truthing shall set you free

when a man speaks the truth, clearly and plainly,
then I can only echo his words. let's not get lost in theory now.
watch and learn about how simply we are all being robbed.

Lehman to waste

Did we completely waste the opportunity offered by Lehman's failure
to change the banking system? are you kidding?

In fact, Timmy Geithner is roaming around the world telling central bankers
and politicians to pump fake money into the machine.

Otherwise, his favourite banks in the US will fail.

So, tough guy. What are you going to do to enforce your will?

more later

I didn't allow the killing of anyone. "wimp" says the Republican

Jimmy Carter presided over a period when the US didn't kill masses of people. Of course, this
weakness was taken advantage of by the Republicans who paid the Iranian revolutionaries
to keep the hostages until they won the election.
Also, Reagan fixed the 70s economic problems by starting a huge ponzi scheme
that we're all paying for, now that Ronnie is in his rightful place. dead

checkitout: 1
Karl Denninger
The latter is not going to happen because the entire last 30 years of our so-called "growth" was a Ponzi built upon more and more debt everywhere. Yes, during Clinton, yes, during Bush (pick a Bush), yes, during Reagan.
2
Jimmy Carter: 'We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. We never went to war'
He may live a modest life in a one-horse town, but Jimmy Carter, now 86, retains his global vision. And 30 years after leaving the White House, the peanut farmer turned president is still a man on mission. In Plains, Georgia, we found the 39th US president full of energy… and determined to make a difference
o Carole Cadwalladr, Guardian
What he's most proud of, though, is that he didn't fire a single shot. Didn't kill a single person. Didn't lead his country into a war – legal or illegal. "We kept our country at peace. We never went to war. We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. But still we achieved our international goals. We brought peace to other people, including Egypt and Israel. We normalised relations with China, which had been non-existent for 30-something years. We brought peace between US and most of the countries in Latin America because of the Panama Canal Treaty. We formed a working relationship with the Soviet Union."
It's the simple fact of not going to war that, given what came next, should be recognised. "In the last 50 years now, more than that," he says, "that's almost a unique achievement." He was bitterly opposed to both Iraq wars. "Iraq was just a terrible mistake. I thought so in Iraq 1, and I was against it in Iraq 2." And it's not just George W Bush who has blood on his hands, he says, but Tony Blair too: "I don't know what went on in private meetings when Tony Blair agreed to it. But had Bush not gotten that tacit support from Blair, I don't know if the course of history might have been different."
It's the second time we've talked about Blair. Money has disfigured American politics, Carter says. I ask him about the pledge he made the day after he lost his bid for re-election, when he told the press he would not make money off the back of his presidency. Is that true?

"That is correct," he says. Then he jokes: "It was kind of a weak moment."

What inspired it?
"My favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman. When Truman left office he took the same position. He didn't serve on corporate boards. He didn't make speeches around the world for a lot of money."

ooh, we have laws and representative democracy?

In their rush to find more public to give to insolvent German and French banks,
the ECB and the other oligarchies in Brussels forgot to consider the possiblity
that member countries of the Euro had a problem with bailouts.

As it stands , all this stuff is just a distraction to keep the public busy, when X factor is not on.

more soon

Austria Fails To Ratify EFSF Expansion, EURUSD Plunges
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/14/2011 10:22 -0400
Update: never a dull day as apparently there is a silver lining: from Reuters "Austrian finance minster says parliament only rejected changing the agenda; EFSF vote will be delayed with a special meeting to be called"
Yup, Europe is open, and the suiciding has started early.
* AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE DOESN'T APPROVE EFSF UPGRADE
* AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE NEEDED 2/3 MAJORITY
As a reminder all countries need to ratify the EFSF, even the weakest links, or else no bailout [STALLING TACTIC. NEVER PLANNED FOR THIS IN ANY TREATY]. As Peter Tchir reminds: "And Austria is AAA, it is needed for EFSF to get AAA on its size, would have to be cut back by about 15 billion EUR to still have AAA. Though I would guess this gives other countries the courage to say enough is enough."

if fingers were guns

The G7 have met to point fingers at one another.

It's the final staredown, before it gets really nasty.
There was a currency war in the last Depression (1931) and it's being
repeated again because politicians can't/won't do what's right to
set things straight. If this keeps going, Communism is gonna seem
like a good idea.

None of those corrupt politicos wants to admit that they f^%&*ked up
because they don't wanna go down in the history books. (they will anyway)
But, neither could they rope in their banks, because
that would mean a competitive advantage for the other guy's banks.

So, the kabuki of the last few months has been to forestall the inevitable.
The US wants Europe to go first, and Europe wants the US to go.

The US lies by saying that all the darkness in the banking system comes
from Europe. Like we've never met Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon and Dick Cheney.

Try again.

Anyway, they chose the right town, Marseilles.

It's got a world trade centre and its the home of the anarchist movement.
I think the G7 better get some tips from the anarchists about what
anarchy is really all about, because it's coming to a realm near them.

Flash hyperinflation and half the country starves, just like that.

checkitout: 2 things

TELEGRAPH
Eurozone blamed by US for world's economic plight
The United States has warned that political disarray in the European Union is the "single biggest cause" of the unfolding economic crisis that threatens to plunge the world into a new recession.
By Bruno Waterfield, Marseille
5:25PM BST 10 Sep 2011
Finance ministers of the G7 group of industrialised nations have gathered in the French city of Marseille this weekend to discuss how to avert a looming global economic catastrophe, as markets continue their relentless plunge and deep divisions tear apart the European Central Bank (ECB).
But instead of the predicted economic debate, it emerged on Saturday that the bad-tempered meeting was dominated by American and British warnings that political failures and broken promises in the euro zone were in danger of triggering a wider crisis.
"Seventy-five per cent of the dark things happening in the world economy are because of the euro zone," said a senior US official after a round of talks ended in the early hours of yesterday morning.
... The glow of idealistic European federalism that once surrounded the euro is fading rapidly as the debt crisis has forced countries such as Germany and the Netherlands into an unloved fiscal union with highly indebted southern European nations such as Greece.
"It has become about saving Germany's skin. The EU's idealistic image as a peace project is now overtaken by a much more brutal game of realpolitik, power and survival," said one aide to a senior EU official.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor whose government is being asked to foot the largest share of the bill, is reeling from her sixth regional election at the hands of a popular backlash against euro bailouts. Last week she told German MPs that there would be "no taboos" against discussing whatever steps were needed to ensure the survival of the single currency.
Berlin's political establishment still regards the euro as the keystone of a united Europe, as consider it Germany's national destiny to head it.
"The euro is much, much more than a currency," she said. "The euro is the guarantee of a united Europe. If the euro fails, then Europe fails."

2
MISH
"Euro Death Wish" and Global Finger-Pointing: U.S. Senior Official Blames Eurozone for "75% of the Dark Things Happening in the World"
Anyone expecting a productive G7 meeting has instead been treated to a massive round of global finger-pointing as noted by the Telegraph article Eurozone blamed by US for world's economic plight
...The clashes at G7, which put Britain and the US together on the sideline as members of the European single currency struggle to resolve its internal contradictions, foreshadow an autumn of disarray within the EU. Their parliaments must ratify the plan for the new EU rescue fund, which is unpopular with many voters, especially in the richer countries.

And just when scepticism among its population is at its greatest, there is finally a realisation among eurozone members that the only way to save the single currency may be a dramatic move towards more integrated economic governance.

rope a dope

[slapshot movie]
now that the major governments are on the ropes, tending to their sores
on their bank-sides, we should not go in for the kill.

The end is near, but that's a relative notion. You need to know that
oligarchies are nasty things.

They could pull a war or a false flag "terror attack" out of their butts:

tweet by Jim Rickards-
Before #RomulusAugustulus comes #Diocletian. I.e., before collapse comes coercion & repression. Elites don't go quietly, not without a fight

...

the pressure from the people
should not be hard and quick,
because that will just bring on the army.
it needs to be long, painful and, above all,
full of derisive humour.
If we lose our sense of humour, they've got us, because we'll
just get violent. Of course, hunger does make one lose
one's cool.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs stopped Japanese nukes

the Japs were looking to bomb New York, don't you know.

boy are we lucky they didn't.

