Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

The Dark Side Of A Record $5 Trillion In Mergers: Hundreds Of Thousands Of Imminent Layoffs
ZeroHedge | author | 12/29/15

Yesterday afternoon, Dealogic announced the for the first time in history, global announced M&A volume in 2015 would surpass $5 trillion. This record eclipses by 9% the previous all time high of $4.6 trillion set during the previous market bubble year of 2007.

The report adds that there were 10 $50 billion M&A transactions announced in 2015 worth a combined $798.9bn. That's five deals more than the previous record high activity set in 1998, 1999, and 2014. US targeted M&A ($2.5tr) accounts for half of 2015 volume and seven of the top 10 transactions.

Breaking down by total by sector, Healthcare ($723.7bn) and Technology ($713.1bn) were the leading sectors. The biggest deals announced in 2015 were Pfizer and Allergan's pending $160bn merger, followed by Anheuser-Busch InBev's $117.4bn bid for SABMiller, two of only eight $100bn+ transactions announced on record. ...
Click picture to zoom in

Many have debated what has unleashed this unprecedented merger frenzy, even if the answer is simple: record low costs of debt have been used by management teams not only as a source of funding for record buybacks (pushing the acquiror's stock as a merger "currency" to all time highs), but also to fund ever greater portions of the merger consideration. The result are M&A EV/EBITDA multiples in the high teens, 20s, and even 30s (or higher) as hundreds of billions of investment grade debt have been issued to fund "financial engineering", be it buybacks or M&A, just not prefunding future revenue growth via spending on CapEx. ... Read more

Why Are We So Blind?
I ran across an older vifdeo by TYT that criticizes Turkey for paying 700 billion dollar for the Biggest Presidential Palace ever. Personally I think any monstrosity that doesn't help the people/populas directly, is just that a monstrosity. But then I remembered our US Embassy to Iraq which cost US tax payers over 1 billion dollars and two billion dollars to run annually.... TYT | Crazy Muslim Theory From The Biggest Presidential Palace Ever (old, 11/22/14) [4:58]

NBC | Enormous, Expensive U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (04/01/06) [2:08]

CNN | Farmer uncovers 11,000-year-old mammoth (10/03/15) [0:58]

Honey, I Shrunk The Middle Class: Less Than One Third Of Households Qualify
ZeroHedge | author | 12/28/15

If it takes more than $126,000 to fund a qualitatively defined middle class lifestyle, what sense does it even make to call this "middle"?

The Pew Research Center's recent report The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground: No longer the majority and falling behind financially made a media splash, as it reported that less than 50% of adults are members of the Great American Middle Class. ... Read more

11 Dead In Texas Storms That Spawned Tornadoes
AP & HP | author | 12/27/15

Days of tumultuous weather have led to 43 deaths overall across Texas, Illinois, Missouri and the Southeast.

At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in strong tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area and caused substantial damage this weekend, while 13 people died in flooding in the Midwest.

It was the latest of a succession of powerful weather events across the country, from heavy snow in New Mexico, west Texas and the Oklahoma Panhandle to flooding in parts of the Plains and Midwest. Days of tumultuous weather have led to 43 deaths overall -- those in Texas, plus five in Illinois, eight in Missouri and 19 in the Southeast. ... Read more

A Nervous George Soros Lashes Out At Donald Trump: He Wants You To Be Afraid
ZeroHedge | author | 12/28/15

It appears The Establishment has decided to bring in the big guns to dislodge The GOP's nightmare scenario as Donald Trump goes from strength to strength in the polls. Writing in an op-ed for The Guardian, billionaire puppet-master George Soros urges Americans "to resist the siren song of the likes of Donald Trump," adding that "the terrorists and demagogues want us to be scared. We mustn’t give in." ... Read more

‘The Big Short,’ Housing Bubbles and Retold Lies
Paul Krugman | NYTimes | 12/21/15

“The Big Short” is based on the Michael Lewis book of the same name, one of the few real best-sellers to emerge from the financial crisis. I saw an early screening, and I think it does a terrific job of making Wall Street skulduggery entertaining, of exploiting the inherent black humor of how it went down.

... I could quibble over a few points: The group of people who recognized that we were experiencing the mother of all housing bubbles, and that this posed big dangers to the real economy, was bigger than the film might lead you to believe. It even included a few (cough) mainstream economists. But it is true that many influential, seemingly authoritative players, from Alan Greenspan on down, insisted not only that there was no bubble but that no bubble was even possible. ...

And the bubble whose existence they denied really was inflated largely via opaque financial schemes that in many cases amounted to outright fraud — and it is an outrage that basically nobody ended up being punished for those sins aside from innocent bystanders, namely the millions of workers who lost their jobs and the millions of families that lost their homes. ... Read more

How Close Are We to 'Dangerous' Planetary Warming?
HP | Michael E. Mann | 12/23/15

... The question immediately arises: How much time do we have until we reach the danger zone? How close are we to the 2C warming limit?

It has been widely reported that 2015 will be the first year where temperatures climbed to 1C above the pre-industrial. That might make it seem like we've got quite a ways to go until we breach the 2C limit. But the claim is wrong. We exceeded 1C warming more than a decade ago. The problem is that here, and elsewhere, an inappropriate baseline has been invoked for defining the "pre-industrial." The warming was measured relative to the average over the latter half of the 19th century (1850-1900). In other words, the base year implicitly used to define "pre-industrial" conditions is 1875, the mid-point of that interval. Yet the industrial revolution and the rise in atmospheric CO2 concentrations associated with it, began more than a century earlier. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Scores of eastern U.S. cities to shatter Christmas Eve warm weather records
WashingtonPost | Jason Samenow | 12/23/15

The warm air surging up the East Coast on Christmas Eve will prove nothing short of historic. Dozens of records will fall, some by very large margins. Temperatures at or above 70 degrees will span from Florida all the way into southern New England covering some 1,200 miles and 20 percent of the Lower 48. In many places in the East, temperatures will run some 30-40 degrees above normal. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

Most Powerful Octacopter from OFM for Professional Aerial filming [14:10]

Ultra light Autogyro / Gyrocopter [4:41]

The Big Short: "Every American Should See This Movie & Be F##king Pissed Off"
ZeroHedge | author | 12/23/15

The choice of Adam McKay as director turned out to be brilliant. The question was how do you make a movie about the housing market, mortgage backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, collateralized debt swaps, and synthetic CDOs interesting for the average person. He succeeded beyond all expectations.

