Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Leashes Come Off Wall Street, Gun Sellers, Polluters and More
NYTimes | Eric Lipton | 03/05/17

Giants in telecommunications, like Verizon and AT&T, will not have to take "reasonable measures" to ensure that their customers' Social Security numbers, web browsing history and other personal information are not stolen or accidentally released.

Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase will not be punished, at least for now, for not collecting extra money from customers to cover potential losses from certain kinds of high-risk trades that helped unleash the 2008 financial crisis.

And Social Security Administration data will no longer be used to try to block individuals with disabling mental health issues from buying handguns, nor will hunters be banned from using lead-based bullets, which can accidentally poison wildlife, on 150 million acres of federal lands. .... Read more

Former Intelligence Chief Denies Trump Campaign Was Wiretapped
HP | Daniel Marans | 03/05/17

James Crapper also said he knew of no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said Sunday that Donald Trump's presidential campaign was not wiretapped under his watch.

"For the part of the national security apparatus that I oversaw as [director of national intelligence], there was no such wiretap activity mounted against the president-elect, at the time, as a candidate or against his campaign. I can't speak for other Title III-authorized entities in the government, or a state or local entity," Clapper told NBC News' Chuck Todd on "Meet the Press." ... Read more

NBC Meet the Press | Full Clapper: 'No Evidence' of Collusion Between Trump and Russia (03/05/17) [7:31]

If Trump Tower Was Wiretapped, Trump Can Declassify That Right Now
TheIntercept | Jon Schwarz | 03/04/17

IF IN FACT Trump Tower was wiretapped during the 2016 presidential campaign, as President Trump claimed in several tweets Saturday morning, he can do much more than say so on twitter: Presidents have the power to declassify anything at any time, so Trump could immediately make public any government records of such surveillance.

... According to a report in the BBC, citing unnamed sources, a joint government task force was formed in spring of 2016 to look into an intelligence report from a foreign government that Russian money was somehow coming into the U.S. presidential race. In June the Department of Justice, part of the task force, asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court for a warrant to intercept electronic communications by two Russian banks. ... Read more

Former Trump adviser Carter Page also met with Russian envoy
Politico | Josh Meyers | 03/02/17

When Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak traveled to the GOP convention last summer, he met with then Sen. Jeff Sessions, as well as with two other Trump campaign advisers, including oil industry consultant Carter Page.

Page, at the time an unpaid foreign policy adviser to Trump, engaged in a conversation with the ambassador at the same July 20 luncheon in Cleveland where Sessions, now attorney general, and Kislyak chatted, according to J.D. Gordon, a national security adviser to the Trump campaign who was also present at the lunch. ... Read more

China's Banking System Hits $33 Trillion, Overtaking The Eurozone As World's Largest
ZeroHedge | author | 03/06/17

Chinese bank assets hit $33 trillion at the end of 2016, versus $31 trillion for the eurozone, $16 trillion for the US and $7 trillion for Japan. The value of China's banking system is now more than 310% the size of its GDP, compared to "only" 280% for the eurozone and its banks. China's bank assets are projected to grow by $3.3 trillion in 2017. ... Read more

Bannk of International Settlements (BIS) Admits TARGET2 Is A Stealth Bailout Of Europe's Periphery
ZeroHedge | author | 03/06/17

"In the period leading up to mid-2012, T2 balances grew strongly due to intra-euro area capital flight. At the time, sovereign market strains spiked and redenomination risk came to the fore in parts of the euro area. Private capital fled from Ireland, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain into markets perceived to be safer, such as Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands." ... Read more
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