Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Iraq Bombing Kills At Least 43 Outside Sunni Mosque In Baquba
Reuters | author | 05/17/13

BAQUBA, Iraq, May 17 (Reuters) - Two bombs exploded outside a Sunni Muslim mosque the Iraqi city of Baquba as worshippers left after Friday prayers, killing at least 43 people in one of the deadliest attacks in a month-long surge in sectarian violence.

Attacks on Sunni and Shi'ite mosques, security forces and Sunni tribal leaders have spread since troops raided a Sunni protest camp near Kirkuk a month ago, and fears are intensifying of a return to all-out Shi'ite-Sunni conflict. ... Read more

Hear Ye, Future Deep Throats: This Is How to Leak to the Press
Wired Magazine | Nicholas Weaver | 05/14/13

We now live in a world where public servants informing the public about government behavior or wrongdoing must practice the tradecraft of drug dealers and spies. Otherwise, these informants could get caught in the web of administrations that view George Orwell's 1984 as an operations manual.

With the recent revelation that the Department of Justice under the Obama administration secretly obtained phone records for Associated Press journalists -- and previous subpoenas by the Bush administration targeting the Washington Post and New York Times -- it is clear that whether Democrat or Republican, we now live in a surveillance dystopia beyond Orwell's Big Brother vision. Even privately collected data isn't immune, and some highly sensitive data is particularly vulnerable thanks to the Third Party Doctrine.   So how can one safely leak information to the press? ... Read more

Jeremy Scahill and Noam Chomsky: The Truth About America's Secret, Dirty Wars
AlterNet | Jeremy Scahill, Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman | 05/16/13

"Dirty Wars" discussion Scahill & Chomsky with Goodman (05/08/13) [34:07], Part 2 [38:57]

The World's Uberwealthy Scramble To Buy Greek Isles
ZeroHedge | author | 05/17/13

The emir of Qatar is a busy man: in addition to providing funding and weapons to the mercenary group formerly known as Syrian "rebels" in order to boost his already incalculable wealth and promote his LNG interests in the region over those of Saudi Arabia, in the process isolating Russia as the marginal provider of energy to Europe and furthering western interests even if it means escalating the Syrian civil war, he is also diversifying his assets. And he is doing so in a way that would provide for a quick and painless getaway should things in his country turn sour (now that the US and Russian fleets are converging nearby, this is no longer a merely token possibility): by buying Greek islands. So now that the world has seen the "lead investors" step in, the uber-wealthiest are scrambling to copycat one of the world's richest people and stake their own Greek island claim. ... Read more

*TYT | Wall Street Deregulation Coming Soon! (05/15/13) [6:01]

*TYT | Koch-blocked! App Helps You Boycott Koch Brothers and Monsanto (05/15/13) [3:32]

*TYT | Obama Hopes Reporter Shield Law WIll Avenge His Administration (05/15/13) [4:13]

*TYT | Should Anyone be JAILED for the IRS Scandal? (05/15/13) [10:27]

TYT | Angelina Jolie's Bold Choice for a Double Mastectomy (05/15/13) [7:29]

TYT | Elizabeth Warren Pushes Feds For Answers on Big Banks (05/15/13) [5:25]

TYT | Fight For Education, War on Science, & Chinese Iron Man (05/15/13) [53:48]

Elizabeth Warren Confronts Eric Holder, Ben Bernanke And Mary Jo White On Too-Big-To-Jail
ZeroHedge | author | 05/15/13

Elizabeth Warren is one of the few Senators out there pushing to understand why the federal government has created an untouchable class of criminals in America that can do whatever they want whenever they want and, not only get away with it, but also get bailed out when they make mistakes. In case you missed it, I highlighted a powerful video a few months ago in which she made regulators squirm when confronted on "too big to jail." Now she has written a letter to Ben Bernanke, Eric Holder and Mary Jo White. My favorite line is:

"If large financial institutions can break the law and accumulate millions in profits and, if they get caught, settle by paying out of those profits, they do not have much incentive to follow the law." ... Read more

Hanford Nuclear Cleanup May Be Too Dangerous, Future Of Storage Plant Uncertain
HP & Scientific American | Valerie Brown | 05/09/13

The most toxic and voluminous nuclear waste in the U.S.--208 million liters --sits in decaying underground tanks at the Hanford Site (a nuclear reservation) in southeastern Washington State. It accumulated there from the middle of World War II, when the Manhattan Project invented the first nuclear weapon, to 1987, when the last reactor shut down. ....

... After decades of research, experimentation and political inertia, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) started building the "Vit Plant" at Hanford in 2000. It's intended to sequester the waste in stainless steel--encased glass logs, a process known as vitrification (hence "Vit"), so it cannot escape into the environment, barring natural disasters like earthquakes or catastrophic fires. But progress on the plant slowed to a crawl last August, when numerous interested parties acknowledged that the plant's design might present serious safety risks. In response, then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu appointed an expert panel to find a way forward. Because 60 of the 177 underground tanks have already leaked and all are at increasing risk to do so, solving the problem is urgent. ... Read more

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Note: Boston Bombing Suspect Allegedly Wrote Confession In Boat, CBS Reports
HP | author | 05/16/13

CFTC Waters Down Derivatives Rule In Victory For Wall Street
HP | Shahien Nasiripour | 05/15/13

The U.S. regulator overseeing the derivatives market is set to retreat from an ambitious proposal that would have increased competition in the swaps market, handing victory to large banks including JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission will vote Thursday on final rules that will govern a large portion of transactions in the $633 trillion swaps market. Some derivatives are known as swaps because they "swap" risk from one party to another. ... Read more

*Elizabeth Warren, a Great Investment
Truthdig | Robert Scheer | 05/14/13

How astonishing to have a public servant who actually cares to inform the public about the inner workings of the system of crony capitalism that has wedded big government with big business. ... Read more

*The 182 Percent Loan: How Installment Lenders Put Borrowers in a World of Hurt
ProPublica | Paul Kiel | 05/13/13

One day late last year, Katrina Sutton stood at a gas pump outside Atlanta and swiped her debit card. Insufficient funds. But that couldn't be. She'd been careful to wait until her $270 paycheck from Walmart had hit her account. The money wasn't there? It was all she had. And without gas, she couldn't get to work.

She tried not to panic, but after she called her card company, she couldn't help it. Her funds had been frozen, she was told, by World Finance.   Sutton lives in Georgia, a state that has banned payday loans. But World Finance, a billion-dollar company, peddles installment loans, a product that often drives borrowers into a similar quagmire of debt. ... Read more
Listen to Audio story

*Monsanto Has Taken Over the USDA
Nation of Change | David Swanson | 05/09/13

Clearly, an investigation of large-scale government corruption by this singularly destructive corporation is long overdue.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been taken over by an outside organization. RootsAction has launched a campaign demanding a Congressional investigation.   The organization is called Monsanto.   Monsanto is, of course, the world's largest biotech corporation. These are the people who brought us Roundup weed killer and the resulting superweeds and superbugs, along with growth hormones for cows, genetically engineered and patented seeds, PCBs, and Agent Orange -- which Monsanto now wants us to use as herbicide on genetically engineered corn and soybeans. ... Read more

Everything is Rigged, Continued: European Commission Raids Oil Companies in Price-Fixing Probe
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/15/13

According to numerous reports, the European Commission regulators yesterday raided the offices of oil companies in London, the Netherlands and Norway as part of an investigation into possible price-rigging in the oil markets. The targeted companies include BP, Shell and the Norweigan company Statoil. The Guardian explains that officials believe that oil companies colluded to manipulate pricing data: ... Read more

*'Who's Going To Jail Over This Scandal?'
HP | Sabrina Siddiqui | 05/15/13

The nation's top two Republican leaders suggested Wednesday that criminal acts were likely committed by the Internal Revenue Service in its apparent targeting of tea party groups that were seeking tax-exempt status from the agency.

Their comments come after the release of an inspector general report that found the tax collectors improperly singled out the groups who were applying to be "social welfare" groups under the tax code's 501(c)4 provisions, largely because of ineffective management. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, May 15

*Jon Stewart | The IRS shifts the burden of proof from the tinfoil behatted to the government by targeting the Tea Party and other conservative groups. (05/13/13) [6:46]

*Jon Stewart | Following Time Magazine's health care expose, the government investigates comparative medical costs across 3,000 US hospitals. (05/13/13) [4:38]

OK, He Didn't Cause Hurricane Katrina. But He Is Guilty of Fraud.
Wired Magazine | Noah Shachtman | 05/10/13

In the history of U.S. military research, there's never been a project with such a combination of big science, high sleaze, and pure conspiratorial strangeness. Yet somehow, some way, the story of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, or HAARP, just got sleazier and stranger -- all thanks to an elderly physicist named Alfred Wong.

HAARP was originally pitched back in the Cold War as a way for plasma physicists to study the ionosphere by blasting it with radio frequency emissions. If you build this series of RF antennas in remote Alaska, the scientists told the Pentagon, HAARP wound not only advance our understanding of this crucial field. It could also be used to fry incoming Soviet missiles and spy on underground bunkers. One physicist working for the Arco oil-and-gas conglomerate even suggested that HAARP could be used to weaponize hurricanes. ... Read more

Political Intelligence: Transparency or Insider Trading?
Bill Moyers | John Light | 05/10/13

There are many ways corporations and financial interests can exercise influence in Washington. Some donate money to political campaigns while others hire lobbyists to be their megaphones to legislator ears. But information flows the other way, too. And since the financial crisis, details about the laws and regulations being hashed out behind closed doors is more valuable than ever.

A story from the Washington Post this week looks at the growing popularity of "political intelligence" firms that sell analysis of federal actions, and the likely policy ramifications of those actions, to interested parties. Oftentimes, the clients are investors in a company that will be affected by a policy decision or a proposed regulation. ... Read more

*Will Predator Banksters at JPMorgan Chase Finally Pay for Their Misdeeds?
AlterNet | Richard (RJ) Eskow | 05/13/13

Recent revelations show that Chase is the poster child for all that is corrupt, contemptible, and criminal about today's megabanks.

Will California Attorney General Kamala Harris hang tough in her new lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, the first to target individual bankers accused of defrauding the public? If so, it would be the first time in five years that executives at a major bank have personally paid a price for their misdeeds.

Recent revelations have shown the world that JPMorgan Chase comes as close as any institution in America to embodying all this is corrupt, contemptible, and criminal about today's megabanks. This is gratifying, at least on a personal level, since that was not a popular position when we first started writing about JPM and CEO Jamie Dimon a few years back. ... Read more

*One More Ag-Gag Bill Bites the Dust!
Care2 | Piper Hoffman | 05/13/13

One more ag-gag bill bites the dust! Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam vetoed the bill after the state legislature passed it, protecting his state from travesties like the silliness that happened in Utah, where a woman almost went to jail for standing on a public sidewalk and recording what was plainly visible at the slaughterhouse across the street. Utah eventually dropped the charges against her.   51,000 Care2 members have signed our petition against ag-gag laws. We have already helped kill bills in California and Indiana, as I've written here. We have momentum on our side. ... Read more

Lehman Reaches Beyond Grave to Grab Millions From Nonprofits
Bloomberg | Martin Z. Braun | 05/13/13

Remember Lehman Brothers? It's back!

Almost five years after Lehman Brothers Holding Inc (LEHMQ). filed for bankruptcy and set off the global financial crisis, managers of the bank's estate are demanding millions of dollars from retirement homes, colleges and hospitals. ... Read more

Benghazi, IRS, immigration and repealing 'Obamacare' (again): The week to come in Congress
WashingtonPost | Ed O'Keefe | 05/13/13

Scandal, not legislation, could dominate Congress this week as lawmakers in both parties continue to respond to revelations that the Internal Revenue Service gave extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status and continue to accuse the opposing party of playing politics with the attack at a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya. ... Read more

Homeland Insecurity
Bill Moyers | Peter Van Buren | 05/11/13

What do words mean in a post-9/11 world? Apart from the now clichéd Orwellian twists that turn brutal torture into mere enhanced interrogation, the devil is in the details. Robert MacLean is a former air marshal fired for an act of whistleblowing. He has continued to fight over seven long years for what once would have passed as simple justice: getting his job back. His is an all-too-twenty-first-century story of the extraordinary lengths to which the U.S. government is willing to go to thwart whistleblowers. ... Read more

Large Corporations Seek U.S.--European 'Free Trade Agreement' to Further Global Dominance
AlterNet | Andrew Gavin Marshall | 05/10/13

corporate world order is emerging, and like any parasite, it is slowly killing off its host. Unfortunately, the "host" happens to be the planet, and all life upon and within it. So, while the extinction of the species will be the end result of passively accepting a corporate-driven world, on the other hand, it's very profitable for those corporations and their shareholders.