Interweaving pop culture icons, music, symbols of materialism, and unforgettable characters, McKay has created a masterpiece about the greed, stupidity, hubris, and arrogance of Wall Street bankers gone wild. He captures the idiocy and complete capture of the rating agencies (S&P, Moodys). He reveals the ineptitude and dysfunction of the SEC, where the goal of these regulators was to get a high paying job with banks they were supposed to regulate. He skewers the faux financial journalists at the Wall Street Journal who didn't want to rock the boat with the truth about the greatest fraud ever committed. ... Read more

*CorbettReport | "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis, On Why The Bank Bailout Was A Mistake (12/11/15) [2:44]

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower--and middle--class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.

Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely--really unlikely--heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time. The #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading." -- Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair

The Big Short - "Screwed" (2015) (trailer) [2:04]

'The Big Short' Roundtable: "You're Rooting For These Guys. They're Like Us. They're Outsiders" (12/02/15)

Author Michael Lewis discusses The Big Short and the future of finance (older) [1:13:05]

The Big Short by Michael Lewis (audiobook unabridged) [9:28:24]

Fox Business Network Won't Put The Undercard Debate Out Of Its Misery
HP | Jason Linkins | 12/22/15

For as long as there's been a 17-person field for the GOP nomination, mankind has longed to winnow that field -- first to a number that could plausibly fit on a stage, and now, to a number that could plausibly fit in a van.

Well, there's some good news on that front. Fox Business Network has announced that its next debate, scheduled to take place in Charleston, South Carolina, on Jan. 14, will be governed by exacting new criteria that may limit the number of onstage candidates to as few as six. ... Read more

The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don't Let Them!
HP Blog | Bill Moyers | 12/23/15

In the fall of 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, as families grieved and the nation mourned, Washington swarmed with locusts of the human kind: wartime opportunists, lobbyists, lawyers, ex-members of Congress, bagmen for big donors: all of them determined to grab what they could for their corporate clients and rich donors while no one was looking.

Across the land, the faces of Americans of every stripe were stained with tears. Here in New York, we still were attending memorial services for our firemen and police. But in the nation's capital, within sight of a smoldering Pentagon that had been struck by one of the hijacked planes, the predator class was hard at work pursuing private plunder at public expense, gold-diggers in the ashes of tragedy exploiting our fear, sorrow, and loss. ... Read more

We Spend $775 Billion on Global Fossil Fuel Subsidies
HP | Pierce Nahigyan | 12/21/15

COP21 is over. Now, the world's leaders have to figure out how to both reduce their carbon emissions and make a smooth transition to renewable energies. If you live in the U.S., you're probably going to hear Republicans complain that this will be expensive, difficult and downright un-American. But wait, you say, hasn't the cost of solar power significantly declined over the past few years?

Indeed it has. How responsible of you for noticing. Deutsche Bank has forecast that solar-generated electricity will be as cheap or even cheaper than conventional electricity in 47 US states by 2016. And the U.S. solar industry is booming. In 2014, the sector grew 21.8 percent, or 10 times faster than job growth for the entire U.S. economy. ... Read more

Stock Market "Fragility" Indicator Highest Since Lehman, BofAML Warns
ZeroHEdge | author | 12/22/15

In 2016 BofAML's global equity derivatives desk expects volatility to maintain its gradual upward trend, however, to continue to be punctuated with violent but short-lived shocks owing to poor liquidity, extreme positioning and a market still heavily manipulated by (and dependent on) the central bank put. Despite below-normal levels of volatility across asset classes, we are in uncharted waters in terms of a lack of stability:

1. Markets are setting records in terms of jumping from calm to stressed & back,
2. CB liquidity is tightening, making markets more accident prone, and
3. Our indicator of cross-asset market fragility is near its highs

GregHunter | Gerald Celente-2016 Predictions, Gold, Silver War and Collapse (12/06/15) [30:40]

Seymour Hersh Bombshell: US Military Shared Intelligence With Assad In Defiance Of Obama, CIA
ZeroHEdge | author | 12/22/15

In a shocking new report, Seymour Hersh reveals what he says was a covert operation run by the Joint Chiefs of Staff who sought to undermine the Obama administration and the CIA's goal of overthrowing the Assad regime in Syria. "If the American public saw the intelligence we were producing daily, at the most sensitive level, they would go ballistic." ... Read more

What Really Went Wrong With The US Military's Syria "Train And Equip" Program
ZeroHEdge | author | 12/22/15

The program was announced to quite a bit of fanfare - and quite a bit of ridicule due to the burgeoning debate over what counts as a "moderate" fighter - back in May and the idea was to field a group of fighters 5,400 strong by the end of the calendar year. In all, the effort was set to cost US taxpayers some $500 million.

Well, things quickly went awry and before you knew it, the vast majority of the fighters who participated in the program had either defected, been killed or kidnapped, or simply wandered off into the desert never to be heard from again. In September, US Central Command Gen. Lloyd Austin told Congress that only "four or five" of the troops the US "trained and equipped" were still fighting. "Let's not kid ourselves, that's a joke. This is just a total failure," Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said.

Now, we're beginning to get a bit of color on what exactly went wrong. According to a new piece by McClatchy, disagreements between the fighters and their trainers along with lackluster pay and a kidnapping by al-Nusra just a week into the group's deployment doomed the project from the outset. Upon graduation, the first 54 fighters traveled from Turkey and Jordan back into Syria and ... promptly went on vacation. ... Read more

ABC | 3rd Democratic Presidential Debate: Sanders, Clinton, O'Malley (12/19/15) [2:32:58]

TYT | ABC News Democratic Debate: The Young Turks SUMMARY (12/19/15) [4:05]

Key Moments From the Democratic Debate
MotherJones | Hannah Levintova | 12/20/15

The third democratic presidential debate was held Saturday night at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, and it covered a wide range of issues, from terrorism and the heroin epidemic to family leave and student debt. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley ratcheted up his attacks on his rivals, while Hillary Clinton seemed more assured of her place as the presumptive Democratic nominee, training her fire on her Republican opponents. Sanders entered the debate with his campaign in damage control mode over news that at least one of his staffers had improperly accessed the Clinton campaign's voter date, but he still managed to mount a solid performance. ...

