Obama's False Financial Reform
By William Greider
June 19, 2009

The most disturbing thing about Barack Obama's call for financial reform was the way in which the president falsified our predicament. He tried to make it sound as though everyone was implicated in the financial breakdown and therefore no one was really to blame. "A culture of irresponsibility took root from Wall Street to Washington to Main Street," Obama explained. "And a regulatory system basically crafted in the wake of a 20th century economic crisis--the Great Depression--was overwhelmed by the speed, scope and sophistication of a 21st century global economy."

That is not what happened, to put it charitably. Unlike some other presidents, Obama is much too intelligent not to know this.

The regulatory system was not overwhelmed

by historic forces. It was systematically

gutted and dismantled by the government

in Washington at the behest of the

banking interests. If Obama wants

details, he can consult his economic

advisors--Summers-Geithner--who

participated directly as accomplices in

unwinding the prudential rules and

regulations. Cheers were led by the

Federal Reserve with heavy lifting by both

political parties.

(This is your government, the very government that has no concern for the people who voted it in power)

The president's benign version of events reminds me of what compliant politicians and opinion leaders said after the war in Iraq they had endorsed turned disastrous. "Hey, we were all fooled." If Obama were to tell the truth now about what went wrong in the financial system, he would face a far larger political problem trying to clean up the mess. Instead, he has opted for smooth talk and some fuzzy reforms that effectively evade the nasty complexities of our situation. He might get away with this in the short run. Congress doesn't much want to face the music either. But Obama's so-called reform is literally "kicking the can down the road," as he likes to say about other problems. In the long run, it will haunt the country because it fails to confront the true nature of the disorders.

Giving more power to the Federal Reserve to be the uber-regulator of banking and finance is a terrible idea (I examine the dangers in a forthcoming Nation article). Asking the cloistered central bank to resolve all the explosive questions about the over-reaching power of financial institutions is like throwing the problem into a black box and closing the lid, so people will be unable to see what happens next. That is the idea, after all, the reason Wall Street's leading firms first proposed the Fed as super-cop, then sold it to George W. Bush and now Barack Obama. Give the mess to the Wizard of Oz, the guy behind the curtain. He can do miracles with money, but don't watch too closely. This constitutes the high politics of evasion. (learn more at )

Wall Street's False Armistice Comment

By William Greider
June 10, 2009

The best names in Wall Street banking have announced victory. Their crisis is over, back to business as usual. So why isn't the Obama White House celebrating this good news? Because this may not be a lasting peace for the president and his lieutenants. They are left standing in the mudhole of financial ruin, still surrounded by the failing economy and gradually losing their control over events. The leading bankers worked out a rare deal for themselves that essentially says to the government in Washington "heads we win, tails you lose."
If Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase and Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs turn out to be correct about the financial crisis, their institutions emerge unscathed and restored to their old dominance over the US economy. Minus a few old rivals who went bust.
If the bankers are wrong, Barack Obama will be the big loser--compelled to rescue them again with still more public money. The big dogs of banking know this, so does the president. That's why he didn't throw his hat in the air when ten of the largest banks were allowed to pay back the emergency aid they received from the feds, some $68 billion. The financiers could thus declare themselves free and clear of the heavy hand of government meddling. Another triumph of free-market capitalism. A brilliant success for Goldman Sachs socialism. Barack Obama is holding the bag for what happens next.

( learn more at )

Is the dollar out as the World's reserve currency???

Russian media hails SCO Yekaterinburg Summit

Leaders of SCO member states focused on various global issues and came up with several suggestions of strategic significance, said Vlasov. For instance, presidents of Kazakhstan and Russia have suggested the establishment of a unified, supra-national settlement unit within the SCO framework. (learn more at )

Russia, China to Promote Ruble, Yuan Use in Trade
By Lyubov Pronina and Alex Nicholson

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- The leaders of Russia and China agreed to expand use of the ruble and yuan in bilateral trade to lessen dependence on the U.S. dollar a day after they took part in the first summit of the so-called BRIC countries. 

