Occupy Banksters & Crony Capitalism & GREED

Hurricane Sandy's Storm Surge Wreaks Havoc As Its Energy And Trajectory Stun Experts
HP | Tom Zeller Jr. | 10/30/12

... But unlike Hurricane Irene -- which devastated the East Coast in August of last year and caused some $16 billion in damages, chiefly from inland flooding arising from that storm's prodigious rainfall -- the current storm's most powerful artillery derives from its record low pressure, sustained Category 1 hurricane winds (nominally between 74 mph and 95 mph), and its sheer size, which stretched some 1,000 miles in diameter as it swept up the East Coast. These factors, along with the timing of the high tide -- and, perhaps, new meteorological variables arising from a warming planet -- combined to deliver the worst damages to low-lying coastal areas.... Read more

New York Subway System Faces Weeks to Recover From Storm
Bloomberg | Angela Greiling Keane | 10/31/12

That's the job ahead for Metropolitan Transit Administration officials, who must examine 600 miles of track and the electrical systems with it before they can fully reopen the largest U.S. transit system, which took a direct hit by Hurricane Sandy. ... Read more

Mitt Romney Would Be Toast Without This Man
MotherJones | Andy Kroll | 10/31/12

... Spies -- together with strategist Carl Forti and veteran ad-maker Larry McCarthy--co-founded Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super-PAC. The group has blown its rivals out of the water in the money chase: it's raised a record $131.6 million and spent a record $107 million. On Tuesday, in the final stretch of the 2012 election, Restore Our Future unveiled a weeklong, $20 million ad blitz--the largest-ever single-race buy by a super-PAC, according to Spies. And when the Romney campaign found itself pinched for cash at the end of the summer, Spies and Restore Our Future spent $30 million throughout August on ads to blunt the Obama campaign's attacks on Romney. "In the month of August, we were one of the key factors keeping Governor Romney afloat," Spies says. "That's the time period that traditionally the underfunded candidate gets knocked out." ... Read more

Obama Dares to Say It: Romney Lies
MotherJones | David Corn | 10/30/12

... Obama dared to cross that line with a new campaign ad. Entitled "Collapse," the spot targets Mitt Romney's over-the-top and recklessly untrue claim that as a consequence of Obama bailing-out the auto industry, Chrysler is moving Jeep production jobs from the United States to China. Romney, as I've reported, invested heavily in firms that outsourced (or exploited outsourcing) to China when he was leading Bain Capital. (See here and here.) Yet in the closing days of the 2012 campaign, Romney has been trying to turn Obama's strength (he saved Detroit) into a liability by making a phony charge about Jeep jobs. Numerous media accounts have noted that Romney is dead wrong, and Chrysler itself has declared this is a false claim. Romney, as is his practice, has refused to apologize. ... Read more

Bill Moyers | Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Marty Kaplan join Bill to assess the true value of the 2012 political debates. (10/26/12) [28:52]

TRNN | Greg Palast: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps reveals vote stealing methodology. (10/31/12) [15:11]

Only Global Banks Will Benefit From A Cyber-Attack On The U.S.
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/31/12

... Why is it that everything Al-Qaeda does ultimately enriches the men they call their enemies? ... Read more

The United States believes Iran is behind cyber attacks on American banks and the oil industry in the Middle East, officials said. ... Read more

New York City Wakes Up to Fires, Flooding From Hurricane Sandy
Bloomberg |Brian Chappatta| 10/30/12

At least 50 homes in Queens burned after Hurricane Sandy sent floodwaters gushing into New York's five boroughs. The colossal storm submerged cars, tunnels and the subway system, and darkened vast swaths of the nation's most populous city.

Sandy, which weakened as it passed over the coast, shaped up to be among the worst storms in New York history, rivaling the blizzards of 1888 and 1947. Two deaths were reported in Queens and more than 684,000 were without power in the region, according to Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED). ... Read more

Sandy Hits Coast, Floods New York
WSJ | Jamila Trindle | 10/30/12

Superstorm Sandy carved a harrowing path of destruction through the East Coast on Monday, inundating Atlantic City and sending cars floating through the streets of lower Manhattan. ... Read more

The East Coast In Pictures: The Morning After
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/30/12
Click to see pictures 1
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Documents Found in Meth House Show the Inner Workings of a Dark Money Group Linked to 23 Conservative Candidates
AlterNet | Kim Barker | 10/29/12

The documents offer a rare glimpse into the world of dark money, showing how Western Tradition Partnership appealed to donors, interacted with candidates and helped shape their election efforts. ... Read more

If Elected, Moderate Mitt Will Disappear
Bloomberg | Jonathan Alter | 10/29/12

You have to hand it to Mitt Romney and his team. Starting in the first debate, he pivoted almost effortlessly to the center, which is where elections are won. If he beats President Barack Obama, it will be because he Etch-A- Sketched his earlier positions and convinced enough people that he would be a moderate president.

Unfortunately, he has little chance of governing that way. We don't know which Romney will show up on a given day, but we sure know which Republican Party would be in charge in Washington every minute. The Republicans have become the most extreme major political party in generations. They are tolerating Romney's heresies this month only to gain power. ... Read more

The Incredible Shrinking Half-Life Of Central Bank Action
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/29/12

... The following chart should clarify - to anyone placing their gambling chips on the hopes of another round of easing from the Fed - why the game is up. ... Read more
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PBS Frontline | Climate of Doubt (10/23/12) [53:47]

PBS Frontline | Big Sky, Big Money, an investigation with Marketplace (10/30/12) [0:31]

PBS Frontline | The Presidential Choice 2012: A journey into the places, people, and decisive moments that made the men who are competing for the presidency (10/09/12) [1:54:17]

A declining Japan loses its once-hopeful champions
Washington Post | Chico Harlan | 10/27/12

TOKYO -- Jesper Koll, an economist who's lived in Japan for 26 years, says it's not easy for him to keep faith in a country that's shrinking, aging, stuck in protracted economic gloom and losing fast ground to China as the region's dominant power.   "I am the last Japan optimist," Koll said in a recent speech in Tokyo.   Indeed, the once-common species has been virtually wiped out. It was only two decades ago that Japan's boosters -- mainly foreign diplomats and authors, economists and entrepreneurs -- touted the tiny nation as a global model for how to attain prosperity and power. ... Read more

Spanish Contraction Continues, Austerity Spurs Inflation
Bloomberg | Emma Ross-Thomas | 10/30/12

Spain's economy contracted for a fifth quarter, undermining efforts to plug the budget deficit that's pushing the nation closer to a bailout, while austerity measures kept inflation at a 17-month high.