*TRNN | Dr. Kumar discusses: Islamophobia and a Challenge to Bill Maher, Part 1 (10/10/14) [20:57]

Will One of These Clowns Destroy the Paris Climate Deal?
MotherJones | Ben Adler | 12/18/15

Republicans didn't even wait for a global climate change deal to be struck in Paris to start undermining it.

Last month, congressional Republicans were loudly discouraging other nations from signing onto any agreement, arguing that the US won't keep up its end of the bargain if a Republican wins the 2016 presidential election. And they passed bills that would repeal the Clean Power Plan, the new set of EPA restrictions on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants, which is the centerpiece of the Obama administration's strategy for meeting its emissions targets under the Paris Agreement. ... Read more

*China Is Absolutely Destroying the US on Clean Energy
MotherJones | Tim McDonnel | older, 11/24/15

Opponents to President Barack Obama's climate agenda, such as GOP presidential contender Marco Rubio, like to argue that anything the United States does to curb greenhouse gas emissions will be pointless because countries like India and China aren't doing the same.

But new data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows that this argument is just hot air: For the first time ever, over the last year the majority of global investment in clean energy projects was spent in developing countries. In fact, clean energy investment in China alone outpaced that in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France combined, BNEF found. Across 55 major non-OECD countries, including India, Brazil, China, and Kenya, clean energy investment reached $126 billion in 2014, a record high and 39 percent higher than 2013 levels. ... Read more

*UN: World's Refugees And Displaced To Exceed 60 Million This Year
Reuters & WP | Stephanie Nebehay | 12/18/15

"One in every 122 humans is today someone who has been forced to flee their homes."

The number of people forcibly displaced worldwide is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million this year, mainly driven by the Syrian war and other protracted conflicts, the United Nations said on Friday. The estimated figure includes 20.2 million refugees fleeing wars and persecution, the most since 1992, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a report.

Nearly 2.5 million asylum seekers have requests pending, with Germany, Russia and the United States receiving the highest numbers of the nearly one million new claims lodged in the first half of the year, it said. ... Read more

Interview With Paul Mason, Producer of #ThisIsACoup
theintercept.com | author | 12/17/15

Recounting the moment last January when the leftist Syriza party was elected to power in Greece, Paul Mason said, "I knew it would be the most important political crisis of my life."

As economics editor for Channel 4 News in the U.K. and the author, most recently, of PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future, Mason is well-suited to examine the tumultuous recent history of Greece, which has confronted both creditors and the European Union on the austerity measures that have crippled the country's economy. ... Read more

Tomgram: Nick Turse, A Shadow War and an American Drone Unit Under Wraps
TomDispatch.com | Nick Turse | 12/17/15

Am I the only person who still remembers how Pentagon officials spoke of the major military bases already on the drawing boards as the invasion of Iraq ended in April 2003? It was taboo back then to refer to those future installations as "permanent bases." No one wanted to mouth anything that had such an ugly (yet truthful) ring to it when it came to the desires of the Bush administration to occupy and dominate the Greater Middle East for generations to come. ...

'Star Wars' Just Came Out And Already Broke A Box Office Record
HP | Sara Boboltz | 12/17/15

Ticket vendor Fandango says "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" has already broken its record for the most tickets sold for any film over its entire theatrical run. It usurped "Jurassic World" -- another nostalgia-heavy flick -- for the title.

"Star Wars" just might show us the biggest opening in film history. We'll soon find out whether it knocks "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2" off its box-office throne for the most single-day ticket sales ($91.1 million). Or usurps "Jurassic World" for the crown of the biggest opening weekend on record ($208.8 million). As of Thursday morning, the film had scored $14.1 million overseas since it opened on Wednesday.

Fandango, which sells tickets to a majority of theater screens in the U.S., did not specify the value of the tickets sold. But The Associated Press reported earlier today that the film has earned more than $100 million in presale tickets in North America. ... Read more
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (trailer) [2:36]

*Where's Bernie? Media Ignores Sanders Though He's More Popular Than Trump
TheIntercept | Zaid Jilani | 12/17/15

The headlines about Donald Trump hitting new highs in national polls are tremendously deceptive, as they only measure his support among self-declared Republican primary voters, a small subset of the nation as a whole.

For example, in the recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, Trump was the first choice of 27 percent of the Republican voters who responded. Given the weighted samples in this poll (38 percent identify as Republican or leaning Republican) this translates into Trump capturing the support of about 11 percent of American voters in total.

In the same poll, 37 percent of Democratic voters supported Democratic contender Bernie Sanders. Given the weighted samples (43 percent identify as Democrat or leaning Democrat) that translated into roughly 16 percent of all American voters. ... Read more

And the Winner Is... ISIS
magazine | Georges Ugeux | 12/17/15

Following the debate was like listening to presidential candidates who consider that the most important issue facing the United States of America is to "beat ISIS." They did not even realize that, by doing so, they were giving ISIS the golden keys to the kingdom: the ability to define our policies. ... Read more

Ryan unveils sweeping $1.8T deal on government funding, taxes
TheHill | Scot Wong | 12/15/15

The Question No One Dared Ask at the GOP Debate
MotherJones | Jeremy Schulman | 12/16/15

Four days ago, world leaders finalized one of the most significant international agreements in history. The Paris Agreement, intended to combat climate change, included nearly 200 countries and was spearheaded by the United States and some of its most important allies. Republicans bitterly oppose President Barack Obama's efforts to fight climate change, and most of the party's presidential candidates have committed themselves to policies that would undermine the historic accord.

... The CNN debates focused on security and foreign policy. You don't have to be Bernie Sanders--who maintains that global warming is the greatest threat to US national security--to understand why CNN should have asked about the climate. Both Marco Rubio and Chris Christie complained that America's ability to fight ISIS has been degraded because our allies no longer "trust" us. It's hard to imagine that breaking the promises we just made in Paris would do anything to improve that trust. ... Read more

"Most Hated Man in America" Martin Shkreli Was Just Arrested for Alleged Securities Fraud
MotherJones | Inae Oh | 12/17/15

Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old pharmaceuticals executive who landed in the news in September for price-gouging a life-saving drug by a staggering 5,000 percent, was arrested on Thursday for alleged securities fraud.

