Two high-ranking financial whistleblowers say they tried to warn their superiors about defective and even fraudulent mortgages. So why haven't the companies or their executives been prosecuted? Steve Kroft reports. Source
5 Dec 2011
"The euro needs to assert itself against gold and silver"
Debate on debt crisis
Should we abandon the euro?
It would therefore be better to allow a competitive currency, as proposed by the economist and Nobel laureate economist Friedrich August von Hayek decades ago, the euro must then compete with other money market players are free to choose, say. These states must first remove the laws that suppress the free currency competition so far. Market players were then free to choose the one to use money that suits their needs best. As part of a free currency competition gold and silver, but of course all other currencies would rise against the euro as an alternative.
Digitized precious metal standard
Gold could serve as a unit of account - which is not to be confused with the requirement that all money must be backed by gold. Using modern technology could create a "digitized precious metal standard." To start the currency competition, it does not even require a decision unit for all governments in the euro area. It would probably be enough if the Federal Republic of Germany put him in motion.
At the end of the currency competition would bring good money. It would increase the disciplinary pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to maintain the purchasing power of the euro stable. For an inflationary policy would devalue the Euro visible for all to compete against other currencies. The states are in debt in euros would be in trouble. A competition of currencies would increase the incentive to over-indebtedness to a debt and not to resort to inflationary policies that would be associated with anticipated high economic costs. Source
Italian Welfare Minister Elsa Fornero breaks down in tears during austerity measures announcement
Claim: Clinton and Blair Collected $50K Per Month From MF Global
A former MF Global employee accused former president William J. Clinton of collecting $50,000 per month through his Teneo advisory firm in the months before the brokerage careened towards its Halloween filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.Teneo was hired by MF Global’s former CEO Jon S. Corzine to improve his image and to enhance his connections with Clinton’s political family, said the employee, who asked that his name be withheld because he feared retribution.
“They were supposed to be helping Corzine improve his image as a CEO—I guess you can tell how that went,” he said. Corzine resigned as CEO and chairman November 4.
Before Corzine joined MF Global in May 2010, the firm was a smart and well-run commodities broker, a culture that was turned upside-down by his leadership style, he said.
“The traders would be shaking their heads,” he said. “They would come back to their desk and say, ‘Well, I thought we were going to do this—but Corzine would come by and do something else all by himself,’” he said.
The Teneo contract with MF Global lasted at least five months, he said. “The board cancelled it after Corzine resigned.”
The source, who is no longer associated with MF Global, said Teneo is a dual-track company with one side devoted to merchant and investment banking and the other side set up to provide image and strategy consulting services.
Clinton is the chairman of the company’s advisory board. His duties and compensation have not been released. The other member of the board is former British prime ministerTony Blair.
Two of the three founding partners are very close to the former president and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton. They are Douglas J. Band, who is the former president’s counselor and has served on his personal staff since 1995 and Declan Kelly, who earned the “Hillraiser” status in the secretary’s 2008 run for president for bundling more than $100,000 for the campaign.
Another prominent member of the Clinton political family is Tom Shea. Shea is a senior vice president for Teneo Strategy and served as Corzine’s chief of staff, when Corzine was the governor of New Jersey.
Kelly sold his public relations firm Financial Dynamics in 2006 to FTI for $340 million, and stayed with that company until July 2009, when he joined the State Department as the Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland.
The source said, “Kelly was given a job they created out our whole cloth.” The job did not exist previously.
“He basically got to ride around developing a book of business, while he waited for his non-compete clause to run out,” he said.
Kelley and the former president traveled together networking and making introductions at international conferences and events, he said.
The Secretary of State also traveled with Kelly, including the October 2010 U.S. – Northern Ireland Economics Conference, which Kelly organized and at which the secretary was the featured speaker.
The secretary announced that she accepted Kelly’s resignation May 11.
Teneo landed its first major client June 1, when the Rockefeller Foundation gave Teneo a $3,447,150, six-month contract to help plan the foundation’s 2013 centennial.
The foundation is another member of the Clinton’s extended family. It gave Clinton its Lifetime Innovation Achievement Award July 27 and the foundation is listed as a between $1 to $5 million contributor to the William J. Clinton Foundation, along with several members of the Rockefeller family who are listed as individual contributors.
