Feds found Pfizer too big to nail, so they looked the other way on massive fraud

(NaturalNews) – When the world’s largest pharmaceutical company was found to have engaged in a massive illegal marketing campaign, federal prosecutors decided the company was too big to punish — so they let it set up a shell corporation to take the blame.

In 2001, the FDA approved Bextra for the relief of arthritis and menstrual cramps, but did not approve it for more severe surgical pain. Yet Pfizer aggressively promoted the drug to anesthesiologists and surgeons — “anyone that use[d] a scalpel for a living,” in the words of one internal company document. Company employees also told doctors that the FDA had approved Bextra as safe in doses as high as 40 milligrams, whereas the agency had actually only approved doses up to 20 milligrams.

10 Credible Conspiracy Theories?

(DailyBell) – Since Obama’s election, the constituent theories within the overarching narrative of the New World Order have increasingly made inroads into the mainstream national discourse. … Joseph Farah’s WorldNetDaily.com, for example, has grown its influence by peddling paranoia about the president’s birth certificate and AmeriCorps’ “domestic armies.” Earlier this year, the John Birch Society, a group with a long history of hatching and promoting wild conspiracy theories (including the idea that President Eisenhower was a communist agent), co-sponsored the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual powwow of leading conservatives and Republican Party figures. Speakers at this year’s conference included such mainstream names as Washington Post columnist George Will, former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner. Here is a compilation of 10 of the most popular conspiracy theories currently circulating on the radical right and, increasingly, on points of the political spectrum much too close to the center for comfort.” – AlterNet

Dominant Social Theme: The lunatics need to be reined in.

Free-Market Analysis: While popular, left-wing website AlterNet cannot be considered mainstream media per se, this article partakes of the modern Western (mostly US) tradition of debunking suspicions that people may have about their government. It is especially a US dominant social theme – that the “paranoid style” of US politics generates fantastical suspicions about the US fedgov’s intentions. Various “right wing” nutcases are flagellated for not taking the US-based corporatocracy and military industrial complex at its word.

Never mind that the US government is a US$3 trillion-plus entity with world-spanning power and that entities so powerful and complex have their own logic and their own over-riding agenda. Never mind that the US has been almost constantly at war (somewhere in some fashion) for the past 100 years or longer. (Never mind, in fact, that the US now employs so many domestic and foreign intel operatives that it cannot keep track of them anymore.) In fact, when one looks into AlterNet at Wikipedia it becomes fairly clear that the money behind the group comes from the predictable power-elite pocketbook, including the Ford Foundation which never saw a socialist cause it couldn’t endorse and fund. (Henry Ford has been rolling like a top for decades.) Perhaps AlterNet is a promotion, too?

Anyway, such an article is of obvious interest to the Daily Bell because it counteracts (with the calm voice of reason) suspicions that the powers-that-be are in any sense aimed at US citizens themselves. These sorts of articles are actually quite numerous on the ‘Net, but this is a very good example of one. Here are the top ten list of conspiracy theories from AlterNet and our comments beneath.

A Plea for Freedom

(Infowars) – We are broke.

On June 5th, 1933, Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the Emergency Banking Act which declared America bankrupt and insolvent.  Twenty years after the 1913 Federal Reserve Act authorized a private central bank to loan money to the government at interest, the country declared its bankruptcy.  Twenty years after the Federal Reserve Act was passed, Congress enacted House Joint Resolution 192, to “Suspend the Gold Standard and Abrogate the Gold Clause” and the nation became insolvent.  Just twenty years after the Federal Reserve Act became law, gold at twenty dollars an ounce was inflated by FDR to twenty-nine dollars an ounce, confiscated with the passing of the Gold Reserve Act in 1934, and then inflated again to thirty-five dollars an ounce.

Video: Gerald Celente on RegularGuys Radio – Why We are in a big hole

(RegularGuysRadio) – August 4, 2010 –

HR 1207 Hall Of Shame

(C4L) – The following U.S. representatives cosponsored H.R. 1207 but voted against Audit the Fed on a motion to return the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill to committee and add back in the thorough Audit. View More Here

Economy

(ABC) – Factory Orders Drop More Than Expected – Read More Here

(CNNMoney) – Job recovery hits a wall – Read More Here

(Independent) – Johann Hari: How Goldman gambled on starvation

Speculators set up a casino where the chips were the stomachs of millions. What does it say about our system that we can so casually inflict so much pain? Read More Here

(ATR) – Six Months to Go Until The Largest Tax Hikes in History

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below Read More Here

(ABCNews) – Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year? – Read More Here

(Telegraph) – Middle class families face a triple whammy

You don’t usually expect radical neo-Marxism from the International Monetary Fund – the last great bastion of capitalism, spreading the gospel about the free market to the furthest reaches of the world. And yet, hidden away in an obscure IMF report a few years back is a short sentence that explains precisely the problems that Britain, and the rest of the Western world, have been sleepwalking towards for years.

The claim made by the IMF’s Financial Stability Report in 2005, in a seemingly throwaway remark, was that households had become the financial system’s “shock absorber of last resort”. In other words, whereas in previous eras, much of the pain of recession and financial crisis was borne by businesses or governments, with families afforded some degree of protection by the pensions system or welfare state, it was now households who were far more likely to face the music. Read More Here

(HuffingtonPost) – Expired Unemployment Benefits Causing Panic, Desperation: ‘I’m Drowning Fast’

Debra Rousey of Gainesville, Georgia, says that she received an unemployment check of $194 last week, half the usual amount she receives, along with a letter announcing that this check would be her last. She is now in a complete panic over what to do next. Read More Here

(DailyCrux) – Doug Casey: Going to these colleges serves no useful purpose whatsoever

There is no point at all in going to a college today, unless you’re looking to learn a trade. Or, perhaps, because the people you meet in college might be of some future benefit to you. In other words, it’s pointless unless it’s Harvard, Princeton, Yale, or the like. Because of the classes? No. It’s because the kids that go to such schools are the most intelligent and ambitious “up and comers” – so the connections you make and the patina you get at these places can open a lot of doors. Read More Here

(FoxNews) – Pelosi: Unemployment Checks Fastest Way to Create Jobs“It creates jobs faster than almost any other initiative you can name.” Read More Here

(July 1) – Video: Alex Jones Tv – Dollar Plunges After UN Call To Ditch Greenback! – Video Link Here

(July 1) – Video: Ron Paul – 114 Flip Flop on Audit The Fed Causing Bill to Fail 229 – 198

(AFP) – US jobless claims surge more than expected – Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Goldman Sachs Pressed By Born for Derivatives Data

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. refused a request from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to reveal how much it makes trading derivatives, saying the bank doesn’t separate the figure from other businesses. Read More Here

(CNNMoney) – House passes unemployment benefits extension

After a failed attempt earlier this week, the House voted to extend the deadline to file for federal jobless benefits Thursday. But the bill will be stuck in limbo as Congress takes a weeklong summer break.

The bill would extend the deadline to file for extended unemployment benefits through November, and would retroactively pay out claims to those who saw their benefits expire in May. Read More Here

(LRCBlog) – Audit-the-Fed Goes Down, 229-198

This is no surprise. Neither party wants to audit the counterfeiting enterprise that is at the dark heart of the regime. Read More Here

(EconomicCollapseBlog) – Mortgage Horror Stories: The U.S. Housing Industry Will Never Recover If Qualified People Can’t Get A Home Loan – Read More Here

(IrishTimes) – One million protest against Italy’s austerity cuts

About 100,000 people, according to union estimates, demonstrated in the central city of Bologna, capital of a traditionally leftist area with a strong labour movement. Read More Here

(TheHill) – Top Republican: Raise Social Security’s retirement age to 70

Boehner, the top Republican lawmaker in the House, said raising the retirement age by five years, indexing benefits to the rate of inflation and means-testing benefits would make the massive entitlement program more solvent. Read More Here

(USAToday) – National debt soars to highest level since WWII

The federal debt will represent 62% of the nation’s economy by the end of this year, the highest percentage since just after World War II, according to a long-term budget outlook released today by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office. Read More Here

Climategate

(WattsUpWithThat) – New Zealand’s Prime Minister: Climate Change bill a “load of rubbish” and “hoax”

Via Andrew Bolt in email, some surprising revelations about New Zealand’s Prime minister and his previous opinion of the ETS. It appears he has done a complete about face from his very strong opinions of 2005. Read More Here

(WattsUpWithThat) – Climate Craziness of the Week: The AGU peddles a mammoth climate change theory – Read More Here

Video

(RawStory) – Video: MSNBC’s Ratigan – Stock market an ‘obviously corrupt’ fraud

On his afternoon show Tuesday, MSNBC host Dylan Ratigan explained why he believes the usual explanations given in the media for why the stock market went up or down on a given day are nonsense.

