Did The Fed Lie About The Bear Stearns Bailout? Bloomberg & Congress Scrutinize Maiden Lane Assets
Fed audit, anyone?
As part of the bailout of Bear Stearns, and to facilitate Bear's purchase by JPMorgan, Bernanke, Paulson, Geithner and the Fed created a taxpayer-funded cesspool of toxicity benevolently titled Maiden Lane Partners, and then repeatedly lied to or misled Congress about the quality of the assets it held, say Congressional members from both sides of the aisle.
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From Bloomberg:
Fed Made Taxpayers Unwitting Junk Buyers
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and then-New York Fed President Timothy Geithner told senators on April 3, 2008, that the tens of billions of dollars in “assets” the government agreed to purchase in the rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. were “investment-grade.”
They didn’t share everything the Fed knew about the money.
The so-called assets included collateralized debt obligations and mortgage-backed bonds with names like HG-Coll Ltd. 2007-1A that were so distressed, more than $40 million already had been reduced to less than investment-grade by the time the central bankers testified. The government also became the owner of $16 billion of credit-default swaps, and taxpayers wound up guaranteeing high-yield, high-risk junk bonds.
By using its balance sheet to protect an investment bank against failure, the Fed took on the most credit risk in its 96- year history and increased the chance that Americans would be on the hook for billions of dollars as the central bank began insuring Wall Street firms against collapse. The Fed’s secrecy spurred legislation that will require government audits of the Fed bailouts and force the central bank to reveal recipients of emergency credit.
“Either the Fed did not understand the distressed state of some of the assets that it was purchasing from banks and is only now discovering their true value, or it understood that it was buying weak assets and attempted to obscure that fact,” Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in an e-mail when informed about the credit quality of holdings in the Maiden Lane LLC portfolio. The committee held the April 3 hearing.
Bear Stearns Purchase
Maiden Lane, named for a street bordering the New York Fed’s Manhattan headquarters, was created to hold the assets the central bank acquired to facilitate JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s purchase of Bear Stearns.
The Fed disclosed the Maiden Lane holdings in March after Bloomberg News went to court using the Freedom of Information Act, and the U.S. District Court in New York held that the Fed should release documents related to Bloomberg’s request.
“The Federal Reserve was not straightforward with the American people regarding the risks they were taking with taxpayer money, despite my efforts to obtain such clarity at the time,” U.S. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, the Senate Banking Committee’s top Republican, told Bloomberg News. “It is apparent that the Fed withheld from the Congress and the public material information about the condition of these securities.”
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Jul 9, 2010 at 3:01 PM
Reader Comments (80)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-01/fed-s-maiden-lane-made-taxpayers-junk-bond-buyers-without-congress-knowing.html
Long delayed, the approximately $80 billion bill was passed amid building pressure on Democrats to act before their weeklong Fourth of July break begins. But the Senate approved a significantly slimmer measure in May and it'll take additional weeks to reconcile the differences between the two battling chambers.
The crucial vote to advance the measure under unusually convoluted floor rules came on a 215-210 tally to bring up the nearly $60 billion Senate-passed measure for debate. Democrats added more than $20 billion for domestic programs late Thursday, including $10 billion in grants to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs, $5 billion for Pell Grants to low-income college students and $700 million to improve security along the U.S.-Mexico border.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/01/afghanistan-30-billion-war-funding_n_633300.html
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2010/07/employment-report-which-payroll-number.html
My question is THIS: when will Bernanke, Paulson et al's 1945 FINALLY ARRIVE?
Goring was a vain buffoon and Himmler was a demented psychopath. When Hitler was done dancing, the jig was up for both of them.
I would bet a lot of money, the two laughing hyenas in the picture along with Geithner and all the other criminal players who worked so hard to defraud the American People of trillions never get charged with anything.
The elite own the government and it will do what they tell it to, from every member of Congress right up to the Obankster, they're completely compromised. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for justice RLR, when the money is running the show, justice is whatever the money says it is.
That is, Plato saw that there were no just societies anywhere and certainly not in Greece. In almost every age since the time of Plato, practically speaking, "justice" has simply been the interest of the powerful.
Plato's only solution was to ask individuals to lead just lives in preparation for the appearance of such a society. But that society has never appeared on earth and Plato admitted that it was not possible to lead a just life in a society without justice.
The other great solution of Western Culture has been the Christian solution is: Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.