... The arrest comes just months after reports first surfaced accusing Shkreli of hiking the price of Daraprim, a parasite-killing drug used to treat patients with HIV or cancer, from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Outrage over the price hike prompted multiple headlines declaring him the "most hated man in America." ... Read more

Great Speech by Bernie Sanders
CNN | Bernie Sanders, Georgetown University - Democratic Socialism Nov 19, 2015 [1:09:26]

ThomHartmann | The Media Is Ignoring the Most Important Issue of Our Time (12/16/15) [5:53]

CRUZ VS. RUBIO... JEB VS. TRUMP...
HP | author | 12/16/15

The long-simmering feud between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) finally broke open Tuesday night at the fifth Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas, with several heated exchanges on topics of national security, the fight against terror and immigration.

It was not immediately clear whether either candidate vying for second place in the race for the GOP nomination, behind real estate mogul Donald Trump, landed enough punches to bring the other down. ... Read more
CNN | 5th Republican Presidential Debate, December 15, 2015 [2:12:16]

10 Biggest Lies and Distortions From the GOP Debate
AlterNet | Adam Johnson | 12/16/15

Another GOP debate, another steaming pile of half-truths, lies and pseudo-facts. The Republican Party seems to be almost entirely post-truth at this point, and if you call them out, you're the liberal media! It's a brilliant racket and one that led us to the current state of affairs where facts aren't just dispensable, but a political liability. ...

Matt Taibbi on Obama's Economy
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | (old 12/01/09)

In "Obama's Big Sellout", Matt Taibbi argues that President Obama has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway. Rather than keeping his progressive campaign advisers on board, Taibbi says Obama gave key economic positions in the White House to the very people who caused the economic crisis in the first place. Taibbi also points to the ties Obama's appointees have to one main in particular: Bob Rubin, the former Goldman Sachs co-chairman who served as Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton.

9 Candidates Will Take The Stage At The GOP Debate, But All Eyes Will Be On Donald Trump And Ted Cruz
HP | Julie Pace | 12/14/15

Donald Trump will be standing at center stage, but Ted Cruz will be in the spotlight at Tuesday night's Republican presidential debate.

The Texas senator is challenging Trump's lead in the kickoff Iowa caucuses, and he has the money, campaign infrastructure and conservative appeal to compete deep into the GOP primary season. Those assets now make him a target for his rivals, most notably Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. ... Read more

Here's What's Up With The East Coast's Absurdly Warm Weather
HP | Nick Visser | 12/14/15

The weather's been positively toasty across much of the east coast over the past several days, especially for a December. In New York, Sunday temperatures shattered a 30-year-old record, hitting 70 degrees Fahrenheit. And the month has been chock-full of 60-plus days.

So what's going on? Is this a climate change thing, or a welcome boon from the ongoing El Nino tropical weather event? The answer actually lies with a buzzword from 2014's equally extreme temperatures: the polar vortex. ... Read more

The Fixed Income Bloodbath Continues: Wall Street Harbinger Jefferies Reports Another Terrible Bond Trading Quarter
ZeroHedge | author | 12/15/15

Earlier today Jefferies reported another quarter in which its Fixed Income revenue could best be described as dismal: Fixed Income posted a nominal $8.4 million in revenue: a whopping 83% collapse from the already subdued $48.6 million a year ago. The biggest irony is that while other banks are clamoring to be allowed to "prop trade" again, Jefferies which has had the green light to do just that as it never got an FDIC bailout and remains the only sizable pure-play investment bank, just got crushed precisely due to its junk bond prop trading. ... Read more

Matt Taibbi: It's Too Late To Turn Off Trump
AlterNet | author | 12/14/15

At some undefined moment over the past two weeks a light bulb suddenly came on over the talking heads in our corporate media as it dawned on them that Donald Trump was saying things that were really not so nice and kinda scary. Why it took them nearly half a year to reach this epiphany has not been satisfactorily explained or even examined, but as Matt Taibbi takes note in Rolling Stone, a good bet is that it had something to do with ratings, a factironically acknowledged by Trump himself. Citing the moral quandary posed to big TV execs by continuing to profit from coverage of someone who could at any day float the idea of, say, ethnic cleansing to his adoring fanbase, Taibbi sees this as an uncharacteristic problem for CNN and all of the major media who've sold out to Trumpmania: ... Read more

The 'Independence Day: Resurgence' Trailer Is So Good Even Jeff Goldblum Can't Handle It
HP | Cole Delbyck | 12/13/15

Football fans got quite the treat this Sunday when Fox aired the first trailer for the hotly anticipated follow-up to the sci-fi classic "Independence Day." Picking up 20 years later, "Independence Day: Resurgence" follows humanity's second round with an alien race hell-bent on world domination.

After the events of the first film, Earth has shored up its defenses, using alien tech to prevent another invasion. However, an alien distress signal draws a new force of life-threatening extraterrestrials, forcing the human race to once again fight for its survival. ... Read more
The 'Independence Day: Resurgence' (trailer) [2:21]

GOP contenders prep for loud, ugly holiday season
Politico | Eli Stokols | 12/14/15

Trump will 'ruin Christmas for America,' says a Rubio consultant.

When the Republican National Committee pushed the Iowa caucuses out a month to Feb. 1, it seemed like the good people of Iowa and New Hampshire might get to enjoy the holiday season and a short respite from presidential politics. Goodbye to all that.

Donald Trump, who in a span of four days last week proposed banning Muslim immigration and executing all cop killers, has been driving the campaign news cycle for months -- and he's not about to let up now, not for the holiday season or anything else. ... Read more

*CorbettReport | "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis, On Why The Bank Bailout Was A Mistake (12/11/15) [2:44]

The real story of the crash began in bizarre feeder markets where the sun doesn't shine and the SEC doesn't dare, or bother, to tread: the bond and real estate derivative markets where geeks invent impenetrable securities to profit from the misery of lower--and middle--class Americans who can't pay their debts. The smart people who understood what was or might be happening were paralyzed by hope and fear; in any case, they weren't talking.

