Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

A Tale of Two Central Bankers
HuffingtonPost | Robert Kuttner | 07/30/12

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been desperately trying to levitate a sinking economy, by buying government and commercial bonds in whatever quantities it takes to keep interest rates at record lows. This policy has kept the Great Deflation from being even worse, but it hasn't produced a robust recovery. ... Read more

TRNN | What a Single Payer Health Insurance Plan Looks Like (07/31/12) [10:00]

Homeland Security Blew Millions, Still Can't Protect Its Buildings
WiredMagazine | Robert Beckhusen | 07/25/12

According to a report from the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Homeland Security's police and security agency is preparing to adopt a new software tool for inspections, but one that can't accurately measure security risks. The new tool is called the Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool, or Mist. The Federal Protective Service (FPS) also doesn't know the extent of its inspection backlog because its data is unreliable. There are federal facilities that seemingly haven't been inspected in years. The FPS "continues to face challenges in overseeing its approximately 12,500 contract guards," according to the report (.pdf). And before the agency adopts the new tool, it's using a temporary program that can hardly inspect at all. ... Read more
Homeland Security Today Magazine

Infrastructure Security Is There A Future For FPS?
Homeland Security Today Magazine | Kelley Vlahos | 07/03/12

A year after a suicidal man named Joe Stack flew his Piper Dakota airplane into the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Austin, Texas, killing himself and an IRS manager and injuring 13 others, a tool bag stuffed with explosives was planted at the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit.

The problem was, the contract guard assigned to the building--which houses the IRS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and an office of Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.)-- found the bag on Feb. 26, 2011 and put it in the lost and found instead of screening it. It sat there for three weeks before another guard decided to throw the bundle through the X-ray machine. ... Read more

U.S. Iran Attack Plans Shown To Israel: Report
HuffingtonPost | AMY TEIBEL | 07/29/12

An Israeli newspaper reported Sunday that the Obama administration's top security official has briefed Israel on U.S. plans for a possible attack on Iran, seeking to reassure it that Washington is prepared to act militarily should diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Tehran to abandon its nuclear enrichment program. ... Read more

Panetta Begins Mideast Trip As Iran Dominates Israel Talk
Bloomberg | Gopal Ratnam | 07/29/12

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived today in Tunisia at the start of a five-day trip to the Mideast region, where tensions are rising over the democratic transition in Egypt, turmoil in Syria and Iran's suspected advances toward nuclear weapons. ... Read more

'Dark Money' Hits $172 Million In 2012 Election, Half Of Independent Group Spending
HuffingtonPost | Paul Blumenthal | 07/29/12

... Despite the fact that the ad's central message was the failure of the president, it wasn't considered a campaign ad under election laws. Although the group spends tens of millions of dollars on ads targeting Democratic candidates, Crossroads GPS is organized as a "social welfare nonprofit" under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code and therefore not subject to the rules governing political organizations. ... Read more

Fed Weighs Cutting Interest On Banks' Reserves After ECB Move
Bloomberg | Caroline Salas Gage | 07/30/12

... Bernanke testified to Congress on July 17 that reducing the rate from its current 0.25 percent is one of several easing steps the Fed might take to reduce unemployment stuck above 8 percent for more than three years. In February, by contrast, the Fed chairman told Congress that lowering the rate might drive away investors from short-term money markets. ... Read more

Severe Drought Seen as Driving Cost of Food Up
NYTimes | Author | 07/26/12

The Agriculture Department said the cost of beef would increase the most, up to 5 percent, because of the weather and rising prices for animal feed. ... Read more

Romney's World View
HuffingtonPost | James Zogby | 07/28/12

... If this all sounds Reaganesque or a replay of a George W. Bush speech, it is precisely because many of Romney's foreign policy advisers come out of the "Project for a New American Century," the group created by the acolytes of the Reagan era who then populated the Bush Administration. George W. Bush's rhetoric often conflated the good/evil world view of neo-conservatism with the Manichaeism of right-wing Christian Fundamentalism. In Romney's case there is a disturbing mix of neo-conservative hawkishness and militaristic American supremacy with Mormonism's narrative of divinely ordained American exceptionalism. Just as Bush's interpretation of Christianity was not shared by most Christians, Romney's America-on-steroids is a minority view among Mormons.

Beyond the rhetoric, there was little else that was noteworthy in Romney's foreign policy preview. As others have observed, many of his criticisms of the Obama Administration were either wrong on facts, splitting hairs or just plain bad policy. ... Read more

Satellites see Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Melt
NASZ | Jet Propulsion Lab | 07/24/12

Extent of surface melt over Greenland's ice sheet on July 8, 2012 (left) and July 12, 2012 (right). Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. ... Read more

Greenland's Petermann Glacier Loses Another Chunk
NASA | Earth Observatory | Author | 07/17/12

The Petermann Glacier grinds and slides toward the sea along the northwestern coast of Greenland, terminating in a giant floating ice tongue. Like other glaciers that end in the ocean, Petermann periodically calves icebergs. A massive iceberg, or ice island, broke off of the Petermann Glacier in 2010. Nearly two years later, another chunk of ice has broken free. ... Read more

Breaking Up Banks Won'T Make Them Safer, Ex-Senator Says
Bloomberg | Christine Harper | 07/26/12

Phil Gramm, the former U.S. senator who helped write the 1999 law that enabled the creation of financial giants such as Citigroup Inc. (C) and Bank of America Corp., said his legislation didn't make the system any riskier. ...

... John Reed, who helped found Citigroup with Weill, and former Merrill Lynch & Co. CEO David Komansky have said they regretted fighting to overturn the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act. Richard Parsons, speaking two days after ending his 16-year tenure on the board of Citigroup and one of its predecessors, said the repeal contributed to the financial crisis. ... Read more

Bernie Sanders (and 2 Million Angry Americans) Versus the Billionaires
NationMagazine | John Nichols | 07/24/12

If two dozen billionaires were using their wealth to effectively buy the 2012 election, it would be time for patriots to mount a bold response on behalf of democracy itself.   US Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, revealed for the first time in Senate testimony Tuesday that at least twenty-three billionaire families have contributed a minimum of $250,000 each so far in this year's campaigns. ... Read more

Bill Moyers: Back With a New Series
Magazine | Bill Moyers | 01/11/12

I'm coming back because in tumultuous times like these I relish the company of people who try to make sense of the tumult. These are the people I'll bring to our new broadcast, Moyers & Company.

Journalism has long been for me a continuing course in adult education. Given what's happening in this country, it's time to sign up for more classes. The lack of civility and common sense that has paralyzed our democracy, the vast economic and social inequality that sends both left and right raging into the streets, the corrosive influence of money in politics - we're in a tailspin with little hope for a course correction from our elected leadership or corporate-dominated media. The need for voices of reason, simple and eloquent, has rarely been stronger. ... Read more

Obama Addresses Gun Control Following Aurora Shooting
HuffingtonPost | Mollie Reilly | 07/25/12

... Obama continued: "But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals. That they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities. I believe the majority of gun owners would agree we should do everything possible to prevent criminals and fugitives from purchasing weapons, and we should check someone's criminal record before they can check out a gun seller." ... Read more

Jon Kyl Berates Obama For Focus On Middle Class
HuffingtonPost | Michael McAuliff | 07/24/12

President Barack Obama should stop talking about the middle class because it turns people against rich Americans, who should be embraced as the Michael Jordans of the U.S. economy, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said Monday. ... Read more
Note, see the TYT | Republican Senator Jon Kyle argues that using the phrase 'middle class' is "misguided and wrong and even dangerous" VIDEO in right column.

Weather Extremes Leave Parts of U.S. Grid Buckling
NYTimes | Matthew Wald | 07/25/12

From highways in Texas to nuclear power plants in Illinois, the concrete, steel and sophisticated engineering that undergird the nation's infrastructure are being taxed to worrisome degrees by heat, drought and vicious storms.

