Saturday, May 4, 2013 The Housing Shell Game: Prices Up, Ownership Down (2 comments)
Even the best deals are only netting 5 percent. That's not enough to wet the beak of the big players who thought they'd be raking in the moolah. Now that the price of distressed properties has skyrocketed, the Wall street guys are going to make even less, which means they'll probably reduce their spending on housing and move on to more lucrative areas of investment.
Friday, April 19, 2013 Bernanke Drives Margin Debt to Pre-Crisis Highs (2 comments)
Despite the obvious dangers to the economy, Bernanke plans to stick with QE until unemployment drops to 6.5% or inflation rises above 2.5%. But those benchmarks will be hard to achieve with trillions in reserves stuck in the banking system unable to "trickle down" to the real economy.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 The BoJ's Kuroda Wheels Out the Heavy Artillery -- Media Wants it Kept Under Wraps (3 comments)
The big banksters and corporate honchos who control the propaganda outlets don't want you to think that it's okay for the federal government to spend money on public projects. That's a big no-no. They think all the money should be diverted to privately-owned businesses so the "job creators" can rake in bigger profits and live high-on-the-hog.
Friday, March 29, 2013 China's Shadow Bankers and the Vampire Squid (4 comments)
China's shadow bankers have adopted the same flawed model as Wall Street. Leverage is building in dodgy debt instruments that have little or no capital supporting them and that are not subject to regulatory oversight. It's a prescription for disaster.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 Death by Bailout -- Cyprus in the Crosshairs (3 comments)
Cyprus is toast. Capital inflows have been cut off, uninsured depositors, bank shareholders and bond holders have been wiped out, and Cyprus' offshore banking model is kaput. The troika is putting a gun to Cyprus' head and demanding that its people pay for the criminal excesses of its bank oligarchs. That's not a bailout. It's blackmail.
Sunday, March 17, 2013 Riddled With Corruption: Two More Public Officials "Cash In" (1 comments)
Is it any wonder why the country is in such bad shape when you look at the apple-polishing suck-ups and carpetbagging, human rights abusing scoundrels who are in charge? And Schapiro and Brown are just the tip of the iceberg. The whole system is riddled with corruption from top to bottom.
Sunday, March 3, 2013 Will Grillo Break the Euro? (2 comments)
Grillo has taken the high-ground and resisted the temptation to join "presumed" prime minister Pier Luigi Bersani's center-left alliance leaving open the possibility that Italy's next PM will have to form a coalition with Silvio Berlusconi. This is a winning strategy for Grillo. If Grillo plays his cards right, he could bring down the euro. But no one really knows if that's what he wants or not.
Saturday, February 23, 2013 Power Grab at the Fed -- They Have No Idea (3 comments)
The reason the money markets are so vulnerable is NOT because there's no fix, but because the big money is blocking even modest changes to the existing system. Wall Street would rather put the whole system at risk, than lose even one-thin dime in profits.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013 Whither Hugo? Chavez's Enemies See Opportunities in Cancer (3 comments)
The media has launched an impressive propaganda campaign aimed at discrediting Chavez, denigrating his achievements, and spreading fear about the future. The intention is to foment political instability and gin up support for the right-wing opposition which has the implicit support of Washington.
Sunday, November 25, 2012 The "Good News" on Housing, and what could go wrong (2 comments)
Bernanke is going to use the Fed's bully pulpit to coerce the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to define a "qualified mortgage" in a way that allows the banks to dump their garbage loans on Uncle Sam without any risk to themselves. That's what this charade is really all about; the banks want a "safe harbor" provision in upcoming regulations that will exempt them from having to buy back mortgages.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 Euthanize the TBTF Banks: Heck, we'd be doing them a favor (1 comments)
Bankers are shitty businessmen who can't navigate the free market without lavish handouts from government. These behemoth capital-sucking TBTF zombies are just black holes that the government tries to fill with public revenues.
Sunday, October 7, 2012 A Plan to Topple Hugo? (1 comments)
The western media has been trying to create the illusion that the race between Chavez and right-wing challenger Henrique Capriles Radonski is close. It isn't. The media is lying. Chavez is ahead by a wide-margin although you wouldn't know it by reading the strumpet press.
