Infinite

China’s Catastrophic Deleveraging Has Begun – The End Game Is Coming

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– China’s Catastrophic Deleveraging Has Begun (Business Insider, July 15, 2012):

1. The frustrated and aggressive central bank

If one wants to know how bad the health of China’s economy has gone, look no further than the PBOC’s composure, which seems rather frustrated and aggressive as of late. On 5th July, the central bank cut benchmark interest rates for the 2nd time in less than a month. This happened right after the fact that in December 2011, PBOC cut the reserve requirement ratio(RRR) by a 50 bp to 21%, it followed up with another 50 bp in February and another 50 bp in May to 20% currently.

Read moreChina’s Catastrophic Deleveraging Has Begun – The End Game Is Coming

Scientist Leuren Moret: Intentional Collapse And Takedown Of The USA – Depleted Uranium (Video)

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MUST-SEE!


YouTube Added: 11.02.2011

Here We Go Again … Syria: Assad Regime ‘Ready To Use Chemical Weapons’ (BBC)

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Commentary:

“Assad Regime ‘Ready To Use Chemical Weapons'”

And how many millions of dollars did we have to promise this man for saying that before he ‘defected’?

Will we now hear the WMD mantra again?

WMD LIES – Bush Cheney Rumsfeld – THE ULTIMATE CLIP (Edited)

Flashback:

– Tony Blair Was Warned By All 27 Senior Government Lawyers That Iraq War Was Illegal (Daily Express)

– Tony Blair ‘knew Iraq did not have WMD before war started’ (Times)

– US and UK knew that Iraq Didn’t Have WMDs

– Dutch Inquiry: Iraq War Was Illegal, Had ‘No Basis In International Law’ (Guardian)

Back to the article:

“He also said that major bombings across Syria had been orchestrated by the regime in collaboration with al-Qaeda.”

So Syria is harboring and collaborating with Al-Qaeda? Where have I heard something similar before???

Nope! Al-CIAda is our bloody business and is fighting on our side. We are the terrorists:

– Mossad, CIA And Blackwater Operate In Syria – Report

– Syria: Clinton Admits US On Same Side As Al Qaeda To Destabilise Assad Government (Global Research)

– U.S. Fighting On The Same Side As Three Terrorist Groups In Syria

– Dr. Webster Tarpley: The NATO-CIA Destabilization Of Syria Is Under Way! (Video)

– ’15,000 Strong’ Army Gathers To Take On Syria:

An insurgent army which claims to be up to 15,000 strong is being coordinated from Turkey to take on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, which risks plunging the region into open warfare.

– Global Research’s Michel Chossudovsky: Syria’s ‘Peaceful Protesters’ Are ‘Death Squads Directly Supported By Turkey And Israel’ Armed With Heavy Machine Guns (Video)

And our ‘mercenaries’ committed these atrocities:

– UN Meetings And Syrian Massacres: Timing Is Everything — ‘Massacre Marketing’ (Interview With Guenter Meyer – Video)

– Russian Journalist Ankhar Kochneva: Everything You’ve Heard About Syria Is A Lie

– Syria = Libya 2.0: Journalist (Eyewitness): Rebels Did Houla Massacre

– BBC News Uses ‘Iraq Photo To Illustrate Syrian Massacre’

But wait, it gets better:

This is Libya 2.0: Abdul Hakim Belhaj:

– If The US Loses Syria, The US Loses Its Empire:

It was reported that Libyan terrorists led by Abdul Hakim Belhaj, commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a US State Department-listed “Foreign Terrorist Organization,” had joined the so-called “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) along with sectarian extremists from Iraq who specialize in the indiscriminate terrorist bombings now ravaging Syria.

Flashback:

– Webster Tarpley: Al-Qaeda Commander of NATO’s Bloody Reign of Terror in Tripoli is the Monster Abdel Hakim Belhadj, aka Abdel Hakim al-Hasadi, Friend of Osama Bin Laden, former US POW, and Infamous Killer of US Soldiers in Afghanistan

Flashback:

On record: Interview With US General Wesley Clark (Ret.): US Government Planned To ‘Take Out 7 Countries In 5 Years’: ‘Starting With Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan And Finishing Off Iran’ (Video)

And by the way, what would we do if China would support an insurgent army in the U.S. to free us from the Obama regime? LOL!!!