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is the latest corporate-driven agenda in what is commonly called a "free trade agreement," but which really amounts to 'cosmopolitical corporate consolidation': large corporations dictating and directing the policies of states -- both nationally and internationally -- into constructing structures which facilitate regional and global consolidation of financial, economic, and political power into the hands of relatively few large corporations. ... Read more

*Elizabeth Warren, a Great Investment
Truthdig | Robert Scheer | 05/14/13

How astonishing to have a public servant who actually cares to inform the public about the inner workings of the system of crony capitalism that has wedded big government with big business.

Elizabeth Warren does great email. One payoff of my pittance of a contribution to her grass-roots funded campaign--I regret not contributing more--is that I am regularly alerted by the new Massachusetts senator to the favoritism of our Congress toward Wall Street. ... Read more

Wall Street Is Killing Dodd-Frank One Regulation at a Time
Truthdig | Thomas Hedges | 04/30/13

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a letter this month outlining the changes it would like to see made to the Dodd-Frank Act, whose full implementation has been delayed for almost three years now. The chamber's Fix, Add, Replace (FAR) agenda to alter Dodd-Frank insists that Congress' already compromised attempt to avoid another financial meltdown is too ambitious. The law is failing, the chamber says, because it aimed to tackle too much. ... Read more

Cash, Secrecy and Strongmen: 5 Unsavory Ways America Conducts Its Global War
AlterNet | Alex Kane | 05/10/13

The recent revelation that the Central Intelligence Agency has handed tens of millions of dollars over to the offices of the president of Afghanistan should come as no surprise. The CIA has a long history of this sort of activity. And most importantly, it's the latest reminder of how America's global "war on terror" has been forged through backroom deals, cold hard cash and the fostering of corruption.

From Yemen to Afghanistan to Somalia, America has prosecuted its perpetual war the usual way U.S. foreign policy is conducted: partnerships with unsavory leaders who are corrupt and commit abuses. Here are five striking examples of how the U.S. global war has been characterized by unsavory activity since 2001. ... Read more

New Orleans Shooting: Suspect Caught On Surveillance Video Of Mother's Day Parade Violence
HP | Chevel Johnson | 05/13/13

Video released early Monday by New Orleans police shows a possible suspect in the Mother's Day gunfire that wounded 19 people during a neighborhood parade.

Police believe more than one gun was fired in the burst of Sunday afternoon violence -- the latest to flare up around a celebration this year -- and they have vowed to swiftly track down those responsible. Detectives were conducting interviews, collecting any surveillance video they could find and gathering evidence from the scene. Cell phone video taken in the aftermath of the shooting shows victims lying on the ground, blood on the pavement and others bending over to comfort them. ... Read more

Who Can Stop the Koch Brothers From Buying the Tribune Papers? Unions Can, and Should
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/10/13

... We have another one of those situations brewing now, only it's a much bigger deal this time -- the much-talked-about, much-dreaded potential sale of the Tribune newspaper group to the odious Koch brothers. As first reported in the Times a few weeks ago, the Kochs, after years of working through the media with relentless lobbying and messaging, are exploring the idea of skipping the middleman and becoming media themselves, with the acquisition of one of the biggest media groups in the country. ... Read more

Who Can Take Republicans Seriously?
NYTimes | author | 05/12/13

It is time for President Obama to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain with Republicans.

At every opportunity since they took over the House in 2011, Republicans have made it clear that they have no interest in reaching a compromise with the White House. For two years, they held sham negotiations with Democrats that only dragged down the economy with cuts; this year, they are refusing even to sit down at the table. ... Read more

Melting Ice Opens Fight Over Sea Routes for Arctic Debate
Bloomberg | Flavia Krause-Jackson | 05/12/13

... The countries that make up the Arctic Council -- Russia, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, the U.S. and Canada - - will sign a treaty on oil-spill preparedness and response, discuss their agenda for the next two years and possibly vote on adding to the roster of permanent observers, which includes Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Poland. ...

... This week's conference comes amid signs that greenhouse gases blamed for global warming are accumulating at rates mankind has never experienced. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported on May 10 that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million, a threshold not seen for 3 million years. ... Read more

Navy $37 Billion Ships Seen Unsuitable Have 2-Year Window
Bloomberg | Tony Capaccio | 05/10/13

The U.S. Navy has two years to convince critics, from lawmakers to some in its own ranks, that its troubled $37 billion Littoral Combat Ship program is worth continuing beyond the 24 vessels already under contract.   The Navy must make its case by 2015 for 28 more of the ships if it's to continue the shipbuilding effort beyond the vessels it has already committed to buy from teams led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Austal Ltd. (ASB) ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, May 13 [13:28]

*DN | Climate Tipping Point? Concentration of Carbon Dioxide Tops 400 ppm For First Time in Human History (05/13/13) [12:05]

*Bill Moyers | Marshall Ganz on Making Social Movements Matter. (05/10/13) [33:48]

*Bill Moyers | Rachel LaForest and Madeline Janis on Fighting for Fairness. (05/10/13) [18:56]

The Biggest Creator of Low-Wage Jobs? Uncle Sam
Bill Moyers | Theresa Riley | 05/09/13

A new study from Demos estimates that American taxpayers fund nearly 2 million low-wage jobs that pay workers less than $24,000 a year ($12 an hour or less). These private-sector jobs are generated by federal contracts, grants, loans and other programs. ... Read more
Click to zoom

Chris Hayes | GOP: Debt Ceiling, pay SS, then bond holders, not Medicare recipients. (05/10/13) [3:46]

Hospital Prices No Longer Secret As New Data Reveals Bewildering System, Staggering Cost Differences
HP | Jeffrey Young | 05/08/13

When a patient arrives at Bayonne Hospital Center in New Jersey requiring treatment for the respiratory ailment known as COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she faces an official price tag of $99,690.

Less than 30 miles away in the Bronx, N.Y., the Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center charges only $7,044 for the same treatment, according to a massive federal database of national health care costs made public on Wednesday. ... Read more

7 Financial Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
AlterNet |Lynn Stuart Parramore | 05/08/13

Bernanke's Neofeudal Rentier Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 05/07/13

In essence, the Fed extends low-cost credit (i.e. "free money") to the financier class which then uses this free money to buy rentier assets, that is, assets that generate economic rents for the owners, who add no value and create no wealth.

This is of course the neofeudal model: the financial aristocracy in the manor house own the rentier assets and the debt-serfs toil away to pay the rents and taxes. The financier class (i.e. those that benefit from the financialization of the economy) are as unproductive as feudal lords; they skim the profits generated by the debt-serfs while adding no productive value to the economy. ... Read more

Paul Ryan: Progressivism Is 'Arrogant And Condescending'
HP | Preston Maddock | 05/09/13

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) belittled progressives during a speech at the conservative American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday.   "Progressivism is well-intentioned but it is also -- in my humble opinion -- arrogant and condescending," Ryan said, according to a transcript. "Instead of helping people make their own decisions, it makes those decisions for them. It makes Washington the center of power and politicians the center of attention." ... Read more

How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank
TheNation | Gary Rivlin | 04/30/13

The mood was triumphant on the morning of July 21, 2010, when Barack Obama, not quite two years into his presidency, strode to a podium inside the Ronald Reagan Building, a few blocks from the White House. As he prepared to sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act -- the sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another spectacular financial collapse -- into law, the president first acknowledged the miracle of having a bill to sign at all. "Passing this…was no easy task," he told the crowd of hundreds. "We had to overcome the furious lobbying of an array of powerful interest groups and a partisan minority determined to block change."

Indeed, some 3,000 lobbyists had swarmed the Capitol in hopes of killing off pieces of the proposed bill -- nearly six lobbyists for every member of Congress. For Michael Barr, then an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department, the trench warfare spurred by Dodd-Frank left him shellshocked. ... Read more

Chomsky: The Boston Bombings Gave Americans a Taste of the Terrorism the U.S. Inflicts Abroad Every Day
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 05/02/13

There are few in Boston who were not touched in some way by the marathon bombings on April 15 and the tense week that followed. Several friends of mine were at the finish line when the bombs went off. Others live close to where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the second suspect, was captured. The young police officer Sean Collier was murdered right outside my office building.

It's rare for privileged Westerners to see, graphically, what many others experience daily - for example, in a remote village in Yemen, the same week as the marathon bombings.   On April 23, Yemeni activist and journalist Farea Al-Muslimi, who had studied at an American high school, testified before a US Senate committee that right after the marathon bombings, a drone strike in his home village in Yemen killed its target. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren: Student Loans Should Have Same Rate Big Banks Get
HP | Ryan Grim | 05/08/13

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled her first bill Wednesday, designed to set student loan interest rates at the same level the Federal Reserve offers to big banks.

... "Every single day, this country invests in big banks by lending them money at near-zero rates," Warren told The Huffington Post. "We should make the same kind of investment lending money to students, who are trying to get an education." ... Read more

Air Force sidelines 17 ICBM launch officers; commander cites 'rot' within system
WashingtonPost | AP | 09/08/13

The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control -- and, if necessary, launch -- nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills. The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.

"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force.   The tip-off to trouble was a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a "D" grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers tested much better, but the group's overall fitness was deemed so tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further, that an immediate crackdown was called for. ... Read more

*The Rich Have Gained $5.6 Trillion in the 'Recovery,' While the Rest of Us Have Lost $669 Billion
AlterNet | Les Leopold | 05/03/13

Oh, are we getting ripped off. And now we've got the data to prove it. From 2009 to 2011, the richest 8 million families (the top 7%) on average saw their wealth rise from $1.7 million to $2.5 million each. Meanwhile the rest of us -- the bottom 93% (that's 111 million families) -- suffered on average a decline of $6,000 each.

Do the math and you'll discover that the top 7% gained a whopping $5.6 trillion in net worth (assets minus liabilities) while the rest of lost $669 billion. Their wealth went up by 28% while ours went down by 4 percent.   It's as if the entire economic recovery is going into the pockets of the rich. And that's no accident. Here's why. ... Read more

*A Rise in Wealth for the Wealthy; Declines for the Lower 93%
Pew Research | Richard Fry | 04/23/13

During the first two years of the nation's economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data.

From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.   These wide variances were driven by the fact that the stock and bond market rallied during the 2009 to 2011 period while the housing market remained flat. ... Read more

Elizabeth Warren: Trade talks could weaken bank oversight
Politico | Kate Davidson | 05/08/13

Sen. Elizabeth Warren raised concerns Tuesday that negotiations over new trade agreements could be used as a backdoor way to water down financial regulations.

Speaking at a Senate confirmation hearing for Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg, Warren (D-Mass.) said there are "troubling indications" that negotiations over trade deals with Asia and Europe could be seen as an opportunity for banks to quietly weaken oversight of the financial services industry. ... Read more

#OpUSA Hackers Plan 'Day To Remember' With May 7 Attacks On Banks, Government Agencies
HP | Gerry Smith | 05/06/13

A collective of hacker groups plans to attack the websites of major government agencies and banks on Tuesday to protest American foreign policy.

For weeks, the groups, which include Anonymous, have used social media to publicize their planned operation, dubbed "#OpUSA." In a post on the file-sharing site Pastebin, one member of Anonymous laid out an ambitious list of targets, including the websites of the White House, the Defense Department, the FBI, Bank of America and Chase Bank. ... Read more

The US Regulatory Vice Closes On Bitcoin
ZeroHedge | author | 05/06/13

Just six weeks after the US Treasury decided enough-was-enough with this upstart non-fiat, non-controlled-by-TPTB currency (and applied money-laundering reglations), US financial regulators are now looking for supervisory control over Bitcoin.

As The FT reports, CFTC's Bart Chilton notes "it's not monopoly money - real people have real risk in these instruments," and that regulating the controversial cyber-currency "is sure something [CFTC] needs to explore." Chilton's remit to regulate this "shadow currency" is predicated on it becoming a basis for derivative contracts as opposed to purely transactional. ... Read more

Bernanke's Neofeudal Rentier Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 05/07/13

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke is a Reverse Robin Hood, robbing from the lower 95% and giving to the financier class. The Real Reverse Robin Hood: Ben Bernanke and his Merry Band of Thieves (August 31, 2012).   It's worth understanding the mechanisms of this wealth transfer: in essence, the Fed extends low-cost credit (i.e. "free money") to the financier class which then uses this free money to buy rentier assets, that is, assets that generate economic rents for the owners, who add no value and create no wealth.

This is of course the neofeudal model: the financial aristocracy in the manor house own the rentier assets and the debt-serfs toil away to pay the rents and taxes. The financier class (i.e. those that benefit from the financialization of the economy) are as unproductive as feudal lords; they skim the profits generated by the debt-serfs while adding no productive value to the economy. ... Read more

U.S. May Charge JPMorgan For Power Market Manipulation
Reuters & HP | Scott DiSavino | 05/03/13

The regulator of U.S. power markets appears likely to pursue manipulation charges against JPMorgan Chase & Co , analysts said, after a New York Times report on the agency's document that seemed to lay out its case.