Saturday, September 29, 2012 Skimming Profits Off Bad Loans Bankers And Their Dirty Tricks (1 comments)
What else are the banks up to besides keeping rates elevated so they can make a bigger killing on refis? Well, for one thing, they're using their high-powered attorneys and lobbyists to twist arms at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to make it easier for them to make bad loans without suffering any consequences.
Sunday, September 2, 2012 Why You're a Lot Poorer Than You Thought You Were (1 comments)
Bernanke and his fellow doves at the Fed aren't going to be deterred by something as inconsequential as the travails of working people. Oh no. After all, he has his real constituents to consider, the parasitic Wall Street robber barons. Their needs come first.
Thursday, August 30, 2012 Housingdammerung: The story behind the fake numbers
In a normal market, millions of individual owners control the supply, and they don't act with any coordinated effort. Today, a cartel of a few major banks control the bulk of our housing inventory. These banks openly collude on prices with the blessing of our government. Supply is huge, demand is weak, and the banks are gaming the system. That says it all, doesn't it?
Monday, July 23, 2012 The Sinking Economy: "We're going to be up the creek for the next 100 years or so" (17 comments)
As it turns out, Krugman, Reich, Stiglitz, Thoma, Baker, Galbraith and others were right, and Obama's economic advisors were wrong. The costs to the country in terms of high unemployment, soaring food stamp usage, declining standards of living and outright destitution are likely to be considerable due to Obama's poor judgement.
Sunday, June 3, 2012 Unraveling the Welfare Safety Net - Europe Moves Closer to Banktatorship (12 comments)
The present crisis, which is largely the result of excessive credit expansion and poor risk management by EU banks, is being used by the European Commission and the ECB to establish a euro-wide "banking union" and to impose savage cuts to social programs, health care, and pensions.
Monday, May 21, 2012 HOUSING PRICES ARE STABILIZING: Um, not exactly (1 comments)
Housing is never going to bounce back in our lifetime. Forget-about-it. Aside from the 5 to 11 million distressed units in the foreclosure pipeline, there are any number of things that will continue to weigh heavily on the market for the years to come.
Thursday, May 17, 2012 The Plan to Kick Greece Out of the Eurozone (4 comments)
a plan is in place to deal with Greece's exit from the eurozone. German policymakers have made every effort to protect themselves and to make sure that Greece does not become the next Lehman Brothers. Counterparties and bondholders have been compensated.
Sunday, April 29, 2012 The Meaning of "Austerity Measures" -- EuroSpeak for "Starve the Beast" (5 comments)
"Austerity" amounts to an attack on Europe's social model and aims to roll back the progressive advances of the last century. There's nearly universal agreement that belt-tightening doesn't lead to recovery, but just makes matters worse. Trimming deficits in the throes of a recession is a surefire way to choke off economic activity and foment social unrest.
Monday, April 23, 2012 The Housing Market Doldrums -- When Pigs Fly (1 comments)
Banks are desperate. They're giving away money, but no one is standing in line. No one is borrowing, because the economy is dead, because people don't trust the system anymore, and because housing has become an albatross. They've screwed everything up and now no wants to play their game anymore. Mortgage applications continue to drift lower five years after prices peaked. It's a matter of trust.
Friday, April 20, 2012 Is Fukushima's Doomsday Machine About to Blow? (15 comments)
There is no way to overstate the media's complicity in concealing critical information about the tragedy that is presently unfolding at Fukushima. If there is another earthquake, the media will certainly be every bit as responsible as the government officials who saw the danger, but chose to do nothing.
Sunday, April 15, 2012 Spain Marches Toward a Depression (2 comments)
While unemployment across Europe has risen to its highest point in more than 14 years, (17.3 million people) in Spain, joblessness has soared to 23 percent, and among young people, it's nearly 50 percent. An entire generation is being sacrificed so the 1 percent can grab a greater portion of the wealth.
Sunday, March 25, 2012 U.S. Corporations are sitting on an all-time-record $3.6 trillion in cash (3 comments)
If we're serious about re-balancing the economy and minimizing the fallout from financial crises or recession, we have to talk about "distribution"; otherwise the scales will continue to tilt in the direction of big business.