I guess we can expect a chemical warfare attack by our Al-CIAda fighters anytime soon, so that Russia and China may have to stand down when we and our NATO allies destroy Syria.


Nawaf Fares

– Syria: Assad regime ‘ready to use chemical weapons’ (BBC News, July 17, 2012):

The most senior Syrian politician to defect to the opposition has told the BBC the regime will not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it is cornered.

Nawaf Fares, ex-ambassador to Iraq, said unconfirmed reports indicated such weapons might have already been used.

He also said that major bombings across Syria had been orchestrated by the regime in collaboration with al-Qaeda.

Read moreHere We Go Again … Syria: Assad Regime ‘Ready To Use Chemical Weapons’ (BBC)

THE END: Ron Paul’s Delegate Insurgency Ends In Nebraska

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Mission (Elite puppet Paul family self-destruction for Mitt Romney 2012) accomplished!

Posted for the sake of completeness.

– Ron Paul’s Delegate Insurgency Ends in Nebraska (ABC News, July 16, 2012):

Ron Paul’s delegate insurgency has come to an end.

Supporters of the libertarian GOP presidential candidate fell short at the Nebraska GOP convention, where they had hoped to out-organize Mitt Romney’s delegates and push Paul over a critical threshold that would have ensured him an official presence and speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.

As the last state where Republicans will hold a convention in which delegates are up for grabs, Nebraska represented the last chance for Paul’s supporters.

Read moreTHE END: Ron Paul’s Delegate Insurgency Ends In Nebraska

Former Monsanto Scientist Exposes The Genetic Engineering Fraud

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– Former Monsanto Employee Talks GE Crop Concerns Amidst Deregulation Efforts (Food Integrity Campaign, July 13, 2012):

This week the Food Nation Radio Network interviewed former Monsanto employee Kirk Azevedo about his concerns with the leading biotech company’s practices, a timely interview as the battle over genetically engineered (GE) food regulation continues on a state, national, and international scale.

Azevedo graduated with a biochemistry degree from California Polytechnic State University and started working for the chemical industry doing research on Bt (or Bacillus thuringiensis) pesticides. Around 1996, he became a local market manager for Monsanto, serving as a facilitator for GE crops for the western states. He explained to Food Nation Radio how he had assumed that California cotton that was genetically engineered for herbicide resistance could be marketed as conventional California cotton (to get the California premium) since the only difference between the two, he believed, was the gene Monsanto wanted in the crop. However, one of Monsanto’s Ph.D. researchers informed Azevedo that “there’s actually other proteins that are being produced, not just the one we want, as a byproduct of genetic engineering process.” This concerned Azevedo, who had also been studying protein diseases (including prion diseases such as mad cow disease) and knew proteins could be toxic. When he told his colleague they needed to destroy the seeds from the GE crop so that they aren’t fed to cattle, the other researcher said that Monsanto isn’t going to stop doing what it’s been doing everywhere else.

Azevedo recalls his disillusionment:

I saw what was really the fraud associated with genetic engineering: My impression, and I think most people’s impression with genetically engineered foods and crops and other things is that it’s just like putting one gene in there and that one gene is expressed. If that was the case, well then that’s not so bad. But in reality, the process of genetic engineering changes the cell in such a way that it’s unknown what the effects are going to be.

Azevedo has since left the chemical industry and now calls for the enforcement of GE labeling laws. In California, such a law will appear on voter ballots in the upcoming November election as Proposition 37 – the first of its kind, if passed (although no labels would be required for livestock that feed on GE crops). Supporters of GE labeling predict the California rule, which would require labels on most foods containing GE ingredients, could influence food labeling throughout the country.

Read moreFormer Monsanto Scientist Exposes The Genetic Engineering Fraud

Former OMB Director David Stockman: ‘We’re At The Fiscal Endgame’ (Video)

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– OMB’s Stockman: “We’re At The Fiscal Endgame” (ZeroHedge, July 16, 2012):

To those on the hill and elsewhere who suggest this growing ‘fiscal cliff’ and ‘debt ceiling’ crisis will all get solved, former Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director David Stockman tells Bloomberg TV that “they will punt, punt, punt and kick the can with partial solutions driven by eleventh hour crisis-based extensions that will go on for the whole of the next term!” When asked whether this economy will be mired in the doldrums, he rather ominously states “it will be worse, because we will be in recession” and notes that when the lame ducks re-look at the budget numbers with a realistic recession (instead of the current assumption of no recession within 12 years) it will be far worse and in a political environment where ‘we cannot possibly raise taxes – and we cannot possibly cut spending’. With a 78% disapproval rating for the ‘do nothing’ Congress, Stockman is surprised that 16% somehow approve – approve of what? His warning is that unlike in past periods, today “we are completely paralyzed, there is an ideological divide on taxes and entitlement like we’ve never had before” and while he realizes that “the debt problem doesn’t become a debt problem until the market suddenly have a wake up call and realize that if the Fed doesn’t keep printing, it’s game over.”