The Times said on Friday it reviewed a confidential, 70-page government document that the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) sent to JPMorgan in March, which alleged the bank manipulated the power market in California and Michigan in 2010 and 2011. ... Read more

JPMorgan Activist Shareholders: JPMorgan 'Lindsay Lohan Of Banks'
HP | Eleazar David Melendez | 05/03/13

Two years ago, when CtW Investment Group began asking JPMorgan Chase & Co. to drop several members from its corporate board, Michael Pryce-Jones, a senior analyst at the activist shareholder, admits the effort was a thankless task. Pryce-Jones says other investors tended to meet his group's proposal with puzzlement, silence or scorn.

This year, the response to his campaign has been markedly different, Pryce-Jones said.   "People tell us they've actually taken time to look at this board's composition and they're dumbstruck," he said. "People have turned and said to us, 'We didn't know it was so bad,' or, 'We never realized the board was so inexperienced.' It's a regular thing we hear now." Read more

This Uber-Wealthy Venture Capitalist Gave A TED Talk Saying Rich People Don't Create Jobs -- And TED Is Refusing To Post It
Business Insider | Grace Wyler | 05/16/12

As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs.

The position is controversial -- so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. ... Read more

The Hollowing Out of Government
HP | Robert Reich | 05/05/13

OSHA and its state partners have a total of 2,200 inspectors charged with ensuring the safety of over more than 8 million workplaces employing 130 million workers. That comes to about one inspector for every 59,000 American workers.   There's no way it can do its job with so few resources, but OSHA has been systematically hollowed out for the years under Republican administrations and congresses that have despised the agency since its inception.

In effect, much of our nation's worker safety laws and rules have been quietly repealed because there aren't enough inspectors to enforce them. That's been the Republican strategy in general: When they can't directly repeal laws they don't like, they repeal them indirectly by hollowing them out -- denying funds to fully implement them, and reducing funds to enforce them. ... Read more

Cheapest Way to Rob Bank Seen in Cyber Attack Like Hustle
Bloomberg | Jordan Robertson | 05/06/13

... One attack was so fast that, within two hours, $9 million was withdrawn from automated teller machines in 46 cities, according to Francis deSouza, president of products and services for Symantec Corp (SYMC)., the Mountain View, California-based information security company that investigated the incidents. ...

... Tens of millions of dollars were stolen in the past year in two-pronged attacks that banks didn't notice until customers complained or investigators later uncovered the breaches, said Samir Kapuria, a Symantec vice president who led the research. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, May 06 [10:38]

Original Slides to Nick Hanauer TED Talk.

13-Year-Old Florida Boy Shoots 6-Year-Old Sister In Chest
Sun Sentinel & HP | By Mike Clary | 05/06/13

Late Saturday afternoon, Justin Latourrette noticed that the two young children of his new neighbors were out in the driveway washing a family car.   "I thought it was strange," said Latourrette, 29. "They didn't seem to have any supervision."

What happened about an hour later was even stranger: "A loud boom," said Latourrette; police confirmed it was a gunshot.   According to the Broward Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old boy shot his 6-year-old sister inside their residence in the 5900 block of Northeast Second Terrace just before 7 p.m. ... Read more

Let's Cut Through the Bitcoin Hype: A Hacker-Entrepreneur's Take
Wired Magazine | Dan Kaminsky | 05/03/13

I'm on neither "Team Bitcoin" nor "Team Global Financial System." I'm on "Team Lets Fix This Thing."

Bitcoin. Everybody's talking about it. What's true, and what's hype? Perhaps the only thing that's clear about Bitcoin is that it's not going away anytime soon. Who am I to say? I'm not an economist; I'm a hacker, who has spent his career exploring and repairing large networks. And networks may very well be how the world works -- financial, social, electronic, even physical ... Read more

Study links insecticide use to invertebrate die-offs
The Guardian | Damian Carrington | 05/01/13

The world's most widely used insecticide is devastating dragonflies, snails and other water-based species, a groundbreaking Dutch study has revealed.   On Monday, the insecticide and two others were banned for two years from use on some crops across the European Union, due to the risk posed to bees and other pollinators, on which many food crops rely. ... Read more

The "Price" Of Record High Markets: $10 Trillion In Seven Years

ZeroHedge | author | 05/02/13

By now everyone, even CNBC, admits that the only reason stocks are where they are is due to the G-7 central banks. What many may not know, however, is how we got here, and where we will be at the end of this year. ... Read more

Banks on the Run - Part 3
TheNation & Bill Moyers | Greg Kaufmann | 05/02/13

You can't talk about poverty without talking about the practices of the big banks, including their continuing refusal to stem the foreclosure crisis through mortgage principal reductions.   Consider this: Latinos lost 66 percent of their household wealth after the housing bubble burst, and African-American households lost 53 percent. Nearly 12 million families--disproportionately people of color--have either lost their homes or are currently in foreclosure, and another 16 million are underwater, owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

Communities are decimated by boarded up houses and vacant lots, declining property values and the consequent loss of state and local revenues, and fewer opportunities to weather and recover from financial hardship. A new study from the Urban Institute indicates that white families now average six times the wealth of African-American and Latino families. ... Read more
Part 1, Part 2

*While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 04/26/13

The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire "independent" consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal -- in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.

In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits. ... Read more

May Snow Storm Breaks Records; Dumps Over A Foot Across Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Hp & Reuters | author | 05/03/13

An unseasonable May storm system dropped more than a foot of snow across the central Plains and the upper Midwest on Thursday, closing roads and causing power outages in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.   The winter storm system has delivered about 18 inches (46 cm) of snow across parts of northwest Wisconsin and more than 15 inches in southern Minnesota, according to the National Weather Service.

"The northernmost areas have seen snow in May before, but not of this magnitude," said Jim Keeney, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.   Temperatures fell close to 30 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 1 degree Celsius), making for a heavy, wet snow that downed trees and caused power outages and road closures. The snowfall will likely break seasonal records in portions of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Keeney said. ... Read more

*Too-Big-to-Fail Takes Another Body Blow
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 05/01/13

... Last week, on April 24th, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Louisiana Republican David Vitter introduced legislation called the "Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act of 2013 Act," or the "Brown-Vitter TBTF Act" for short. The bill is a gun aimed directly at the head of the Too-Big-To-Fail beast. ... Read more

Pat Toomey: Background Checks Died Because GOP Didn't Want To Help Obama
HP | Amanda Terkel | 05/01/13

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) revealed that some members of his party opposed expanding background checks for gun sales recently because they didn't want to "be seen helping the president."

Two weeks ago, only three Republican senators voted for the bipartisan background checks amendment sponsored by Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), despite overwhelming popular support for such a measure. ... Read more

Flow of Tainted Water Is Latest Crisis at Japan Nuclear Plant

NYTimes | Martin Fackler | 04/29/13

Two years after a triple meltdown that grew into the world's second worst nuclear disaster, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is faced with a new crisis: a flood of highly radioactive wastewater that workers are struggling to contain.

Groundwater is pouring into the plant's ravaged reactor buildings at a rate of almost 75 gallons a minute. It becomes highly contaminated there, before being pumped out to keep from swamping a critical cooling system. A small army of workers has struggled to contain the continuous flow of radioactive wastewater, relying on hulking gray and silver storage tanks sprawling over 42 acres of parking lots and lawns. The tanks hold the equivalent of 112 Olympic-size pools ... Read more

Executive Pay Of Austerity Advocates Saves Companies More Than $1 Billion Via Tax Loophole
HP | Zach Carter | 05/02/13

... The four highest-paid executives at the firms received a total of $6.3 billion in pay over the period, according to the report. Federal tax law allows companies to deduct executive pay based on performance from the firm's tax bill as a business expense. This performance-based compensation includes stock options, stock awards and other types of incentive pay. These 90 companies qualified for tax perks totaling between $1 billion and $1.5 billion over the course of three years, depending on how many types of pay firms actually deducted ... Read more

How the CIA's Bags of Cash Undermined the Afghanistan War
Wired Magazine | Spencer Ackerman | 04/29/13

... Nearly every month since the war began in 2001, the CIA has sent a guy over to Afghan President Hamid Karzai with a bag -- sometimes a suitcase, sometimes a backpack, sometimes a shopping bag -- full of cash. His former chief of staff says they used to call it "ghost money," and it totals tens of millions of dollars, according to an eye-opening New York Times story. Quite the hypocritical twist from a sponsor country that so frequently hectors Karzai about corruption. "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan," a U.S. official levels with the paper's Matthew Rosenberg, "was the United States." ... Read more

Banks Move Shareholders Meetings to Avoid Protests
Bill Moyers | Greg Kaufmann, The Nation | 05/02/13

You can't talk about poverty without talking about the practices of the big banks, including their continuing refusal to stem the foreclosure crisis through mortgage principal reductions.   Consider this: Latinos lost 66 percent of their household wealth after the housing bubble burst, and African-American households lost 53 percent. Nearly 12 million families -- disproportionately people of color -- have either lost their homes or are currently in foreclosure, and another 16 million are underwater, owing more on their mortgages than their homes are worth Read more

5-Year-Old Get .22 Caliber Birthday Rifle, Shoots and Kills 2-Year-Old Sister
AlterNet | Steven Hsieh | 05/01/13

A 5-year-old-boy shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with a .22 caliber rifle he received for his birthday, said police in Cumberland County, Ohio, where the incident occurred. ... Read more

A Four-Year-Old Shoots and Kills Deputy's Wife at Weekend BBQ
Gawker | author | 04/08/13

Guns don't kill people--no, they do. One did this past Saturday, in the 26,000-person town of Lebanon, Tennessee, when it was left loaded on a bed, within grabbing distance of a toddler. ... Read more

Grand Theft Market: High-Frequency Frontrunning CME Edition
ZeroHedge | author | 05/01/13

One of the New Normal responses to allegations, first started here in 2009 and subsequently everywhere, that all HFT does is to frontrun traditional market players (among many other evils) now that its conventional and flawed defense that it "provides liquidity" lies dead and buried, is that "everyone does it" so you must acquit because how can you possibly prosecute a technology that accounts for over 60% of all market volume and where if you throw one person in jail you would throw everyone in jail. Today we learn that this indeed may be the case, and not only at the traditional locus of HFT frontrunning such as conventional exchanges for stocks such as the NYSE or even dark pools, but at the heart of the biggest futures exchange in the US, the CME where as the WSJ's Scott Patterson explains frontrunning by HFT algos is not only a way of life, but is perfectly accepted and even smiled upon. ... Read more

The reality of high-frequency trading
Politico | Charles M. Jones | 03/19/13

Is high-frequency trading a threat to our financial markets or an important innovation that benefits today's investors? Judging by the rhetoric coming from some in Washington and elsewhere, it's easy to perceive high-frequency trading as a one-sided battle pitting merciless, lightning-fast machines against earnest but doomed investors. One member of Congress went so far as to call high-frequency trading "a clear and present danger to the stability and safety of our markets." But does this view match reality? ... Read more

Fed holds steady on stimulus, worried by fiscal drag
Reuters | Pedro da Costa | 05/01/13

The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Wednesday it will continue buying $85 billion in bonds each month to keep interest rates low and spur growth, and added it would step up purchases if needed to protect the economy.

Read more

While Wronged Homeowners Got $300 Apiece in Foreclosure Settlement, Consultants Who Helped Protect Banks Got $2 Billion
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 04/26/13

The upshot of this story is that in advance of that notorious settlement, the government ordered banks to hire "independent" consultants to examine their loan files to see just exactly how corrupt they were.

Now it comes out that not only were these consultants not so independent, not only did they very likely skew the numbers seriously in favor of the banks, and not only were these few consultants paid over $2 billion (over 20 percent of the entire settlement amount) while the average homeowner only received $300 in the deal -- in addition to all of that, it appears that federal regulators will not turn over the evidence of impropriety they discovered during these reviews to homeowners who may want to sue the banks.

In other words, the government not only ordered the banks to hire consultants who may have gamed the foreclosure settlement in favor of the banks, but the regulators themselves are hiding the information from the public in order to shield the banks from further lawsuits. ... Read more

Pilots and Professors Barely Scraping By? 9 Surprising Jobs That Pay a Pittance
AlterNet | Joshua Holland | 04/24/13

In the first two years of "recovery" from the Great Recession, the top one percent of households captured 121 percent of the economy's gains, according to economist Emanuel Saez, leaving the rest of us poorer than we were when the reversal began. Wall Street pay has more than bounced back, with average pay higher today than it was before the crash.

The top 25 hedge fund managers continue to take in close to a billion dollars per year each, on average. As Les Leopold noted, it would take a middle-class family 47 years to bring in what they make in just one hour. What value do they add to our society? Well, when they're not wrecking the global economy, they're pricing people out of the housing market and ripping off small investors.