“Seventy percent of the volume [of trades on the stock market] is computers that are run by the banks playing ping pong with stocks for 10 seconds at at time,” Ratigan said.

Economy

(GunsNButter) – Audio: On the Destructive Nature of the Global Economic System – Bonnie Faulkner Interviews Michel Chossudovsky – Audio Link Here

(NYTimes) – NY Times’ Krugman: We Are Entering The Third Depression

We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost — to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs — will nonetheless be immense. Read More Here

(CNN) – Video: Clinton – U.S. Budget Is Broken – View Video Here

(LondonTelegraph) – RBS tells clients to prepare for ‘monster’ money-printing by the Federal Reserve

As recovery starts to stall in the US and Europe with echoes of mid-1931, bond experts are once again dusting off a speech by Ben Bernanke given eight years ago as a freshman governor at the Federal Reserve. Read More Here

(LewRockwell) – Suiting Up for a Post-Dollar World

The global financial crisis is playing out like a slow-moving, highly predicable stage play. In the current scene, Western governments are caught between the demands of entitled welfare beneficiaries and the anxiety of bondholders who fear they will be stuck with the bill. As the crisis reaches an apex, prime ministers and presidents are forced into a Sophie’s choice between social unrest and bankruptcy. But with the “Club Med” economies set to fall like dominoes, the US Treasury market is not yet acting the role we would have anticipated. Read More Here

(StarAdvertiser) – Huge tent city takes root

Homeless camps cover 50 acres, from Waipio Point, around Middle Loch to Pearl City Read More Here

REPOST – (WSWS) – Senate Democrats and Obama abandon the jobless

Senate Democrats gave up efforts to extend unemployment benefits for millions of jobless workers after the third vote on overcoming a Republican filibuster failed. The final vote Thursday was 57 to 41, three votes short of the 60 necessary to cut off debate, with one Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joining a unanimous Republican opposition. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Merkel Warns European Crisis is Far From Over, Wall Street Journal Reports – Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – BOOK LAUNCH: The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century – Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall – Read More Here

(EurasiaReview) – Europe’s Fiscal Dystopia: The “New Austerity” Road – Michael Hudson

Europe is committing fiscal suicide – and will have little trouble finding allies at this weekend’s G-20 meetings in Toronto. Despite the deepening Great Recession threatening to bring on outright depression, European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet and prime ministers from Britain’s David Cameron to Greece’s George Papandreou (president of the Socialist International) and Canada’s host, Conservative Premier Stephen Harper, are calling for cutbacks in public spending. Read More Here

(BBC) – Romania plans big VAT rise to secure bail-out funds – Read More Here

(RegionalTimes) – IMF stops next tranche of loan to Pakistan till imposition of VAT Read More Here

Climategate

(LATimes) – Senate Democrats poised to start energy bill

With the gulf oil spill creating political opportunity, Senate Democrats will begin crafting a sweeping energy bill this week that could include a first-ever, though more modest, cap on global-warming pollution, believing they must act now despite differences within their ranks and political jitters in an election year.

(Guardian) – Gillard bids to revive Australia’s stalled carbon trading scheme

Australia’s new prime minister, Julia Gillard, today moved to revive a stalled carbon trading scheme, pledging more consultation with industry and voters to win support for an issue that has divided the nation. Read More Here

Economy

(MercuryNews) – Defeat of jobs bill in Senate costly to California

Hundreds of thousands of jobless residents will see their unemployment checks cut off. The deficit-plagued state budget stands to lose billions of desperately needed dollars. And a tax credit for research and development, long prized by the tech industry, appears to be on life support. Read More Here

(Telegraph) – Ben Bernanke needs fresh monetary blitz as US recovery falters

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is waging an epochal battle behind the scenes for control of US monetary policy, struggling to overcome resistance from regional Fed hawks for further possible stimulus to prevent a deflationary spiral. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Mission Accomplished:The Reagan Occupation and the Destruction of the American Middle Class – Read More Here

(WoodTV) – 400k unemployed in MI to lose benefits

Comes on heels of GOP killing Senate extension Read More Here

(WeAreChange) – We are Change Plans End the Fed protest on Independence Day

We Are Change groups from MD, VA and DC have joined togeather to hold an End The Fed protest in Washington DC in honor of Independence Day. The event will be on Saturday, July 3rd and the permits are already in. Read More Here

(KDVRDenver) – Bank of America, Freddie Mac Sell Homes Without Notice – Read More Here

(USAToday) – Obama Gets “Financial Reform” Bill as He Heads for G20

“We are poised to pass the toughest financial reform since the ones we created in the aftermath of the Great Depression,” Obama said at the White House as he prepared to leave for the G-20 summit in Canada. Read More Here

(WPost) – New Financial Overhaul Gives Government Broad New Powers To Seize Financial Firms – Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – These 8 Members Of Congress Are Under Investigation For Fundraising During The Financial Reform Debate – Read More Here

(FoxNews) – Senate Republicans Defeat Jobless Aid Measure Over Deficit Fears

The Senate has failed to reach an agreement to extend weekly jobless benefits, leaving more than a million out-of-work Americans without an unemployment check by week’s end.

The 57-41 loss was a major blow for President Obama and Democrats. They needed three more votes — for a total of 60 — to stop a GOP filibuster. Read More Here

(TampaBay) – Pinellas to lay off 211 county workers

The layoffs run through virtually every department, affecting everything from parks and street repairs to customer service and health care. Read More Here

Economy

(BusinessInsider) – Greek Communists Say IMF-Imposed Austerity Means “Dachau Conditions For Life”

Greek communists are cranking up the rhetoric against IMF-imposed austerity measures, now calling for war against the Athens government. Read More Here

(TheStreet) – Gold Prices Top Record, Break $1,260 – Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Greenspan Says U.S. May Soon Reach Borrowing Limit

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the U.S. may soon face higher borrowing costs on its swelling debt and called for a “tectonic shift” in fiscal policy to contain borrowing. Read More Here

(Fool) – The Coming Financial Meltdown

The problem is getting worse. Notional amounts of derivatives held by federally insured banks have risen to more than $200 trillion. Read More Here

(MyNews4) – Video: Nevada’s unemployment rate to reach No. 1 in U.S. – View Video Here

(PaulWatson) – Obama Plans To Sneak Through Carbon Tax By Stealth

Job killing, economy wrecking, middle class destroying consumption tax to be added in lame duck session after November elections Read More Here

(WebOfDebt) – Hyperinflation or Deflation? Dramatic Fiscal Austerity Measures: “Deficit Terrorists” Strike in the UK — The USA is Next – Ellen Brown

Last week, England’s new government said it would abandon the previous government’s stimulus program and introduce the austerity measures required to pay down its estimated $1 trillion in debts. That means cutting public spending, laying off workers, reducing consumption, and increasing unemployment and bankruptcies. It also means shrinking the money supply, since virtually all “money” today originates as loans or debt. Reducing the outstanding debt will reduce the amount of money available to pay workers and buy goods, precipitating depression and further economic pain. Read More Here

(Reuters) – Philly Fed Factory Activity Index Plummets in June

Factory activity growth plummeted in the Mid-Atlantic region in June, a survey showed on Thursday, adding to worries that the short and tepid U.S. economic recovery is now fizzling. Read More Here

(StarTribune) – Video: In jail for being in debt

You committed no crime, but an officer is knocking on your door. More Minnesotans are surprised to find themselves being locked up over debts. Read More Here

(EconomicPolicyJournal) – Swiss Legislators Sell American Tax Evaders Down the River to Bailout Big Bank

The legislators have approved a law that clears the way for the government to hand over the names of thousands of alleged U.S. tax evaders to the Internal Revenue Service, dodging the risk that the U.S. would reopen a bruising tax case against Swiss bank UBS AG, according to WSJ. Read More Here

(RawStory) – US jobless claims in surprise rise

New claims for jobless insurance benefits in the United States rose unexpectedly for the second straight week, the government said Thursday on concerns unemployment may derail the economic recovery. Read More Here

(NBCSandiego) – New Wave of Cuts at Union-Tribune: Sources

The San Diego Union Tribune told employees Thursday the company is cutting close to 40 newsroom positions, according to sources. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Illinois Debt-Default Insurance Climbs to Record High (Update1)

“If the spread is the widest, it says the problem is bigger than it’s ever been before,” said Peter Hayes, who oversees $106 billion of municipal bonds for New York-based BlackRock Inc. “It’s a reaction to the inability to pass a budget. We’ve seen a greater unwillingness from Illinois and the market is reacting to that.” Read More Here

BREAKING – (SCMLA) – Video: Banks In Oaxaca, Mexico No Longer Accept American Dollars

SoCal Martial Law Alerts (SCMLA) interviewed Lee, an American who discovered while on a recent (Christian) mission trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, that Mexican banks will no longer exchange American dollars for Mexican pesos.