“The fact that rates are so low is not a reflection of the US as a safe-haven but a bet on the Fed not allowing rates to rise.”

“The perverse low-rate environment simply tells Congress that they can borrow a trillion dollars for 10 billion a year.”

If rates rose then it would break this huge partisan stalemate we have today”

“There is a huge costs to stalemate!”

In a little under six minutes, David factually describes the certainly-not-priced-in dismal reality of the political situation we face in the next few months… must watch…

America’s Largest Pension Fund Calpers Generates 1% Return, Misses Discount Rate Target By 87%

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See also:

– Billionaire Eric Sprott: ‘There Isn’t A Solution To The Problem’ – ‘If The People Had Any Sense They Would Be Buying (PHYSICAL) Gold And/Or Silver’

– Calpers Generates 1% Return, Misses Discount Rate Target By 87% (ZeroHedge, July 16, 2012):

“Thank you ZIRP, may we have another.” This is what the 1.6 million workers who have invested their retirement money with America’s largest pension fund, California’s CALPERS, may want to ask Chairman Ben following the firm’s just announced results for Fiscal 2012 (ended June 30). The end result: +1% nominal return, which means a negative real return. And this is even including the now traditional end of June ramp which this year came courtesy of the now largely irrelevant European summit, which nonetheless ramped stocks and likely meant the difference for Calpers between positive and negative on the year! Sadly just one “another” year would not be enough, but a whopping 7 more would be needed, because as is well known, for all actuarial purposes Calpers, as well as the bulk of US pension funds, use a 7.5% discount rate. In other words, Calpers missed the minimum return it needs to not require overfunding by, oh… 87%. Here is Calper’s Mea Culpa: “CalPERS 1 percent return is below the fund’s discount rate of 7.5 percent, a long-term hurdle lowered recently in response to a steady decline in inflation and as part of CalPERS routine evaluation of economic assumptions.” At this rate, courtesy of ZIRP and the destruction of equities as an asset class, until the 2s30s is flat, and we have terminal wheelbarrow lift off, Calpers will no choice but to keep revising lower and lower until its discount rate is negative in line with the imminent advent of NIRP. Good luck with those actuarial tables with a negative discount rate.

From Calpers:

Read moreAmerica’s Largest Pension Fund Calpers Generates 1% Return, Misses Discount Rate Target By 87%

Meet Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s New CEO

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– Meet Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s New CEO (ZeroHedge, July 16, 2012):

Former Google employee Marissa Mayer is now Yahoo’s CEO. Good luck to the longs and Dan Loeb. In the meantime, hear (sic) she is. In the meantime, those who like us, were a little confused, this is all you need to know.


YouTube

A link to her overcaffeinated 2006 Stanford lecture where much of this was pulled from.

Read more here

A Cretan Writes A Heartfelt Letter To The Greek IRS

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Must-read!

– A Cretan Writes A Heartfelt Letter To The Greek IRS (ZeroHedge, July 16, 2012):

The Greeks, who have long since become Guniea Pigs for Europe’s real time experiment in restructuring itself without actually i) impairing any debt, ii) injecting new capital, or iii) having any idea what the endgame really is, are increasingly starting to just say no and revolt. Yes – the small Mediterranean country may have fallen off the front page news briefly, or until the current government is also ejected bringing us to a repeat of late May, early June, its citizens are getting ever bolder in refusing to comply with the relentless attempts of the European superstate to syphon off as much wealth as it possible can from the weakest and the poorest.

To wit, in the letter below, posted in Greek website aixmi.gr, comes from a disgruntled taxpayer who was “assessed” some rather crusing taxes.  Showing his outrage at the manner in which- especially this year- the Greek IRS tax hikes are crushing weaker, lower income families, the Cretan ctiziens has sent the following letter to the Tax Office of Ierapetra.