“We agreed to take further steps in this direction, including, perhaps, by adjusting contracts and laws that already exist,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters in the Kremlin today after talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. ( learn more at )

Russia, China To U.S.: Stick To Treaty
Powers, Meeting At Friendship Summit, Express Arms Race Concern
MOSCOW, July 16, 2001

(CBS) The successful U.S. anti-ballistic missile test over the weekend seems to have galvanized a growing friendship between Russia and China, two world powers deeply concerned about U.S. military hegemony.
Russia and China, meeting at a friendship summit, said Monday they wanted the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact between Moscow and Washington to be preserved unchanged.(learn more at )

(This one makes me laugh)

Report: Worst is past for economy
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/6/18

The government on Wednesday effectively declared that the economy has bottomed out, citing signs of recovery in industrial production and exports.
In its monthly economic report for June, the government dropped the word "worsening" for the first time since December in its assessment for the state of the economy.
The report said that while "the economy is in a difficult situation," signs of recovery were apparent in some areas.
It is the second straight month that the government has revised its assessment upward. The report for May had said "the tempo of worsening (of the economy) has become moderate."

(Compare it to Bob Chapman)

The Credit Crisis Is Not Over After 23 Months

Rally of 1931 to haunt the markets this year, SEC hasnt really stopped anything, Fed must find a way to hide toxic assets, bear market not reversible, Currencies deprecate against gold, funding new health insurance initiatives not easy in times of debts, Monetary policy to become inflationary
The next major move in the stock market will be down. We are seeing the last vestiges of a rally similar to what we saw in 1931. The rally we expected at 6600 up to 8500 will end as soon as all the financial institutions that need to sell what stock is necessary to bolster their balance sheets. Our guess is the rally has been aided in a big way by short covering and the participation of the US government. Those who believe the SEC has stopped naked short selling are sadly mistaken. Markets weaken during the summer as volume dries up during the vacation season. In addition, second quarter earnings will be very disappointing, especially in the financial segment. Unemployment continues to worsen and capacity utilization is at its lowest level in years. Banks continue to cut credit lines and not lend nearly as much as they did before. Citigroup’s earnings should turn down again. They won’t have another $2.7 billion gain or another $400 million mark-to-market fictitious gain. Absent those gains they would have lost $2.8 billion. (learn more at )

China sells US bonds to 'show concern'
Jun 17 04:20 AM US/Eastern

A decision by China to reduce its US Treasury holdings suggests concern about the US attitude towards its economic woes, Chinese economists were quoted as saying in state media Wednesday.
The remarks, coming after US data showed a modest decline in Chinese investments in US government bonds, were in contrast to an earlier statement in Beijing which had said the recent sell-off was a routine transaction.
"China is implying to the US, more or less, that it should adopt a more pragmatic and responsible attitude to maintain the stability of the dollar," He Maochun, a political scientist at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times

British PM says world in 'depression, in latest slip
Feb 4 11:15 AM US/Eastern

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that the world is in a full-blown economic "depression," but his office quickly scrambled to say it been a slip of the tongue.
In his latest apparent gaffe -- after mistakenly claiming to have "saved the world" in December -- Brown said governments need to agree on coordinated stimulus measures to "take the world out of depression."
Brown, who is to host a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and developing nations in April, underlined the need for a rapid agreement on the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s Doha round of trade liberalisation talks.
"The biggest danger that the world faces is a retreat into protectionism," he told lawmakers at a weekly question session in the House of Commons dominated by the economic gloom.
"It's all the more reason why first of all we should sign the Doha agreement... and secondly we should make sure that every country is analysed for what it is doing by the World Trade Organization to prevent protectionism. ( learn more at )

World wide financial system move to

towards a monetary singularity?

Governor seeks more bank powers
The governor of the Bank of England has called for greater powers to allow it to fulfil its new role of promoting financial stability.