[In the preparation of this story, several emails and phone calls were placed to Teneo, MF Global and the State Department for comment. In each case, there was no response.] Source
UK pay gap rises faster than any rich nation - OECD
The pay gap between the highest and lowest earners in the UK has grown more quickly than in any other high-income country since 1975, an OECD report said today.
Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development found the sharp increase in income inequality, which began in 2005, leaves Britain well above the group's average.
The study - Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising - published by the forum of 34 countries that earn the most, said the annual average income of the top 10pc was almost £55,000 in 2008, nearly 12 times higher than that of the bottom 10pc, who earned an average of £4,700.
This is up from a ratio of 8 to 1 in 1985, the OECD said.
OECD data showed the money earned by the country's top 1pc of earners doubled from 7.1pc of the total UK income in 1970 to 14.3pc in 2005.
Just prior to the global recession, the top 0.1pc of top earners accounted for 5pc of total pre-tax income. At the same time, the top marginal income tax rate saw a marked decline, dropping from 60pc in the 1980s to 40pc in the 2000s, before its recent increase to 50pc.
In order to combat the problem, the OECD said: "Work is the most promising way of tackling inequality. The biggest challenge is creating more and better jobs that offer good career prospects and a real chance to people to escape poverty."
It said investing in "human capital" is vital.
"This must begin from early childhood and be sustained through compulsory education," it concluded.
"Once the transition from school to work has been accomplished, there must be sufficient incentives for workers and employers to invest in skills throughout the working life."
A Government spokesman said: "The OECD recognises that the causes of inequality are complex. As we have seen, just putting billions of pounds into the tax and benefit system cannot alleviate poverty on its own and has the perverse effect of trapping thousands of families in a life on benefits.
"The OECD rightly points out that governments need to facilitate and encourage employment of low income groups - something we are directly focusing on through the Work Programme and Universal Credit.
"Our wide-ranging reforms will have a dramatic impact on the poorest families, improving the life chances of children at an early age and lifting almost a million people out of poverty through the Universal Credit."
Rail Maritime and Transport union leader Bob Crow said: "Far from all being in it together, the rich are getting richer while working families are taking the biggest hit on their standards of living since wartime rationing.
"This Government continues to pedal the lie that we are all sharing the pain while the boardrooms are awash with cash and those whose rampant greed created the crisis are laughing all the way to the bank." Source
All Take No Give: UK/US post 9-11 extradition injustice
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Joe Biden "Jokes" About Bringing Hundreds Of Millions Of US Taxpayer Dollars To Bailout Greece
Submitted by Tyler Durden Vice President Joe Biden, now best known for being the man who relies primarily on Jon Corzine for financial advice, continued his recent roll of epic linguistic blunders this morning. As Reuters reports, the VP, "joked during a visit to debt-choked Athens on Monday about bringing money to help Greece out of its deepest financial crisis in decades. Introducing a member of his delegation during a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, Biden said: "This man represents the Treasury department. He's brought hundreds of millions of dollars." His comments drew laughs from both the Greek and U.S. delegations." It is unclear if the Greeks laughed because the noted number was orders of magnitude less than what would be needed to actually put a dent in the Greek fast-motion train wreck, or because everyone was waiting to see what the American taxpayer's response would be to learn that while America is hopelessly locked in gridlock of releasing more cash to that country's middle class, the US Treasury is quite happy to disburse taxpayer funding to Greece. We are holding out breath to find out.
From Reuters:
Euro zone ministers will meet on Friday for a summit billed key to finding a way out of a growing debt crisis and may turn to the International Monetary Fund for more aid.A senior U.S. Treasury official said last week that the United States was not planning to make such loans to the Fund and said the lender's resources were adequate.Asked what his message to Europe was, Biden said: "Hang in there."
Oddly enough, hanging may indeed be the only option for a whole lot of Europeans soon enough.
Banksters Own You! - Stefan Molyneux
Do you know who Elizabeth Duke is? How about Donald Kohn or Kevin Warsh? No? Well - you should. Because while Congress was debating back in 2008 whether or not to bailout banksters with a $700 billion blank check - these guys and girls were just doing it. They were funneling $7.7 trillion to Wall Street under the table - without one constituent phone call - without worrying about one election - without having to give one explanation.