I mean , they had school boys digging with sandals on, looking for uranium.
no beekers, no lab coats, nothing.

[ride of a lifetime]


checkitout:

New york times- ishikawa Journal
Fukushima’s Long Link to a Dark Nuclear Past
Kazuhiro Yokozeki for The New York Times
Kiwamu Ariga, left, and Kuniteru Maeda, both 81, at the former quarry site where they mined uranium for the imperial army.
By MARTIN FACKLER
Published: September 5, 2011
ISHIKAWA, Japan — Kiwamu Ariga skirted the paddies of ripening rice, moving briskly despite his 81 years to reach a pile of yellowish rocks at the foot of a steep, forested hillside.
Japan Leader to Keep Nuclear Phase-Out (September 3, 2011)
Japan Held Nuclear Data, Leaving Evacuees in Peril (August 9, 2011)
Japanese Find Radioactivity on Their Own (August 1, 2011)
The New York Times
Ishikawa is 36 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
It was here that, as a junior high school student in the final months of World War II, Mr. Ariga and his classmates were put to work hacking rocks out of the hill’s then exposed stone face until the blood ran from their sandaled feet. The soldiers told them nothing beyond instructing them to look for stones with brown or black spots.
Then one day, Mr. Ariga recalled, an officer finally explained what they were after: “With the stones that you boys are digging up, we can make a bomb the size of a matchbox that will destroy all of New York.” Mr. Ariga said he did not learn other details of Japan’s secrecy-wrapped efforts to build an atomic bomb until years after the war.
“We had no idea what we were doing here, in our bare feet, digging out radioactive uranium,” Mr. Ariga said, standing between cedar saplings as spindly as his aging legs. “Now, 66 years later, we are exposed to radiation again.”
This quiet mining town, nestled amid gentle green mountains, is located in Fukushima Prefecture, the rural district that is home to the radiation-spewing nuclear plant that bears its name, just an hour’s drive over mountains to the northeast. The accident five months ago has prompted aging residents like Mr. Arigato speak out about how Fukushima, a name that has now become synonymous with civilian nuclear disaster, also has an older, lesser-known link to an even darker side of atomic energy.
... During the war, he said, generals and admirals believed their own propaganda about Japan being a sacred country that could defeat its foes with spiritual purity alone, and thus allowed themselves to fall behind the United States in the race to build the bomb. Now, he said, the Fukushima Daiichi accident exposed how Japan had let itself be led astray once again, this time by economic planners who promoted a “safety myth” that Japanese technology could never fail.

5 year plan. employment in the realm

This direct from Pravda Washington:

President of Polypbureau wants to make employment for vorker.



He throw money at business, but business might slip money into offshore dacha
on Caymans' People's Republic.

checkitout: Mish on the President's speech

President Obama's rumored $300 stimulus program ballooned to $447 billion upon unveiling.

Amusingly, the plan is overweight tax cuts in an attempt to get Republican buy-ins.

Let's dissect portions of Obama's speech, lie by lie.

Obama: I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It’s called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation.

Mish: That is lie #1. There shouldn't be anything controversial about the proposal, but there is. Obama's proposal is primarily an election stunt as opposed to a genuine effort to produce jobs.

Obama: Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans – including many who sit here tonight.

Mish: That is lie number two. There is no general consensus by Democrats for tax cuts or Republicans for fiscal stimulus.

Obama: And everything in this bill will be paid for. Everything.

Mish: That is lie number 3. I will cut the president some slack and call those sentences one lie repeated rather than two lies. Obama's stimulus plan is nothing but another spend now, make cuts later "sleight-of-hand" proposal.

Obama: The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for the long-term unemployed. It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business. It will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled, and give companies confidence that if they invest and hire, there will be customers for their products and services.

Mish: That is lie number 4. The primary purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: To keep one person (namely President Obama), in his job.

Payroll tax cuts to businesses will not spur hiring. The idea is sheer lunacy. Businesses will hire only when it makes economic sense, not because of a reduction in employer social security taxes.

Obama: Pass this jobs bill, and we can put people to work rebuilding America. Everyone here knows that we have badly decaying roads and bridges all over this country. Our highways are clogged with traffic. Our skies are the most congested in the world.

Mish: Putting people to work will un-congest the skies? Is that lie number 5 or just complete silliness? High speed trains are not going to replace a significant amount of air traffic, nor will such programs be economically viable. Instead they will be a long-term drain on taxpayers. Moreover, if the president did any homework he would know China's high speed rail program is rife with fraud and shoddy workmanship, was overbudget, is falling apart, and is barely used. It was not economically viable.

Obama: The American Jobs Act will repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools. It will put people to work right now fixing roofs and windows; installing science labs and high-speed internet in classrooms all across this country.

Mish: Excuse me for asking, but didn't we pay for this already in the first stimulus plan?

Obama: And to make sure the money is properly spent and for good purposes, we’re building on reforms we’ve already put in place. No more earmarks. No more boondoggles. No more bridges to nowhere. We’re cutting the red tape that prevents some of these projects from getting started as quickly as possible. And we’ll set up an independent fund to attract private dollars and issue loans based on two criteria: how badly a construction project is needed and how much good it would do for the economy.

Mish: Will it be the same geniuses who were responsible for guaranteeing $535 million to a solar energy firm that is now bankrupt?

Obama: Pass this jobs bill, and thousands of teachers in every state will go back to work. These are the men and women charged with preparing our children for a world where the competition has never been tougher. But while they’re adding teachers in places like South Korea, we’re laying them off in droves. It’s unfair to our kids. It undermines their future and ours. And it has to stop. Pass this jobs bill, and put our teachers back in the classroom where they belong.

Mish: I have a better idea. Cut union pay and benefits and even more teachers will go back to work and at no expense to taxpayers. [ignore this bullsh*t. He's never had to work before- Costick67]

Obama: The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next ten years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas. Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act. And a week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan – a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run.

Mish: Neither the president nor Congress has remotely done anything to stabilize the debt. In spite of promises, Obama will not do so a week from Monday. We will graciously call this lie number 6.

Obama: By eliminating pages of loopholes and deductions, we can lower one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. Our tax code shouldn’t give an advantage to companies that can afford the best-connected lobbyists. It should give an advantage to companies that invest and create jobs here in America.

Mish: Hooray! The president finally put together an entire paragraph that makes sense.

Obama: And on all of our efforts to strengthen competitiveness, we need to look for ways to work side-by-side with America’s businesses. That’s why I’ve brought together a Jobs Council of leaders from different industries who are developing a wide range of new ideas to help companies grow and create jobs.

Mish: You do not need a jobs council. All you need to do is scrap Davis-bacon, kill prevailing wage laws, and pass a national right-to-work law.

Obama: I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy. We shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards. America should be in a race to the top. And I believe that’s a race we can win.

Mish: While it is true we do not need to have the worst pollution standards in the world, but the president lumps all of these things together as if it is one big idea. When it comes to collective bargaining the president rejects common sense.

If I behaved like an average British MP, I'd be fired

Now, nobody's saying that a terminally ill lord shouldn't be excused from voting duty.

They're practically all over 100, and fairly crusty.

