Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Darren Wilson: There's 'No Way' Michael Brown Put His Hands Up
HP | Paige Lavender | 11/25/14

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson opened up for the first time in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, part of which aired Tuesday evening, less than 24 hours after it was announced a grand jury would not indict him for the death of Michael Brown.

Wilson said there was "no way" Brown put his hands up before Wilson fired his weapon, as some witnesses have described. Wilson said he thought, "he will kill me if he gets to me" when he saw Brown come toward him. ... Read more
Darren Wilson: There's 'No Way' Michael Brown Put His Hands Up

Good News for Mother Earth: Solar, Wind Power Becoming Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels
BillMoyers | author | 11/24/14

The untold story of the 2009 stimulus package is that it jump-started a failing renewable energy sector in the US. As journalist Michael Grunwald, author The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era, told The Atlantic in 2012, the much-maligned American American Recovery and Reinvestment Act "really launched a silent green revolution." A big part of that revolution was driven by the stimulus package's $90 billion for clean energy at a time when the government had been spending only a few billion per year.

Today, many of our green energy subsidies have expired, and additional tax breaks are unlikely to be renewed by Congress. But spending on research and development in both the public and private sector -- and by other countries -- now appears to be paying dividends. As of last year, the solar energy business alone accounted for more American jobs than gas and coal combined, according to the Solar Foundation's annual survey. ... Read more

Five bedrock assumptions that are warping American policy in the Middle East.
TomDispatch & BillMoyers | author | date

"Iraq no longer exists." My young friend M, sipping a cappuccino, is deadly serious. We are sitting in a scruffy restaurant across the street from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Manhattan's Upper West Side. It's been years since we've last seen each other. It may be years before our paths cross again. As if to drive his point home, M repeats himself: "Iraq just doesn't exist."

His is an opinion grounded in experience. As an enlisted soldier, he completed two Iraq tours, serving as a member of a rifle company, before and during the famous Petraeus "surge." After separating from the Army, he went on to graduate school where he is now writing a dissertation on insurgencies. Choosing the American war in Iraq as one of his cases, M has returned there to continue his research. Indeed, he was heading back again that very evening. As a researcher, his perch provides him with an excellent vantage point for taking stock of the ongoing crisis, now that the Islamic State, or IS, has made it impossible for Americans to sustain the pretense that the Iraq War ever ended. ...

Prosperity Amidst the Ruins
ZeroHedge | author | 11/26/14

The fundamental problem facing the global economy is not slow economic growth but political inequality.

It's striking: as economies stagnate, the top tier is living even larger while the low-income masses sink further into marginalized poverty. I call this widening divide between the vested interests/wealthy and the rest of society prosperity amidst the ruins.

How can the top slice prosper while the rest of the populace suffers from higher taxes, stagnant wages and a collapse of employment/enterprise opportunities? ... Read more

There Goes The Shopping Spree: Nor'easter May Hit East Coast For Thanksgiving
ZeroHedge | author | 11/26/14

Forget Black Friday and Q4 GDP... it appears, from the most recent forecasts that from Wednesday on this week, the eastern US faces a 'White Five-Day' as Accuweather reports "an increasing likelihood for a swath of heavy snow stretching from eastern Pennsylvania through New York's Hudson Valley and across much of New England before all is said and done." Furthermore, as WaPo notes, Wednesday's possible storm has a chance to develop into a legitimate Nor'easter. ... Read more

How Obama Pushed Hagel Out of the Pentagon
Bloomberg | Jonathan Allen | 11/25/14

"The White House has really wanted to minimize the influence of the Pentagon on policy," said Rosa Brooks, who was counselor to then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy during Obama's first term.

Like his immediate predecessors at the Pentagon, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, Hagel chafed at the way a small cadre of Obama loyalists centralized power in the White House. When Obama backed off a threat to bomb Syria last year, he made the decision on a walk with his chief of staff, Denis McDonough. Hagel was informed of the decision later.

Tension between Hagel and White House aides got so bad, the defense official said, that Hagel would often phone Obama after the meetings to make sure his voice was heard. ... Read more

Wall Street Pension-Raiders Scored Big Wins in 2014 Midterms
BillMoyers | author | 11/21/14

Last fall, journalists David Sirota and Matt Taibbi dug into a well-funded Wall Street campaign to loot public pension funds. A number of states had, or were in the process of turning billions of dollars in public employees' retirement funds over to various financial firms that in turn skimmed exorbitant fees off the top. ... Read more

Here Comes France: Right-Wing Leader Marine Le Pen Demands Central Bank Repatriate French Gold
ZeroHedge | author | 11/25/14

First Germany, then the Netherlands, perhaps Switzerland this weekend, and now the French right-wing Front National, which shockingly came first in May's European parliament elections, and whose leader Marine Le Pen is currently polling in first place in a hypothetical presidential election (in both a first and run off round), ahead of president Hollande, has sent a letter to the governor of the French Central Bank, the Banque de France, demanding that France join the list of nations which have repatriated, or at least tried to, their gold. ... Read more

Apple Market Cap Tops $700 Billion, Netflix Goes Red In 2014
ZeroHedge | author | 11/25/14

Apple tops $700 billion market cap and is up over 50% year-to-date...
Meanwhile Netflix has once again given up all its year-to-date gains...

Tar Sands is a messy job

Chuck Hagel Stepping Down As Secretary Of Defense
AP & HP | Julie Pace | 11/24/14

President Barack Obama says Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has concluded it's an "appropriate time" for him to complete his service. Obama says Hagel will stay in place at the Pentagon until a successor is confirmed.

Hagel has had a rocky tenure of nearly two years in which he's struggled to break through the White House's insular foreign policy team. He stepped down under pressure amid multiple foreign policy crises, including the rise of the Islamic State group. ... Read more

Arresting Portraits Give Voices To Homeless People In America's Poorest Big City by Robbie Couch (11/24/14) (photos)

Behind 700% Loans, Profits Flow Through Red Rock to Wall Street
Bloomberg | Zeke Faux | 11/24/14

Joshua Wrenn needed money to make the January payment for his Jeep Cherokee. The truck driver and aspiring country singer in Madison, North Carolina, got $800 within minutes from a website he found on his phone. When he called to check his balance a few weeks later, he was told he had electronically signed a contract to pay back $3,920 to a company owned by an American Indian tribe.