As for the rest of us, the reality is that a disproportionate share of the jobs being created in America since the crash are low-income McJobs. According to a study by the National Law Employment Project, low-income jobs represented 21 percent of the total lost in the crash, but 58 percent of those added during the recovery ( PDF). In contrast, 60 percent of the jobs lost in the downturn paid a middle-class wage, but they've only made up 22 percent of those added during the recovery. ... Read more

The Billionaire Brothers Behind America's Predator Drones -- And Their Very Strange Past
AlterNet | Yasha Levine | 04/xx/13

... What we do know with a fair amount of certainty is that Linden Stanley Blue and James Neal Blue were born to a wealthy family in Colorado during the Great Depression, went to Yale, served as Air Force pilots, and have been involved in some very heavy business activities since then: They've enriched uranium, dumped radioactive waste on a Native American reservation, infiltrated and spied on environmental activists, operated plantations with one of the South America's most brutal dictator clans and tried to turn Telluride, the quaint Colorado ski town, into a giant McTractHome development.

Today the Blue brothers reside in separate mansions in the wealthy, pasty-white beach enclave of La Jolla -- the Beverly Hills of San Diego -- not far from the headquarters of General Atomics. The brothers are both approaching 80, and are extremely wary of the press. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, April 30 [8:26]

Bill Moyers | Glenn Greenwald on the High Cost of Government Secrecy (04/26/13) [25:45]

Heracleion Photos: Lost Egyptian City Revealed After 1,200 Years Under Sea

HP | author | 04/29/13

It is a city shrouded in myth, swallowed by the Mediterranean Sea and buried in sand and mud for more than 1,200 years. But now archeologists are unearthing the mysteries of Heracleion, uncovering amazingly well-preserved artifacts that tell the story of a vibrant classical-era port.

Known as Heracleion to the ancient Greeks and Thonis to the ancient Eygptians, the city was rediscovered in 2000 by French underwater archaeologist Dr. Franck Goddio and a team from the European Institute for Underwater Acheology (IEASM) after a four-year geophysical survey. The ruins of the lost city were found 30 feet under the surface of the Mediterranean Sea in Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria. ... Read more

*Still stuck on central-bank life support
Reuters | Alan Wheatley | 04/28/13

... Five years after the onset of the global financial crisis, the world economy is in such a chronic condition that the European Central Bank might cut interest rates this week and the Federal Reserve is likely to indicate no let-up in the stimulus it is providing the U.S. economy.

The ECB is the most conservative of the world's main central banks. Its main short-term rate, now at 0.75 percent, is higher than the equivalent rate of the Fed, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan. And unlike its peers the ECB has not engaged in quantitative easing - printing new money to buy bonds. ... But the ECB seems to be softening. "I would argue that the ECB should be thinking of easing policy; whether they are currently is more debatable," said Stephen King, global chief economist for HSBC in London. Read more

Student Loan Bubble Cracks With Pulled Sallie Mae Bond Deal
ZeroHedge | author | 04/29/13

... As WSJ reports, Sallie Mae (SLM), the nation's largest non-government student lender just cancelled a $225 million debt offering as investors decided they simply were not getting paid enough for risk - amid rising student loan defaults. Simply put, there's a limit to what investors will tolerate. ... Read more

Billionaires Flee Havens as Trillions Pursued Offshore
Bloomberg | David de Jong | 04/29/13

Billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, Russia's 14th-richest person, and his wife, Elena Rybolovleva, have been brawling for almost five years in at least seven countries over his $9.5 billion fortune.   In a divorce complaint originated in Geneva in 2008, Rybolovleva accused her husband of using a "multitude of third- parties" to create a network of offshore holding companies and trusts to place assets -- including about $500 million in art, $36 million in jewelry and an $80 million yacht -- beyond her reach.

She has brought legal action against the 48-year-old Rybolovlev in the British Virgin Islands, England, Wales, the U.S., Cyprus, Singapore and Switzerland, and is seeking $6 billion.   The suits provide a window into the offshore structures and secrecy jurisdictions the world's richest people use to manage, preserve and conceal their assets. ... Read more

Welcome to America: Children Forced to Wear Bulletproof Backpacks, Companies Sell Shields Disguised as Whiteboards
AlterNet | Alex Kane | 04/29/13

Welcome to post-Newtown America: where gun control legislation can't be passed but companies are profiting by selling bulletproof backpacks for children in schools. The backpacks, along with ballistic safety vests and ballistic shields disguised as whiteboards in classrooms, are among the products companies are pushing in the aftermath of the Newtown massacre.

... "If you put it on her back, it almost covers her whole body," one Colorado parent whose child wears a bulletproof backpack explained to the British newspaper. "It was a very hard conversation to have but she knows that it's something that will keep her safe." ... Read more

*Matt Taibbi on Wall Street's Astronomical "Space-Age Stealing"
AlterNet | Matt Taibbi | 04/26/13

Remember when the Libor scandal surfaced, and it was consider "the biggest financial corruption case in history?"   Well, the corrupt alchemists of capital are at it again, and Matt Taibbi has a scathing new article that reveals that Libor has an evil "twin brother."

According to his feature in Rolling Stone yesterday, financial regulators suspect that some of the world's largest banks -- the same banks that were caught manipulating the interest rates in the Libor scandal -- have been manipulating the prices of interest-rate swaps. ... Read more

*Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 04/25/13
The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix.

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three -- and perhaps as many as 16 -- of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history -- MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."

That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps. ... Read more

These Classy Defense Contractors Are Already Looking to Cash In on Boston
Wired Magazine | Noah Shachtman | 04/26/13

The newly-limbless victims from the Boston Marathon attack are still being treated, and the alleged bomber has only been in custody for a few days. But for a handful of defense and intelligence contractors, it's never too early to start pimping their products as the solution to the next terrorist strike.

"The Boston Marathon bombing has proven the need for real time video and data analysis from all types of cameras, including user mobile devices, surveillance cameras, and network footage," Chris Carmichael, CEO of Ubiquity Broadcasting Corporation, says in a press release. As it happens, his company offers an intelligent video system that does just that. ... Read more

DoJ Secretly Granted Immunity to Companies that Participated in Monitoring Program
Wired Magazine | Kim Zetter | 04/24/13

The Justice Department agree to grant internet service providers that participated in a new cybersecurity monitoring program legal authorization to monitor and intercept communications traffic, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The documents show that the Justice Department secretly agreed to provide AT&T and other participating providers with so-called "2511 letters" that granted them immunity for activity that might otherwise have violated federal wiretapping laws.   EPIC obtained more than 1,000 documents last week through a FOIA request and provided them to CNET, which broke the story today. Read more

Reinhart and Rogoff: Responding to Our Critics
NYTimes | Carmen M. Reinhart | 04/25/13

LAST week, we were sent a sharply worded paper by three researchers from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, at the same time it was sent to journalists. It asserted serious errors in our article "Growth in a Time of Debt," published in May 2010 in the Papers and Proceedings of the American Economic Review. In an Op-Ed essay for The New York Times, we have tried to defend our research and refute the distorted policy positions that have been attributed to us. In this appendix, we address the technical issues raised by our critics.

These critics, Thomas Herndon, Michael Ash and Robert Pollin, identified a spreadsheet calculation error, but also accused us of two "serious errors": "selective exclusion of available data" and "unconventional weighting of summary statistics." ... Read more

CISPA Supporters Spend 140 Times As Much Money Lobbying as Opponents
USNews | Jason Koebler | 04/19/13

Activists and Internet users protesting the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act -- a cybersecurity bill that passed the House of Representatives Thursday -- have spun the battle as big business interests versus the privacy of individual citizens. If lobbying dollars are anything to go by, they're right: Pro-CISPA businesses and interests have spent 140 times more money on lobbying than anti-CISPA interests, according to the Sunlight Foundation. ... Read more

Central Banks Buying Most Gold Since 1964: Commodities
Bloomberg | Debarati Roy | 04/25/13

Central banks are the biggest losers, with about $560 billion of value erased since gold reached a record $1,921.15 an ounce in September 2011. The metal was already in the eighth year of its longest bull market since the end of World War I when reserves started expanding again in 2008. They were also buying in 1980 when bullion peaked at the equivalent of $2,400 in today's money, and selling in 1999 as prices slumped to a 20- year low.

"They aren't traders. They are looking at it as a long-term holding, as an ultimate reserve currency. With the benefit of hindsight, they tend to get it wrong more often than not." ... Read more

Central Banks Load Up on Equities as Low Rates Kill Yields
Bloomberg | Sarah Jones |04/25/13

Central banks, guardians of the world's $11 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves, are buying stocks in record amounts as falling bond yields push even risk- averse investors toward equities.

... Managers of banks' assets are looking for alternatives to holding government bonds after efforts to stimulate growth from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England helped send yields near to record lows. ... Read more

Fed Debate Moves From Tapering to Extending Bond Buying
Bloomberg |Steve Matthews | 04/25/13

Debate among Federal Reserve policy makers is shifting away from the timing of a reduction in bond buying (80 Billion/month) to the need to extend record stimulus as inflation cools and 11.7 million Americans remain jobless.

... With the Fed far from meeting its mandates for stable prices and full employment, policy makers next week will probably affirm a pledge to keep buying bonds until the job market improves "significantly," said Joseph Gagnon, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington and a former Fed economist.   "It's going to be full throttle until the end of this year," said Gagnon, referring to the purchases that have pushed the Fed's balance sheet to a record $3.3 trillion. The FOMC plans to meet April 30-May 1. ... Read more

The Spins Of The Fathers
ZeroHedge | author | 04/25/13

In the financial world at present the markets are fueled by the liquidity of the central banks. Not only is nothing else of importance but good news becomes the joyful noise of some divinity, bad news is elevated to good news and horrible news brings ecstasy as it will enlarge the contributions of Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Draghi. We live in a world where everything is ignored but the time will come when this ignorance will be shattered. We will pay the price for our stupidity because there is always a price to be paid. Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Draghi have been the Saviors but the church has been built on thin air and the weight of the building is increasing and increasing at an alarming rate. This kind of normal is unsustainable. The lessons of the past are being ignored once again but I caution you to not forget what you have learned. ... Read more

50 Reasons You Despised George W. Bush's Presidency: A Reminder on the Day of His Presidential Library Dedication
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 04/24/13

On Thursday, President Obama and all four living ex-presidents will attend the dedication of the $500 million George W. Bush Presidential Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Many progressives will remember Bush as a contender for the "worst president ever," saying he more aptly deserves a multi-million-dollar prison cell for a litany of war crimes.

Amazingly, the Bush library seeks to ask visitors "What would you have done?" if you were in this president's shoes. The ex-president's defenders are betting that the public will reconsider their judgments after a hefty dose of historical amnesia. Bush has been absent from political debates in recent years, instead making millions in private speeches. Today, his popularity is even with Obama's; both have 47 percent approval rating (sad). ... Read more

Gun Control: Terror List Members Barred From Owning Firearms Proposal Explored By Joe Manchin
HP & AP | author | 04/23/13

A Senate sponsor of a defeated compromise on expanding gun sale background checks says he'll consider changing the measure to add people on the government's terror list to those forbidden from owning firearms. ...

ARE THESE PEOPLE NUTS?? The only way Congress can pass a bill is to tie it to terrorism? Read more

Fox News Attacks Muslims Relentlessly In Wake Of Boston Bombing
HP | Jack Mirkinson | 04/24/13

In the days following the Boston Marathon bombings, Fox News has become a haven for talk about the extreme threats posed to the United States by Muslims. Day after day, the network's hosts and pundits have warned about an Islamic menace which is poised to take down the country. ... Read more

Why Can't We See That Boston Is More Like Newtown Than 9/11?
HP | Peter Alexander Meyers | 04/23/13

A week of intense and rapid events in Boston. We are saturated after a flood of words and images. A clear description of what happened is emerging. White hat. Black hat. Two loaded bags infiltrated into the crowd. Boom. And again. Suspects on the run. One dead, the other captured. Beyond bare bones the detail, its sheer quantity, is uncanny. And still these chaotic and riveting scenes, where do they take us? ... Read more

What would the Koch brothers do to the Los Angeles Times?
WashingtonPost | Harold Meyerson | 04/23/13

... The Times is one of the eight daily newspapers now owned by the creditors who took control of the Tribune Co. after real estate wheeler-dealer Sam Zell drove it into bankruptcy. Others include the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel and the Hartford Courant. The Tribune board members whom the creditors selected want to unload the papers in favor of more money-making ventures. ... Read more

How the media give business owners (i.e. Corporations) and terrorists the coverage they want
WashingtonPost | Mike Elk | 04/24/13
(Or) The Texas fertilizer plant explosion cannot be forgotten

... On Friday, as cable news networks sought desperately to fill airtime while waiting for the latest news in the aftermath of the Boston bombings, a friend asked me, "How come there's no manhunt for the owner of the Texas factory, which did far more damage than the Boston bombers?" He was right to wonder. ... Read more

Watching Syria's War
magazine | author | date
A Father Mourns His Children After Attacks Outside Homs, Syria.

