action man adventures, the Russian prime minister has been seen tramping, boating and riding bare-chested in Siberia. He's there to talk about the endangered snow leopard, but the macho image also serves his political needs.
Even the prime minister of the largest country in the world needs a little time off. And for Vladimir Putin, this involves a testosterone-fuelled, adventure-holiday in the south of Siberia, including everything from campfires to boat excursions. Apparently Russia's best known action-man is even spending his nights this week in a tent.
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News Link • Bailouts
Bernie Madoff and Goldman Sachs
08/01/2009
•
CRIME & FEDERALISM
As with Bernie Madoff, we must take it on faith that Goldman is honest and ethical. Goldman Sachs, like Bernie Madoff, wouldn't cheat anyone out of a dime - or even a fraction of a penny, ala Superman 3. There is no need for the SEC to waste Goldman's time.
Going after Goldman will get a person fired. Larry Summers forced out an Administration official who started asking questions about Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms.
Joseph Facciponti and the Department of Justice arrested a man, 48-hours after Goldman called them (does Goldman Sachs have a "bat phone"?) to report that an employee might have stolen some computer code. Facciponti commited fraud on the court to do Goldman's bidding. After intense media attention, Goldman Sachs told Facciponti to make the Aleynikov prosecution go away; Facciponti complied.
Unlike Bernie Madoff, Goldman Sachs will never be punished. They are too mobbed up. Goldman's investment in public officials is paying
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Fed Buys $7.25 Billion In Treasurys
08/05/2009
•
Fox
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York bought $7.248 billion in Treasurys on Wednesday, the first of two operations this week. Dealers submitted $17.913 billion in debt maturing between 2013 and 2016 to the Fed. The central bank is more than two-thirds of the way through the $300 billion in U.S. debt it promised in March to buy in an effort to keep borrowing costs, particularly for companies and homebuyers, affordable. When the Fed bought from this maturity range a month ago, it purchased $7 billion. Treasury prices remained higher, pushing yields on the 10-year note down 3 basis points to 3.65%.
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News Link • Federal Reserve
National Debt Cap Will Need to Rise, Treasury Predicts
08/05/2009
•
Washington Post
Congress will be forced to raise the legal limit on the nation's credit card sometime later this year, Treasury officials reported Wednesday, focusing additional attention on the expanding national debt just as lawmakers expect to be putting the finishing touches on President Obama's trillion-dollar overhaul of the nation's health care system.
The amount the government may borrow from the public, including foreign creditors, is limited by law to $12.1 trillion, a cap that has been raised several times since the nation slipped into recession in December 2007. Treasury officials predicted this week that they expect to borrow an additional $892 billion through the end of the year, driving the overall debt past the cap sometime in the fourth quarter.
"Given the uncertainty surrounding potential borrowing needs, Treasury will continue to keep Congress and financial market participants apprised of developments as the debt outstanding approaches the statutory limit," T
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News Link • Corruption
General Electric to pay $50M in SEC settlement
08/04/2009
•
Yahoo
BUSTED!
General Electric Co. will pay a $50 million civil penalty to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing the conglomerate of improper accounting in order to make its financial results appear more attractive to investors.
The SEC said Tuesday that GE violated U.S. securities laws four times between 2002 and 2003 when accounting for items like commercial paper funding and the sale of train locomotives and aircraft engine spare parts. The SEC said the changes helped GE maintain a string of earnings that beat Wall Street expectations each quarter from 1995 through 2004.
"GE bent the accounting rules beyond the breaking point," said Robert Khuzami, head of the SEC's enforcement division, in a statement.
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News Link • Immigration
Why I don't think Mexicans are Evil! Why I think immigration is good.
08-03-2009
•
www.LCLReport.com
This LCLReport explores the governments history of creating scapegoats to gain power. Why I think Mexicans are the new boogie man and what the real hidden cause behind the immigration problem is and how to fix it all in one simple move. Hanna Hoffman also sings.
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Tarrin Lupo
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News Link • Arizona's Top News
Arizona Commercial Real Estate Foreclosures Skyrocket
08-05-2009
•
AZCentral.com
More than 2,000 commercial properties in Maricopa County have received 90-day foreclosure notices since Jan. 1, representing $6.3 billion in real-estate loans on which the borrowers have failed to make payments.
That number is staggering when placed in contrast with the average commercial foreclosure rate over the past decade, which has been practically zero.