Either way, we get individuals and bands of individuals trying to lead just lives in the margins of society, surrounded by barbarians who only respect strength and power. This is what led Nietzsche to call Christianity "watered down Platonism for the masses."
Various groups and individuals have tried to set up Plato's just society, on paper, in small Utopian groups and in society at large but almost always without success and often with results that are far worse than the societies they tried to improve on.
Modern intellectuals are paralyzed by their knowledge of the violence, barbarism and sometimes sheer idiocies of the English, French and Russian revolutions not to mention those of the disastrous Nazi-fascist revolution.
But the English, French and Russian revolutions all achieved great results also. We can't forget, for example, that our own American revolutionaries kept the lessons of the English revolution constantly in mind and never tired of making comparisons between it and their own task.
It could be that the greatest danger America faces today is the cowardice of its intellectual class in front of the near worship of the rich and powerful by the masses.
There will come a point that they will no longer be able to "generate" enough illusions to cover the theft of our nations future. Unfortunately, that will be about the time the food runs out, and the soccer games are cancelled because everyone is to weak to chase the ball.
https://www.adbusters.org/magazine/90/hedges-american-psychosis.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/jared_diamond_on_why_societies_collapse.html
Those living in the margins will still be doing fine, as long as they do not find a way to steal the seasons...
Without getting too long winded, consider a simple problem with a simple solution: It's called the United States Senate. Getting rid of the Senate completely and replacing it with the House of Representatives would instantly bring more democracy and fair representation to the United States and bring our outmoded "democracy" closer to the parliamentary democracies that exist in the rest of the world.
Why should the America democracy be controlled by senators from Nevada, Wyoming, Vermont and other states with small populations? There is no rational answer.
But the impossibility of simple reforms such as this one point to the conclusions of history:
It may be that Caesarism is the only answer available to us naked apes. History seems to teach as much. There is a long preparatory period: the Enlightenment, for example. Then there is unrest and finally an explosion or revolution that brings down the old, outworn order (the Royal House of France) and then chaos (the English, French and American revolutions) after which a strong leader emerges to bring order and to implement the most viable ideas of the failed revolution.
If America finally collapses from too much injustice, stupidity and corruption (and gradual reform continues to be impossible) then, after a period of chaos, a genius of action and intelligence will rise from below to become an American Cromwell, Napoleon or George Washington and bring reforms at sword point.
This process does not have to be a step backwards and in fact, the opposite is usually the case. But, as usual, if it happens blood will flow as copiously as justice in the streets of America.
The only hope has always been enlightened minorities whether they come from the upper, middle or lower classes.
The baseball worshiping, hip-hop chanting, tattooed and pierced nation is, and always has been, irrelevant. They are simply what the military calls canon fodder, what the French call la canaille and the Greeks called the hoi polloi.
They will massacre each other in a heart beat and without a conscience, and they will follow any dictator from the best to the worst without noticing the difference.
The majority does not know what bootstraps are, they are wearing those faggoty crocs, and shoes with velcro and such. There are many "bootstrap" people sitting and watching though, and I have never meet an intellectual capable of feeding themselves.
And I do not have the time or inclination to do it for them while they sit around and think how I can better manage my time to serve them better either, while they sit around and be a drag on society as well.
I have always been known to feed the "poor" with my excess, but never the "lazy".
Have you ever went out and found flint, chipped an arrowhead, made an arrow and a bow, and then bagged something to eat?
These are the types of people I know, and they have interesting lives. They just do not meet the "standards" of the "fake" intellectuals who live in their own illusions and fantasies as long as fiat money supports them.
How about boar hunting with a spear, there are no illusions in that either.
"They can't ever become enlightened and can never be reached by reason."
It is because it has been bred into them.
"They will massacre each other in a heart beat and without a conscience, and they will follow any dictator from the best to the worst without noticing the difference. "
You are correct on this.
"after which a strong leader emerges to bring order and to implement the most viable ideas of the failed revolution. "
I liked your reference to John Hanson. There’s a a lot more to this nation than is covered in the average Goobermint controlled text book.
@ James S.
Don't take my prodding seriously, I see something higher in you, which is good, I am merely trying to push you to a higher level of thought, because I can see it in you. Like Nietszche, the "intellectuals" have been paid lap dogs for the amusement of those with fiat currency.
While reading in good, and I see you are good at it, when is the last time you have been in touch with nature and your inner self?
I am not referring to you as "like Nietchsze", for he was not great, and has spurred many dictators with his warped beliefs.