On a single day this month here, a US Airways regional jet became stuck in asphalt that had softened in 100-degree temperatures, and a subway train derailed after the heat stretched the track so far that it kinked -- inserting a sharp angle into a stretch that was supposed to be straight. In East Texas, heat and drought have had a startling effect on the clay-rich soils under highways, which "just shrink like crazy," leading to "horrendous cracking," said Tom Scullion, senior research engineer with the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. In Northeastern and Midwestern states, he said, unusually high heat is causing highway sections to expand beyond their design limits, press against each other and "pop up," creating jarring and even hazardous speed bumps. ... Read more

Moody's cuts outlook on EU stability facility to negative
Reuters | Author | 07/25/12

Moody's Investors Service has changed the outlook on the provisional (P)Aaa long-term rating of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to negative from stable, a blow to a fund that was supposed to backstop struggling EU members.   The ratings agency said the move followed on from its decision earlier in the week to change the outlooks for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to negative. All three are guarantors for the EFSF, with Germany holding the largest share at just over 29 percent. ... Read more

In Defining Hypocrisy, Weill, Who Led Repeal Of Glass Steagall, Now Says Big Banks Should Be Broken Up
ZeroHedge | Author | 07/25/12

Who is Sandy Weill? He is none other than a retired Citigroup Chairman, a former NY Fed Director, and a "philanthropist." He is also the man who lobbied for overturning of Glass Steagall in the last years of the 20th century, whose repeal permitted the merger of Travelers of Citibank, in the process creating Citigroup, the largest of the TBTF banks eventually bailed out by taxpayers. In his memoir Weill brags that he and Republican Senator Phil Gramm joked that it should have been called the Weill-Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Informally, some dubbed it "the Citigroup Authorization Act." ... Read more

Climate Change Effects: Things Global Warming Just Might Ruin For Your Kids
HuffingtonPost | James Gerken | 07/24/12

The continental U.S. has just experienced the hottest 12 month period in recorded history. The West is on fire. The Maldives are going underwater and California can expect a sea level rise of six inches in less than 20 years. ... Read more

British Banks Under Pressure To Estimate Costs Of Libor-Rigging
Bloomberg | Gavin Finch | 07/24/12

... Libor is the fourth scandal to hit the U.K. industry in the past 14 months that may erode earnings. The country's biggest banks by assets have already set aside 6.9 billion pounds to compensate customers improperly sold insurance. They are also under investigation for mis-selling interest-rate swaps to small businesses. Separately, HSBC may be fined for failures in money- laundering controls that U.S. Senators say gave terrorists and drug cartels access to the country's financial system. ... Read more

Caterpillar Beats Estimates But Lowers Guidance, Blames Downbeat Outlook On China, Strong Dollar And Slow Fed
ZeroHedge | Author | 07/25/12

... Caterpillar (CAT) has become schizophrenic with respect to the Fed, in one bullet point saying the Fed's easing has done nothing to "benefit economic growth" yet in another claiming more easing will not come "soon enough to benefit growth in 2012." The Bernanke put is now so pervasive even non-financial companies have to rely on the Chairman getting out of bed at just the right angle and sitting down on the CTRL-P macro. Read more

China's CNOOC scoped Nexen, partnered, then pounced
Reuters | David Ljunggren | 07/25/12

When Canada's Nexen Inc fired its CEO in January, an oil giant on the other side of the world sprang into action.   The agreement is a triumph for China's third-largest oil company, which had to abandon its $18.5 billion bid for California-based Unocal in 2005 because of bitter opposition on sovereignty grounds from U.S. lawmakers, and shows how far the Chinese have come as dealmakers on the global stage. ... Read more

Debt-Ceiling Battle Cost The U.S. Government $1.3 Billion: Study
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/23/12

Here's something for Congress to maybe think about the next time it decides to have a big, stupid argument about the debt ceiling: These big, stupid arguments, while entertaining, cost a lot of money.   How much money? The 2011 argument about the debt ceiling--the most recent battle--cost the U.S. government about $1.3 billion in extra borrowing costs, according to a new study by the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan congressional watchdog. ... Read more

Bill Moyers: NRA 'Enabler Of Death'
HuffingtonPost | Bill Moyers | 07/23/12

... PBS' Bill Moyers had blistering words for the National Rifle Association in the wake of the deadly shootings in Colorado.   Moyers placed partial blame for the murders in the NRA's lap in a web video posted over the weekend, calling it "the best friend a killer's instinct ever had."

"Every year there are 30,000 gun deaths and 300,000 gun-related assaults in the U.S.," he said. "Firearm violence may cost our country as much as $100 billion a year. Toys are regulated with greater care and safety concerns than guns ... we have become so gun loving, so blasé about home-grown violence that in my lifetime alone, far more Americans have been casualties of domestic gunfire than have died in all our wars combined." ... Read more

James Egan Holmes' Mother, Arlene Holmes, Learned Of Shooting From Media
HuffingtonPost | Julia Watson | 07/23/12

The mother of James Holmes had no idea her son was believed to be the gunman who killed a dozen people in a Colorado theater until she was contacted hours after the tragedy at her San Diego home by a reporter, the family's lawyer said Monday.

At a news conference in San Diego, the family's attorney, Lisa Damiani (dah-ME-ah-nee), told reporters that Arlene Holmes received a phone call at 5:45 a.m. Friday from an ABC News reporter who asked if she was the mother of James Holmes who lives in Aurora, Colo. ... Read more

Banking Is a Criminal Industry Because Its Crimes Go Unpunished
HuffingtonPost | Charles Ferguson | 07/16/12

Consider just this month's news in financial services.   First, Barclay's has been manipulating the Libor, the main interest rate upon which most other interest rates and financial transactions are based, since 2005. Moreover, Barclay's traders were colluding with traders in many other banks to assist them in manipulating the Libor too, so that they could all profit from their bets on it.

Second, JP Morgan Chase is having a really great month. Recent reports describe how it is resisting Federal subpoenas related to price-fixing in U.S. electricity markets. It is also accused (by former employees among others) of deliberately inflating the performance of its investment funds to obtain business. And finally, JP Morgan's failed "London whale" trade, which has now cost over $5 billion, is being investigated to determine whether the loss was initially concealed from regulators and the public. ... Read more
Predator Nation by Charles Ferguson

After MFGlobal and PFGBest, 'Crisis' In Commodities Trading Could Impact Everyday Consumers
HuffingtonPost | D.M. Levine | 07/20/12

... The high-profile failure of two commodities brokerage firms in less than a year led to a crisis of confidence among traders of commodity futures -- agreements to buy and sell basic goods like corn, wheat and oil. If this market stops functioning properly, experts warn, consumer prices could fluctuate wildly. ...

... "We're not on the cusp of a problem, we're in a problem," said Michael Greenberger, former director of trading and markets at the CFTC and current professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. "Nobody wants to trade." ... Read more

CFTC budget on chopping block
Politico | Patrick Reis | 06/19/12

Republicans' most recent target is the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a panel that the 2010 Dodd-Frank law tasked with regulating complicated financial trades -- known as swaps -- that played a pivotal role in the 2008 economic collapse.   The White House says the commission needs a major budget boost if it's going to effectively regulate the $300 trillion U.S. swaps market, but Republicans are having none of it. Instead, House appropriators voted Tuesday to slash the commission's $205 million budget by $25 million, about 12 percent. ... Read more

Libor Investigation Close To Making Arrests: Report
Reuters | Matthew Goldstein | 07/22/12

U.S. prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates, according to people familiar with a sweeping investigation into the rate-rigging scandal. ... Read more

Poverty levels on rise
Politico | AP | 07/22/12

... Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. Suburbs are seeing increases in poverty, including in such political battlegrounds as Colorado, Florida and Nevada, where voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, July 23 [13:57]

*Journeymanpictures | After the Tsunami - Japan (03/05/12) [28:37]

Mayberry R.I.P.   Declinist panic. Hysterical nostalgia. America may not be over, but it is certainly in thrall to the idea
NYMagazine | Frank Rich | 07/22/12

The outpouring traverses the political spectrum, from the apocalyptic hard right (Patrick Buchanan's Suicide of a Superpower, Mark Levin's Ameritopia) to the conservative Establishment (Charles Murray's Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960--2010) to the centrist Washington - Establishment (Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann's It's Even Worse Than It Looks) to centrist liberalism (Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum's That Used to Be Us) to the classically progressive (Timothy Noah's The Great Divergence). Depending on the political coloring of the authors, the books have different villains: the tea party, coddled Wall Street plutocrats, coddled welfare-state entitlement junkies, the yapping and trivializing news media, broken schools, a polarized and broken Congress, a politicized Supreme Court, a socialist president. And China Uber Alles (with an occasional cameo by India). ... Read more

Scandal At The IMF: Senior Economist Resigns, Says "Ashamed To Have Had Any Association With Fund At All"
ZeroHedge | Author | 07/20/12

The rats everywhere are now jumping furiously off the titanic, but few had taken the time to write a letter explaining in detail just how cracked and broken the hull really was. This has now changed, with the departure of Peter Doyle, formerly a division chief in the IMF's European Department responsible for non-crisis countries and currently an adviser to the Fund. ... Read more
Full Letter

Citigroup Manipulated Libor More Than Any Other U.S. Bank: Reports
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/20/12

So far Barclays has been the sad, British face of the Libor scandal, but there could soon come a day when an American bank could be the poster child for Libor manipulation. USA! USA!