Lee said that, when he first arrived in Oaxaca two weeks ago, the banks would still exchange American dollars for Mexican pesos, but then when he accompanied a friend to a Mexican bank approximately one week ago, that’s when he discovered the policy change regarding dollar-to-peso currency exchanges.

Audio: Rense with Devvy Kidd – Fed Holding State Property from it’s Citizens Illegally

Audio: Jeff Rense with Devvy Kidd on Illegal Land Aquisition – Download Here

Giant

America: 1776-1913

A towering figure casts his shadow over the gravesite of our once great Republic.  In his hand is the murder weapon he used to seal his victim’s fate:  ‘The Federal Reserve Act of 1913.’

At his feet are the tiny, crawling vestiges of life that scramble aimlessly about the burial heap, eking out a meager existence upon the remains of what was once a vibrant and robust living organism.  He looks about the graveyard.  His victims are everywhere.  Their headstones are engraved with the names of the fallen: England, France, Spain and Germany—all of them dead.  He killed every last one.  Throughout the world he is known by many aliases:  The Elite, The Illuminati and the New World Order.

Video: Keiser Report № 46 – Social Fury builds up!

(RussiaToday) – May 27 – This time Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert look at the scandals of guillotines and conspiracy theories, Fed rackets and capital flows. In the second half of the show, Max interviews Dr. Joern Berninger about the European “debt crisis”, when France was “technically bankrupt” on May 7, and about the China bubble debate.

Economy

(GlobalResearch) – Latin America’s New Middle Class Rulers: Stabilization, Growth and Inequality – Prof James Petras – Read More Here

(WebOfDebt) – Taking Back the Money Power: How Hidden Pools of Government Money Could Help Save the Economy – Ellen Brown

For over a decade, accountant Walter Burien has been trying to rouse the public over what he contends is a massive conspiracy and cover-up, involving trillions of dollars squirreled away in funds maintained at every level of government. His numbers may be disputed, but these funds definitely exist, as evidenced by the Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFRs) required of every government agency. If they don’t represent a concerted government conspiracy, what are they for? And how can they be harnessed more efficiently to help allay the financial crises of state and local governments? Read More Here

(Fox5Vegas) – Las Vegas Unemployment Rate At 14.2 Percent – 193,000 Out Of Work Statewide – Read More Here

(DailyKos) – A perfect storm for unemployment in June

While there is plenty of talk about the economic recovery, there is barely a whisper about what is just a few weeks ahead. It’s not any one thing. It’s a combination of three (and possibly four) different events that will deliver devastating body-blows to the economy. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Great Depression 2.0. Bet on it – Mike Whitney

Deficits create demand. Demand generates spending. Spending generates economic activity. Economic activity generates growth. Growth generates jobs, increases government revenues, reduces deficits and ends recessions.

Simple, right? Read More Here

(Telegraph) – Whatever Germany does, the euro as we know it is dead

“Money can’t buy you friends, but it does get you a better class of enemy” – Spike Milligan
For Angela Merkel, leader of the eurozone’s richest country, a queue is forming of high-quality adversaries. As she tips German Geld und Gut into the furnace of a rescue package for the euro, while going it alone in a misguided ban on market “manipulators”, the brass-neck Chancellor has infuriated domestic voters, angered her EU partners (in particular the French) and invited the so-called wolf pack of global traders to do its worst. Read More Here

(TheFluCase) – Germany’s Parliament Votes to Give 66% of Country’s Annual Income Tax Revenue to Banks

Germany’s parliament today passed a bill that will mean that about 66 per cent of the country’s income tax revenue each year will go to banks in the form of interest payments on souvereign dent bonds held by Greece, Portugal and other eurozone nations. Read More Here

(OftWoMinds) – “Two Scoop Special”: Double-Dip Recession Guaranteed

Whether you believe the U.S. economy ever exited recession or not, a further decline is already baked in by numerous macro factors. Read More Here

(May 21) – Video: Bob Chapman’s Friday 5/21/2010 Economic Report on Alex JonesTv

Bob Chapman, publisher of the International Forecaster, a compendium of information on business, finance, economics and social and political issues worldwide. – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

(May 20) – Video: Author Ellen Brown Details How to Have A State Own Bank Like N. Dakota on Alex Jones Tv

Alex also welcomes to the show attorney and author Ellen Brown. Her latest book, Web of Debt, documents the Federal Reserve and “the money trust” and shows how this private cartel has usurped power to create money from the people themselves and how we the people can get it back. Brown is the author of several other books, including Forbidden Medicine, Nature’s Pharmacy for Children: Drug Free Alternatives for More Than 160 Childhood Ailments.

Economy

(BusinessInsider) – Schwarzenegger Warns Of “Terrible Cuts, Absolutely Terrible Cuts” Coming In California – Read More Here

(RumormillNews) – 27 Reasons Why You Should Buy Silver NOW

The following is a list of facts and reasons to switch all your Gold investments into Physical Silver: Read More Here

(CounterPunch) – The May 6 Stock Crash Revisited – “Over My 21 Years on Wall Street, I Never Saw Anything Remotely So Suspicious” – Read More Here

(Breitbart) – Bankers jailed, sued as Iceland seeks culprits for crisis

Four former Kaupthing executives, who all live in Luxembourg, have meanwhile been arrested in Iceland in the past week and Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for that bank’s ex-chairman, Sigurdur Einarsson. Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – Panic Buying Of Physical Gold In Europe Threatens Depletion Of Austrian Mint – Tyler Durden

When global governments refuse to act responsibly toward their currency, the people will create their own currency. Welcome gold.

( NAW ) 05/12 08:57AM AUSTRIAN MINT SAYS SOLD 243,500 OZ GOLD IN COINS AND BARS IN LAST 2 WEEKS, MORE THAN IN ENTIRE Q1

( NAW ) 05/12 08:58AM AUSTRIAN MINT SAYS GOLD ORDERS COMING ENTIRELY FROM EUROPE IN LAST FEW WEEKS, SIGNS OF “PANIC BUYS”

(MarketTicker) – Record Deficit For An April – Read More Here

(HeraldScotland) – Economy ‘worse than Spain’

The UK’s economy is in worse shape than Spain, and may not be able to bear the deep spending cuts proposed by the Conservatives, one of Scotland’s leading fund managers has told The Herald. Read More Here

(VancouverSun) – Canadians spend their way to top of debt heap, report says

Helped by rock-bottom interest rates, consumers have been borrowing at unprecedented levels and now owe a record $1.41-trillion, putting Canada in the number one spot among OECD nations in terms of consumer debt to financial assets, says a study by the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada. Read More Here

(USAWatchdog) – Gold Is Money

The Western financial world is officially in full panic mode. A nearly $1 trillion bailout of Greece confirms that fact. Our very own Federal Reserve is providing billions to the effort, but this is much more than a bailout for Greece. It is a bailout for banks holding Greek debt and the debt of other European nations teetering on default. Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – Here Comes The Bailout Bailout: European Cental Banks Gobbling Up Portuguese, Irish And Greek Government Bonds

And so the European private banks win the overnight battle with the Central Banks again: after shorting the EURUSD all the way to almost 1.25, they have forced the European Central Banks to buy ever more of their worthless Government bond holdings. Reuters reports that overnight CBs have been aggressive buyers of Greek, Portuguese and Irish Sovereign (if there is such a laughable concept as sovereign any more) bonds, which in turn has forced a quick short covering spree in the EURUSD and the EURJPY, which in turn has forced futures to go from 10 handles down to up 4. In other words, Central Banks now are fighting tooth and nail to prevent the market from going down ever again. Read More Here

(CNBC) – Video: Peter Schiff on CNBC – Gold to $10,000/oz!

(RussiaToday) – Video: Adam Kokesh on RT – The Fed is under audit – Video Link Here

(BigEye) – 62 Obvious Traitors – To be removed from public office

The below traitors in the U.S. Senate have now shown how corrupt they are. They voted to prevent a full audit of the Federal Reserve Bank. By this action, they have conspired to continue secretly hiding the theft of taxes taken from the incomes of America’s workers.

