World-News

Record-High Gold Tells of "Inflation & Sovereign Debt" Threat

The price of Gold jumped to new all-time highs against all-but-three of the world's major currencies on Wednesday morning, breaking US$1245 an ounce in London trade.

http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/gold_buying_051220101



U.S. home prices drop by $25 billion

A report by San Francisco's Trulia Inc. says home prices around the United States were cut by 10 percent in April. In total, some $25 billion has been slashed from the list prices of for-sale homes.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/05/10/daily38.html?jst=b_ln_hl



Home Buyer Tax Credit Takes its Toll

One full week after the tax credit's expiration, mortgage applications fell 9.5 percent; this as mortgage interest rates dropped below 5 percent.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/37106639



Wall Street: Land of the Million Dollar Babies

Wall Street is know around the world as the land of the million dollar babies since is chock full of people who have gotten incredibly rich as a result of handouts from the government.

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/11/wall_street_land_of_the_million_dollar_babies/



Morgan Stanley Shares Decline On Reports Of Federal Probe

Morgan Stanley (MS) shares fell Wednesday on reports federal prosecutors are investigating whether the bank misled investors about mortgage-derivatives deals it helped design and sometimes bet against.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100512-711121.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope



Hungry By the Numbers

How the government defines hunger - and what it looks like up close.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/hungry-by-the-numbers/Content?oid=1725214



Home Prices Are Falling Again

The decline came even as the government and the Fed threw the kitchen sink at the housing market, an effort that included the Treasury paying people to buy houses and the Fed buying more than $1 trillion in mortgage bonds.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/05/housing.html


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Treasury
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=derivatives
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Morgan+Stanley

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

In just the first quarter of 2010, the finance, insurance and real estate sectors spent more than $123 million on 2,057 lobbyists. Any bets on whether the final financial reform bill will create the kind of robust, independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would serve as a watchdog with teeth?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25426.htm



Capitalism Without Capital

By Mike Whitney

This is a point that bears repeating: "...nearly $14 trillion worth of complex-securitized products were created" on top of just "$1.4 trillion" of subprime loans." No doubt, the investment bankers and hedge fund managers who inflated these monster balloons, knew that they were doomed from the get-go, but then, they must have also known that "I.B.G.-Y.B.G.", which in Wall Street parlance means, "I'll Be Gone and You'll Be Gone."

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25431.htm



Taking Back Homes from the Banks

By Bill Quigley

Organizations across the US are engaging in "housing liberation" and "housing defense" to exercise their human rights to housing. Here are a few examples.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25428.htm



Finance 101: Blame the Poor
(While Taking Their Money)

By Gordon Arnaut

Did you know that the poor (and mostly black) people in the US caused the global financial crisis that threw the world economy into its worst slump since the Great Depression of the 1930's.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25430.htm

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How Too-Big-to-Fail's Army of Lobbyists Has Captured Washington

Kevin Conner, Institute for America's Future: "Throughout the financial reform debate, the finance industry has waged an unprecedented assault on the democratic process, spending an estimated $1.4 million per day to influence Congress and hiring 70 members of Congress and 940 former federal employees to lobby on their behalf."

http://www.truthout.org/big-bank-takeover-how-too-big-to-fails-army-lobbyists-has-captured-washington59479



America's Ten Most Corrupt Capitalists

Zach Carter, AlterNet: "The financial crisis has unveiled a new set of public villains - corrupt corporate capitalists who leveraged their connections in government for their own personal profit. During the Clinton and Bush administrations, many of these schemers were worshiped as geniuses, heroes or icons of American progress. But today we know these opportunists for what they are: Deregulatory hacks hellbent on making a profit at any cost. Without further ado, here are the 10 most corrupt capitalists in the U.S. economy."

http://www.truthout.org/americas-ten-most-corrupt-capitalists59473

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Is the Consumer Protection Bill Just One Huge Governmental Subversion of Privacy Ploy?

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/fed-audits-you.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+reform
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+estate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=real+estate
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=capitalism
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Great+Depression
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=finance+industry
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Banks
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=too+big+to+fail
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=subprime+loan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Consumer+Protection+Bill
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Katrina+vanden+Heuvel
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Mike+Whitney
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bill+Quigley
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gordon+Arnaut
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kevin+Conner
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Zach+Carter
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tyler+Durden

Seymour Hersh

By David Edwards

"I'll tell you right now, one of the great tragedies of my country is that Mr. Obama is looking the other way, because equally horrible things are happening to prisoners, to those we capture in Afghanistan," Hersh said. "They're being executed on the battlefield. It's unbelievable stuff going on".