The New York Times is tracking the human toll of the conflict in this feature. The primary source is the online video that has allowed a widening war to be documented like no other, and posts try to put the video into context. Edited by LIAM STACK ... Read more

Wall Street Jobs Plunge as Profits Soar
Bloomberg | Max Raskin | 04/24/13

Finding work on Wall Street is getting tougher as algorithms replace traders.

Conservative Koch Brothers Turning Focus to Newspapers
NYTimes | Amy Chozick | 04/20/13

Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo. They laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.

The first two pieces of the strategy -- educating grass-roots activists and influencing politics -- were not surprising, given the money they have given to policy institutes and political action groups... ALEC. But the third one was: media.

Now, Koch Industries, the sprawling private company of which Charles G. Koch serves as chairman and chief executive, is exploring a bid to buy the Tribune Company's eight regional newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant. ... Read more

In Case You Missed It: Congress Takes Your Internet Privacy
Care2 | Kristina Chew | 04/19/13

To the disappointent of advocates for civil liberties and internet freedom, the controversial Cyber Intelligence and Protection Act (CISPA) passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday by a vote of 288-127. 196 Republicans voted for the measure and almost half the House Democrats.

Bush and His Cronies Bear 'Ultimate Responsibility' for Torture -- So What's Stopping Us from Prosecuting Them?
AlterNet | Robert Parry | 04/22/13

Now that a bipartisan blue-ribbon panel has reached the conclusion that President George W. Bush and his top advisers bear "ultimate responsibility" for authorizing torture in violation of domestic and international law, the question becomes what should the American people and their government do.   The logical answer would seem to be: prosecute Bush and his cronies (or turn them over to an international tribunal if the U.S. legal system can't do the job). After all, everyone, including President Barack Obama and possibly even Bush himself, would agree with the principle that "no man is above the law."

At least that is what they profess in public, but they then apply this principle selectively, proving that they don't really mean it at all. The real-world standard seems to be: you are above the law if you have the political or economic clout to make prosecution difficult or painful. Then, more flexible rules apply. ... Read more

It Costs $333 Million to Shut Down Boston for a Day
Bloomberg BusinessWeek | Joshua Green | 04/19/13

... "Boston is a $1 billion-a-day metropolitan area," Diffley says. "But all that economic activity doesn't all go away due to the shutdown--because of telecommuting, because of information technology, a lot more of it can go on than used to be the case. Some of that activity is simply deferred until tomorrow or next week or whenever the guy is caught. ... Read more

Noam Chomsky: How Close the World Is to Nuclear War
AlterNet | Noam Chomsky | 04/17/13

Laray Polk: What immediate tensions do you perceive that could lead to nuclear war? How close are we?

Noam Chomsky: Actually, nuclear war has come unpleasantly close many times since 1945. There are literally dozens of occasions in which there was a significant threat of nuclear war. There was one time in 1962 when it was very close, and furthermore, it's not just the United States. India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war several times, and the issues remain. Both India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear arsenals with US support. There are serious possibilities involved with Iran--not Iranian nuclear weapons, but just attacking Iran--and other things can just go wrong. It's a very tense system, always has been. There are plenty of times when automated systems in the United States-- and in Russia,it's probably worse--have warned of a nuclear attack which would set off an automatic response except that human intervention happened to take place in time, and sometimes in a matter of minutes. That's playing with fire. That's a low-probability event, but with low-probability events over a long period, the probability is not low. ... Read more

*The Real US National Security Budget: 1.2 Trillion
MotherJones | Christopher Hellman | 03/01/12

Normally, in media accounts, you hear about the Pentagon budget and the war-fighting supplementary funds passed by Congress for our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. That already gets you into a startling price range--close to $700 billion for 2012--but that's barely more than half of it. If Americans were ever presented with the real bill for the total US national security budget, it would actually add up to more than $1.2 trillion a year.

Take that in for a moment. It's true; you won't find that figure in your daily newspaper or on your nightly newscast, but it's no misprint. It may even be an underestimate. In any case, it's the real thing when it comes to your tax dollars. The simplest way to grasp just how Americans could pay such a staggering amount annually for "security" is to go through what we know about the US national security budget, step by step, and add it all up. ... Read more

The Jobless Trap
NYTimes | Paul Krugman | 04/21/13

... But while debt fears were and are misguided, there's a real danger we've ignored: the corrosive effect, social and economic, of persistent high unemployment. And even as the case for debt hysteria is collapsing, our worst fears about the damage from long-term unemployment are being confirmed.   Now, some unemployment is inevitable in an ever-changing economy. Modern America tends to have an unemployment rate of 5 percent or more even in good times. In these good times, however, spells of unemployment are typically brief. Back in 2007 there were about seven million unemployed Americans -- but only a small fraction of this total, around 1.2 million, had been out of work more than six months.

Then financial crisis struck, leading to a terrifying economic plunge followed by a weak recovery. Five years after the crisis, unemployment remains elevated, with almost 12 million Americans out of work. But what's really striking is the huge number of long-term unemployed, with 4.6 million unemployed more than six months and more than three million who have been jobless for a year or more. Oh, and these numbers don't count those who have given up looking for work because there are no jobs to be found. ... Read more

*The Next Most Hated Industry In America?
HP | Mark Gongloff | 04/18/13

Banking Sector Is Slowly Replacing Big Oil As The Most Hated Industry In America

Once upon a time, not long ago, oil companies were so despised that they had to downplay their massive profits in order to keep the angry mobs away. The banking industry is now learning how that feels.

Over the past few days, our biggest, least-failingest banks have been reporting massive quarterly profits, as has become the norm in recent years. JPMorgan Chase's profits were up 33 percent. Citigroup, which nearly didn't make it out of the financial crisis alive, reported a 30 percent jump in earnings. Bank of America's earnings rose nearly sevenfold from a year ago, and that was not enough to satisfy finicky investors, who expected more. ... Read more

Zero Hedge | How Does This End?
ZeroHedge | author | 04/18/13

The fleecing of the American public continues. The theft takes different forms, but it all serves one purpose -- to transfer wealth from the average Joe to the crony corporatists and their political lackeys. Capitalism and free markets depend upon trust, integrity, property rights and the rule of law. Without these, there are no advantages to free markets. Nor are there any incentives to create wealth. Instead, an economy becomes little more than a massive plunder scheme where the powerful exploit the weak. No economic recovery is possible under such circumstances. ... Read more

Tar Sands Timmy [2:03]

Important Lessons In Domestic Terrorism
ZeroHedge | author | 04/19/13

Government Secrecy Orders on Patents Have Stifled More Than 5,000 Inventions
Wired Magazine | G.W. Schulz | 04/16/13

... The Department of Defense concluded that his invention could be a national security threat in the wrong hands and slapped Gold's patent application with a so-called "secrecy order" in 2002, which prevented him from discussing the technology with anyone. Five years later, his attorney succeeded in lifting the order, but by then, it was too late. ... Read more

*Meet the 28-year-old Student Who Exposed Two Harvard Professors Whose Shoddy Research Drove Global Austerity
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 04/18/13

The world of economics has just changed, and somebody has some 'splaining to do! Please savor the following twisted tale of bad math, academic folly and pundit hubris.   Since 2010, the names of Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have become famous in politic and economic circles. These two Harvard economists wrote a paper, "Growth in the Time of Debt" that has been used by everyone from Paul Ryan to Olli Rehn of the European Commission to justify harmful austerity policies. The authors purported to show that once a country's gross debt to GDP ratio crosses the threshold of 90 percent, economic growth slows dramatically. Debt, in other words, seemed very scary and bad.   But something didn't smell right.

Progressive economists I knew were shocked at what appeared to be the shoddiness of the research and the absurdity of the conclusions. In their paper " A World Upside Down? Deficit Fantasies in the Great Recession," Thomas Ferguson and Robert Johnson observed that R&R had truncated their sample of British data in a way that skewed their conclusions, eliminating more than a century of data in which British debt loads exploded but economic growth raced ahead (see pages 11-13). The always savvy Marshall Auerback called them out in a blog for New Deal 2.0, which I edited at the time, criticizing the relevance of the cases they had used to justify their conclusions.

But plenty of pundits took their suspect arguments as gospel. The editorial board of the Washington Post declared that "debt-to-GDP could keep rising -- and stick dangerously near the 90 percent mark that economists regard as a threat to sustainable economic growth." The economists cited were Reinhart and Rogoff, whom the WP passed off as speaking for the entire field. A new Washington consensus was born, and the public was hammered with the idea that cutting jobs, stripping away vital public services and letting infrastructure crumble was a good way to get the economy going. Most any ordinary person on the street would probably intuit that this made no sense, but there was this Academic Research By Esteemed Persons, so the argument was over. ... Read more

Fertilizer plant explosion injures at least 160 in central Texas; 5 to 15 feared dead
WashingtonPost | Ernesto Londoño | 04/18/13

A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant in central Texas on Wednesday night left more than 160 people wounded and killed an estimated five to 15 people, officials said, likely including firefighters who had been battling the blaze at the factory that triggered the explosion. ... Read more

The Growing Sentiment on the Hill For Ending 'Too Big To Fail'
Rolling Stone | Matt Taibbi | 04/03/13

... Gangster Bankers: Too Big to Jail... Since part of the Sanders discussion is going to be about "What we can do about it," it's worth noting that at least as far as the Too Big to Fail issue is concerned, there's been a bit of an interesting development of late -- some momentum is building in Washington toward reforming the banks.

Start with the most recent news: last week, Sanders announced plans to introduce an interesting new bill, one that's a direct response to comments made recently by the likes of Eric Holder about the difficulty in prosecuting big banks. Holder said some institutions have grown so large that prosecuting its executives may have a "negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy." ... Read more

*The unwinnable war on terrorism?
Washington Post | Aaron Blake | 04/17/13

For the first time since the so-called war on terrorism began, the United States is physically on the defensive, dealing with the fallout of the first successful home-soil attack since 9/11.   But in the minds of the American people, the United States hasn't been winning the war on terrorism for nearly a decade.   Even as the U.S. has notched some big wins and avoided large-scale attacks like the one at the Boston Marathon on Monday, Americans have rarely seen their side as actually winning the war. ... Read more

*How Being Poor in America Shaped Every Part of My Life and Forced Me to Live on the Streets
AlterNet | Lee Stringer | 04/17/13

... Had the Welfare Department found out, they would have reduced the monthly check they sent by an amount equal to what this extracurricular work brought in and we'd have been no better off for the effort.

I understood that this rule was an effort to protect the taxpayer, the idea being to guard against anyone using public assistance as supplementary income. But since most employment available to people like my mother was low paying, often leaving less spending money--after taxes, transportation and other costs associated with the workplace--than what public assistance provided, it also worked against her honest efforts at providing for herself. Therein, another hidden effect: Rules that work for the haves, can often work against the have-nots. ... Read more

Here Are The Twitter Handles Of The Senators Who Voted No On Background Checks Bill
HP | author | 04/17/13

The Senate rejected a bipartisan compromise amendment to expand gun background checks on Wednesday, casting a 54 to 46 vote that drew sharp responses from supporters who had seen the measure as a small, significant and viable step forward on gun control.

Banks Got Nowhere to Run To
Bill Moyers | Greg Kaufmann | 04/13/13

Last year, U.S. Bank held its annual shareholders meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of its corporate headquarters.   "Our members asked CEO Richard Davis direct questions about issues like principal reductions and foreclosures, and payday lending," said Eric Fought. "We were really effective in holding them accountable, so this year they looked for another solution -- to hide from us."

Obama Ricin Letter: Poison-Tainted Mailer To President Intercepted At Screening Facility
HP | author | 04/17/13

Less than a day after police intercepted a letter laced with the poison ricin that was sent to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), reports of two more poison-tainted letters have emerged, including one to President Barack Obama. ... Read more

Goldman Throws In The Towel On A 2013 "Recovery" As Does Bank Of America
ZeroHedge | author | 04/17/13
Read more

Automakers Spur $3 Billion Boom for Made-in-Mexico Steel
Bloomberg | Brendan Case | 04/17/13

Mexico's auto production has almost doubled since 2009. Now its steel industry is trying to catch up by spending almost $3 billion on new and improved factories.   "Auto exports are going to be the new oil for the Mexican economy," Marco Oviedo, chief economist of Barclays Plc in Mexico, said in a telephone interview from Mexico City. ...

... Steelmaker Altos Hornos de Mexico SA, known as Ahmsa, has almost completed a $2.3 billion expansion designed partly to supply automakers. Ternium SA (TX) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. (5401) are teaming up on a $330 million investment to finish rust-resistant steel, and South Korea's Posco (005490) is spending $300 million to more than double capacity for similar products. ... Read more

Dan Loeb Simultaneously Solicits, Betrays Pension Funds
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 04/11/13

There's confidence. There's chutzpah. And then there's Dan Loeb, hedge fund king extraordinaire and head of Third Point Capital, who's getting set to claim the World Heavyweight Championship of Balls.