The problem, sparked by property-value declines and a paucity of refinancing options, has produced a steady flow of distressed commercial properties onto the market, with a heavy emphasis on small and midsize office and retail centers.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Science, Medicine and Technology
Fort Worth firm testing H1N1 Swine Flu vaccine on volunteers
08-05-2009
•
dallasnews.com
When Angela Witkamp heard that a local research company would soon be testing a swine flu vaccine, she had no reservations about signing up her two young daughters for a clinical trial.
“Any vaccination you get, there are side effects,” Witkamp said. “But the benefits of getting the vaccination definitely outweigh them. There are people dying from the swine flu.
“Some of my friends call us guinea pigs, but they are not fully informed. The vaccination that they will be studying will be the same that anyone can get at the health department [when it is approved].
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Stock Market Runs With Aging Bulls
08/05/2009
•
WSJ
And with the Federal Reserve still intervening heavily to hold down borrowing costs and the government spending money hand over fist, few want to bet against this bull run.
However, every post-recession period is different, and this one still looks nasty enough to cause disappointment on fundamentals.
Indeed, the bulls' weakest point is their reliance on the earnings rebound predicted by Wall Street analysts. The S&P 500 is trading at 16.8 times consensus 2009 earnings, above its level at the market peak in October 2007. That is why the bull case says investors need to look even further forward, at 2010 forecasts, which gets the multiple down to 13.3 times.
But that distant-hope scenario has its shortcomings. Take a stock like Home Depot, trading at 16.8 times consensus fiscal 2011 earnings, very high for a company facing intense competition and exposed to the troubled housing market.
Implicit in the bull case is the belief that the government just has to carry the economy
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News Link • Foreign Policy
Saudi prince’s coup fails: Saudi Prince Bandar 'Bush' Disappears
08-05-2009
•
Presstv.ir/
Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the kingdom's former ambassador to the United States, is reportedly under house arrest over a conspiracy against the monarch.
Saad al-Faqih, head of the opposition group Islamic Reform Movement, told Arab-language TV al-Alam that Prince Bandar has been disappeared and the media has published no word from the ex-diplomat's whereabouts since nearly three months ago.
According to al-Faqih, the prince first disappeared in Britain but he returned to the kingdom shortly afterwards.
He added that after Saudi officials discovered that he had provoked 200 agents working for the Saudi security service to stage a coup against King Abdullah, he was put under house arrest.
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Regulators Keep Up Criticism
08/05/2009
•
WSJ
BO's boy Timmy sure wants the Fed to RULE THE WORLD!
Top U.S. regulators rebuked Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday and continued criticizing the administration's proposed revamp of financial regulation, signaling that turf battles will continue over one of the White House's top domestic agenda items.
During a Senate hearing, federal banking regulators took aim at central aspects of the administration's proposal, questioning the creation of an agency to protect consumers and the concentration of regulatory power in the Federal Reserve.
Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said parts of the proposal to overhaul bank rules were "not consistent with its own stated objective." Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said the plan was focused on the wrong solutions.
"It is difficult to see why so much effort should be expended to create a single regulator when political capital could be better spent on more important and fundamen
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News Link • Federal Reserve
What the Fed is 'Really' Trying to Hide In Fighting an Audit
08-05-2009
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washingtonsblog.com/
But what the Fed is really struggling to keep hidden is the fact that the entire financial system is based on massive manipulation and fraud by the Fed and its primary dealers.
Specifically, the Fed is desperately trying to hide that many trillions of the government's bailouts have gone to inflating the stock market, buying up the U.S. government's own treasuries, and gaming the currency and gold markets.
Of course, when the New York Federal Reserve's "primary dealers" (the dealers through which the Fed carries out its open market operations in general, and its PPT, ESF, and other schemes through) get the huge sums of cash from the Fed, they place bets based on inside knowledge of where the money flows are going (they also, supposedly, skim off part of the cash, but that's for another essay).
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Bush Administration
Torturing Children: Bush’s Legacy and Democracy’s Failure
08-05-2009
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TruthOut.org & InfoWars.com
Nowhere is there a more disturbing, if not horrifying, example of the relationship between a culture of cruelty and the politics of irresponsibility than in the resounding silence that surrounds the torture of children under the presidency of George W. Bush " and the equal moral and political failure of the Obama administration to address and rectify the conditions that made it possible. But if we are to draw out the dark and hidden parameters of such crimes, they must be made visible so men and women can once again refuse to orphan the law, justice, and morality. How we deal with the issue of state terrorism and its complicity with the torture of children will determine not merely the conditions under which we are willing to live, but whether we will live in a society in which moral responsibility disappears altogether and whether we will come to find ourselves living under a democratic or authoritarian social order.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Obama Administration
Is Race for Governor More About Obama?
