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Date Sent: 2009-08-10
Freedom's Phoenix Global Edition for Monday, August 10, 2009 PM edition |
Uncle Sam Manipulating Bond Market -- FBI raids New Orleans police over Katrina killings
Do Fannie and Freddie Need a 'Bad Bank?' -- Public spied on 1,500 times a day in UK -- The Large Health Insurers Lobbyists Have Already Won -- Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren't sure -- Swiss cabinet meets on UBS as U.S. tax talks drag -- "Three amigos" plot trade and swine flu -- Federal pens for holding immigrants vary widely -- Immune system cancer found in young 9/11 cops -- U.S. banks to make $38 billion from overdraft fees -- Air Force uses Twitter to conduct domestic surveillance -- Deficit grew by $181 billion in July -- Bribed Regulators: Another Example -- Second Stimulus Needed to Avoid Lost Decade: Krugman --
Hank Paulson and Goldman Sachs Are RICO Enterprises -- Traders Brace
For September Collapse -- Obama and Big Pharma: Deal or no deal? -- ACORN Using Police to Stop Free Speech of Obamacare Opponents -- Krugman Says Bernanke Should Be Reappointed to Fed
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News Link • Obama Administration
Uncle Sam Manipulating Bond Market
08/08/2009
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Market Skeptic
Uncle Sam is goosing the bond market just like he is the stock market. Take a look at Treasury's latest bit of chicanery which was stuffed in the back pages of the Wall Street Journal back in June:
"The sudden increase in demand by foreign buyers for Treasurys, hailed as proof that the world's central banks are still willing to help absorb the avalanche of supply, mightn't be all that it seems.
When the government sells bonds, traders typically look at a group of buyers called indirect bidders, which includes foreign central banks, to divine overseas demand for U.S. debt. That demand has been rising recently, giving comfort to investors that foreign buyers will continue to finance the U.S.'s budget deficit.
But in a little-noticed switch on June 1, the Treasury changed the way it accounts for indirect bids, putting more buyers under that umbrella and boosting the portion of recent Treasury sales that the market perceived were being bought by foreigners." (&
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Do Fannie and Freddie Need a 'Bad Bank?'
08-10-2009
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BusinessWeek
As the Administration weighs options for reorganizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the wake of their dismal financial performance. Months ago, policymakers and outside
experts weighed the benefits of creating a "bad bank" to hold
commercial banks' toxic assets, but the idea never gained traction.
Now, some suggest, the concept could help to restructure the mortgage
giants"but the hurdles that caused commercial banks to adopt a
different solution remain.
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Reported by:
Powell Gammill
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News Link • Police State
Public spied on 1,500 times a day in UK, study finds
08-10-2009
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Reuters
Police, councils and the intelligence services made more than
500,000 requests to access private emails and telephone records in the
UK last year, according to an annual surveillance report.
The figures, compiled by the Interception of Communications
Commissioner found 1,500 surveillance
requests were made every day in Britain.
That is the annual equivalent to one in every 78 people being
targeted. It included 1,500 approved applications from local councils.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • Healthcare Industry
The Large Health Insurers Lobbyists Have Already Won
08-10-2009
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BusinessWeek
As the health reform fight shifts this month from a vacationing
Washington to congressional districts and local airwaves around the
country, much more of the battle than most people realize is already
over. The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth
Group, Aetna, and WellPoint.
The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform
debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the
voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the
insurance industry will emerge more profitable. Health reform could
come with a $1 trillion price tag over the next decade, and it may
complicate matters for some large employers. But insurance CEOs ought
to be smiling.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Where did that bank bailout go? Watchdogs aren't sure
08-10-2009
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McClatchy News
Although hundreds of well-trained eyes are watching over the $700
billion that Congress last year decided to spend bailing out the
nation's financial sector, it's still difficult to answer some of the
most basic questions about where the money went.
Despite
a new oversight panel, a new special inspector general, the existing
Government Accountability Office and eight other inspectors general,
those charged with minding the store say they don't have all the
weapons they need. Ten months into the Troubled Asset Relief Program,
some members of Congress say that some oversight of bailout dollars has
been so lacking that it's essentially worthless.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • TAXES: Federal
Swiss cabinet meets on UBS as U.S. tax talks drag
08-10-2009
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Reuters
The Swiss government held a special session to discuss the
U.S. tax evasion case hanging over Swiss bank UBS as negotiations to
settle the issue dragged on.
