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Thursday, February 17, 2011
A Message from Ghana
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Federal Reserve welcomes a Brave New Economy
http://www.mybudget360.com/federal-reserve-brave-new-economy-fed-spvs-debt-audit-federal-reserve-wall-street-shadow-aid/
Federal Reserve welcomes a Brave New Economy – how the Fed is robbing the public in open daylight. Maiden Lane Special Purpose Vehicles purchased toxic mortgages like option ARMs and commercial real estate.
The global economy seems to be facing a Brave New World envisioned by Aldous Huxley where the world is operating under a command economy and all citizens are psychologically conditioned from to birth to value consumption. The Federal Reserve is the ultimate spend more than you earn machine. It is amazing that a few hours after the US national public debt crossed the $14 trillion threshold (yes, we crossed this line on the last day of the year) that this euphoria is setting in only because people spent money during the holiday season. “Ending is better than mending” is a platitude repeated in Brave New World. It would seem that with credit cards burning holes in wallets many went ahead and spent money they did not have this holiday season. The conditioning has been strong and has provided substantial distraction from the bigger heist committed by the Federal Reserve.
The Fed doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that they are bailing out some of the worst toxic waste in the market. This was accomplished through many archaic mechanisms including the oddly named Maiden Lane Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV). Take for example Maiden Lane II:
Source: New York Fed
The above is from a report conducted in April of 2010. You would think that this data would be hard to find but the Fed and Wall Street is starting to come to the conclusion that they can simply create complicated names with weird acronyms and most of the public will be consumed with spending instead of mending. Just look at the above closely. This Maiden Lane is full of option ARMs, subprime, and junk Alt-A loans. This is the waste found in the financial sewers of Wall Street and here it is sitting on the balance sheet of our central bank. Not only is it sitting there, this data is publicly available and is a clear indication that the Fed has bailed out many banking institutions through shadow methods. They simply shifted junk from one entity onto the backs of the American taxpayer. It is interesting that BlackRock Financial Management is the manager of this SPV:
More toxic mortgage waste that was bailed out with no Congressional approval. This Maiden Lane is specifically setup for the Bear Stearns fiasco. Maiden Lane II was focused on waste run off from the AIG debacle. In the end the Federal Reserve is the waste management solution for the banking industry using the American taxpayer as the filter to wash off the financial sewage of Wall Street and their years of bad gambles. They do not even bother to hide this since this is all accessible from the New York Fed website. Of course what they do hide is the larger trillions of dollars that are currently sitting on their balance sheet.
While much of this junk sits in ruin the stock market seems to have forgotten about this and is bursting upwards and has taken a pill of soma:
Source: Bloomberg
The above is the TED spread which reflects the difference in interest rates between interbank loans and short-term US government debt. A lower TED spread reflects lower credit risk in the economy and as you can see during the crisis months the spread went to 465 basis points. Today it stands at 16.69 which is lower than the days prior to the economic crisis and when the stock market peaked! In other words, forget about the European debt problems or the $14 trillion in US national debt or the fact that many states are facing bankruptcy. Things are looking up just because people shopped a bit during the holidays with credit cards. Keep taking that financial soma.
The amount of bad debt banks have is still incredible. Look at the amount of negative equity in the US still looming in the ether:
The banking system is largely insolvent and the FDIC is trying to put out a forest fire with an eye dropper. As long as people can collectively pretend things are fine then the system can go on for a bit longer. This is why the Fed can publish data like the above which frankly is outrageous and outright robbery yet nothing is done about it. Our politicians need to protect the financial interest of the people yet with so much money tied up in the political arena the interests of Wall Street are first and foremost. That is why we have 17 percent unemployment and underemployment and 43 million Americans on food stamps. At the same time Disneyland over the holidays set a park record for attendance. Just like the questionable assets in these SPVs, the Fed and Wall Street are trying to figure out another method of putting the horrible employment and wage stats of average Americans into a SPV so the media can keep feeding the public a line that all is well.
Federal Reserve welcomes a Brave New Economy – how the Fed is robbing the public in open daylight. Maiden Lane Special Purpose Vehicles purchased toxic mortgages like option ARMs and commercial real estate.
The global economy seems to be facing a Brave New World envisioned by Aldous Huxley where the world is operating under a command economy and all citizens are psychologically conditioned from to birth to value consumption. The Federal Reserve is the ultimate spend more than you earn machine. It is amazing that a few hours after the US national public debt crossed the $14 trillion threshold (yes, we crossed this line on the last day of the year) that this euphoria is setting in only because people spent money during the holiday season. “Ending is better than mending” is a platitude repeated in Brave New World. It would seem that with credit cards burning holes in wallets many went ahead and spent money they did not have this holiday season. The conditioning has been strong and has provided substantial distraction from the bigger heist committed by the Federal Reserve.