However, if you regularly missed 1 day a week (20%), you could expect your
employer to be upset. Well, the list of MPs who surpass 20% is stunning

the funniest part is those for whom there is no data.
Excuse? "Sorry, broke a fingernail"

Conor MurphySFNewry and ArmaghN/A419
Dawn PrimaroloLabBristol SouthN/A101
John BercowSpeakerBuckinghamN/A108
Lindsay HoyleLabChorleyN/A149
Nigel EvansCRibble ValleyN/A471
Graham AllenLabNottingham NorthN/A

the other stats: the jaded, the lazy and the supercilious (% of votes missed)
[the Guardian]
Roger Godsiff Lab Birmingham Hall Green (88.5)
Alan Keen Lab Feltham and Heston 78.8
David Cameron C Witney 75
Fabian Hamilton Lab Leeds North East 73.1
Ian Paisley Jnr DUP Antrim North 73.1
Margaret Ritchie SDLP Down South 73.1
Sammy Wilson DUP Antrim East 73.1
Gregory Campbell DUP Londonderry East 71.2
Nick Clegg LD Sheffield Hallam 71.2
Gordon Brown Lab Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath 67.3
Bill Esterson Lab Sefton Central 65.4
Ed Miliband Lab Doncaster North 65.4
Stuart Bell Lab Middlesbrough 65.4
Alan Johnson Lab Hull West and Hessle 63.5
George Osborne C Tatton 61.5
John Robertson Lab Glasgow North West 61.5
Dave Watts Lab St Helens North 59.6
Marsha Singh Lab Bradford West 59.6
Michael Meacher Lab Oldham West and Royton 59.6
Virendra Sharma Lab Ealing Southall 59.6
Edward Leigh C Gainsborough 57.7
Madeleine Moon Lab Bridgend 57.7
William Hague C Richmond (Yorks) 57.7
Alasdair McDonnell SDLP Belfast South 55.8
Andy Love Lab Edmonton 55.8
Dai Havard Lab Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney 55.8
Eric Joyce Lab Falkirk 55.8
Mike Wood Lab Batley and Spen 55.8
Sandra Osborne Lab Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock 55.8
Bob Ainsworth Lab Coventry North East 53.8
George Mudie Lab Leeds East 53.8
John Stanley C Tonbridge and Malling 53.8
Shaun Woodward Lab St Helens South and Whiston 53.8
Alan Meale Lab Mansfield 51.9
Angus Robertson SNP Moray 51.9
Austin Mitchell Lab Great Grimsby 51.9
Douglas Alexander Lab Paisley and Renfrewshire South 51.9
Frank Roy Lab Motherwell and Wishaw 51.9
Geraint Davies Lab Swansea West 51.9
Peter Tapsell C Louth and Horncastle 51.9
Ann Clwyd Lab Cynon Valley 50
Harriet Harman Lab Camberwell and Peckham 50
Ian Mearns Lab Gateshead 50
Jeffrey M Donaldson DUP Lagan Valley 50
Lisa Nandy Lab Wigan 50
Tom Greatrex Lab Rutherglen and Hamilton West 50
Charles Kennedy LD Ross, Skye and Lochaber 48.1
David Heyes Lab Ashton Under Lyne 48.1
Jim McGovern Lab Dundee West 48.1
Khalid Mahmood Lab Birmingham Perry Barr 48.1
Robert Smith LD Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine 48.1
Alistair Burt C Bedfordshire North East 46.2
Kate Hoey Lab Vauxhall 46.2
Mike Gapes Lab Ilford South 46.2
Nic Dakin Lab Scunthorpe 46.2
Pat Glass Lab Durham North West 46.2
Andrew Rosindell C Romford 44.2
Gisela Stuart Lab Birmingham Edgbaston 44.2
Hazel Blears Lab Salford and Eccles 44.2
Liam Byrne Lab Birmingham Hodge Hill 44.2
Lyn Brown Lab West Ham 44.2
Mark Williams LD Ceredigion 44.2
Paul Flynn Lab Newport West 44.2
Roger Gale C Thanet North 44.2
Sian James Lab Swansea East 44.2
William McCrea DUP Antrim South 44.2
Andrew Mitchell C Sutton Coldfield 42.3
Andrew Stephenson C Pendle 42.3
Chuka Umunna Lab Streatham 42.3
David Miliband Lab South Shields 42.3
David Simpson DUP Upper Bann 42.3
Dominic Raab C Esher and Walton 42.3
Hugo Swire C Devon East 42.3
Keith Vaz Lab Leicester East 42.3
Liam Fox C Somerset North 42.3
Margaret Hodge Lab Barking 42.3
Martin Caton Lab Gower 42.3
Simon Danczuk Lab Rochdale 42.3
Stephen O'Brien C Eddisbury 42.3
Toby Perkins Lab Chesterfield 42.3
Vince Cable LD Twickenham 42.3
Alun Michael Lab Cardiff South and Penarth 40.4
Andrew Smith Lab Oxford East 40.4
Andy Burnham Lab Leigh 40.4
Danny Alexander LD Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey 40.4
David Ruffley C Bury St Edmunds 40.4
Derek Twigg Lab Halton 40.4
Emily Thornberry Lab Islington South and Finsbury 40.4
Gerald Kaufman Lab Manchester Gorton 40.4
Jamie Reed Lab Copeland 40.4
Jim Dobbin Lab Heywood and Middleton 40.4
Joan Ruddock Lab Lewisham Deptford 40.4
Mark Durkan SDLP Foyle 40.4
Siobhain McDonagh Lab Mitcham and Morden 40.4
Stephen Pound Lab Ealing North 40.4
Tessa Jowell Lab Dulwich and West Norwood 40.4
Alistair Darling Lab Edinburgh South West 38.5
Andrew Gwynne Lab Denton and Reddish 38.5
Anne Begg Lab Aberdeen South 38.5
Craig Whittaker C Calder Valley 38.5
David Blunkett Lab Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough 38.5
David Lammy Lab Tottenham 38.5
Denis MacShane Lab Rotherham 38.5
Fiona Mactaggart Lab Slough 38.5
Francis Maude C Horsham 38.5
Guto Bebb C Aberconwy 38.5
Iain Duncan Smith C Chingford and Woodford Green 38.5
Jack Straw Lab Blackburn 38.5
Jim Murphy Lab Renfrewshire East 38.5
Jim Paice C Cambridgeshire South East 38.5
Linda Riordan Lab Halifax 38.5
Margaret Curran Lab Glasgow East 38.5
Mark Hendrick Lab Preston 38.5
Natascha Engel Lab Derbyshire North East 38.5
Penny Mordaunt C Portsmouth North 38.5
Pete Wishart SNP Perth and Perthshire North 38.5
Russell Brown Lab Dumfries and Galloway 38.5
Adam Holloway C Gravesham 36.5
Ann Coffey Lab Stockport 36.5
Ben Bradshaw Lab Exeter 36.5
Catherine McKinnell Lab Newcastle upon Tyne North 36.5
Cathy Jamieson Lab Kilmarnock and Loudoun 36.5
Eilidh Whiteford SNP Banff and Buchan 36.5
Frank Dobson Lab Holborn and St Pancras 36.5
Jeremy Browne LD Taunton Deane 36.5
Jeremy Hunt C Surrey South West 36.5
John Baron C Basildon and Billericay 36.5
John Leech LD Manchester Withington 36.5
Louise Bagshawe C Corby 36.5
Louise Ellman Lab Liverpool Riverside 36.5
Maria Eagle Lab Garston and Halewood 36.5
Mark Prisk C Hertford and Stortford 36.5
Mary Creagh Lab Wakefield 36.5
Michael Connarty Lab Linlithgow and Falkirk East 36.5
Michael Dugher Lab Barnsley East 36.5
Pamela Nash Lab Airdrie and Shotts 36.5
Paul Farrelly Lab Newcastle-under-Lyme 36.5
Peter Luff C Worcestershire Mid 36.5
Richard Shepherd C Aldridge-Brownhills 36.5
Sadiq Khan Lab Tooting 36.5
Tom Watson Lab West Bromwich East 36.5
Barry Gardiner Lab Brent North 34.6
Brian H Donohoe Lab Ayrshire Central 34.6
Frank Field Lab Birkenhead 34.6
George Howarth Lab Knowsley 34.6
Gerry Sutcliffe Lab Bradford South 34.6
Henry Bellingham C Norfolk North West 34.6
Hugh Bayley Lab York Central 34.6
Jesse Norman C Hereford and Herefordshire South 34.6
John Redwood C Wokingham 34.6
Jonathan Reynolds Lab Stalybridge and Hyde 34.6
Meg Munn Lab Sheffield Heeley 34.6
Michael Fallon C Sevenoaks 34.6
Mike Weir SNP Angus 34.6
Nigel Dodds DUP Belfast North 34.6
Richard Drax C Dorset South 34.6
Stewart Hosie SNP Dundee East 34.6
Tom Clarke Lab Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill 34.6
Bridget Phillipson Lab Houghton and Sunderland South 32.7
Caroline Flint Lab Don Valley 32.7
David Davies C Monmouth 32.7
David Hamilton Lab Midlothian 32.7
Fiona O'Donnell Lab East Lothian 32.7
Gerald Howarth C Aldershot 32.7
Glenda Jackson Lab Hampstead and Kilburn 32.7
Graham Stringer Lab Blackley and Broughton 32.7
Gregg McClymont Lab Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East 32.7
Iain Wright Lab Hartlepool 32.7
Ivan Lewis Lab Bury South 32.7
Jenny Chapman Lab Darlington 32.7
John Mann Lab Bassetlaw 32.7
Jon Trickett Lab Hemsworth 32.7
Julie Hilling Lab Bolton West 32.7
Margaret Beckett Lab Derby South 32.7
Mark Garnier C Wyre Forest 32.7
Simon Reevell C Dewsbury 32.7
Theresa May C Maidenhead 32.7