Thursday, 18 June 2009 10:05 UK

In a major speech in London, Mervyn King said the Bank could no longer act "like a church" whose congregation "ignores its sermons".
His remarks appeared to be at odds with those made earlier by the chancellor. Alistair Darling told the same event he had no plans for fundamental changes to the current system of regulation.
The speeches came as the US government announced a major reform of banking regulation to prevent future financial crises. (Learn more at)

Federal Reserve To Be Given Sweeping New Powers
Bankers get what they lobbied for, media reports total lack of transparency as “regulation”
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The privately owned and run Federal Reserve is to be handed sweeping new powers under Obama administration proposals in a deal that will please bankers who lobbied for more Fed “oversight” of their activities. The new rules would see the Fed given the authority to “regulate” any company whose activity it believes could threaten the economy and the markets. “The final plan due to be released on Wednesday — which originally aimed to streamline and consolidate banking and securities regulation in one or two agencies — now is expected to sidestep most jurisdictional disputes and simply impose across the board standards to be applied by all financial regulators, according to administration and industry sources, ” reports the ( learn more at )

Obama to unveil financial supervision reforms
Jun 17 11:15 AM US/Eastern

US President Barack Obama will propose wide reforms on Wednesday that will see the Federal Reserve gain broad powers and a national bank supervisor created to avoid a repeat of the financial turmoil. It will be the first major bid to overhaul the highly complex US financial regulatory network since a home mortgage meltdown shook the core of the system and sent markets into a tailspin worldwide. "We're going to make sure that we've got a systemic regulator, somebody who can oversee the entire system and, when you start seeing the kinds of risks that we saw being taken in this last crisis, that we can catch it before the crisis occurs," Obama told Bloomberg Television. ( Learn more at )

The Ending of America's Financial-Military Empire
By MICHAEL HUDSON

The city of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s largest east of the Urals, may become known not only as the end of the road for the tsars but of American hegemony too; as the place not only where US U-2 pilot Gary Powers was shot down in 1960, but where the US-centered international financial order was brought to ground. (learn more at)

DoD Training Manual Describes

Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism”

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, June 15, 2009

Current Department of Defense anti-terrorism training course material states that the exercise of First Amendment rights in the U.S. constitutes terrorist activity.

The ACLU has written to the DoD regarding its Antiterrorism and Force Protection Annual Refresher Training Course, which advises personnel that political protest amounts to “low-level terrorism”.

“It has come to our attention that the Department of Defense’s Annual Level I Antiterrorism (AT) Training for 2009 misinforms Department of Defense (DoD) personnel that certain First Amendment-protected activity may amount to “low level terrorism” The ACLU writes. ( learn more at)

Favors Jail Birds and Jihadis,

Ms. Sotomayor, unbridled bigotry Sotomayor: Exposed on tape; Rulings come to light

By Paul Williams Monday, June 15, 2009

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” Supreme Court Candidate Sonia Sotomayor
President Barack Obama, describing Sonia Sotomayor as a woman of “fierce intelligence,” called for her confirmation as America’s next Supreme Court Justice before the Senate’s August recess.
Mr. Obama says that “no one could question” Ms. Sotomayor’s intellect since she was second in her class at Princeton and served as the editor of the Yale Law Review.
But facts are coming to light to support allegations that the selection of Ms. Sotomayor represents an example of unbridled bigotry - - and that the candidate would never have been chosen if she were not from the barrio.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has acquired a video tape in which Ms. Sotomayor admits that she is “an affirmative action baby” and that the admissions committee at Princeton overlooked her abysmal Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores because she was a Hispanic woman who had come from a housing project.( learn more at )

The fed & gov. abuse of power &

screw the pooch world economy

Investigators say the Fed threatened bank CEO
June 10, 2009 AP
Congressional investigators say they have seen internal documents that prove the Federal Reserve threatened to force the ouster of Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis if he did not...

CEO says gov't pressured bank to buy Merrill Lynch
June 11, 2009 AP
Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis says his bank decided to buy Merrill Lynch partly because it was pressured to do so by the Federal Reserve. Lewis says the...

House chairman questions Bank of America bailout
June 11, 2009 AP
The top Democrat on a House investigative committee says internal e-mails by Federal Reserve employees raise serious questions about $20 billion in government aid provided to...