Greatness resides in the soul...
SNK had it
James H had it
Spidey had it
Allie had it
Steve has it
JTS has it
John S. has it
T. Dar has it
Jack has it
Sagebrush has it
Mark has it
And you have it.
Ken is trying, but keeps reverting to non productive avenues.
Push higher than the things you have read...
Marx introduced the term "alienation" where he meant that workers are alienated from their work because they no longer produce a product from start to finish, such as a pair of shoes. They become an appendage to a machine and can't do anything more than put a sole on a pair of shoes an assembly plant, for example, let alone do something complicated like learning to hunt or fish.
Adam Smith introduces his great work The Wealth of Nations by describing the making of a common pin which is still in existence for pinning papers up on a wall.
Before Smith's time one person made the pin and was proud of his work. It required a lot of training, skill and patience. But Smith shows us that by specializing in sub tasks, a group of people can make hundreds of pins in the same time it takes a skilled pin craftsman to make one pin.
One person specializes in cutting the wires, another one specializes in putting heads on pins, another one specializes in placing the pins in a row to make it easy to put the heads on and put them in boxes, another specializes in putting the pins in boxes, another specializes in making boxes, etc. It is really a fun read and takes less than a half an hour to read.
Smith says that this kind of specialization will be the foundation of a new form of business called free enterprise (he was right) but Marx calls it a formula for alienation because the worker loses touch with the process of actually making things he can be proud of and therefore workers lose the dignity that goes along with being craftsmen and become "alienated" from the thing they help produce (they often don't even know what it looks like.) (he was right also.)
Marx was a Utopian who believed that man left along without any government (the withering away of the state) would naturally build a communist utopia. He was actually a libertarian who believed that government was not necessary. (I think he was wrong.)
Most Americans don't know these things because they are not "intellectual" enough to stoop to reading books so that they can discover that the news and information fed to them by the oligarchy American press are lies and propaganda.
http://www.nolanchart.com/article4425.html
I have read Adam Smith as well. "Free enterprise" exists regardless of the risks involved for the business people so long as they can make a profit. Capitalism is a dream of the very wealthy to fore go any responsibility in relation to the place that they occupy in society and be able to accrue wealth without necessarily putting any thing back into society.
Do you truly believe we have free enterprise? If so, please explain the relationship of bailouts, subsidies, no bid contracts, and the various forms of protectionism on our mythical free enterprise model.
The problem with capitalism is the invention of the corporation. As democracy replaced feudalism, the goobermint realized that it would no longer have an aristocracy to divert the attention of the populace from its own antics. So it invented the corporation, which is basically nothing more than the New Aristocracy. You can't execute a corporation no matter how evil it is, you can't throw it in jail, and if you fine it it just laughs and passes the costs on to you. We get so outraged watching the antics of corporations that we forget to see what's going on in Washington. They burned the Constitution many years ago and have been doing pretty much whatever the hell they feel like ever since.
Capitalism does not turn a blind eye to poverty, scarcity, and desperation. Capitalism ensures desperation exists. Capitalism has its own many flaws, just as other systems do, one only has to turn their eye to our southern coast to see a prime example of that. This tragedy could have been prevented, but cost saving measures were implemented that compromised safety, and they lost, so we pay. Safety is always secondary to bonus building...
Unrestrained capitalism is every bit as destructive as other forms of red and yellow government. That is why we have things like the EPA, FDA, OSHA, MSHA, etc.. And business is constantly trying to weaken/ go around/ do away with them.
I do not believe in Utopias James, so do not try to put square pegs in round holes, that is Gobies job. Adam Smith would be very disappointed if you took that away from him.
So back to my original question,
"when is the last time you have been in touch with nature and your inner self?"
Two horns from the Black Rhinoceros were valued at $50,000 in 1990 because the Chinese think they produce strong erections. This has caused the Black Rhinoceros to be hunted to near extinction — There are fewer than 2,500 left in the world.
John Kenneth Galbraith joked: Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Socialism is the reverse.
America is clearly a plutocracy or oligarchy where a few thousand families control most of the resources through their mulitnational corporations and control the government with their money. Free enterprise exists around the margins.
Here are some statistics (from 1985 but things haven't changed that much):
If we lined up America's 16 million businesses in order of size, starting with the smallest, along an imaginary line from San Francisco to New York, there would be 4,500 businesses in each mile, or a little less than one business per foot all across the continent.