Some Voters Who Backed President Disillusioned Over Economic
08/05/2009
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Washington Post
The coffee was still brewing when Chris Ann Cleland got her first reminder of the day that voting for Barack Obama might have been a mistake.
For Cleland, it was another example -- one of many this day -- of the broken promises of a president who she thought would be different. Obama pledged to change a Washington culture that favored corporations and the connected and instead lift families such as the one sitting next to Cleland out of their economic funk. Rather, she said, Obama has backed billions of dollars to banks that continue to "act like they're broke" and started the country down a path that Cleland said she thinks will lead to more grief for the middle class.
"He's just not as advertised," she said. "Nothing's changed for the common guy. I feel like I've been punked."
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News Link • Corruption
Robert Scheer's Columns: Banking Bandits Get Their Reward
08-05-2009
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Truthdig.com
“Two firms, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch suffered massive loses of more than $27 billion at each firm. Nevertheless, Citigroup paid out $5.33 billion, in bonuses, and Merrill paid $3.6 billion in bonuses. Together, they lost $54 billion, paid out nearly $9 billion in bonuses and then received TARP bailouts totaling $55 billion. For three other firms"Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan Chase"2008 bonus payments were substantially greater than the banks’ net income.”
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Federal Reserve
US Announces Record Debt Sales, TIPS Boost
08/05/2009
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Investment Watch
To meet its borrowing needs, the U.S. Treasury Wednesday announced its largest quarterly debt-sales program as well as plans to gradually boost sales of inflation-protected bonds in fiscal year 2010.
The refunding will comprise:
- $37.0 billion of three-year notes maturing Aug. 15, 2012, to be sold Tuesday, Aug. 11.
- $23.0 billion of 10-year notes maturing Aug. 15, 2019, to be sold Wednesday, Aug. 12.
- $15.0 billion of 30-year bonds maturing Aug. 15, 2039, to be sold Thursday, Aug. 13.
With the government’s financing needs rising amid a weak economy, Treasury plans to sell a record $75.0 billion of securities in its quarterly refunding next week to refund about $60.9 billion in maturing issues and raise about $14.0 billion of the federal debt.
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News Link • Economy - International
S&P downgrades UK bank debt: It's Just a Scratch!
08-05-2009
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ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/
UK banks with government stakes saw a sharp downgrading of chunks of their debt on Tuesday after S&P concluded the government’s sweeping powers could harm bondholders. The downgrades followed the government’s decision earlier this year to suspend interest payments due on some so-called “tier two” bonds of Bradford & Bingley and Dunfermline, both of which it fully owns. Other countries have not seen their debt downgraded in the same way. On Tuesday S&P downgraded the tier two debt of Northern Rock eight notches to B-minus, while Lloyds Banking Group saw its tier two debt rating cut by three notches. Their share prices stayed steady however as investors knew the changes were coming.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Obama Administration
Citizen Informants
08/05/2009
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American Thinker
In 1930's Germany, the new socialist government of Adolf Hitler (NAZI National Socialist Workers' Party) began indoctrinating children in the quasi-military organization, the Hitler Youth, to inform on their parents should they overhear discussions subversive to the policies of the Leader. As the noose was tightened, local community organizers were appointed to watch their neighbors and were told to report subversive comments to the bureaucrats above them. Neighbors informed on neighbors, some for reasons of patriotism or loyalty, some from fear. A modern inquisition ensued; a terror to free thought and expression. Increasingly harsh penalties were meted out to those who dared to dissent.
The socialist governments of the Soviet Union, Fascist Italy, N. Korea, Cuba, Yugoslavia, and the People's Republic of China employed the same citizen informer techniques. Citizens of those societies were reduced to either silence or whispered discussion only among those they trusted the
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News Link • TAXES: State
Gorman resigns as Ariz. Senate's majority whip (Won't be a party to raising taxes)
08-05-2009
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AzFamily.com
An Arizona
state senator resigned from her leadership post Tuesday, citing
philosophical differences with other Republican leaders on taxes and
spending.
In an e-mail announcing her resignation as
Senate majority whip, Republican Sen. Pamela Gorman of Anthem says she
finds raising taxes during a recession is the wrong thing to do.
Gorman, who is retaining her position as a state senator, is an
opponent of Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal for a sales tax increase. Gorman
says the tax issue is tearing apart the Republican caucus.