Tim Farron LD Westmorland and Lonsdale 32.7
Tom Harris Lab Glasgow South 32.7
Yasmin Qureshi Lab Bolton South East 32.7
Andrew Miller Lab Ellesmere Port and Neston 30.8
Andrew Tyrie C Chichester 30.8
Angus MacNeil SNP Na h-Eileanan an Iar 30.8
Edward Davey LD Kingston and Surbiton 30.8
Gavin Shuker Lab Luton South 30.8
Graham Stuart C Beverley and Holderness 30.8
Jack Dromey Lab Birmingham Erdington 30.8
Jim Shannon DUP Strangford 30.8
Jim Sheridan Lab Paisley and Renfrewshire North 30.8
Joe Benton Lab Bootle 30.8
John McDonnell Lab Hayes and Harlington 30.8
Julian Lewis C New Forest East 30.8
Michael McCann Lab East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow 30.8
Neil Carmichael C Stroud 30.8
Nick Hurd C Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner 30.8
Oliver Letwin C Dorset West 30.8
Owen Paterson C Shropshire North 30.8
Peter Hain Lab Neath 30.8
Richard Ottaway C Croydon South 30.8
Rory Stewart C Penrith and The Border 30.8
Rosie Winterton Lab Doncaster Central 30.8
Shabana Mahmood Lab Birmingham Ladywood 30.8
Tim Yeo C Suffolk South 30.8
Alan Whitehead Lab Southampton Test 28.8
Alison McGovern Lab Wirral South 28.8
Alison Seabeck Lab Plymouth Moor View 28.8
Barbara Keeley Lab Worsley and Eccles South 28.8
Chris Evans Lab Islwyn 28.8
Chris Ruane Lab Vale of Clwyd 28.8
Clive Efford Lab Eltham 28.8
David Davis C Haltemprice and Howden 28.8
David Morris C Morecambe and Lunesdale 28.8
David Wright Lab Telford 28.8
Emma Reynolds Lab Wolverhampton North East 28.8
Frank Doran Lab Aberdeen North 28.8
Gloria De Piero Lab Ashfield 28.8
Graham Brady C Altrincham and Sale West 28.8
Hugh Robertson C Faversham and Kent Mid 28.8
Huw Irranca-Davies Lab Ogmore 28.8
Hywel Francis Lab Aberavon 28.8
Ian Lavery Lab Wansbeck 28.8
Jeremy Corbyn Lab Islington North 28.8
Jim Dowd Lab Lewisham West and Penge 28.8
Jonathan Edwards PC Carmarthen East and Dinefwr 28.8
Karen Buck Lab Westminster North 28.8
Kevin Barron Lab Rother Valley 28.8
Lilian Greenwood Lab Nottingham South 28.8
Mark Lazarowicz Lab Edinburgh North and Leith 28.8
Michael Gove C Surrey Heath 28.8
Naomi Long Alliance Belfast East 28.8
Nick Harvey LD Devon North 28.8
Owen Smith Lab Pontypridd 28.8
Ronnie Campbell Lab Blyth Valley 28.8
Stephen McPartland C Stevenage 28.8
Thomas Docherty Lab Dunfermline and Fife West 28.8
Tobias Ellwood C Bournemouth East 28.8
Yvette Cooper Lab Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford 28.8
Anas Sarwar Lab Glasgow Central 26.9
Anne McGuire Lab Stirling 26.9
Barry Sheerman Lab Huddersfield 26.9
Cheryl Gillan C Chesham and Amersham 26.9
Chris Grayling C Epsom and Ewell 26.9
Chris Williamson Lab Derby North 26.9
Christopher Chope C Christchurch 26.9
David Amess C Southend West 26.9
Desmond Swayne C New Forest West 26.9
Ed Balls Lab Morley and Outwood 26.9
Elizabeth Kendall Lab Leicester West 26.9
Graeme Morrice Lab Livingston 26.9
Greg Knight C Yorkshire East 26.9
Heidi Alexander Lab Lewisham East 26.9
Helen Goodman Lab Bishop Auckland 26.9
James Brokenshire C Old Bexley and Sidcup 26.9
Jim Cunningham Lab Coventry South 26.9
Joan Walley Lab Stoke-on-Trent North 26.9
John Denham Lab Southampton Itchen 26.9
John Glen C Salisbury 26.9
John Healey Lab Wentworth and Dearne 26.9
Karl Turner Lab Hull East 26.9
Keith Simpson C Broadland 26.9
Kevan Jones Lab Durham North 26.9
Kevin Brennan Lab Cardiff West 26.9
Mary Glindon Lab Tyneside North 26.9
Nick Smith Lab Blaenau Gwent 26.9
Pat McFadden Lab Wolverhampton South East 26.9
Paul Murphy Lab Torfaen 26.9
Rosie Cooper Lab Lancashire West 26.9
Stephen Timms Lab East Ham 26.9
Stephen Twigg Lab Liverpool West Derby 26.9
Tom Blenkinsop Lab Middlesbrough South and Cleveland East 26.9
Alex Cunningham Lab Stockton North 25
Andy Slaughter Lab Hammersmith 25
Angela Eagle Lab Wallasey 25
Angela Smith Lab Penistone and Stocksbridge 25
Bob Stewart C Beckenham 25
Caroline Lucas Green Brighton Pavilion 25
Dave Anderson Lab Blaydon 25
David Crausby Lab Bolton North East 25
David Willetts C Havant 25
Debbie Abrahams Lab Oldham East and Saddleworth 25
Diana Johnson Lab Hull North 25
Diane Abbott Lab Hackney North and Stoke Newington 25
Gareth Thomas Lab Harrow West 25
Gary Streeter C Devon South West 25
Geoffrey Robinson Lab Coventry North West 25
Gordon Marsden Lab Blackpool South 25
Graham Jones Lab Hyndburn 25
Greg Barker C Bexhill and Battle 25
Helen Jones Lab Warrington North 25
Jessica Morden Lab Newport East 25
John Whittingdale C Maldon 25
John Woodcock Lab Barrow and Furness 25
Julie Elliott Lab Sunderland Central 25
Kelvin Hopkins Lab Luton North 25
Lorely Burt LD Solihull 25
Luciana Berger Lab Liverpool Wavertree 25
Nicholas Brown Lab Newcastle upon Tyne East 25
Paul Blomfield Lab Sheffield Central 25
Paul Goggins Lab Wythenshawe and Sale East 25
Philip Davies C Shipley 25
Priti Patel C Witham 25
Rachel Reeves Lab Leeds West 25
Richard Burden Lab Birmingham Northfield 25
Richard Fuller C Bedford 25
Susan Elan Jones Lab Clwyd South 25
Teresa Pearce Lab Erith and Thamesmead 25
Tony Lloyd Lab Manchester Central 25
Tristram Hunt Lab Stoke-on-Trent Central 25
Adrian Bailey Lab West Bromwich West 23.1
Alan Haselhurst C Saffron Walden 23.1
Amber Rudd C Hastings and Rye 23.1
Ann McKechin Lab Glasgow North 23.1
Anna Soubry C Broxtowe 23.1
Chi Onwurah Lab Newcastle upon Tyne Central 23.1
Chris Bryant Lab Rhondda 23.1
David Mundell C Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale 23.1
David Winnick Lab Walsall North 23.1
Douglas Carswell C Clacton 23.1
Ed Vaizey C Wantage 23.1
Eric Pickles C Brentwood and Ongar 23.1
Gemma Doyle Lab Dunbartonshire West 23.1
Gordon Banks Lab Ochil and Perthshire South 23.1
Grahame Morris Lab Easington 23.1
Ian Austin Lab Dudley North 23.1
Ian Lucas Lab Wrexham 23.1
James Arbuthnot C Hampshire North East 23.1
Jenny Willott LD Cardiff Central 23.1
John Cryer Lab Leyton and Wanstead 23.1
Malcolm Rifkind C Kensington 23.1
Malcolm Wicks Lab Croydon North 23.1
Mary Macleod C Brentford and Isleworth 23.1
Matthew Offord C Hendon 23.1
Meg Hillier Lab Hackney South and Shoreditch 23.1
Mike Hancock LD Portsmouth South 23.1
Nia Griffith Lab Llanelli 23.1
Nick Raynsford Lab Greenwich and Woolwich 23.1
Rob Flello Lab Stoke-on-Trent South 23.1
Roberta Blackman-Woods Lab Durham, City of 23.1
Rushanara Ali Lab Bethnal Green and Bow 23.1
Sarah Teather LD Brent Central 23.1
Simon Hughes LD Bermondsey and Old Southwark 23.1
Stella Creasy Lab Walthamstow 23.1
Stephen Hepburn Lab Jarrow 23.1
Steven Baker C Wycombe 23.1
Yvonne Fovargue Lab Makerfield 23.1
Albert Owen Lab Ynys Mon 21.2
Anne Milton C Guildford 21.2
Ben Gummer C Ipswich 21.2
Brian Binley C Northampton South 21.2
Chris Huhne LD Eastleigh 21.2
Daniel Poulter C Suffolk Central and Ipswich North 21.2
David Hanson Lab Delyn 21.2
Grant Shapps C Welwyn Hatfield 21.2
Greg Mulholland LD Leeds North West 21.2
Hilary Benn Lab Leeds Central 21.2
Ian Murray Lab Edinburgh South 21.2
Jason McCartney C Colne Valley 21.2
Jim Fitzpatrick Lab Poplar and Limehouse 21.2
John Spellar Lab Warley 21.2
Katy Clark Lab Ayrshire North and Arran 21.2
Mark Field C Cities of London and Westminster 21.2
Mark Hunter LD Cheadle 21.2
Mark Tami Lab Alyn and Deeside 21.2
Martin Horwood LD Cheltenham 21.2
Nicholas Soames C Sussex Mid 21.2
Pauline Latham C Derbyshire Mid 21.2
Sheila Gilmore Lab Edinburgh East 21.2
Tessa Munt LD Wells 21.2
Tony Cunningham Lab Workington 21.2
Vernon Coaker Lab Gedling 21.2
Wayne David Lab Caerphilly 21.2
Willie Bain Lab Glasgow North East 21.2