Suppose we planted a flag for each business where the height of the flagpole represents the volume of sales: each $10,000 in sales is shown by one foot of pole.
Then from San Francisco to Reno, Nevada, the entire line of poles, which are one foot apart, would only be about one foot high.
Then, from Reno to Columbus, Ohio (about four fifths of the way across the U.S.) the poles would gradually rise in height to about ten feet at Columbus.
As we move from Columbus, Ohio to New York City and get about 75 miles from the city center the poles grow from 10 feet in height to about 50 feet in height.
Then moving from 75 miles to 50 miles from the center they climb to 100 feet in height.
From 50 miles to one quarter of a mile from the city center they reach 5000 feet in height.
Now, as we move from one quarter of a mile to 100 feet from the center of New York City the poles reach a height of 3 miles.
The last leg of our journey, from 100 feet to the center circle of 10 feet brings us to poles that are 190 miles high. These are the ten largest companies with sales of more than $10 billion.
Do I think America is a free enterprise country? No.
To answer your question about nature,
Aristotle thought that the contemplation of nature (i.e. doing science) was what all men who had the leisure and freedom to pursue happiness, should do as their major activity in life.
He thought that doing science was, essentially, a form of “meditation” which would bring communion with Nature. (His God was simply the first cause which set everything in motion but never intervened in nature again.)
I tend to agree with Aristotle but I don’t want to be a hypocrite either, because I’ve done many things in my life and not only studied the sciences.
People will always do what is bad for them, as long as it is fashionable... I am waiting for them to declare the oil spill an invigorating health tonic, and open health spas so people can "reap the benefits" of soaking in it. Stranger things have happened in history...
"The last leg of our journey, from 100 feet to the center circle of 10 feet brings us to poles that are 190 miles high. These are the ten largest companies with sales of more than $10 billion."
Hence Lyman Frank Baum's "wicked witch of the East".
I to have worn many hats, but I prefer the simplest things the best. right now I am taking a break from braiding this seasons garlic and hanging it for winter.
I have always liked Aristotle, among many others.
I we Todd did, sofa King we Todd did... and enjoy your foreign oil spill, and your unpatriot act, and your homeland insecurity act, and your Agenda 21, and countless forms of Fabian/ Gramsci Socialism you worship irregardless of party affiliation. It is a shame no one can see their inner socialist.
Yellow and red walking hand in hand...
James S, check out the monetary/ political allegory of the Wizard of Oz...
Shots fired, shots fired!!! Gomp, you are such a stupid fuck. I had to take a break that may last forever for this site because DB keeps encouraging your stupid fuck comments and ignorance. Read some of the stupid fuck stuff you say, it is asinine.
Gomp says...Unrestrained capitalism is every bit as destructive as other forms of red and yellow government.
Red and yellow government, you stupid fuck.
Gomp says...
The problem with capitalism is the invention of the corporation.
What a stupid fuck you are to say this. It doesn’t make sense and doesn’t say anything. It is pure fucking babble.
Gomp says...You can't execute a corporation no matter how evil it is, you can't throw it in jail, and if you fine it it just laughs and passes the costs on to you.
Why DB keeps kissing your stupid fuck ass after you keep saying such stupid things says a lot about the quality of the site he wants.
Gomp says...That comment sounds a little Alinsky-ish, just because one has the ability to recognize red and yellow influence on society, does not make one red or yellow.
On behalf of intelligent people everywhere, don't be such a damn stupid fuck asshole.
Gomp says...Capitalism does not turn a blind eye to poverty, scarcity, and desperation. Capitalism ensures desperation exists.
You have truly swallowed your own STUPID FUCK Kool-aid to keep saying this crap. DB, you sent your site down this narrow path and that stupid fuck Gomp is your Frankenstein. Read his post again DB, this is what you support and I am so fucking fed up with the nonsense. You can delete this post and lock me out of this site, no big deal. I hope you think about what I am saying and I hope you leave it up long enough for that stupid fuck Gomp to read.
Thank you.