The Arizona Legislature returned Tuesday afternoon to its special
session focusing on closing a state budget deficit estimated at more
than $3 billion.
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Reported by:
Ernest Hancock
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News Link • Government
The People Spreaing "Disinformation" about Obamacare
08-05-2009
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The Heritage Foundation
Pres. Obama wants his minions to report Health Care misinformation to the Whitehouse. Everyone send the message #FAIL to flag@whitehouse.gov with Health Care Reform in the message subject line.
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Reported by:
Kenneth Rineer
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News Link • Corruption
Goldman's 42 $100MM+ Trading Days in Q2 - An Unprecedented Record
08-05-2009
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ZeroHedge.com
So let's see - progressivelly higher daily revenues on progressively lower "indicated" risk-taking. It is so painfully obvious that the traders at Goldman still have not figured out how to game the system.
Goldman reported their $100MM+ trading days. It is a stunner: Goldman made over $100 million on 46 out of the 65 total trading days in Q2, 70% of total. Goldman made over $50 million on 58 of the 65 total trading days in Q2, 89.2% of total.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Economy - International
Alarming China statistic of the day: Building Bubbles with Stimulus
08-05-2009
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TheMessThatGreenspanMade.blogspot.com/
Record bank lending in China drove average prices for new homes 6.3 percent higher in June in 36 large and medium-sized Chinese cities, according to government data. That gain came even as urban unemployment rose and wage growth for workers in Chinese cities slowed.
“The government should do something to effectively control the speed of growth of the real estatemarket,” Han said. “The housing price in Shanghai is already too high. We must prevent excessive inflation of home prices in this market.”
Chinese banks made 7.37 trillion yuan ($1.07 trillion) of new loans in the first six months of 2009 as the government sought to bolster economic growth that slowed to the weakest in almost a decade in the first quarter.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Federal judges order California to release 43,000 inmates
08-05-2009
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LAtimes.com
Tuesday's ruling heightens the stakes for a legislative debate over prisons that will take place later this month. As part of the agreement to close the state's $26-billion budget gap, the governor and lawmakers agreed to cut $1.2 billion from the prisons budget, but postponed decisions on how to hit that goal.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Denninger: ADP Payroll - Ugh
08-05-2009
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Market-ticker.denninger.net
While the rate of decline has slowed the fact remains that we are nowhere near "turning the corner" in terms of job loss, and yet the mantra is "green shoots, green shoots!"
Note that while goods-producing layoffs have dropped materially, the services side of the economy has basically flat-lined. That is, the goods-producers have drawn down inventory (a cycle that may be nearing completion) and as such their need to lay off people has waned - however, the services side is still seeing contracting demand and that contraction appears to have flat-lined from May going forward instead of continuing to improve in June and July.
Continuing contraction in the services portion of the economy is not positive no matter how you slice it, and the improvement from the January and February time frames for services appears to have stalled in June and July.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Corruption
Goldman Sachs: Is This Statisitically Reasonable?
08-05-2009
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Market-ticker.denninger.net
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. made more than $100 million in trading revenue on a record 46 separate days during the second quarter, or 71 percent of the time, breaking the previous high of 34 days in the prior three months.
Trading losses occurred on two days during the months of April, May and June, down from eight in the first quarter, the New York-based bank said today in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company made at least $50 million on 58 of the 65 trading days during the quarter, or 89 percent of the time.
Just two days of losses in the entire quarter?
There are a lot of very good traders in the world, but nobody has that sort of record on any sort of consistent basis unless they've managed to rig the game.
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Jack Gregson
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Global GDP Rebound Is Underway, But Who's The Buyer?
08-05-2009
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Michael Shedlock / Mish
The reason why we remain skeptical over the sustainability " the operative word for investors " is because the U.S. economy (or the global economy for that matter) has yet to show any ability that it can stand on its own two feet without the constant use of government steroids. At a time when the U.S. government is running a 13% fiscal deficit-to-GDP ratio, it somehow has enough in the coffers to try and perpetuate a cycle of spending by inducing a populace in which 20% are already three-car families, to go out and buy a new car to support a shrinking industry at future taxpayer (or bondholder) expense.
Look at what happened in that first quarter GDP number " total GDP contracted around $30 billion at an annual rate, but when you strip out all the government activity, ranging from spending, to tax reductions, to benefit payouts, the decline exceeded $300 billion. In other words, without all the government intervention, the decline in GDP in 1Q would have been closer to an 8% annual
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Reported by:
Jack Gregson
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