Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Scarborough: Trump KKK Talk 'Disqualifying'
thehill.com | author | 02/29/16

The GOP Is On The Verge Of A Meltdown": Senior Republicans Threaten To Vote For Hillary
ZeroHedge | author | 02/29/16

With Donald Trump set for a yuuge victory in tomorrow's Super Tuesday slugfest - oddsmakers see 80% chance of Trump being the nominee - tensions are mounting dramatically within the Republican establishment. As The FT reports, many mainstream Republicans believe Mr Trump would struggle to beat Hillary Clinton and are urgently rallying around their man Rubio with some senior Republicans saying privately that they might consider voting for Mrs Clinton if Mr Trump were to end up as their party nominee as one conservative commentator exclaimed "we are on the verge of a real meltdown in the Republican party." ... Read more

Journeyman Pictures | Inside Yemen's Secret Sectarian Power Struggle (2014?) [45:12]

*Aljazeera | Inside Story - Will elections change the course of Iranian politics? (02/27/16) [24:30]

"The Liquidity Just Dries Up In A Stressed Market" - How HFT Killed FX Trading
ZeroHedge | author | 02/29/16

Collin Crownover, head of currency management at State Street Global Advisors Inc., which oversees about $2.4 trillion, who during a panel presentation said that "we are concerned. During volatile periods, market participants are backing away until conditions settle down, making it harder to complete large orders.""A lot of the electronification of the market, which by and large is a good thing, has led to kill switches on a lot of that algorithmic-provided liquidity," Crownover said. "The liquidity just dries up in a stressed market." ... Read more

"We Are In A Recession": Dallas Fed Respondents Admit The U.S. Economy Is In Freefall
ZeroHedge | author | 02/29/16

For those interested in hearing some horror stories from ground zero of America's recession, look no further than Texas, where the best recap of sentiment on the ground comes straight from the Dallas Fed respondents, who have not been this depressed since the Global Financial Crisis. "We are in a recession. Oil prices are a symptom, not the cause." ... Read more

*CNN Republican Presidential Debate (02/25/16) [1:23:41]

*TYT | CNN / Telemundo Republican Debate: The Young Turks Summary (02/25/16) [7:54]

"Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke told [his] radio audience Thursday to vote for and volunteer for fellow hatemonger Donald Trump, adding they'll meet people on campaign with 'same kind of mindset,'" the front page reads. ... Read more

TV Pundits Praise Hillary Clinton On Air, Fail to Disclose Financial Ties to Her Campaign
theintercept.com | Lee Fang | 02/25/16

Tune into television coverage of the presidential campaign and undoubtedly you will hear from various pundits described as "former campaign strategists" and "political contributors" explaining the latest developments of the race. But in many cases, these pundits -- though introduced as neutral experts on campaigns or party politics -- in fact have financial ties to the candidates they praise on the air. ... Read more
*DN | Lee Fang: TV Pundits Praise Hillary Clinton On Air, Fail to Disclose Financial Ties to Her Campaign (02/26/16) [3:43]

VIX Capitulation?
ZeroHedge | author | 02/26/16

VIX mini 'flash-crashed' this morning to test its 200-day-moving-average to the lowest level since Dec 31st 2015. For now, it appears to have marked a low... VIX slammed... Read more

"We Are Heading Into Anarchy": Official Says EU Will "Completely Break Down In 10 Days"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/26/16

Don't look now, but Europe's migration commissioner has just slapped an expiration data on the EU: it's 10 days from now. If no concrete progress is made by the time EU officials convene a summit with Turkey early next month, Brussels says "the whole system will completely break down." ... Read more

China Stocks Plummet Over 6 Percent To Worst Loss In A Month
Reuters & HP | author | 02/25/16

Traders and analysts cited a confluence of reasons for the slide, including profit-taking, fears of tighter liquidity and worries about the cooling economy.

The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 6.1 percent, to 2,918.75 points, while the Shanghai Composite Index lost 6.4 percent to 2,741.25. ... Read more

*The God's Eye View by Barry Eisler

Knowledge is power...and they know everything.

NSA director Theodore Anders has a simple goal: collect every phone call, email, and keystroke tapped on the Internet. He knows unlimited surveillance is the only way to keep America safe.

Evelyn Gallagher doesn't care much about any of that. She just wants to keep her head down and manage the NSA's camera network and facial recognition program so she can afford private school for her deaf son, Dash.

But when Evelyn discovers the existence of an NSA program code-named God's Eye, and connects it with the mysterious deaths of a string of journalists and whistle-blowers, her doubts put her and Dash in the crosshairs of a pair of government assassins: Delgado, a sadistic bomb maker and hacker; and Manus, a damaged giant of a man who until now has cared for nothing beyond protecting the director.

Within an elaborate game of political blackmail, terrorist provocations, and White House scheming, a global war is being fought--a war between those desperate to keep the state's darkest secrets and those intent on revealing them. A war that Evelyn will need all her espionage training and savvy to survive. A war in which the director has the ultimate informational advantage: The God's Eye View

Citi: "We Have A Problem"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/25/16

In his latest must read presentation, Citigroup's Matt King continues to expose and mock the increasing helplessness and cluelessness of central bankers, something this website has done since 2009 knowing full well how it all ends ...

... Overnight, he put it all together in a simple and elegant way that only Matt King can do in a presentation titled ominously "Don't look down: You might find too many negatives." ... Interesting Read Read more

In Biggest Victory For Saudi Arabia, North Dakota's Largest Oil Producer Suspends All Fracking
ZeroHedge | author | 02/25/16

Yesterday, during his speech at CERAWeek in Houston, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi made it explicitly clear that Saudi Arabia would not cut production, instead saying that it is high-cost producers that would need to either "lower costs, borrow cash or liquidate" adding that there is "no need for cuts as marginal barrel will get out of the market." He was right.

Today his wish is slowly coming true after news that North Dakota's largest producer, Whiting Petroleum, would suspend all fracking, and that Continental Resources has effectively done the same after reporting that it no longer has any fracking crews working in the Bakken shale. ... Read more

When Currency Pegs Break, Global Dominoes Fall
ZeroHedge | author | 02/25/16

When a currency peg breaks, it unleashes shock waves of uncertainty and repricing that hit the global financial system like a tsunami. The U.S. dollar has risen by more than 35% against other major trading currencies since mid-2014 ... Read more
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Gordon Long discuss this and other critically important aspects of currency pegs in THE U.S. DOLLAR. (02/21/16) [28:36]

CNN South Carolina Democratic Presidential Town Hall (full) ( 02/2316) [1:59:00]

TYT | CNN Democratic Town Hall: The Young Turks Summary (02/23/16) [6:28]

Nevada's GOP Caucus Appears To Be Completely FUBAR
HP | Igor Bobic | 02/23/16

The situation resembles what top political analysts would deem a "crap storm."