Brazil 1Q GDP Down 0. 8%
June 09, 2009 PR Newswire
Finance Minister Guido Mantega sees economy returning to normal levels BRASILIA, Brazil, June 9/PRNewswire/-- The Brazilian government announced today that...

Finnish economy drops by 2. 7 percent in Q1
June 09, 2009 AFP
Finland's economy contracted 2.7 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, when the economy shrank by 2.1 percent, official data has shown,...

The Fake Recovery
Posted by Edward Harrison on 13 April 2009 at 10:12 am
Why ‘Fake’? This is a fake recovery because the underlying systemic issues in the financial sector are being papered over through various mechanisms designed to surreptitiously recapitalize banks while monetary and fiscal stimulus induces a rebound before many banks’ inherent insolvency becomes a problem. This means the banking system will remain weak even after recovery takes hold. The likely result of the weak system will be a relapse into a depression-like circumstances once the temporary salve of stimulus has worn off. Note that this does not preclude stocks from large rallies or a new bull market from forming because as unsustainable as the recovery may be, it will be a recovery nonetheless.

Breaking News 

Economic Outlook: Inflation

takes centre stage
By Keith Fray
Published: June 14 2009 17:58 | Last updated: June 14 2009 17:58

Inflation will be at the centre of attention this week. Some recent data have increased optimism among investors over an economic recovery but prompted concerns about the return of inflation and posed the question of when central banks might start to raise interest rates to choke off a possible inflationary spiral. The futures market currently expects the Federal Reserve to start raising US rates as soon as the final quarter of this year. (learn more at )

Sign of the Times

CA Lawmakers Impose 90-Day Foreclosure Moratorium
California is test a new law, "The law is expected to make lenders try harder to keep borrowers in their homes." or is it to legally force borrowers from walking away from their homes in this bad economy which the fed. reserve, wall street and the government. I love it they make the problem and then they force us the American people to pay for it, debt slavery . ( learn more at )

Is 2009 tracking a 1930 Great Depression scenario?
Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. 

With more and more major economists predicting recovery sometime later this year, many have forgotten that downside risks remain. Berner, Roubini, Volcker, Krugman and Bernanke have all come out essentially saying they would not be surprised to see a ‘technical’ recovery at some point later this year. Robert Gordon has gone as far as to suggest we could be in recovery already – at least in the United States. I too have called for a Q4 or Q1 recovery. So, is it off to the races?  (learn more at )

Optimism is not enough for a global recovery
By Wolfgang Münchau
Published: June 14 2009 19:04 | Last updated: June 14 2009 19:04

Last week, the green shoots shrivelled. In South Korea, China and Germany, exports were declining once again. In the US, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book said “economic conditions remained weak or deteriorated further during the period from mid-April through May”.

The March signs of revival turned out to be little more than a technical inventory correction, with no change in the underlying trend. The world economy is still contracting, though perhaps not quite as fast as at the start of the year. ( learn more at )

wall street and the fed. don't want

gold to break $1000 barrier becuase then

it is off to the races& Hyper-inflation

Here it come Global Governance

Geithner Seeks Global Action on New Regulations

By DAMIAN PALETTA

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Saturday pushed his foreign counterparts to implement parts of the Obama administration's overhaul of financial-market supervision, arguing that a level playing field is necessary to ensure that the new safeguards aren't undermined.
Mr. Geithner called for tougher capital standards for globally active banks, powers in each country to wind down a faltering global financial company and more uniform transparency over complex products such as derivatives.
Treasury officials also want stronger supervision of large banks across major countries and better information-sharing arrangements so that U.S. and foreign officials can more closely supervise internationally active companies.
( learn more at)

Proof the federal government

see the American people as it

Enemy.

Sad but true there is violence in our country and in the world but we mustn't start putting people on list and giving everyone a label to try to categorize. ostracizes and demonize them. People who have lost their jobs or sad to see their country men forced to fight and die in another senseless and absurd war are moved to a tipping point which we all have. Choosing to only focus on the easy difference to try alienate these people from the average American reader and to push the Department of Homeland Gestapo agenda that everyone is a terrorist if we, the department of homeland Gestapo say so, shame on you A.P..

