Best of the Week

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Gordon Brown Saves the World, G20 $1.1 Trillion Down Payment / Politics / Economic Stimulus

By: Nadeem_Walayat

The G20 summit in London agreed on a plan to fight the global economic crisis and provided a down payment of $1.1 trillion to support developing economies during the crisis. The French and Germans despite much rhetoric and play acting of threatening to 'walking out' signed on the dotted line, as I stated they would in an earlier article, as the consequences of a failure of the summit would literally mean Financial Armageddon.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Obama's Latest No Banker Left Behind Scheme / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Stephen_Lendman

On Wall Street, that is. So hyped by advance fanfare, Timothy Geithner unveiled his Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) on March 23, the latest in a growing alphabet soup of handouts topping $12.5 trillion and counting - so much in so many forms, in "gov-speak" language, with so many changing and moving parts, it's hard for experts to keep up let alone the public, except to sense something is very wrong. They're being fleeced by a finance Ponzi scheme, sheer flimflam, and here's how from what we know:

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Chinese Students Desperate and Destitute in the United States / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010

By: Pravda

More than 140 Chinese students, who had hoped to become pilots, are trapped in a Palm Coast, Florida apartment complex without income, electricity, food or transportation. They have fallen victims of a flight school that shut down and filed bankruptcy. The school location is Palm Coast, Florida.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Thursday, April 02, 2009

A Guide to Hiding Toxic Assets / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: Oxbury_Research

Tomorrow marks an important economic decision regarding FAS 157 and marked to market accounting .  This is going to be another reason to, at the very least, question government intentions.  The following is a complete look into how marked to market accounting has affected the banks, and what the real intentions behind banning FAS 157 really are.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Defrauding the American Tax Payer, Geithner's $500 Billion Gift To Pimco / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Mike_Shedlock

Geithner's Heist America Plan is receiving words of self-serving praise from Pimco's Bill Gross. Indeed, Geithner's Non-Recourse Gift Keeps on Giving to Bill Gross . Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's plan to rid banks and markets of devalued assets may be a boon for Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Bill Gross.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Madoff Ponzi Scheme Collapse in Perspective / Politics / Scams

By: Mike_Stathis

The Savings & Loan Crisis had Michael Milken. The dotcom charade had Bernie Ebbers, Kenneth Lay, and Jeffery Skilling. These men have been selected as the scapegoats to distract the public away from the real criminals that caused each crisis. And now, the world's largest real estate and banking crisis – much larger than all previous heists combined – has Bernie Madoff. He will serve the same purpose.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

GHAP- Geithner's Heist America Plan / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Mike_Shedlock

The Wall Street Journal has more details on Geithner's Heist America Plan (GHAP). Please consider Treasury's Very Private Asset Fund .
The Obama Administration insists it wants to "partner" with private investors for its new toxic-asset purchase plan. But the more details that emerge, the more it seems Treasury wants to work with only a select few companies. This is no way to conduct a bank clean-up.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Defending Capitalism from Old Europe's G20 Guillotine / Politics / Economic Stimulus

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Germany and especially France have fought long and hard against the anglo-saxon model of unfettered and weakly regulated free market capitalism for the past 30 years, and as a consequence of which have seen their economic power diminish in relative terms as the anglo-saxon capitalism model was adopted world-wide following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Bank Bailouts Financial Terrorism and You / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Money_and_Markets

Sean Brodrick writes: Can we just drop the pretense and start calling the bank bailout what it is: Financial terrorism. Terrorism can be defined as achieving one's aims through fear. And it sure seems to me that bankers and their friends in government are extorting money from the taxpayers (you and me) with a threatening “or else” that goes something like this: “Give us the money or the entire financial system will implode.”

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

G20 New World Disorder and Sell the S&P 500 Index / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: LewRockwell

Gary North writes: The article was all over the web within minutes. It was first published on Bloomberg's site.

"We cannot see large upside for the S&P 500 above the 825–850 level," Morgan Stanley U.S. equity strategist Jason Todd wrote in a report yesterday. "In the rush to buy a cyclical recovery, it seems earnings or valuation no longer matters. We would be comfortable with this view if the earnings trough was closer, but it is not."