Fortune's Stephen Gandel wrote on Friday about not one, not two, but three different studies that use charts and math to show that, of all the many banks just stone-cold manipulatin' Libor during the financial crisis, the champion Libor-mangler of all was apparently, drumroll please, Citigroup. ... Read more

'Batman' Shooting: Gun Lobby Counts On Short Attention Span
HuffingtonPost | Dan Froomkin | 07/20/12

The national sense of outrage swiftly passes. That's the lesson of American gun tragedies past.

In January 2011, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) barely survived being shot point-blank in the head by a man who emptied his 30-round magazine into 19 people, killing a federal judge and five others.   It's hard to imagine an incident that would be more likely to advance the cause of gun control in Washington. But nothing happened. ... Read more

One World One Ocean: 'Shining A Spotlight On The World's Only Undersea Lab'
HuffingtonPost | Author | 07/20/12

For the past six days, One World One Ocean has been reporting live from what could be the final mission to Aquarius Reef Base, the world's last remaining undersea research station, 60 feet underwater in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.   The lab allows scientists to live underwater for up to two weeks at a time, pushing the boundary of what we know about the ocean. It is the last vestige of a rich 50-year tradition of ocean explorers living underwater, started by Jaques Yves Cousteau with Conshelf I, in 1962. Aquarius has been cut from next year's federal budget and may be closed as soon as December. ... Read more

The Problem Isn't Outsourcing. It's That Big Business Is Disconnected From the Well-Being of Most Americans
HuffingtonPost | Robert Reich | 07/19/12

... Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States but contracts with over 700,000 workers overseas. It assembles iPhones in China both because wages are low there and because Apple's Chinese contractors can quickly mobilize workers from company dorms at almost any hour of the day or night.

But low wages aren't the major force driving Apple or any other American-based corporate network abroad. The components Apple's Chinese contractors assemble come from many places around the world with wages as high if not higher than in the United States. ... Read more

Bill Moyers | Fighting Disclosure, Killing Democracy
HuffingtonPost | Bill Moyers | 07/19/12

Both our political parties are up to their necks in this corruption; it was Barack Obama, you'll recall, who tossed public funding under the bus four years ago, then hauled in huge sums of money from Wall Street fat cats he later promised to protect from public wrath over their ill-gotten gains. And when there was just a brief chance to reform carried interest, the trickery that enables the Mitt Romneys of the world to pay a tax rate far below working people, Wall Street Democrats like Chuck Schumer helped to snuff it out in the cradle.   But the Republicans, once the party of Lincoln -- "government of, by, and for the people," remember? -- have thrown their soul into the bargain. ... Read more

U.S. Drought Means Wilting Crops, Higher Food Prices; Officials Pray For Rain
HuffingtonPost | Author | 07/19/12

Reuters - Oppressive heat and a worsening drought in the U.S. Midwest pushed grain prices near or past records on Wednesday as crops wilted, cities baked and concerns grew about food and fuel price inflation in the world's top food exporter.   Soybean prices at the Chicago Board of Trade set a record high and corn closed near a record as millions of acres of crops seared in triple-digit heat in the Corn Belt. Corn fields have been plowed up in many locations for lack of rain. Now soybeans, which develop later than corn, are in the bull's eye. ... Read more

Morgan Stanley Misses Estimates As Trading Revenue Plunges
Bloomberg | Michael J. Moore | 07/19/12

Morgan Stanley (MS) reported a 50 percent drop in earnings and said it will cut more jobs as revenue from trading stocks and bonds declined the most among Wall Street banks.   Second-quarter profit was $591 million, or 29 cents a share, compared with $1.19 billion, or a loss of 38 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Excluding accounting adjustments, profit was 16 cents a share, below the 29-cent average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. ... Read more

Title
Bloomberg | Donal Griffin | 07/19/12

Citigroup Inc. (C), the third-biggest U.S. bank, plans to cut about 350 additional jobs this year from the securities division, which includes investment banking and trading, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.   The reduction equals about 2 percent of the unit's staff, according to the person, who asked for anonymity because the changes haven't been publicly announced. The bank previously disclosed plans to eliminate 1,200 jobs from the division. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, July 19 [13:08]

*DN | Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine" (07/19/12) [11:45]

*Bill Moyers | Fighting Disclosure, Killing Democracy (07/19/12) [4:46]

*TRNN | Bill Black talks about Libor, Big Banks and a Criminal Conspiracy () [16:21]

DN | Matt Taibbi: Wall Street Insiders Are Using the Bailout to Stage a Revolution Part 1 (03/24/09) [10:49]

Detroit'S Core Thrives As Criminals Prey On Neighborhoods
Bloomberg | Chris Christoff | 07/18/12

After three years in a suburban house, Nathaniel Wallace bought a loft in Detroit's midtown, where major crime has dropped 38 percent in three years. ... Read more

George W. Bush: 'Eight years was awesome'
Politico | Patrick Gavin | 07/17/12

In case there was any doubt, George W. Bush made it abundantly clear in a recent interview that although it was "awesome" being president for eight years, he doesn't miss life in political office.   "Eight years was awesome and I was famous and I was powerful," Bush told the Hoover Institute's Peter Robinson. "But I have no desire for fame and power anymore. ... I crawled out of the swamp and I'm not crawling back in." ... Read more

More on LIBOR: with Eliot Spitzer, Matt Taibbi and Dennis Kelleher.
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 07/17/12

Eliot Spitzer, Matt Taibbi from RollingStone and Dennis Kelleher from Better Markets in discussing some of the more upsetting recent revelations from the LIBOR banking scandal -- including most notably the not-so-surprising revelation that Tim Geithner was apprised of the rate-rigging as far back as 2008. ... Read more

David Ray Griffin: How a Retired Theologian Became a High-Priest of the 9/11 Truth Movement
AlterNet | Jan Frel | 07/18/12

David Ray Griffin holds high status in the 9/11 Truth community as its leading scholar and advocate. Over his career, Griffin has metamorphosed from a long-time professor of philosophy, religion and theology into a 9/11 publishing machine, selling well over 100,000 copies of a slew of exhaustively annotated conspiracy theory books, and writing many dozens of papers and articles. Griffin figures in two of the most-popular documentaries of the past decade. He is credited as a script editor for Loose Change: Final Cut, the best-known, most-watched 9/11 Truth film of all time, and has a starring role in what may be the most-watched documentary series of all time, Peter Joseph's Zeitgeist. ... Read more

Detroit'S Core Thrives As Criminals Prey On Neighborhoods
Bloomberg | Chris Christoff | 07/18/12

After three years in a suburban house, Nathaniel Wallace bought a loft in Detroit's midtown, where major crime has dropped 38 percent in three years.   The 32-year-old computer contractor paid less than $200,000 for the restored three-level building with stainless-steel appliances and a rooftop view of the Comerica Park. But... Read more

Mervyn King (of Bank of England) Shocked, Shocked By Libor Fraud: Seven And A Half Things To Know
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/17/12