They were able to do that because they're members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors - a group of people who are not voted into office, but have the power to completely dictate monetary policy in America. They are not politicians - they're technocrats - they're bankers and financial experts. Technocrats aren't interested in democracy - it takes too long, and often the interests of the majority of voters don't quite line up with the interests of the minority of bankers and foreign investors. Or - to put it in today's terms - the interests of the 99 percent rarely line up with the interests of the 1 percent. That's why - back in 2008 - the technocrats at the Fed weren't interested in waiting for Congress - with all of its open debate and constituent services - to bail out the banks - they just went ahead and did it themselves. According to documents obtained by Bloomberg News - in 2009 - the Fed dished out $7.7 trillion in no-strings-attached, super-low interest loans to Wall Street's biggest players.
That's $7.7 trillion!That's more than half of the total value of EVERYTHING - every single thing produced in America - that same year. $7.7 TRILLION out the door - with no one bothering to inform the electorate about it until now.... Source
Water fluoride exposure damages brain
Researchers focused on the intelligent development that is diminished by high levels of fluoride in drinking water, Infowars reported. The study, which was performed on rats for a period of 60 days, showed that fluoride caused neurodegenerative and morphological alterations in the neocortex, hippocampus and cerebellum areas of the brain, and in the spinal cord and sciatic nerve.
“High levels of fluoride in drinking water (1-12 ppm) affect central nervous system directly without first causing the physical deformities of skeletal fluorosis,” K. Pratap Reddy of the University College of sciences at Osmania University in Hyderabad wrote in the Journal of Medical and Allied Sciences.
According to the Fluoride Action Network (FAN), there are now 25 studies showing that fluoride is associated with IQ reduction, even at fluoride levels as low as 0.3 to 3 parts per million, which overlaps the range in many American communities (0.7 to 1.2 ppm).
A previous rat study conducted by Dr. Phyllis Mullenix and her colleagues in 1995 showed that fluoride “can be indicative of a potential for motor dysfunction, IQ deficits and/or learning disabilities in humans.”
Numerous studies conducted in different countries such as the US, Mexico, China and India have determined that fluoride exposure is associated with IQ deficits in children. Source
Speaker's wife Sally does it again: Cameron an 'arrogant toff'
The British Prime Minister David Cameron is an "arrogant toff ... who is out of touch", says the wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons.
John Bercow's wife Sally, 42, who is known for speaking her mind, told The Sunday Times yesterday: "I've always thought Cameron's a t---."
She then clarified: "No, I don't mean that. You put those words in my mouth. I've always thought David Cameron was not a particularly nice guy. He's a toff who is out of touch. An arrogant toff."
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The Speaker is supposed to be non-partisan, meaning he or she takes no sides in any political debate.
But Mr Bercow's wife has not shied away from talking about other politicians, once calling the leader of Britain's Independence Party Nigel Farage a "great man" and Louise Mensch - a Conservative Party MP - "gorgeous", the Metro newspaper reported.
In February, Mrs Bercow appeared in London's Evening Standard newspaper wrapped only in a white sheet and standing before a window overlooking Parliament.
She said then she was a "complete idiot", but was less circumspect in the Times interview.
"Big deal. It was a nice photograph. I just turned up; they said, 'Will you wear a sheet?' and I thought, 'Why not?"' she said.
"I showed less flesh than I would in an evening dress. It was a laugh for Valentine's Day. John thought it was a nice photograph but once all the media furore started he was, 'Oh, why did you do that?'"
In another interview, Mrs Bercow had named a vibrator as her favourite toy, but said her husband did not mind.
"John thought it was funny. He really did. He said, 'You know that's going to go everywhere.' I said, 'I know, I'm sorry.' He said, 'It doesn't matter.'"
Mr Bercow is from the governing Conservative Party but his wife has stood for the opposition Labour Party.
Once he was elected Speaker, Mr Bercow set out a new style, ditching the traditional breeches and wig.
Instead of saying "Order! Order!" during rowdy exchanges, he would give politicians a lecture about how the public views such behaviour. Source
The Deaf Bookkeeper
On a gloomy Monday, a Mafia Godfather found out that his bookkeeper, Enzo, had cheated him out of $10 million dollars.