Michael Lewis creates a fresh, character-driven narrative brimming with indignation and dark humor, a fitting sequel to his #1 bestseller Liar's Poker. Out of a handful of unlikely--really unlikely--heroes, Lewis fashions a story as compelling and unusual as any of his earlier bestsellers, proving yet again that he is the finest and funniest chronicler of our time. The #1 New York Times bestseller: "It is the work of our greatest financial journalist, at the top of his game. And it's essential reading." -- Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair

The Big Short - "Screwed" (2015) (trailer) [2:04]

'The Big Short' Roundtable: "You're Rooting For These Guys. They're Like Us. They're Outsiders" (12/02/15)

Author Michael Lewis discusses The Big Short and the future of finance (older) [1:13:05]

The Big Short by Michael Lewis (audiobook unabridged) [9:28:24]

Futures Resume Slide After Oil Tumbles Below $35, Natgas At 13 Year Low; EM, Junk Bond Turmoil Accelerates
ZeroHedge | author | 12/14/15

ith just 72 hours to go until Yellen decides to soak up to $800 billion in liquidity, suddenly we have China and the Emerging Market fracturing, commodities plunging, and junk bonds everywhere desperate to avoid being the next to liquidate. ... Read more

Why Stocks Have So Far Ignored The Carnage In Credit: Goldman's Five Reasons
ZeroHedge | author | 12/14/15

Despite the decline in stock valuations, US equities have performed far better than credit, causing investors to ask us, "What does the credit market see that the equity market does not?" Credit markets are reacting to a real deterioration in corporate balance sheets that the equity market has yet to digest. High yield (HY) credit spreads have widened dramatically since June and are currently in territory typical of recessionary environments. In contrast, the S&P 500 is just 6% below its all time high of 2131 reached in May of this year. Here are five observations... Read more

The Neocon's Hegemonic Goal Is Driving The World To Extinction
ZeroHedge | author | 12/14/15

As in George Orwell's 1984, the IMF is dividing the world into warring factions - the West vs. the BRICS. To avoid the coming conflict that the neoconservatives' pursuit of American hegemony is bringing, the Russians have relied on fact-based, truth-based diplomacy. However, neocon Washington relies on lies and propaganda and has many more and much louder voices. Consequently, it is Washington's lies, not Russia's truth, that most of the Western sheeple believe. The Western peoples are so dimwitted that they have not yet understood that the "war on terror" is, in fact, a war to create terror that can be exported to Muslim areas of Russia and China in order to destabilize the two countries that serve as a check on Washington's unilateral, hegemonic power. ... Read more

Casino Capitalism Grips Washington
HP | Zach Carter | 12/11/15

Negotiations over a must-pass bill to avert a government shutdown have stumbled on an unlikely roadblock that has nothing to do with government spending or federal debt. Rather, it would hand heftier profits to a handful of private equity firms by amending a Depression-era bankruptcy law.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) nearly succeeded in attaching the private equity aid to a highway funding bill earlier this month, but the measure was stripped at the last minute amid opposition from liberal Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is now the lead champion of Shelby's provision, and is seeking to include some version of it in a bill to fund the federal government.

The policy rider would help two powerful financial firms -- Apollo Capital Management and TPG Capital -- exact financial concessions from other investors involved in a bitter battle over the fate of the Caesar's Palace casino empire. The New York Times' Gretchen Morgenson reported on the dispute in the fall of 2014, noting that Apollo and TPG were facing off against creditors that included a pension fund for California teachers.

Apollo and TPG own Caesar's Entertainment Corp., a casino empire that operates, among many properties, the famed Las Vegas gambling house. Caesar's has faltered under a heavy debt burden incurred by the complex deal that allowed Apollo and TPG to take over the company. Those two owners now want to shed that debt without formally declaring bankruptcy, since a bankruptcy court would require them to take heavy losses. ... Read more

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Pens Scathing Column Comparing Trump To ISIS
HP | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar | 12/10/15

In the wake of Donald Trump's Islamophobic cries and condemnations, NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar penned a column Wednesday comparing the presidential candidate to ISIS, the self-described Islamic State sullying the international landscape with their widespread violence and terrorism.

Just three days after Trump called for Muslims to be barred from "entering the United States," Abdul-Jabbar argued that the culture of fear that Trump has created with his reliance on intimidation, lies and downright discrimination is analogous to the literal, physical terrorism that ISIS has perpetuated of late. Citing Webster Dictionary's definition of terrorism -- "the use of violent acts to frighten the people in an area as a way of trying to achieve a political goal; the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion" -- Abdul-Jabbar put forth a theory: "If violence can be an abstraction -- and it can; that's what a threat is -- the Trump campaign meets this definition." ... Read more

Shit Is About to Get Real in California, El Niño Report Predicts
MotherJones | Julia Lurie | 12/11/15

After four years of drought, Californians are bracing for another potentially destructive weather event: El Niño. Earlier this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, released a disaster plan including what to expect from the upcoming rainy season. Here are the key takeaways:

Carl Icahn Warns "Meltdown In High Yield Is Just Beginning"
ZeroHEdge | author | 12/11/15

Amid the biggest weekly collapse in high-yield bonds since March 2009, Carl Icahn gently reminds investors that he saw this coming... and that it's only just getting started!

If you haven't seen 'Danger Ahead' watch it on http://www.carlicahn.com . Unfortunately I believe the meltdown in High Yield is just beginning ... Read more

Crushing The Auto-Makers' Dreams (In 2 Depressing Charts)
ZeroHedge | author | 12/11/15

Earlier this morning we got another glimpse of reality behind the smoke-and-mirrors, mainstream-media-sponsored last-pillar-standing lovefest that is US auto sales when the business sales data showed a disheartening tumble in sales in October. So where are all the sales going that automakers report? The answer is simple... (and painful). ... Read more

First Time in 40 Years: Middle Class No Longer Majority
HP | Lydia O'Connor | date

The Middle Class Is No Longer America's Economic Majority

There are now more low-income and high-income Americans combined than there are people in the middle class, a study released Wednesday found.

According to a Pew Research Center report, there were 120.8 million adults living in middle-income households and 121.3 million in lower- and upper-income households combined in early 2015, marking the first time in the center's four decades of tracking this data that the size of the latter groups has transcended that of the first.