The prolongation of Spain's five-year slump, which is prompting record loan defaults at the nation's banks and job cuts at companies including Gamesa SA (GAM), adds to pressure on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he resists requesting international aid. While the tax hikes he's implementing as part of his austerity program are depressing consumption, they are also spurring inflation, which threatens to add 3 billion euros ($3.9 billion) to the country's pension bill. ... Read more

One year after IMF bailout, Greece still big on military spending
RT | Author | 10/26/12

Exactly one year ago, the EU agreed to several extreme measures to combat the ongoing economic crisis, to mixed results. But despite its unique economic distress, Greece shows no sign of cutting back its considerable military budget. ... Read more

The Final Days, the Biggest Issue, and the Clearest Choice
HP | Robert Reich | 10/28/12

... President Obama says emphatically yes. He proposes ending the Bush tax cut for people earning more than $250,000 a year, and requiring that the richest 1 percent pay no less than a third of their income in taxes, the so-called "Buffett Rule."   Mitt Romney says emphatically no. He proposes cutting tax rates on the rich by 20 percent, extending the Bush tax cut for the wealthy, and reducing or eliminating taxes on dividends and capital gains. ... Read more

Hurricane Sandy Eyes DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia And New York
HP | Author | 10/29/12

Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. ... Read more

Mitt Romney In GOP Debate: Shut Down Federal Disaster Agency, Send Responsibility To The States
HP | Ryan Grim | 10/28/12

During a CNN debate at the height of the GOP primary, Mitt Romney was asked, in the context of the Joplin disaster and FEMA's cash crunch, whether the agency should be shuttered so that states can individually take over responsibility for disaster response.   "Absolutely," he said. "Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that's the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that's even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, we should ask the opposite question, what should we keep?" ... Read more

Live New York Web (And Sound) Cam
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/29/12

Because the only thing more informative than watching a shut down New York get blown (away) by Sandy, is hearing it live. Watch, and listen, as downtown New York, very much unprepared for what may be a record flood surge, gets the Venice treatment. ... EarthCam - Statue of Liberty - Click to watch!

Larry King Hosts Third Party Debate: Presidential Candidates Slam the Drug War
HP | Derek Rosenfeld | 10/25/12

... In the final debate for President Obama and Mitt Romney, moderator Bob Schieffer referred to the war in Afghanistan as America's longest war. But America's longest war is actually the war on drugs, which turned 40 last year. We've spent more than one trillion dollars fighting this unwinnable war, thousands have lost their lives for it, and the madness will only continue until the public leaves elected officials no choice but to pull their heads out of the sand. ... Read more

Ralph Nader to Host Third-Party Presidential Debate in D.C. Nov. 4
nader.org | Author | 10/25/12

(Washington, D.C.) -- The candidates* from four political parties -- Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution) and Rocky Anderson (Justice) -- will meet for a two-hour debate on Sunday, November 4, 7:30 p.m. at Busboys and Poets restaurant located at 2021 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20009. Busboys and Poets is a well-known venue for frequent political, civic and cultural events. ... Read more

Heist: Who Stole the American Dream? (2011) [1:16:00]

Colin Powell Endorses Obama For President
HP | Luke Johnson | 10/25/12

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama for a second term Thursday.   "You know, I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012, and I'll be voting for he and Vice President Joe Biden next month," he said on CBS' "This Morning." ... Read more

Finally Liberated From Facts, Mitt Romney the Pure Bull Artist Takes Flight
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 10/19/12

You know those Balsa wood airplanes -- not the glider-types but the deluxe models, powered by rubber bands, with little propellers on the nose? I thought of those planes watching Mitt Romney debate Barack Obama the other night.   Romney's journey toward the presidency has been a marvel to behold. Dating back to his first political steps -- his race against Ted Kennedy, followed by his assault on the Massachusetts governorship.... Read more

18 Ways Mitt Romney Is Just Like George W. Bush
RollingStone | Tim Dickinson | 10/18/12

Mitt Romney clearly wants to run away from the Bush legacy of unnecessary war, budget-busting tax cuts for the rich and economic collapse. When a town-hall debate questioner finally forced the GOP nominee to directly compare himself to Dubya earlier this week, Romney insisted: "President Bush and I are different people." But place the two men's biographies side by side, and the similarities that emerge are not just striking, they're uncanny.

Firings Highest Since 2010 as Ford to Dow Face Slump
Bloomberg | Chris Burritt | 10/25/12

Ford Motor Co. (F) and Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) joined a growing number of companies firing thousands of workers as sluggish U.S. growth and Europe's deepening recession lead to a persisting slump in sales. North American companies have announced plans to eliminate more than 62,600 positions at home and abroad since Sept. 1, the biggest two-month drop since the start of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Firings total 158,100 so far this year, more than the 129,000 job cuts in the same period in 2011. ... Read more

Is Our Version Of The 1987 "Can't Lose" Paradigm Melting Down?
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/24/12

... The price action over the past few weeks in the wake of the markets getting more from the Fed than they could have ever expected heading into an election is a clue that the times indeed could be a changing. The 1987 paradigm underwent a similar period of choppy trade before melting down. Of course, crashes by their nature are a rare breed and the probability of one occurring is astronomically low. That said, should the S&P 500 fail to hold the 1400 level over the next few days (especially on a closing basis) we wouldn't wait around too long in anticipation that the modern day version of LOR will save the day. ... Read more

Romney's Air Force Comparison Misses U.S. Edge in Jets
Bloomberg | Gopal Ratnam | 10/24/12

Mitt Romney, who has been criticizing President Barack Obama for letting the U.S. Navy shrink, is making a similar case about the Air Force.   "Our Air Force is older and smaller than at any time since it was founded in 1947," the Republican presidential nominee said in his final debate with Obama on Oct. 22. ... Read more

Romney Enlists General Behind Iraq Debacle as Key Military Adviser
Mother Jones | Adam Weinstein | 10/19/12

... So what does Franks' role in the campaign tell us about national security policy in a Romney administration? Perhaps further overseas adventures would be in store, although given the lack of details from Romney regarding his vision for global affairs, it remains anybody's guess. Read more

'47 Percent' Videomaker Weighs In On Final Presidential Debate
HP | Author | 10/23/12

... "Romney has been talking about getting tough on China lately. From what I heard at the dinner, he's more interested in getting tough on the young Chinese girls at his sweatshop," the man said, continuing to request anonymity. "Unless we stand up for those girls in China, our mothers, sisters and daughters here are doomed to the same fate. Just ask the Sensata workers. If he could get rid of the unions, he would have no problem paying U.S. workers a 'pittance,' stacking them three high, 12 to a room. Romney is dangerously out of touch with the struggles of hard-working Americans." ... Read more

Obama as Commander-in-Chief, Romney as Dithering Bully
HP | Robert Reich | 10/22/12

... Romney seemed out of his depth. His arguments were more a series of bromides than positions -- "we have to make sure arms don't get into the wrong hands," "we want a peaceful planet," "we need to stand by our principles," "we need strong allies," "we need a comprehensive strategy to move the world away from terrorism." ... Read more

Nearly Half Of Americans Have Less Than $500 In Savings: Survey
Huffington Post | Harry Bradford | 10/22/12

Got five Benjamin Franklins stored under the mattress? You're doing pretty good then.   Nearly half of Americans don't have more than $500 saved up, according to a recent study by CreditDonkey.com, a credit card comparison company. Of the roughly 1,100 Americans polled, 41 percent reported having less than half a grand of readily-accessible savings at hand. ... Read more

TYT | TPP - Worse Than ACTA? (08/28/12) [6:35]

"The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the son of ACTA, a secretive copyright and trade treaty being negotiated by the Pacific Rim nations, including the USA and Canada. As with ACTA, the secretive negotiation process means that the treaty's provisions represent an extremist corporate agenda where due process, privacy and free expression are tossed out the window in favor of streamlined copyright enforcement. If this passes, America will have a trade obligation to implement all the worst stuff in SOPA, and then some...".* Ana Kasparian and John Iadarola (host of TYT University, and Common Room) break it down.

Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement

What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)?

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): 15th Round of TPP Negotiations Set for Auckland, New Zealand -- December 3-12, 2012

GMO | Seralini and Science: an Open Letter
Independent Science News | jrlatham | 10/02/12

A new paper by the French group of Gilles-Eric Seralini describes harmful effects on rats fed diets containing genetically modified maize (variety NK603), with and without the herbicide Roundup, as well as Roundup alone.   The Seralini publication, and resultant media attention, raise the profile of fundamental challenges faced by science in a world increasingly dominated by corporate influence. ... Read more

GMO | Vote for the Dinner Party
NYTimes | Michael Pollan | 10/10/12

One of the more interesting things we will learn on Nov. 6 is whether or not there is a "ood movement" in America worthy of the name -- that is, an organized force in our politics capable of demanding change in the food system. ... Read more

How Obama Can Smoke Out Mitt: Call for Breaking Up the Biggest Banks, and Resurrecting Glass-Steagall
HuffingtonPost | Robert Reich | 10/18/12

... It would also remind America that five years ago Wall Street's excesses almost ruined the economy. Bankers, hedge-fund managers, and private-equity traders speculated on the upside, then shorted on the downside -- in a vast zero-sum game that resulted in the largest transfer of wealth from average Americans to financial elites ever witnessed in this nation's history.

Most of us lost big -- including over $7 trillion of home values, a $700-billion-dollar bailout of Wall Street, and continuing high unemployment.   But the top 1 percent have done just fine. In the first year of the recovery they reaped 93 percent of the gains. The latest data show them back with 20 to 25 percent of the nation's total income -- just where they were in 2007. ... Read more

Greg Smith to '60 Minutes': I Didn't Betray Goldman
WSJ | David Benoit | 10/19/12

On Sunday night, CBS will air an Anderson Cooper interview with the former Goldman Sachs vice president on "60 Minutes." On Monday, Mr. Smith's book "Why I Left Goldman Sachs, A Wall Street Story" will be fully released to the public. ... Read more

The Wall Street Money Machine
ProPublica | Many Author | Investigation
Read many more articles (47)

How Much Have Big Banks Been Docked for the Financial Crisis?
ProPublica | Cora Currier | 03/27/12

... Overall, the SEC says it has brought in almost $2 billion in penalties as well as money for investors from settlements related to the crisis, and the Department of Justice lists dozens of criminal cases it has brought against smaller players. And the investigating isn't over yet. The SEC recently sent notices of possible charges to JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo, and the DOJ reportedly has issued subpoenas to eleven financial institutions related to mortgage securities. See Chart. Read more

The Campaign Finance Free-For-All: How We Got to This Point
ProPublica | Justin Elliott | 10/17/12

In a forthcoming law review article, Richard Briffault of Columbia Law School argues that the rise of super PACs and unfettered contributions and spending this election cycle are "effectively ending the post-Watergate era of campaign finance laws." ... Read more

New lie: The government spends more on welfare than everything else!
Salon | Alex Pareene | 10/18/12

... In the context of political discussions, "welfare" traditionally (as in pretty much always) refers specifically to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, the federal program that was created in 1996 to replace the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program -- also known as "welfare" -- that had existed since the New Deal. This is what people refer to when they say "welfare caseloads" and "welfare rolls." The federal government spends $16.5 billion a year on TANF and, combined, the states spend another $10 billion. ...

... Most of the federal budget is "defense" and war spending and Medicare, which should be common knowledge but that fact is regularly obscured by right-wingers who claim to be deficit hawks but refuse to cut defense spending and are scared of proposing real reductions to our programs for old people. ...

... The con is pretty easy to see when you read the actual CRS report. Senate Republicans are counting 83 separate (and wildly different) programs as "welfare" in order to make the case that the government is spending more on poor people than old people. ... Read more

Bill Moyers | Plutocracy Rising
Bill Moyers | Author | 10/17/12

The One Percent is not only increasing their share of wealth -- they're using it to spread millions among political candidates who serve their interests. Example: Goldman Sachs, which gave more money than any other major American corporation to Barack Obama in 2008, is switching alliances this year; their employees have given $900,000 both to Mitt Romney's campaign and to the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future. Why? Because, says the Wall Street Journal, the Goldman Sachs gang felt betrayed by President Obama's modest attempts at financial reform.

On this week's Moyers & Company (check local listings), Bill is joined by two veteran journalists to discuss how the super-rich have willfully confused their self-interest with America's interest. Guests are Chrystia Freeland, author of the new book Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else; and Rolling Stone magazine's Matt Taibbi, who regularly shines his spotlight on scandals involving big business and government. Read more

Could Prop. 37 Kill Monsanto's GM Seeds?
MotherJones | Tom Philpott | 10/10/12

... At least 70 percent of processed food in the United States contains GM ingredients. Eighty-eight percent of corn and 93 percent of soybeans grown domestically are genetically modified. Soda and sweets are almost guaranteed to contain GM ingredients, either in the form of corn syrup or beet sugar. Canola and cottonseed oils also commonly come from GM crops. ... Read more

Spain Banks Face More Pain as Worst-Case Scenario Turns Real
Bloomberg | Charles Penty | 10/18/12

Spain's banks face more loan losses as the pace of an economic slump risks turning a worst-case scenario dismissed in stress tests into reality. ... Read more

Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza
The Nation | Greg Palast | 10/17/12

... in September, the Obama campaign launched television ads blasting Romney's November 2008 New York Times op-ed, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." But Romney has done a good job of concealing, until now, the fact that he and his wife, Ann, personally gained at least $15.3 million from the bailout -- and a few of Romney's most important Wall Street donors made more than $4 billion. Their gains, and the Romneys', were astronomical -- more than 3,000 percent on their investment. ... Read more

Vikram Pandit Resigns: Citigroup CEO, Censured Bonus Unhurt
Bloomberg | Donal Griffin | 10/17/12