The Globe begins its account by stating, "A former Hawaii records official is sending shock waves through Washington, D.C., by revealing there is absolutely no birth certificate for Barack Obama! The bombshell revelation backs up long-standing claims that Obama – who insists he was born in a Honolulu hospital – really took his first breath in Kenya, and, as a result, violates the U.S. Constitution's requirements for the president to be a 'natural born' American."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX5-2_YKTnE
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=RnljH4JyrDg&feature=related
That is because you can't pick a few words to get the meaning, I could pick a few words of yours and actually make you look smart, as difficult as that is to believe. I guess you are for;
Corporate self regulation
Corporate real person rights
Our founders were against these things.
http://trueslant.com/rickungar/2010/01/22/what-did-the-founding-fathers-really-think-about-corporations-and-their-rights/
http://reclaimdemocracy.org/corporate_accountability/history_corporations_us.html
Even now, a man has been sent to prison over what might be one of Toyota's stuck throttles. While Toyota received a fine not for this problem, but for trying to hide that their might be a problem (so much for self regulation), and as always, the fine gets passed to the consumer, and no harm, no foul, for those making these decisions.
http://reason.com/blog/2010/02/22/man-got-eight-years-for-deaths
In 1942, Stuart Chase, in his book "The Road We Are Traveling" spelled out the system of planning the Fabians had in mind; the interesting thing is to look at that plan in comparison to 2008 America.
1. Strong, centralized government.
2. Powerful Executive at the expense of Congress and the Judicial.
3. Government controlled banking, credit and securities exchange.
4. Government control over employment.
5. Unemployment insurance, old age pensions.
6. Universal medical care, food and housing programs.
7. Access to unlimited government borrowing.
8. A managed (Federal Reserve) monetary system.
9. Government control over foreign trade.
10. Government control over natural energy sources, transportation and agricultural production.
11. Government regulation of labor. Whoops, got that…
12. Youth camps devoted to health discipline, community service and ideological teaching consistent with those of the authorities. Working on that…
13. Heavy progressive taxation.
It should be evident that while Socialists no longer use the name that the plan is still Socialism at its heart. The Fabian Socialist Revolution began in earnest in this country in 1933 with the imposition of the Welfare State and has been steadily progressing since. Both parties are involved, and even a birth certificate will not fix the real problems, though it is a issue, and should have been dealt with pre election.
Things like the EPA, FDA, OSHA, MSHA, etc. are unfortunately required as watchdogs, and business is constantly trying to weaken/ go around/ do away with them. Greed limits the ability of self regulation to exist.
I am for individual rights not corporate real person rights, maybe you should get away from some of the dribble you read and check out the Founders...
Only in that, will people see that they are on the wrong path as stated above. It is a shame they would rather watch tv or read Nietzche. They cannot recognize the collective they are creating.
or most here.I do however make things with my hands and mind .From start to finish like you said with the pins witch i could
make .I dont think a person can understand what i am saying by reading about it like when you grow something or make
something just because you wanted to see if you can do it.I think thats what he was getting at .I cant explain it.
I guess what i am saying is I think there are a whole lot more talented blue collar people than get credit .
what it comes down to is the feeling you get when you are self sufficient to a degree makes the big picture look
different..But i am the one of the people who will spend 100.00 and ten hours making something i could buy for 50.00LOL
My brain is locking up from the heat.:(
I would love to hear the rest of the story on this..............thAre I go again thinkin.....?
& Gomps, I have been eatting a clove of Garlic a day for 4 years now. Before that I was to weak to evan record songs and make up CD's and sell them on the bands web site.
After spending our lifes savings on a Lyme Dr. with no results and not getting any better, my bus Mch. told me to just suck it up and eat it and you will get better........! I've got back 20% of my life and doing things I couldent for over 10 years.
I now use a Rife Machine every day for 4 hrs. and betwen them 2 im doing a lot better. Google Rife, and it can do yr body wonders if you have something in you you shouldent.
They say if you can find someone that grows good garlic, you can get that much better. God only knows what the crap is we get at the supper market, half the time its 1/2 moldy. And latly the hot is missing. The "Hotter" they are the better they are doing to yr insides........."Burn In.......Burn Out" Stronger Dar.
& some people you will neaver reach, you know what I mean.......? But sure puts the fun in reading the DB Blog....!
The most fun in my life is digging something out of the "Dumpster" and making it work again and useing it or giving it to someone that can use it.
If I had put "Texas" "Dar" on the bottom of my shoes many many people would of knowen that was me with my feet in the air digging my new treasure out of the resort, or marina, back stage, at the RV park, Dumpsters........!
My best find, but thAre were many, was a 1,200 watt Gen. that wouldent start. ( Had to jump into the thing to get it out of the stench ) After a $.25 piece of gas hose, it ran like new again.