Since 1971, the percentage of adults living in the low income bracket has increased from 25 percent to 29 percent, and the percentage of adults living in the highest income bracket has shot up from 14 percent to 21 percent. The middle class, meanwhile, has shrunk from 61 percent to about 50. ... Read more

Meet The Mega-Donors Funding Donald Trump's Islamophobic Allies
HP | Paul Blumenthal | 12/10/15

... n his announcement, Trump pointed to a Center for Security Policy poll finding that 25 percent of Muslims "agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad" and 51 percent "agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Sharia." The findings of this opt-in online poll, however, had already been widely discredited. ...

... By citing the bogus data from Gaffney's group, Trump helped shine a light on how the broader Islamophobic network works. Bogus statistics and trumped-up conspiracy theories are touted by mainstream figures to increase alarm and fear about Muslims. ... Read more

Charles Gave: "I Cannot Remember A Time When Less Thinking Has Ever Been Done In The Financial Markets"
ZeroHedge | author | 12/10/15

"What I find most hilarious is that some serious commentators have been pontificating at considerable length about what the market's participants think. These days, some 70% of market orders are generated by computers, and many of the rest by indexers. And computers do not think... I cannot remember a time when less thinking has ever been done in the financial markets, which is why I find today's financial markets infinitely boring." ... Read more

Onshore Yuan Has Been In Freefall Since The IMF Added China To The SDR Basket
ZeroHedge | author | 12/10/15

For the 5th day in a row, Onshore Yuan has tumbled against the USDollar. Absent the violent devaluation in August, this is the largest drop since March 2014, leaving the Chinese currency at its weakest level against the USD since August 2011. It appears that after showing some signs of 'stability' to appease The IMF's political decision, and following the weak trade data this week, China has decided to escalate the currency wars, perhaps in anticipation of (or in an attempt to stall) any market turbulence when The Fed hikes rates next week and withdraws up to $800bn in liquidity from global markets. ... Read more
Click picture to zoom in

TYT | Rich Asshole Tries To Apologize And Makes Things Much Worse (older) [7:55]

*Stephen Colbert | A Tahini Bit Of Perspective On Politics (12/10/15) [6:44]

Trump's Incendiary Comments Throw GOP Into A Tailspin
AP & HP | Steve Peoples | 12/09/15

Donald Trump's plan to ban Muslims from entering the United States is shoving the Republican Party to the edge of chaos, abruptly pitting GOP leaders against their own presidential front-runner and jeopardizing the party's longtime drive to attract minorities.

Unbowed, Trump fired a searing warning Tuesday via Twitter to fellow Republicans carping about his proposal. A majority of his supporters, he tweeted, "would vote for me if I departed the GOP & ran as an independent." ... Read more

San Bernardino Shooters Radicalized At Least 2 Years Ago, FBI Director Says
AP & HP | author | 12/09/15

FBI Director James Comey says the two San Bernardino shooters were radicalized at least two years ago and had discussed jihad and martyrdom as early as 2013. Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were radicalized even before they met online.

Comey also said the couple was inspired by foreign terror organizations and described them as "homegrown violent extremists." ... Read more

No, Mental Illness Is Not the Main Cause of Mass Shootings in America
MotherJones | Mark Follman | 10/27/15

A Washington Post-ABC News poll on gun violence published Monday included a stark finding: "By a more than 2-to-1 margin, more people say mass shootings reflect problems identifying and treating people with mental health problems rather than inadequate gun control laws." Sixty-three percent of respondents blamed a deficient mental health care system as the prime reason for America's incessant gun massacres, while 23 percent pointed to weak gun regulations.

... What's most troubling about these results and the question that prompted them is that they perpetuate a dangerous stigmatization. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not violent. I wrote about this in my recent Mother Jones cover story on threat assessment, a growing strategy for stopping mass shooters that relies on collaboration between mental health and law enforcement experts: ... Read more

Open Carry Gun Laws Make It Harder to Protect the Public, Police Chiefs Say
MotherJones | Mark Follman | 11/04/15

It wasn't a matter of if, but when it would happen. On Saturday in Colorado Springs, a man exercising his right under state law to openly carry a rifle in the streets went on a rampage, killing three people before police took him out in a hail of bullets. Just before the attack, an alarmed neighbor saw the man walking around armed and dialed 911. The dispatcher explained to her that it was legal to carry a gun in public. Her 911 call wasn't deemed urgent -- the police did not process it as "the highest priority call for service," a Colorado Springs PD official confirmed to Mother Jones yesterday. ... Read more

A Note On Trump: We Are No Longer Entertained
HP | author | 12/08/15

Earlier today, the candidate currently leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination called for a "total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States." That was, of course, Donald Trump. As Jeffrey Goldberg just tweeted, "Donald Trump is now an actual threat to national security. He's providing jihadists ammunition for their campaign to demonize the US." On the heels of Trump's proposed change for America, we will be changing how we cover him at The Huffington Post. ... Read more

Person of the Year? Time readers poll picks Bernie Sanders (12/07/15) [6:57]

Look Who's Buying American Democracy
HP | Robert Reich | 12/07/15

According to an investigation by the New York Times, half of all the money contributed so far to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates -- $176 million -- has come from just 158 families, along with the companies they own or control.

Who are these people? They're almost entirely white, rich, older and male -- even though America is becoming increasingly black and brown, young, female, and with declining household incomes. According to the report, most of these big contributors live in exclusive neighborhoods where they have private security guards instead of public police officers, private health facilities rather than public parks and pools. ... Read more
Robert Reich explains: A handful of super-wealthy Americans (158) are/is in the process of buying our government. (12/07/15) [2:50]

Nevada GOPer: 5-year-old holding gun in Christmas photo learned 'total trigger control' from NRA cartoon
RawStory | David Edwards | 12/07/14

Nevada state assemblywoman Michele Fiore (R) on Monday defended allowing her 5-year-old grandson to hold a handgun in the family Christmas photo, arguing that the boy had learned "total trigger control" from a National Rifle Association (NRA) cartoon.