Once doors opened to Republican voters at caucus sites across Nevada Tuesday evening, it wasn't long before reports of chaos amid high turnout began trickling in. GOP officials had some concerns in the days leading up to the caucuses about whether Nevada was sufficiently prepared for the big event. The state doesn't have a lot of experience running caucuses, since it only began administering the system in 2008. Nevada also had problems tallying votes during the GOP's 2012 caucus -- in that instance, it took three days to determine the final results. ... Read more

Ted Cruz TV Ad: Nevada Land (current) [0:30]

Brazil Cut To Junk By All Three Ratings Agencies After Moody's Joins The Fray
ZeroHedge | author | 02/24/16

Back in December we warned that Brazil faced a "disastrous downgrade debacle" that would eventually see the beleaguered South American nation cut to junk by all three major ratings agencies. Moments ago, that prediction was borne out. ... Read more

*The Evil Empire Has The World In An Economic "Death Grip"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/23/16

In my archives there is a column or two that introduces the reader to John Perkins' important book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (EHM).

An EHM is an operative who sells the leadership of a developing country on an economic plan or massive development project. The Hit Man convinces a country's government that borrowing large sums of money from US financial institutions in order to finance the project will raise the country's living standards. The borrower is assured that the project will increase Gross Domestic Product and tax revenues and that these increases will allow the loan to be repaid (Yea, Right) ... Read more

The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

Shocking Bestseller: The original version of this astonishing tell-all book spent 73 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, has sold more than 1.25 million copies, and has been translated into 32 languages.

New Revelations: Featuring 15 explosive new chapters, this expanded edition of Perkins's classic bestseller brings the story of economic hit men (EHMs) up to date and, chillingly, home to the US. Over 40 percent of the book is new, including chapters identifying today's EHMs and a detailed chronology extensively documenting EHM activity since the first edition was published in 2004.

Former economic hit man John Perkins shares new details about the ways he and others cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Then he reveals how the deadly EHM cancer he helped create has spread far more widely and deeply than ever in the US and everywhere else--to become the dominant system of business, government, and society today. Finally, he gives an insider view of what we each can do to change it.

Economic hit men are the shock troops of what Perkins calls the corporatocracy, a vast network of corporations, banks, colluding governments, and the rich and powerful people tied to them. If the EHMs can't maintain the corrupt status quo through nonviolent coercion, the jackal assassins swoop in. The heart of this book is a completely new section, over 100 pages long, that exposes the fact that all the EHM and jackal tools -- false economics, false promises, threats, bribes, extortion, debt, deception, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power -- are used around the world today exponentially more than during the era Perkins exposed over a decade ago.

The material in this new section ranges from the Seychelles, Honduras, Ecuador, and Libya to Turkey, Western Europe, Vietnam, China, and, in perhaps the most unexpected and sinister development, the United States, where the new EHMs -- bankers, lobbyists, corporate executives, and others -- "con governments and the public into submitting to policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer."

But as dark as the story gets, this reformed EHM also provides hope. Perkins offers a detailed list of specific actions each of us can take to transform what he calls a failing Death Economy into a Life Economy that provides sustainable abundance for all.

The GOP Has a Mad Max Problem
MotherJones | David Corn | 02/23/16

Pundits, political operatives, and other observers (perhaps including your aunt) have droned on about which GOP candidate inhabits which lane. There's been talk of a tea party lane, an Establishment lane, a social conservative lane, a populist lane, and so on. Now that the first three contests of the season have occurred, it's becoming clear that there are, at most, three lanes, and, in what might be bad news for Republicans, those lanes might not merge anytime soon. In fact, there may be concrete barriers between each of them, and that increases the odds of a big, chaotic crash at the point where these lanes must converge. ... Read more

Cruz Will Use ICE To Deport All 12 Million Illegal Immigrants (02/22/16) [2:52]

Hillary Clinton Is Backed By Major Republican Donors
ZeroHedge | author | 02/23/16

Hillary Clinton is a good investment for a billionaire - even for the 70% of them who are Republicans. And, based on those 2015 donation-figures, it seems that they would prefer a President Hillary Clinton, over a President Donald Trump. In such an instance, Hillary Clinton would probably draw a larger campaign-chest (especially considering super-pacs) than any candidate for any political office in U.S. (or global) history. Hillary Clinton would almost certainly be the most-heavily-marketed political product in history, if she becomes nominated and ends up running against Trump. ... Read more

Standard Chartered Posts Horrendous Results As Impairments Soar 87%
ZeroHedge | author | 02/23/16

EM-focused Standard Chartered posted its first annual net loss in more than 25 years on Tuesday as impairments and NPLs skyrocketed in the face of a worsening outlook for the emerging world. Although the bank's top brass tried to strike an upbeat tone in the report, no one is particularly optimistic about the future. ... Read more, or Read more in Wikipedia

Study Reveals Stunning Acceleration of Sea Level Rise
climatecentral.org | John Upton | 02/22/16

The oceans have heaved up and down as world temperatures have waxed and waned, but as new research tracking the past 2,800 years shows, never during that time did the seas rise as sharply or as suddenly as has been the case during the last century. The new study, the culmination of a decade of work by three teams of farflung scientists, has charted what they called an "acceleration" in sea level rise that's triggering and worsening flooding in coastlines around the world. ... Read more
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TYT | Hillary Clinton Wins The Nevada Democratic Caucus (02/20/16) [4:48]

TYT | Donald Trump WINS The South Carolina Republican Primary (02/20/16) [4:57]

The scariest thing about Trump's primary dominance: The GOP still doesn't understand the monster it created
Salon |Heather Digby Parton | 02/22/16

The big showdown in South Carolina is over and it came down pretty much as everyone expected. Donald Trump came in first with 32.5 percent, Rubio and Cruz nearly tied for second with Rubio ever so lightly edging Cruz with 22.5 percent to Cruz's 22.3. The bottom three, Bush, Kasich and Carson all landed with 7-ish points each. The big news was that Jeb Bush dropped out of the race within minutes of the results being called.

So, what does this all mean? Well, nothing new really. Trump declared victory with an odd admission of what really turns him on about running for president, when he said, "It's tough, it's nasty, it's mean, it's vicious.... it's beautiful. When you win, it's beautiful.” He is very, very good at being mean, nasty and vicious. Nobody can say that isn't working for him. ... Read more

Were We Lied Into War?
ZeroHedge | author | 02/22/16

Donald Trump threw down the gauntlet at the last GOP presidential debate with his declaration that the Bush administration lied us into war, and the reverberations are still roiling the political waters on both the right and the left. If his candidacy does nothing else, it will have performed a great service to the nation by re-litigating this vitally important issue and drawing attention to the outrageous lack of accountability by the elites who cheered as we turned the Middle East into a cauldron of death and destruction. Trump has ripped the bandage off the gaping and still suppurating wound of that ill-begotten war, and the howls of rage and pain are being heard on both sides of the political spectrum. ... Read more

These Are The Victims Of The Kalamazoo Shooting
HP | Lydia O'Connor | 02/21/16

Kalamazoo Public Safety and Michigan State Police have confirmed the identities of the six people killed in an hourslong shooting rampage Saturday night in southwest Michigan.