On April 18, Loeb will speak before the Council of Institutional Investors, a nonprofit association of pension funds, endowments, employee benefit funds, and foundations with collective assets of over $3 trillion. The CII is an umbrella group that represents the institutions who manage the retirement and benefit funds of public and corporate employees all over America -- from bricklayers to Teamsters to teachers to employees of Colgate, the Gap and Johnson and Johnson.

In other words, Loeb has been soliciting the retirement money of public workers, then turning right around and lobbying for those same workers to lose their benefits. He's essentially asking workers to pay for their own disenfranchisement (with Loeb getting his two-and-twenty cut, or whatever obscene percentage of their retirement monies he will charge as a fee). If that isn't the very definition of balls, I don't know what is. ... Read more

All American Airlines Flights Grounded
ZeroHedge | author | 04/16/13

For those flying in the northeast today, especially in and out of Boston, it is just not their day (all the more so if there are terroristy-looking, Arab-speaking passengers nearby). The day just got much worse for those flying American Airlines. Via BBG:

Police tackle a complex scene
WashingtonPost | Mary Beth Sheridan | 04/16/13

Police here are scouring hours of videotape and thousands of photographs in an effort to learn who detonated two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, blasting runners off their feet, killing at least three people and injuring more than 170 others, 17 of them critically. ... Read more

Mitt Romney was right (on taxes)
Washington Post | Chris Cillizza | 04/15/13

More than eight in 10 Americans believe that you should do everything you can to pay the lowest tax rate possible, according to new Washington Post-ABC News polling, a finding that suggests that people likely hold politicians to a standard of conduct they themselves don't adhere to.

Eighty-five percent of Americans-- and 86 percent of registered voters-- say they approve of people "doing everything within the law to lower their taxes." Nearly six in 10 say they "strongly" approve of doing all you can to pay as little as possible. Those numbers are remarkably consistent across party lines, with 90 percent of self-identified Republicans expressing that view, as well as 83 percent of Democrats and 82 percent of independents. ... Read more

A Tax System Stacked Against the 99 Percent
NYTimes | Joseph E. Stiglitz | 04/14/13

... What should shock and outrage us is that as the top 1 percent has grown extremely rich, the effective tax rates they pay have markedly decreased. Our tax system is much less progressive than it was for much of the 20th century. The top marginal income tax rate peaked at 94 percent during World War II and remained at 70 percent through the 1960s and 1970s; it is now 39.6 percent. Tax fairness has gotten much worse in the 30 years since the Reagan "revolution" of the 1980s. ...

... With such low effective tax rates -- and, importantly, the low tax rate of 20 percent on income from capital gains -- it's not a huge surprise that the share of income going to the top 1 percent has doubled since 1979, and that the share going to the top 0.1 percent has almost tripled, according to the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez. Recall that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans own about 40 percent of the nation's wealth, and the picture becomes even more disturbing. ... Read more

Poverty Expert Peter Edelman Explains How Low Wages and Racial Politics Line the Pockets of the Rich
AlterNet | Adele M. Stan | 04/16/13

To help America's neediest, we've got to raise tax rates on corporations and wealthy Americans back to the levels they paid in 2001.

Edelman finds his answers in the tangle of racialized politics, mass incarceration, displacement caused by globalization, the explosion of low-wage jobs and the dilution of democracy by moneyed interests. In his 2012 book, So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America, Edelman writes, "The American economy did not stagnate over the past 40 years: it grew, but the fruits of that growth went to those at the top." ... Read more

Secrets of FBI Smartphone Surveillance Tool Revealed in Court Fight
Wired Magazine | Kim Zetter | 04/09/13

A legal fight over the government's use of a secret surveillance tool has provided new insight into how the controversial tool works and the extent to which Verizon Wireless aided federal agents in using it to track a suspect.

Rigmaiden, who is accused of being the ringleader of a $4 million tax fraud operation, asserts in court documents that in July 2008 Verizon surreptitiously reprogrammed his air card to make it respond to incoming voice calls from the FBI and also reconfigured it so that it would connect to a fake cell site, or stingray, that the FBI was using to track his location.

Air cards are devices that plug into a computer and use the wireless cellular networks of phone providers to connect the computer to the internet. The devices are not phones and therefore don't have the ability to receive incoming calls, but in this case Rigmaiden asserts that Verizon reconfigured his air card to respond to surreptitious voice calls from a landline controlled by the FBI. ... Read more

Why Derivatives Threaten Your Bank Account
WebOfDebt | Ellen Brown | 04/09/13

... In the US after the Glass-Steagall Act was implemented in 1933, a bank could not gamble with depositor funds for its own account; but in 1999, that barrier was removed. Recent congressional investigations have revealed that in the biggest derivative banks, JPMorgan and Bank of America, massive commingling has occurred between their depository arms and their unregulated and highly vulnerable derivatives arms. Under both the Dodd Frank Act and the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, derivative claims have super-priority over all other claims, secured and unsecured, insured and uninsured. In a major derivatives fiasco, derivative claimants could well grab all the collateral, leaving other claimants, public and private, holding the bag. ...

Army's Disaster Prep Now Includes Tips From the Zombie Apocalypse
Wire Magazine | Spencer Ackerman | 04/12/13

... Officers at Fort Sam Houston in Texas actually brought Max Brooks, author of the latter-day classic zombie novel World War Z, to attend the U.S. Army-North's Hurricane Rehearsal of Concept drill this week. Not that the soldiers were anticipating any zombies. From Brooks' perspective, whether you're confronting extreme weather that shorts out a power grid or running from a marauding horde of the undead, preparation is the key to survival. ... Read more

The Secret of the Seven Sisters
Aljazeera | author | 4/12/13

As Wall St. Soars in Tough Era, Company Size Is a Big Factor
NYTimes | Nelson D. Schwartz | 04/14/13

It's tough to make sense of the economy these days. The latest jobs numbers show hiring is down. Taxes are up, austerity reigns in Washington and consumers are skittish. Yet the stock market is defying gravity, marching ever higher in spite of it all.

Behind this seeming riddle lies a confluence of economic forces that is likely to continue to produce good times for the biggest American companies -- and the stock market -- even if growth, as expected, slows in the coming months.

By pumping hundreds of billions of dollars a month into the global economy, central banks like the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan have encouraged investors to put their money into stocks and other riskier investments, increasing their prices. Bullish traders now count on a supportive Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, much as their predecessors did in the 1990s when Alan Greenspan held that job.   At the same time, American giants are benefiting from productivity gains and renewed growth in China and other overseas markets, allowing them to increase profits even if business at home remains lackluster. ... Read more

Hedge Fund Titans' Pay Stretching to 10 Figures
NYTimes | Julie Creswell | 04/15/13

... Certainly, plenty of hedge fund titans took home billion-dollar paydays last year despite the fact they lagged the big gains in stocks. For example, Steven A. Cohen, who controls $15 billion in assets at SAC Capital Advisors, which has been under intense scrutiny by government investigators, fell just short of the market's returns for 2012. His take-home pay, however, was about $1.4 billion, earning him the No. 3 spot among the best-paid hedge fund managers. ... Read more

Meet the NRA's Board of Directors
Mother Jones | Dave Gilson | older 01/16/13

The National Rifle Association claims to speak for more than 4 million gun owners. But the shots are really called by a hush-hush group of 76 directors. The majority are nominated via a top-down process and elected by a small fraction of NRA members. A breakdown of the current board, based on their official bios:

5 Juicy Tax Breaks That Corporations Enjoy That the Public Can't Touch
AlterNet | Scott Klinger | 04/10/13

Corporations are quick to claim "corporate personhood" and their First Amendment rights when it comes to their ability to donate to political candidates, influence elections, and lobby or when it comes to advertising their products, especially those deemed dangerous or socially destructive. But on tax day, corporations are quite content with a tax code full of perks and privileges for corporations that are not available to living, breathing human beings.

10 Facts Obama Doesn't Want You to Know About His Social Security Slashing Budget Plan
AlterNet | Richard Eskow | 04/11/13

The "chained CPI" proposal in President Obama's budget continues to draw much-deserved fire, which is only likely to increase as more information about it becomes known.   Here are ten embarrassing facts about the chained CPI which the White House and its defenders would prefer to see overlooked:

Solar Flare, 2013's Most Powerful So Far, Sparks Radio Blackout, NASA Says
HP | Tariq Malik | 04/11/13

Stephen Hawking: Space Exploration Is Key To Saving Humanity
HP | Alicia Chang | 04/10/13

The 71-year-old Hawking said he did not think humans would survive another 1,000 years "without escaping beyond our fragile planet."

The British cosmologist made the remarks Tuesday before an audience of doctors, nurses and employees at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he toured a stem cell laboratory that's focused on trying to slow the progression of Lou Gehrig's disease.   Hawking was diagnosed with the neurological disorder 50 years ago while a student at Cambridge University. He recalled how he became depressed and initially didn't see a point in finishing his doctorate. But he continued to delve into his studies. ... Read more

*Seeking Relief, Banks Shift Risk to Murkier Corners
NYTimes |Susanne Craig | 04/10/13

Banks have been shedding risky assets to show regulators that they are not as vulnerable as they were during the financial crisis. In some cases, however, the assets don't actually move -- the bank just shifts the risk to another institution.   This trading sleight of hand has been around Wall Street for a while. But as regulators press for banks to be safer, demand for these maneuvers -- known as capital relief trades or regulatory capital trades -- has been growing, especially in Europe.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse and UBS have recently completed such trades. Rather than selling the assets, potentially at a loss, the banks transfer a slice of the risk associated with the assets, usually loans. The buyers are typically hedge funds, whose investors are often pensions that manage the life savings of schoolteachers and city workers. The buyers agree to cover a percentage of losses on these assets for a fee, sometimes 15 percent a year or more. ... Read more

Dick Cheney Warns GOP On North Korea: 'We're In Deep Doo Doo'
HP | Gabrielle Dunkley | 04/10/13

Former Vice President Dick Cheney told Republicans they should be very wary of recent threats from North Korea, CNN reported on Tuesday.   "We're in deep doo doo," Cheney warned top GOP lawmakers, a Republican leadership aide told CNN.

Cheney reportedly expressed concern about the lack of intel on young North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un, making him very unpredictable. The former vice president cited his past experience with Saddam Hussein and added, "you never know what they're thinking." ... Read more

*Obama Meets With His Handlers, Blankfein, Dimon and Moynihan Today
Boomberg | Dawn Kopecki | 04/11/13

President Barack Obama is meeting today with 15 heads of the world's biggest banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)'s Lloyd C. Blankfein and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)'s Jamie Dimon, White House officials said.

The state of the U.S. economy will be among the topics for the discussion, which will also include Bank of America Corp. (BAC)'s Brian T. Moynihan, Citigroup Inc. (C)'s Michael Corbat, American International Group Inc. (AIG)'s Robert Benmosche and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)'s John Stumpf, according to an administration official, who requested anonymity because the meeting is private. ... Read more

*We Have Discovered The Boom! Record Jobs For Those Who Make Stuff Up
Zero Hedge | author | 04/11/13

In what may be the most appropriate chart to summarize not only the entire US "recovery", the "all time high stock market" and the daily newsflow, we present the number of jobs for those in the motion picture and sound recording industries, i.e, those who "make stuff up." It just hit a record high. And with "circus" jobs at all time highs, we can only assume jobs for makers of bread, if the BLS actually broke it out, would be off the charts as well. We will just leave it at that. Original article
Click to zoom

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, April 11 [14:42]

Assessing The North Korean Threat 04/11/13 [1hr]

How Hackers Could Burst The Bitcoin Bubble
HP | Gerry Smith | 04/11/13

Today, the money is in Bitcoin, a virtual currency with a skyrocketing value. And that value has caught the attention of today's digital bank robbers -- hackers.

Over the past week, hackers have stolen bitcoins from digital wallets and hijacked computers to create new bitcoins -- the equivalent of minting money.   But hackers have also found a way to bring financial ruin to most everyone involved in the Bitcoin craze. They have shut down sites where bitcoins are exchanged for cash, creating a panic that causes values to plummet, then buying up cheap bitcoins and profiting when the currency rebounds.