By voting as the paid-off traitors they obviously are, they are pushing America into further financial disaster. Read More Here

(MailOnline) – ‘Vampire Squid’ Goldman Sachs confesses it is being investigated for helping Greece hide its debts

The controversial Wall Street bank – nicknamed the Vampire Squid because its tentacles stretch far and wide – is accused of having profiteered out of a complex currency deal that helped Greece massage its finances. Read More Here

(SMH) – Spain cuts salaries as Europe faces up to crisis

Spain announced dramatic cuts to public sector salaries and Greece received its first injection of an IMF bailout on Wednesday as Europeans faced up to the reality of their massive debt crisis. Read More Here

(EarthTimes) – Romanian retirees protest against pension cuts – Read More Here

(OnlineJournal) – What is good for Goldman Sachs is bad for the world – Read More Here

(HuffingtonPost) – The Real Misery Index April 2010: Underemployment Woes Lead To Two-Tier Economy

The unemployment crisis continues to stymie a full economic recovery, with ripple effects from credit card delinquencies and rising food stamp participation indicating new hardships for millions of Americans, according to the latest update of Huffington Post’s Real Misery Index. Read More Here

(RawStory) – US trade deficit biggest in more than two years – Read More Here

(CNNMoney) – Video: We Will Have Even More Crises in the Future: Nouriel Roubini – View Video Here

(LATimes) – Welfare system could cause Israel to collapse, economist warns

Nearly one in five Israeli men between the ages of 35 and 54 do not work, including Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews, says Dan Ben-David. As their numbers rise, so does the economic peril, he says. Read More Here

(Kitco) – Comex Gold Hits All-Time Record High in After-Hours Trading

Comex gold futures Tuesday afternoon hit a new all-time record high of $1,232.50 an ounce. The previous record high of $1,227.50, basis nearby futures, was set in December of 2009. Gold continues to benefit from safe-haven buying interest amid the European Union’s sovereign debt crisis, and on building bullish technical momentum. With gold prices now in uncharted territory, traders should look for higher volatility both on the upside and on the downside, but with a continued upside bias. Source: Kitco

(Rense) – Financial ‘Reform’ Bill Will Guarantee More Stealng The Fruits Of OUR Labor

The Congress has been busy. Why, haven’t you seen all these stern looking professional politicians from both sides on cable news networks jockey for their “solution” to our dire economic situation?

It’s all a load of highest grade manure. Read More Here

(AP) – Federal Stimulus Money Used To Demolish Houses Read More Here

(NYTimes) – 4 Major Banks Manipulate Market For Perfect Months Of Trading

It is the Wall Street equivalent of a perfect game of baseball — 27 up, 27 down, the final score measured in millions of dollars a day.

Despite the running unease in world markets, four giants of American finance managed to make money from trading every single day during the first three months of the year. Read More Here

(PaulWatson) – Alan Grayson: “We Beat The Fed”

While many are expressing disappointment and even despair that the Senate voted down Ron Paul’s audit the Fed bill while passing a weakened version, Congressman Alan Grayson is confident that the stronger provisions of the original House amendment can be added in Committee, ensuring the Federal Reserve doesn’t get off the hook, as Congressman Paul has warned. Read More Here

(RussiaToday) – Video: Two for one – Auditing Ft. Knox and the Fed

The American Public is demanding for it and they may be getting a two for one deal. An audit of the Federal Reserve will be conducted; specifically its dealings with financial institutions right before and after the financial crisis. This audit will also be conducted on Fort Knox; the audit is taking place in order to determine where money is going and seek some transparency about who received money from the Federal Reserve.

Economy Part 2

(C-Span) – Video: Ron Paul I Am Very Concerned About What’s Going To Happen!

(Reuters) – U.S. Senate rejects broader Fed audit amendment: May 11

The U.S. Senate rejected an amendment on Tuesday that would have exposed the Federal Reserve to broader scrutiny by Congress, which critics said would extend to monetary policy decisions. Read More Here

(DailyCrux) – Porter Stansberry: The U.S. dollar is about to implode – Read More Here

(DailyMail) – Unions warn of Greek-style riots in Britain against public sector cuts after court victory over capping of redundancies

Militant unions today sent a chilling warning of Greek-style strikes and protests after winning a major legal victory for civil servants made redundant.

The warning raises fears of months of chaos triggered by a furious public sector who refuse to accept painful changes to tackle Britain’s financial crisis. Read More Here

(Reuters) – FOREX-Euro falls as market doubts rescue package

The euro fell on Tuesday as the relief rally unleashed by an emergency aid package to prevent the spread of a euro zone debt crisis dissipated and the focus switched back to structural problems plaguing the bloc. Read More Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – The Second Leg of the Great Depression Was Caused by European Defaults

Many Americans know that the Great Depression was started by the bursting of the giant Wall Street bubble of the 1920’s (fueled by the use of bank deposits on speculative gambling, which is why Glass-Steagall was passed) , which in turn caused a run on American banks. Read More Here

Video: Gerald Celente on The Tommy Schnurmacher Show

Senate Votes 96-0 For One Time Audit Of Federal Reserve

(C4L) – The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein (who has not come out either for, or against, an audit of the Fed) raises the same question many of us at Campaign for Liberty had when looking at the Sanders amendment…

The amended version of Audit the Fed passed the Senate 96 to 0 today. A version that was closer to the original — that is to say, it would’ve created a regular audit rather than a one-time audit — lost, 37 to 62. I’m a bit confused by a world in which 96 senators think we need to know what the Fed did in 2008 and 2009 but only 37 think we’ll need to know what the Fed did in 2012 and 2013.

What the Sanders amendment really called for was a mere one-time disclosure of some emergency lending powers used by the Federal Reserve during the most recent fiscal crisis, not an audit.

Video: When Will Greek Contagion Hit the U.S.? – Marc Faber

(FoxBusiness) – May 10 – The Gloom, Boom and Doom Report Publisher Marc Faber weigh in on the future of the global and U.S. markets.

Video: Food Crisis 2010 and US Dollar Impact

(SicSemperTyrannis) – There has been lots of talk about a coming food crisis due to the massive looting of the nations under the cover of an “economic crisis”. Recently, a report published by The Trumpet has shown food prices spinning out of control.

In the article it shows some of the most startling year-over-year price increases in the U.S. markets:

Economy

(CNBC) – Video: Jim Rogers, Stock Plunge is Just the Beginning! – Video Link Here

(EconomicPolicyJournal) – Fed Set to Go Nuke to Help Bailout Europe

Needless to say this is complete and utter madness. It is extremely inflationary on a global scale.What’s more, outside of banksters, no one in America will benefit from this move. Every one in America will suffer from the ultimate inflationary consequences. Read More Here

(WashingtonTimes) – Stock market time bomb?

Even the world’s most savvy stock-market giants (e.g., Warren E. Buffett) have warned over the past decade that derivatives are the fiscal equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) – potentially lethal. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Was the Market Pushed? – Danny Schechter

The Wall Street Journal headline on the day after we almost lost the U.S. stock market reported that the wise men on the Street were “baffled” by the big drop Thursday. The Financial Times called the event “Shambolic” as if only a shaman can decode it. Read More Here

(ZNet) – Can the Euro be Saved? – Joseph Stiglitz

The Greek financial crisis has put the very survival of the euro at stake. At the euro’s creation, many worried about its long-run viability. When everything went well, these worries were forgotten. But the question of how adjustments would be made if part of the eurozone were hit by a strong adverse shock lingered. Fixing the exchange rate and delegating monetary policy to the European Central Bank eliminated two primary means by which national governments stimulate their economies to avoid recession. What could replace them? Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – The Second Wave of the Financial Tsunami – Matthias Chang

I wrote on 23rd November 2009:
“The wave is gathering force and is most likely to hit the global economy between the first and second quarter of 2010. Count on it… The US economy will be spiraling out of control in the coming months and will reach a critical point by the end of the 1st quarter 2010 and implode by the 2nd quarter.” Read More Here

(InternationalForecaster) – Sovereign Debt Crisis: Washington Complicit in Massive Financial Fraud on Wall Street – Bob Chapman

It was 7 years ago we said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were bankrupt. Most everyone within the beltway knew it, but no one would say anything about it. This as it now turns out they were the poster companies, which led to sovereign debt problems, but also showed that they were involved in massive fraud over several years and many in Washington knew it. Earnings were fabricated in order to create conditions, so that the officers could collect millions of dollars in bonuses. Part of this scam was engineered by Goldman Sachs, which pushed more than $100 million in earnings into future years. Earnings were structured so that they justified larger payouts for executives. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Shadow Inventory – A “Lost Decade” Ahead For Housing – Mike Whitney

In its effort to rescue the housing market, the Obama administration has created a Frankensystem which neither allows the market to clear nor solves the intractable social problems of lost equity and foreclosure. Read More Here

(ABCNews) – $18M Being Spent to Redesign Recovery.gov Web Site

For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site. Read More Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – Americans Have Been Bailing Out Foreign Banks for Years … And We’re Getting Ready To Do It Again

As the Wall Street Journal points out, the Federal Reserve might open up its “swap lines” again to bail out the Europeans: Read More Here

(AFP) – Britain says it will not back European bailout fund

Britain said on Sunday that it will refuse to underwrite a European Union bailout fund worth some 60 billion euros that finance ministers want to agree at emergency talks in Brussels. Read More Here

(BullFax) – Goodbye, stimulus. Hello, state budget cuts

Think states have made deep spending cuts? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Read More Here

(NoWorldSystem) – Video: Bilderberg Manipulated Stock Market Crash

Many theories have sprung up in regards to what exactly happened on Thursday that would cause a 1,000 point drop in the DOW. Some say that it was a computer or human error that caused the trillion-dollar collapse, but few have theorized the possibility of an engineered collapse that would purposefully create more instability in the United States.

