Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

The Taper, The Inflation, And The American People's Matrix Of Lies
ZeroHedge | Howard Kunstler | 12/23/13

Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke pulls one last dead rabbit out of his hat -- it suffocated while the head-fake taper percolated in Ben's brain lo these many months of jive talkin'. As the year turns, the central bank will supposedly monetize $10 billion less debt per month -- $75 billion down from $85 billion -- with $5 billion each deducted from the US Treasury stream and the rotten mortgage barrel. Was there a catch?

John H. Makin saying that the Fed's actual purchase of debt paper amounted to an average $94 billion a month through the year 2013, not $85 billion? I have averred often in this space to the Fed's ability to conduct back-door buying operations of all kinds of janky financial crapola -- and in a world where claims on promises to pay hugely exceed anyone's ability to pay or re-pay, there's as much of it out there as there are plastic grocery bags floating in the horse latitudes of the Pacific Ocean. The Fed can hose up bad paper all the live-long day and apparently get away with mis-reporting what it is doing, and is the country any the worse for it? ... Read more

How Goldman Quickly Found The Volcker Rule Loopholes
ZeroHedge | author | 12/23/13

The ink on the final Volcker Rule has not dried yet, and already the TBTF armies of lawyers have found all the loopholes in the rule they need to continue prop trading as if nothing has changed. Enter Goldman Sachs which as the WSJ reported, is raising a new fund, to which it will contribute 20% in capital, which will make investments in commercial real estate-backed loans including office buildings, hotels, and shopping centers. "Goldman has raised more than $1 billion for the new fund, according to people briefed on the matter. The fund aims to boost that total to $2 billion, and Goldman expects to invest "up to 20% of total equity commitments," according to September marketing documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal." Just how did Goldman get the green light to allocated up to $400 million for what is clearly a prop trading bet: "because regulators excluded many real-estate loans from the tough restrictions on investment funds, allowing Wall Street firms to continue making concentrated bets--sometimes risky ones--with their own capital." In other words, when it comes to reflating the precious real estate bubble, anything goes. ... Read more

Do We Have the NSA on the Run, or Is a Much Worse Surveillance State in the Making?
AlterNet | Zaid Jilani | 12/20/13

While it may look like the NSA and surveillance state are on the run -- it's too soon to break out the applause. The White House panel's recomendations also included the suggestion that data collected on individuals should be held by telecommunications providers or a private third party. There is a threat that this surveillance state may simply reconstitute itself into an increasingly privatized apparatus that the government can access through fees and subpoenas.

VICE's Megan Neal reports that so-called "data brokers" -- firms that spy on Americans' behavior and then sell that information to businesses looking to profit off of it -- have become a $156 billion industry. Neal notes that the Senate Commerce Committee recently published a report looking into how these data marketers spy on Americans -- the report shows how these firms label Americans under various categories depending on their financial security and other demographic categories, including "Ethnic Second-City Strugglers" and "X-tra Needy." ... Read more

TalkingStickTV | Ralph Nader | Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! (05/08/10) [1:14:16]