Earlier this month, Fiore raised eyebrows when she posted her family's annual Christmas photo to Facebook showing each member dressed in a red shirt and holding a gun. At the center of the photo, her 5-year-old grandson, Jake, can be seen with a small pistol in his hand. ... Read more

TYT | A Very Locked And Loaded Christmas (12/07/15) [5:57]

Arnold Schwarzenegger Doesn't Care If You Agree With Him On Climate Change
HP | Nick Visser | 12/08/15

Arnold Schwarzenegger is using his muscle to tackle the growing threat of climate change, and he doesn't "give a damn" whether you agree with him.

The World's Most Influential Voices of 2015
HP | Nathan Gardels | 12/07/15

The 2015 Global Thought Leaders Index, a "collective intelligence" analysis that maps the global conversation on the Internet and ranks its most influential voices, has just been released by The WorldPost and the Zurich-based Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

For the first time, the annual index measures not only the globally-dominant English language infosphere, but also the other main language infospheres of Spanish and Chinese, as well as German. Altogether we rank the nearly 400 people who are most often mentioned and discussed online, ranging in the global index from Pope Francis, who ranks #1, to Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk at #4, Edward Snowden at #5 and cellist Yo-Yo Ma at #9. Other top influencers of note include former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis at #78, Chinese novelist Mo Yan at #83, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez at #99 and Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat at #136. ... Read more
Introducing The WorldPost -- Where the World Meets (2015) [3:20]

Defense Contractors Cite "Benefits" of Escalating Conflicts in the Middle East
The Intercept | Lee Fang | 12/04/15

Major defense contractors Raytheon, Oshkosh, and Lockheed Martin assured investors at a Credit Suisse conference in West Palm Beach this week that they stand to gain from the escalating conflicts in the Middle East.

Lockheed Martin Executive Vice President Bruce Tanner told the conference his company will see "indirect benefits" from the war in Syria, citing the Turkish military's recent decision to shoot down a Russian warplane. The incident, Tanner said, heightens the risk for U.S. military operations in the region, providing "an intangible lift because of the dynamics of that environment and our products in theater." He also stressed that the Russian intervention would highlight the need for Lockheed Martin-made F-22s and the new F-35 jets. ... Read more

*RT | Dead End: The Calais Crisis (12/06/15) [26:24]

Right-wing trolls are going ballistic: Why Rush Limbaugh & co. are freaking out about hate crimes
Salon | Gary Legum | 12/07/15

Conservative media spent the last few days roasting Attorney General Loretta Lynch for comments she made at a dinner Thursday night with the Muslim Advocates, a legal organization that advocates for the rights of Muslim Americans nationwide. Because anytime you can overreact to the nation's top law enforcement officer promising to prosecute hate crimes against a tiny minority of your countrymen, you have to do it.

Lynch's appearance had been scheduled months ago, but it took on a particular urgency in the wake of both the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13 and the massacre in San Bernardino carried out by a radicalized Muslim husband-and-wife team last Wednesday. Speaking to a notable spike in anti-Muslim rhetoric after the recent events, Lynch said, ... Read more

U.S. First Shields Its Torturers and War Criminals From Prosecution, Now Officially Honors Them
TheIntercept | Glenn Greenwald | 12/04/15

... President Obama made the decision in early 2009 to block the Justice Department from criminally investigating and prosecuting Cheney and his fellow torturers, as well as to protect them from foreign investigations and even civil liability sought by torture victims. Obama did that notwithstanding a campaign decree that even top Bush officials are subject to the rule of law and, more importantly, notwithstanding a treaty signed in 1984 by Ronald Reagan requiring that all signatory states criminally prosecute their own torturers. Obama's immunizing Bush-era torturers converted torture from a global taboo and decades-old crime into a reasonable, debatable policy question, which is why so many GOP candidates are now openly suggesting its use. ... Read more

W has taught us nothing: ISIS, the Iraq War and America's looming quagmire
Salon & TomDospatch | Andrew J. Bacevich | 12/04/15

Assume that the hawks get their way -- that the United States does whatever it takes militarily to confront and destroy ISIS. Then what? Answering that question requires taking seriously the outcomes of other recent U.S. interventions in the Greater Middle East. In 1991, when the first President Bush ejected Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait, Americans rejoiced, believing that they had won a decisive victory. A decade later, the younger Bush seemingly outdid his father by toppling the Taliban in Afghanistan and then making short work of Saddam himself -- a liberation twofer achieved in less time than it takes Americans to choose a president. After the passage of another decade, Barack Obama got into the liberation act, overthrowing the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in what appeared to be a tidy air intervention with a clean outcome. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton memorably put it, "We came, we saw, he died." End of story. ... Read more

Why This Sucker Is Going Down... Again
ZeroHedge | author | 12/04/15

So how do you grow household wealth by $18 trillion in the face of these dismal real world trends? In a word, with a printing press. But what happened today is that Draghi showed he is out of tricks and Yellen confessed she is out of excuses. Yes, this sucker is going down. And this time all the misguided economics professors turned central bankers in the world will be powerless to reverse the plunge. ... Read more

San Bernardino Suspects Identified As Syed Farook And Tashfeen Malik
HP | Willa Frej | 12/02/15

The suspects in Wednesday?s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, have been identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27. Both were killed in a shootout with police, who tracked them to a home in nearby Redlands. The couple fled the shooting, where 14 people were killed at a holiday party for county employees, in a black SUV before law enforcement intercepted them hours later. Farook was an environmental specialist who had worked for the county health department ... Read more

Meet Syed Farook And Tashfeen Malik, The Husband And Wife San Bernardino Shooters
ZeroHedge | author | 12/03/15

"Was there a link to terror?"

... Farook, whose family was originally from Pakistan, was born in America and was employed as an environmental health specialist for San Bernardino County. He did what health specialists do: inspect restaurants and other facilities for health violations.

"Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia earlier this year and returned with a wife," AP reports, citing co-worker Patrick Baccari, who said Farook "was gone for about a month in the spring, and when he returned word got around [he'd] had been married." His new wife was described as "a pharmacist."

Although we would urge caution when it comes to drawing conclusions around the sectarian divide, we'd be remiss if we didn't note that ISIS, al-Qaeda, and many of the other groups the public generally identifies with extremism, are Sunni. Saudi Arabia (where Farook allegedly found his wife) promotes puritanical Wahhabism.