Here’s CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo calling the crash in the DOW a manipulated event.

“That is ridiculous”, Bartiromo replied. “I mean this really sounds like market manipulation to me. This is outrageous.” – Video Link Here

(Telegraph) – British taxpayers ordered to bail out euro

Britain faces paying out billions of pounds under a European Union deal intended to prevent another financial crisis like the one in Greece. Read More Here

(CharlieVLog) – Video: JOBS SCAM – Quick -We Need Some Good News – View Video Here

(CharlieVLog) – Video: Time Is Running Out

(Solari) – The Biggest 2010 Health Care Act Change You Never Heard About – Catherine Austin Fitts Blog

Is the goal to so overload small business with compliance costs that you put them out of business? We think so. They will not succeed, but add this to a long list of economic hits from Washington in 2010. Read More Here

(Reuters) – 39 pct of Greeks plan to take part in protests-poll

A large majority of Greeks oppose austerity measures agreed by the government in exchange for financial aid and 39 percent say they are ready to participate in protests against the cuts, a poll showed on Saturday. Read More Here

(VisionVictoryVlog) – Video: Breaking News! Greekman Brothers Moment, Shady Reporting by the BLS exposed, and the Dow Jones

Economy

(CampaignForLiberty) – Is Sovereign Debt Crisis Contained to Subprime? – Peter Schiff

As Americans observe the chaos in Greece, most assume that the strength of our currency, the credit worthiness of our government, and the vast expanse of two oceans, will prevent a similar scene from playing out in our streets. I believe these protections to be illusory. Read More Here

(IsraelFinancialExpert) – The Euro Crisis and the Euro Collapse- A run on the banks is Imminent – Read More Here

(BullionBullsCanada) – The Silver Price Spiral, Part III: tomorrow

In Part I of this series, I introduced readers to the idea that the price of silver could soar to levels which would even surprise most silver-bulls. In Part II of this series, I pointed out that when our “paper inventories” of silver are exposed that this, alone, sets up the silver market for an enormous price-shock. In Part III of this series, I will discuss how silver has perhaps the most-bullish demand fundamentals of any commodity in history Read More Here

(AZFamily) – Video: Hundreds seek to fill vacant positions at Pro’s Ranch Market

Job hunters turned out in the hundreds to fill recently-vacant positions at Pro’s Ranch Market stores, where a federal audit led to the firing of some 300 workers. View Video Here

(CityWire) – Would You Put Up With What is Being Asked of the Greek People?

Want to know exactly why public anger in Greece is running at such explosive levels? Then take a look at the austerity measures currently being debated by the Greek parliament. Read More Here

(Slate) – Shadow Banking: Keeping the Fed Honest – Eliot Spitzer

Why is the Federal Reserve so afraid of openness and accountability? – Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Financial Manipulation and Inside Information: Did the Stock Market Drop Or Was It Pushed? – Danny Schechter

The Wall Street Journal headline on the day after we almost lost the market reported that the wise men on the Street were “baffled” by the big drop Thursday. The Financial Times called the event “Shambolic” as if only a shaman can decode it. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – Wealth And Inequality In America: The Rich are getting Richer and the Poor are getting Poorer – Gus Lubin – Read More Here

(FinancialTimes) – Plunge in US equities remains a mystery

The day after $1,000bn was briefly wiped off the market value of US equities, traders were still trying to work out what caused share prices to plunge and then rebound so dramatically in a matter of minutes. Read More Here

(ComingDepression) – Unmentioned: USA slaps more tariffs on China

“The U.S. Department of Commerce said yesterday that it has set preliminary anti-dumping duties on refined Chinese and Mexican copper pipe worth hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.”
Unless we wake up in the West to what has happened with China monopolizing the world manufacturing sector and supplying easy credit to keep buying their products, we’ll end up like Greece too. China is acting on emotion to sustain its country because if the people there are jobless, we stop buying their stuff – they will collapse into civil strife. Read More Here

(Spiegel) – Huge National Debts Could Push Euro Zone into Bankruptcy

Greece is only the beginning. The world’s leading economies have long lived beyond their means, and the financial crisis caused government debt to swell dramatically. Now the bill is coming due, but not all countries will be able to pay it. Read More Here

(HuffingtonPost) – Stock Market Collapse: More Goldman Market Rigging? – Ellen Brown

Goldman and Wall Street reign. Congress appears helpless to discipline the big banks, just as the European Central Bank appears helpless to prevent the collapse of the European Union. . . . Or are they? Read More Here

(Current) – Thomas Jefferson – Banks more Dangerous than Armies

Banking institutions, paper money, and paper speculation are capable of undermining the nation’s stability and could be a danger in time of war. The Constitution does not empower the Congress to establish a National Bank. Rather than trust the nation’s currency to private hands, the circulating medium should be restored to the nation itself to whom it belongs. Read More Here

(TheAtlantic) – Revised Senate Fed Audit Amendment Lacks Bite

Perhaps no other force had as much to do with stabilizing the financial system during the crisis as the Federal Reserve. And no other influence is shrouded in so much mystery. Although its tactics were hugely successful, the Fed has become incredibly controversial due to its secrecy. It has some politicians on both sides of the aisle calling for an audit to enhance transparency. But the Senate amendment — sponsored by Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) — changed significantly on Thursday and lost much of its bite. Read More Here

(AP) – FDIC shuts banks in Fla., Minn., Ariz., Calif.

Regulators on Friday shut down banks in Florida, Minnesota, Arizona and California, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures to 68 this year. Read More Here

(TheComingDepression) – Mortgage fraud in Canada highlights tumbling market

“The Bank of Montreal has been hit by a huge mortgage fraud in Alberta that may cost it $30 million, a report said. The bank is suing hundreds of people in connection with the scam, including lawyers, mortgage brokers and four of its employees, CBC News said, citing legal documents.”
The case may be the largest mortgage fraud in Canadian history, generating about $140 million, with funds channeled as far as Lebanon, India – Read More Here

Video: Rep. Alan Grayson: You Own the Red Roof Inn, Thanks to the Fed

Rep. Alan Grayson discussed the Federal Reserve’s purchase of debt from Bear Stearns, including debt from recently foreclosed Red Roof Inn’s.

Economy

(RussiaToday) – Video: World economies in depression – Webster Tarpley – View Video Here

Video: Letterman – Brian Williams On The Stock Market Collapse – View Video Here

(Fox) – Video: Ron Paul on FOX News – “This is a currency crisis” – Video Link Here

Video: Senate Sellout Threatens Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed Bill – View Video Here

(AFP) – Merkel blasts ‘treacherous’ banks in Greek crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday slammed “treacherous” practices by banks during the Greek crisis and said governments must crack down on speculators hunting profits in the turmoil. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – The Global Economic Crisis, The Great Depression of the XXI Century – Michel Chossudovsky

The following text is the Preface of The Global Economic Crisis. The Great Depression of the XXI Century, Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall (Editors), Montreal, Global Research, 2010, which is to be launched in late May.