Tesco's take-over of UK postcodes complete

They've likely put thousands of mom-and-pop stores out of business. But, they now have
full coverage of all UK postcodes. The last one will become a trivia question, or a crossword entry.
They only just got into Stokes Croft, but not without a fight. Really. This is the artists' take on the battle:

[banksy da bristolian]

checkitout:
Tesco closes in on its final mainland UK postcode
After seven years of arguments, Harrogate opens door to superstore – on the site of a former gasworks
* Martin Wainwright
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 September 2011 19.03 BST
Royal Hall in Harrogate, the last mainland town in Britain to agree to a Tesco superstore. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
The last remaining postcode in the UK mainland without a Tesco supermarket is closer to losing its unusual status.

Councillors in Harrogate, north Yorkshire, have voted in favour of a store which was first proposed by the company seven years ago on the derelict site of the town's former gasworks.

Three hectares of weeds and concrete between Electric Avenue and the Little Wonder roundabout have been targeted by the firm since 2004 when it paid £3.5m to add them to its land bank.

The HG code has two Tesco Expresses, but is the last in Britain apart from the Outer Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland not to have a full-sized outlet.

A special planning committee of Harrogate district council approved the development by 10 votes to three with one abstention after a testy meeting interrupted by protests. Opposition to the 7,345 sq metre (79,000 sq ft), 24-hour outlet remains vigorous, based on fears for the future of smaller shops in a town famous for retail ever since its early 19th-century popularity as the site of a sulphurous "stinking spa".

There has also been concern about traffic and possible contamination of the site from its long use as a gasworks. Opponents intend to fight on against the proposal.

Supporters point to the success of existing supermarkets in Harrogate, side by side with smaller shops, and the benefits of some 360 full- and part-time jobs, which are expected to come with the building and staffing of a superstore. Geoff Webber, North Yorkshire county councillor for New Park, where the site stands on the corner of the Skipton and Ripon roads, said that in an area of high employment, these would be snapped up.

Tesco welcomed the decision, which follows revisions to the original plan submitted in 2007 but was withdrawn in the face of objections the following year. The current application, making the shop smaller and with more sustainable features, was first submitted in 2009, revised last year and has been making its way through the planning system since then.

It still requires approval from the full council and the backing of the Health and Safety Executive, which previously advised against the plan and could ask the secretary of state for communities and local government, Eric Pickles, for a public inquiry.

Canada surrenders more sovereignty

For those of you Canucks hoping that the Conservatives will sell us out
to the US again, you're in luck.

Those goofs are getting the Amerks to give them copyright legislation
and then showing them how good the new Canadian laws are, before they're
even voted on in parliament.

So, stop Harper already.

[harper's not the greatest Canadian]


checkitout: from Techdirt

Canadian Politician Secretly Asked US To Ramp Up Diplomatic Pressure To Pass Draconian Anti-Consumer Copyright Law
from the selling-out-your-own-citizens dept
Michael Geist recently wrote about some more leaked State Department cables concerning copyright policy in a foreign country -- this time in his home country of Canada, where, as we've seen pretty much everywhere else, when it comes to copyright policy, everything shows the close handiwork of American interests. In fact, one cable Geist highlights concerns a Canadian politician promising US diplomats that they can see a copy of the copyright reform proposal before it's even introduced in Parliament. Even more ridiculous is the fact that a Canadian bureaucrat, Zoe Addington, then the director of policy for Industry Minister Tony Clement, flat out told the Americans that some in the Canadian government wanted the US to put Canada on its "naughty list" of pirate havens [watch out, you sh*theads, they'll bomb you. They're just looking for an excuse, you f%&8kin dummies- Costick67] (better known as the "Special 301" list), claiming that such a designation would be helpful in ramming through draconian anti-consumer copyright laws. Pretty hard for Canadian politicians to continue to insist that its copyright reform efforts are not "made in America" when you see a story like this.

Ooops, another bunch of unlawful Brit spies

British governments are always efficient in dealing with corruption in their ranks.

Whenever they their attention drawn reluctantly to malfeasance, they
respond by circling their wagons and calling for an I.I.

an Independent Inquiry

They might as well give the suspects over to the IQ game show.

They come up with judgements like:

unlawful killing (aka murder)
we let that one get away (Tony Blair, thrice)

Now, they want to I.I. MI6 cooperation with Libya, because some pesky
journalist found out that we were colluding in illegal acts of torture with
our sworn enemy, and bestest friend Mouamar Kaddafi.


checkitout: Yahoo/ AFP
Files show Western spy agencies' ties to Kadhafi
By Andrew Beatty and Dominique Soguel | AFP – 5 hours ago..
..Files unearthed from Moamer Kadhafi's intelligence archives and seen by AFP on Saturday appear to document deep cooperation between the CIA, MI6 and the former Libyan regime, including the shipping of terror suspects for regime interrogation.
The cache of documents, originally obtained by Human Rights Watch from a Libyan security archive, includes blunt details about the secret 2004 seizure from Malaysia of an Islamic militant, who by twist of fate now heads commands the revolutionary forces in Tripoli.
The letters include an apparent CIA memo informing the Libyan authorities about the journey of "Abdullah al-Sadiq" and his pregnant wife from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, where the US would "take control" of the pair and hand them over to the regime.
Sadiq -- named as a member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group -- is said to be the nom de guerre of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, who now leads the militia of Libya's new rulers in the capital Tripoli.
In another letter a senior member of Britain's intelligence agency congratulates Libya's spymaster on the arrival of Sadiq.
The chatty and friendly letter, written to Kadhafi's right-hand man Mussa Kussa, says the delivery of Sadiq "is the least we can do for you."
Other letters to Kussa headed "Greetings from MI6" (Britain's foreign intelligence service) and shows a personal Christmas greeting signed by a senior British spy with the epithet "Your friend".

more later

not helping PIIGS will kill TBTFs

It's such an important part of human nature to help those who are
disadvantaged.
However, Germany, France and Finland cannot decide if they
want to help Greece or not.
If they don't help the Greeks, all the major banks will be Crunched again.