King, appearing this morning before a parliamentary panel investigating charges that some of the world's biggest banks manipulated Libor, one of the world's most important interest rates, deftly tossed responsibility for the debacle to the Four Winds. Neither he nor England's Financial Services Authority had any responsibility for policing Libor, King shrugged, according to the Wall Street Journal's live blog of his testimony. Nothing could be done, oh well. Incredibly, King even claimed he had no evidence that banks were manipulating Libor until just a couple of weeks ago, when he read about the Barclays $450 million settlement in the newspaper just like every other chump. ... Read more

U.S. Drought 2012: Current Drought Covers Widest Area Since 1956, According To New Data
HuffingtonPost | Jim Suhr | 07/16/12

The nation's widest drought in decades is spreading, with more than half of the continental United States now in some stage of drought and most of the rest enduring abnormally dry conditions.   Only in the 1930s and the 1950s has a drought covered more land, according to federal figures released Monday. So far, there's little risk of a Dust Bowl-type catastrophe, but crop losses could mount if rain doesn't come soon. ... Read more

Oil Companies Spring a Leak, Courtesy of Anonymous
WiredMagazine | Kim Zetter | 07/16/12

The hacks, against Shell, Exxon, BP and two Russian firms -- Gazprom and Rosneft, were conducted as digital protests against drilling in the Arctic, a practice that critics say has contributed to the melting of the ice caps there.

"To drill in the Arctic, oil companies have to drag icebergs out the way of their rigs and use giant hoses to melt floating ice with warm water. If we let them do this, a catastrophic oil spill is just a matter of time," Greenpeace notes on its Save the Arctic web site. ... Read more

LIBOR Investigation: Justice Department Building Criminal Cases Against Barclays, Others
HuffingtonPost | Reuters | 07/14/12

The U.S. Justice Department is building criminal cases against several financial institutions and their employees related to the manipulation of interest rates, The New York Times reported on Saturday. ... Read more

I Built a Movie Theater -- and a Film Festival -- and I'd Like You to Come to It
HuffingtonPost | Michael Moore | 07/15/12

Here's something I haven't spoken much about outside of Michigan, mainly because I live here and I like what modicum of privacy I have in this place I call home and where I try to live a "normal" life. For instance, not a day goes by here where a Republican doesn't stop and shake my hand. Seriously.   But I think it's time you guys come here and hang out with me! So consider this your invite to make your way to Traverse City, Michigan, where each summer I hold a film festival that is a favorite for filmmakers all over the world. More on this in a bit. ... Read more

Italy Exits Before Greece In BofA Game Theory: Cutting Research
Bloomberg | Simon Kennedy | 07/12/12

Italy and Ireland have more incentive to quit the euro than Greece, while Germany may have limited room to prevent departures from the currency union, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Using cost-benefit analysis and game theory, BofA Merrill Lynch foreign exchange strategists David Woo and Athanasios Vamvakidis concluded in a July 10 report that investors "may be underpricing the voluntary exit of one or more countries" from the bloc.

"Our analysis produces a few surprising results that even readers who may disagree with our conclusion are likely to find interesting," the strategists wrote.

Italy, the euro area's third-largest economy, would enjoy a higher chance of achieving an orderly exit than others and would stand to benefit from improvements in competitiveness, economic growth and balance sheets, they said. ... Read more

New York Fed's Libor Documents Reveal Cozy Relationship Between Regulators, Banks
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/13/12

The New York Federal Reserve on Friday released documents showing it knew banks were manipulating a key interest rate more than four years ago.   The documents, which date back to 2007, show that the Fed became fully aware that banks were lying about their borrowing costs when setting Libor, and chose to take no action against them. ... Read more
Tim Geithner's eMail
Phone call between Barkleys to NY FED

Winners and losers in Libor mess
CNNMoney | James O'Toole | 07/12/12

... Libor is the world's most important benchmark for interest rates. Roughly $10 trillion in loans -- including some credit card rates, car loans, student loans and adjustable-rate mortgages -- as well as some $350 trillion in derivatives are tied to Libor. ... Read more

Americans Living Larger As New-Home Sizes Defy Economy
Bloomberg | Frank Bass | 07/13/12

The percentage of new single-family homes greater than 3,000 square feet has grown by one-third in the last decade, according to data released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. The increase has occurred even while 4.3 million homes have been foreclosed upon since January 2007, a result of the housing- bubble collapse and economic meltdown. Slightly more than 1 in 4 new homes built last year were larger than 3,000 square feet, the highest percentage since 2007.   "It's about opportunity," Jack McCabe, chief executive officer of Deerfield Beach, Florida-based McCabe Research and Consulting, said in a telephone interview. "It's about interest rates. And it's about short memories." ... Read more

Warren Buffett: Libor Scandal Involves 'The Whole World'
HuffingtonPost | Bonnie Kavoussi | 07/12/12

Everyone should be paying attention to the Libor scandal, at least according to Warren Buffett.   "It's a big deal," Buffett told CNBC "Squawk Box" host Becky Quick Thursday. "You get Libor, and you're talking about the whole world."

Big banks have come under fire following allegations that many profited off the manipulation of Libor, a key interbank lending rate that acts as a benchmark for interest rates around the world. The first bank to admit wrongdoing, Barclays, agreed to pay more than $450 million last month to settle claims it manipulated the rate. The 16 banks under investigation by governments in Europe, the U.S., and Japan for allegedly rigging Libor include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. ... Read more

Eliot Spitzer On Libor Scandal: 'I Think The Mob Learned From Wall Street, Not Vice Versa'
HuffingtonPost | Bonnie Kavoussi | 07/09/12

... Spitzer was referring largely to Wall Street's alleged conspiracy to fix the Libor rate, a key interbank lending rate that acts as a benchmark for interest rates around the world. Barclays agreed to pay $450 million last month to settle charges that it had rigged the Libor rate. But it is unlikely that Barclays acted alone. Governments also are investigating JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, UBS and the Royal Bank of Scotland for allegedly helping fix the Libor rate.   Wall Street's rigging of Libor may have spanned decades, according to multiple reports. ... Read more

New York Times, Gretchen Morgenson Applaud British, Issue Challenge To American Regulators Over LIBOR Scandal
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 07/09/12

The New York Times and its outstanding financial reporter, Gretchen Morgenson, have published an important article about the LIBOR banking crisis, challenging American regulators to take this mess as seriously as the British appear to be. ... Read more

JPMorgan Chase Says Trading Loss Grew To $5.8 Billion, Almost Triple Original Estimates
HuffingtonPost | Pallavi Gogoi | 07/13/12

JPMorgan Chase said Friday that a bad trade had cost the bank $5.8 billion this year, almost triple its original estimate, and raised the prospect that traders had improperly tried to conceal the blunder. ... Read more

13 reasons why this is the worst Congress ever
HuffingtonPost | Ezra Klein | 07/13/12

This week, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. On its own, such a vote would be unremarkable. Republicans control the House, they oppose President Obama's health reform law, and so they voted to get rid of it.   But here's the punchline: This was the 33rd time they voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act.   Holding that vote once makes sense. Republicans had promised that much during the 2010 campaign. But 33 times? If doing the same thing twice and expecting a different result makes you insane, what does doing the same thing 33 times and expecting a different result make you? ... Read more

Buffett Says Municipalitie Bankruptcies Poised To Climb As Stigma Lifts
Bloomberg | Margaret Collins | 07/13/12

Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), said municipal bankruptcies are set to rise as there's less stigma attached after several California cities opted to seek protection just weeks apart.