"Attackers try to exploit any system where they think they can profit and get away with it, whether that is robbing banks, stealing online banking credentials, or attacking a Bitcoin exchange," Gavin Andresen, chief scientist at the Bitcoin Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to standardize and promote the digital currency, said in an email. ... Read more

BitCoin Halted?
Zero Hedge | author | 04/11/13

Yes, it is supposedly distributed, but that does not prevent BTC trading platform MtGox from halting trading for a bit, or 12 hours as the case may be.   In other news, according to today's leaked memo from the bearded chairman, one should move out of the BitCoin bubble and boldly go into the S&P bubble. Ha Ha Read more

Obama Proposes $3.77 Trillion Budget to Revive Debt Talks
Bloomberg | Roger Runningen | 04/10/13

President Barack Obama sends a $3.77 trillion spending plan to Congress today that calls for reductions in Social Security and Medicare in a political gamble intended to revive deficit-reduction talks. Obama's budget for fiscal 2014 proposes $50 billion for roads, bridges and other public works, $1 billion to spur manufacturing innovation and $1 billion for an initiative to revamp higher education, according to administration officials who briefed reporters and asked to not be identified.

It renews his request to raise $580 billion in revenue by limiting deductions and closing loopholes for top earners. Obama again seeks adoption of the Buffett rule, named for billionaire investor Warren Buffett, to impose a 30 percent minimum tax on households with more than $1 million in annual income.   The administration projects the deficit for fiscal 2014 would be $744 billion, or 4.4 percent of the economy. That would mark the first budget shortfall of less than $1 trillion since Obama took office. ... Read more

The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.
NPR | staff | 04/09/13

When the CIA came into being in 1947, its mandate was to keep tabs on events around the world. Gather intelligence about foreign governments. Spy. But the agency has evolved away from this original mission, as Mark Mazzetti reports in a new book, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth. ... Read more

Washington's Vanishing Lobbyists Hide Behind the Rules
Mother Jones | Erika Eichelberger | 04/09/13

When President Obama took office in 2009, he promised to curb the influence of special interests. Yet his new lobbying rules and a Bush-era law passed in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal appear to have done little to curb lobbying--and may have created new loopholes for influence peddling. Even as the number of lobbyists has decreased, spending on lobbying has gone up, which experts attribute to a growing number of lobbyists operating under the radar.

A recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) found that there were close to 15,000 officially registered lobbyists in 2007; by last year that number had dropped to slightly more than 12,000. In 2007, total spending on lobbying approached $3 billion, and by 2012 it had jumped to around $3.3 billion. "An amazing amount of money continues to go up, even as the number of people [lobbying] goes down," ... Read more

Bitcoin, Explained
Mother Jones | Adam Serwer | 04/10/13

Everything you need to know about the new electronic currency.

What is a Bitcoin? How did you pay for your coffee this morning, by cash? By credit card? If a growing number of bank-fearing techies have their way, you'll soon be able to pay for that mocha latte through an untraceable virtual currency called Bitcoin. As of this month, Bitcoins are worth over a billion dollars, and interest in the currency is skyrocketing. Here's everything you need to know about a currency that sounds like it belongs in a fantastical realm: You can't touch it, it's prized in the underworld, its creator disappeared in a cloud of mystery, and if you want to keep it safe, you should keep it hidden in a bunch of different places. ... Read more

Groundbreaking 'War on Whistleblowers' Investigation Exposes Obama Admin's Record of Censorship and Persecution of Unsung Heroes and Journalists
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 04/09/13

The 9/11 attacks on America did not just launch Washington's war on terrorism; they launched a new White House war on whistleblowers, first under President George W. Bush and then under President Barack Obama, according to a bold new documentary directed by filmmaker Robert Greenwald.

War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State traces how two of the most powerful and secretive Washington power centers--the Pentagon's military-industrial complex and Internet era's national security state--ran amok after 9/11 and declared war on a handful of whistleblowers who went to the press to expose lies, fraud and abuses that meant life or death for troops and spying on millions of Americans. It explores why Obama, who promised the most transparent administration, became the most secretive president in recent decades and even more vindictive to intelligence-related whistleblowers than George W. Bush. ... Read more

Washington's Vanishing Lobbyists Hide Behind the Rules
Mother Jones | Erika Eichelberger | 04/09/13

When President Obama took office in 2009, he promised to curb the influence of special interests. Yet his new lobbying rules and a Bush-era law passed in the wake of the Jack Abramoff scandal appear to have done little to curb lobbying--and may have created new loopholes for influence peddling. Even as the number of lobbyists has decreased, spending on lobbying has gone up, which experts attribute to a growing number of lobbyists operating under the radar.

A recent report by the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) found that there were close to 15,000 officially registered lobbyists in 2007; by last year that number had dropped to slightly more than 12,000. In 2007, total spending on lobbying approached $3 billion, and by 2012 it had jumped to around $3.3 billion. "An amazing amount of money continues to go up, even as the number of people [lobbying] goes down," ... Read more

WikiLeaks PlusD Launch: Organization Releases 1.7 Million U.S. Diplomatic Records Comprising 'The Kissinger Cables'
HP | Adam Goldberg | 04/08/13

WikiLeaks has announced the release of a huge archive of U.S. diplomatic records dubbed "The Kissinger Cables."   The trove of more than 1.7 million documents contains "205,901 records relating to former US Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger." The massive data collection is part of the launch of the WikiLeaks Public Library of US Diplomacy, or PlusD, which a press release describes as holding "the world's largest searchable collection of United States confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications." PlusD holds "2 million records comprising approximately 1 billion words." Read more

Obama Tells Donors of Tough Politics of Environment
NYTimes | Michael D. Shear | 04/04/13

Appearing at the home of an outspoken critic of the Keystone XL pipeline, President Obama on Wednesday night told a group of high-dollar donors that the politics of the environment

Mr. Obama appears to be leaning toward the approval of the pipeline, although he did not specifically mention it to the donors. But he acknowledged that it is hard to sell aggressive environmental action -- like reducing pollution from power plants -- to Americans who are still struggling in a difficult economy to pay bills, buy gas and save for retirement. ... Read more

5 Obama Appointees with Wall Street Ties
are2.com | Kevin Mathews | 04/08/13

President Barack Obama has done it again: appointed yet another friend of Wall Street to an important government position. Not only do these appointments introduce a number of conflicts of interest, but they also beg a critical question: why does a President who vows to hold the banks responsible keep giving power to friends of these same banks? Here are 5 alarming examples:

1. Mary Jo White
2. Jeffrey Immelt
3. Gene Sperling
4. Lawrence Summers
5. William Daley

Broke And Broker: US Casino Spending Tumbling Back To Great Recession Levels
ZeroHedge | author | 04/09/13

With most of the gambling these days taking place in your retail brokerage screen with bets on when the Fed's record high house of superglued cards finally comes tumbling down, perhaps consumers have merely changed their definition of gambling. It was once known as "investing." Read more

Small Businesses Planning To Hire: 0%
ZeroHedge | author | 04/09/13

In a shocking state of affairs, it would appear the stock market's wealth effect is not rubbing off on the real economy. The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) shows 0% of their members planning to hire. One can only presume we need moar QE. ... Read more

Ron Finley: A guerilla gardener in South Central LA [10:46]

'We've lost a great leader'
All Newspapers | author | 04/08/13

Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister, dead at 87

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the grocer's daughter whose overpowering personality, bruising political style and free-market views transformed Britain and transfixed America through the 1980s, died Monday after a stroke, her spokesman said in a statement. She was 87. ... Read more

More Than 101 Million Working Age Americans Do Not Have A Job
ZeroHedge | author | 04/08/13

The jobs recovery is a complete and total myth.

The percentage of the working age population in the United States that had a job in March 2013 was exactly the same as it was all the way back in March 2010. In addition, as you will see below, there are now more than 101 million working age Americans that do not have a job. ... Read more

*Journalists Expose Trove of Hidden Offshore Bank Accounts (04/05/13) || Offshore Leaks: Tax Fraud 160 Times Bigger Than Wikileaks !!! (04/05/13) see videos to the right

TPP - Neoliberal Overload
Counter Punch | Nile Bowie | 04/03/13

...In addition to the United States, the countries participating in the negotiations include Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Japan has expressed its desire to become a negotiating partner, but not yet joined negotiation, partly due to public pressure to steer-clear. The TPP would impose punishing regulations that give multinational corporations unprecedented rights to demand taxpayer compensation for policies they think will undermine their expected future profits straight from the treasuries of participating nations ...

...TPP would push the agenda of Big PhaRMA in the developing world to impose longer monopoly controls on drugs, drastically limiting access to affordable generic medications that people depend on. The TPP would undermine food safety by limiting labeling and forcing countries like the United States to import food that fails to meet its national safety standards, in addition to banning Buy America or Buy Local preferences. ... Read more

Exxon's Unfriendly Skies: Why Does Exxon Control the No-Fly Zone Over Arkansas Tar Sands Spill?
DeSmogBlog Project | Steve Horn | 04/03/13

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had a "no fly zone" in place in Mayflower, Arkansas since April 1 at 2:12 PM and will be in place "until further notice," according to the FAA website and it's being overseen by ExxonMobil itself. In other words, any media or independent observers who want to witness the tar sands spill disaster have to ask Exxon's permission.

Mayflower is the site of the recent major March 29 ExxonMobil Pegagus tar sands pipeline spill, which belched out an estimated 5,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen ("dilbit") into the small town's neighborhoods, causing the evacuation of 22 homes. ... Read more

Tar Sands Tax Loophole Cost US Oil Spill Fund $48 Million in 2012, Will Cost $400 Million by 2017
DeSmog Canada (www.desmog.ca) | Carol Linnitt | 04/03/13

A tax loophole exempting tar sands pipeline operators from paying an eight-cent tax per barrel of oil they transport in the US is costing the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund millions of dollars every year. With expected increases in tar sands oil production over the next five years, this loophole may have deprived US citizens of $400-million dollars worth of critical oil-spill protection funds come 2017. ... Read more

Efforts to Deliver "Kill Shot" to Paid Sick Leave Tied to ALEC
prwatch | Brendan Fischer | 04/03/13

...Advocates have helped pass paid sick days laws in cities like San Francisco, Washington DC, Seattle and Portland, but big business has been pushing back. Corporate-backed bills have passed at the state level in Wisconsin, Louisiana, and Mississippi that would preempt (or as one GOP operative put it, "deliver the kill shot" to) local laws requiring paid sick days. Similar bills are on the legislative docket in Florida, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Washington. This paid sick days preemption effort can be traced back to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ... Read more

How Bush won the war in Iraq - really!
gregpalast.com | Greg Palast | 03/29/13

If you thought it was "Blood for Oil"--you're wrong. It was far, far worse.

Because it was marked "confidential" on each page, the oil industry stooge couldn't believe the US State Department had given me a complete copy of their secret plans for the oil fields of Iraq. Actually, the State Department had done no such thing. But my line of bullshit had been so well-practiced and the set-up on my mark had so thoroughly established my fake identity, that I almost began to believe my own lies. I closed in. I said I wanted to make sure she and I were working from the same State Department draft. Could she tell me the official name, date and number of pages? She did. ... Read more
Read the pdf

Eric Holder Gets Busy: Enron's Skilling May Be Released From Prison Over A Decade Early
ZeroHedge | author | 04/04/13

Former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling may be the latest beneficiary of the culture of pervasive permitted, even at times encouraged, crime. After being sentenced to prison for 24 years in the aftermath of Enron's spectacular 2001 bankruptcy, the former CEO may be released after serving well less than half of his term. As a result his prison term, which scheduled to end in 2028, may be cut by more than half as a result of a new agreement with the Department of Justice. It appears that AG Eric Holder is so busy not prosecuting Wall Street for being Too Big To Prosecute, he has decided it is far wiser to spend his time productively by commuting the sentences of convicted financial felons, because apparently there is nothing more important to do. ... Read more

Secret Files Expose Offshore's Global Impact
HP| Gerard Ryle | 04/04/13

Dozens of journalists sifted through millions of leaked records and thousands of names to produce ICIJ's investigation into offshore secrecy

...The leaked files provide facts and figures -- cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals -- that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well-connected to dodge taxes and fueling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike. The records detail the offshore holdings of people and companies in more than 170 countries and territories. ... Read more

Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze
ICIJ | author | 04/04/13

The offshore information totaled more than 260 gigabytes of useful data. ICIJ's analysis of the hard drive showed that it held about 2.5 million files, including more than 2 million e-mails that help chart the offshore industry over a long period of explosive growth. It is one of the biggest collections of leaked data ever gathered and analyzed by a team of investigative journalists.