The victims include four women killed in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel restaurant and a man and his teenage son, who were killed at a Seelye Automotive Kia dealership. Two other victims, including a 14-year-old girl, were also injured and remain in critical condition. ... Read more

A Panicked China Orders Media To Stick To "Positive Reporting" Or Risk "The Stability Of The Country"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/22/16

If China's recent record surge in loan creation, and its revision of a key PBOC capital outflow "data" wasn't sufficient proof that the world's second largest economy is on the verge of panic, then the explicit propaganda directive issued to the the local press by China's president Xi Jinping late on Friday should certainly seal it.

As SCMP reports, according to a commentary published by a leading mouthpiece online "having public opinions that are different from the official ones will shake the foundation of the rule of the Communist party and the country." ... Read more

TYT | MSNBC Nevada Democratic Town Hall: The Young Turks Summary (02/18/16) [9:11]

TYT | MSNBC Donald Trump Town Hall, South Carolina (02/17/16) [12:54]

JPMorgan Head Quant Explains Why Most Hedge Funds Have Been Slammed In 2016
ZeroHedge | author | 02/19/16

As we showed one week ago, it has been a deplorable year not only for the broader market, but for some of the marquee "hedge" fund names, who once again have shown they "hedge" only in name. We followed up with a report on the world's largest hedge fund, Bridgewater, whose Pure Alpha strategy we further showed has gotten slammed in the first two weeks of February, losing a whopping 10% in half a month.

Why the hedge fund rout? JPM's head quant, Marko Kolanovic, who recently called the violent rotation out of momentum stocks just before it hit several weeks ago, and the bursting of the second tech bubble, is here to explain. ... Read more
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At Least Republicans Will Be Consistent If They Block Obama's Supreme Court Pick
HP | Jennifer Bendery | 02/18/16

They're preventing Obama's other judicial nominees from getting confirmed. Why stop there?

Republicans have vowed to spend the next year preventing President Barack Obama from filling a Supreme Court vacancy. They've gotten plenty of practice already.

More than 30 judicial nominees are currently waiting for the Senate to confirm them to federal court seats. Some have been gathering dust for over a year, like Waverly Crenshaw, a Tennessee district court nominee who was nominated on Feb. 4, 2015. He would fill a court seat that's been empty for 441 days. Susan Baxter, a Pennsylvania district court nominee, would fill a seat that's been empty for 913 days, or about two and a half years. ... Read more

When Cash Is Outlawed... Only Outlaws Will Have Cash
ZeroHedge | author | 02/19/16

Harvard economist Larry Summers is a reliable source of claptrap. And a frequent spokesman for the Deep State.

To bring new readers up to speed, voters don't get a say in who runs the country. Instead, a "shadow government" of elites, cronies, lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians, and zombies -- aka the Deep State -- is permanently in power.

The Deep State wants you to use money it can easily control, tax, and confiscate. And paper currency is getting in its way.

France has already banned residents from making cash transactions of €1,000 ($1,114) or more. Norway and Sweden's biggest banks urge the outright abolition of cash. And there are plans at the highest levels of government in Israel, India, and China to remove cash from circulation. ... Read more

TYT | CNN GOP Presidential Town Hall (full) (02/17/16) [2:19:14]

*TYT | CNN GOP Presidential Town Hall: The Young Turks Summary (02/17/16) [16:14]

Influential Economist Thomas Piketty Endorses Sanders
HP | Shane Ferro | 02/16/16

In his latest weekly column, Piketty wrote that the Vermont senator's campaign represents a turning point in the country. "[W]e are witnessing the end of the politico-ideological cycle opened by the victory of Ronald Reagan at the 1980 elections," he wrote in a piece that appeared in French in Le Monde earlier this week and in English in the Guardian on Tuesday.

The French rockstar economist is the author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which showed that global income inequality has gotten much, much worse in the 36 years since Ronald Reagan was first elected. Piketty's life's work is about showing how low tax rates on the rich, particularly in the United States, exacerbate inequality for those of us below the top 1 percent, or even 0.1 percent, of earners. ... Read more
Go to the Guardian to read Piketty's entire op-ed.

Bank of America CEO Now Making Millions Of Dollars More For No Reason
HP | Ben Walsh | 02/17/16

Last year was not a big year for raises in America. Collectively, Americans ended the year seeing their compensation rise just 2 percent.

But bank executives are different from you and me. Case in point: Bank of America chairman and CEO Brian Moynihan. On Friday in filing, the bank said it handed Moynihan a 23 percent raise, bringing his 2015 pay to $16 million at a time when antipathy to Wall Street has become a central theme of the U.S. presidential election . ... Read more

Jeb! Is! In! Trouble!
HP | Eliot Nelson | 02/17/16

... For all of his years in Texas and Florida, he hasn't quite shed the stiff, boarding school nature of his Connecticut forebears. Watching him chat up voters is a bit like watching a father quiz his 6-year-old son about his newest video game: avuncular, a bit ill at ease and completely out of his element. Hey, what's that there? Murder Cyclone 6? That's neat. Oh? You are working extra hours to cover your monumental student loan debt? How about that!

Jeb really is George H. W.'s son, the George H. W. Bush who always felt a little stiff and awkward around "real people," who never shed his affinity for prep school attire, who vomited on Japan's prime minister. In that context, Jeb starts to make more sense and his Northeastern boarding school whiteness really shines through. It helps explain the Jeb who can't seem to find his footing in a Republican party that has changed so drastically since his father's day, ... Read more

"Worst Since Lehman"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/18/16

If "everything's fixed," then why is the number of distressed debt issuers still the highest "since Lehman." And the answer is not ...
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"Ultimate Banking" Monopoly Edition Goes Completely Cashless
ZeroHedge | author | 02/17/16

The war on cash has been in the works for a very, very long time, but the propaganda campaign to convince an always gullible public to accept the scheme seems to have been hatched in earnest late last spring. For example, here are a few excerpts from the post, Martin Armstrong Reports on a Secret Meeting in London to Ban Cash: ... Read more

*Columbine Shooter's Mother: I Carry Him 'Everywhere I Go, Always'
NPR | FreshAir | 02/16/16

On April 20, 1999, when Sue Klebold heard about a shooting incident at Columbine High School, her thoughts immediately turned to her 17-year-old son, Dylan, who was a senior there.

"In the very beginning, I didn't know what to think," Sue tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "I was aware that there was a shooting incident occurring at the school. I didn't know if Dylan was in danger, if someone was trying to shoot him, if he was doing something."