The City Council of San Bernardino, California, a community of about 210,000 east of Los Angeles, decided July 10 to seek court protection from its creditors. The move came within weeks after Stockton, a community of 292,000 east of San Francisco, became the biggest U.S. city to enter bankruptcy. Mammoth Lakes, California, also sought the shelter this month. Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Friday, July 13 [11:22]

Eliot Spitzer | It's over for the banking cabal. (07/04/12) [9:05]

How Government Failure Caused the Great Recession
TheAmerican | Mark J. Perry and Robert Dell | 12/26/10 (older)

Today we see how utterly mistaken was the Milton Friedman notion that a market system can regulate itself. We see how silly the Ronald Reagan slogan was that government is the problem, not the solution. I wish Friedman were still alive so he could witness how his extremism led to the defeat of his own ideas.
-- Economist Paul Samuelson (January 2009)

The people on Wall Street still don't get it. They're still puzzled -- why is it that people are mad at the banks? Well, let's see. You know, you guys are drawing down 10, 20 million dollar bonuses after America went through the worst economic year that it's gone through in decades, and you guys caused the problem.
-- President Barack Obama (December 2009
Read more

Federal Reserve Officials Warn Of Looming Economic Crisis
HuffingtonPost | Author | 07/11/12

... Stock prices sank after the Fed expressed concerns about the economy. The Dow Jones industrial average had been down nearly 40 points before the minutes were released at 2 p.m. Eastern time. At around 2:30 p.m., the Dow was down 112 points, on track for its fifth straight day of losses. ... Read more

Health Care Law Repeal Efforts By House GOP Cost Nearly $50 Million: CBS Report
HuffingtonPost | Author | 07/11/12

While Republicans lambast the cost of implementing health care reform, a new report shows that their efforts to repeal the law have come at a major cost to taxpayers -- to the tune of nearly $50 million. Read more

Libor's Dirty Laundry
NYTimes | JOE NOCERA | 07/07/12

... Yet even with these precedents, the Libor scandal still manages to shock. Libor -- that's the London interbank offered rate -- represents a series of interest rates at which banks make unsecured loans to each other. More important, it is a benchmark that many financial instruments are pegged to. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which doggedly pursued the wrongdoing and brought the scandal to light, estimates that some $350 trillion worth of derivatives and $10 trillion worth of loans are based on Libor. ... Read more

Libor Scandal Could Turn 'Ugly' As U.S. Cities Begin To Sue
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/11/12

The news on Wednesday that cities and states are suing some of the world's largest banks over Libor manipulation shows how this scandal could blow up into one of history's biggest bank frauds.   That's because interest-rate manipulation might well have kept your town or state from hiring firefighters or teachers, from paving roads or paying for indigent care or after-school programs for your kids -- adding to the human suffering of the economic collapse these same banks caused in the first place. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Thursday, July 12 [13:21]

Comment: older videos, but very good...
Inequalistan Chris Hayes debunks top percent pay 70 percent of all income taxes baloney (09/24/11) [7:03]

Richard Wolff: Debt Debate is "Political Theater" Burdening Society's Most Vulnerable Part 1 (07/28/11) [14:49], Part 2 [11:41]

Capitalism Hits the Fan Film Screening by Richard Wolff (03/10/10) [1:44:18]

Michael Hudson: GOP Cries Wolf on Debt Ceiling In Order To Impose Radical Pro-Rich Agenda (07/22/11) [14:04]

Ralph Nader: Solution to Debt Crisis is to End Corporate Welfare and Corporate Tax Loopholes (07/19/11) [6:38]

Ralph Nader: Obama is a "Political Coward" For Not Appointing Elizabeth Warren (04/19/11) [9:40]

msnbc | LIBOR Scandal Broken Down By MSNBC's Chris Hayes (07/07/12) [9:11]

Time Running Out For U.S. To File Charges Over Financial Crisis
WSJ | Jean Eaglesham | 07/12/12

Time is running out for U.S. securities regulators to file civil charges for alleged wrongdoing during the financial crisis.   Federal laws under which the Securities and Exchange Commission usually goes after alleged fraud and other misdeeds have a five-year statute of limitations. ... Read more

Ship-Scrapping Prices Plunge In Buyer'S Market: Freight
Bloomberg | Author | 07/11/12

... "Owners haven't got any option other than to scrap," said Darren Lepper, a sales and purchase specialist at the London- based shipbroker. "It can definitely be deemed as a buyer's market."   Panamax vessels, the largest to transit the Panama Canal, have led the jump in scrapping with 56 sold for demolition in the first half compared with 38 a year earlier, according to Clarkson. The tonnage sold has risen 33 percent to 3.37 million tons. ... Read more

Airbus Scraps Target Of 30 A380 Sales As Demand Dwindles
Bloomberg | Andrea Rothman | 07/11/12

"The big aircraft market has been slowing down," Airbus Sales Chief John Leahy said in an interview at the Farnborough air show today. The target of 30 is "looking like a stretch at this point but when you set your goals at the beginning of the year you can't change them. Let's see how close we can get."   Airbus has struggled with its flagship model, after cracks emerged in wing components and output in the first half only reached a third of the annual goal of 30 deliveries. ... Read more

Spain unveils massive cuts amid protests
Aljazeera | Author | 07/11/12

Spain has announced a $79.85bn austerity package that includes tax hikes and spending cuts a day after it won approval from its euro partners for a huge bailout of the country's stricken banks. ... Read more

Where the Money Lives
VanityFair | Nicholas Shaxson | August 2012

For all Mitt Romney's touting of his business record, when it comes to his own money the Republican nominee is remarkably shy about disclosing numbers and investments. Nicholas Shaxson delves into the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney's fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate. ... Read more

GE To Air Lease Boost Boeing As Airlines' Orders Dwindle
Bloomberg | Tim Catts | 07/11/12

Jet-leasing companies are delivering a $19.7 billion windfall for Boeing Co. (BA) at the Farnborough air show even as airlines keep their checkbooks closed.   Orders and commitments from buyers ranging from General Electric Co. (GE)'s plane leasing unit to Steven Udvar-Hazy's Air Lease Corp. (AL) gave Boeing a head start over Airbus SAS to open the year's highest-profile aerospace industry trade event. Airbus jumped in today with deals for about $4.4 billion. ... Read more

Exclusive: Encana tipped off Chesapeake to land plans in Michigan - Emails
Reuter | Brian Grow | 07/11/12

As Chesapeake Energy Corp and Encana Corp face antitrust investigations, emails reviewed by Reuters indicate that top executives of the two rivals shared sensitive information that gave Chesapeake the upper hand in deals with Michigan land owners.   The emails show the competitors traded information about whether Encana was halting new land leasing in Michigan in 2010, and the information prompted Chesapeake to dramatically change its leasing strategy in subsequent weeks and helped send Michigan land prices tumbling from record highs. ... Read more

New Study: Fluids From Marcellus Shale Likely Seeping Into PA Drinking Water
ProPublica | Abrahm Lustgarten | 07/09/12

New research has concluded that salty, mineral-rich fluids deep beneath Pennsylvania's natural gas fields are likely seeping upward thousands of feet into drinking water supplies.   Though the fluids were natural and not the byproduct of drilling or hydraulic fracturing, the finding further stokes the red-hot controversy over fracking in the Marcellus Shale, suggesting that drilling waste and chemicals could migrate in ways previously thought to be impossible. ... Read more

Ralph Nader: 'Cowering' Democrats face defeat
Politico | William Bergstrom | 07/07/12

... "If the Democrats in Congress were all drinking water from the same faucet, there might be a clue to their chronic fear of the craven and cruel corporatist Republicans who dominate them," Nader began in a post on his website. "But they don't, so we have to ask why their fear, defeatism, and cowering behavior continues in the face of the outrageous GOP actions as the November election approaches." ...

... "The Democrats should be landsliding the worst Republican Party in history," the former presidential candidate added. "Instead, Democrats let Boehner and Cantor peddle their unrebutted torrents of falsehoods to the voters in their districts." ... Read more

Zombie economy threatens Obama
Politico | Ben White | 07/06/12
Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Wednesday, July 11 [13:20]

Nicholas Shaxson discusses his report about Romney's fortune, "Where the Money Lives" Part 1 (07/11/12) [10:44]

Airbus A380 - Giant Of The Skies Part 1 [42:23]

Disaster Declared In 26 U.S. States As Drought Sears Midwest
Bloomberg | Alan Bjerga | 07/11/12

More than 1,000 counties in 26 states are being named natural-disaster areas, the biggest such declaration ever by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as drought grips the Midwest.   The declaration makes farmers and ranchers in 1,016 counties -- about a third of those in the entire country -- eligible for low-interest loans to help them weather the drought, wildfires and other disasters, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said today. The USDA is also changing procedures to allow disaster claims to be processed more quickly and reducing the penalty ranchers are assessed for allowing livestock to graze on land set aside for conservation. ... Read more

Barclays Libor Scandal: Who Knew? Seven And A Half Things To Know
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/10/12

Thing One: The Fed's True Libors: It's a good thing no one on earth cares about this Libor scandal, because otherwise the Fed would be in so much trouble right now.