'Lone wolf' terrorists elusive target for police
By DEVLIN BARRETT and EILEEN SULLIVAN Associated Press Writers WASHINGTON (AP) --

• An elderly man enters a crowded museum carrying a rifle and begins shooting. A young man in Arkansas pulls the trigger outside a military recruiting office. Another man opens fire in a Kansas church.



• Three chilling, unconnected slayings in less than two weeks. One gunman was a white supremacist, one a militant Muslim, one a fervent foe of abortion.



• (Quite dramatic “ chilling “ how about sad or sorrowful, oh, but if you used these words you would not shock you read into going along with your demonetization or terroristization of these trouble people.)



• (You're going to love this next pile of crap)



• Each suspect had a history that suggested trouble. Each apparently was driven to act by beliefs considered by some as extreme.



• (What crap every second of everyday we as humans are driven to act by beliefs. You walk out of your house to go to work because you believe you still have a job, something as mundane as this belief causes traffic jams everyday but are you a lone terrorist, hell no.)
  


• Each shooter fits the description of a "lone wolf" terrorist, a killer whose attack, authorities say, is harder to head off than if planned by a trained terrorist network.



• ( I am not a professional writer but should a news story use words like suggested or apparently, I sorry I thought news story dealt in facts.)
  


• “Warning if you read further you are exposing yourself to Gestapo Propaganda, you have been warned”



• It could be anyone. It could be the guy next door, living in the basement of his mother's place, on the Internet just building himself up with hate, building himself up to a boiling point and finally using what he's learned," said John Perren, head of the counter terrorism branch at the FBI's Washington field office.



• (What the fuc* does this mean? What it means is that your government is set to see every American as a terrorist. This is to much A.P. why are you helping to push this PROPAGANDA OF HATE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. YOU MY FRIEND ARE A SAD excuse for a Lackey, SORRY & LACKEY OF A JUDAS.)


• Charlie Allen, the former top intelligence officer at the Department of Homeland Security, said such hatred has been embedded in small parts of American communities. Under Allen's leadership, the department created an analysis branch that looked at extremist groups across the country.


• "Hatred has been embedded in small parts of American communities" WHAT THE HELL IS THIS CRAP! THE HATRED IS EMBEDDED IN WASHINGTON D.C.,WALL STREET AND WHERE THE SUPPER RICH CONSPIRER. THEIR HATRED IS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.



• Learn more about Gestapo propaganda at
  

Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

• There are several versions of the text of the Second Amendment, each with slight capitalization and punctuation differences, found in the official documents surrounding the adoption of the Bill of Rights.

• [1] One such version was passed by the Congress, which reads:
• [2] “ A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. ”
  
• Another version is found in the copies distributed to the states, and then ratified by them, which had this capitalization and punctuation:
• [3] “ A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. ”

• The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers. It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them.

Joseph Story

• The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that an outright ban on home possession of an operable firearm, such as a handgun, violates the Second Amendment, and has affirmed longstanding restrictions on the possession of firearms including handguns; the Court has not ruled whether the Second Amendment applies to state and local governments.

• Supreme Court Decides Second Amendment CaseThe Supreme Court votes 5 to 4 to strike down a Washington, D. C. ban on the private possession of handguns. Justice Scalia authors majority opinion.
  In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) the Court considered the following question: Do D.C. Code Section 7-2502.02(a)(4), which generally bars the registration of handguns; Section 22-4504(a), which bars carrying a pistol without a license; and Section 7-2507.02, which requires that all lawfully owned firearms be kept unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock, violate the Second Amendment rights of individuals who are not affiliated with any state-regulated militia, but who wish to keep handguns and other firearms for private use in their homes? The Court concluded that the Second Amendment does establish an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and hunting. The Court concluded that the D.C. gun ban could not stand. At the same time, the Court recognized that the government can regulate gun rights. The Court said its decision should not be interpreted to question the right of government to: prohibit felons and the mentally ill from owning weapons, prohibit guns in schools or public buildings, ban certain categories of guns not commonly used for self-defense, and to establish certain other conditions on gun ownership.