Gradually the truth emerged: Dylan and his friend, 18-year-old Eric Harris, had gone on a shooting rampage at the school, murdering 13 people and injuring 24 others before killing themselves. ... Read more

NPR FreshAir | Columbine Shooter's Mother: I Carry Him 'Everywhere I Go, Always' (02/16/16) [43:48]
or
NPR FreshAir | Columbine Shooter's Mother: I Carry Him 'Everywhere I Go, Always' (02/16/16) [43:48]

A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked into Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Over the course of minutes, they would kill twelve students and a teacher and wound twenty-four others before taking their own lives.

For the last sixteen years, Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother, has lived with the indescribable grief and shame of that day. How could her child, the promising young man she had loved and raised, be responsible for such horror? And how, as his mother, had she not known something was wrong? Were there subtle signs she had missed? What, if anything, could she have done differently?

These are questions that Klebold has grappled with every day since the Columbine tragedy. In A Mother's Reckoning, she chronicles with unflinching honesty her journey as a mother trying to come to terms with the incomprehensible. In the hope that the insights and understanding she has gained may help other families recognize when a child is in distress, she tells her story in full, drawing upon her personal journals, the videos and writings that Dylan left behind, and on countless interviews with mental health experts.

Filled with hard-won wisdom and compassion, A Mother's Reckoning is a powerful and haunting book that sheds light on one of the most pressing issues of our time. And with fresh wounds from the recent Newtown and Charleston shootings, never has the need for understanding been more urgent.

Industrial Production Post Third Consecutive Annual Decline: 90% Chance Of Recession
ZeroHedge | author | 02/17/16

In 17 of the 19 times in the last 100 years that Industrial Production has contracted for 3 consecutive months, the US economy has entered recession. Today 0.7% drop YoY is the 3rd month of declines. ... Read more

Aljazeera | Inside Story - How has ICRC's role changed over the years? (02/16/16) [25:00]

*Aljazeera | UpFront - Noam Chomsky on the war against ISIL (01/23/16) [25:12]

Sheldon Adelson Bets It All
MotherJones | Matt Isaacs | 02/15/16

... Adelson has used his fortune to reshape right-wing politics in both America and Israel, establishing himself as a GOP kingmaker in the post-Citizens United era. In December, he backed a secretive $140 million purchase of the Review-Journal, putting Nevada's largest paper in the hands of its richest resident and a fixture of its biggest industry, and increasing his influence on Nevada's early presidential caucuses. ...

... During the last presidential election, Adelson spent nearly $100 million directly (and reportedly another $50 million in undisclosed dark money) trying to thwart Barack Obama's reelection. That included $20 million that he and his wife spent backing Newt Gingrich's primary run and, after Gingrich dropped out of the race, another $30 million on a super-PAC supporting Mitt Romney. He gave another $23 million to American Crossroads, the super-PAC once led by Karl Rove. His dark- money contributions reportedly buoyed conservative organizations such as the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity. Read more

And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East by Richard Engel

Based on two decades of reporting, NBC's chief foreign correspondent's riveting story of the Middle East revolutions, the Arab Spring, war, and terrorism seen up-close -- sometimes dangerously so.

When he was just twenty-three, a recent graduate of Stanford University, Richard Engel set off to Cairo with $2,000 and dreams of being a reporter. Shortly thereafter he was working freelance for Arab news sources and got a call that a busload of Italian tourists were massacred at a Cairo museum. This is his first view of the carnage these years would pile on. Over two decades Engel has been under fire, blown out of hotel beds, taken hostage. He has watched Mubarak and Morsi in Egypt arrested and condemned, reported from Jerusalem, been through the Lebanese war, covered the whole shooting match in Iraq, interviewed Libyan rebels who toppled Gaddafi, reported from Syria as Al-Qaeda stepped in, was kidnapped in the Syrian crosscurrents of fighting. He goes into Afghanistan with the Taliban and to Iraq with ISIS. In the page-turning And Then All Hell Broke Loose, he shares his adventure tale.

Engel takes chances, though not reckless ones, keeps a level head and a sense of humor, as well as a grasp of history in the making. Reporting as NBC's Chief-Foreign Correspondent, he reveals his unparalleled access to the major figures, the gritty soldiers, and the helpless victims in the Middle East during this watershed time. We can experience the unforgettable suffering and despair of the local populations. Engel's vivid description is intimate and personal. Importantly, it is a succinct and authoritative account of the ever-changing currents in that dangerous land.

Fed's Kashkari Says "We Won't See Next Crisis Coming", Compares Banks To Risky Nuclear Reactors
ZeroHedge | author | 02/16/16

Coming as a replacement to perhaps the biggest dove in Fed history, few were expecting former Goldman and Pimco staffer Neel Kashkari to be as vocally outspoken on a topic that is so near and dear to regulators everywhere: their own cluelessness, and more importantly, the topic of "too big to fail" banks, which according to the Fed are a pillar of stability in an unstable world, and which according to Kashkari are anything but.

It is doubly surprising because it was none other than Kashkari himself who served as one of the key architects of the bank bailout plan in the aftermath of the financial crisis. ...

'Unfixed' Deutsche Bank Stock Slumps For 2nd Day
ZeroHedge | author | 02/16/16

no, Deutsche Bank (and its $64 trilion derivatives book) is not "fixed" - far from it... Read more
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Larry Summers Launches The War On Paper Money: "It's Time To Kill The $100 Bill"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/16/16

Not even 24 hours later, and another Harvard "scholar" and Fed chairman wannabe, Larry Summers, has just released an oped in the left-leaning Amazon Washington Post, titled "It's time to kill the $100 bill" in which he makes it clear that the pursuit of paper money is only just starting. Not surprisingly, just like in Europe, the argument is that killing the Benjamins would somehow eradicate crime, saying that "a moratorium on printing new high denomination notes would make the world a better place."

Yes, for central bankers, as all this modest proposal will do is make it that much easier to unleash NIRP, because recall that of the $1.4 trillion in total U.S. currency in circulation, $1.1 trillion is in the form of $100 bills. Eliminate those, and suddenly there is nowhere to hide from those trillions in negative interest rate "yielding" bank deposits. ... Read more
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*FULL CBS GOP Debate, 9th Republican Presidential Debate in South Carolina (02/13/16) [1:12:03]

TYT | CBS Republican Debate: The Young Turks Summary (02/14/16) [7:02]

Bernie Sanders Is The Next President Of The United States (Of The Week)
HP | Lauren Weber | 02/14/16

we've been surveying the race for the last 57 weeks (yes, you've had to deal with us for that long), and we've finally done it: We're ranking Bernie Sanders the leader of the pack. Took us long enough, right?