The United States central bank straight-up confesses to Reuters that, oh yeah, sure, it knew all about Libor shenanigans waaaay back in 2007, even before the Wall Street Journal wrote about it. It seems the New York Fed got a tip from some bank called, let us check here, Bar-Clays? Does that sound right? Bar-Clays? It seems this bank told the Fed about problems with the setting of Libor, an interest rate that is so pervasive in our daily lives that you were probably drinking a little Libor in your coffee just now. Not only that, but the Fed talked to Barclays about Libor approximately eleventy gazillion times after the initial tip. Not only that, but it also drew up a list of suggestions for Barclays and UK banking authorities about how to fix the Libor market. Which list of suggestions were promptly crumpled up into a ball and tossed in the coal oven for warmth because it's dismal in the UK in the winter, guvnah. .... Read more

PFGBest, Brokerage Firm, Missing Over $200 Million In Customer Funds As Founder Attempts Suicide
Reuters | Author | 07/09/12
Read more

Four Major Ways We're Following In Germany's Fascist Footsteps
AlterNet | Robert Cruickshank | 07/05/12

What happens when a nation that was once an economic powerhouse turns its back on democracy and on its middle class, as wealthy right-wingers wage austerity campaigns and enable extremist politics?   It may sound like America in 2012. But it was also Germany in 1932. ... Read more

Libor: The Wall Street Scandal of All Scandals
AlterNet | Robert B. Reich | 07/07/12

Just when you thought Wall Street couldn't sink any lower -- when its myriad abuses of public trust have already spread a miasma of cynicism over the entire economic system, giving birth to Tea Partiers and Occupiers and all manner of conspiracy theories; when its excesses have already wrought havoc with the lives of millions of Americans, causing taxpayers to shell out billions (of which only a portion has been repaid) even as its top executives are back to making more money than ever; when its vast political power (via campaign contributions) has already eviscerated much of the Dodd-Frank law that was supposed to rein it in, including the so-called "Volcker" Rule that was sold as a milder version of the old Glass-Steagall Act that used to separate investment from commercial banking -- yes, just when you thought the Street had hit bottom, an even deeper level of public-be-damned greed and corruption is revealed. ... Read more

Big Trouble for U.S.? Europe's Banking Crisis Moves Closer to a Lehman Brothers Moment
AlterNet | Marshall Auerback | 07/02/12

... This is all bunk. But why does that matter to you? Well, recall for an instance what happened to the global economy when Lehman Brothers went bust in 2008. The world's entire credit system froze up. Now consider the implications for the U.S. if the currency union in the world's largest economic bloc was to blow apart. Do you think the fallout might wind up in your backyard? Economist Simon Johnson recently gave a warning on the impact on U.S. banks in the event of a dissolution of the euro: ... Read more

Libor Scandal: Manipulation Spanned Decades, According To Reports
HuffingtonPost | Bonnie Kavoussi | 07/09/12

Though the Libor scandal is just breaking now, some financial insiders claim that Wall Street's been fiddling with the key interest rate for decades.   "Fifteen years ago, the word was that LIBOR was being rigged," a financial industry veteran involved in the Libor process told the Economist. "It was one of those well kept secrets, but the regulator was asleep, the Bank of England didn't care, and...[the banks involved were] happy with the reference prices." ... Read more

Quarter Of Wall Street Executives See Wrongdoing As Key To Success on Wall Street: Survey
Reuters | Author | date

... A quarter of Wall Street executives see wrongdoing as a key to success, according to a survey by whistleblower law firm Labaton Sucharow released on Tuesday.   In a survey of 500 senior executives in the United States and the UK, 26 percent of respondents said they had observed or had firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing in the workplace, while 24 percent said they believed financial services professionals may need to engage in unethical or illegal conduct to be successful. ... Read more

Analysis: Euro zone fragmenting faster than EU can act
Reuters | Paul Taylor | 07/09/12

Euro zone leaders agreed in principle on June 29 to establish a joint banking supervisor for the 17-nation single currency area, based on the European Central Bank, although most of the crucial details remain to be worked out. . . Read more

Paul Krugman's Dark Prediction For Mitt Romney
Magazine | Paul Krugman | 07/08/12

... But that was 44 years ago. And the contrast between George Romney and his son Mitt -- a contrast both in their business careers and in their willingness to come clean about their financial affairs -- dramatically illustrates how America has changed.

Right now there's a lot of buzz about an investigative report in the magazine Vanity Fair highlighting the "gray areas" in the younger Romney's finances. More about that in a minute. First, however, let's talk about what it meant to get rich in George Romney's America, and how it compares with the situation today. ... Read more

'Fiscal Cliff' Deadlock To Worsen, Congressional Leaders Warn
Reuters | Author | 07/08/12

... A scenario known by economists as the "fiscal cliff" could unfold at the end of the year. Historically low tax rates first enacted under Republican former President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003 are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, as are jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and a temporary payroll tax cut.

In addition, $1.2 trillion in across-the-board reductions in spending on federal programs would begin to phase in as a result of Congress' failure late last year to find a comprehensive deal to cut the budget deficit. ... Read more

U.S. Corn Growers Farming In Hell As Midwest Heat Spreads
Bloomberg | Jeff Wilson | 07/09/12

The worst U.S. drought since Ronald Reagan was president is withering the world's largest corn crop, and the speed of the damage may spur the government to make a record cut in its July estimate for domestic inventories. ...

... About 53 percent of the Midwest, where farmers harvested 60 percent of last year's U.S. crop, had moderate to extreme drought conditions as of July 3, the highest since the government-funded U.S. Drought Monitor in Lincoln, Nebraska, began tracking the data in 2000. In the seven days ended July 6, temperatures in the region averaged as much as 15 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Soil moisture in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri and Kentucky is so low that it ranks in the 10th percentile among all other years since 1895. ... Read more

Barclays Criminal Probe Begins, Experts Speculate Other Banks Involved In Libor Manipulation
HuffingtonPost | Author | 07/06/12

As the Libor manipulation scandal at British banking giant Barclays continues to escalate with the launch of a criminal probe, U.S. traders, former regulators and finance executives say other firms likely engaged in such behavior -- and that inquiries could even lead to jail time.   On Friday, U.K. regulators announced that Britain's Serious Fraud Office is launching a criminal investigation into bank manipulation of the key global interest rate known as Libor. ... Read more

Beyond Barclays: Laying out the Libor Investigations
ProPublica | Cora Currier | 07/06/12

... Settlements filed by government regulators in the U.S. and the U.K. show this manipulation happened in two ways: first, Barclays' traders attempted to steer rates up or down in order to benefit trades they had made to profit off of those rates. Separately, the filings show that during the financial crisis, Barclays tried to counter reports that it had financial troubles by changing the interest rate it reported. ... Read more

Wall Street Bank Investors in Dark on Libor Liability
Bloomberg | Andrew Harrisr | 07/05/12

... Bank of America Corp (BAC)., Citigroup Inc. (C) (C), Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG (UBSN) are among the lenders whose participation in setting the London and Europe interbank offered rates, known as Libor and Euribor, are under investigation. ... Read more

8 Ways America's Headed Back to the Robber-Baron Era
AlterNet | Erik Loomis | 07/03/12

Over the past 40 years, corporations and politicians have rolled back many of the gains made by working and middle-class people over the previous century. We have the highest level of income inequality in 90 years, both private and public sector unions are under a concerted attack, and federal and state governments intend to cut deficits by slashing services to the poor. ... Read more

Libor's Dirty Laundry
NYTimes | JOE NOCERA | 07/06/12

... Which means there is going to be a lot more opportunities for Americans to become outraged over this scandal. And, maybe, to finally summon the will to change banking once and for all. Read more

Secret Banking Cabal Emerges From AIG Shadows: David Reilly
Bloomberg | David Reilly | 01/28/10 (old but still relevant)

The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water and peanut butter. After this week's congressional hearing into the bailout of American International Group Inc., you have to wonder if those folks are crazy after all.

