Insanity: How To Buy A Home In Martha’s Vineyard With Zero Money Down

American Insanity: How to Buy a Home in Martha’s Vineyard with Zero Money Down (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 5, 2013):

The absurd new housing bubble created by Banana Ben Bernanke’s cheap money, private equity slumlords and crony foreign oligarchs looking to launder their ill-gotten funds, continues to provide what would be hilarious headlines if only they weren’t so sad.  In the following story, we find that courtesy of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), the struggling folks on Martha’s Vineyard have access to zero money down home loans.  The USDA you ask? Well, it turns out that the “entire island is designated as a rural area eligible for a USDA loan.”  Why do we even have a government at this point?

From CNBC:

The zero down mortgage is back—in Martha’s Vineyard.

Ira Stoll at the Future of Capitalism bloghas come across an article on “Home Buying 101? in the spring of 2013 “Real Estate & Homes” supplement to the Vineyard Gazette. A local mortgage broker by the name of Polly K. Bassett is quoted as touting how.

Bassett, the “co-owner and a broker of Martha’s Vineyard Mortgage Company, L.L.C., said: “We have access to a wide range of programs such as USDA, which is a program where you can put no money down, 100 percent financing, and we also do a 97 percent financing with three percent down….There are a lot of programs out there for people buying their first home.”

Read moreInsanity: How To Buy A Home In Martha’s Vineyard With Zero Money Down

The IRS Claims It Can’t Find its Own Receipts (CNN Video)

The IRS Claims it Can’t Find its Own Receipts (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 5, 2013):

At this point we have all heard of the IRS being caught redhanded with regard to its political targeting, but revelations of corruption and cronyism get worse and worse each day. Yesterday, we found out that the IRS has wasted tens of millions of dollars on hundreds of conferences over the past few years. Conferences where in one instance $17,000 was spent to make paintings of Michael Jordan, Albert Einstein and Bono.  Believe it or not, the story gets even better.

We actually don’t even know how much taxpayer money the IRS has blown.  Why? They didn’t keep their receipts. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

Two-Thirds of Americans Don’t Know If They Will Insure Under Obamacare

More on Obamacare:

Obamacare To Double Cost Of Insurance For Average Californian

BREAKING NEWS: Rate Shock: Obamacare To Increase Individual Health Insurance Premiums By 64-146% In California

Doctors Increasingly Declaring Bankruptcy As Obamacare Kicks In, Causing Widespread Care Shortages

South Carolina House Approves Bill Criminalizing Enforcement Of ‘Obamacare’

‘Obamacare’ Poll Finds 42% Of Americans Unaware It’s Law

U..S. Lawmakers Secretly Negotiating To Exempt Themselves From Obamacare

Companies Cut Hours Of Full-Time Employees To Avoid Obamacare

IRS: Obamacare To Cost The Average American Family $20,000 A Year In Health Insurance Alone!

Labor Unions ‘Turn Sour’ On Obama, Finally Read Obamacare Fine Print, Realize Costs Set To Spike

Obama exempt from Obamacare


Two-Thirds of Americans Don’t Know If They Will Insure Under Obamacare (CNBC News, June 3, 2013):

There’s no assurance folks will be buying insurance under Obamacare, and that could spell trouble for the Affordable Care Act.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans who currently lack health insurance don’t know yet if they will purchase that coverage by the Jan. 1 deadline set by the ACA, a new survey revealed Monday.

And less than half of those in the survey released by InsuranceQuotes.com think they’ll get better health care after Obamacare takes full effect. Nearly 50 percent believe the ACA will make it more difficult for them to get tests and procedures done in a timely manner, according to the phone survey of 1,001 adult Americans conducted in early May.

Read moreTwo-Thirds of Americans Don’t Know If They Will Insure Under Obamacare

Africa: Small Country Of Gabon To ‘Seize’ Chinese Oil Exploration Assets

Small African Country To “Seize” Chinese Oil Exploration Assets (ZeroHedge, June 5, 2013):

It’s one thing for broke Argentina to nationalize assets of just as broke Spain. However when tiny west-African country Gabon decides to “seize” assets from three international oil companies including China’s petrochemical giant Sinopec, things not only get interesting, but puts a brand new pawn on the global geopolitical chessboard. But why is Gabon seeking to antagonize some of the primary participants in its crude extraction supply chain? Simple: leverage, or its own perception thereof. As the FT reports, this surprising move comes as Gabon prepares to “launch a licensing round for the deep waters off its coast. Experts say reserves in the Gabon Basin could rival deep offshore discoveries in Brazil.”

So what happens next? The same as when every banana republic reverts to its banana republic stats – corporate partners are alienated, a rogue oligarchic regime proceeds to spend whatever money it has managed to steal in recent years, the government is destabilized, a military coup follows, currency devaluation, hyperinflation, economic collapse, until one oligarch is replaced with another (future) who attempts to restore relations with the same corporations that are being nationalized today.

From FT:

Tensions between the industry and Gabon’s oil ministry come as a number of African countries attempt to wrest better terms from foreign multinationals and clamp down on transfer pricing and tax evasion.

Read moreAfrica: Small Country Of Gabon To ‘Seize’ Chinese Oil Exploration Assets

JPMorgan Parts With Another 21,000 Ounces Of Gold, Holdings Drop To New Record Low

JPMorgan Parts With Another 21,000 Ounces Of Gold, Holdings Drop To New Record Low (ZeroHedge, June 5, 2013):

Those tens of thousands of outstanding delivery requests against JPM are finally starting to make their way through the pipeline: following the withdrawal of 28,380 ounces of gold after nearly one month of radiosilence out of the vault located below 1 CMP, today the CME reported that another 21k troy ounces of eligible gold were withdrawn from the bank (coupled with the reallocation of another 8.8K registered into eligible), taking the total to a fresh record low of 767,752 ounces.