In the wake of the tragedy, Muzammil Siddiqi, religious director of The Islamic Society of Orange County, reminded Americans that Islam is not synonymous with terror: "Please do not implicate Islam or Muslims. Our faith is against this kind of behaviour." ...

... Of course at the end of the day, two people opening fire with assault rifles on a holiday party seems pretty "terrifying" to us regardless of what inspired the shooters, but remember, crises like these are only "useful" in today's world if they serve someone's geopolitical ends so don't be surprised if the mainstream media soon turns up the San Bernardino equivalent of the forged Syrian passport found in Paris three weeks ago. Read more

There Have Been More Mass Shootings This Year Than There Have Been Days
HP| Nick Wing | 12/02/15

Americans were exposed to the terror of mass gun violence again on Wednesday, this time at a social services center in San Bernardino, California. The initial reports revealed a distressingly familiar pattern: A heavily armed active shooter or shooters, at least 14 people dead and more injured, harrowing images of law enforcement and first responders rushing to get the area under control, and stunned people -- some of them wounded and bleeding -- streaming out of the facility.

It seems like we've seen this time and time again. But mass shootings occur even more frequently than many people realize, because most of them don't make the national news. Over on Reddit, the Guns Are Cool community has compiled a list of every U.S. mass shooting this year. According to their count, Wednesday's burst of violence was the 355th this year. ... Read more

Spot The Factory Orders Recession
ZeroHedge | author | 12/03/15

When it comes to the US manufacturing economy, things are now abundantly clear: it is in a recession, the only question is how acute this recession will be, and how long it will last. According to the latest factory orders data released moments ago by the Dept of Commerce, while the headline number rose a modest 1.5%, above the 1.4% expected, the reality is that the baseline number was so low a sequential rebound was inevitable. The real punchline is the Y/Y change, which is shown on the chart below: it shows that factory orders have now been negative over the prior year for a whopping 12 consecutive months, which is just 3 shy of the 15 months of Y/Y declines recorded during the great recession. .. Read more

This Is The Beginning Of The End Of The Fossil Fuel Industry
HP | Alexander C. Kaufman | 12/02/15

Oil and gas giants such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil and BP continue to reap stupendous profits from selling products that contribute to the high levels of carbon emissions causing climate change. Like the tobacco industry before it, these companies have poured money into lobbying and misinformation campaigns to escape restrictive regulations.

But, as world leaders gather in Paris on Nov. 30 for the month-long COP21 climate talks, the fossil fuel industry's future is in jeopardy. There may be an abundant supply of oil, gas and coal and -- at least for now -- a strong demand for these products, but there is a growing urgency among business leaders and policymakers to stem usage before the effects of global warming worsen dramatically. ... Read more

Sanders Beats All Top Republicans In Latest Poll
HP |Janie Velencia | 12/02/15

In a hypothetical matchup against the current GOP front-runner, business mogul Donald Trump, Sanders takes 49 percent of the vote to Trump's 41 percent. Against Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sanders leads 44 percent to 43 percent. He also beats Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) by 10 percentage points and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson by 6 points.

Fifty-nine percent of voters also say Sanders is honest and trustworthy -- placing him well above former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, and above all top Republican candidates tested in the poll. ... Read more

Here's All The Nonsense 2016 Republicans Have Spouted About Climate Change
HP | Nick Visser | date

Scientists are in near universal agreement that the climate is changing, that it's largely humanity's fault and there is "no plan B" should we fail to act. But you'd never know that if you just listened to some of the Republican presidential contenders.

Here are some of the most outrageous things the 10 leading candidates for the GOP nomination have said about climate change. Many of these statements are patently false: A single volcano does not emit more greenhouse gases than all of humanity; weather is not the same thing as the climate; and a single nation like America -- the second-largest carbon emitter on the planet -- can certainly make a difference. ...

Headlines for Today

SMOG BLANKETS BEIJING...
Do-Or-Die Time For Climate Change Efforts... 'Never Have The Stakes Been So High'... Desperate Hope To Stave Off Catastrophic Climate Change... Pope Francis: 'We Are At The Limits Of Suicide'... The Countries That Will Suffer The Most If Talks Fail...

To Global Heads of State: 'We Are at a Critical Juncture For People and Our Planet'
HP | Richard Branson | 12/01/15

Former Military Chief: Iraq War Was A 'Failure' That Helped Create ISIS
HP | Matt Ferner | 11/30/15

Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn, former U.S. special forces commander in Iraq and Afghanistan who was the country's highest ranking military intelligence official, says that the George W. Bush administration's Iraq war was a tremendous blunder that helped to create the self-proclaimed Islamic State, or ISIS.

"It was a huge error," Flynn said about the Iraq war in a detailed interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel published Sunday. "As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him," Flynn went on to say. "The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state. The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that decision."

When told by Der Spiegel reporters Matthias Gebauer and Holger Stark that the Islamic State would not "be where it is now without the fall of Baghdad," Flynn, without reservations, said: "Yes, absolutely." ... Read more

Atlanta Fed Slashes Q4 GDP Forecast From 2.3% To Just 1.4% In Under One Week
ZeroHedge | author | 12/01/15

Moments ago the GDPNow website announced that the latest model forecast for real GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2015 has now tumbled to a paltry 1.4 percent on December 1, down from 1.8 percent on November 25. "The decline occurred this morning after the Manufacturing ISM Report On Business from the Institute of Supply Management and the construction spending release from the U.S. Census Bureau." ... Read more

"Time To Hike Rates?" The Last 2 Times ISM Manufacturing Was Here, The Fed Unleashed QE1 & QE3
ZeroHedge | author | 12/01/15

While it is hoped that the economy can continue to expand on the back of the "service" sector alone, history suggests that "manufacturing" continues to play a much more important dynamic that it is given credit for... and that is a major problem as ISM Manufacturing just fell below 50 for the first time since Nov 2012, crashing to 48.6 - the weakest since June 2009. Across the components, new orders collapsed (worst since Aug 2012), and prices paid crashed. Seems like a perfect time to raise rates!! ... Read more

ThomHartmann | TTIP & Big Oil... Secret Deal Exposed (12/01/15) [6:39]