... If no changes are made, Citigroup will have paid Pandit about $261 million in the five years since he became CEO, including his personal compensation and about $165 million for buying his Old Lane Partners LP hedge fund in 2007 in a deal that led to his becoming CEO. The bank shut Old Lane soon after Pandit took the post, causing a $202 million writedown. ... Read more
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Keystone XL Construction Draws Opposition From Texas Landowners
HP | Ramit Plushnick-Masti | 10/17/12

... In the minds of some landowners approached by TransCanada for land, the company has broken the code.   Nearly half the steel TransCanada is using is not American-made and the company won't promise to use local workers exclusively; it can't guarantee the oil will remain in the United States. It has snatched land. Possibly most egregious: The company has behaved like an arrogant foreigner, unworthy of operating in Texas. ... Read more

Google Throws Open Doors to Its Top-Secret Data Center
Wired Magazine | Steven Levy | 10/17/12

If you're looking for the beating heart of the digital age -- a physical location where the scope, grandeur, and geekiness of the kingdom of bits become manifest -- you could do a lot worse than Lenoir, North Carolina. This rural city of 18,000 was once rife with furniture factories. Now it's the home of a Google data center. ... Read more

OUT OF CONTROL: Romney Tramples Over Debate Moderator
Huffington Post | Jack Mirkinson | 10/16/12

Candy Crowley asked a followup question. And then she asked some more followup questions. And the world didn't collapse. Her biggest challenge turned out to be Mitt Romney. Crowley went round after round with the Republican nominee, sparring with him over the rules of the debate and, at one point, doing a real time fact check on one of his comments. She also had a similar, though slightly easier, set of tussles with Barack Obama. ... Read more

Jill Stein (Presidential Candidate) Arrested Before Hofstra (Presidental) Debate, Campaign Reports
HP | Author | 10/17/12

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested outside of Hofstra University on Tuesday after she attempted to enter the debate grounds.   According to Stein's campaign press statement, Stein and running mate Cheri Honkala joined supporters outside the Hofstra campus at 2 p.m., where Stein declared: "We are here to bring the courage of those excluded from our politics to this mock debate, this mockery of democracy." When they started to walk onto the debate grounds, they were stopped by police officers, and then the two women sat down on the ground. ... Read more

The Vice Presidential Debate: Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 10/12/12

I've never thought much of Joe Biden. But man, did he get it right in last night's debate, and not just because he walloped sniveling little Paul Ryan on the facts. What he got absolutely right, despite what you might read this morning (many outlets are criticizing Biden's dramatic excesses), was his tone. Biden did absolutely roll his eyes, snort, laugh derisively and throw his hands up in the air whenever Ryan trotted out his little beady-eyed BS-isms.

But he should have! He was absolutely right to be doing it. We all should be doing it. That includes all of us in the media, and not just paid obnoxious-opinion-merchants like me, but so-called "objective" news reporters as well. We should all be rolling our eyes, and scoffing and saying, "Come back when you're serious." ... Read more

WONKBLOG | What Paul Ryan's budget actually cuts -- and by how much
Washington Post | Brad Plumer | 03/20/12

Paul Ryan's budget would spend $5.3 trillion less over the next decade than President Obama's budget. Part of this is health care: Ryan would trim Medicare and Medicaid for a portion of his savings. But he'd also spend $2.2 trillion less on everything else. So what, specifically, is Ryan planning to cut? ... Read more

David Stockman On Mitt Romney: 'He Was A Master Financial Speculator'
HP | Author | 10/15/12

In an op-ed in The Daily Beast, David Stockman argues that the Romney campaign's refrain is "dead wrong" -- the refrain being that the Republican candidate is prepared to help the sputtering U.S. economy because he transformed struggling companies and created jobs. Instead, Stockman says, it's "crony capitalism" and central bank help that's made gambling on failing companies a relatively safe bet.   "Mitt Romney was not a businessman," he wrote. "He was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses." ... Read more
Original Daily Beast article

Vikram Pandit Resigns: Citigroup CEO To Be Replaced By Michael Corbat
Huffington Post | Author | 10/16/12

Vikram Pandit is resigning as CEO of Citigroup, the company announced in a press release Tuesday. He will be replaced by Michael Corbat, previously the bank's CEO of Europe, Middle East and Africa. ... Read more
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JPMorgan Deploys New Risk Model for Derivative Bet
Bloomberg | Michael J. Moore | 10/12/12

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), whose trading loss of more than $6.2 billion was fueled by the adoption of a flawed mathematical formula that understated the risks, is trying yet another one.   JPMorgan said today it started using a new formula to judge the risk of the derivatives position, at least the third such model it's used this year, when it moved most of the contracts to the investment-bank unit. The new analysis cut the firm's calculation of overall value-at-risk, or VaR, by $36 million, or 24 percent, to $115 million in the third quarter, the New York- based bank said today on its website. ... Read more

Presidential Debate Contract, 'Memorandum Of Understanding,' Released by Commission on Presidential Debates
HP | Author | 10/15/12

Time's Mark Halperin has released the full-length, previously secret, contract governing the presidential debates. ... And you thought the debates were Open and Spontaneous ... Read more

United Swing States Of America
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/15/12

... when it comes to determining the fate of America's leadership every 4 years, the bankers, lawyers, venture capitalists, socialites, marketers, hedge funders, Economist PhDs, and other very important jobs, courtesy of the Electoral College, have absolutely no impact, and it all boils down to such swing states as Ohio, Florida, Iowa and Nevada. ... Read more

2012 Election: Debate Preparation Trumps Campaigning
Huffington Post | Steve Peoples | 10/14/12/span>

As Mitt Romney's campaign claimed new momentum in the race for the White House, President Barack Obama's political advisers on Sunday promised the incumbent would unleash his more aggressive side in Tuesday's debate to prevent their Republican rival from delivering another "magical and theatrical performance." ... Read more

Ross Perot 2012! His message was 20 years ahead of its time.
WP | Chris Cillizza | 07/20/12

Ever since Perot earned one in every five votes cast in 1992, talk of forming a legitimate and sustainable third party has been with us. Yet no one has come close to equaling Perot's success. (Ralph Nader's role as spoiler in the 2000 election does not come close to counting.) ... Read more

Americans Elect calls it quits
WP | Krissah Thompson | 05/17/12

Americans Elect, a group that set out to secure ballot access for a yet-to-be-named centrist presidential candidate, has thrown in the towel.   After spending $35 million to create an online nomination process and petition for a line on the ballot in more than half the states -- the group's leaders acknowledged Thursday that they couldn't find a candidate. ... Read more

Ross Perot Campaigns: Mr. Perot discussed his plans for the economy, the federal budget, the budget deficit, and the national debt. Sitting at a desk in his office [29:13]

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday October 15, 2012 [14:08]

*DN | Koch Brothers Among U.S. Billionaires Pressuring Thousands of Employees to Vote For GOP (10/15/12) [11:09]