"I didn't ever see a contract, not one time," said Wrenn, 30. "If I was that stupid, to sign for $3,000 for an $800 loan, I might as well bury myself alive."

Payday loans like Wrenn's -- costly, short-term advances for those with poor credit -- are illegal in North Carolina and about a dozen other states. That's driving online lenders to Indian reservations, where tribes say they're not subject to interest-rate regulations.

American Web Loan, Wrenn's payday lender, is one of the biggest in the U.S. Its offices are in four double-wide trailers, behind the Otoe-Missouria tribe's 7 Clans Paradise Casino in Red Rock, Oklahoma, off a two-lane highway lined with wheat fields. John Shotton, chairman of the Otoe-Missouria, says his impoverished tribe needs the profits to fund affordable housing and after-school programs. ... Read more

Here Are The Most Popular "Hedge Fund" Stocks in The Third Quarter
AAPL has regained its top spot as the global hedge fund hotel's most beloved stock. In fact, 4 of the 5 most widely held names are all tech names, with GOOG, MSFT and FB rounding out the top 4, and only Citigroup as the outlier in the top 5. Perhaps more notable is that the former hedge fund darlings AIG and GM, have been abandoned by the HF crowd, and were in 9th and 16th place, respectively. Click to zoom - for Larger Image

7 Leading Candidates for Corporate Rip-Off of the Year
Alternet | Paul Buchheit | 11/23/14

There are so many to choose from. Every one of these selections is an act of corporate treachery that takes billions of dollars from the American people.

Wall Street Stunned As Iceland Dares To Jail Banker Involved In 2008 Crash
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

The impossible is possible. Never say never. Wall Street bankers are staring agog at headlines coming from Europe where, in Iceland, the former chief executive of one of the largest banks in the country which was involved in crashing the economy in 2008 has been sentenced to jail time. As Valuewalk reports, in receiving a one year prison sentence, Sigurjon Arnason officially became the first bank executive to be convicted of manipulating the bank's stock price and deceiving investors, creditors and the authorities between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 2008, as the bank's fortunes unwound, crashing the economy with it. ... Read more

3 Of The 10 Largest Economies In The World Have Already Fallen Into Recession -- Is The U.S. Next?
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

Are you waiting for the next major wave of the global economic collapse to strike? Well, you might want to start paying attention again. Three of the ten largest economies on the planet have already fallen into recession, and there are very serious warning signs coming from several other global economic powerhouses.

Things are already so bad that British Prime Minister David Cameron is comparing the current state of affairs to the horrific financial crisis of 2008. In an article for the Guardian that was published on Monday, he delivered the following sobering warning: "Six years on from the financial crash that brought the world to its knees, red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global economy." For the leader of the nation with the 6th largest economy in the world to make such a statement is more than a little bit concerning. ... Read more

U.S. Federal Reserve To Review How It Supervises Major Banks
HP | author | 11/20/14

The U.S. Federal Reserve said on Thursday it has launched a review of how it oversees major banks, calling on its inspector general to help with the probe after a series of critical reports.

Separate studies to be undertaken by the Fed's Washington-based Board of Governors and its Office of Inspector General are meant to ensure that "divergent views" about the state of large banks are adequately aired. ... Read more

Gold Repatriation Stunner: Dutch Central Bank Secretly Withdrew 122 Tons Of Gold From The New York Fed
ZeroHedge | author | 11/21/14

A week ago, we penned "The Real Reason Why Germany Halted Its Gold Repatriation From The NY Fed", in which we got, for the first time ever, an admission by an official source, namely the bank that knows everything that takes place in Germany - Deutsche Bank - what the real reason was for Germany's gold repatriation halt after obtaining a meager 5 tons from the NY Fed ...

... Some took offense with this, pointing out, accurately, that the gold held at the NY Fed in deposit form for foreign institutions had continued to decline into 2014 despite the alleged German halt. Well, today we know the answer: it wasn't Germany who was secretly withdrawing gold from the NYFed contrary to what it had publicly disclosed. It was the Netherlands. ... Read more

QE isn't dying, it's morphing
Nomi Prins | Nomi Prins | 11/10/14

A funny thing happened on the way to the 'end' of the multi-trillion dollar bond buying program known as QE - the Fed chronicles. Aside from the shift to a globalization of QE via the European Central Bank (ECB) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) as I wrote about earlier, what lingers in the air of "post-taper" time is an absence of absence. For QE is not over. Instead, in the United States, the process has simply morphed from being predominantly executed by the Federal Reserve (Fed) to being executed by its major private bank members. Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, has failed to point this out in any of her speeches about the labor force, inflation, or inequality.

The financial system has failed and remains a threat to us all. Only cheap money and the artificial inflation of asset values can make it appear temporarily healthy. Yet, the Fed (and the Obama Administration) continue to perpetuate the illusion that making the cost of (printed) money zero by any means has had a positive effect on the population at large, when in fact, all that has occurred is a pass-the-debt-ponzi-scheme co-engineered by the Fed and big US bank beneficiaries. That debt, caught in the crossfires of this central-private bank arrangement, is still doing nothing for American citizens or the broader national or global economy. Read more

Jon Stewart | "And when it does pass, (Keystone XL Pipeline)" Stewart concluded, "Mary Landrieu can be thankful that even though it didn't save her job, she can apply for one of the 35 to millions of jobs created by the pipeline." (11/21/14) [8:42]

So Many People Are Badly Traumatized by Life in America: It's Time We Admit It
AlterNet | Lynn Stuart Parramore | 11/19/14

Recently Don Hazen, the executive editor of AlterNet, asked me to think about trauma in the context of America's political system. As I sifted through my thoughts on this topic, I began to sense an enormous weight in my body and a paralysis in my brain. What could I say? What could I possibly offer to my fellow citizens? Or to myself? After six years writing about the financial crisis and its gruesome aftermath, I feel weariness and fear. When I close my eyes, I see a great ogre with gold coins spilling from his pockets and pollution spewing from his maw lurching toward me with increasing speed. I don't know how to stop him. ... Read more

Meet the Fortune 500 Companies (Corporations) Funding the Political Resegregation of America
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/21/14

Over the past four to five years, the United States has been resegregated--politically. In states where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans and presidential races can be nail-biters, skillful Republican operatives have mounted racially-minded gerrymandering efforts--the redrawing of congressional and state legislative districts--that have led to congressional delegations stacked with GOP members and yielded Republican majorities in the state legislatures.