I neaver got to big or famous, to be the little guy that digs in the dumpsters. Its like a hobby. The longer you do it, the better you are at it. & the more Cool Shit you find that people throw away. ( "Dumpster Diving Country Singer Guy" ) thats Meeeeeeee !
http://amerexile.blogspot.com/2010/02/cancer-of-collectivism-its-symptoms-and.html
Below is copied from the link provided below.
The more corporate welfare received, the more layoffs...
This is a list of the 8 corporate welfare recipients that were listed in the first article of the Inquirer series, comparing corporate welfare received to the number of people layed off in that time (1990-1994).
Welfare recieved Employment
GM $110,600,000 -104,000
IBM 58,000,000 -100,000
AT&T 35,000,000 -1,077 * #
GE 25,400,000 -80,000
Amoco 23,600,000 -8,300 *
DuPont 15,200,000 -29,961
Motorola 15,100,000 +9,600 *
Citicorp 9,600,000 -15,700
* exceptions to the trend
# AT&T layed off 40,000 people shortly after this accounting
http://www.aracnet.com/~gdy52150/cw.htm
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff242.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer70.html
http://prorev.com/fascist.htm
And no, as usual, I do not believe/ worship all that is in the links so I will not split hairs. But I do believe in the Founders, and I know that many things have gone wrong since that time. Ping pong between parties that both rely on the contributors more than the constituents has not helped the situation in the last 100 years. Protect the individual, not the collective.
The main debate between the "left'' and the "right'' today is not a debate over collectivism and individualism---its a debate over two forms of collectivism. The "left'' says that the needs of society lie in the materialistic realm, so they are into regulating that aspect of individual affairs. The "right'' says that the needs of society lie in the spiritual realm, so they are into regulating the spiritual aspect of individual affairs.
Collectivism is, by its nature, an act of balancing the need of the individual against the need of "society''.
Gobie is just mad I was talking down about the leftist, commie, community organizer from Chicago, author of as he stated previously "the new Republican Bible", and his syph riddled buddy. My question is, does anything anyone reads ever feed them?
I stand by the fact that I am a simple redneck of unabashed, disadvantaged, Appalachian descent, who is desperately seeking an independent life outside of the margins, where I already do not require the collective for heat, produce most of my food (and striving for more), and would like to get off the grid one day, and live my life controlled by me.
That is a terribly dangerous thing indeed.
Guess I'll go to the farmers market in Arkanssa's by the real hillbillys. Them ol boys can grow the best of stuff, why you can fill yr pipe with the crap they grow.....................?
When or never? USA Wall Street Banker And Corporate Terrorists go to Jail?
When will SEC work for USA tax payers aka Working class?
Market Manipulation On Display
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOr5suFJ6-k&feature=player_embedded#!
Rarely does it get this blatant..... this sort of crap goes on every day, but once in a while it's just "in your face."
Tonight was one of those examples.
Bankers jailed, sued as Iceland seeks culprits for crisis
By Haukur Holm (AFP) – May 12, 2010
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkg5VhwETJHWaiIqxwwj_PsHQ2Dg
US taxpayers’ Afghan aid money buys rich Afghans’ Dubai villas
You already might have heard that it costs the United States $1 million for each solider per year in Afghanistan, to cover the cost of the soldiers' benefits, troop transports and other material. What you might not have heard is that your hard earned taxpayer dollars are also being used to buy well-connected Afghans posh villas in Dubai.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0706/taxpayers-afghan-aid-money-paying-rich-afghans-dubai-villas/
If us ever got wind to whats realy going on, you could not keep the shelves stocked with Ammo. A train wreck, dont evan come close to whats realy going on in our goverment.
Its a good thing most people are glued to the TV, and have no clue as to whats realy going on. The Herd is at the cliff, right Gomp's.................? How stupid can people be....?