The Swiss government, currently in recess, is holding an
extraordinary meeting.
Switzerland and the United States failed to agree on a
settlement that would spare UBS a tax trial, and talks will continue
until August 12, when a new status conference with U.S. Judge Alan Gold
is scheduled.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • North American Union
"Three amigos" plot trade and swine flu
08-10-2009
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Reuters
Leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada vowed to fight the spread of the H1N1 swine flu and combat climate change but differed on trade disputes at their "three amigos" summit.
President Barack Obama,
Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper met against a backdrop of an economic downturn in each country
with a U.S. rebound key to a regional improvement.
Obama and Harper said their governments would share information as each faces the possibility of a predicted upsurge in the H1N1 virus this autumn.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • Immigration
Federal pens for holding immigrants vary widely
08-10-2009
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AP
As federal officials begin an overhaul of the widely criticized system
used to incarcerate immigrants awaiting hearings and deportation, their
challenge includes a deep inconsistency in the amount paid to a hastily
assembled network of private prisons and local jails that hold
thousands of such detainees.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • 911 / World Trade Center
Immune system cancer found in young 9/11 officers
08-10-2009
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AP
Researchers say a small number of young law enforcement officers who
participated in the World Trade Center rescue and cleanup operation
after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks have developed an immune system
cancer.
The numbers are tiny, and experts don't know whether
there is any link between the illnesses and toxins released during the
disaster.
But doctors who coordinated the study said
people who worked at the site should continue to have their health
monitored.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • Military
Air Force uses Twitter to conduct domestic surveillance
08-10-2009
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AP
Newly released government documents show the military uses
Internet tools to monitor and react to coverage of high-profile
events.
The Air Force tracked the instant messaging service Twitter, video
carrier YouTube and various blogs to assess the huge public backlash to
the Air Force One flyover of the Statue of Liberty this spring,
according to the documents.
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Powell Gammill
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News Link • Depression
Deficit grew by $181 billion in July
08/09/2009
•
The Hill
Bailouts for financial firms and billions in tax revenue lost because of the recession drove the deficit to a record $1.3 trillion in July, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Tax receipts that have fallen due to the poor economy and increased spending to save car companies, banks and mortgage firms were major contributors to the federal deficit, according to CBO, which provides official budget numbers for Congress. The federal deficit grew by another $181 billion in July.
Falling tax receipts and increased spending on bailouts for auto companies and the financial sector and for the economic stimulus package added to the deficit, according to CBO, which provides official budget numbers for Congress.
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News Link • Corruption
Bribed Regulators: Another Example
08/10/2009
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The Market Ticker
A nasty statistic:
Banks make $38 billion a year from overdraft fees.
Now let's look at the internals on that statistic:
3/4 of all accounts have not had an overdraft in the last 12 months. This means that one quarter of all accounts are responsible for basically all of this.
Of the remaining quarter, half of those account for nearly all (90th percentile plus) of the overdrafts. This means that roughly 12.5% of consumers are bearing the entire brunt of these fees.
70% of the overdrafts happen at a POS terminal or ATM, not by writing a check.
The last statistic is the clear one: There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to take such a hit. The bank knows before they approve the transaction that the money isn't there in the account.
This is not the same thing as a check, which the bank has no way to warn you about before you write it, as there is no "connection" between your checkbook and their computer.
IF we had honest regulators it would be strictly unlawfu
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Punch bowl to stay on table after Fed meeting
Central bank to maintain easy policy despite improved
08/10/2009
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Market Watch
Even though some Federal Reserve officials and market participants want the party to end, the central bank is going to keep the punch bowl full after its two-day meeting this week, analysts said.
Former Fed Chairman William McChesney Martin once famously quipped that the Fed's primary role was to take the punch bowl away before a party really starts cooking.
But it's important not to take away the spirits too soon.
"Although some hawks want to take the punch bowl off the table, I don't think they will convince [Fed chief Ben] Bernanke," said David Jones, a veteran Fed watcher.
Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression, knows that the Fed made a mistake of tightening too soon during the late 1930s, thereby prolonging the downturn, Jones said.
"That is something Bernanke is going to avoid," Jones said.