In North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, to name just three, GOPers have recast state and congressional districts to consolidate black voters into what the political pros call "majority-minority districts" to diminish the influence of these voters. North Carolina is an especially glaring example: GOP-redistricting after the 2010 elections led to half the state's black population--1.1 million people--being corralled into one-fifth of the state legislative and congressional districts. "The districts here take us back to a day of segregation that most of us thought we'd moved away from," State Sen. Dan Blue Jr., who was previously North Carolina's first black House speaker, told the Nation in 2012. ... Read more

Senate | Permanent Subcommitee on Investigations

The Latest Scandal: Goldman, Fed Employees Busted For Illegally Sharing Confidential Information
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

Because when the rape and pillaging of the US middle-class begins at the very top, it won't end until the sharp metal objects finally start falling.

On the morning of Friday, September 26, in addition to the shocking news of Bill Gross' departure from Pimco, the world was just as shocked, or not as the case was for many, that a former NY Fed staffer, Carmen Segarra, who had been previously fired for suggesting that Goldman Sachs has an undue influence on the NY Fed and gets a preferential treatment (certainly as a result of NY Fed's president Bill Dudley being working previously at Goldman Sachs), had released nearly 50 hours of tapes confirming her allegations: that the NY Fed was nothing but a branch of the bank that controls every central bank. The full details were presented in "How Goldman Controls The New York Fed: 47.5 Hours Of "The Secret Goldman Sachs Tapes" Explain."

Ironically it was on that very day that another recent Goldman hire from the NY Fed - a classic case of, as the NY Times puts it, the "revolving door, the symbolic portal that connects financial regulators to Wall Street" - a 29-year-old former New York Fed regulator named Rohit Bansal, got into hot water after something "shocking" was revealed: he had an inside source at the NY Fed who was providing him with illegal, confidential information on a regular basis. ... Read more

*DN | Matt Taibbi and Bank Whistleblower on How JPMorgan Chase Helped Wreck the Economy, Avoid Prosecution (11/07/14) [9:25]

Enough Is Enough: The President's Latest Wall Street Nominee
HP | Sen. Elizabeth Warren | 11/19/14

I believe President Obama deserves deference in picking his team, and I've generally tried to give him that. But enough is enough.

Last Wednesday, President Obama announced his nomination of Antonio Weiss to serve as Under Secretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. This is a position that oversees Dodd-Frank implementation and a wide range of banking and economic policymaking issues, including consumer protection.

So who is Antonio Weiss? He's the head of global investment banking for the financial giant Lazard. He has spent the last 20 years of his career at Lazard -- most of it advising on international mergers and acquisitions. ... Read more

Neo-Feudalism Has Officially Arrived -- Congressman Suggests Building A Moat Around White House
ZeroHedge | author | 11/20/14

"While the general population is aware something is seriously wrong, people remain extremely confused about the root of the problem. This is because what's happening all around us isn't socialism and it isn't free market capitalism. It is actually a return to something much more ancient and much more oppressive. It is a return to serfdom, neo-fedualism and oligarchy." ... Read more

World Not Even Close To Avoiding Dangerous Warming, UN Report Finds
HP | Seth Borenstein | 11/19/14

The world still isn't close to preventing what leaders call a dangerous level of man-made warming, a new United Nations report says. That's despite some nations' recent pledges to cut back on carbon dioxide emissions.

The report looks at the gap between what countries promise to do about carbon pollution and what scientists say needs to be done to prevent temperatures rising another two degrees. That two-degree level is a goal that world leaders set in 2009.

To achieve that goal, the world has to hit a peak of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases before 2030, said the report's chief scientific editor, Joseph Alcamo. But the study says carbon emissions will continue to soar until 2050 and by then it will be too late, even with recent promises by the U.S., China and Europe. ... Read more

Militant attack deaths soar to all-time high: report
Reuters | Peter Apps | 11/18/14

The number of people killed in militant attacks worldwide jumped more than 60 percent last year to a record high of nearly 18,000 and the figure could rise further in 2014 due to an escalation of conflict in the Middle East and Nigeria, a report showed on Tuesday.

Four Islamist groups operating in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria were responsible for two thirds of the 2013 attacks and the vast majority of the deaths occurred in those countries, the Australia and US-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) said in its Global Terrorism Index.

However, militant attacks are on the rise more broadly, with two dozen countries seeing more than 50 deaths in 2013, it said. ... Read more

Stunning Photos Of Record Snow Covering Upstate New York: 100 Total Inches Of Snow Expected
Click to zoom - for More Images
ZeroHedge | author | 11/19/14

As previously reported, the anticipated Polar Vortex 2.0 has struck, pushing temperatures in all 50 states to below freezing, while heavy snow prompted a state of emergency in western New York and contributed to the deaths of four people. According to Reuters, it was the coldest November morning across the country since 1976, according to Weather Bell Analytics, a meteorologist consulting firm. It remains to be seen how many GDP percentage points were wiped out as a result, unless of course, this time it will be different from last winter. But it was the situation in upstate New York, especially around Bufallo and parts of Erie County, where things got most dire and where 60 inches (1.5 m) of snow accumulated, with more falling, said Steven Welch of the National Weather Service near Buffalo. It gets worse: forecasters are calling for more snow on Thursday, as much as three feet more, for a total of up to 100 inches over four days - a year's worth for the region! ... Read more

A dramatic time-lapse of the snow-wall can be seen in the video below (11/18/14) [0:16]

Other Stuff in the News

Jerusalem Synagogue Attack Leaves 3 Americans, Briton Dead
HP | author | 11/18/14

Two Palestinian cousins armed with meat cleavers and a gun stormed a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers Tuesday, killing four people in the city's bloodiest attack in years. Police killed the attackers in a shootout.