Friday, February 24, 2012 Why Hasn't Anyone Gone to Jail? (5 comments)
Nine million homes have been lost to foreclosure since 2007, and there will be another 9 million before we're done. Homeowners have lost $8 trillion in home equity (in the last four years) and 11 million people are currently underwater on their mortgages. All of this is unprecedented. All of this is the result of fraud. Someone has to go to jail. That's what matters.
Friday, February 17, 2012 Would You Vote For This Man? (10 comments)
Would you vote for a firebrand, a demagogue, a populist, a leftist tyrant? Who you vote for someone who'd bend the rules to make the country a fairer place for everyone?
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 POP QUIZ: Why did gun sales in the US surge during the Christmas season?
We're basically the same people we were in 2000 when all the rules started changing, making it easier for Wall Street to fleece the little people. That's when folks started to realize how crooked the system really is. So, now most people have taken their chips off the table and are hunkering down.
Monday, January 23, 2012 Newt's Victory: Was it a "Surge" of popularity or faulty voting machines? (1 comments)
By Sunday, the philandering ex-Speaker's triumphant grin can be seen plastered in headlines across the country while political pundits from both sides of the aisle scratch their heads and ponder the shocking upset that's turned the campaign into a two-man, no-holds-barred, steelcage smackdown.
Sunday, October 30, 2011 The Never-Ending Eurofiasco (2 comments)
Everything is worse. The Eurozone is imploding, and it's imploding because the policies they're implementing are, well, stupid, which is to say, they won't work. And investors know they won't work which is why they keep fleeing Europe en masse. Can you blame them?
Friday, October 21, 2011 The Derivatives Flap -- Is Bank Of America Headed For The Glue Factory? (3 comments)
Why is Bank of America moving derivatives from Merrill Lynch to an insured subsidiary? Is it because the derivatives could blow up at any time leaving Merrill with gigantic, unsustainable losses? If that's the case, then it would make perfect sense to shift them into a depository institution that's covered by the FDIC. That way, the taxpayers would wind up paying for the damage and no one would be the wiser.
Monday, September 26, 2011 Europe Leads the Way Back to Depression (3 comments)
While EU finance ministers smiled and played nice to their US hosts at the meetings in Washington, they have no intention of following Geithners' advice. There will be no blank checks for crooked banksters nor will there be looting on a scale of the TARP. EU leaders will decide which policies best reflect their own interests and those of their people.
Monday, September 5, 2011 Don't Blame Bush: This is Obama's Depression (8 comments)
To continue to pretend that the Democratic Party is a viable alternative to the GOP, is beyond misguided; it's delusional. The policies that are presently in place -- and which are largely supported by the Dems in Congress -- are destroying the economy, the country's reputation, and our children's future.
Sunday, August 28, 2011 Timebomb in Euroland: "Tick...tick...tick..." (4 comments)
Bank funding costs are rising, liquidity is being choked off, and interbank lending has started to stall. A full-blown crisis can still be averted, but leaders will have to knuckle down and resolve the political issues fast. Otherwise the 17-member monetary union will fracture and the euro will be kaput.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 The Dumbest Rally of All Time (3 comments)
Policymakers in the US and EU have no idea of how to put the economy back on track. They remain committed to a flawed ideology that's pushing the world to the brink of disaster. So, when does discontent turn to open rebellion? The sooner the better.
Friday, July 15, 2011 Debt Ceiling Kabuki; Wall Street is "Out on a Limb" Again (9 comments)
Obama's goal is the same as the Republicans, to slash public spending as much as possible so more capital can be diverted to the wars and Wall Street. Period. The only difference is that Obama wants to make it look like the cuts were the result of hard-fought negotiations with GOP deficit hawks and not just part of his own corporate-friendly agenda.
Friday, July 8, 2011 Murdoch on the Ropes (5 comments)
It's going to be a bumpy few months for Murdoch. There are bound to be more arrests, more surprises, and more employees who leak their stories to the press. And, then, there's always the possibility that another shoe will drop causing even more trouble; no one knows for sure.