When we started on this adventure at the beginning of 2015, we spitballed an absurdly comprehensive list of all the possible candidates we might encounter along the way (Note Lauren's horrific handwriting). Visitors to the HuffPost DC Bureau have studied the chart intently for clues to a secret agenda: in truth, we were clueless, and remain so. ... Read more

Global Stocks Soar On Stimulus Hopes After Miserable Chinese, Japanese Data; Short Squeeze
ZeroHedge | author | 02/15/16

"The Chinese market didn't react as bad as we feared and with the weak export data there is some big hope that he central banks will react quite fast," John Plassard, senior equity-sales trader at Mirabaud Securities LLP in Geneva, told Bloomberg. "It's a mix of hope of intervention from the Asian central bank, short squeeze and also a relief in some energy and banking sectors, the most shorted sectors." And there are your catalysts for today's surge: hope of more central bank intervention and a global short squeeze. ... Read more

How The Clintons Enabled The 2008 Economic Crisis And Financial Coup d'Etat
ZeroHedge | author | 02/15/16

"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government--a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises.

If the IMF's staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we're running out of time." - Simon Johnson, The Quiet Coup

As economist Simon Johnson put it so aptly, there was a 'financial coup d'etat' in the States. It was the result of a longer term and well-funded effort as documented by PBS Frontline and others. Read more

Foreign Policy Association | The Rise of ISIS () [26:47]

*PBS | PBS NewsHour Democratic Debate (02/12/16) [1:50:40]

*TYT | PBS NewsHour Democratic Debate: The Young Turks Summary (02/11/16) [7:11]

*Europe's Most Distressing Chart: For Banks 2016 Is Already Worse Than 2008
ZeroHedge | author | 02/12/16

... But did you know that for most European banks, 2016 is shaping up far worse than the dreaded 2008? As the following chart from Reuters shows, the year-to-date stock price performance for most European banks is on pace to far surpass - to the downside - the dreadful for the global financial system 2008.

As Reuters puts its it, "Euro zone banks have seen their shares plummet by nearly 30 percent and yields on their bonds surge since the start of the year, as investors worried about thinning profits and uncomfortably high levels of bad loans in some countries." ... Read more
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This Is The NIRP "Doom Loop" That Threatens To Wipeout Banks And The Global Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 02/12/16

It went something like this: over indebted sovereigns depended on domestic banks to buy their debt, but when yields on that debt spiked, the banks took a hit, inhibiting their ability to fund the sovereign, whose yields would then rise some more, further curtailing banks' ability to help out, and so on and so forth.

Well don't look now, but central bankers' headlong plunge into NIRP-dom has created another "doom loop" whereby negative rates weaken banks whose profits are already crimped by the new regulatory regime, sharply lower revenue from trading, and billions in fines. Weak banks then pull back on lending, thus weakening the economy further and compelling policy makers to take rates even lower in a self-perpetuating death spiral. Meanwhile, bank stocks plunge raising questions about the entire sector's viability and that, in turn, raises the specter of yet another financial market meltdown. ... Read more
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"It's A Weird Suicide Mission That Will Have A Very Dark End"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/11/16

Earlier today we reported that Saudi Arabia has made a “final” decision to invade Syria.

Of course they won’t use the term “invade.” They’ll say the same thing the US says, which is that they need to send in a limited number of ground troops to help fight ISIS.

The timing of the announcement quite clearly suggests that the Saudis are going to try and shore up the rebels who are facing imminent defeat at Aleppo where Hezbollah, backed by Russian airstrikes, is about to overrun the opposition. ... Read more

Online Public Schools Are a Disaster, Admits Billionaire, Charter School-Promoter Walton Family Foundation
AlterNet | Steven Rosenfeld | 02/11/16

For the second time in three months, the Walton Family Foundation -- which has spent more than $1 billion to create a quarter of the nation's 6,700 public charter schools -- has announced that all online public school instruction, via cyber charter schools, is a colossal disaster for most K-12 students.

"If virtual charters were grouped together and ranked as a single school district, it would be the ninth largest in the country and among the worst performing," co-wrote Walton's Marc Sternberg and Marc Holley, respectively the foundation's director of educational giving and its evaluation unit director, in a recent Education Week commentary. "Online education must be reimagined. Ignoring the problem -- or worse, replicating failures -- serves nobody." ... Read more

Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal: The Movie (trailer) (02/10/16) [1:09]

European Sovereign Risk Soars As Systemic Fears Mount
ZeroHedge | author | 02/11/16

"Whatever it takes" is not enough, it would appear as the fragility and interconnectedness forced upon the European banking/sovereign finance ponzi has rapidly come home to roost for Draghi and his followers. Peripheral bond risk has flipped from "hold your nose" buys to panic sells with Portugal risk exploding 200bps in the last week. As the European banking system's credit risk rises 2012-crisis-like, it seems belief in a bigger bazooka is fading fast.

It's not just Deutsche Bank... Read more

Deutsche Bank Is Back: 5 Year Sub CDS Soar To Record High
ZeroHedge | author | 02/11/16

"Worse than Lehman" is how one European bond market trader described the carnage this week as the brief respite that ECB monetization and debt-buyback rumors provided yesterday have morphed into utter destruction this morning. European (and US) banks are a sea of contagious red with Deutsche Bank the tip of the collapse spear. Credit risk on Deutsche has exploded this morning with Sub CDS trading up 85bps to a record high 540bps... eerily reminiscent of the pre-Lehman bankruptcy week in 2008. ... Read more

There's A Lesson In Spain's Surreal, Unfinished Cities (PICTURES)
HP | Kate Abbey-Lambertz | 02/11/16

In a memorable scene in "The Big Short," the Oscar-nominated 2015 movie about the financial crisis, a real estate agent shows the main characters around a desolate Florida subdivision. She insists that the market is just in a lull as they drive past rows and rows of vacant homes.

But it wasn't just a lull. It was the housing bubble bursting, and that emptiness was replicated in communities around the world as people lost their homes and developers' projects went bust. One of the worst cases was in Spain, where there were more than 3 million unoccupied homes in 2014. ... Read more

New Hampshire Primaries
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A Democratic Socialist Just Won The New Hampshire Primary
HP | Samantha Lachman | 02/09/16

New Hampshire’s Democratic primary voters confirmed Tuesday that they do, in fact, want a self-described democratic socialist as their party’s presidential nominee.

Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, had consistently led former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in polls of the Granite State since last fall, with margins that frequently surpassed 20 percent. On Tuesday, he defeated Clinton handily. ... Read more

*TYT | Who's The Biggest Winner Of The New Hampshire Primary Election? (02/09/16) [8:18]

Two-thirds of New Hampshire Republican primary voters want to ban Muslims
Salon | author | date

At this stage in the race, everything gets filtered first through the “horse race” lens, and so the immediate take on this is clearly that this is good for Donald Trump, the only candidate who has seriously backed the idea that this country should ban Muslims from entering our country.