The attack ratcheted up fears of sustained violence in the city, which is already on edge amid soaring tensions over its most contested holy site. Police said the dead worshippers were three Americans and a Briton, and that all held dual Israeli citizenship. The attack occurred in Har Nof, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood that has a large population of English-speaking immigrants. ... Read more

Robert Reich: The .01 Percent Blow Their Fortunes on Yachts, Personal Jets and America's Politicians
AlterNet | Robert Reich | 11/18/14

The richest Americans hold more of the nation's wealth than they have in almost a century. What do they spend it on? As you might expect, personal jets, giant yachts, works of art, and luxury penthouses.

And also on politics. In fact, their political spending has been growing faster than their spending on anything else. It's been growing even faster than their wealth. According to new research by Emmanuel Saez of the University of California at Berkeley and Gabriel Zucman of the London School of Economics, the richest one-hundredth of one percent of Americans now hold over 11 percent of the nation's total wealth. That's a higher share than the top .01 percent held in 1929, before the Great Crash. ... Read more

Ukraine Admits Its Gold Is Gone: "There Is Almost No Gold Left In The Central Bank Vault"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/18/14

Back in March we reported of a strange incident that took place just after the Ukraine presidential coup, namely that according to at least one source, "in a mysterious operation under the cover of night, Ukraine's gold reserves were promptly loaded onboard an unmarked plane, which subsequently took the gold to the US." Needless to say there was no official confirmation of any of this taking place, and in fact our report, in which we mused if the "price of Ukraine's liberation" was the handover of its gold to the Fed at a time when Germany was actively seeking to repatriate its own physical gold located at the bedrock of the NY Fed, led to the usual mainstream media mockery. Until now. In an interview on Ukraine TV, none other than the head of the Ukraine Central Bank made the stunning admission that "in the vaults of the central bank there is almost no gold left. There is a small amount of gold bullion left, but it's just 1% of the gold reserves." ... Read more

Hugh Hendry: "I Believe Central Bankers Are Terrified"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/18/14

... the structural deficiency of global demand continues to radicalise the central banking community. I believe they are terrified: the system is so leveraged and vulnerable to potentially systemic price reversals that the monetary authorities find themselves beholden to long only investors and obliged to support asset prices. ... Read more

Backstabbing in Hillaryland: Here We Go Again
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/18/14

"EXCLUSIVE: Read the Secret Emails of the Men Who May Run Hillary Clinton's Campaign"--promised a juicy exposé. In reality, the substance of what members posted on this 150-member "secret" listserv, dubbed the "Mook Mafia," was far from explosive. The phrases "smite Republicans mafia-style" and "punish those voters" read badly out of context. But then, who hasn't dashed off a snarky email to friends that you wished you could take back and touch up a little?

The real news isn't that Mook and Marshall had a listserv for fellow Democratic operatives. It's that someone on the listserv leaked its contents in an effort to hurt Mook's chances of becoming the manager of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. In other words, the Clinton '16 effort has yet to officially launch and already the backstabbing and infighting has begun. ... Read more

Japan Unexpectedly Enters Recession as Abe Weighs Tax: Economy
Bloomberg | Keiko Ujikane | 11/17/14

Japan unexpectedly sank into a recession last quarter as the world's third-largest economy struggled to shake off the impact of an April sales-tax boost, raising the odds of a delay in a second bump in the levy. ....

"No part of Japan's economy looks encouraging," said Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, who had the weakest forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, with a 0.8% growth estimate for real GDP. "Today's data will leave another traumatic memory for Japanese politicians about sales tax hikes." ... Read more

Here Is Your "Global Recovery" In 24 Charts
ZeroHedge | author | 11/17/14

Haaretz obtains full document of EU-proposed sanctions against Israel
HP & Haaretz | Barak Ravid | 11/17/14

Sanctions could apply to Israeli politicians opposed to the two-state solution, which could include Bennett and Rivlin; steps against European companies working in settlements; punitive measures against Palestinians over 'negative measures.'

An internal European Union document on proposed sanctions against Israel, which Haaretz obtained in its entirety on Monday, reveals new details on the suggestions being made in the internal discussions among EU member states that have been taking place in Brussels. Among the options under consideration are measures against European companies that work in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. ... Read more

Democracy Now! U.S. and World News Headlines for Monday, November 17 [8:38]

*TRNN | William K. Black: $4.3 Billion Fine for Fraud in Exchange Market Manipulations is Pittance for Major Banks (11/17/14) [11:20]

TRNN | Ed Herman, Co-Author of "Manufacturing Consent" (older REPLAY 2012) [15:29]

Mission Accomplished: Stocks & Homeless Kids Hit All-Time Highs

Putin "Prepares For Economic War", Buys Whopping 55 Tonnes Of Gold In Q3
ZeroHedge | author | 11/13/14

Just as China is buying 'cheap' oil with both hands and feet, so Russia, according to the latest data from The World Gold Council (WGC) has been buying gold in huge size. Dwarfing the rest of the world's buying in Q3, Russia added a stunning 55 tonnes to its reserves, as The Telegraph reports, Putin is taking advantage of lower gold prices to pack the vaults of Russia's central bank with bullion as it "prepares for the possibility of a long, drawn-out economic war with the West." Bottom line: Russia bought more gold in Q3 then all other countries combined. ... Read more

Here Comes the Sun: America's Solar Boom, in Charts
Click to zoom - for Larger Image
Bill Moyers | Tim McDonnell | 11/11/14

Last week, an energy analyst at Deutsche Bank came to a startling conclusion: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three. That's without any changes to existing policy. In other words, we're only a few years away from the point where, in most of the United States, there will be no economic reason not to go solar. If you care about slowing climate change or just moving toward cleaner energy, that is a huge deal.

