World War

(TheIndependent) – US persuades Security Council to impose new Iran sanctions

Washington claimed it has reached an agreement with its allies, including China and Russia, for tough new sanctions against Tehran. Sweeping aside a putative deal announced by Brazil and Turkey on Monday, which was meant to assuage Western concerns about Iran’s nuclear activities, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, claimed that a draft sanctions package tabled to the full UN Security Council last night had the endorsement of all five of the permanent members – France, Britain, Russia, China and the US – as well as Germany. Read More Here

(Breitbart) – Video: Bangkok Burning – Thai Protesters Set Fire to Landmark Buildings During Deadly Gunbattles

The New York Times: As they retreated, protesters set fire to the country’s stock exchange and a number of buildings including a major shopping mall, two banks, a movie theater and a television station.

But the crackdown did not appear to have become the large-scale bloodbath that many had feared. By dusk the government said five people — including an Italian news photographer — had been killed and 52 injured, some critically. Video Link Here

(Fox) – Iran Nuke Agreement Not Enough for Hoyer

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., pushed hard for the passage of the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act Tuesday, despite a pledge from the Islamic republic to send most of its nuclear material outside the country. Read More Here

(AFP) – Study: US missile defense plans based on ‘technical myths’

US missile defense plans are based on “technical myths” and interceptors have mostly failed to knock out incoming warheads in military tests, a new study argues.

Two American scientists reviewed 10 tests of the SM-3 “kill vehicle,” designed to take out ballistic missiles, and concluded that the interceptor succeeded in directly hitting mock warheads in only one or two cases. Read More Here

(RussiaToday) – Video: Tarpley – Iran nuclear swap deal a defeat for US policy of isolation

Iran’s deal to ship its’ uranium to Turkey, while insisting on continuing to enrich nuclear fuel, is getting a mixed response globally. Russia’s giving it a guarded welcome, but the U.S. and Britain are far from convinced. They’re continuing to push the UN into more sanctions against Tehran. The sticking point for the United States is Iran’s insistance to carry on enriching its own uranium. But U.S. investigative journalist Webster Tarpley says the deal means his country’s strategy to isolate Tehran has failed.

Video: Ron Paul – Euro Bailout Will Lead To Currency Collapse

(PaulWatson) –  As Europe is bailed out to the tune of nearly $1 trillion dollars, Congressman Ron Paul warns that the constant monetization of debt, allied with taxpayer-funded bailouts, will inevitably lead to runaway inflation and the collapse of paper currencies.

Under the terms of the Federal Reserve’s credit swap deal with the EU – in addition to an additional IMF bailout of which U.S. taxpayers will be picking up 20 per cent ($57 billion dollars) of the tab, Paul pointed out that not just taxpayers but “anybody that buys anything” will be funding the European bailout because of the attendant inflationary consequences.

Cabal Owns Regulatory Apparatus and Everybody is Afraid to Regulate Them

(WashingtonsBlog) – Harold Bradley – who oversees almost $2 billion in assets as chief investment officer at the Kauffman Foundation – told the Reuters Global Exchanges and Trading Summit in New York that a cabal is preventing swap derivatives from being forced onto clearing exchanges:

There is no incentive from the moneyed interests in either Washington or New York to change it…

I believe we are in a cabal. There are five or six players only who are engaged and dominant in this marketplace and apparently they own the regulatory apparatus. Everybody is afraid to regulate them.

The “Other Reason” Why the U.S. is Not Regulating Wall Street

(WashingtonsBlog) – Sure, American politicians have been bought and paid for by the Wall Street giants. See this, this and this.
And everyone knows that the White House and Congress – while talking about cracking down on Wall Street with strict regulation – have actually watered down some of the most important protections that were in place.

Economy

(BusinessWeek) – Central banks end US dollar emergency swap lines

The Bank of England said Wednesday that it and other major central banks are ending emergency lending arrangements put in place with the U.S. Federal Reserve in the wake of the global credit crisis, citing improvements in financial markets. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Home Depot to Cut 1,000 U.S. Jobs, Close Test Stores (Update2)

Home Depot Inc., the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, will cut 1,000 U.S. jobs as it shrinks its pool of human-resources and construction workers and closes three test stores. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Pennsylvania Capital Should Weigh Bankruptcy, Controller Says

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the capital of the sixth-largest U.S. state by population, should skip a $2.2 million debt service payment due Feb. 1 and consider bankruptcy, City Controller Dan Miller said. Read More Here

(MyBudget360) – Game Over for the American Middle Class – Inflation Adjusted Wages up 20 Percent in Last 20 Years While Housing Costs are up 56 Percent and Healthcare Costs are up 155 Percent

The struggle for average Americans to keep up is largely becoming an act of will power and force in this current grand recession. Now you wouldn’t think that there is a definite war raging against the middle class if you simply follow the mainstream media but the facts speak to a more distilled and corporatized method of debt slavery. Read More Here

(LewRockwell) – The Coming Obama Retirement Trap Has Started!

Mandatory IRAs just proposed by Obama Administration on 1/25/10 is the 1st step in stealth nationalization & forced investment of our retirement benefits to support the treasury debt market! Read the veiled report in Business Week. Read More Here

Financial Reform Is Being Gutted … And Congress Might Not Even Realize It

(WashingtonsBlog) – As I have repeatedly pointed out, proposed derivatives legislation will not make things better:
A leading credit default swap expert (Satyajit Das) says that the new credit default swap regulations not only won’t help stabilize the economy, they might actually help to destabilize it.

MSM: Back-Door Taxes Hit U.S. With Financing in the Dark

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — Salvatore Calvanese, the treasurer of Springfield, Massachusetts, for four years, had a ready defense for why he risked $14 million of taxpayer money on collateralized-debt obligations laden with subprime mortgages in 2007.

Federal Reserve Admits Hiding Gold Swap Arrangements

The Federal Reserve System has disclosed to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc. that it has gold swap arrangements with foreign banks that it does not want the public to know about.

Harry Markopolos: CDS Fraud Will Make Madoff Look “Small-Time”

Memo to regulators: be forewarned about frauds in the credit-default swap market. They’ll make Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion fraud “look like small-time.”

The Second Crash – On the Way and Unstoppable

Don’t believe it? In a moment you will, when you see the scariest graph of the year.

Nobel Economists Slam Obama’s Economic Policy

Nobel economists Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz slammed Obama’s economic policy this week.

MSM: Too big to fail? 5 biggest banks are ‘dead men walking’

WASHINGTON – America’s five largest banks, which already have received $145 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars, still face potentially catastrophic losses from exotic investments if economic conditions substantially worsen, their latest financial reports show.