But the real story here is the real damage that has been done by a Republican primary where the candidates constantly compete over who is most certain that ISIS is hiding in their bushes. Even those Republican candidates who have pushed back against Trump’s proposed travel ban for Muslims have nonetheless pushed the idea that Muslims are inherently untrustworthy people that should be handled very carefully, as if they are beehives instead of people.

"Together, we have sent the message that will echo from Wall Street to Washington, from Maine to California," Sanders said at his victory party in Concord, New Hampshire. "And that is that the government of our great country belongs to all of the people, and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors and their super PACs." ... Read more

John Mack: Don't Worry About Deutsche Bank, It Will Be Bailed Out By The Government
ZeroHedge | author | 02/10/16

It was illuminating, if not surprising, that during an interview with Bloomberg TV discussing the future of Deutsche Bank, John Mack said that "there’s no question in my mind, it is absolutely good for every penny." In other words, "Deutsche Bank is fine." Why is he so confident? According to Mack, "this idea that I heard yesterday, the possibility of not making their interest payments, it’s just absurd. The government will not let that happen." ... Read more

USDJPY Plunges To 113 Handle - Gives Up QQE2 Gains
ZeroHedge | author | 02/10/16

Central Banks are losing control everywhere... Read more

"It's Worse Than 2008": CEO Of World's Largest Shipping Company Delivers Dire Assessment Of Global Economy
ZeroHedge | author | 02/10/16

“It is worse than in 2008. The oil price is as low as its lowest point in 2008-09 and has stayed there for a long time and doesn’t look like going up soon. Freight rates are lower. The external conditions are much worse but we are better prepared.” ... Read more

The Fed's Zombie Economy: ROI Crashes 80% In 40 Years
ZeroHedge | author | 02/10/16

In the new bizarro world where you pay banks for the privilege of giving them your money, one has to wonder what will be the next thing to break the zero bound. When one of the largest corporations in America has over $100 billion in revenue but can't even make $1 billion in profits, it's easy to imagine a few possibilities.

American corporations have been playing a musical chairs game where the loser gets taken out back and shot. During the last 40 years, the life expectancy of firms in the Fortune 500 has declined from 75 years to less than 15 years. In what Forbes called "the most important business study ever," Deloitte released The Shift Index, which compiles the ROI of 20,000 US firms from 1965-2009. The chart shows an 80% collapse in the average ROI of American businesses. ... Read more

If Chesapeake Does Not Go Bankrupt In Just Over One Month, This Could Be The Trade Of The Year
ZeroHedge | author | 02/10/16

Yes, Chesapeake will default, but the question is when. For those who think the company will somehow survive for a more than a month without filing Chapter 11 or arranging some prepackaged bankruptcy, and actually repays the $500 million issue, this could be the trade that makes someone's full year. ... Read more

BP's Stunning Warning: "Every Oil Storage Tank Will Be Full In A Few Months"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/10/16

"We are very bearish for the first half of the year. In the second half, every tank and swimming pool in the world is going to fill." ... Read more

Nikkei Posts Biggest Drop In 3 Years As Global Growth Fears Hit Banks
Reuters & HP | author | 02/09/16

Banks took the brunt of the sell-off in Japan while a stronger yen dragged down stocks across the board.

Japan's Nikkei share average posted its biggest daily drop in nearly three years on Tuesday, with banks taking the brunt of the sell-off, while a stronger yen dragged down stocks across the board. The Nikkei ended 5.4 percent lower at 16,085.44 points, its lowest closing level since Jan. 21 and its heftiest percentage drop since mid-2013.

European banks led a global sell-off in financial stocks overnight as signs of stress in the sector mounted, triggering sharp selling in the beaten-down Japanese banking sector. ... Read more

The Idea That Hillary Clinton Took $200k+ Per Speech From Banks and Corporations Is Obscene
Or
Are Our Politicians Being Bought (On Both Sides)
AlterNet | Les Leopold | 02/08/16

The typical American has to work five years to earn that much.

Anderson Cooper: "But did you have to be paid $675,000 [for three speeches to Goldman Sachs]?"

Hillary Clinton: "Well, I don't know. That's what they offered."

Hillary is misleading us at best by saying that her $225,000-per-speech fee, paid three times by Goldman Sachs, was "what they offered." It was not what they offered, it was what Team Hillary demanded.

A review of her 2014 tax return, posted on her website, shows that $225,000 per speech was her minimum fee.

She received $225,000 for 34 of the 41 speeches listed on her tax return. Of the remaining seven speeches, two were for 250,000 and the others for $265,000, $275,000, $285,000, $305,000 and $400,000. In total she received $9,680,000 for these speaking engagements in 2013. Read more

Stephen Colbert | Watch Colbert Roasts Rubiobot Debate Flop & Ben Carson's Debate Entrance (02/08/16) [4:44]

Deutsche Bank Stock Crashes To Record Low
ZeroHedge | author | 02/09/16

Moments ago, in response to DB's open querry on Twitter whether the Dax is "overreacting", we highlighted DB's soaring CDS and asked if perhaps the market was not underreacting. Minutes later the market opined, by sending DB stock to new all time lows. ... Read more

Deutsche Bank Selling Resumes After CEO Assures Employees Bank Is "Absolutely Rock Solid"
ZeroHedge | author | 02/09/16

Yesterday's desperate scramble by Deutsche Bank to comfort markets about its liquidity position worked, for about three hours. And then, the bank which really should just keep its mouth shut, did the opposite and reminded an already panicked market just how "serious" things are, in the parlance of Jean-Claude Junkcer, when in an internal memo, the CEO assured his workers that:

World Equity Market "Wealth" Crashes $6 Trillion Below 2007 Highs
ZeroHedge | author | 02/09/16

Global equity market investors have lost a stunning $16.5 trillion of their newfound CB-fueled "wealth" in the last six months. This has erased half of the gains from the 2011 lows (but of course leaves all the debt created still in place). However, what is perhaps more troubling given the unprecedented money-printing since the last crisis peak, is that global equity market "wealth" is now down 10% from its November 2007 prior highs.

Trillions of money printed and debt created and equity "wealth" is now down $6 trillion from the 2007 highs... Read more
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ABC News Republican Presidential Debate - New Hampshire Feb. 6, 2016 [1:36:17]

*TYT | ABC News Republican Presidential Debate: The Young Turks Summary (02/06/16) [3:13]

Marco Rubio's Struggle To Be More Than A Talking Point Machine
HP | Matt Fuller | 02/07/16

With a solid debate performance over the weekend and a strong showing in New Hampshire Tuesday, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had a chance to put the rest of the GOP establishment on borrowed time. Instead, there is a real danger for Rubio that a Granite State stumble could turn into a national fall.