And solar energy is already going gangbusters. In the past decade, the amount of solar power produced in the United States has leaped 139,000 percent. A number of factors are behind the boom: Cheaper panels and a raft of local and state incentives, plus a federal tax credit that shaves 30 percent off the cost of upgrading.

Still, solar is a bit player, providing less than half of 1 percent of the energy produced in the United States. But its potential is massive -- it could power the entire country 100 times over.

So what's the holdup? A few obstacles: pushback from old-energy diehards, competition with other efficient energy sources, and the challenges of power storage and transmission. But with solar in the Southwest already at "grid parity" -- meaning it costs the same or less as electricity from conventional sources -- Wall Street is starting to see solar as a sound bet. As a recent Citigroup investment report put it, "Our viewpoint is that solar is here to stay." ... Read more
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Inside the Koch Brothers' Toxic Empire
RollingStone | Tim Dickinson | 09/24/14

Together, Charles and David Koch control one of the world's largest fortunes, which they are using to buy up our political system. But what they don't want you to know is how they made all that money.

The enormity of the Koch fortune is no mystery. Brothers Charles and David are each worth more than $40 billion. The electoral influence of the Koch brothers is similarly well-chronicled. The Kochs are our homegrown oligarchs; they've cornered the market on Republican politics and are nakedly attempting to buy Congress and the White House. Their political network helped finance the Tea Party and powers today's GOP. Koch-affiliated organizations raised some $400 million during the 2012 election, and aim to spend another $290 million to elect Republicans in this year's midterms. So far in this cycle, Koch-backed entities have bought 44,000 political ads to boost Republican efforts to take back the Senate. ... Read more

Beware of Monster Trade Deals Negotiated Behind Closed Doors
The Nation. & BillMoyers | Greg Grandin | 11/12/14

The media have been pushing a line, following the Republican victory in last week's midterm election, that the one area where Barack Obama and a now GOP-controlled Senate might find room for compromise is trade, especially the approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, a twelve-nation deal.

As with NAFTA, the lobbying will be intense to pass the deal, with the lucre of corporate campaign contributions sweetened by the praise that would be heaped on yea-voting members for transcending partisanship. It would be a disaster were the TPP to pass and go into effect, for multiple reasons: it deregulates financial speculation; it eviscerates the ability of nations to enforce environmental regulations; it locks in a deeply unequal trade and intellectual property-rights regime, granting a handful of the world's largest corporations monopoly protection; and it encourages the privatization of public services and public property.

Worst of all, it, it globalizes the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, which allows corporations and investors to "sue governments directly before tribunals of three private sector lawyers operating under World Bank and UN rules to demand taxpayer compensation for any domestic law that investors believe will diminish their 'expected future profits.'" Under such provisions, mining corporations have taken El Salvador to court for trying to limit their right to open-pit mine the country and pollute its rivers and El Lilly has sued Canada, complaining that its patent laws have hindered profits it could make on an ADD drug. ... Read more

Investors Don't Believe Low Oil Prices Are "Unequivocally" Good For America
ZeroHedge | author | 11/13/14

While investors are told day after day that low oil prices are "unequivocally" good for America's economy (pick your number $20, $30, $40 billion tax cut for consumers), it appears they are not buying this big lie (that appears to forget the other side of the equation of capex, jobs, and spending from the Shale Oil miracle). As oil prices push to levels where the majority of US Shale plays become non-economic on a half-cycle basis (appro. $70.00/barrow), markets are voting with their money and shale-based stocks are pressing to new lows (down 50-70% in the last few months). ... Read more
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Russia to Fly Bombers to U.S. Gulf of Mexico as Ukraine Escalates
Bloomberg | Volodymyr Verbyany| 11/12/14

Russia plans to extend long-range bomber patrols as far as the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern Pacific Ocean, its defense minister said, as NATO accused Vladimir Putin's government of sending more troops into Ukraine.

With Ukraine warning its conflict is close to returning to open war, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said his country's military will start conducting regular long-range bomber patrols along Russia's borders and over the Arctic Ocean. His ministry rejected an assertion from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's top general that it was moving combat troops and heavy weapons into Ukraine's rebel-held east. ... Read more

Greed, Power, and Endless War -- James Risen Tears the Lid off America's Dirty Wars
AlterNet | James Risen | 10/31/14

Throughout the war on terror, greed and power have flourished just as readily back home in the United States, where the government's surging counterterrorism spending created a new national security gold rush. The post-9/11 panic led Congress to throw cash at the FBI, CIA, and Pentagon faster than they were able to spend it. Soon, a counterterrorism bubble, like a financial bubble, grew in Washington, and a new breed of entrepreneur learned that one of the surest and easiest paths to riches could be found not in Silicon Valley building computers or New York designing clothes ...

... Montgomery was the maestro behind what many current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the case now believe was one of the most elaborate and dangerous hoaxes in American history, a ruse that was so successful that it nearly convinced the Bush administration to order fighter jets to start shooting down commercial airliners filled with passengers over the Atlantic. Once it was over, once the fever broke and government officials realized that they had been taken in by a grand illusion, they did absolutely nothing about it. The Central Intelligence Agency buried the whole insane episode and acted like it had never happened. The Pentagon just kept working with Montgomery. Justice Department lawyers fanned out across the country to try to block any information about Montgomery and his schemes from becoming public, invoking the state secrets privilege in a series of civil lawsuits involving Montgomery. ...

... Montgomery's story demonstrates how hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the war on terror went to waste. With all rules discarded and no one watching the bottom line, government officials simply threw money at contractors who claimed to offer an edge against the new enemies. And the officials almost never checked back to make sure that what they were buying from contractors actually did any good--or that the contractors themselves weren't crooks. A 2011 study by the Pentagon found that during the ten years after 9/11, the Defense Department had given more than $400 billion to contractors who had previously been sanctioned in cases involving $1 million or more in fraud. ... Read more

Bank of England Fires Chief FX Dealer Participating In Currency-Rigging Scandal
ZeroHedge | author | 11/12/14

Early in 2014, when the FX rigging scandal was still news, one of the most disturbing developments to emerge was that none other than the venerable Bank of England itself had been engaged in collusion with various manipulating parties, explicitly those participating in "The Bandits Club", "Cartel" and other chatrooms, as described in "Bank Of England Encouraged Currency Manipulation By Banks." As Bloomberg reported at the time ...