Each of the authors in this timely collection digs beneath the gilded surface to reveal a complex web of deceit and media distortion which serves to conceal the workings of the global economic system and its devastating impacts on people’s lives. Read More Here

(C-SPAN) – Video: Ron Paul – Money Isn’t Worth What It Used To Be! – View Video Here

(Infowars) – Video: Bankers Laughing All the Way to the Bank

The ‘Audit the Fed’ bill has been watered down by Senator Bernard Sanders right at the last minute (a common strategy: pretend to be a populist, then at the last minute, the politician “gives in” in the spirit of compromise). The Audit the Fed bill could go to vote in the Senate any day now. View Video Here

(Infowars) – Video: Greg Palast Tells How The IMF Set-Up Iceland & Greece on Alex Jones TV – View Video Here

(StraitsTimes) – Romania braces for austerity

ROMANIA braced on Friday for a wave of protests after the president unveiled austerity cuts in public sector wages and pensions to meet a deficit target set by the IMF and avoid a Greek emergency scenario. Read More Here

(CNSNews) – Sen. Shelby: Financial Reform Violates Privacy

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said that provisions in the new financial regulatory bill violate privacy rights by allowing the government to collect any financial information it wants from any financial institution it wants. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Economic Slash and Burn: Greece’s Deadly Austerity Measures

The Greek government, and its citizens, are feeling the economic pinch. A brutal reaction to protestors who fear the winding back of the country’s social system has stunned visitors and the public alike. A general strike has been in progress that has crippled schools, hospitals, airline flights and ferries. Protestors have swarmed around the central square in front of Parliament. Read More Here

(USAWatchdog) – The Canary is Dead

In the early days of coal mining, canaries acted as a warning that odorless poisonous gas was present. If there was a dangerous gas build-up, the canary would be the first to keel over. You can use the “canary in a coal mine” metaphor to describe the situation in today’s financial world. Greece is the canary. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – The “Real” Unemployment Rate Jumps To 17.1%

The BLS’s U-6 number, which is sometimes called the “real” unemployment rate, because it takes into discouraged workers who aren’t looking for work ticked up in April from 16.9% to 17.1%. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – SEC Probes Whether Shock Stock Plunge Exploited Illegally

U.S. regulators plan to examine whether securities professionals triggered yesterday’s stock- market plunge or exploited the turmoil to profit illegally, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Read More Here

(Xinhua) – Greek protesters encircle parliament as new austerity measures approved

Tens of thousands of Greek citizens marched in the center of Athens on Thursday afternoon, encircling the parliament building, while inside the bill on the new austerity measures was approved. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – Amazing Audio From The S&P 500 Pits As The Market Goes Into Complete Collapse – Audio Link Here

(PrisonPlanet) – Audit the Fed Amendment Modified – Allows Fed To Keep Secrets

Ron Paul just posted the following message on Facebook:

Ron Paul: “Bernie Sanders has sold out and sided with Chris Dodd to gut Audit the Fed in the Senate. His “compromise” is what the Administration and banking interests want: they’ll allow the TARP and TALF to be audited, but no transparency of the FOMC, discount window operations or agreement with foreign central banks. We need to take action and stop this!” Read More Here

(Neithercorp) – Economy Kept On Life Support While Global Governance Is Organized

While the mainstream media puts on the recovery song and dance, the fundamental problems of the collapse remain the same, and in some cases are growing ever more precarious. Subsections of the public, unaware of the real issues at hand, are holding a misguided jubilee in the tranquil eye of a hurricane, wrongly assuming that the storm has passed. Read More Here

(FireDogLake) – As Dow Swings, Obama To Come Out Against Audit the Fed Today – Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Video: Marc Faber On Dow Plunge

“The governments are all bankrupt and they can only survive by printing money” – View Video Here

(PaulWatson) – EU Is Collapsing Like Tower Of Babel

But World Bank and IMF vultures are lying in wait to feed on the remains of Greece

Oil Slickonomics

(Cumber) – “At its current leak rate of 5,000 barrels of oil per day, the spill could surpass the size of the 1969 Santa Barbara spill by next week. If the leak cannot be contained, it could exceed the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska by mid June.” Paul Harrison, Environmental Defense Fund

Three scenarios lie ahead. They rank as bad, worse, and ugliest (the latter being catastrophic and unprecedented). There is no “good” here.

Video: Stop Dodd’s Devastating Financial “Reform” Bill – Shelly Roche

Fed Documents Reveal Secret Lobbying Effort Against Audit Provisions

(SteveWatson) – The Federal Reserve is secretly engaged in an intense lobbying effort in an attempt to stave off moves to have the Government Accountability Office audit it, internal documents reveal.

The Huffington Post has obtained the documents, which were distributed to Senate offices by a Fed official, whose identity the online news site agreed not to reveal.

Video: Ron Paul and Alan Grayson – Audit the Fed!

(MSNBC) – Dylan Ratigan Show – May 3, 2010

Video: Alert!! Food Prices Surge Most In 27 Years

(Youtube) – Vlog –

Video: Is Financial Reform Hurting the Economy? – Peter Schiff

(Fox) – April 23, 2010 – Euro Pacific Capital President Peter Schiff on the flaws of government financial regulation.

Economy

(HuffingtonPost) – Dodd Bill Would Allow Fed To Hide Its Spending – Read More Here

(JakartaGlobe) – Goldman probe a smokescreen to divert attention from financial crisis

A top Asian fund manager said on Wednesday the civil fraud allegations against massive Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs was a smokescreen to divert attention from the financial crisis in the United States. Read More Here

(USAWatchdog) – Failure Is the Only Reform We Need – Read More Here

(PubliusForum) – $338.3 Billion Paid to Service America’s Illegal Aliens

My friend Gary Karlin over at the Evanston Conservative blog has spent the last year or so collecting a series of stories detailing the costs of illegal aliens to the United States. Read More Here

(CNN) – Report: SEC staffers watched porn as economy crashed – Read More Here

(HoweStreet) – Hyperinflation Looms – The Dollar Arrives at Its ‘Havenstein Moment’

There is an interesting article in Canada’s Globe & Mail about the lack of growth in the US money supply. Ignoring for the moment that the quantity of dollars in circulation is significantly underreported, it observes:

“The money supply in the United States is doing something that almost never happens: it’s shrinking, after taking into account inflation. Similar episodes in the past have usually been scary times for investors. Declines in the amount of money in circulation have coincided with recessions, and some analysts looking at the current trend say it is a harbinger of trouble. Despite signs that the U.S. is in recovery, they worry that the money supply numbers indicate the economy remains vulnerable to the feared double-dip downturn, or is close to experiencing deflation.”
Read More Here

(CNBC) – Governments Will ‘Bankrupt Us’: Marc Faber

Current economic policies are not sustainable and the world faces doom because “the governments are taking over”, said Marc Faber, editor & publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report. Read More Here

(FauxCapitalist) – The CIA overstates Canada’s government spending by more than 200% – Read More Here

(GoldenTruth) – Russia and China Are Selling Treasuries and Buying Gold…

Fred Hickey of the High Tech Strategist newsletter fame gave a brutally honest interview with The Wall Street Cheat Sheet about the financial/economic condition of the United States and how China and Russia, two of the largest financiers of our Government, are protecting themselves from the reckless policies of Obama and Bernanke. Here’s is a quote: Read More Here

(HuffingtonPost) – LA Court System In Financial Crisis, Closing Court Rooms

An unprecedented financial crisis afflicting the nation’s largest court system is in the hands of the policy making California Judicial Council, with Los Angeles court officials awaiting its decision on their plea for an infusion of cash. Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – Alan Grayson Discloses That Dodd Bill Covertly Eliminates Already Passed Legislation Requiring Full Fed Audit

Once again we get confirmation that Chris Dodd is nothing but a paid manservant for his Federal Reserve masters, in addition to being a lame duck, whose last days in office are meant to do everything to allow the old-school Wall Street ways of endless secrecy and Fed bailouts to continue in perpetuity. Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – Insights Into America’s Disneyland And Our “Neo-Feudalistic, Gulag Casino Economy” From Mike Krieger – Read More Here

(LewRockwell) – Video: How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes – Lew Rockwell Show with Peter Schiff – View Video Here

(MoneyNews) – Video: Jim Rogers: Next Recession Will Be Much Worse – Video Link Here

(ZeroHedge) – Richard Koo Says If Banks Marked Commercial Real Estate To Market,It Would “Trigger A Chain Of Bankruptcies”

Richard Koo’s latest observations on the US economy are as always, a must read. The critical observation from the Nomura economist explains why the realists and the naive idealists are at greater odds than ever before: the government continues to perpetuate, endorse and legalize accounting fraud in the hope that covering everything up under the rug will rekindle animal spirits. Read More Here

(Fortune) – ‘The SEC is a farce’ – expert Read More Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – Are Interest Rate Derivatives a Ticking Time Bomb?

Derivatives are the world’s largest market, dwarfing the size of the bond market and world’s real economy. Read More Here

(CommonDreams) – Democrats Haunted by Corporate Ties

President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are promising a climactic clash with Wall Street, but there’s a complication in their battle plan: The Democratic Party is closer to corporate America – and to Wall Street in particular – than many Democrats would care to admit. Read More Here

(CNN) – Video: Federal Reserve – Destroying the American economy since 1913 – View Video Here

(Courant) -2,000 Connecticut Teachers Face Layoffs Before Next School Year More Here..