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25424.htm



Training That Makes Killing Civilians Acceptable

By Real News

Josh Stieber: In boot camp we trained with songs that joked about killing women and children.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25425.htm



"I gave them a good boy, and they sent me back a murderer"

By Seymour Hersh

Video

Legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh delivered keynote address at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in Geneva, sharing details about his work on My Lai in Vietnam, Abu Ghraib, and about his particular relationship with sources.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25439.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Abu+Ghraib
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Seymour+Hersh
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=David+Edwards
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Josh+Stieber

Ellen Brown, Truthout: "Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs was on the Congressional hot seat, grilled for fraud in its sale of complicated financial products called 'synthetic CDOs.' Last week the heat was off, as all eyes turned to the attack of the shorts (bets that a stock will decline in value) on Greek sovereign debt and the dire threat of a sovereign Greek default. By Thursday, Goldman's fraud had slipped from the headlines and Congress had been cowed into throwing in the towel on its campaign to break up the too-big-to-fail banks. On Friday, Goldman was in settlement talks with the SEC."

http://www.truthout.org/stock-market-collapse-another-goldman-market-rigging59369



Wall Street Goes to the Movies

Zach Carter, The Media Consortium: "Last week, the U.S. Senate rejected a plan that would have broken up the nation's six largest banks firms into firms that could fail without wreaking havoc on the economy. Even though the defeat reinforces Wall Street's political dominance, there is still room for a handful of other useful reforms, like banning banks from gambling with taxpayer money and protecting consumers from banker abuses. After looting our houses, banks are now pushing for the ability to bet on movie box-office receipts, and will keep trying to financialize anything they can unless Congress acts."

http://www.truthout.org/wall-street-goes-to-the-movies59385

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Big Bank Lobby: Too big to bare?

Our Future
by Robert Borosage

05/11/10

Two-hundred and forty former legislators, bank committee staffers, and Treasury officials deployed to lobby. $600 million spent in lobbying, trade association activity and political contributions since March 2008. And that is just from the six biggest banks. The entire financial industry is spending an estimated $1.4 million a day, hiring 70 former members of Congress to make their case. … As the Senate moves towards passing financial reform legislation, it is worth focusing on how the lobby works. Bailed out by taxpayers, the big banks … are emerging from the financial crisis larger and more concentrated than ever. Their very size offends market competition. Entities that are too big to fail cannot be disciplined by the market...

http://ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010051911/big-bank-lobby-too-big-bare


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greek
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=stock+market
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+reform
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Securities+and+Exchange+Commission
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+industry
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Banks
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Goldman+Sachs
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=too+big+to+fail+bank
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=lobbyists
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ellen+Brown
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Zach+Carter
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Borosage

https://secure.nrdconline.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1849&autologin=true&amp

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Clean up workers at risk from crude and corexit
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/845.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Exxon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=oil+spill

http://www.ufppc.org/us-a-world-news-mainmenu-35/9594/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=financial+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=social+war
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Hudson

Fannie Mae asked the U.S. government for an additional $8.4 billion in aid after posting an $11.5 billion net loss for the first quarter, the latest sign that the bailout of the mortgage investor and its main rival, Freddie Mac, is likely to be the most expensive legacy of the U.S. housing-market bust.

http://snipurl.com/w5k11


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Fannie+Mae
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Freddie+Mac
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=mortgage
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=housing

In a ruling that anticipates how the government will ignore torture as it tries alleged detainees in civilian court, Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's efforts to get his indictment for contributing to the 1998 embassy bombings dismissed because he was tortured while in US custody.

http://snipurl.com/w5jz5


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=detainee

http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl2/govt-bonds-are-junk.html

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Our unsustainable debt

Reason
by Veronique de Rugy

America’s financial situation is unsustainable. In 2009 the federal government spent $3.5 trillion but collected only $2.1 trillion in revenue. The result was a $1.4 trillion deficit, up from $458 billion in 2008. That’s 10 percent of gross domestic product, a level unseen since World War II. Worse, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that we’ll be drowning in red ink for the foreseeable future, with annual deficits averaging $1 trillion during the next decade. While these figures are dramatic, they pale in comparison to what the federal government owes foreign and domestic investors... (for publication 06/10)

http://reason.com/archives/2010/05/11/our-unsustainable-debt


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=deficit
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bonds
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Veronique+de+Rugy

http://www.lewrockwell.com/quinn/quinn29.1.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Wall+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Main+Street
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=/quinn