The Fed doesn’t even attempt to hide the fact that they are bailing out some of the worst toxic waste in the market. This was accomplished through many archaic mechanisms including the oddly named Maiden Lane Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV). Take for example Maiden Lane II:
Source: New York Fed
The above is from a report conducted in April of 2010. You would think that this data would be hard to find but the Fed and Wall Street is starting to come to the conclusion that they can simply create complicated names with weird acronyms and most of the public will be consumed with spending instead of mending. Just look at the above closely. This Maiden Lane is full of option ARMs, subprime, and junk Alt-A loans. This is the waste found in the financial sewers of Wall Street and here it is sitting on the balance sheet of our central bank. Not only is it sitting there, this data is publicly available and is a clear indication that the Fed has bailed out many banking institutions through shadow methods. They simply shifted junk from one entity onto the backs of the American taxpayer. It is interesting that BlackRock Financial Management is the manager of this SPV:
“BlackRock Financial Management, Inc. (the “Investment Manager” or “BlackRock”) manages the investment portfolio of the LLC under a multi-year contract with FRBNY that includes provisions governing termination. BNYM provides administrative services and has been appointed to serve as collateral agent under multi-year contracts with FRBNY that include provisions governing termination.”In other words, you have banks shifting junk from one garbage can to another and letting the excess expenses run off and pollute the average American either through dilution of their currency or creeping inflation. This is not the only Maiden Lane out there. We have others that are heavily leveraged with commercial real estate debt:
More toxic mortgage waste that was bailed out with no Congressional approval. This Maiden Lane is specifically setup for the Bear Stearns fiasco. Maiden Lane II was focused on waste run off from the AIG debacle. In the end the Federal Reserve is the waste management solution for the banking industry using the American taxpayer as the filter to wash off the financial sewage of Wall Street and their years of bad gambles. They do not even bother to hide this since this is all accessible from the New York Fed website. Of course what they do hide is the larger trillions of dollars that are currently sitting on their balance sheet.
While much of this junk sits in ruin the stock market seems to have forgotten about this and is bursting upwards and has taken a pill of soma:
Source: Bloomberg
The above is the TED spread which reflects the difference in interest rates between interbank loans and short-term US government debt. A lower TED spread reflects lower credit risk in the economy and as you can see during the crisis months the spread went to 465 basis points. Today it stands at 16.69 which is lower than the days prior to the economic crisis and when the stock market peaked! In other words, forget about the European debt problems or the $14 trillion in US national debt or the fact that many states are facing bankruptcy. Things are looking up just because people shopped a bit during the holidays with credit cards. Keep taking that financial soma.
The amount of bad debt banks have is still incredible. Look at the amount of negative equity in the US still looming in the ether:
The banking system is largely insolvent and the FDIC is trying to put out a forest fire with an eye dropper. As long as people can collectively pretend things are fine then the system can go on for a bit longer. This is why the Fed can publish data like the above which frankly is outrageous and outright robbery yet nothing is done about it. Our politicians need to protect the financial interest of the people yet with so much money tied up in the political arena the interests of Wall Street are first and foremost. That is why we have 17 percent unemployment and underemployment and 43 million Americans on food stamps. At the same time Disneyland over the holidays set a park record for attendance. Just like the questionable assets in these SPVs, the Fed and Wall Street are trying to figure out another method of putting the horrible employment and wage stats of average Americans into a SPV so the media can keep feeding the public a line that all is well.
http://vidrebel.wordpress.com/
BACK to margotbworldnews.com
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Pentagon in $9.1bn fraud case in Iraq
Tue Jan 4, 2011 2:35PM
Iraq’s Supreme Audit Court says the US Ministry of Defense has failed to account for the USD 9.1 billion misspent discretionary funds during Iraq’s occupation.
Iraq Oil Field
The Pentagon received USD 9.1 billion back in 2004 from the US–led occupation authority funds set up to benefit Iraqi people with assets seized from the previous regime of Saddam Hussein.
According to Iraqi newspaper al–Bayanat al–Jadidah, this recent release follows the 2010 finding of USD 8.7 billion in Iraq funds not accounted for.
The sum had been allocated for reconstruction projects in Iraq, the auditing office said.
An Iraqi auditing official said the audit’s president has twice failed to send its representatives to attend the audit’s international meetings.
The audit found that defense agencies receiving the money had failed to set up required treasury accounts and managing organizations for the funds.