(Reuters) – Sallie Mae To Cut 2500 Jobs More Here..

(BuffaloNews) – Buffalo: City School Budget would Lay off 700 More Here..

(NBR) – Fletcher Layoffs Hit 120 People More Here..

(ClevelandBlog) – Hundreds of Cleveland teachers, Principals to Lose Jobs More Here..

(Wicz) – Lockheed Martin: 472 Layoffs More Here..

(Freep) – Detroit Public Schools sends layoff notices to 2000 Teachers More Here..

(SeattleTimes) – Boeing issues layoff notices to 130 in state, 300 companywide More Here..

(CityRoom) – More than 1,000 staff members were laid off on Monday at the bankrupt St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan. More Here..

(AlexJones) – Video: Bill Murphy Reveals JPMorgan Chase’s Gold & Silver Manipulation on Alex Jones

Alex talks with Bill Murphy, a financial commentator and chairman of GATA, the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee. GATA was organized in January 1999 to advocate and undertake litigation against illegal collusion to control the price and supply of gold and related financial securities. GATA exposes and actively opposes collusion against a free market in gold, other precious metals, currencies, and related securities.

Video: Ron Paul Speech at Jekyll Island – My Battle Against the Fed

(C4L) – The Federal Reserve has had long enough to demonstrate its use to the American economy. The latest economic crisis alone is enough to discredit its claims as the great stabilizer. There is the long history of devastating inflation, the government spending it funds, the wars and welfare that are made possible by its printing presses, and also the conflicts of interest and corruptions it introduces into public life. We can do without the central bank. We don’t need the Fed. Our money and our future would be more assured without it.

Economy

Video: Visualizing Obama’s budget cuts – Video Link Here

(MasonCountyNews) – Obama Banking Regulation Bill Does Not Go After Big Banks Read More Here

(CityAM) – IMF “FAT Tax” To “Reign In Banks” Will Increase Costs For Consumers

IMF plan: the wrong kind of reform Read More Here

(Infowars) – Regulatory Reform Bill: Another Round of Bailouts

It only takes a passing knowledge of current events to prompt the question of how many times the American people can be conned before they begin to wake up. Indeed, one might even ask how many times they can be conned with the same lines for the same result. Yet unfortunately, it appears that the most realistic answer is that there is in fact no limit to the gullibility of the general public. Despite the growing tea party movement as well as protests against higher taxes and bailouts, the U.S. government is gearing up yet again for another round of bailouts and the populace is geared up to accept them. Read More Here

(McClatchy) – Goldman’s White House connections raise eyebrows

While Goldman Sachs’ lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman’s chief executive visited the White House at least four times. Read More Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – Break Up the Giant Banks to Curb Their Control over the Political Process – Krugman Read More Here

(TorontoStar) – Financial Fraud: Culture of Greed Under Attack

Barack Obama may not get it but the SEC finally is taking action – Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – Borrowing While Poor

Congress is in the midst of investigating why Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve did not prevent the subprime fiasco, and now the SEC is suing Goldman Sachs for fraud. But neither the investigation nor the suit addresses the most repugnant aspect of subprime lending, which is the fact that poor people are charged higher interest rates than rich people when they purchase homes, and that this is perfectly legal. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – “Lehman’s failure is a story in large part of fraud” – Black’s Knockout Testimony – Mike Whitney Read More Here

(OftWoMinds) – How We Get Ahead Now: Gaming the System

Gaming the system is not just encouraged–it has become the foundation of the U.S. economy. Without it, the status quo will implode. Goldman Sachs gamed the system to package guaranteed-to-default mortgages and present them to buyers as AAA-rated “safe” investments yielding a high return, while selling a hedge fund derivatives which were a bet against the mortgages. Read More Here

(HoweStreet) – Hyperinflation Looms – The Dollar Arrives at Its ‘Havenstein Moment’

There is an interesting article in Canada’s Globe & Mail about the lack of growth in the US money supply. Ignoring for the moment that the quantity of dollars in circulation is significantly underreported, it observes: Read More Here

(PaulWatson) – Bankers Prepare To Assault Americans With VAT, Transaction Taxes

Obama: Value-added tax still on the table despite White House assurances otherwise, campaign promise not to raise taxes for families earning under $250,000 a year Read More Here

(PennyForYourThoughts) – Gore backed by group linked to oil industry – Read More Here

(CNBC) – Testimony Could Undercut SEC Charge Against Goldman

The testimony of a former Paulson & Co official could undercut the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fraud case against Goldman Sachs, CNBC has learned. Read More Here

(TheNewStar) – State $319M short

Gov. Bobby Jindal said he and the Legislature will “do everything we can to mitigate cuts” to higher education and health care, but the plan for cutting or using other funds to fill a $319 million budget hole won’t be complete until Friday. Read More Here

(ABC10) – State Revenues Down $130 Million – Read More Here

(WKBW) – DiNapoli Warns State Could Run Short on Cash

The state only ended the fiscal year in the black because the Governor delayed $2.9 billion in payments, and DiNapoli warns that by pushing these payments into the new fiscal year, the state could run out of money in June. Read More Here

(DailyDunklin) – Declining state revenue leads to hard budget decisions for leaders

Much like a family that has to make hard spending decisions when times are tough, leaders in Missouri have had to make hard budget decisions this year in light of declining state revenues. Read More Here

(EconomicPolicyJournal) – Fed Official: We Can Just Print Money, Damn It! – Read More Here

(Fox) – Republicans Warn Bank Bill Could Backfire as Dems Push for a Deal – Read More Here

(RightWingNews) – SIGTARP Report Confirms: Homeowner Bailout Program Won’t Fix Housing Crisis

A new report released yesterday (.pdf) by Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) warns that Obama administration efforts to bailout homeowners through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) are ineffective and will not stem the sweeping tide of foreclosures. Read More Here

(Examiner) – Massive government corruption hidden by focus on Goldman-Sachs

As the country’s attention is directed to the Goldman-Sachs scandal, a much greater story lurks beneath the surface involving massive government corruption that makes Wall Street firms pale in comparison. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – 12 Reasons Americans Are Incredibly Angry About The State Of The U.S. Economy – Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Goldman Sachs ‘Had Duty’ to Keep Paulson Bets Secret (Update2)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., being sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over claims that it deceived investors about one of its financial products, tried to fend off regulators last fall by arguing it had a duty to keep the information confidential. Read More Here

(Telegraph) – SEC begins formal inquiry into Lehman ‘tricks’

The 2,200-page report which uncovered the murky world of Repo 105 and off-balance sheet accounting at Lehman Brothers has led to a formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the investment bank’s collapse. Read More Here

(MSNBC) – Districts warn of deeper teacher cuts

School districts around the country, forced to resort to drastic money-saving measures, are warning hundreds of thousands of teachers that their jobs may be eliminated in June. Read More Here

(FoxBusiness) – Video: President Obamas War on Capitalism – Video Link Here

(RussiaToday) – Video: Big Fat Greek Debt: The Bailout – William Engdahl

The financially stricken Greek government is beginning talks with the EU and the International Monetary Fund about a possible bailout. Greece has found borrowing from banks too costly recently and is struggling to refinance old debts. Let’s get some analysis with economist and author William Engdahl.

Economy

(NorthCountyTimes) – EXCLUSIVE: Major lender signals surge in local foreclosures – Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – Guest Post: It’s Impossible To “Get By” In The US

While the market cheers on the fantastic job “growth” of March 2010, the more astute of us are concerned with a growing tide of personal bankruptcies. March 2010 saw 158,000 bankruptcy filings. David Rosenberg of Gluskin-Sheff notes that this is an astounding 6,900 filings per day. Read More Here

(DailyCapitalist) – Morgan Stanley Loses $5.4B In RE Fund: Biggest Loss In History!

Here’s a story for the decade. Morgan Stanley’s Msref VI, an $8.8 billion real estate fund, lost $5.4 billion, the biggest loss in the history of private real estate equity investing. This story is just out from the Wall Street Journal and it is worth a read. Read More Here

Fed Shouldn’t Reveal Crisis Loans, Banks Vow to Tell High Court

The big banks are saying “We are above the law.” Read More Here

(Telegraph) – Property tycoon Gerald Ronson warns of social unrest in a two-tier Britain

Britain faces “social unrest” over rising unemployment outside London according to Gerald Ronson, the property tycoon. Read More Here

(NYTimes) – JPMorgan Upbeat as It Posts Profit

For big banks, the good news just keeps coming. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Fed Shouldn’t Reveal Crisis Loans, Banks Vow to Tell High Court

The biggest U.S. commercial banks will take their fight against disclosure of Federal Reserve lending in 2008 to the Supreme Court if necessary, the top lawyer for an industry-owned group said. Read More Here

(EconomicCollapseBlog) – $4.00 A Gallon Gasoline By The End Of 2010? How In The World Are Average Americans Going To Make Ends Meet If This Keeps Up?