So, help the banks, why don't you?
Think of the starving PIIGS in their time of need, and give your money
to a bank.

In Greece, Eurobank and Alphabank almost starved to death, but then a Qatari sheik
in shiney white cloaks came riding in on camelback.

Now, in France, Societe General and PNB Paribas have started to coordinate their
swan dives and might merge creating

a very big zero.

[PILOT: "putin! you missed the Societe Generale, and Sarkozy's office. Bastille Day has lost its meaning."]

corps are peeps, so happy Oligarch Day

This used to be Labour Day. With labour desimated, it's now
Oligarch Day

But now that corporations are people, they've become a part of the family. They're just like that drunkard uncle that steals the cultery.

Unemployment is really high in most western countries. But that's okay because corporations will protect us and feed us, and give us an old factory to live in.

checkitout:

September 5, 2011
Faked Stats, No Jobs
Happy Corporation Day!
by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
It is Labor Day, 2011, but labor has nothing to celebrate. The jobs that once gave American workers a stake in capitalism have left and gone away. Corporations in pursuit of near-term profits have moved labor’s jobs to China, India, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea and Eastern Europe.
Labor arbitrage, that is, the substitution of foreign labor that is paid less than its productivity for American labor, has enriched Wall Street, shareholders and corporate CEOs, but it has devastated American employment, household incomes, tax base, and the outlook for the US economy.
This Labor Day week-end’s job report, announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Friday, September 2, says zero net new jobs were created in August, a number 250,000 less than the amount of monthly job creation necessary to make progress in reducing America’s high rate of unemployment.
...
Since the deregulation of the financial system under the Bush/Cheney regime and the “war on terror,” the entire economy of the US has been sacrificed for the benefit of the financial sector and the military/security complex.
Labor Day is an anachronism. It should be renamed Corporation Day or War Day to celebrate the success of Bush/Obama in eliminating labor unions as a countervailing power to corporate power and the elevation of War as the highest goal of the American state.

we'd get respect if we demanded 50%

15%. That's our cut. That's the percentage of the expenses of a company.
It's not only that we are treated like inanimate inputs, but we
don't even get our 50%, as you'd expect.

Apparently, according to Yves Smith, we've been sold a bill of goods
about globalisation.
Managers in the West have been able to export our jobs to the East
with the argument that globalisation will find its equilibrium,
which means western workers will be unemployed or working for
Chinese wages.

Well, that's another 30-year-old bubble in my head which has just burst.
Apparently workers are only 15% of expenses, so we don't even
make a difference when you consider executive wages.
And the execs are stupid too. They are only looking out for themselves.
What the perception of extra income has done with managers is make
them stuff their faces with high paying contracts and allowed them to eat up
the profits before the company fails, which it will.

So, it's the bad managers who cannot handle the Eastern competition, not the "lazy unionised workers". Indeed, labour became insignificant thanks to 80's right-wing policies which have been carried on by successive governments.

checkitout: naked capitalism
The Decline of Manufacturing in America: A Case Study

One frequent and frustrating line that often crops up in the comments section of this blog is that American labor has no hope, it should just accept Chinese wages, since price is all that matters. That line of thinking is wrongheaded on multiple levels. It assumes direct factory labor is the most important cost driver, when for most manufactured goods, it is 11% to 15% of total product cost (and increased coordination costs of much more expensive managers are a significant offset to any savings achieved by using cheaper factory workers in faraway locations). It also assumes cost is the only way to compete, when that is naive on an input as well as a product level. How do these “labor cost is destiny” advocates explain the continued success of export powerhouse Germany? Finally, the offshoring,/outsourcing vogue ignores the riskiness and lower flexibility of extended supply chains.

This argument is sorely misguided because it serves to exculpate diseased, greedy, and incompetent American managers and executives. In the overwhelming majority of places where I lived in my childhood, a manufacturing plant was the biggest employer in the community. And when I went to business school, manufacturing was still seen as important. Indeed, the rise of Germany and Japan was then seen as due to sclerotic American management not being able to keep up with their innovations in product design and factory management.

But if you were to ask most people, they’d now blame the fall of American manufacturing on our workers. That scapegoating serves to shift focus from the top of the food chain at a time when executives have managed to greatly widen the gap between their pay and that of the folks reporting to them.

Let me give you an all too typical example of how American management has contributed to the demise of our industrial competitiveness, namely, the former Mead Corporation paper mill in Escanaba, Michigan, which is now part of NewPage, owned by Cerberus.

HELL, even I KNeW ABOUT thaT

I guess it's something to hear it stated clearly, but since I've been

watching the right websites, I knew that China's covert buying

of gold was to shore it up against the failure of US treasury bills and bucks.

checkitout:

FLASH: China knows about gold price suppression, and U.S. knows China knows

Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2011-09-03 23:59. Section: Daily Dispatches

6:47p ET Saturday, September 3, 2011

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

China knows that the U.S. government and its allies in Western Europe strive to suppress the price of gold, and the U.S. government knows that China knows, according to a 2009 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to the State Department in Washington.

The cable, published in the latest batch of U.S. State Department cables obtained by Wikileaks, summarizes several commentaries in Chinese news media on April 28, 2009. One of those commentaries is attributed to the Chinese newspaper Shijie Xinwenbao (World News Journal), published by the Chinese government's foreign radio service, China Radio International. The cable's summary reads:

"According to China's National Foreign Exchanges Administration, China's gold reserves have recently increased. Currently, the majority of its gold reserves have been located in the United States and European countries. The U.S. and Europe have always suppressed the rising price of gold. They intend to weaken gold's function as an international reserve currency. They don't want to see other countries turning to gold reserves instead of the U.S. dollar or euro. Therefore, suppressing the price of gold is very beneficial for the U.S. in maintaining the U.S. dollar's role as the international reserve currency. China's increased gold reserves will thus act as a model and lead other countries toward reserving more gold. Large gold reserves are also beneficial in promoting the internationalization of the renminbi."

creative bankruptcy

take a swan dive for the history books.

If banks can do it, so can you.

Ever have the feeling that the banks have robbed you?

Well, get even.

I don't mean people. It's getting harder to individuals wipe the slate.

I'm talking about cities.


more soon

Romney: bankers are people too

["this is a derivative"- Dumb and Dumber movie]

Ya. crooked ones.

Apparently, some people who are in charge of a lot of pension money, like the California teachers
pension, have not crawled out from under their rock lately. They haven't seen that a
visit from a Wall st. banker should be treated like a visit from the Grim reaper or the devil.
But no, they go on giving the banks trillions.
They've obviously read Lil Red Riding Hood, BUTT have not seen the similarity.
Those people pension people could be plants from the banks.