Read on for the the full text of his letter:

Read moreA Cretan Writes A Heartfelt Letter To The Greek IRS

These 12 Hellholes Are Examples Of What The Rest Of America Will Look Like Soon

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– These 12 Hellholes Are Examples Of What The Rest Of America Will Look Like Soon (The Economic Collapse, July 15, 2012):

Do you want to see where this country is headed?  If so, don’t focus on the few areas that are still very prosperous.  New York City has Wall Street, Washington D.C. has the federal government and Silicon Valley has Google and Facebook.  Those are the exceptions.  The reality is that most of the country has been experiencing a slow decline for a very long time and once thriving cities such as Gary, Indiana and Flint, Michigan have become absolute hellholes.  They are examples of what the rest of America will look like soon.  60 years ago, most Americans were decent, hard working people and there were always good jobs available for anyone that was willing to roll up his or her sleeves and put in an honest day of work.  But now all of that has changed.  Over the past decade, tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities have shut down and millions of jobs have left the country.  Cities such as Cleveland, Baltimore and Detroit were once shining examples of everything that was right about America, but now they stand out like festering sores.  The “blue collar cities” have been hit the hardest by the gutting of our economic infrastructure.  There are many communities in America today where it seems like all of the hope and all of the life have been sucked right out of them.  You can see it in the eyes of the people.  The good times are gone permanently and they know it.  Unfortunately, the remainder of the country will soon be experiencing the despair that those communities are feeling.

The following are 12 hellholes that are examples of what the rest of America will look like soon….

Read moreThese 12 Hellholes Are Examples Of What The Rest Of America Will Look Like Soon

After Creating Dollar Exclusion Zones In Asia And South America, China Set To Corner Africa Next

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– After Creating Dollar Exclusion Zones In Asia And South America, China Set To Corner Africa Next (ZeroHedge, July 15, 2012):

By now it really, really should be obvious. While the insolvent “developed world” is furiously fighting over who gets to pay the bill for 30 years of unsustainable debt accumulation and how to pretend that the modern ‘crony capitalist for some and communist for others‘ system isn’t one flap of a butterfly’s wings away from full on collapse mode, China is slowly taking over the world’s real assets. As a reminder: here is a smattering of our headlines on the topic from the last year: ““World’s Second (China) And Third Largest (Japan) Economies To Bypass Dollar, Engage In Direct Currency Trade“, “China, Russia Drop Dollar In Bilateral Trade“, “China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System“, “India and Japan sign new $15bn currency swap agreement“, “Iran, Russia Replace Dollar With Rial, Ruble in Trade, Fars Says“, “India Joins Asian Dollar Exclusion Zone, Will Transact With Iran In Rupees“, ‘The USD Trap Is Closing: Dollar Exclusion Zone Crosses The Pacific As Brazil Signs China Currency Swap“, and finally, “Chile Is Latest Country To Launch Renminbi Swaps And Settlement“, we now get the inevitable: “Central bank pledges financial push in Africa.” To summarize: first Asia, next Latin America, and now Africa.

Yep: the Yuan may not be the reserve currency by default, but at this rate China will have bilateral, read USD-bypassing relations, with all countries in Asia, South America and shortly Africa (where none other than Goldman Sachs has been pushing harder than anyone). Once the entire world is trading in CNY, it will be merely a matter of flipping the switch and all those fancy three-letter economic theories that explain why the uber-welfare state works just becayse the US can print an infinity+1 in debt, will all suddenly find themselves completely and totally bidless.

From China Daily:

China is to promote the yuan’s use in settling trade and investment with Africa, and encourage the more active development of Chinese financial institutions across the continent, a senior central bank official said on Friday.

Li Dongrong, assistant governor of the People’s Bank of China, said Africa has the capability of becoming a new hub of international capital flow, and the yuan’s use there should be further improved in accordance with rising demand for the currency there.

“We will continue to encourage domestic financial institutions to increase their presence and business across the continent,” Li told delegates at the Forum on China-Africa Financial Cooperation in Beijing, adding that the cooperation potential between the two sides is huge, as Africa’s economy continues to take off.

Read moreAfter Creating Dollar Exclusion Zones In Asia And South America, China Set To Corner Africa Next

Worst Plague In 30 Years: Millions Of Field Mice Overrun Farms In Germany

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They may look small, but the plague of field mice is having a devastating effect in central Germany.
They may look small, but the plague of field mice is having a devastating effect in central Germany.