Sunday, July 3, 2011 Mired in a Colossal Muddle -- US Economy Remains Stuck in Long-Term Slump (4 comments)
The basic problem facing the economy, is lack of demand. Stagnant wages, high unemployment and gross inequality have made a strong recovery impossible. Working people simply don't have the purchasing power to generate positive growth.
Thursday, June 23, 2011 More Treachery at the Fed?
Get the picture? Inflation targeting is neoliberalism writ large, no different than "structural adjustment," "debt consolidation," "privatization of public assets," etc. It's another subsidy for speculators while ordinary working people get kicked to the curb.
Sunday, June 12, 2011 Obama Trusted the Wrong Economists (1 comments)
Obama simply trusted his Wall Street mentors -- Summers, Bernanke, and Geithner -- the trio that sabotaged the recovery while making sure the banks and speculators got as much liquidity (and bailouts) as they needed. If Obama had listened to Romer instead of Bernanke he wouldn't be in the pickle he's in today.
Sunday, June 5, 2011 The John Edwards Case; Justice or Personal Vendetta? (11 comments)
Hey, Eric Holder: Have you ever heard of George Bush or Dick Cheney or the big Wall Street bankers? Those are the guys you need to nail, not some washed up ex-senator whose life is already in a shambles. Is this a personal vendetta? Is that it? Is this some kind of political assassination? Why else would the DOJ devote so much time and money to a crime that is so trivial? It just doesn't add-up.
Saturday, June 4, 2011 Policymakers have made another Depression Unavoidable (8 comments)
If you take steps to shrink the economy, then the economy will shrink. This is why the economy has lost momentum, because congress and the White House have cut the blood flow of stimulus to the patient, so now we are headed back into ICU.
Saturday, May 28, 2011 Increasing the Deficits Will Fire-up The Economy and Add Jobs (2 comments)
This political burlesque on Capital Hill so excruciating to watch, because it's such a waste. Peoples lives are being ruined for nothing, just because Congress doesn't have the courage to do the right thing. Do you think they'd hesitate if they had to pony-up for another multi-billion dollar weapons system, or another bailout for Wall Street, or more tax cuts for their tycoon friends?
Thursday, May 26, 2011 Replacing Strauss-Kahn; "Pro-bank bailout" Lagarde is a shoo in (3 comments)
Lagarde supports weaker regulations so that banks and other financial institutions can continue to rake in windfall profits while increasing the risks to the broader economy. She just announced her candidacy this morning (May 25), but already she's won the approval of Washington, Wall Street, the big banks, and the EU heads of state. She's a shoo in.
Thursday, May 19, 2011 Dominique Strauss-Kahn was trying to torpedo the dollar (5 comments)
DSK actually poses a much greater threat to the dollar than either Saddam or Gaddafi because he's in the perfect position to shape policy and to persuade foreign heads of state that replacing the dollar is in their best interests. And that is precisely what he was doing; badmouthing the buck.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 Does Sarkozy Like Seeing France Get Dragged Through the Mud? (3 comments)
In America "what a man is accused of" is not supposed to matter; he's still entitled to a fair trial. So, what are the chances that Strauss-Kahn will get a fair trial now that he's been lambasted as a serial sex offender in about 3,000 articles and in all the televised news reports? Not very good, I'd say.
Friday, May 13, 2011 Inside the GOP's "Security Act" (6 comments)
The Detainee Security Act eliminates any process under which prisoners captured by the US military can establish their innocence. If you're caught by the military, then you're guilty; it's as simple as that. if the bill is passed, Guantanamo Bay will stay open forever and prisoners will continue to be deprived of due process.
Saturday, May 7, 2011 "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" (3 comments)
This is what US "liberation" looks like up-close-and-personal, a half-a-million people foraging through garbage dumps to feed their kids and stay alive. Isn't that worth thinking about the next time Obama beats the war drum and tries to rally the masses to action?