They're everywhere, really.

and they'll get worthless IOUs in return.
Boom. There goes the rest of the money.

checkitout:

Read more: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/taleb1/English#ixzz1WqUsOxso
Nassim Taleb: The American Economy Will Transfer $5 Trillion To Banker Pay And Bonuses Over The Next 10 Years
Nassim Taleb and Mark Spitznagel, Project Syndicate
For the American economy – and for many other developed economies – the elephant in the room is the amount of money paid to bankers over the last five years. In the United States, the sum stands at an astounding $2.2 trillion.
Extrapolating over the coming decade, the numbers would approach $5 trillion, an amount vastly larger than what both President Barack Obama’s administration and his Republican opponents seem willing to cut from further government deficits.
That $5 trillion dollars is not money invested in building roads, schools, and other long-term projects, but is directly transferred from the American economy to the personal accounts of bank executives and employees.
Such transfers represent as cunning a tax on everyone else as one can imagine. It feels quite iniquitous that bankers, having helped cause today’s financial and economic troubles, are the only class that is not suffering from them – and in many cases are actually benefiting.
Mainstream megabanks are puzzling in many respects. It is (now) no secret that they have operated so far as large sophisticated compensation schemes, masking probabilities of low-risk, high-impact “Black Swan” events and benefiting from the free backstop of implicit public guarantees.
Excessive leverage, rather than skills, can be seen as the source of their resulting profits, which then flow disproportionately to employees, and of their sometimes-massive losses, which are borne by shareholders and taxpayers.
... So the facts are clear. But, as individual taxpayers, we are helpless, because we do not control outcomes, owing to the concerted efforts of lobbyists, or, worse, economic policymakers. Our subsidizing of bank managers and executives is completely involuntary.
But the puzzle represents an even bigger elephant. Why does any investment manager buy the stocks of banks that pay out very large portions of their earnings to their employees?
The promise of replicating past returns cannot be the reason, given the inadequacy of those returns. In fact, filtering out stocks in accordance with payouts would have lowered the draw-downs on investment in the financial sector by well over half over the past 20 years, with no loss in returns.
Why do portfolio and pension-fund managers hope to receive impunity from their investors? Isn’t it obvious to investors that they are voluntarily transferring their clients’ funds to the pockets of bankers?

the anniversary of a great tragedy

on 11 September 2001, the banks staged their first completly successful attack
on the US public.
Building 7's rubble hides the truth about the 4 trillion in gov money that
disappeared.

checkitout:

http://www.larsschall.com/2011/09/03/911-was-a-fantastically-profitable-covert-operation/

Ms. Fitts, what are your general thoughts related to the alleged 9/11-insider trading?
CAF: Well, I’ve never been able to see concrete evidence that the insider trading has been proved. There’s a lot of anecdotal information from investment bankers and people in the investment community that indicate that there was significant insider trading, particularly in the currency and bond markets, but again it hasn’t been documented.
I think around situations like 9/11 we’ve seen things that can only be explained as insider trading. Therefore, it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out the allegations are true, because my suspicion is that 9/11 was an extremely profitable covert operation and a lot of the profits came from the trading. It wouldn’t even surprise me if it turns out that the Exchange Stabilization Fund traded it and that some of the funding for the compensation fund for the victims came from the ESF.
Insider trading happens around these kinds of events, but if you really want to produce evidence of insider trading, you need the subpoena powers of the SEC, and of course we know that they haven’t exercised them. If anything, right after 9/11, the government settled a significant amount of cases I presume because a lot of the documents were destroyed by the destruction of WTC building number 7, where the SEC offices and other governmental investigation offices were.

If I would ask the Cui Bono question with regards to 9/11, what was your answer?
CAF: Actually I wrote an article about this, the 20 largest areas of profit on 9/11.[iii] 9/11 was extraordinarily profitable for Wall Street, they of course got a kind of “Get Out of Jail Free card“ as I’ve just described. In addition, the largest broker of government bonds, Cantor Fitzgerald, was destroyed, and there was a great deal of money missing from the federal government in the prior four or five years. If you look at the amount of funds involved, it is hard to come to a conclusion other than massive securities fraud was involved, so I find it very interesting that this happened.
In addition, the federal government took the position that they couldn’t produce audited financial statements after 9/11, because they said the office at the Pentagon that produced financial statements was destroyed. Now given what I know of the federal set up of financial statements, I am skeptical of that statement. But needless to say, if you take the government on its word, you had another “Get Out of Jail Free card“ for four trillion dollars and more missing from the federal government. So if you’re just looking at the financial fraud angle, there were a lot of parties that benefitted from 9/11. But then of course what 9/11 did, it staged the passage of the Patriot Act and a whole series of laws and regulations that I collectively refer to as “The Control on Concentration of Cash Flow Act.“ It gave incredible powers to centralize.
In addition, if you look at monetary policies right after 9/11 – I remember I was over in the City of London driving around with a money manager and his phone rang and he answered it on his speaker phone. It was somebody on Wall Street who he hadn’t talked to since before 9/11, and he said to him: “Oh Harry, I am so sorry about what has happened, it must have been very traumatic.“ And the guy said: “Don’t be ridiculous! We were able to borrow cheap short and invest long, we’re running a huge arbitrage, we’re making a fortune, this is the most profitable thing that ever happened to us!“ – So you could tell the monetary policies and sort of insider games were just pumping profits into the bank at that time, so that was very profitable. But of course the big money was used for a significant movement of the military abroad and into Afghanistan and then into Iraq. – Lars, have you ever heard the story about my experience at church on 9/11?
Not yet, but tell it, please.
CAF: Okay, so I moved to Tennessee in 1999, and from the time that I got here I joined a little church in a small town in Tennessee where I lived. About three weeks after I got here we had a sermon that was very political. Afterwards I called a friend of mine, a very successful investigative reporter in Washington DC, and I said to her: “You know, we just got this sermon and I think bla-di-bla-di-bla…“ And the reporter said to me: “How can you possibly got that in a little church in Tennessee – my best source at the CIA just called me to tell me that!“
Over the next two years what we found was that there was an extraordinary sort of coordination between what I was hearing at an occasional political sermon and then what the reporter got from sources at the FBI and the CIA. Anyway, on September 9, 2001, two days before the events of 9/11, I went to church, and it was a fantastically political sermon. Basically, what my pastor at that time said was: “The age old battle between Islam and Christianity is coming to a head, and the only way to solve this is going to war.“ He then laid out the basic battle plan: First we’re going to war in Afghanistan, then Iraq and other places, but number one was Afghanistan. So I called this reporter and said: “Have you heard we’re going to war in Afghanistan?“ And she said: “No, I haven’t heard a word.“
So lo and behold, two days later 9/11 happened, and I was just amazed. The following day was prayer service, I went to church, and the pastor on the pulpit said: “George W. Bush is anointed by God for times such as this!“ Lars, I put my head in my hands and I said: “Oh Lord, give me a sign, I don’t know what to do, please help me!“ Just at that moment my pastor said to me: “Catherine, you have worked in Washington, what do you think?“ Now, I have to tell you, Lars, from my pastor to ask me that question at that moment – that is divine intervention! (laughs.)
So I said: “Well, in my experience the Bush family is anointed by financial fraud, narcotic trafficking and pedophilia!“ My pastor gasped and said: “If that’s the case, it’s hopeless.“ And I said to him: “Don’t be ridiculous, people like the Bushes and the Clintons come and go. We have a governor, his name is God, we don’t need to worry about the Bushes.“
You could see that the country was being prepared to go to war. And sure enough, 9/11 was used as a justification to go to war in Afghanistan, to go to war in Iraq, and commit a huge number of actions, and now much of the challenges about the budget are the result of extraordinary expenditures on war including in Afghanistan and Iraq and the costs of moving the army abroad and engaging in this kind of empire building with ground military force. So I think if you ask Cui Bono on 9/11, one of the big categories was all the people who made money on engineering the popular fear they needed to engineer these wars. I believe whether it was financial fraud, engineering new laws or engineering wars, it was a fantastically profitable covert operation.
Do you think that 9/11 helped to cause the crisis we’re in now?
CAF: It depends on how deep you want to go. 9/11 is the symptom of a model of control which is centralized and top-down. As an economic matter this model is extremely inefficient. 9/11 just helped to further centralize, but if you look at the model that this planet has been run on for five hundred years, it’s what I call the “central banking-warfare investment model” – in fact, that was a term that James Turk coined – I heard him use it in a presentation in London in 2000.
So the “central banking-warfare investment model,“ especially as we got more and more powerful technology to the extent that we use technology to continue to centralize – we end up being extremely destructive of individual rights, extremely destructive of the environment, extremely destructive of all the things that create a healthy economy. It’s really an age old struggle between centralization and de-centralization, and the forces of centralization are winning – they are winning at great cost to the economy, the health of the planet and the people on it......end
[either that priest is chanelling God, or he was getting his talking points from Bush's born again congregation. Church insiders! looks like brainwashing-Costick67]

Finnish them off

[where there's a Finn, there's a shark.]
according to economist Varoufakis, the Finns have a habit of playing the decisive
card at times when they can.