– Worst Plague in 30 Years – Field Mice Overrun Farms in Central Germany (Der Spiegel, July 11, 2012):

Millions of field mice are overrunning the central German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, much to the concern of local farmers. The rodents are devastating food crops, cutting yields by up to 50 percent. Getting birds of prey to hunt the critters didn’t help, and now farmers want to be allowed to use a banned rat poison.

Under normal circumstances, you might think the 12-centimeter (5-inch) long field mouse looks innocent, or even cute. But farmers in the central German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt wouldn’t agree at the moment. The furry rodents are currently wreaking havoc in the states, which are suffering the worst field mouse plague in over 30 years.

Farmers in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt are complaining that millions of field mice are devastating their food crops, including corn, barley and winter wheat. “They are eating everything,” said Matthias Krieg, who manages an agricultural firm near the town of Zeitz in Saxony-Anhalt. “Not even the sugar beets are safe.” Farmers estimate that they may have to write off an average of 10 percent of their crops as a result of mouse damage, and up to 50 percent in extreme cases.

Read moreWorst Plague In 30 Years: Millions Of Field Mice Overrun Farms In Germany

New Security Fears As Heathrow Checks ‘Miss’ 5 Terror Suspects In One Day

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Problem, reaction, solution.

(Solution = More security, more big brother, more military presence, more …)

Flashback:

– (FOX NEWS) Inside Job: ‘The US Government Escorted The Underwear Bomber Through Security Without A Passport To Board The Plane’, Say Two Attorneys, Eyewitnesses Who Were On Site

– TSA Source: Undercover TSA Agent Successfully Smuggled A Gun Past Full-Body Scanners

– New security fears as Heathrow checks miss terror suspects (Guardian, July 14, 2012):

• Inexperienced airport staff ‘missed five alerts in one day’
• Fears come after fiasco over G4S Olympic stewarding

Terror suspects on the Home Office watch list are entering the UK in the runup to the Olympics without the necessary security checks, according to frontline officials at Heathrow.

One senior border officer told the Observer that inexperienced new recruits, deployed to shorten queues after complaints over lengthy waiting times, are repeatedly “missing” passengers of interest who should be referred to counterterrorism officers when they reach passport control.

The official said he was personally aware that three terror suspects – all of whose names are registered on the Home Office suspect index system – had been waved through by staff on his shifts since the start of July. Border officials should immediately notify counterterrorism police or MI5 if they suspect that “SX travellers” are attempting to enter the UK. Another colleague alleged that five suspects were “missed” in one day earlier this month.

“It’s all new faces,” said the senior official. “The rest of the staff, I have no idea where they have come from, how long they are here for, what their background is. These are people who have been forced by their own department to come here.”

The crisis comes days after G4S, the world’s biggest security firm, announced it could not provide enough security guards for the London Olympics, forcing the government to call up 3,500 troops to meet the shortfall. Last month John Evans, head of MI5, said the Games offered an “attractive target for our enemies, and they will be at the centre of the world’s attention”.

Read moreNew Security Fears As Heathrow Checks ‘Miss’ 5 Terror Suspects In One Day

India: ‘Blood Red’ Rain Falls In Kannur, Kerala And People Are Freaking Out

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– Weird red rain in India panics people . . . ‘blood red’ rain falls (Examiner, July 7, 2012):

  • Why are people panicking as their courtyards fill with “mysterious blood red rain”?
  • Did Nostradamus and others predict “rain like blood”?
  • Has this happened before?
  • What causes the red color in the mysterious rain?
  • Is it caused by an unidentified life form?
  • Could dust from a meteor affect an area more than a decade later?
  • Is all this just coincidence?

On Thursday, July 5, 2012, around 6:50 p.m. local time, a mysterious red rain shower fell for about 15 minutes in Kannur, Kerala, India. Locales within a one kilometer area in the Indian state of Kerala experienced this phenomenon, as it filled courtyards with blood red rain and stained people’s clothes pink.

—
View slideshow: Mysterious red rain in India some form of extraterrestrial life?

Godfrey Louis, Ph.D. and Santosh Kumar hypothesize, "The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala are considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form."

Godfrey Louis, Ph.D. and Santosh Kumar hypothesize, “The red cells found in the red rain in Kerala are considered as a possible case of extraterrestrial life form.”