... Today, as widely reported previously, 5 banks settled with regulators such as US CFTC, UK's CFA and Swiss Sifma, for a total amount of $3.3 billion ($1.4 billion to the CFTC, $1.75 billion to the CFA). The banks were:

Hilariously, as a result of "cooperating" the 5 banks received a 30% discount on their British settlement. Because when it comes to admitting one's crime there is apparently a pre-Thanksgiving blue light special.

Oddly enough, none of the other usual suspect banks, such as Goldman, Credit Suisse or Deutsche, all of whom also fired legacy FX traders and dealers, were once again completely forgotten, because clearly one can't disturb the two banks that pull the strings in the US, Goldman, and in Europe, Deutsche. ... Read more

Russia To Have SWIFT Alternative By May
ZeroHedge | author | 11/12/14

As the West (US and its pressured allies) attempt to 'isolate' Russia more and more, the inevitable cornering further and further incentivizes Putin to develop alternatives to the status quo. In the past, western sanctioners have sabre-rattled cutting off Russian from SWIFT - the international inter-bank payment system - as a next step in squeezing the oligarchs into submission (though 'independent' SWIFT distanced itself from those calls). Now however, as RT reports, Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible "challenges" from the West. If successful, this would pose a further challenge to the USD's reign as sanction blowback reverberates once again. ... Read more

*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]

Facing Down Corporate Election Greed
BillMoyers | author | 11/07/14

In the small city of Richmond, California, a slate of progressive candidates faced off against a challenge from pro-business candidates backed to the tune of more than $3 million by the energy giant Chevron. For years, Chevron has treated Richmond like a company town and its large refinery there has been a constant source of health and safety concerns.

Since 2007, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Green Party leader, and her allies on the city council have faced down not only Chevron but other corporate interests like the real estate and financial industries as well. This year, Chevron fought back with an expensive barrage of negative campaign media. But on Election Day, the progressive slate triumphed, despite the roughly $250 per vote Chevron spent. ... Read more

What Could Possibly Go Right? America's New War in the Middle East
BillMoyers & Tom Dispatch | author | 11/10/14

Karl von Clausewitz, the famed Prussian military thinker, is best known for his aphorism, "War is the continuation of state policy by other means." But what happens to a war in the absence of coherent state policy?

Actually, we now know. Washington's Iraq War 3.0, Operation Inherent Resolve, is what happens. In its early stages, I asked sarcastically, "What could possibly go wrong?" As the mission enters its fourth month, the answer to that question is already grimly clear: just about everything. It may be time to ask, in all seriousness: What could possibly go right? ... Read more

The Fed Won: America's 0.1% Are Now Wealthier Than The Bottom 90%
ZeroHedge | author | 11/11/14

As the Economist reports, according to a new paper by authors at liberal bastion UC Berkeley and the LSE, US inequality in wealth is approaching record levels (actually it already surpassed it as reported long ago).

"The authors examine the share of total wealth held by the bottom 90% of families relative to those at the very top. In the late 1920s the bottom 90% held just 16% of America's wealth--considerably less than that held by the top 0.1%, which controlled a quarter of total wealth just before the crash of 1929. From the beginning of the Depression until well after the end of the second world war, the middle class's share of total wealth rose steadily, thanks to collapsing wealth among richer households, broader equity ownership, middle-class income growth and rising rates of home-ownership. From the early 1980s, however, these trends have reversed. The top 0.1% (consisting of 160,000 families worth $73m on average) hold 22% of America's wealth, just shy of the 1929 peak--and almost the same share as the bottom 90% of the population."

That was as of 2013. By now the wealth of the top 0.1% is not only well above that of the "bottom 90%" but higher than it has ever been. Read more
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Obama Urges World Leaders To Approve Elusive, Potentially 'Historic' Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Deal
AP & HP | Julie Pace | 11/10/14

President Barack Obama pressed world leaders Monday to break stubborn logjams that have held up an agreement on a trans-Pacific trade deal that is eagerly sought by the White House and could lead to rare consensus with congressional Republicans.

... "We remain committed to ensuring that the final agreement reflects our common vision of an ambitious, comprehensive, high-standard, and balanced agreement that enhances the competitiveness of our economies, promotes innovation and entrepreneurship, spurs economic growth and prosperity, and supports job creation in our countries," the statement read. ... Read more

**The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/07/14

She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore. "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'"

Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported -- more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations. ... Read more

The Last Nail In The Millennials' Coffin: A Negative 2% Savings Rate
ZeroHedge | author | 11/10/14

The bottom line, or rather, negative line, is the Millennials' savings, because "after a flirtation with thrift after the recession, young Americans have stopped saving. Adults under age 35--the so-called millennial generation--currently have a savings rate of negative 2%, meaning they are burning through their assets or going into debt, according to Moody's Analytics. That compares with a positive savings rate of about 3% for those age 35 to 44, 6% for those 45 to 54, and 13% for those 55 and older." ... Read more
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Why Gorbachev Feels Betrayed By The Post-Cold War West
WorldPost & HP | Nathan Gardels | 11/07/14

On the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, remains a hero in the West. But the West is no longer in favor with Gorbachev.

Already in 2005 when I sat down with him in Moscow to discuss the 20th anniversary of his reforms that ultimately led to the dissolution of the USSR, Gorbachev expressed anger and betrayal over what he regarded as America's "victory complex" over Russia. Clearly, the seeds of hostility that are now manifest in the present crisis between the West and Russia over Ukraine have been gestating for some time.

Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Gorbachev could not be more different as leaders. But they are both proud Russians who don't think their nation is getting its due. They are like " bent twigs springing back after being stepped on," in the phrase Isaiah Berlin used to describe how resentment and aggressive nationalism are rooted in the backlash against humiliation. ... Read more

**The $9 Billion Witness: Meet JPMorgan Chase's Worst Nightmare
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 11/07/14

She tried to stay quiet, she really did. But after eight years of keeping a heavy secret, the day came when Alayne Fleischmann couldn't take it anymore. "It was like watching an old lady get mugged on the street," she says. "I thought, 'I can't sit by any longer.'" Fleischmann is a tall, thin, quick-witted securities lawyer in her late thirties, with long blond hair, pale-blue eyes and an infectious sense of humor that has survived some very tough times. She's had to struggle to find work despite some striking skills and qualifications, a common symptom of a not-so-common condition called being a whistle-blower.

Fleischmann is the central witness in one of the biggest cases of white-collar crime in American history, possessing secrets that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon late last year paid $9 billion (not $13 billion as regularly reported – more on that later) to keep the public from hearing.

Back in 2006, as a deal manager at the gigantic bank, Fleischmann first witnessed, then tried to stop, what she describes as "massive criminal securities fraud" in the bank's mortgage operations.

Thanks to a confidentiality agreement, she's kept her mouth shut since then. "My closest family and friends don't know what I've been living with," she says. "Even my brother will only find out for the first time when he sees this interview."

Six years after the crisis that cratered the global economy, it's not exactly news that the country's biggest banks stole on a grand scale. That's why the more important part of Fleischmann's story is in the pains Chase and the Justice Department took to silence her.

She was blocked at every turn: by asleep-on-the-job regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission, by a court system that allowed Chase to use its billions to bury her evidence, and, finally, by officials like outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, the chief architect of the crazily elaborate government policy of surrender, secrecy and cover-up. "Every time I had a chance to talk, something always got in the way," Fleischmann says. ... Read more

Edward Snowden: A ‘Nation' Interview
TheNation.com | Katrina vanden Heuvel | 10/28/14

On October 6, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel and contributing editor Stephen F. Cohen (professor emeritus of Russian studies at New York University and Princeton) sat down in Moscow for a wide-ranging discussion with Edward Snowden. Throughout their nearly four-hour conversation, which lasted considerably longer than planned (see below for audio excerpts), the youthful-appearing Snowden was affable, forthcoming, thoughtful and occasionally humorous. Among other issues, he discussed the price he has paid for speaking truth to power, his definition of patriotism and accountability, and his frustration with America's media and political system. The interview has been edited and abridged for publication, compressing lengthy conversations about technological issues that Snowden has discussed elsewhere. ... Read more

Central Planners Are In A State Of Panic
ZeroHedge | author | 11/07/14

The central planners are in a state of fear and panic. They are trying everything and anything to create market validation for their policies, watching with trepidation as their favored economic metrics fail to respond to all of their frenzied efforts.

... They've spurred the greatest wealth gap ever in US history, greater even than at the extremes of the Great Depression, apparently without the slightest concerns for Plutarch's ancient admonition that "An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics."

... In short, everything the central planners have tried has failed to bring widespread prosperity and has instead concentrated it dangerously at the top. Whether by coincidence or conspiracy, every possible escape hatch for 99.5% of the people has been welded shut. We are all captives in a dysfunctional system of money, run by a few for the few, and it is headed for complete disaster. ... Read more

Job Cuts Surge 68%, Most In 3 Years; Worst October Since 2009
ZeroHedge | author | 11/06/14

Maybe this explains the election results? Challenger reports US companies laid off over 51,000 people in October, the most since May (and 2nd most since Feb 2013). This is a 68% surge MoM (and 11.9% rise YoY) - the biggest monthly rise since September 2011. Retail, Computer, and Pharma industries saw the biggest layoffs. Hiring also collapsed from the record 567,705 exuberance in September to just 147,935 in October. This was the worst October for layoffs since 2009. ... Read more
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2014: The Year of Koch
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 11/16/14

The price tag for 2014 will probably be the highest in American history. Candidates, parties, PACs, super-PACs, and political nonprofits--those anonymously funded outfits including the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity and the pro-Democratic Patriot Majority--were on pace to spend $3.67 billion on the 2014 races, according to projections by the Center for Responsive Politics. That would be a new record, surpassing the $3.63 billion spent in 2010. ...

Record Equity ETF Creation In October
ZeroHedge | author | 11/06/14

Every day for the past several years, sometime after 3pm, bullish market participants exhale a sigh of relief when as if out of nowhere, an "unexpected" surge of buying lifts stocks into the 4 pm close. There are several explanations for what some have dubbed if not Divine, then certainly centrally-planned intervention. This is the time when ETF creation and (far less frequently) redemption takes place. As a result, in a world in which the bulk of liquidity has shifted away from single name stocks and even futures toward ETFs, trends in the creation and redemption of ETFs are key to watch to determine how the market may move purely for to technical reasons (since fundamentals died some time in 2009). Which is why we note, with little surprise, that according to SocGen, Equity ETFs posted a record level of monthly creations in October, driven by US, regional eurozone and UK indexations, perhaps explaining the relentless levitation of the market on ever lower volume especially in the latter part of the day. ...

... Now if only someone could create an ETF (preferably 3x levered) that only buys itself when other ETFs are in the process of creating ETFs, then the first momentum driven perpetual engine will finally be a reality. ... Read more
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The Election - In 1 'Uncomfortably Divided' Nation Chart
ZeroHedge | author | 11/05/14

Isn't it ironic that the demographic in America that has seen the largest job growth during the 'recovery' turned out in droves to vote (against the incumbents) while the generation that remain mired in student debt, living at home with their mom-and-dad in record amounts, and having lost hope of the American Dream were apparently uninterested in 'change'. Perhaps, just perhaps, the elder generation still believes there is a difference between the two parties... or perhaps they are the ones who are most pissed as the promises of sipping margaritas on a golden beach in retirement is crushed into the reality of working to your grave at Home Depot... Read more
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Democratic Gubernatorial Candidates Had A Very, Very Bad Night
HP | Samantha Lachman | 11/05/14

Republicans had been predicted to take control of the Senate Tuesday evening, but Democrats hoped to do better in gubernatorial races. They were more than disappointed, as even candidates who had been expected to easily win in Democratic-leaning states were defeated. ... Read more

*Demonocracyinfo | US Debt in Physical $100 bills [2:10]

Paul Singer Slams The Fake World: "Fake Growth, Fake Money, Fake Jobs, Fake Stability, Fake Inflation Numbers"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/04/14

This is from the man that runs one of the largest Vulture Capital Funds!!