Thursday, May 5, 2011 Party like it's 1929 (1 comments)
The stock market should continue to trend upward for another couple months until the Fed's bond buying program ends and investors realize that the real economy is stuck in the ditch. But, for now, it's "Party like it's 1929." Bernanke's punch bowl is overflowing and there's still plenty of time to make money. The hangover comes later.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 Osama Bin Laden: Scary Terrorist or Boring Dinner Guest? (1 comments)
Bin Laden has got to be the most successful psychological operation (psy ops) of all time. Propaganda works, that's clear, although maybe not as its authors intended. After years of listening to the same tedious refrain, the public's mood gradually darkens as they succumb to the idiocy of demagogues. And that's what's happened here. They've just worn us out.
Saturday, April 30, 2011 Financial Scam: Hanky-Panky at the Fed (2 comments)
Has the Fed has been creating reserves at the banks, reserves that the banks have then converted into government bonds (USTs) and sold back to the Fed during QE2? In other words, is this another circular trade whose only purpose is to funnel more money to the banks?
Friday, April 22, 2011 Velkommen to Banktopia (1 comments)
The truth is, Bernanke is deliberately flogging the dollar to help his underwater bank buddies stay afloat and to keep stocks "frothy." But the net-result is a huge loss of personal wealth for everyone else. These are the real losers in Bernanke's QE shell game.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 Bernanke Strikes Again: QE2 sends margin debt soaring to new highs (5 comments)
When investors start borrowing boatloads of money to buy stocks, then the "big crash" cannot be too far off. A sudden decline in stock prices can quickly turn into a full-blown rout as margin calls send investors racing for cover and debt deflation dynamics pull the economy back into another slump. When the markets implode, it's Bernanke who should be held responsible.
Friday, April 1, 2011 Class Warfare Scoreboard -- Guess Who's Winning? (1 comments)
Corporate USA and big finance have joined together to drive up stocks by buying up their own shares, mergers and acquisitions, debt-pyramiding, and even borrowing money to issue dividends; whatever it takes to pluck the goose one more time before the economy takes another nose dive.
Sunday, March 27, 2011 Housing's Double Dip
All of the mortgage modification programs have been a total failure. The Fed purchased $1.7 trillion of garbage mortgage-backed securities (MBS) from the banks, but hasn't lifted a finger to help homeowners. All of the pain from the $8 trillion housing bubble has all been shunted onto the backs of ordinary working people.
Saturday, March 26, 2011 Fukushima's "Chernobyl moment" could be fast approaching (1 comments)
The prospect of a meltdown, a fire, or another apocalyptic explosion grows more likely by the day. Fukushima's Chernobyl moment could be fast approaching, putting tens of thousands at risk of thyroid cancer, childhood leukemia and other potentially life-threatening ailments.
Don't believe the media's lies.
Friday, March 18, 2011 Getting Away With Murder -- Hillary Helps US Mercenary Escape Justice (3 comments)
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The CIA is a lawless, free-wheeling fraternity that operates beyond any ethical or moral code. If Davis was colluding with terrorists or stirring up sectarian antagonism, it would be par for the course. Unfortunately, we'll never know, because Davis has flown the coop and justice has been subverted again.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011 The Oil Trap: The Devastating Economic Impacts of Spiraling Oil Prices
he Fed chair will stay-the-course as long as possible convinced that deflation is still enemy Number One. But he's bound to take a lot of heat from critics who point to the tumbling dollar and higher prices at the pump. If the troubles in Libya spread to Saudi Arabia, as now seems likely, all bets are off. Bernanke will have to pull out all the stops to keep the economy from tanking.
Sunday, January 30, 2011 Treasury Yields are Blinking Red (1 comments)
In other words, the Fed is planning to give every working man and woman in the US a big pay-cut so they can go nose-to-nose with foreign labor. You can see how this blends seamlessly with Obama's State of the Union Speech where he focused on "competition" as his central theme.
Saturday, January 22, 2011 As Bad as Bush (11 comments)
More than 125,000 people lost their homes in the disaster requiring a speedy response from the government. Chavez swung into action immediately turning the presidential palace into a homeless shelter and initiating a campaign to construct permanent housing for the victims. Now he has pushed through landmark legislation that will legally require the government to help the homeless.
Sunday, January 16, 2011 The US/Israeli Coup in Beirut (1 comments)
Israel's next war could be fought on several fronts and result in far more destruction and casualties on all sides than recent conflicts. So said outgoing Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin in an address to the Knesset in November. There is a strong possibility of a major escalation of hostilities with two neighbors, Lebanon and Syria.