ZH/ZHD/AKM
© Copyright 2010 Press TV. All rights reserved.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
BIG BROTHER: The Police State Mentality in the Electronic Age
ZORIAH - A PHOTOJOURNALIST AND WAR PHOTOGRAPHER'S BLOG
The Best TEDtalks & Ideas Worth Spreading
BACK to margotbworldnews.com
ZORIAH - zoriah.net blog |
Posted: 01 Jan 2011 08:04 PM PST I wanted to put together a list of what I believe are the best, top, number one, most interesting TED Talks of all time. There are so many great TEDtalks it is really hard to choose favorites, but below are just a few of mine. Over the past several years I have found few things more inspiring than the ideas expressed in TED Talks. For those of you who may not have heard of TEDTalks, here is a bit more info: TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a series of conferences designed to make "ideas worth spreading" available for the general public to experience. Basically they gather together some of the greatest and most inspiring people on the planet and give them 18 minutes to express their ideas in lectures. These lectures are then put on the internet for the world to hear and see. There is plenty more information on the net about how and why it was started so I wont go into it in detail here. I will say that it is incredible to me the amount of knowledge one can gain (for free) just by watching these wonderful lectures and presentations. To have this wealth of knowledge available to us is truly a gift and for those of you who have not had a chance to fall in love with TED, I hope this post will get you on your way. I am making this post on New Years Day because we talk about New Years Resolutions and if these TED talks cant inspire you to come up with a few, maybe nothing can. I would also like to encourage people to not limit their resolutions to just new years. We always need to push ourselves to be better and this is something we need to do year round, not just on one day and maybe a couple weeks following. I have written a tiny bit about each talk below the title but most of them you just need to watch to get the full experience. They all contain so many wonderful and inspirational ideas and thoughts, it is hard to sum them up and absolutely no way I could do it as eloquently as the speakers themselves do. If there are TED talks that you love or that have inspired you, please post links to them in the comments section. I would love for this to become a long list of some of the best of the over 800 TED Talks. I also look forward to watching your favorite TED Talks myself. I will add more of my favorites in separate posts every couple of months. Matt Ridley - When Ideas Have Sex A wonderful lecture on how we use our "collective brain." Ken Robinson - Schools Kill Creativity "If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original." Ken Robinson - Bring on The Learning Revolution! Making the case for schools to become more personalized and less standardized, letting children's natural talents shine through. Dan Gilbert - Why Are We Happy Synthetic vs Natural Happiness...very interesting. Benjamin Zander - Music, Vision, Passion and Shining Eyes "I will never say anything that could not stand as the last thing I ever say." Dave Eggers - Once Upon a School An inspiring story about normal people thinking outside the box and helping children learn in a unique way. Rory Sutherland - Life Lessons From an Ad Man A change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as a change in real value. A new way of looking at life. Jonathan Harris - Collecting Stories For all of us that love stories and searching for new and effective ways of telling them. Sheena Lyengar - The Art of Choosing A wonderful lecture about how we make and feel about our choices. James Nachtwey - Searing Photos of War The great photojournalist and war photographer presents and talks about his images. Hans Rosling - The Best Stats You've Ever Seen An interesting way of looking at the developing world. Dean Kamen - A New Prosthetic Arm A short piece on the development of a new technology. James H Kunstler - Disecting Suburbia This scathing commentary on suburban america is such a wonderful series of observations and one of the reasons I get depressed in the vast majority of areas in the US. One of my favorite wake up calls. Majora Carter - Greening The Ghetto A reminder that you don't have to go far to find poverty and injustice but also the inspiration that these things can be reversed. Malcolm Gladwell - Spaghetti Sauce Although it is interesting throughout, the real pay off is the final sentence :) Theo Jansen - Creating Creatures Nothing is more amazing than human creativity! Ursus Wehrli - Tidying Up Art A funny, utilitarian view on art and organization :) The comments on order and chaos are really nice. Jill Bolte Taylor - Stroke of Insight A pretty amazing story of a brain scientist's experience and analysis of her own stroke Joshua Klein - The Intelligence of Crows One mans quest to prove an idiot at a party wrong :) Nellie McKay - Singing "Mother of Pearl" and "If I Had You" I am sure there are some, but I don't know how anyone could not this...so good. Nathaniel Kahn - My Architect The part in Bangladesh is wonderful for anyone who loves architecture...and people. Moshe Safdie - Building Uniqueness Some of the best architecture of this time!!! Please don't forget to post links to your favorite TED Talks in the comments section below and feel free to comment on the talks I have included in this post.         |
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A TEACHING FOR MEN: A Hole in Your Fence
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father
gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his
temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the
next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number
of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered
it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He
told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now
pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his
father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by
the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done
well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will
never be the same.”
When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.
You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter
how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.
A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and
encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words
of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.
- author unknown (to me)
Submitted by Luc Majnotemper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the
next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number
of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered
it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn’t lose his temper at all. He
told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now
pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his
father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by
the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done
well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will
never be the same.”
When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.
You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won’t matter
how many times you say I’m sorry, the wound is still there.
A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and
encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words
of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.
- author unknown (to me)
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