"Nobody can predict how long governments can get away with fake growth, fake money, fake financial stability, fake jobs, fake inflation numbers and fake income growth. Our feeling is that confidence, especially when it is unjustified, is quite a thin veneer. When confidence is lost, that loss can be severe, sudden and simultaneous across a number of markets and sectors." "The situation is universal, a consequence of incompetent leaders and careless (or ignorant) citizenry." Read more

JPMorgan Under Criminal Investigation Over Foreign Exchange Business
HP & AP | author | 11/04/14

The announcement by the nation's largest bank follows a similar disclosure Thursday by Citigroup. Banks in the U.S. and abroad are facing allegations that they manipulated foreign-exchange rates. Besides the Justice Department, JPMorgan says civil enforcement authorities and foreign regulators are also investigating its foreign exchange business.

The New York bank said late Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had boosted the amount of money set aside for legal expenses. It now has $5.9 billion in reserve, up from the $4.6 billion it reported in August. ... Read more

Rachel Maddow | Rachel Maddow: Impeachment, Vetoes Likely if GOP Gains Congress? (11/03/14) [19:58]

Interest Rates Cannot Rise - Here's Why
ZeroHedge | author | 11/04/14

I wrote an article recently over at Voices of Liberty that lays out the very dire picture for those of us who have yet to retire. The gist of the article is that the Fed has effectively robbed the retired class of any hope for having enough of a nest egg to live off through the end of their lives if they want to retire at 65.

Some may argue well this past 10 years has just been an anomaly of low interest rates but they will come back i.e. normalize to higher levels here in the next couple years. Well let me show you why that is simply wrong.

Here is why interest rates will be perpetually low for the rest of our lives, why the inflation calculation has been changed to a dynamic formula (meaning they now change the inputs each quarter) and why those of us yet to retire are screwed.

... Now even the CBO is forecasting debt to GDP to continue rising for as far as the eye can see and so there must be a negative slope on interest rates. If average interest rates on debt were to move back to let's say the 20 yr average of 7.5% our interest payments would take up 7.5% to 10% of our GDP. And that is something we simply cannot afford. The most our average interest on total debt can move in the near term is to around 4% which would take us to the high end of the historic DSGDP range. Fortunately I suppose that would also crush what little demand is left in the economy and so there is much incentive to do so. In 5 or 10 years time total debt will be sufficiently more than GDP that even 4% will be unsustainably high. ... Read more

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A Flood of Late Spending on Midterm Elections, From Murky Sources
NYTimes| Nicholas Confessore | 11/02/14

A stealthy coterie of difficult-to-trace outside groups is slipping tens of millions of dollars of attacks ads and negative automated telephone calls into the final days of the midterm campaign, helping fuel an unprecedented surge of last-minute spending on Senate races.

Much of the advertising is being timed to ensure that no voter will know who is paying for it until after the election on Tuesday. Some of the groups are "super PACs" that did not exist before Labor Day but have since spent heavily on political advertising, adding to the volatility of close Senate and House races. ... Read more

Bill Gross Warns "Global Economy & Financial Markets Are Insecurely Grounded"
ZeroHedge | author | 11/03/14

"Perhaps sooner rather than later, investors must recognize that modern day inflation, while a necessary condition for survival, is not a sufficient condition for increasing wealth at a rate necessary to satisfy future liabilities associated with education, health care, and a satisfactory retirement. The real economy needs money printing, yes, but money spending more so, and that must come from the fiscal side -- from the dreaded government side -- where deficits are anathema and balanced budgets are increasingly in vogue. Until then, deflation remains a growing possibility -- not the kind that creates prosperity but the kind that's the trouble for prosperity." ... Read more

Russia Conducts Full "Nuclear Triad" Drill, Launches Topol-M ICBM
ZeroHedge | author | 11/03/14

1) ICBM - As reported earlier by the Barents Observer, the silo-based Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast. A few minutes later, the dummy nuclear warhead hits its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's far eastern corner, the Ministry of Defense reports. The Ministry, conveniently, adds that the Topol-M missile has an "extremely high accuracy of target destruction."

2) Strategic Bombers - This took place after a close encounter on Friday, when Norwegian F-16s were scrambled from Bodø airbase for the second time this week as a group of four Tu-95 strategic bombers were approaching from the northeast, Norway's TV2 reports. The bombers, flying out over the Barents Sea from Russia's Kola Peninsula, were accompanied by four Il-78 tankers.

3) Borey-class submarine - This was the first operational test launch of Bulava in line with the program of combat training. All previous launches were part of development testing of the new weapon. It is also the first time a Borey-class submarine had a full set of missiles on board when the launch was conducted. The Borey-class submarines carries 16 missiles that each may hold as many as 10 nuclear warheads. "Yury Dolgoruky" got her full set of Bulava missiles in June this year. ... Read more

James Risen Challenges the Greed, Power, and Endless War of the National Security State
AlterNet | Norman Solomon | 10/14/14

No single review or interview can do justice to "Pay Any Price" -- the new book by James Risen that is the antithesis of what routinely passes for journalism about the "war on terror." Instead of evasive tunnel vision, the book offers big-picture acuity: focusing on realities that are pervasive and vastly destructive.

Published this week, "Pay Any Price" throws down an urgent gauntlet. We should pick it up. After 13 years of militarized zealotry and fear-mongering in the name of fighting terrorism, the book -- subtitled "Greed, Power, and Endless War" -- zeros in on immense horrors being perpetrated in the name of national security.