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

New Credit Card Rules; FDIC Borrowing Limit Upped / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Mike_Shedlock

With stiff objections coming from Republicans, a Senate Panel Approves Bill Limiting Credit-Card Rates .
A Senate panel approved new restrictions on credit-card interest rates that are broader than those adopted by the Federal Reserve in December, brushing aside objections from Republicans and the banking industry.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Liquid Toxic Assets as Government Finances and Guarantees Purchasers / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Paul_L_Kasriel

Does Kramer Finally Get to Be a Banker and Does There Have to Be Skin in the Game for CDS? - Cosmo Kramer of Seinfeld fame always wanted to be a banker. Will Treasury Secretary Geithner's Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) finally allow him to fulfill his dream? PPIP should have no shortage of private investors signing up to buy financial institutions' toxic assets - sorry, "legacy" assets. After all, the purchasers will obtain government-guaranteed financing, government-guaranteed default-risk protection and plenty of leverage to boost returns. The question is how eager will financial institutions be to sell their legacy assets.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

When Will the FBI Open an Investigation into Geithner's Racketeering Plan? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Andrew_Butter

The best thing about the Geithner Plan is it probably won't happen. Yes all the talk will buy time and allow a period of "forebearance", which is what saved the banks (that were left standing) in the Great Depression, and the financial system after the South American fiasco the S&L and the Asian Crisis.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Bailout Economics: The Politics of Self Destruction / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Axel_Merk

The patchwork of attempts to prop up the financial system has taken on a life of its own – we call it bailout economics. At every step, Adam Smith's “invisible hand” to guide the economy has become less evident. Back in the 18th century, the economist coined the term as a metaphor for the self-regulating nature of free markets. Economic booms and busts are as old as mankind, but each time a crisis occurs, policy makers want to ensure that the same disaster will never happen again.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Cost of Running a Global Empire / Politics / US Economy

By: James_Quinn

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of deaths construction

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

G20, United States and Germany's Diverging Economic Interests / Politics / GeoPolitics

By: STRATFOR

Three major meetings will take place in Europe over the next nine days: a meeting of the G-20, a NATO summit and a meeting of the European Union with U.S. President Barack Obama. The week will define the relationship between the United States and Europe and reveal some intra-European relationships. If not a defining moment, the week will certainly be a critical moment in dealing with economic, political and military questions. To be more precise, the meeting will be about U.S.-German relations. Not only is Germany the engine of continental Europe, its policies diverge the most sharply from those of the United States. In some ways, U.S.-German relations have been the core of the U.S.-European relationship, so this marathon of summits will focus on the United States and Germany.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Monday, March 30, 2009

Obama's Attack on the Middle Class / Politics / US Politics

By: Paul_Craig_Roberts

Obama and his public relations team have made it appear that his trillion dollars in higher taxes will fall only on "the rich." Obama stresses that his tax increase is only for the richest 5 percent of Americans while the other 95 percent receive a tax cut.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Monday, March 30, 2009

Noam Chomsky on Geithner the U.S. Economy and Democracy / Politics / US Economy

By: Submissions

Video & Transcript - Chomsky: Plan is recycled Bush/Paulson. We need nationalization and steps towards democratization.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Monday, March 30, 2009

Rescuing the United States from the Gigantic Derivatives Fraud / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: Mike_Whitney

It's a bird...It's a plane...No, it's Spitzer to the Rescue - If Obama is serious about restoring confidence in the markets, he should replace current SEC chief Mary Schapiro with Eliot Spitzer. That would send a message to the world that the president is through messing around. Schapiro is another Wall Street toady who believes that the markets can regulate themselves. As the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, she stood by while the financial giants increased their leverage to unsustainable levels and spread their derivatives-contagion to every part of the system.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---

Monday, March 30, 2009

Geithner's Plan Can Succeed in Stabilising Financial System / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: Mike_Shedlock

I am changing my tune. Geithner's plan can succeed. Before anyone collapses on the floor or starts screaming that I have lost my mind, it's important to define what success means and what the plan is.

Read full article... Read full article...

 

---