Thursday, December 9, 2010 Obama is provoking a war in Korea (2 comments)
The US/South Korea war games are a deliberate provocation, no different than if China or Russia sent an armada to conduct operations 3 miles off Cape Cod. Even so, the White House is using the incident to put pressure China to coerce the North into acceding to US diktats.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010 If the US Wants Peace in Korea, it Should Keep its Word
The North wants what it has always wanted. It wants the US to honor its obligations under the 1994 Agreed Framework. That's it. All Obama needs to do to end the current standoff, is to keep his end of the bargain. The US can end the conflict today by just keeping its word.
Monday, November 8, 2010 Bernanke's Dollar Policy: "Save those Greenbacks for Fishwrap!"
Interest rates are the Fed's best friend because they provide the central bank with a tool for regulating the economy. But the Fed has kept interest rates at zero for more than two years now and is not getting any traction. We're in a liquidity trap where the old rules don't apply anymore.
Monday, November 1, 2010 What is the Difference between a Depression and a "Slow Recovery"? Bernanke gets his "pink slip" (1 comments)
When capital is diverted into broken financial institutions, personal consumption and private investment invariably suffer. The same rule applies to the Bernanke method. QE will prevent restructuring of debt for underwater banks, but hurt households and consumers by lifting commodities prices and perpetuating high unemployment.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 How to Kickstart the Economy (1 comments)
Quantitative easing (QE) is intended to divert investment to where it is needed and to lift the economy out of the doldrums. That's the theory, at least. In practice, it doesn't work so well. The threat of deflation should be taken seriously, because once it becomes entrenched it can be difficult to root out.
Thursday, October 14, 2010 Bernanke rolls the dice (2 comments)
Ben Bernanke's speech on Friday in Boston could turn out to be a real barnburner. In fact, there's a good chance the Fed chairman will announce changes in policy that will stun Wall Street and send tremors through Capital Hill. It could also erode confidence in the dollar leading to the untimely demise of the world's reserve currency. It's all a roll of the dice.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010 Slashing the Dollar -- The Future is Ugly (5 comments)
Bernanke's zero-rate policy and the prospect of ongoing rounds of quantitative easing have put finance ministers everywhere in a frenzy. Some countries -- notably South Korea and Brazil -- have already taken steps to slow capital flows.
Sunday, September 19, 2010 Chavez wants a break from U.S. meddling. Can you blame him? (3 comments)
All three leaders would like nothing more than to get a break from America's incessant meddling and belligerence. They don't hate America and they are not our enemies. But they would like a little breather from the coups, the financial contagion, the kidnappings, the stolen elections, the propaganda, and the endless killing. Can you blame 'em?
Monday, September 13, 2010 Hyperinflation is a mirage invented by demagogues (1 comments)
What's needed is sustained fiscal and monetary support until the the private sector regroups and can spend at pre-crisis levels. Ben Bernanke is a brilliant academic and an expert on the Great Depression. He knows what's ailing the economy and he knows how to fix it. He simply chooses not to.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 The GOP's Masterplan: Obstruct, smear, lie, repeat
Once the downward spiral of layoffs, debt-liquidation, falling asset prices and deflation begins, it is hard to reverse. It's much better to keep Pandora's Box bolted shut, than to unleash economic forces that can lead to widespread hardship and social unrest.
Saturday, August 28, 2010 "Monetary Shock and Awe": The Fed prepared to launch most Radical Intervention in History (3 comments)
Either Bernanke's "nuclear option" succeeds in resuscitating the comatose economy or foreign holders of dollars and dollar-backed assets dump their gargantuan trove of US loot in a pile and set it ablaze. It's all a roll of the dice.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010 Housing Holocaust: Existing Home Sales Plunge, Market Follows (2 comments)
It's been four years since problems with subprime mortgages triggered the deepest slump since the Great Depression. Today's bleak housing numbers are not the result of a "cyclical downturn", but of a crime perpetrated on the American people. There must accountability. Someone's gotta pay!