Thomas Sowell on how the same old con game is played over and over in DC.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/sowell9.1.1.html
Author and commodity investor Jim Rogers appeared on The Mangru Report to discuss current economic issues with host Dan Mangru. An important point Jim Rogers makes in the interview is the devastating chain reaction that will occur when individual states start having pension fund issues and start to ask for bailout money. Once, state pension fund issues occur, problems will start to surface in the municipal bond market causing local governments to look for bailout money from the federal government. But the interview really got interesting around the 2:20 mark when Jim Rogers states:
"this is not over (Dan), there is a lot more outrage to come". Other topics covered is the European crisis, student debt, IPO's.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqQNljhYgyo&feature=player_embedded
The Monumental Scam Called the TSA
A new movie, "Please Remove Your Shoes," blows the whistle.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/monumental-incompetence-tsa.html
http://www.costofwar.com/
But no money to working class?AMEN
See the Cost of War to your community:
http://www.costofwar.com/
But no money to working class?AMEN
The National Debt of the United States Clock
http://oddhammer.com/tutorials/debt_clock/US_debt_clock.swf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efyrHrvMpk0&feature=player_embedded
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1278606784.php
this is the first thread i've read and it was a doozey...james h is still around by the way...or at least he will be...his advisor passed away and he has had family things to attend to but he'll be back around...and allie is at Freedom Fest in las vegas this weekend, organizing her ass off...i was going to attend but at the last minute i decided i couldn't handle 3 more days of partying...she also still reads the site but is pretty busy with school and an internship...
http://www.freedomfest.com/home.htm
and the discussion here was interesting...i didn't completely understand james' question about gomp being a marxist and i wasn't even sure if he was being serious...and i absolutely didn't understand zara's blistering attack on gomp's comment...i thought it was a well presented series of thoughts from gomp with one very slight, playful jab at gobie for square pegs and round holes...and then kaboom came the eruption from z...
maybe zara could explain his outburst, or maybe not..doesn't matter...gomp and zara can handle their own affairs but it seemed to me to be pretty far out of line...maybe you were just drunk zara, but i wish you weren't that way because there is much of value that you add when you aren't being so antagonistic...and i agree with jts who suggested that you could probably benefit from some medicinal marijuana...and i mean that with no disrespect...relaxing is good for everyone...self included...
i hope everyone enjoyed the holiday and i will start posting some things in the morning...
Gomp says...You can't execute a corporation no matter how evil it is, you can't throw it in jail, and if you fine it it just laughs and passes the costs on to you.
When everything is run by the government, will we need bigger jails?
Gomp says...The problem with capitalism is the invention of the corporation.
So, can you give me a timeline of the invention of capitalism and where the invention of the corporation fits in, hmmm, maybe just a link or two.
DB, I try to ignore his puke comments but I was in a bad mood that day, you were up in Port Clinton, and the ants were taking over the anthill with their nonsense.
DB says......i thought it was a well presented series of thoughts from gomp with one very slight, playful jab at gobie for square pegs and round holes.
REALLY??? And you ask why??? If you were a sixth grade teacher and you needed to grade Gomps response (I almost said third grade but effort counts maybe too much in 3rd), you would give him an A on his homework. Maybe he could go to U of Virginia, would he fit in with such creative points of view? You are still on the honor system...
A "well presented series of thoughts", DB, you must have gotten laid up in Port Clinton to be in such a giving mood. Is Monica Lewinsky or one of the Gore girls living up in northern Ohio. I am just guessing that they would be as kinky as their pop. Did she take you to Put It In Bay?
by yellow and red i assume gomp meant varying degrees of communism/marxism, state control...it seemed obvious to me but i suppose i could be wrong...
and as for gomp's corporation/capitalism comments, i took those to be part of his wider theme of the destructive side of corporate behaviour and the havoc it plays on workers, society, economies and the earth...
look it's not a huge deal...none of us are trying to win pulitzer's with our comments except perhaps james s (and i say that with kindness and a smile james)...i don't think gomp was trying to be perfect he was just making some points...i was just reacting to your extremely intense response to him...
i don't think you need to go to such extremes when you disagree...we've all been around here for awhile...it's a tiny community...most of us agree on the issues, including you...we all work together to provide the truth on the issues that we care about individually...and you play a big part in that as does gomp and everyone else...you both along with others have basically free rein to post whatever you wish all over our comments sections...you've earned that right...
i guess i'm just saying let's be more civil to each other...disagree strongly but show respect for the other person... and i ask of course that others show you the same respect when they disagree with you...it works both ways, and it's been a long battle...and it's been fun sometimes to witness the fights, but maybe it's not good to have so many...
p.s. Civil and Kennybot is next to impossible for me but I will bite my tongue with regards to the other devotee Gomp.
As for you Gomp...you are Iran and I am the USA of old. If you strike me, I will strike back with force and determination. Bush said it best before people like you made him take it back...I bet Rudy would have backed up his words with action. Where is the Bush Doctrine when we need it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKdbZWNqF00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr4Cy3Ho9YY
This war is a real war not a bumper sticker.