Photo credit: Courtesy of Louis & Kumar

—

Nostradamus, Century 2, Quatrain 46
After a great misery for mankind an even greater approaches. The great cycle of the centuries is renewed: It will rain blood, milk, famine, war and disease.In the sky will be seen a fire, dragging a tail of sparks.

Kannur block panchayat President Shaija M collected a sample of the mysterious red rainwater. It was dark and had the smell of raw beetroot. His first thought was that an animal had been killed and its blood had mixed with the rainwater in the courtyard.

However, this is not the first time this “mysterious red rain” has fallen in the state of Kerala. Actually, it has been reported several times during the past decade.

  • From July 25 to September 23, 2001, this mysterious “blood red rain” sporadically fell in heavy downpours in Kerala.
  • In summer of 2006, the mysterious red rains fell a second time and gained widespread attention.

Read moreIndia: ‘Blood Red’ Rain Falls In Kannur, Kerala And People Are Freaking Out

Billionaire Eric Sprott: ‘There Isn’t A Solution To The Problem’ – ‘If The People Had Any Sense They Would Be Buying (PHYSICAL) Gold And/Or Silver’

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– Sprott – We’re Being Lied To, Even The 1% Is Having Problems (King World News, June 29, 2012):

Today billionaire Eric Sprott gave King World News an extraordinary interview, and it’s not the kind of thing you are going to see in the mainstream media.  Sprott told KWN, “…as much as we knew the 99% was having a problem, I can guarantee you the 1% is having a big problem today.”  Sprott, who is Chairman of Sprott Asset Management, also said, “the markets go up because the central planners want the markets to go up … The system is imploding on itself, but the central planners want everyone to think it’s fine.  They just lie to us.”

…

I’ve been asked before, is there a solution to the problem?  There isn’t a solution to the problem.  There’s things that might happen.  There’s a default that could happen.  There’s hyperinflation that could happen, but none of those would be deemed as solutions to the problem.  But one or the other or both is going to happen.

People should, rightly, have fear of having their money in paper instruments, whether it’s in a bank account or a bond.  If they had any sense they would be buying (physical) gold and/or silver.  That’s the only way to maintain your purchasing power.

…

President Obama: ‘If You’ve Got A Business – You Didn’t Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen’

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You can’t make this stuff up!

– President Obama: “If You’ve Got A Business – You Didn’t Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen” (ZeroHedge, July 15, 2012):

Presented with commentary (highlights ours)

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back.  They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own.  You didn’t get there on your own.  I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.  There are a lot of smart people out there.  It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.  Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.  There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own.  I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service.  That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together.  That’s how we funded the GI Bill.  That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam.  That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon.  We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea.  You’re not on your own, we’re in this together. (Applause.)

Source: White House

Read morePresident Obama: ‘If You’ve Got A Business – You Didn’t Build That. Somebody Else Made That Happen’

Art Of Investment: Germans Go On A Spending Spree, Opt For Luxury Amid Crisis … Fearing The Euro Collapsing (Video)

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YouTube Added: 15.07.2012

Description:

Despite the European financial crisis, Germans are spending great amounts of money on luxury goods. With the euro’s future uncertain, Germans are buying into the idea that saving is wasting. They are investing their money in real estate, art and jewelry, which they consider to be more durable. They are also taking the opportunity to invest in home renovations and are splashing out on medical procedures.

See also:

– Inflation, Hyperinflation and Real Estate (Price Collaps)

This is a safe investment:

Read moreArt Of Investment: Germans Go On A Spending Spree, Opt For Luxury Amid Crisis … Fearing The Euro Collapsing (Video)

How JPMorgan Made The Lehman Bankruptcy A Certainty

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– CONFIRMED AT LAST: The attempted cover-up of how JP Morgan torpedoed Lehman Brothers (The Slog, July 15, 2012):

As an early propagator of the allegation that JP Morgan Chase deliberately hastened the Lehman collapse, the Slog finds itself vindicated three years on by a successful regulator action against JPM, and contemporary documentation.

“And then when you have the suckers by the balls, you squeeze just like this”

Around the time of the Lehman disaster, a senior insider at the firm relayed to me what seemed an astonishing allegation: that in the weeks prior to the eventual collapse, JP Morgan deliberately withheld huge monies owed to Lehman in order to make the bankruptcy a certainty from which they could benefit. I relayed this story to another contact the following year, and he not only corroborated the charge, he also said he was sure Barclays had done the same. The now disgraced Barclays CEO Bob Diamond took over Lehman in a fire sale only weeks later (using taxpayers’ money as a bridging loan to do it) and rapidly built up a commanding position for the division he then headed up, Barcap  – the investment arm of the bank.