Tuesday, August 17, 2010 25,000 Jews live in Iran (13 comments)
"We Iranian Jews condemn claims of the US State Department on Iranian religious minorities, announced that we are fully free to perform our religious duties and we feel no restriction on performing our religious rituals." Who should we believe; the Jews who actually live Iran or the troublemaking US State Department?
Friday, August 13, 2010 Is Robert Gibbs Right About the "Professional Left"? (14 comments)
Gibbs is right about the professional left. We aren't happy. We are disappointed; crushed really. Dejected, depressed and despairing. It may be the worst case of buyer's remorse in history. We thought we were voting for FDR and we got Ronald Reagan.
Sunday, July 11, 2010 EU Banking System on the Brink
Presently, 170 banks are having difficulty accessing the wholesale markets where they get their funding. Financial institutions are wary of lending to each other because they're not sure who is solvent or not. It's a question of trust.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 Bernanke's Trillion Dollar Parlor Trick (3 comments)
The American Enterprise Institute is helping the Federal Reserve develop a strategy to dump $1.25 trillion in mortgage-backed garbage on the U.S. taxpayer. If the toxic transfer goes forward, the losses will be greater than all of the other bailouts combined.
Friday, April 9, 2010 Greenspan's Testimony: Two hours of buck-passing (1 comments)
It's galling that, after everything that's taken place, Greenspan is still treated like royalty; still given a platform so he can run-circles around his critics and make them look like fools.
Saturday, March 13, 2010 The video that will put Geithner behind bars (3 comments)
Geithner ran Lehman through 3 "stress tests" prior to bankruptcy; all of which Lehman failed, and yet, nothing was done. Anton R. Valukas--the examiner who wrote the 2,200 page investigative-report which was released on Thursday-- has provided plenty of information detailing Lehman's "materially misleading" accounting and "actionable balance sheet manipulation." In other words, they cooked the books.
Sunday, December 6, 2009 The Audacity of Ethnic Cleansing; Obama's plan for Afghanistan (1 comments)
Here is the apparent Pentagon conquest strategy for Afghanistan according to Mike Whitney, as cynical as anything any Fascist/Imperialist power has ever come up with, and Obama is the souless cog in the wheel doing the slick sales pitches for it. This means massive death, destruction and suffering for the people of Afghanistan, executed with an American smiley face.
Saturday, September 20, 2008 The Point of No Return (9 comments)
Paulson's emergency session of Congress last night was characterized by lawmakers who attended as "chilling". The situation is much worse than government officials have let on so far.
Ironically, the very people who created this mess, are the ones who will decide how to resolve it; the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury. Where else, but Washington would such massive failure be rewarded with more power and authority.
Friday, August 22, 2008 Bush to Putin: "Get out now!" Putin to Bush: "Nyet!" (6 comments)
When Vladimir Putin heard President Bush demand that Russian troops "leave Georgia territory immediately", he did what any sensible leader of a great nation would do; he yawned, scratched his belly and ambled over to the Kremlin frig to see if there were any left-overs from last night's imperial banquet with the French dignitaries.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008 America On The Couch (5 comments)
America is a country badly in need of therapy. We don't know who we are anymore; everything is topsy-turvy. It's like we're suffering a national identity crisis and need a turn on the couch. There's just been too much change too fast and no one really knows what's going on. The torture thing was the last straw. That's where good old American values really took a shellacking.
Thursday, August 14, 2008 Putin Walks into a Trap (4 comments)
Did US military advisers set up a trap for Putin?
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Sorting Through the Rubble in Post-Bubble America (1 comments)
The hurricane that began with subprime mortgages, has swept through the credit markets wreaking havoc on municipal bonds, hedge funds, complex structured investments, and agency debt (Fannie Mae). Now the first gusts from the Force-5 gale are touching down in the real economy where the damage is expected to be widespread. The Labor Dept. reported on Friday that US employers cut 63,000 jobs in February, the biggest monthly...