Even though the market is more and more convinced that growth is just over the horizon and worries about inflation abound, the economic outlook has
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News Link • Economy - Economics USA
Second Stimulus Needed to Avoid Lost Decade: Krugman
08/10/2009
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CNBC
The world economy needs a second stimulus if it is to avoid the fate of Japan in the 1990s when the country was stuck with years of sluggish growth, Nobel laureate and professor of economics Paul Krugman told CNBC Monday.
RELATED LINKS
Fed to Keep Rates at Record LowBoE to Warn of Deflation?Unemployment Benefits May Be ExtendedWhy US Job Creation May Be 'Iffy'
"The good news is that it does not look like the 2nd great depression. For a few months it did," Krugman said.
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News Link • Bailouts
Hank Paulson and Goldman Sachs Are RICO Enterprises
08/09/2009
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CRIME & FEDERALISM
This New York Times expose on Henry Paulson and Goldman Sachs makes one thing clear: There is now no doubt that Henry Paulson and Goldman Sachs have violate numerous federal laws. Paulson laundered several billion dollars of money to Goldman Sachs, through A.I.G. Paulson lied to Congress about the true nature of TARP. Paulson lied to Congress about his role in the Federal Reserve's decision to give over $185 billion to A.I.G.
Paulson has also violated the federal honest service statute, which makes it a felony for a government official to breach his fidicuariy obligation to taxpayers. See 18 U.S.C. 1346 ("the term 'scheme or artifice to defraud' includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.")
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News Link • Depression
Traders Brace For September Collapse
08/10/2009
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The Business Insider
When everyone is thinking the same thing, it never happens, and what everyone is thinking right now is that when August is over, and we get down to business, this market's going to be in for some hurt.
Folks have been saying it all summer, as bulls make mincemeat of bears without mercy. And now traders are starting to place their bets on the wheels coming off soon.
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News Link • Cost of Empire
Radical Left Plans to Shut Down Financial System in October
08/09/2009
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Economic Policy Journal
The radical left is about to crank things up. Militant action is on their agenda.
I just attended a panel discussion at the American Sociological Association conference to see what they were up to. It doesn't sound pretty.
The panel included top left wing rabble rousers. Steve Kest, executive director of ACORN, was there. As well as an up and coming rabble rouser, George Goehl of the National People's Action Network. Also on the panel Gabe Gonzales of the Center for Community Change and Matt Hammer of the People Acting in Community Together-San Francisco.
Each participant was given five minutes for an opening statement followed by discussion and audience participation.
Goehl was the first to speak. He called for challenging people on the streets. "We need to put feet on the ground," he said. He then said that big ideas need to be promoted, then to my amazement, he said the Federal Reserve should be the target.
Goehl's organization is the group that recently p
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News Link • Bailouts
“Corporations don’t tell lies; someone within the corporation lies.” " John Coffee, Columbia Law Sch
08/09/2009
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Investment Watch
The bailout of American banks was supposed to provide money for loans. But " according to a report released last week by a watchdog agency overseeing the financial rescue program " instead of boosting lending, banks have used the funds provided by the government (read: “you and me”) to pay down debt or, believe it or not, buy other banks.
So today, I won’t be asking you to look at the market or at a sector or a stock. Instead, I’m going to tell you a story. It’s a fairly involved story, with lots of intrigue; as such I’ll tell it in two parts.
It’s a story with many lessons. And it’s a story that is not, unfortunately, unique, in that there are others who could also be placed under a similar revealing lens (see B-of-A mention above).
Today we’re going to turn our attention to Part 1 of “A Wall Street Saga.” Today’s installment is “A ‘Goldman’ Opportunity.”
Now last year, during the financial crisis with which we all have become intimately acquainted (through no desire of ou
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News Link • Federal Reserve
Krugman Says Bernanke Should Be Reappointed to Fed (Update1)
08/10/2009
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Bloomberg
Ben S. Bernanke deserves another term as Federal Reserve Chairman based on his success in battling the financial crisis, said Princeton University Economist Paul Krugman, a winner of the Nobel Prize.
“He’s earned the right to a second term,” Krugman, 56, said yesterday in an interview in Kuala Lumpur. “He turned the Fed into the financial intermediary of last resort. When the banking system failed to deliver capital where it was needed, he put the Fed into the markets.”
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