Hearings described a secretive group deploying billions of dollars to favored banks, operating with little oversight by the public or elected officials.   We're talking about the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, whose role as the most influential part of the federal-reserve system -- apart from the matter of AIG's bailout -- deserves further congressional scrutiny.

The New York Fed is in the hot seat for its decision in November 2008 to buy out, for about $30 billion, insurance contracts AIG sold on toxic debt securities to banks, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Societe Generale and Deutsche Bank AG, among others. That decision, critics say, amounted to a back-door bailout for the banks, which received 100 cents on the dollar for contracts that would have been worth far less had AIG been allowed to fail.

That move came a few weeks after the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department propped up AIG in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s own mid-September bankruptcy filing. .... Read more

Eliot Spitzer | It's over for the banking cabal. (07/04/12) [9:05]

Solar Flare Erupts From Giant Sunspot, Marks The Summer's Strongest Flare Yet
HuffingtonPost | SPACE.com | Tariq Malik | 07/07/12

The most powerful solar flare of the summer so far erupted from the sun Friday (July 6), the latest in a string of powerful storms this week from our nearest star, space weather experts say.   The sun storm occurred just after 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT) and registered as a class X1.1 solar flare -- one of the strongest types of solar flares possible, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) run by NOAA and the National Weather Service. ... Read more

Lagarde Says IMF to Cut Global Growth Outlook
Bloomberg | Isabel Reynolds | 07/06/12

The International Monetary Fund will reduce its estimate for global growth this year on weakness in investment, jobs and manufacturing in Europe, the U.S., Brazil, India and China, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. ... Read more

Heat Wave: St. Louis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis And Chicago Near Record High Temperatures
HuffingtonPost | Dinesh Ramde | 07/05/12

The temperatures in Casimir Brandon's basement bedroom grew so stifling that the exhausted Madison man began riding city buses in the morning, from one end of the line to the other, so he could grab a few hours of air-conditioned sleep. ... Read more

Citizens United: California Becomes Sixth State To Call For Amendment Against Ruling
HuffingtonPost | Anna Almendrala | 07/05/12

One of the largest states in the nation took an official stand Thursday against the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which ruled that government restriction of corporation or union spending on political campaigns violated the First Amendment right to free speech. ... Read more

Ralph Nader: 'Cowering' Democrats face defeat
Politico | William Bergstrom | 07/06/12

If the "cowering" Democrats -- who "are tortured daily by Republican leaders" -- come away the losers in November, they will have only themselves to blame, according to Ralph Nader.   "If the Democrats in Congress were all drinking water from the same faucet, there might be a clue to their chronic fear of the craven and cruel corporatist Republicans who dominate them," Nader began in a post on his website. "But they don't, so we have to ask why their fear, defeatism, and cowering behavior continues in the face of the outrageous GOP actions as the November election approaches." ... Read more

Six Ways the Big Banks Are Getting Back-Door Bailouts
Truthout | Sarah Jaffe | 07/01/12

... Yet those same banks are happy to make their money from the same governments about which they love to whine. Most of us know about the big, official bailouts. But the banks get much more than that from federal and state governments. Those lobbying dollars and campaign donations aren't just to keep regulators away; they lead to lucrative contracts where banks are paid to administer government services, and are put in position to skim fees off the very same taxpayers who pay for those services. ... Read more

European Central Bank Rate Cut: Bank Cuts Key Rate To Record Low To Help Economy
HuffingtonPost | David McHugh | 07/05/12

FRANKFURT, Germany -- The European Central Bank has cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a record low of 0.75 percent to boost a eurozone economy weighed down by the continent's crisis over too much government debt. ... Read more

Diamond (Barclays) 'Looking For A Little Love' Gets Lawmaker Grilling
Bloomberg | Author | 07/04/12

... "Do you live in a parallel universe to the rest of the U.K.?" Andrea Leadsom, a Conservative member of the House of Commons Treasury Committee, asked Diamond at a hearing in London yesterday. "You say it's the culture that saved Barclays, but it's the culture that's the problem." ... Read more

Lagarde Consumed By Crisis Steers IMF Tough Love To EU
Bloomberg | Sandrine Rastello | 07/05/12

... The challenge of leading a global institution that's increasingly focused on one continent isn't over. With 80 percent of the IMF's credit set to be tied up in Europe by 2014, the region represents a growing risk to the fund's resources and reputation among non-European nations, just as Greece seeks to renegotiate the conditions attached to its bailout. ... Read more

Rigged Rates, Rigged Markets
NYTimes | Author | 07/04/12

... To date, the Justice Department has not distinguished itself in prosecuting major banks or their executives for conduct leading up to and during the financial crisis. But with Barclays now cooperating, the "Libor scandal" is another chance for government prosecutors to unmask and punish financial wrongdoing. ... Read more

Big Banks Have Criminally Conspired Since 2005 to Rig $800 Trillion Dollar Market
ZeroHedge | Author | 07/01/12

... More than $800 trillion in securities and loans are linked to the Libor, including $350 trillion in swaps and $10 trillion in loans.   Remember, the derivatives market is approximately $1,200 trillion dollars. Interest rate derivatives comprise the lion's share of all derivatives, and could blow up and take down the entire financial system. ... Read more

Stockton Bankruptcy (largest city bankruptcy) The Result Of 15-Year Spending Binge
HuffingtonPost | Retuers | 07/04/12

1. Pension fund
2. Free Healthcare for life
3. Early retirement
Read more

U.S. Banks Greatly Benefiting Off Colombian Cocaine Trade
The Guardian | Ed Vulliamy | 07/03/12

The vast profits made from drug production and trafficking are overwhelmingly reaped in rich "consuming" countries -- principally across Europe and in the US -- rather than war-torn "producing" nations such as Colombia and Mexico, new research has revealed. And its authors claim that financial regulators in the west are reluctant to go after western banks in pursuit of the massive amount of drug money being laundered through their systems. ... Read more

JPMorgan Chase Manipulation Scandal Raises Specter Of Enron
HuffingtonPost | Mark Gongloff | 07/03/12

... The biggest blow was probably a New York Times story that the bank pushed mutual-fund clients into its own brand of mutual funds, which performed poorly and charged high fees. The story might make you think that maybe JPMorgan Chase cares only about money and not its clients! And you'd be right. ... Read more

Barclays Scandal Bad News For Investor Confidence
HuffingtonPost | D.M. Levine | 07/04/12

The ballooning interest rate manipulation scandal at Barclays, coupled with stock market instability, is likely to fuel fresh doubts about the integrity of the stock market, insiders said.   "Every time people begin to gain a little confidence, something else comes up," said Randy Frederick, managing director of active trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab. "If it's not Europe, it's [troubled] IPOs, or JPMorgan or Barclays. Something new blows up and people say, 'I knew it was rigged.'" ... Read more

Scientists say ongoing weather extremes offer proof of climate change
The Guardian | Suzanne Goldenberg | 07/03/12

The bizarre weather of early summer in the US -- from heatwave, wildfires, drought to freak storms -- is just a sampling of what is to come for 2012 and a window to the future under climate change, scientists have said. ... Read more

72 Percent of the US Is Experiencing Dry or Drought Conditions
MotherJones | Julia Whitty | 07/02/12

... More amazingly, the first day of the month also broke 6 and tied 11 records for the highest ever recorded temperatures on any date at sites in Georgia (Rome: 108 F), Kentucky (Barren River Lake: 108 F), North Carolina (Tapoco: 106 F), and South Carolina (Grnvl Spart Intl Ap: 107 F). ... Read more

JPMorgan Tightens Bond Grip As Whale Loss Weighs
Bloomberg | Charles Mead | 07/02/12

... Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive officer, is benefiting from debt underwriting as offerings approach $2 trillion, including a record $1.19 trillion in the first three months of the year. The New York-based lender is the top choice of companies even as it suffers more than $2 billion of losses from derivatives tied to corporate credit markets. ... Read more

Ex-JPMorgan Broker: 'It Was All About The Money, Not The Client'
HuffingtonPost | Alexander Eichler | 07/03/12

"It was all about the money, not the client."   That's according to Warren Rockmacher, a former broker at JPMorgan Chase, as quoted in a recent New York Times article about the company's sales culture. To sum up that culture in a word: intense. ... Read more

A Lesson from Crazy Horse
Truthout | Chris Hedges | 07/02/12
Good article

... Civilizations in the final stages of decay are dominated by elites out of touch with reality. Societies strain harder and harder to sustain the decadent opulence of the ruling class, even as it destroys the foundations of productivity and wealth. Karl Marx was correct when he called unregulated capitalism "a machine for demolishing limits." This failure to impose limits cannibalizes natural resources and human communities. This time, the difference is that when we go the whole planet will go with us. ... Read more

The Offshore Candidate: Secret Accounts, Tax Loopholes, Mysterious I.R.A....
VanityFair | Nicholas Shaxson | August 2012

For all Mitt Romney's touting of his business record, when it comes to his own money the Republican nominee is remarkably shy about disclosing numbers and investments. Nicholas Shaxson delves into the murky world of offshore finance, revealing loopholes that allow the very wealthy to skirt tax laws, and investigating just how much of Romney's fortune (with $30 million in Bain Capital funds in the Cayman Islands alone?) looks pretty strange for a presidential candidate. ... Read more

There's Something Rotten in Banking
Bloomberg | Author | 07/02/12

You might have missed the latest bank scandal, the one involving Barclays Plc (BARC), in the hubbub of last week's U.S. health-care ruling and euro salvage plan.   If so, allow us to fill you in: On June 27, Barclays, the U.K.'s second-largest bank by assets, admitted it deliberately reported artificial borrowing costs from 2005 to 2009. The false reports were used to set a benchmark rate, the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, which affects the value of trillions of dollars of derivatives contracts, mortgages and consumer loans. The bank agreed to pay a hefty $455 million to settle charges with U.S. and U.K. regulators, and on Monday its chairman resigned. ... Read more

Europe's Great Illusion
NYTimes | Paul Krugman | 07/01/12

... Meanwhile the euro's crisis has metastasized, spreading from Greece to the far larger economies of Spain and Italy, and Europe as a whole is clearly sliding back into recession. Yet the policy prescriptions coming out of Berlin and Frankfurt have hardly changed at all. ... Read more

Mexico's old rulers return but without strong mandate
Reuter | Dave Graham | 07/02/12

Mexico's old rulers have regained power following 12 years in opposition but likely will have to forge alliances with other parties to push through reforms after winning the presidency by a much narrower margin than polls had forecast. ... Read more

How Wall Street Scams Counties Into Bankruptcy
Bloomberg | William D. Cohan | 07/01/12

... For some reason, Wall Street never seems to get the message that bribing government officials -- and paying each other off - - to get access to lucrative municipal-bond underwriting business is illegal. Wall Street has never learned this lesson because the miniscule price it ends up having to pay for misbehaving has absolutely no deterrent value whatsoever. ... Read more

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, July 2 [13:08]

TYT | Supreme Court Upholds Obamacare - Conservative Reaction Absurd (06/28/12) [5:46]

Supreme Court: U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Undefeated This Term
HuffingtonPost | Mike Sacks | 06/22/12
Read more

The Ones We've Lost: The Student Loan Debt Suicides
HuffingtonPost | C. Cryn Johannsen | 07/02/12

... Yoder had been a graduate student in organic chemistry at Illinois State University but after incurring $100,000 in student loan debt, he struggled to find a job in his field. Later that night, Jason, 35, left the family's mobile home. Concerned about her son's mood, Jan Yoder decided in the early morning hours to go look for him on campus, where a professor she ran into joined her in the search. The two of them discovered his body in one of the labs on campus and called campus police at 8:30AM. 32 minutes later, Jason was declared dead due to nitrogen asphyxiation. ... Read more

Angela Merkel: Big Loser Of Eurozone Showdown
Retuers | Author | 06/30/12

Angela Merkel was portrayed across Europe as the big loser of a euro zone showdown in Brussels after the German chancellor was forced to accept the crisis-fighting measures championed by countries struggling with their debts. ... Read more

The Euro Zone Is No Worse Than the United States
Truthout | Paul Krugman | 06/29/12
Interesting article comparing EU States and USA States

As we contemplate the euro mess, there's a strong tendency to think of it as having a lot to do with the fundamental inequalities in overall productivity and economic development between euro members -- backward, semideveloped countries like Greece or Portugal (not my view, but what you often hear) awkwardly tied to powerhouses like Germany. ... Read more

Xi Jinping, the man in line to be China's next president, warned officials on a 2004 anti-graft
Bloomberg | Author | 06/29/12
Interesting read on China's Elite

Xi Jinping, the man in line to be China's next president, warned officials on a 2004 anti-graft conference call: "Rein in your spouses, children, relatives, friends and staff, and vow not to use power for personal gain." ... Read more

Virginia, D.C., Maryland Derecho 2012: Aggressive Storm System Heads Toward Nation's Capital
HuffingtonPost | Author | 06/29/12

According to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, a derecho "is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to that of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath." ... Read more

Michael Marin, Ex-Wall Street Trader, Dies In Courtroom After Conviction
HuffingtonPost | Author | 06/29/12

... Though he had grown accustomed to a lifestyle that reportedly included owning Picasso sketches and $800 climbing boots, Marin's financial situation grew dire the year before the fire. His bank account balance fell to only $50 from $900,000 even while he had a monthly mortgage payment of more than $17,000, according to the Arizona Republic. ... Read more

Ten Reasons Not to Bank On (or With) Bank of America
Truthout | Nomi Prins | 06/29/12

There is no shortage of hatred for the biggest banks. Indeed, the Occupy Wall Street movement is leading a national revolution against these Byzantine, powerful Goliaths for the economic devastation they have caused. This makes it difficult to choose the worst of the bunch. That said, a strong case can be made that Bank of America deserves the title of the nation's most despised bank.   Here are ten reasons to take your money out of Bank of America - and park it at a credit union or community bank near you. ... Read more

China hails space mission's success as crew returns to Earth
Reuters | Michael Martina | 06/29/12

China's Shenzhou 9 spacecraft returned to Earth on Friday, ending a mission that put the country's first woman in space and completed a manned docking test critical to its goal of building a space station by 2020.   The spacecraft's gumdrop-shaped return capsule descended to Earth by parachute and touched down shortly after 10 a.m. EDT (0200 GMT) in China's northwestern Inner Mongolia region with its three-member crew, including female astronaut Liu Yang. ... Read more

Reuters | China launches space mission [1:24]

Bernie Sanders blasts 'oligarchic form' of U.S. government
HuffingtonPost | Eric W. Dolan | 06/27/12

... "The wealthy people in this country are becoming wealthier, the middle class is disappearing and poverty is increasing," Sanders said. "Now, when we talk about an oligarchic form of government, what we're talking about is not just a handful of families owning entire nations. We're also talking about the politics of the nation." ... Read more

Matt Davis, Former GOP Spokesman, Suggests 'Armed Rebellion' After Supreme Court Ruling
HuffingtonPost | Benjamin Hart | 06/28/12

... Matt Davis, a Michigan attorney who was once the state Republican Party's spokesman, sent out an email that asked whether armed rebellion would be justified in the wake of the court's decision. ... Read more

Worst wildfire ever in Colorado claims first victim
Reuters | Keith Coffman | 06/29/12

A wildfire that forced the evacuation of 35,000 people from the edge of Colorado's second-largest city has killed at least one person and incinerated 346 homes, making it the most destructive blaze in state history, officials said on Thursday.   Lighter winds helped firefighters gain new ground against the inferno, which had roared unchecked on Tuesday night through communities in the northwestern corner of Colorado Springs and threatened the U.S. Air Force Academy campus in town. ... Read more