The drive contained four large databases plus half a million text, PDF, spreadsheet, image and web files. Analysis by ICIJ's data experts showed that the data originated in 10 offshore jurisdictions, including the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands and Singapore. It included details of more than 122,000 offshore companies or trusts, nearly 12,000 intermediaries (agents or "introducers"), and about 130,000 records on the people and agents who run, own, benefit from or hide behind offshore companies. ... Read more

Leaks reveal secrets of the rich who hide cash offshore
TheGuardian | David Leigh | 04/03/13

Exclusive: Offshore financial industry leak exposes identities of 1,000s of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world

Millions of internal records have leaked from Britain's offshore financial industry, exposing for the first time the identities of thousands of holders of anonymous wealth from around the world, from presidents to plutocrats, the daughter of a notorious dictator and a British millionaire accused of concealing assets from his ex-wife.   The leak of 2m emails and other documents, mainly from the offshore haven of the British Virgin Islands (BVI), has the potential to cause a seismic shock worldwide to the booming offshore trade, with a former chief economist at McKinsey estimating that wealthy individuals may have as much as $32tn (£21tn) stashed in overseas havens. ... Read more

Mapping The Witch-Hunt Of The World's Offshore Bank Account Holders
ZeroHedge | author | 04/04/13

A cache of 2.5 million files of cash transfers, incorporation dates, and links between companies and individuals has cracked open the secrets of more than 120,000 offshore companies and trusts. The secret records lay bare the names behind covert companies used by people from American doctors to Russian executives and international arms dealers in more than 170 countries (as shown in the map below).

Inside the NRA's Koch-Funded Dark-Money Campaign
MotherJones | Peter Stone | 04/02/13

... Overall, the NRA spent just north of $25 million on last year's election: $7 million supporting Republican candidates, and $18 million attacking Democrats. ...

... But in the past couple of years, the NRA has also turned to deep-pocketed conservative allies. Last year an organization allied with the donor network of billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch gave between $2 million and $3 million to the NRA's election efforts ...

... The NRA also forged stronger links with conservative advocacy groups. Crossroads GPS, the dark-money group cofounded by Karl Rove, funneled at least $600,000 to the NRA's lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA), in the last two elections. ... Read more

The Corruption of Capitalism in America
NYTimes | David A. Stockman | 03/30/13

The Dow Jones and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes reached record highs on Thursday, having completely erased the losses since the stock market's last peak, in 2007. But instead of cheering, we should be very afraid.

Over the last 13 years, the stock market has twice crashed and touched off a recession: American households lost $5 trillion in the 2000 dot-com bust and more than $7 trillion in the 2007 housing crash. Sooner or later -- within a few years, I predict -- this latest Wall Street bubble, inflated by an egregious flood of phony money from the Federal Reserve rather than real economic gains, will explode, too.

Since the S.&P. 500 first reached its current level, in March 2000, the mad money printers at the Federal Reserve have expanded their balance sheet sixfold (to $3.2 trillion from $500 billion). Yet during that stretch, economic output has grown by an average of 1.7 percent a year (the slowest since the Civil War); real business investment has crawled forward at only 0.8 percent per year; and the payroll job count has crept up at a negligible 0.1 percent annually. Real median family income growth has dropped 8 percent, and the number of full-time middle class jobs, 6 percent. The real net worth of the "bottom" 90 percent has dropped by one-fourth. The number of food stamp and disability aid recipients has more than doubled, to 59 million, about one in five Americans. ... Read more

The nihilism of David Stockman
Washington Post | Neil Irwin | 04/01/13

I was probably the only kid in my high school who knew who David Stockman was. I found the former Reagan budget director's memoir to be a fascinating window into the world of economic policy. So that makes it a bit ironic that he and I both have books coming out this week that have completely opposite takes on the most crucial questions of how the U.S. economy ought to work.

Stylistically, our books are very different: "The Great Deformation: The Corruption of Capitalism in America" is a long, spittle-filled diatribe on how the Federal Reserve, Wall Street, FDR, and Richard Nixon ruined America. (Or so I gather -- the book only came out today. But here are Stockman's Sunday New York Times piece (see below) and an early review by Marcus Brauchli.) Mine is a reported narrative of the rise of central banking and the response of the leading central bankers to the 2007 to 2012 crisis. ... Read more

Fiduciary Duty to Cheat? Stock Market Super-Star Jim Chanos Reveals the Perverse New Mindset of Financial Fraudsters
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 04/01/13

American business has always had cheaters and crooks, but today they are escaping prosecution and are incentivized to cheat more.

Hustlers. Cheaters. Crooks. American business has always had them, and sometimes they've been punished. But today, those who cheat and put the rest of us at risk are often getting off scot-free. The recent admission of Attorney General Eric Holder that systemically dangerous megabanks may escape prosecution because of their size has opened a new chapter in fraud history. If you know your company won't be prosecuted, a perverse logic says that you should cheat and make as much money for shareholders as you can.

Jim Chanos is one of America's best-known short-sellers, famed for his early detection of Enron's fraudulent practices. In deciding which companies to short (short-sellers make their money when the price of a stock or security goes down), Chanos acts as a kind of financial detective, scrutinizing companies for signs of overvaluation and shady practices that fool outsiders into tlhinking that they are prospering when they may be on shaky financial footing. Chanos teaches a class at Yale on the history of financial fraud, instructing students in how to look for signs of cheating and criminal activity. I caught up with Chanos in his New York office to ask what's driving the current era of rampant fraud, who is to blame, what can be done, and the ways in which fraud costs us financially and socially. ... Read more

This Company Is Kickstarter for Solar Power
Mother Jones | Kate Sheppard | 03/27/13

Oakland-based Mosaic figured out that pricy solar panels are much more affordable when the crowd chips in.

Clark, the group's executive director, had dreamed of solar panels on YEP's headquarters but couldn't find a way to pay for them. "We have this big sunny roof," she said, "but we didn't have the expertise, the connections, or even the thought process of how you would put this together."   Then Clark connected with Mosaic, an Oakland-based startup company that connects solar-power-seeking businesses and nonprofits with hundreds of investors. Soon, YEP had brand new solar panels, a $40,000 project paid for by 51 individuals. Read more

What Is the "Monsanto Protection Act," and How Did It Sneak Into Law?
AlterNet | Natasha Lennard | 03/29/13

Slipped into the Agricultural Appropriations Bill, which passed through Congress last week, was a small provision that's a big deal for Monsanto and its opponents. The provision protects genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks and has thus been dubbed the "Monsanto Protection Act" by activists who oppose the biotech giant. President Barack Obama signed the spending bill, including the provision, into law on Tuesday.

Since the act's passing, more than 250,000 people have signed a petition opposing the provision and a rally, consisting largely of farmers organized by the Food Democracy Now network, protested outside the White House Wednesday. Not only has anger been directed at the Monsanto Protection Act's content, but the way in which the provision was passed through Congress without appropriate review by the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees. The biotech rider instead was introduced anonymously as the larger bill progressed -- little wonder food activists are accusing lobbyists and Congress members of backroom dealings. ... Read more

Hanford Nuclear Reservation Workers Hit By Sequestration Layoffs
HP | Arthur Delaney | 03/21/13

Terry Smith of West Richland, Wash., learned this week that he'll be losing his job in a few days thanks to federal budget cuts.   "It stinks," Smith, 56, said in an interview. "I think people in Washington, D.C., don't have a clue. It just kinda stinks."   Smith said he's worked since 2009 as a radiation control technician at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, where the government has been trying to clean up nuclear waste since the end of the Cold War.

It is the nation's most contaminated nuclear site. And now federal budget cuts known as sequestration may interfere with the cleanup efforts being carried out by the 9,000 men and women who work there. ... Read more

Think you know the facts about Iraq War? Think again.
McClatchy | Hannah Allam | 03/19/13

A decade after the beginning of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, myths and distortions persist about how the conflict evolved into the current incarnation of Iraq as a fragile, highly sectarian state with a domestic political crisis that's only exacerbated by volatile neighbors Syria and Iran.

The old distortions have cropped up, unchecked, in the adultery scandal that brought down former Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus and in Senate confirmation hearings for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other officials in the Obama administration. ... Read more

Stockman On Bernanke's Actions: "The Ultimate Consequence Will Be A Train-Wreck"
Zero Hedge | author | 04/02/13

There is "not a chance," that the Fed will be able to unwind its balance sheet in an orderly manner, "because everybody is front-running [them]," as the Fed is creating "serial bubbles," that are increasingly hard to manage since "we're getting in deeper and deeper every time." David Stockman has been vociferously honest in the last few days and his Bloomberg Radio interview with Tom Keene was extremely so. While Keene tries his best to remain upbeat and his permabullish self, Stockman just keeps coming with body blow after body blow to the thesis that this 'recovery' is sustainable. "They are using a rosy scenario forecast for the next ten years that would make the rosy scenario of the 1981 Reagan administration look like an ugly duckling," he exclaims, adding that the Keynesian Krugmanites' confidence is "disingenuous" - "the elephant in the room - the Fed," that are for now enabling rates to stay where they are. The full transcript below provides much food for thought but he warns, if the Fed ever pulled back, even modestly, "there would be a tremendous panic sell off in the bond market because it is entirely propped up... It's to late to go cold turkey." ... Read more

Mary Schapiro's New "Revolving Door" Employer
Zero Hedge | author | 04/02/13

When Mary Schapiro quit as the US stock market regulator, the only question was which Wall Street firm the latest SEC "revolving door" migrant would end up with, with most bets being on, naturally, Goldman and JPM. Today, to some surprise, the news hit that the former head of the internet porn-addicted regulator (which like clockwork always complains about its low budget: maybe get a refund for that bangbus.com subscription?) has decided to join none other than the revolving door extraordinaire consulting firm Promontory Financial. ...

... So who is Promontory? Nothing short of an "expert network" of all former government workers who having moved on, are willing to spill the beans about all the secrets of government operations... for a fee of between $1000 and $10,000 per hour. ... Read more

Iraqi oil: Once seen as U.S. boon, now it's mostly China's
McClatchy | Sean Cockerham | 03/27/13

Ten years after the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, the country's oil industry is poised to boom and make the troubled nation the No.2 oil exporter in the world. But the nation that's moving to take advantage of Iraq's riches isn't the United States. It's China.

America, with its own homegrown energy bonanza, isn't going after the petroleum that lies beneath Iraq's sands nearly as aggressively as is China, a country hungry to fuel its rise as an economic power. ... Read more

B-2 bombers based in Missouri send message to North Korea
McClatchy | Mike McGraw | 03/29/13

... Following weeks of North Korean bluster, the U.S. on Thursday took the unprecedented step of announcing that the nuclear-capable bombers joined joint military drills with South Korea, dropping dummy practice bombs on an island range.   The bombers made the 13,000-mile nonstop round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster. ...

... The $2.2 billion B-2, with its 40,000-pound capacity of nuclear or conventional bombs, is an especially effective weapon in North Korea, Coté said, because the B-2 is "absolutely immune" to North Korea's Vietnam-era radar defense system. ...

... The North Koreans reacted late Thursday. The government-controlled Korean Central News Agency website said the B-2 mission "from Whiteman air force base in Missouri State ... proves the brigandish ambition of the U.S. imperialists for aggression." ... Read more

*Stockman Warns of Crash of Fed-Fueled Bubble Economy
Bloomberg | Richard Rubin | 04/01/13

The U.S. economy is in a bubble inflated by "phony money" from the Federal Reserve and will burst within a few years, warned David Stockman, who was budget director for President Ronald Reagan.

In an essay published yesterday in the New York Times (NYT), Stockman wrote that the Fed's quantitative easing policies following the credit crisis have flooded stock markets with cash even while the "Main Street economy" remains weak. The combination, he wrote, is "unsustainable." ... Read more

Bernanke Breaks Down: "This Whole Thing Is A Kleptocracy"
ZeroHedge | author | 04/01/13

In an unprecedented abandonment of his carefully scripted responses to Congressional questions, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke unleashed what appeared to be a heart-felt and spontaneous disavowal of the financial and political systems of the United States.

Asked a question about the wealth effect, Bernanke paused and said, "The wealth effect. Ah, right." He then smiled faintly and shook his head. "You want to know about the wealth effect? Well, I'll be candid with you. This whole thing is a kleptocracy--the financial system, the political system, it's one big kleptocracy. That's the real wealth effect."

Seeming to find his footing, Bernanke continued with a passion that startled the audience. "You know, I told myself to just repeat the party line for another year so I could step down quietly and let Yellen or another of the toadies take over, but I realized that I can no longer stomach the lies, the obfuscation and the plundering." ... Read more

Highly lethal and highly under-regulated
Economist | Andrew Feinstein | 11/02/11

Mr Feinstein is the author of the new book "The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade", out this week in Britain and America. A former South African MP, he resigned in 2001 in protest against the government's refusal to allow an investigation into a corrupt £5 billion arms deal. ... Read more

Iceland vs Greece: Pick The Winner
ZeroHedge | author | 04/01/13
Click to zoom

Arkansas Oil Spill: Exxon Shuts Pegasus Pipeline After Rupture
HP & Reuters | Kristen Hays | 03/31/13

... Exxon's Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Patoka, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was shut after the leak was discovered late Friday afternoon in a subdivision near the town of Mayflower. The leak forced the evacuation of 22 homes.

Exxon also had no specific estimate of how much crude oil had spilled, but the company said 12,000 barrels of oil and water had been recovered - up from 4,500 barrels on Saturday. The company did not say how much of the total was oil and how much was water. ... Read more