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(37 comments) SHARE        Sunday, June 21, 2015
"Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards": The Alice in Wonderland World of Fast-tracked Secret Trade Agreements Fast-track authority is being sought in the Senate this week for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), along with the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). The terms of the TPP and the TiSA are so secret that drafts of the negotiations are to remain classified for four years or five years. How can laws be enforced against people and governments who are not allowed to know what was negotiated?

(16 comments) SHARE        Thursday, June 11, 2015
Fast-tracking TiSA: Stealth Block to Monetary Reform The entire basis for maintaining our private extractive banking monopoly may have been thrown out the window. And that could help explain the desperate rush to "fast track" not only the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), but the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). TiSA would nip attempts to implement public banking and other monetary reforms in the bud.

(21 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Derailing Amtrak: Tracking the Latest Disaster in the Infrastructure Crisis The dangerous underfunding of US infrastructure was underscored by a fatal train derailment on May 12th. The tragedy did not deter the House Appropriations Committee from voting to slash Amtrak funding the very next day. There are ways Congress could fund its massive infrastructure bill without raising taxes. But the conservative-controlled Congress seems to have other plans for the nation's profitable public assets.

(14 comments) SHARE        Saturday, April 25, 2015
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic The Senate Finance Committee has approved a bill to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade agreement that would override our republican form of government and hand judicial and legislative authority to a foreign three-person panel of corporate lawyers. The TPP would elevate the rights of investors -- also called the rights of "capital" -- above the rights of the citizens, which is unconstitutional.

(17 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, April 7, 2015
How America Became an Oligarchy According to a new study from Princeton University, American democracy no longer exists. Rich, well-connected individuals now steer the direction of the country, regardless of -- or even against -- the will of the majority of voters. America's political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where power is wielded by wealthy elites. How did this happen, and how can we take back our power?

(24 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 25, 2015
California Water Wars: Another Form of Asset Stripping? In California's epic drought, wars over water rights continue, while innovative alternatives for increasing the available water supply go untapped.

(12 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, March 11, 2015
The ECB's Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made good on the threat.

(14 comments) SHARE        Saturday, February 21, 2015
Swimming with the Sharks: Goldman Sachs, Schools, and Capital Appreciation Bonds Remember when Goldman Sachs -- dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid-- sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts.

(24 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Why Public Banks Outperform Private Banks: Unfair Competition or a Better Mousetrap? Public banks in North Dakota, Germany and Switzerland have been shown to outperform their private counterparts. Under the TPP and TTIP, however, publicly-owned banks on both sides of the oceans might wind up getting sued for unfair competition because they have advantages not available to private banks.

(13 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, January 7, 2015
EU Showdown: Greece Takes on the Vampire Squid Greece and the troika (the International Monetary Fund, the EU, and the European Central Bank) are in a dangerous game of chicken. The Greeks have been threatened with a "Cyprus-Style prolonged bank holiday" if they "vote wrong." But they have been bullied for too long and are saying "no more."

(18 comments) SHARE        Saturday, December 20, 2014
Russian Roulette: Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Trillions in Oil Derivatives The sudden dramatic collapse in the price of oil appears to be an act of geopolitical warfare against Russia. The result could be trillions of dollars in oil derivative losses; and the FDIC could be liable, following repeal of key portions of the Dodd-Frank Act last weekend. Whatever happened behind closed doors, we the people could again be stuck with the tab.

(7 comments) SHARE        Saturday, December 13, 2014
The Global Bankers' Coup: Bail-In and the Shadowy Financial Stability Board On December 11,the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The recent drop in the price of oil could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks. And if the G20's new "bail-in" rules are formalized, depositors and pensioners could be on the hook.

(27 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, December 2, 2014
New G20 Rules: Cyprus-style Bail-ins to Hit Depositors AND Pensioners On the weekend of November 16th, the G20 leaders whisked into Brisbane and whisked out again. It was all so fast, they may not have known what they were endorsing when they rubber-stamped the Financial Stability Board's latest dictat, which completely changes the rules of banking. Not only public and private depositors' funds, but also pension funds--via "bail-inable bonds"--are now targeted for confiscation.

(13 comments) SHARE        Thursday, November 20, 2014
WSJ Reports: Bank of North Dakota Outperforms Wall Street While 49 state treasuries were submerged in red ink after the 2008 financial crash, one state's bank outperformed all others and actually launched an economy-shifting new industry. So reports the Wall Street Journal this week, discussing the Bank of North Dakota (BND) and its striking success in the midst of a national financial collapse led by the major banks.

(13 comments) SHARE        Monday, October 27, 2014
Why Do Banks Want Our Deposits? Hint: It's Not to Make Loans. Many authorities have said it: banks do not lend their deposits. They create the money they lend on their books. Which leaves us to wonder: If banks do not lend their depositors' money, why are they always scrambling to get it? Banks advertise to attract depositors, and they pay interest on the funds. What good are our deposits to the bank?

(9 comments) SHARE        Monday, October 13, 2014
Building an Ark: How to Protect Public Revenues from the Next Meltdown Concerns are growing that we are heading for another banking crisis, one that could be far worse than in 2008. But this time, there will be no government bailouts. Instead, per the Dodd-Frank Act, bankrupt banks will be confiscating (or "bailing in") their customers' deposits. That includes local government deposits. The fact that public funds are secured with collateral may not protect them, as explained earlier here.

(3 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, September 17, 2014
A Public Bank Option for Scotland Scottish voters will go to the polls on September 18th to decide whether Scotland should become an independent country. A publicly-owned bank could help Scotland take control of its own economic destiny, by avoiding unnecessary debt to a private banking system that has become a burden to the economy rather than a pillar in its support.

(29 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Preparing To Asset-strip Local Government? The Fed's Bizarre New Rules In an inscrutable move that has alarmed state treasurers, the Federal Reserve just changed the liquidity requirements for the nation's largest banks. Municipal bonds have been eliminated from the list of high-quality liquid collateral. That means banks that are the largest holders of munis are liable to start dumping them in favor of the Treasuries and corporate bonds that do satisfy the requirement.

(6 comments) SHARE        Tuesday, September 2, 2014
Even the Council on Foreign Relations Is Saying It: Time to Rain Money on Main Street You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they've tried everything else. --Winston Churchill When an article appears in Foreign Affairs, the mouthpiece of the policy-setting Council on Foreign Relations, recommending that the Federal Reserve do a money drop directly on the 99%, you know the central bank must be down to its last bullet.

(8 comments) SHARE        Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Colonization by Bankruptcy: The High-stakes Chess Match for Argentina Argentina is playing hardball with the vulture funds, which have been trying to force it into an involuntary bankruptcy. The vultures are demanding what amounts to a 600% return on bonds bought for pennies on the dollar, defeating a 2005 settlement in which 92% of creditors agreed to accept a 70% haircut on their bonds. A US court has backed the vulture funds; but last week, Argentina sidestepped its jurisdiction . . .

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