*DN | Texas Landowners Join Environmentalists For Blockade of Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline (10/15/12) [20:58]

Iraq records huge rise in birth defects
The Independent | Sarah Morrison | 10/14/12

It played unwilling host to one of the bloodiest battles of the Iraq war. Fallujah's homes and businesses were left shattered; hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed. Its residents changed the name of their "City of Mosques" to "the polluted city" after the United States launched two massive military campaigns eight years ago. Now, one month before the World Health Organisation reveals its view on the legacy of the two battles for the town, a new study reports a "staggering rise" in birth defects among Iraqi children conceived in the aftermath of the war. ... Read more

Red Bull Stratos YouTube Live Stream Attracts Record Number Of Viewers
HP | Catherine Smith | 10/14/12

Felix Baumgartner captured the attention of the web on Sunday when he jumped from a capsule 128,000 feet above Earth and landed safely on the ground in New Mexico. ... Read more

Iraq intends to replace Exxon with Russian companies - reports
RT | Author | 10/11/12

Iraq is reportedly considering replacing US oil major ExxonMobil with Russian companies in the West Qurna-1 project, as the authorities are angered by ExxonMobil's deal signed with the Kurdistan regional government without Baghdad's approval. ... Read more

Russian companies are expanding their activities in Iraq, says Putin
Examiner | Roberrt Tilford | 10/11/12

President Vladimir Putin said in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on October 10, 2012, "Russian companies are expanding their activities in Iraq now."   "Mr. Prime Minister, it is a great pleasure to see you in Moscow once more... We see how the new Iraq is getting back on its feet and developing, and we are very happy for your success." ... Read more

Why Are Americans So Easy to Manipulate and Control?
AlterNet | Bruce Levine | 10/11/12

The shopper, the student, the worker, and the voter are all seen by consumerism and behaviorism the same way: passive, conditionable objects. ... Read more

The Romney Men: 6 Filthy Rich Moguls Who Will Do Anything to Elect Mitt
AlterNet | Lynn Parramore | 10/10/12

The following 1 percent wonders are doing just fine under Obama, but since their worldview is largely restricted to an obsession with their marginal tax rate, they can't refrain from denouncing the president and thinking of new ways to thwart his re-election bid. The Romney men desperately want to see the first financier president, a man after their own cold hearts. ... Read more

New Senate Push to Pledge Unconditional Support for Israeli Preventive War on Iran
Huffington Post | Jamal Abdi | 10/11/12

... Now, Graham is herding his willfully ignorant colleagues to support another incremental step towards war with Iran, under the guise of being "pro-Israel" and supporting the president. His new resolution would twist Obama's words that the U.S. "has Israel's back" to mean the U.S. is on call to jump into war with Iran if and when Netanyahu decides it's go time. ... Read more

Barack Obama's Record On Addressing Climate Change In First Term Under Scrutiny By Activists
Huffington Post | Tom Zeller Jr. | 10/11/12

"I think I missed the part where they discussed the Arctic melting," the environmentalist and author Bill McKibben recently quipped. ... ... "Wasn't there some kind of drought or something this summer?" he continued. "Maybe I'm misremembering." ... Read more

The art of GPS
Daily Mail | Lee Moran | 06/19/12

These stunning CGI images reveal what the nation looks like from the skies, and how its transport and communication infrastructures work to power the vast nation on a daily basis.   Everything from the routes taken by Manhattan pizza delivery drivers on a Friday night to Domino's Pizza truck movement across the country are replicated in breathtaking detail. ... Read more

5 things to watch in VP debate
Politico | Maggie Haberman | 10/11/12

Paul Ryan will look to win for the Republican ticket tonight when he takes the debate stage at Centre College here against Joe Biden in the first national face-off in which he's participated.   Biden -- for whom expectations have been lowered over the constant refrain of "What about your gaffes?" -- will try his best to triumph, providing Democrats with a strong night to change the momentum of a race that has shifted slightly toward Mitt Romney. ... Read more

Weakness Spreads to Emerging Markets
WSJ | Brian Blackstone | 10/11/12

TOKYO -- Weakness in major economies is starting to infect formerly fast-growing emerging markets, top global economic officials warned, raising fears of a prolonged world-wide slowdown and renewed finger-pointing over blame.   "The biggest change from the spring meeting is that slowdown of economic growth is affecting not only advanced countries but also emerging countries, particularly in Asia," International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde said at a news conference at the start of the IMF's annual meeting Thursday. ... Read more

PBS American Experience | The Clintons () [3:35:19]

Mitt Romney CNN Interview: The 47% Comment Is 'Not What I Meant'
Huffington Post | Sam Stein | 10/09/12

Mitt Romney CNN Interview: The 47% Comment Is 'Not What I Meant' [1:55]

Romney's walk back from the 47 percent comments underscores a general walk toward a more moderate plank during the last week. In his initial comment, he clearly wasn't just talking about electoral math. He lamented that he would never be able to convince those people who paid no federal income taxes to take personal responsibility for themselves.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Republican nominee continued to present his tax plan as something that would be balanced in its budgeting and maintain the progressivity of the code. But while he pushed back forcefully on President Barack Obama's charge that he didn't have the means to pay for, what amounted to a $5 trillion tax cut, he continued to avoid offering specifics with respect to pay-fors. ... Read more

The Half-Trillion Dollar Nuclear Budget
Huffington Post | Benjamin Loehrke | 10/10/12

The nuclear arsenal might seem like an artifact of Cold War strategy, but the U.S. is spending money on it like the Wall never fell. If nothing changes, in fact, the U.S. is on track to spend approximately $640 billion on nuclear weapons and related programs over the next ten years. This upward trend stands in contrast to the advice of national security experts who say we can cut defense budgets by getting rid of last century's weapons. ...

... The U.S. currently has 5,000 operational nuclear warheads, with 3,000 more awaiting dismantlement. Top experts like Gen. James Cartwright agree we can provide for our security with less than 1,000 total. ... Read more

Billionaire CEO Threatens to Fire Employees if Obama Wins
Nation of Change | Scott Keyes | 10/10/12

"David Siegel, who owns Florida-based Westgate Resorts, sent an email to all his employees yesterday to discuss the upcoming election." ...   ... Siegel earned national notoriety this year for his quest to build the biggest house in America, "a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles." ... Read more

The Queen of Versailles

'Nuclear time bomb:' Downed K-27 submarine must be lifted out
RT | Author | 09/13/12

A Soviet K-27 submarine suffered a nuclear accident before being dumped at the bottom of the Kara Sea 30 years ago. Russia may now have to lift the sub from dangerously shallow waters -- before an "uncontrolled chain reaction" causes fatal damage. ... Read more

Inside the campaign: The Romney rebellion
Politico | Mike Allen | 10/09/12

For months, Ann Romney and her eldest son, Tagg, were dutifully supportive of the political professionals running Mitt Romney's campaign. All the while, their private frustration was mounting.   Shortly before the first debate, it finally boiled over.