He could still relegate the other mainstream Republicans to the fringe with a decisive victory here in the first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday. But following his third place performance in Iowa, Rubio faces a dangerous electoral concoction: a combination of high expectations and the possibility that another establishment candidate, such as Ohio Gov. John Kasich, could beat him. ... Read more

These Are The Banks The Market Is Most Concerned About
ZeroHedge | author | 02/05/16

While there are numerous financial institutions in the world that are full of hidden NPLs and over-leveraged, trading at extreme levels of risk, the FSA's "Too-Interconnected-To-Fail" list of systemically critical banks is where global investors' attention is really focused.

BMO Capital Markets breaks down the world's most systemically critical financial institutions using their own "special sauce" of CDS levels, CDS term structure, equity price, liquidity, and spread trends.

Frankly, as we explained previously, these are the "Musketeer" banks - one for all and all for one as any system failure in Deutsche, Credit Suisse, or Bank of China will leak immeasurably and contagiously around the world via the interconnectedness of the collateral chains used to fund these behemoths. Read more
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European Bank Bloodbath Crashes Bond, Stock Markets
ZeroHedge | author | 02/08/16

... As Deutsche Bank itself warned, any more easing by The ECB or BOJ will only hurt banks (and certainly Deutsche). In other words, they are all officially trapped now. Read more

FULL MSNBC Democratic Debate: Hillary Clinton VS Bernie Sanders - New Hampshire Feb. 4, 2016 (02/05/16) [2:03:12]

TYT | MSNBC | Democratic Debate: The Young Turks Summary (02/04/16) [9:18]

Historic Meeting Of Christian Leaders Aims To Heal 1,000-Year-Old Rift
Reuters & HP | Philip Pullella | 02/05/16

Pope Francis To Hold Historic Meeting In Cuba With Russian Orthodox Church Leader

Pope Francis and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church will meet in Cuba next week in what could be a historic step towards healing the 1,000-year-old rift between the Western and Eastern branches of Christianity. The Vatican and the Moscow Patriarchate announced on Friday that Francis will stop in Cuba on Feb. 12 his way to Mexico to hold talks with Patriarch Kirill, the first in history between a Roman Catholic pope and a Russian Orthodox patriarch. ... Read more

Sakurajima volcano erupts 50km from nuclear plant in Japan (02/05/16) [1:18]

TPP deal sparks protests, central Auckland shutdown in New Zealand (02/05/16) [4:20]

Islamophobia is real. And it's not going anywhere.
HP | Christopher Mathias | 02/05/16

After last year's terror attacks in Paris and mass shooting in San Bernardino, California -- and amidst a surge in anti-Muslim rhetoric from U.S. politicians -- reports about Muslims in America facing violence, harassment, intimidation and bigotry have become omnipresent. Many Muslims say Islamophobia is worse now than it's ever been -- even worse than it was after 9/11.

A comprehensive list of discriminatory acts against American Muslims might be impossible, but The Huffington Post will document this deplorable wave of hate for all of 2016 using news reports and firsthand accounts.The breadth and severity of Islamophobia in America can no longer go unnoticed. Enough is enough. ... Read more

When Private Credit Stops Expanding...
ZeroHedge | author | 02/05/16

Once private credit rolls over in China and the U.S., the global recession will start its rapid slide down the Seneca Cliff.

Few question the importance of private credit in the global economy. When households and businesses are borrowing to expand production and buy homes, vehicles, etc., the economy expands smartly.

When private credit shrinks--that is, as businesses and households stop borrowing more and start paying down existing debt--the result is at best stagnation and at worst recession or depression. Read more

TYT | CNN Democratic Presidential Town Hall: The Young Turks Summary (02/03/16) [9:18]

S&P Downgrades Glencore To Lowest Investment Grade Rating
ZeroHedge | author | 02/04/16

Overnight, one of the two rating agencies, Standard and Poors, came one step closer to that fateful moment of junking Glencore when it downgraded Glencore, however it decided to throw the company one last lifeline by keeping it at the very lowest investment grade rating, and instead of cutting it from BBB to single B or CCC where its CDS and bond yield implies the company should be trading, it kept it a BBB-. ... Read more

Stephen Colbert | Hungry For Power Games: Iowa Cornucopia Bloodbath (02/03/16) [7:30]

'Jesus' Reads Quotes From Republican Candidates (02/02/16) [1:32]

Noam Chomsky - 'Requiem For The American Dream' (trailer) (new) [2:20]

The Atlantic Ocean Is Acidifying at a Rapid Rate
takepart.com | Emily J. Gertz | 02/03/16

The paper, published Saturday in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycles, "shows the large impact all of us are having on the environment," Ryan Woosley of the University of Miami said in a statement. "Our use of fossil fuels isn't only causing the climate to change but also affects the oceans by decreasing the pH."

The burning of oil, coal, and natural gas for energy and the destruction of forests are the leading causes of the carbon dioxide emissions driving climate change. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 355 parts per million in 1989 to just over 400 ppm in 2015.

Decreasing pH in seawater can harm the ability of shelled organisms, from microscopic coccolithophores to the oysters and clams that show up on our dinner plates, to build and maintain their bony exteriors. ... Read more

Is The Fed "Seriously Considering" Negative Interest Rates?
ZeroHedge | author | 02/04/16

The Fed may "seriously consider" negative rates after moving rates back to zero, reintroducing forward guidance and making "stronger pleas" to Congress for fiscal policy action as there are complications for money markets, according to BofAML strategist Mark Cabana. ... Read more

*What Donald Rumsfeld Knew We Didn't Know About Iraq
Politico | John Walcott | 01/24/16

On September 9, 2002, as the George W. Bush administration was launching its campaign to invade Iraq, a classified report landed on the desk of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It came from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and it carried an ominous note. "Please take a look at this material as to what we don't know about WMD," Rumsfeld wrote to Air Force General Richard Myers. "It is big."

The report was an inventory of what U.S. intelligence knew -- or more importantly didn't know -- about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Its assessment was blunt: "We've struggled to estimate the unknowns. ... We range from 0% to about 75% knowledge on various aspects of their program." ... Read more
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Stephan Colbert | Everyone Was A Winner In Iowa, Except The Losers (02/02/16) [8:28]

Trump Documentary Exposes Scandalous Truth Behind Billionaire's Real Estate Empire
AlterNet | WhoWhatWhy.Org | 02/01/16

Donald Trump's entire career has been about creating and projecting an image that suits his needs. That has never been truer than during his current presidential bid. But what lies behind the image? Is Trump the genius and unremitting success he would have us believe? Is he the master of knowing how to pull all things off, how to win big while intimidating the bad guys and be loved by everyone else? Watch the movie and find out. ... Read more
WhoWhatWhy.Org | Suppressed Trump Video - Trump: What's the Deal? (2015) [1:22:05]

Here's Aaron Swartz, 19, Describing How Noam Chomsky Blew His Mind
AlterNet | Aaron Swartz | 01/25/16

The following is an excerpt from the new book The Boy Who Could Change The World by Aaron Swartz (The New Press, 2016): In his too-short life, Aaron Swartz reshaped the Internet, questioned our assumptions about intellectual property, and touched all of us in ways that we may not even realize. His tragic suicide in 2013 at the age of twenty-six after being aggressively prosecuted for copyright infringement shocked the nation and the world.