Now, more than three years later, regulators have penalised JPMorgan for actions tied to Lehman’s demise. The bank settled the Lehman matter and agreed to pay a fine of approximately $20 million. The action took place because of Morgan’s ‘questionable treatment of [Lehman] customer money’: regulators accused JPMorgan of withholding Lehman customer funds for nearly two weeks. So it had been true after all.

Jamie Dimon’s Morgan Chase dodged and dived on this one for three years in an attempt to smooth over the tracks.  As late as April this year, the Pirate insisted that the ‘monies involved were small’: but that doesn’t tally with this Wall Street Journal snippet from the time as follows:

‘Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the securities firm that filed the biggest bankruptcy in history yesterday, was advanced $138 billion this week by JPMorgan Chase & Co. to settle Lehman trades and keep financial markets stable, according to a court filing.’

Advancing cash to keep the markets stable is simply double-talk bollocks: many observers are sure this was the Lehman trades money withheld by JPM. The Lehman administrators continued to air their grievances about it, and in late May 2010 the bankruptcy estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc. filed suit against JPMorgan Chase, alleging that JPMorgan’s actions in the weeks preceding bankruptcy were wrongful. The claims arose from amendments and supplements to the Clearance Agreement between Lehman and JPMorgan in the weeks immediately preceding the bankruptcy. (In a nutshell, JPM changed the terms without notice to include onerous requirements for massive collateral against giving Lehman its own money back – a form of crooked logic that only a banker could construct. The weight of this collateral requirement on already serious debts took Lehman Brothers from intensive care to the Pearly Gates).

Read moreHow JPMorgan Made The Lehman Bankruptcy A Certainty

Collapse: Freon Thefts On The Rise For Drug Use

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See also:

– 25 Signs The Collapse Of America Is Speeding Up As Society Rots From The Inside Out

– Freon Thefts On The Rise For Drug Use (CBS, July 13, 2012):

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – Police say thieves climbed up a ladder of a local business and ransacked the three air conditioning units on the roof for scrap and the very dangerous gas Freon, which can cause a person to be high and kill them in the same breath.

It may cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair each air conditioning units that were broken into by the suspects.

Read moreCollapse: Freon Thefts On The Rise For Drug Use

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts And Nomi Prins: The Real Libor Scandal

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– The Real Libor Scandal ~ Paul Craig Roberts and Nomi Prins (Paul Craig Roberts, July 14, 2012):

According to news reports, UK banks fixed the London interbank borrowing rate (Libor) with the complicity of the Bank of England (UK central bank) at a low rate in order to obtain a cheap borrowing cost. The way this scandal is playing out is that the banks benefitted from borrowing at these low rates. Whereas this is true, it also strikes us as simplistic and as a diversion from the deeper, darker scandal.

Banks are not the only beneficiaries of lower Libor rates. Debtors (and investors) whose floating or variable rate loans are pegged in some way to Libor also benefit. One could argue that by fixing the rate low, the banks were cheating themselves out of interest income, because the effect of the low Libor rate is to lower the interest rate on customer loans, such as variable rate mortgages that banks possess in their portfolios. But the banks did not fix the Libor rate with their customers in mind. Instead, the fixed Libor rate enabled them to improve their balance sheets, as well as help to perpetuate the regime of low interest rates. The last thing the banks want is a rise in interest rates that would drive down the values of their holdings and reveal large losses masked by rigged interest rates.

Read moreDr. Paul Craig Roberts And Nomi Prins: The Real Libor Scandal

Monsanto, U.S. Gov., WTO Attack Europe – Industrial Food Giants Bully European Lawmakers

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– Monsanto Threatens Europe – Industrial Food Giants Bully European Lawmakers (Green Chip Stocks, July 12, 2012):

Is Monsanto waging war on the European Union? The notion isn’t as daft as you may think.

Genetically modified (GM) crops have pervaded the U.S. food supply for nearly twenty years, albeit incrementally and often inconspicuously.

Read moreMonsanto, U.S. Gov., WTO Attack Europe – Industrial Food Giants Bully European Lawmakers