What followed was a family intervention. The candidate's family prevailed on Mitt Romney, and the campaign operation, to shake things up dramatically, according to campaign insiders. The family pushed for a new message, putting an emphasis on a softer and more moderate image for the GOP nominee -- a "let Mitt be Mitt" approach they believed more accurately reflected the looser, generous and more approachable man they knew. ... Read more

Romney's Stake in Chinese Stocks
MotherJones | James West | 10/09/12

On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney rips President Obama's policy on China and talks tough against the rising global power. "We're going to crack down on China," he said at a recent event in Ohio. "They've stolen our jobs; that's gotta stop." But according to Romney's recent tax returns, between 2008-2011 Romney invested more than a half million dollars in the stocks of 10 Chinese companies -- including firms that embezzled, partnered with Iran, and stole US intellectual property. ... Read more

Presidential Debate Aftermath: Mitt Romney Wins All-Important BS Contest
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 10/08/12

I didn't watch the debate -- I just couldn't. I read it in transcript form afterwards. I know it is widely believed that Mitt Romney won, but I don't agree. I think both candidates lost. I think they both sucked. Romney told a series of outright lies -- the bit about the pre-existing conditions was incredible -- while Barack Obama seemed unaccountably disinterested in the intellectual challenge of the exercise, repeatedly leaving the gross absurdities hurled his way by Romney unchallenged. ... Read more

Google Says It Won't 'Manually' Review YouTube Vids for Infringement
Wired Magazine | David Kracets | 10/04/12

YouTube five years ago engineered a filtering system enabling "content owners" -- now numbering 3,000 -- to upload music and videos they own to a "fingerprinting" database -- 500,000 hours of reference files to date. When YouTube users upload their videos, the algorithm known as Content ID scans new uploads against the copyright database for matches. ... Read more

Most of Us Will Not Have a Better Life Unless We Turn the Tables on the Super Rich
AlterNet | Chuck Collins | 10/04/12

An economy so dependent on the spending of a few is also prone to great booms and busts. The rich splurge and speculate when their savings are doing well. But when the values of their assets tumble, they pull back. That can lead to wild gyrations. Sound familiar? It's no mere coincidence that over the last century the top earners' share of the nation's total income peaked in 1928 and 2007--the two years just preceding the biggest downturns. ... Read more

It's All Connec ted: Euro Crisis
NYT | Author | 10/22/11

The global financial system is highly interconnected. So problems in one part of the world can reverberate almost everywhere else...

Living In A QE World
The Big Picture | Author | 12/27/12

The degree to which central banks around the world are printing money is unprecedented. ... Read more

IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard says crisis will last a decade
independent.ie | Author | 10/03/12

THE world economy will take at least 10 years to emerge from the financial crisis that began in 2008, the International Monetary Fund's Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said in an interview published on Wednesday. ... Read more

China To Challenge US Dollar Reserve Currency Status
ZeroHedge | Author |10/04/12

... China is actively taking steps to phase out the US dollar which will decrease volatility in oil and commodity prices and deride the 'exorbitant privilege' the USA commands as the issuer of the reserve currency at the centre of a post-war international financial architecture which is now failing. ... Read more

Mitt Romney: '47 Percent' Comments Were 'Just Completely Wrong'
HP | Kasie Hunt | 10/04/12

FISHERSVILLE, Va. -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has described his disparaging remarks about the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes as "not elegantly stated." Now he's calling them "just completely wrong."   Romney had contended that nearly half of Americans consider themselves "victims" and are dependent on government.

Romney's Dodd-Frank Comments Shock Bewildered Bankers
HP | Mark Gongloff | 10/04/12

... This came as a shock to Wall Street, notes Politico's Ben White, who writes that it "blew up [his] inbox like no other" line of the night. One such email, from a "New York" bank executive, said: "Doubt that most folks on Wall Street would have predicted that Romney would have taken the most direct shots at 'N.Y. banks' at this point. ... If he'd named names, it would have been his top five contributors." ... Read more

The mounting cost of violence
Politico | Mike Honda | 09/28/12

What we don't know, however, is how much that violence costs our society -- in total. A new report out this week, by the Institute for Economics and Peace, shows just how much, and it is an overwhelming amount. So what do we spend on violence, on violence-related medical expenses, incarceration, police, the military, insurance, and even the private security industry?

The total U.S. public and private expenditure containing violence on our lands and overseas is $2.16 trillion. That equates to roughly $15,000 that each American taxpayer spends annually on violence or more than 15 percent of America's gross domestic product. Break that figure down by sector and you have public sector spending on violence accounting for 10.8 percent of GDP and private sector spending on violence accounting for 4.2 percent of U.S. GDP (and these are conservative figures).   That means 1 out of every 7 dollars spent in the U.S. is spent containing violence. ... Read more

No Income? No Problem! How the Gov't Is Saddling Parents with College Loans They Can't Afford
ProPublica | Marian Wang | 10/04/12

Steve Lance put both his sons through college by taking out federal Parent Plus loans. Like many parents, he's now deeply in debt. ... Read more

China To Challenge US Dollar Reserve Currency Status
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/04/12

... China is actively taking steps to phase out the US dollar which will decrease volatility in oil and commodity prices and deride the 'exorbitant privilege' the USA commands as the issuer of the reserve currency at the centre of a post-war international financial architecture which is now failing. ... Read more

The Rise Of Global Central Planning
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/04/12

There was a time when the world had (somewhat) free markets. Then Lehman failed as the inevitable culmination of a credit bubble that was second in size and severity only to the one being blown currently, and the central planners took over, converting equity, bond and FX markets into nothing but monetary policy tools dominated by central banks. Below is a great summary of how parallel to SkyNet's HFT takeover of stock trading, the central planners conducted their own not so stealthy take over of all capital markets. ... Read more

CNN, FactCheck.org On Romney's $5 Trillion Tax Plan: Trust Him
HuffingtonPost | Matt Sledge | 10/04/12

Why the Pundits Are Wrong About the Debate
HP | Lynn Parramore | 10/04/12

... Obama did what anybody paying close attention would have known he would do. He played it safe. And he stuck to a rather dull rhetorical style because -- he has a rather dull rhetorical style. Also because that's what you do when you're the front-runner. You don't say or do anything wild and crazy. You let your opponent jump up and down and make excitable noises. Which is precisely what Romney did. Some have read Romney's stance as aggressive, others as pushy, but there's one word that you're unlikely to hear: "presidential." Makes for good theatrics. But it won't win you the White House. ... Read more

Top 10 GMO Foods to Avoid
nationofchange.org | Author | 07/29/12

Genetically modified foods have been shown to cause harm to humans, animals, and the environmental, and despite growing opposition, more and more foods continue to be genetically altered. It's important to note that steering clear from these foods completely may be difficult, and you should merely try finding other sources than your big chain grocer. ... Read more