Two years ago this summer I read a book that changed the entire way I see the world. I had been researching various topics -- law, politics, the media -- and become more and more convinced that something was seriously wrong. Politicians, I was shocked to discover, weren't actually doing what the people wanted. And the media, my research found, didn't really care much about that, preferring to focus on such things as posters and polls.

As I thought about this more, its implications struck me as larger and larger. But I still had no bigger picture to fit them in. The media was simply doing a bad job, leading people to be confused. We just had to pressure them to do better and democracy would be restored.

Then, one night, I watched the film Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (I think it had come up in my Netflix queue). First off, it's simply an amazingly good film. I've watched it several times now and each time I'm utterly entranced. It's undoubtedly the best documentary I've seen, weaving together all sorts of clever tricks to enlighten and entertain.... Read more

Clinton Appears To Narrowly Beat Sanders In Iowa
HP | Samantha Lachman | 02/02/16

Hillary Clinton appeared to narrowly overtake Democratic rival Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Iowa, with all but one precinct reporting results by early Tuesday morning.

According to the Iowa Democratic Party (IDP), the former secretary of state received 699.57 state delegate equivalents, while Sanders was awarded 695.49. Results from Des Moines, the remaining precinct, were still trickling in on Tuesday, but it's not worth enough votes for Sanders to move to first place. There is no mechanism for a recount. Still, the outcome was so close that IDP Chair Andy McGuire called the results a "virtual tie." ... Read more
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TRNN | Bernie Sanders Post Iowa Speech (02/02/16) [16:36]

TRNN | Hillary Clinton Post Iowa Speech (02/02/16) [6:27]

TRNN | Ted Cruz Post Iowa Speech (02/02/16) [32:26]

TRNN | Donald Trump Post Iowa Speech (02/02/16) [3:19]

Make No Mistake: Clinton and Cruz Are Goldman Sachs' Candidates
HP | Travis Irvine | 02/01/16

As bizarre as the 2016 campaign has been so far, there's one thing different from past elections that Americans should agree is a good thing: if a candidate is associated too closely with Wall Street, they look bad. This has been a growing trend over the last few elections -- Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was chastised in 2008 for owning multiple homes and former governor Mitt Romney was deemed "unrelatable" in 2012 for being a multi-millionaire. But now we have a go-to name that symbolizes voters' distrust of Wall Street and the filthy rich: Goldman Sachs. Yes, while the race tightens between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on the left and businessman Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on the right, Clinton and Cruz have both been criticized for their ties to Goldman. This is because the hardships endured by the middle class during the first sixteen years of the 21st century have rightfully made them Wall Street leery. It's an idea that's time has come -- because of Goldman Sachs' documented involvement with the 2008 financial crisis and multiple crises before it, they are at the forefront of this animosity and their involvement with the political process is finally being scrutinized. ... Read more

Tonight: Kickoff
HP | Howard Fineman | 02/01/16

... Perhaps 300,000 Iowans will gather in school gyms, libraries and other public places on Monday night at 7 p.m. Central Time to kick off the 2016 presidential campaign by voting in front of each other (Republicans by using a ballot box in the room; Democrats by gathering in groups).

What matters is not the final delegate count -- which will take many months of maneuvering to determine -- but the raw popular vote winners as announced Monday night on TV and online. ... Read more

Three Financial Crimes that Show How the DOJ "Went Easy" on Wall Street
RealNews | Jessica Desvarieux | 01/31/16

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren has just released a report slamming federal regulators and the Department of Justice. It's titled Rigged Justice 2016: How Weak Enforcement Lets Corporate Offenders Off Easy. The title says it all. Senator Warren goes after how the government fails to adequately punish corporations when they break the law. She says, quote, when government regulators and prosecutors fail to pursue big corporations or their executives who violate the law, corporate criminals have free rein to operate outside the law.

One of the top cases that is brought up in this report is the Standard & Poor settlement back in 2015, where the ratings agency agreed to pay about $1.4 billion in a civil settlement to the DOJ, 19 states, and DC. Just give our viewers a refresher. Why did S&P have to pay that fine, and why does Senator Warren argue that the fine does not go far enough? ... Read more

*Rigged Justice: 2016 by Senator Elizabeth Warren

Laws are effective only to the extent they are enforced. A law on the books has little impact if prosecution is highly unlikely.

This country devotes substantial resources to the prosecution of crimes such as murder, assault, kidnapping, burglary and theft, both in an effort to deter future criminal activity and to provide victims with some degree of justice.

When government regulators and prosecutors fail to pursue big corporations or their executives who violate the law, or when the government lets them off with a slap on the wrist, corporate criminals have free rein to operate outside the law. They can game the system, cheat families, rip off taxpayers, and even take actions that result in the death of innocent victims -- all with no serious consequences. ...
Read more

Bloomberg | Davos 2016 - Where Is the Chinese Economy Heading? (01/21/16) [1:11:16]

Democracy of the Billionaires
AlterNet & Tom Dispatch | Nomi Prins | 01/31/16

Democracy of the Billionaires, The Most Expensive Election Ever Is A Billionaire's Playground (Except for Bernie Sanders) by Nomi Prins

Speaking of the need for citizen participation in our national politics in his final State of the Union address, President Obama said, "Our brand of democracy is hard." A more accurate characterization might have been: "Our brand of democracy is cold hard cash." ... Read more

Paul Craig Roberts: The West Is Being Reduced To Looting Itself
ZeroHedge | author | 02/01/16

I, Michael Hudson, John Perkins, and a few others have reported the multi-pronged looting of peoples by Western economic institutions, principally the big New York Banks with the aid of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Third World countries were and are looted by being inticed into development plans for electrification or some such purpose. The gullible and trusting governments are told that they can make their countries rich by taking out foreign loans to implement a Western-presented development plan, with the result being sufficient tax revenues from economic development to service the foreign loan.

Seldom, if ever, does this happen. What happens is that the plan results in the country becoming indebted to the limit and beyond of its foreign currency earnings. When the country is unable to service the development loan, the creditors send the IMF to tell the indebted government that the IMF will protect the government's credit rating by lending it the money to pay its bank creditors. However, the conditions are that the government take necessary austerity measures so that the government can repay the IMF. These measures are to curtail public services and the government sector, reduce public pensions, and sell national resources to foreigners. The money saved by reduced social benefits and raised by selling off the country's assets to foreigners serves to repay the IMF. ... Read more