Gas prices are on the rise again. In many areas of the U.S. gas prices are already hovering around $3.00 a gallon. In fact there are some areas where people are paying as much as $3.50 a gallon, and many experts are predicting that gasoline could hit $4.00 a gallon by the end of 2010. Read More Here

(Telegraph) – Argentina seizes pension funds to pay debts. Who’s next?

Here is a warning to us all. The Argentine state is taking control of the country’s privately-managed pension funds in a drastic move to raise cash. Read More Here

(Reuters) – U.S. bank chief mobbed by angry borrowers

The mortgage chief of the United States’ second largest bank was mobbed by angry borrowers on Tuesday after he invited customers to speak to him if they feared foreclosure of their homes. Read More Here

(MyBudget360) – The Invisible Recovery – 40,000,000 Americans Receiving Food Stamp Assistance – Since 2000 23 Million Americans have been added to the Food Assistance Program. Read More Here

(TheEconomicCollapse) – 12 Reasons Why Millions Of Americans Are Incredibly Angry About The State Of The U.S. Economy

We have reached a very interesting turning point in American history. More than at any other point in modern times, Americans are deeply angry about the state of the economy. In fact, it is no stretch to say that millions of U.S. citizens are hopping mad about the economic situation. Read More Here

Video: How The Fed Is Destroying The Dollar

Midas Resources educational video regarding the Federal Reserve and how they have devalued the United States Dollar.

Video: Reality Report #40 – CBS Spins Paul, Badnarik on Articles, Kokesh on Campaigning, FED buys Mall

April 13, 2010 – Was there an attempt to exclude 70 Ron Paul supporters from the Southern Republican Leadership Conference? We’ll show you the hidden camera footage. What is being delivered to state houses and congressional offices on April 19th? President Michael Badnarik lets us know. How is the Adam Kokesh Campaign shaping up in Santa Fe? We talk to Adam about it. Does the Federal Reserve own a mall in Oklahoma? Is the United Kingdom laying the groundwork to shut down the internet? The Reality Report Crew take on those questions and deliver the facts in the 40th edition. –

A Banana Republic With No Bananas

(WashingtonsBlog) – Experts on third world banana republics from the IMF and the Federal Reserve have said the U.S. has become a third world banana republic (and see this and this).

Are they right?

It’s 2007 All Over Again

(Goldseek) – Several weeks ago I speculated that we were “On the Brink of an Asset Explosion” . So far events are unfolding about as expected.  I might even say they are moving more aggressively than I thought.  Well actually, there’s no doubt this cyclical bull is unfolding much more aggressively than anyone expected.

Compare the angle of assent of this cyclical bull to the last one. Read More Here

Economy

(OftWoMinds) – Tyranny of the Majority, Corporate Welfare and Complicity

When 60% of the employed citizenry pay no Federal income tax, then the nation is in danger of sliding into the Tyranny of the Majority: we vote for more largesse, and you pay more tax. Complicity has consequences. Read More Here

(RollingStone) – Looting Main Street: How the Nation’s Biggest Banks are ripping off American Cities – Matt Taibbi – Read More Here

(TampaBay) – A bailout for news? Read More Here

(HeraldNet) – Senate expected to approve $667 million tax bill today

New sales taxes on candy, beer and bottled water would start in June, and on carbonated beverages in July Read More Here

(InnWorldReport) – Risk of Japan going bankrupt is real, say analysts – Read More Here

(FinancialTimes) – Soros warns Europe of disintegration

The eurozone area and wider European Union is now “on the brink” of disintegration unless Germany steps up and provides loans at below-market rates to Greece, George Soros, the hedge fund manager, has warned. Read More Here

(DiamondBack) – Depressed about our future

America is broke. We Americans have spent the last 15 years borrowing money for consumption instead of investment. Because of our high levels of debt, several prominent economists, including Gerald Celente — who predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, the housing bubble and the tea parties — and Peter Schiff — who predicted both the NASDAQ bubble and the housing bubble — are predicting a coming collapse that will dwarf the housing bubble. Read More Here

(VancouverSun) – Thousands protest Quebec tax hikes

Thousands of protesters whom organizers described as members of Quebec’s “silent majority” demonstrated peacefully Sunday in front of the provincial legislature against tax hikes in the recent provincial budget. Read More Here

(C4L) – The Insanity of Government ‘Reform’

Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity — repeating something and expecting different results — is known to nearly everyone. Yet mere knowledge of this definition apparently has not kept the “best and the brightest” among us from becoming its practitioners. Read More Here

(InternationalForecaster) – Intervention Is Prolonging Economic Problems For Years – Bob Chapman

Banks only saved themselves not the economy, Greece singled out in the credit default crisis, the plan for a deflationary depression, every nation is in trouble, Greece now in a situation to default, banks continue to mislead, the floodgates open for lobbyists and special interests, lending costs climb, net neutrality suffers by a court ruling, Internet downgraded by court ruling Read More Here

Video: Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk – April 12, 2010 – Video Link Here

(AlterNet) – The Preposterous Reality: 25 Hedge Fund Managers Are Worth 680,000 Teachers (Who Teach 13 Million Students)

“It’s going to take a lot of political will — over a long period of time — to reorder our most basic economic values.”
In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people “earned,” we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That’s some value. Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – The Inverse Relationship Of The Real Economy And The Stock Market In USA

Just the other day, a man who has been in business and has also been in commercial real estate said that he was mystified as to why the “economy is in recovery, but we aren’t seeing any evidence of it in business or commercial real estate.” I explained to him that the STOCK MARKET WORKS IN AN INVERSE RELATIONSHIP TO THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR ECONOMY. THE TRUTH IS THAT MOST OF THE TIME WHEN THE STOCK MARKET IS UP, IT IS AT THE EXPENSE OF WORKERS AND THEIR JOBS. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE ME, THEN READ ON, PLEASE. Read More Here

(DailyMail) – Outrage as British Taxpayers Face £600 Million Bill to Fund EU Bail-Out of Greece’s Sinking Economy

Greece was last night handed a generous national bailout by its euro partners which will end up costing British taxpayers more than £600million a year. In a move aimed at shoring up dwindling confidence in the stricken country, the 16 eurozone members announced they would lend 30billion euros this year alone. But another cash injection from the International Monetary Fund means Britain will have to pay part of a further £13billion bill to prop up Greece in the money markets. Read More Here

(DailyWealth) – Spend It Now! A Huge New Tax Is Coming…

Everything you buy is about to become 20% more expensive…

I’m not kidding. The latest idea out of Washington is to pay for its insatiable appetite for spending with what’s called a “Value-Added Tax.” Read More Here

(NYPost) – Metal$ are in the pits – Trader blows whistle on gold & silver price manipulation

The banks, which do the Federal Reserve’s bidding in the metals markets, have long been the government’s lead actors in keeping down the prices of gold and silver, according to a former Goldman Sachs trader working at the London Bullion Market Association. Read More Here

Video: Collapse Of Society – Chaos In The Making

Video: The story of paper money

Jim Puplava talks to Lawrence Parks of FAME – Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education about the history of paper money

Fraud Finally Being Discussed in Polite Company … Now Where Are the Prosecutions?

(WashigntonsBlog) – As I have repeatedly pointed out, the economy cannot stabilize unless the fraud which led to the crisis (see this, this, this and this) is openly discussed.

As Shahien Nasiripour notes today today, Alan Greenspan didn’t think regulators should even pay any attention to fraud:

Why The Fed Owns A Mall In Oklahoma City

(NPR) – As part of the bailouts of AIG and Bear Stearns, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York spent more than $70 billion to buy toxic assets the companies owned. Last week, prompted by a lawsuit filed by Bloomberg News, the Fed finally told the world exactly what it bought.

The Fed now owns loans to Hilton hotels in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Malaysia and Trinidad. It owns loans to the Miami airport, and the Civic Opera House in Chicago.

It also owned a loan to Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City. Then, when the owners of the mall couldn’t make the payments, the Fed foreclosed. So now it owns the mall, which includes a Chick-fil-A and an AMC theater.

Video: Ron Paul “We Should Pick Someone Who Respects The Constitution & Civil Rights & Property Rights!

(MSNBC) – Congressman Paul was on MSNBC to discuss the vacancy in the Supreme Court, the SRLC, and Federal Reserve transparency.

Video: Economic Collapse – William Black on TheRealNews.com

William Black is Associate Professor of Economics and Law, UMKC