Orders to U.S. Factories Plunge on Airplanes, Computers
Bloomberg | Lorraine Woellert | 10/04/12

... Orders placed with U.S. factories fell in August by the most in more than three years, signaling that slowdowns in business investment and exports restrained the economic expansion. ... Read more

Bank-Friendly Regulator Shifts to Revamp Reputation
Bloomberg | Jesse Hamilton | 10/04/12

Lets hope so

Read more

Grand Illusion: Mobility, Inequality, and the American Dream
HuffingtonPost | Jerome Karabel | 10/02/12

... So the United States now finds itself at a crossroads: still fervently committed to the American dream, but unwilling to adopt policies that would promote its realization. Put simply, Republicans and Democrats alike want something they cannot have: a society of unsurpassed opportunity to rise, regardless of family background, while tolerating exceptionally high levels of poverty and inequality. Such a society does not -- and cannot -- exist. ... Read more

On Keystone, Environmentalists Lose by Winning
Bloomberg | Jeff Rubin | 09/25/12

A surplus of oil backing up at Cushing has turned into a sweet deal for Midwest refiners, and explains why West Texas Intermediate crude traded more than $20 a barrel lower than benchmark world oil prices for most of 2011. Without a new pipeline, Midwest refiners will get to keep paying a discounted price for Canadian oil.   Considering that Canada exports more than 2 million barrels of oil a day to the U.S., getting shortchanged by $20 on every barrel sold is no trifling matter. It works out to about $40 million a day or roughly $1.25 billion a month in forgone petrodollars. And it's not just Canadian oil producers that take a hit. The royalties collected by Alberta's provincial government also shrink with the corporate taxes collected by Canada's federal government. ... Read more

This Is Why High Frequency Trading Will Never Go Away
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/02/12

... Reliance on the fake "liquidity" (which was never liquidity per se but merely volume and churn) by the Hight Frequency Trading (HFT) algos that stuff quotes, frontrun each other, spoof, layer, and generally make a mockery out of the thing fomerly known as the market. ... ... in 2011 the CME made 31.5% of all its revenues from HFT, the ICE: 25.1%, the NYSE: 21.4%, the Nasdaq: 17.1%, the CBOE: 22.4%, and so on. Read more

No Joy on Wall Street as Biggest Banks Earn $63 Billion
Bloomberg | Max Abelson | 10/03/12

Bank of America Corp. made more in the 12-month period than Walt Disney Co. and McDonald's Corp. combined. Citigroup Inc. (C), which like Bank of America took $45 billion in taxpayer funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, earned more than Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) and Boeing Co. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the largest U.S. bank by assets, had profits of more than $17 billion even after reporting a $5.8 billion trading loss.

Still, Wall Street isn't enjoying its good fortune.

Those billions of dollars in profits aren't enough, according to interviews with more than a dozen bank executives and analysts. The lowest leverage in a decade, return on equity at a third of 2006 levels, higher capital requirements, shares trading below book value, declining bonuses, job cuts, the European sovereign-debt crisis and a backlash against bankers have damped the joys of profit, they said. Read more

Libor Rigging Lawsuits Geithner's Fault, Senators Say
Reuters | Sarah N. Lynch | 10/02/12

... In a sharply worded letter to Geithner, Republicans Chuck Grassley and Mark Kirk blamed a "deluge" of lawsuits over the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) on Geithner's failure to inform the public, even though he knew of manipulation as president of the New York Federal Reserve in 2008. ... Read more

Global Trade Grinds To Halt: Seven And A Half Things To Know
HP | Mark Gongloff | 10/01/12

Thing One: Importing Recession: This economy would be great if it wasn't for the customers. ... Read more

Killers on the loose: the deadly viruses that threaten human survival
Guardian | David Quammen | date

... It's a mildly technical term, zoonosis, unfamiliar to most people, but it helps clarify the biological complexities behind the ominous headlines about swine flu, bird flu, Sars, emerging diseases in general, and the threat of a global pandemic. It's a word of the future, destined for heavy use in the 21st century.   Ebola and Marburg are zoonoses. So is bubonic plague. So was the so-called Spanish influenza of 1918--1919, which had its source in a wild aquatic bird and emerged to kill as many as 50 million people. All of the human influenzas are zoonoses. As are monkeypox, bovine tuberculosis, Lyme disease, West Nile fever, rabies and a strange new affliction called Nipah encephalitis, which has killed pigs and pig farmers in Malaysia. Each of these zoonoses reflects the action of a pathogen that can "spillover", crossing into people from other animals. ... Read more

The ECB - EUR22 Trillion Is Missing
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/02/12

Think of it; twenty-two trillion dollars worth of assets and liabilities and accounted for nowhere. These are twenty-two trillion dollars ($22 trillion) of loans and securitizations and mortgages that are found and accountable for by no one. These are real assets and real liabilities that have been turned into cash by the ECB and it causes us to wonder just how accurate the Money Supply numbers are for Europe with this amount of cash being pumped into the system. We also wonder what anyone's real balance sheet looks like and I wonder what kinds of losses are being incurred and by whom. This is what we are investing in when we buy European bonds? This is where we are putting our client's money? ... Read more

Dow Falls as Spain Spooks Investors
WSJ | Chris Dieterich | 10/02/12

Stocks fell to session lows after Spain's prime minister poured cold water on speculation that the country is nearing a bailout request.   The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 65 points, or 0.5%, to 13449 in midday trading, paring early gains that brought the blue chips higher by as many as 52 points.   Tuesday's early advance followed reports that Spain was nearer to requesting funds from the European Central Bank. But early stock gains wavered, and losses accelerated after headlines that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said a bailout request is not imminent. ... Read more

Mitt Romney's Quest For Swing Vote An Uphill Battle, Say Republican Pollsters
HuffingtonPost | Jon Ward | 10/01/12

The tone on a conference call with Republican pollsters Monday, discussing Mitt Romney's chances of winning over key swing voters, was rather gloomy. ... Read more

Eric Cantor Says In Debate 'Not True' He Voted For Sequester That He Voted For
HP | Jennifer Bendery | 10/01/12

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) insisted Monday night that he didn't support the budget sequester put into place last summer that Congress is now trying to get out of. But, well, he did vote for it.   During a debate with his Democratic challenger Wayne Powell, Cantor blamed President Barack Obama for pushing through a debt deal in August 2011 that included a $1.2 trillion sequester, or a trigger for automatic, across-the-board spending cuts set to kick in at the end of this year. The sequester was never intended to take effect. It was supposed to spur lawmakers to come up with a better way to cut trillions in spending. But Congress failed to come up with a bipartisan plan, so the possibility of the sequester taking effect now looms. ... Read more

TitleTop 1% Got 93% of Income Growth as Rich-Poor Gap Widened
Bloomberg | Peter Robison | 10/02/12
Read more