His bookkeeper was deaf. That was the reason he got the job in the first place. It was assumed that Enzo would hear nothing that he might have to testify about in court.
When the Godfather went to confront Enzo about his missing $10 million, he took along his lawyer who knows sign language. The Godfather told the lawyer;
“Ask him where the 10 million bucks is that he embezzled from me.”
The lawyer, using sign language, asked Enzo where the money is.
Enzo signed back; “I don’t now what you are talking about.”
The lawyer told the Godfather; “He says he doesn’t know what you are talking about.”
The Godfather pulled out a big black pistol, puts it to Enzo’s temple and said; “Ask him again!”
The lawyer signed to Enzo; “He’ll kill you if you don’t tell him.”
Enzo signed back; “OK. You win! The money is in a brown briefcase, buried behind the shed in my cousin Bruno’s backyard in Woodbridge!”
The Godfather barked at the lawyer; “What did he say?”
The lawyer replied; “He says you don’t have the balls to pull the trigger.”
Chris Martenson and James Turk talk about Europe and the global economy
In this video Chris Martenson - economic analyst at http://chrismartenson.com and author of The Crash Course and James Turk, Director of the GoldMoney Foundation talk about the problems facing the eurozone as well as the global economy. Chris Martenson points out that the whole world simply has too much debt. This is why he believes that there won't be a real solution to the euro crisis. The big question will rather be who will take losses on the debt, which can't possibly be repaid. The lack of political leadership and unwillingness to accept reality is contributing to this crisis. Additionally, the monetary tools central banks have traditionally used to revive economies are starting to show less and less effect. In Martenson's view, the financial sector has become way to large and interlinked across borders, so that a default by one country could bring down the whole financial systems, because credit default swaps would get triggered and could bring down the writers of those derivatives.
James Turk mentions that today, commercial banks as well as central banks are leveraged at unsustainable levels. While both agree that it makes sense to get back to less risky traditional banking and a sound money system, Martenson raises the question of how it will be possible to bring the leverage down to prudent levels again and how to get rid of the huge amount of complex derivatives. That said, Martenson argues that the gold standard has been proven to be a working monetary system with automatic leveling functions. As a result of the coming structural changes to our monetary system, both men recommend owning tangible assets. They point out, that those who act first have a great advantage.Martenson talks about the misallocation of capital, which occurs when money is being mispriced. The debt bubble was allowed to grow over the last 40 years and is now starting to burst. Due to cheap money, speculation and leverage have grown enormously. The tech stock and housing bubbles were the latest examples of that. He hopes that we will get rid of the unrestrained money systems with all its imbalances and return to some sort of gold standard system. The accumulation of gold by central banks hints to the fact that gold will play a bigger monetary role in the future.Talking about European Central bank policy, Martenson speculates that the ECB could be revealed as a "paper tiger", that is unable to stop speculation against European bonds. This could lead to an escalation of the euro crisis if the ECB does not follow the unprecedented example of the Fed in buying up massive amounts of sovereign debt, even though this violates its rules. He wishes more people took the time to understand basic economics; the illusion that government can pay for something without having to collect taxes in the same amount has been created by the constant accumulation of debt. But since debts can't be grown forever we are now in the early stages of finding that the idea that we can always expand and that debt doesn't matter is wrong. Martenson is afraid, that our society as a whole is not prepared for this paradigm shift yet. He believes that resource efficiency and access to resources will be much more important in the future.Therefore Martenson believes that it's important to become more self-sufficient and less reliant on liquid fuels. Financially he believes in true diversification out of paper assets and into tangible assets such as farmland, woodland, solid businesses and precious metals. Those who can afford to diversify globally should do so to mitigate risks. Most importantly though, Martenson recommends that we see the coming changes as opportunities rather than insurmountable challenges.This video was recorded on November 16 at the Gold & Silver Meeting 2011 in Madrid. Source
'Financial terrorists behind EU crisis' Max Keiser on Press TV
Powerful banks such as Wall St. banks, Germany's Deutsche Bank and the Bank of England are committing acts of 'financial terrorism' which have caused the Euro crisis, an analyst tells Press TV.