Friday, January 11, 2008 The Winning Ticket: Hillary and Diebold in 2008 (4 comments)
If this election had been conducted in any other country in the world, the Bush administration would have immediately dispatched an independent team of election observers and demanded a recount. But not in the good old USA, where stealing elections is replacing baseball as the national pastime.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008 The butcher's apron (3 comments)
When civil liberties are stripped away; elections become pointless. Freedom has nothing to do with pushing a colored-nob on a touch-screen computer every four years. Its about containing the power of the state. ...Freedom has become an empty sound bite that's sprinkled through presidential speeches or used to defend the latest bloody intervention in some foreign country. It's lost whatever meaning it had.
Thursday, November 29, 2007 A Dollar the Size of a Postage Stamp
The dollar is America's Achilles heel; if the dollar tanks, so does the empire. That means the taxpayer will have to foot the bill for Bush's bloody-interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, rather than the Chinese.
Monday, November 26, 2007 "A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
The credit storm that began in the United States with subprime mortgages has spread to markets across the globe. In fact, the train has already crashed. What we're seeing now is the boxcars piling up on top of each other.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 The Last Dead Bull on Wall Street (1 comments)
This is a bear market now. The last bull was dragged from the Street on Friday with a harpoon in its chest.
The subprime contagion has now spread beyond the US and Europe to markets in the Far East. No one is fooled by Bernanke's sunny predictions that the economy will bounce back next year with a strong showing in the first quarter. That's baloney and everyone knows it.
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 Hanging Saddam
The execution of Saddam Hussein is another grim chapter in the catalogue of war crimes perpetrated against the Iraqi people. It is a gratuitous act of barbarism devoid of justice.
What right does Bush have to kill Saddam? What right does the author of Abu Ghraib, Falluja, Haditha and countless other atrocities have to pass judgment on the former leader of a nation which posed no threat to the United States?
Monday, December 18, 2006 Bush's Mad-dash to History's Dustbin (1 comments)
Sometimes I'm struck by the sheer enormity of Bush's stupidity. It is truly breathtaking. After nearly 4 years of steadily-intensifying guerilla warfare with no end in sight, Bush has decided to expand the war.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Housing Bubble Smack-down (1 comments)
Give me 5 minutes and I'll convince you that you should sell your house immediately and invest your life-savings in gold or a Swiss bank-account.
Monday, October 30, 2006 The Dollar's Full System Meltdown (2 comments)
The U.S. Dollar is kaput. Confidence in the currency is eroding by the day. The Sydney Morning Herald reports "Australia's Treasurer Peter Costello has called on East Asia's central
bankers to 'telegraph' their intentions to diversify out of American investments and ensure an 'orderly adjustment'....Central
banks in Asia have channeled immense foreign reserves into US, but'the strategy has changed.'
Sunday, October 29, 2006 The Charnel House of Baghdad
There are three things wrong with the current policy in Iraq.
Occupation, occupation and occupation.
Monday, October 9, 2006 Putin Fights Back (4 comments)
The Bush administration's long-range objectives are already clear. They aim to privatize the Russian oil industry, convert the ruble to the dollar, remove Putin from office, and prevent Russia from controlling the huge oil reserves in the Caspian Basin.
Monday, October 9, 2006 Ambling towards Disaster; Bush's North Korea Policy (24 comments)
It took 6 years of relentless threats, sanctions and belligerence, but Bush finally succeeded in pushing Kim Jong-Il to build North Korea's first nuclear bomb. Now, Kim can just add a few finishing touches to his ballistic-missile delivery system, the Taepo-dong ICBM, and he'll be able to wipe out the 9 western states with a flip of the switch.
Monday, October 2, 2006 Woodward's 60 Minutes Bloodbath (2 comments)
Veteran journalist Bob Woodward can always be counted on to tell the truth-- after all the other options have been exhausted. His new book, State of Denial, doesn't veer too far from the pattern he's followed his entire career; one minute he's the "kingmaker" dishing up hearty-helpings of literary tripe like "Bush at War" and "Plan of Attack" and the next minute he's ramming a scimitar into the lower lumbar region of his prey.
Thursday, September 28, 2006 How did we sink so low in just 6 years? (6 comments)
How did things get this bad? The "Military Commissions Act" which passed the Republican-led Congress yesterday is a bigger blow to the Constitution and our core values than any piece of legislation in our 200 year history. It is 100 times worse than Bin Laden's crimes on 9-11.