SEC Leads From Behind as High-Frequency Trading Shows Data Gap
Bloomberg | Nina Mehta | 10/01/12

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, stung by criticism that it lacks the knowledge to analyze the computerized trading that has come to dominate American stock markets, is planning to catch up. ... Read more

Sam Zell On "Class Warfare Crap", QE3 Unreality, And Why Everything Is Mispriced Due To The Fed
ZeroHedge | Author | 10/02/12

"QE-whatever has created artificial numbers that the underlying won't support" is how Sam Zell sums up his view of the Fed's actions, adding that the Dow should be more like 9000, not 14000. The typically optimistic bottom-feeding real-estate magnate says he is not buying here, is gravely concerned about liquidity needs, and in his assessment "everything is massively too expensive." ... Read more

Russia announces enormous finds of radioactive waste and nuclear reactors in Arctic seas
Bellona | Charles Digges | 08/28/12

Enormous quantities of decommissioned Russian nuclear reactors and radioactive waste were dumped into the Kara Sea in the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia over a course of decades, according to documents given to Norwegian officials by Russian authorities and published in Norwegian media. ... Read more

'Bitter Seeds' Film Tells of Suicide and GMO Effects on India's Farmers
HP | Author | 09/21/12

"Every 30 minutes a farmer in India kills himself ..." This frightening fact is pointed out in "Bitter Seeds," the third documentary in "The Globalization Trilogy" directed by Micha Peled. The 12-year project aims to generate debate about public policy and consumer choices in some complex issues relevant to all of us. Peled is the founder of the nonprofit Teddy Bear Films, which he created to make issue-oriented films such as "Will My Mother Go Back to Berlin?" and "Store Wars: When Wal-Mart Comes to Town."   "Bitter Seeds" follows a season in a village in India from planting to harvest. There are three important stories in this film, each revolving around the multinational corporate takeover of India's seed market and the effect it has on farmers and farming all over India and the world. ... Read more

Top Romney Official: Mitt's A 'Lousy Candidate'
Politico | Author | 09/28/12

With Republicans everywhere wondering what has happened to the Mitt Romney campaign, people who know the candidate personally and professionally offer a simple explanation: It's the candidate himself.   Slowly and reluctantly, Republicans who love and work for Romney are concluding that for all his gifts as a leader, businessman and role model, he's just not a good political candidate in this era. Read more

We Are the 96 Percent
NYTimes | Suzanne Mettler | 09/24/12

WHEN Mitt Romney told the guests at a fund-raiser in Florida in May that America is divided between people who pay no income taxes and depend on government and pretty much everyone else, he missed the deeper truth. It is not just that most of the 47 percent Mr. Romney talked about do pay payroll taxes and that many of them have paid income taxes in the past. The reality he glossed over is that nearly all Americans have used government social policies at some point in their lives. The beneficiaries include the rich and the poor, Democrats and Republicans. Almost everyone is both a maker and a taker. ... Read more

Supreme Court Term Begins, Major Rulings Ahead
HuffingtonPost | Author | 10/01/12

The Supreme Court term that begins Monday holds the prospect for major rulings about affirmative action, gay marriage and voting rights. A look at cases the court already has agreed to hear and other top cases in the pipeline: ... Read more

According to a review of tax documents from 2007 through 2011, Peterson has personally contributed at least $458 million to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation to cast Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and government spending as in a state of crisis, in desperate need of dramatic cuts. Peterson's millions have done next to nothing to change public opinion: In survey after survey, Americans reject the idea of cutting Social Security and Medicare.

Here Is The White House Spin On Today's Disappointing Economic Data
ZeroHedge | Author | 09/27/12

A massive 13% collapse in durable goods, the biggest since January 2009; a $20 billion miss to annualized Q2 GDP estimates, and well below the lowest estimate, 60+ weeks of constant upward BLS revisions to initial claims "data" and not to mention assorted atrocious economic (note: not to be confused with market - the two are now completely unlinked) data from around the globe. And what does the White House say: the data shows that the "US is making progress." We sure wouldn't want to know what it would look like if after 3 episodes of easing, trillions injected into the economy via the Fed, and of course $6 trillion in extra debt the US was not making progress. Oh and yes, everything else is Bush's fault. ... Read more

ALEC: The Scheme to Remake America, One State House at a Time
HuffingtonPost | Bill Moyers | 09/26/12

This week, we report on the most influential corporate-funded political force most Americans have never heard of -- ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC presents itself as a "nonpartisan public-private partnership". But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge. ... Read more

This Presidential Race Should Never Have Been This Close
RollingStone| Matt Taibbi | 09/25/12

... All of these points of view have merit, I guess, but to me they're mostly irrelevant. The mere fact that Mitt Romney is even within striking distance of winning this election is an incredible testament to two things: a) the rank incompetence of the Democratic Party, which would have this and every other election for the next half century sewn up if they were a little less money-hungry and tried just a little harder to represent their ostensible constituents, and b) the power of our propaganda machine, which has conditioned all of us to accept the idea that the American population, ideologically speaking, is naturally split down the middle, whereas the real fault lines are a lot closer to the 99-1 ratio the Occupy movement has been talking about since last year.

Think about it. Four years ago, we had an economic crash that wiped out somewhere between a quarter to 40% of the world's wealth, depending on whom you believe. The crash was caused by an utterly disgusting and irresponsible class of Wall Street paper-pushers who loaded the world up with deadly leverage in pursuit of their own bonuses, then ran screaming to the government for a handout (and got it) the instant it all went south. ... Read more

Looting Main Street
RollingStone| Matt Taibbi | 03/31/10

... What happened here in Jefferson County would turn out to be the perfect metaphor for the peculiar alchemy of modern oligarchical capitalism: A mob of corrupt local officials and morally absent financiers got together to build a giant device that converted human shit into billions of dollars of profit for Wall Street -- and misery for people like Lisa Pack. ... Read more

Israel Tells the White House What to Do on Iran; Palestinians See Last Chance for Two-State Solution
HuffingtonPost | Evelyn Leopold | 09/28/12

In a polished presentation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew a "red line" on a primitive diagram of a bomb -- arguing that Iran by next spring or early summer would be close to producing a nuclear weapon.   No doubt Netanyahu's drawing will go viral on the Internet but at least one Israeli columnist believes his aim was to reach a war-weary American public by simplifying a complex subject of centrifuges and enriched uranium. A photo of him drawing a red line on his sketch of a bomb is a sure front-pager. ... Read more

Investment Banking Fee Income Falls To Financial Crisis Levels On Europe Woes
Reuters | Author | 09/27/12

Global investment banking fees in the third quarter fell to their lowest since early 2009, according to data from Thomson Reuters and Freeman Consulting, as the euro zone debt crisis continued to unsettle markets and disrupt deal activity. ... Read more