1 during the Russian revolution,
and now,
2 during the Euro cascading clusterf^&k

So, I say to the Finns:

"give them the coup de grace."

checkitout:

To the Finland Station: The undoing of the Menshevik Approach to the Euro Crisis
When Lenin alighted on 3rd April 1917 at Petrograd’s Finland Station, a train was set in motion that upstaged, and eventually overturned, the Mensheviks’ plan for an ‘evolutionary’ path from absolute Tsarism to some form of social democracy. Ironically, it took a Finnish social democrat (newly elected finance minister Jutta Urpilainen) to derail once and for all the eurozone’s ‘Menshevik Plan’ for a gradual adaptation to the new realities that the Crisis is spewing out. In what follows I shall lay bare what I term, cheekily, the ‘Menshevik Approach to the Euro Crisis’, its reliance on the Principle of Perfectly Separable Debts (of PSDs), and explain how this Principle turns into an impossibility the dream of turning the EFSF into a European Debt Agency (issuing jointly and mutually guaranteed eurobonds). Lastly, I shall address why the shoddy and unworkable Finnish-Greek side-deal has put paid to this dangerous illusion.

... The Finnish spanner in the Euro-Menshevik works
Opposition to the EFSF, to the bailouts it funds, to the very notion of fiscal consolidation and, above all, a staunch defence of the PSDs Principle, have all been hallmarks of conservative forces within the EU. Not so the Finnish demand that Greece auto-insures its fresh loan to Finland (by purchasing AAA-rated securities before it can get a penny from Helsinki). This demand came from the social democratic end of the political spectrum, the party that put Mr Jutta Urpilainen into the Finance Ministry.
Though I have no doubt that the rest of the EU, reflecting Mr Schauble’s strong views on the matter, will prevail upon Finland to rescind its collateral deal with Greece, the damage to the Euro-Menshevik best laid plans has been done. Permanently. The reason is three-fold:
* First, because the Finns have a point: Given the structure of the EFSF, who will rescue Greece’s, Spain’s, Italy’s etc. rescuers? It is one thing to ask from a small affluent country like Finland to show solidarity toward its fiscally stricken eurozone partners. But it is quite another to ask of it to fall off a cliff; an act that will, in any case, will not help the already fallen.
* Secondly, Europe cannot have it both ways. We cannot on the one hand stick valiantly to the PSDs Principle while hoping to evolve out of it via an evolutionary path (see my diagram) that will destroy the euro before it converges onto a new federalist principle.
* Thirdly, Greece’s second bailout is shoddy. No one believes that (a) the Greek state’s bankers will sign up to the dotted line (providing up to 90% of rolled over funds), (b) the Greek state will be able to avoid a default over the next thirty years, and (c) the eurozone’s banks will (given a parlous state that no one is talking about in Brussels) avoid a major new credit crunch that will, inevitably, lead to the derailment of not only the second Greek rescue plan but, indeed, of the whole EFSF bandwagon....
[HOW IS IT THAT WHILE THE MNIMONIO GIVES THEM THE RIGHT TO TAKE THE PARTHENON, THEY ARE UPSET WITH FINLAND FOR ASKING FOR OTHER FORMS OF SOLID COLLATERAL. THE MNIMONIO IS MEDIEVAL & IRON-MAIDENISH IN ITS EVIL AND SERFITUDE, BUT I’VE ALREADY FIGURED OUT THAT IT’S A VILE SMOKE SCREEN OF UNKNOWN BENEFIT IN THE CONTEXT OF A CRUMBLING BANKING SYSTEM WHICH IS BEING PUBLICALLY DENIED, BUT PRIVATELY, PANIC HAS SET IN, NECESSITATING REGULAR CONTRADICTORY ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM THE VARIOUS MAJOR ACTORS SUCH THAT THE PUBLIC WILL NOT KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON, BUT THE BANKERS DO BECAUSE THE BANKERS PUT THEM INTO THAT CONDITION.-Costick67]

apparently we're beaten down

Gonzalo Lira makes a good point, below. Dick Cheney is strutting around like he just f^&cked the supermodel.
We're all powerless to put him in jail because the system is stacked against us,
but also because, as Gonzo says, we are all demoralised and despirited. That's a good point.
I'd like to add:
We're also scrambling to eek out a living.
We also know that if we complain too well, we could end up dead, or worse.
We had something good. space, room, riches, and now that has made us weak, and
unwilling to fight.
Here's something else to add to the pyre of our souls: Ever since we stopped killing one another in large numbers we've acquired a distaste for murder.

Those willing to kill have got one over on us.

Poor people looking for work have joined an army and end up getting killed so that someone else can get rich, all without a hint of irony.
There's also the relativism that allows us to legitimise everything we want to do. I want peace and food; he wants to be a billionnaire and is willing to kill people to do it. One of us has the killer instinct that humans have been so famous for (check the history books).

murder,
blood,
maming,
pillaging,
raping.

checkitout: 2 things

Here's somebody who's still on fire

Democracy now
Ex-Bush Official Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: "I am Willing to Testify" If Dick Cheney is Put on Trial
...COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON: In summer of 2002, my FBI colleagues, my CIA colleagues, who will speak the truth to me, have told me that. I’ve also gleaned it from other methods that I can’t talk about here on the television. Someday they will come to light, and historians will record them. But let me explain to you how Colin Powell dealt with that in his presentation, to return to that infamous moment again. We were throwing out—he had pulled me aside in the National Intelligence Council spaces in the CIA, put me in a room, he and I alone, and he told me he was going to throw all the presentation material about the connection between Baghdad and al-Qaeda out, completely out. I welcomed that, because I thought it was all bogus.
Within about an hour, George Tenet, having scented that something was wrong with the Secretary vis-à-vis this part of his presentation, suddenly unleashes on all in his conference room that they have just gotten the results of an interrogation of a high-level al-Qaeda operative, and those results not only confirm substantial contacts between an al-Qaeda and Baghdad, the Mukhabarat and Baghdad, the secret police, if you will, but also the fact that they were training, they were actually training al-Qaeda operatives in the use of chemical and biological weapons. Well, this was devastating. Here’s the DCI telling us that a high-level al-Qaeda operative had confirmed all of this. So Powell put at least part of that back into his presentation.
We later learned that that was through interrogation methods that used waterboarding, that no U.S. personnel were present at the time—it was done in Cairo, Egypt, and it was done by the Egyptians—and that later, within a week or two period, the high-level al-Qaeda operative recanted everything he had said. We further learned that the Defense Intelligence Agency had issued immediately a warning on that, saying that they didn’t trust the reliability of it due to the interrogation methods. We were never shown that DIA dissent, and we were never told about the circumstances under which the high-level al-Qaeda operative was interrogated. Tenet simply used it as a bombshell to convince the secretary not to throw that part, which was a very effective part, if you will recall, out of his presentation.

2
Gonzalo Lira Mr. Cheney’s Victory Lap
...I am unsurprised that our economy is in the doldrums, teetering on the edge of yet another cliff-dive. Simpletons with Ph.D.’s might spew nonsense about “falling aggregate demand”, or there being “a need to provide markets with added liquidity”, or some other triviality, to explain away our reeling economy—but the answer is so much simpler:
Our economy is falling apart because our common spirit is exhausted, beaten down, and miserable—we have lost our vigor as a people. And the reason we have lost our vigor is because we have seen too many injustices, too much corruption—too much evil—that goes unremarked upon, tacitly accepted, and therefore unpunished.
We see Mr. Cheney take his victory lap on the morning shows as we drink our coffee, and realize as we drive to work that—in the current American society we live in—goodness will be censured, whereas evil will go unpunished. Unpunished, and indeed, rewarded.
No wonder we’re so depressed.....