Head Of The U.S. Mint On Gold & Silver Bullion: ‘Demand Right Now Is Unprecedented’ (Reuters, June 5, 2013)

US Mint Head: Bullion Demand Still “Unprecedented” (ZeroHedge, June 5, 2013):

As every down-tick in the paper price of Gold is viewed as another death knell for the ‘global safety’ trade; a drop in stock prices is somehow seen as an ‘opportunity’ to the world’s media and status quo maintainers. However, as Reuters reports, Richard Peterson – acting director of the US Mint – explains, demand for US gold and silver bullion remains at “unprecedented” high levels almost two months after the historical sell-off. So that is what the pent-up-demand, ‘money on the sidelines’ has been waiting for? Notably, Peterson also added that, due to demand, the Mint may resume making platinum bullion coins (after stopping in 2008).

Via Reuters:

“Demand right now is unprecedented. We are buying all the coin (blanks) they can make,” Richard Peterson, acting director of the U.S. Mint, said in an interview referring to the Mint’s suppliers.

Crowdfunded Stenographer Denied Press Pass To Cover Transcriptless Bradley Manning Trial

Crowdfunded Stenographer Denied Press Pass To Cover Transcriptless Bradley Manning Trial (TechDirt, June 3, 2013):

The attempts to limit the press during the Bradley Manning trial have been somewhat ridiculous. The press hasn’t been allowed to record anything, even though someone clearly did so surreptitiously. Furthermore, there’s been no plan for an official court transcript of the proceedings either. About a month ago, the Freedom of the Press Foundation launched a crowdfunding campaign to try to hire their own professional stenographer to attend the trail to make a transcript. They even had some top press publications, including the Guardian, Forbes and the Verge, apply for an extra press pass for the crowdfunded stenographer. The military refused. But, more ridiculously, they claimed it was a space issue, though that’s an issue they could easily fix.

Read moreCrowdfunded Stenographer Denied Press Pass To Cover Transcriptless Bradley Manning Trial

AND NOW: TEPCO Wants To Store Radioactive Water In Aquifer

Tepco considers using aquifer in great deep for contaminated water storage (Fukushima Diary, June 3, 2013):

On 5/30/2013, the committee of experts suggested Tepco an idea of using the aquifer of great deep for increasing contaminated water storage.

400 tones of ground water flows into the plant on the daily basis. Having contaminated water continuously increasing, Tepco is forced to find a new water storage.

The committee of experts suggested to use aquifer of great deep or build a storage facility in great deep, so the radiation from the retained water doesn’t reach above the ground. They emphasized the importance of investigating the proper geologic stratum and the potential construction period.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/roadmap/images/c130530_03-j.pdf#page=40

Related article..Tepco to consider freezing ground for 1400m to stop ground water flowing into the plant [URL]

Tepco considers to fill Torus room with grout to stop ground water flowing in [URL]

‘This Morning, In 15 Milliseconds, 28 Million Dollars Changed Hands In The Stock Market Before Data Was Made Available To Other Investors’

(h/t M.G.:

“This morning, in 15 milliseconds, 28 million dollars changed hands in the stock market before data was made available to other investors. That space of time is less than the blinking of one’s eye. The report was on CNBC, I am following the markets due to what is happening in Japan. This is a new level of high frequency trading that ought to be outlawed, no wonder the individual investor has no chance…………”)

More articles & videos on high frequency trading here:

http://www.infiniteunknown.net/tag/high-frequency-trading/


Unraveling Monday’s Early Data Release to Traders (CNBC, June 5, 2013):

Monday’s market-moving ISM manufacturing data was inadvertently sent early by Thomson Reuters to a select group of high-frequency traders, many of whom immediately traded on the information before it was available to the wider market, CNBC has learned.

The ISM manufacturing data, which on Monday came in disappointingly low and sent traders scrambling to sell shares, was set to be released at precisely 10 a.m. by the Institute for Supply Management, a private entity that puts out the data each month.

But analysts at Nanex LLC, a Chicago-area analysis firm spotted a sharp downward market reaction just before 10 a.m., setting up a mystery: How did some traders appear to know the data would disappoint the market before the scheduled release time?

Read more‘This Morning, In 15 Milliseconds, 28 Million Dollars Changed Hands In The Stock Market Before Data Was Made Available To Other Investors’

FLASHBACK: Former UK Ambassador: CIA Sent People To Uzbekistan For Extreme Torture: ‘Raped With Broken Bottles’ – ‘Boiled Alive’ – ‘Having Their Children Tortured In Front Of Them’

Former UK ambassador: CIA sent people to Uzbekistan for extreme torture, to be ‘raped with broken bottles,’ ‘boiled alive’ and ‘having their children tortured in front of them’ (Nov 4, 2009)

Disney’s Electronic Wristband Illustrates Why Big Companies Push Contactless Wallets

An electronic WristBand will track people around Disney World; contactless wallets like Google’s allow similar data collection in the real world.


Disney’s MagicBand can be used to “tag” into rides, hotel rooms and pay in stores (Credit: Disney)

Disney’s Electronic Wristband Illustrates Why Big Companies Push Contactless Wallets (MIT Technology Review, May 31, 2013):

Disney just announced an electronic wristband for visitors to its theme parks that neatly illustrates why companies like Google and cellphone networks are pushing the idea of using contactless technology in phones for payments, tickets, boarding passes and more. The short answer? They want data.Disney’s MagicBand, an ID tag that uses Bluetooth and contactless NFC technology, is being introduced at Walt Disney World in Florida. It replaces a person’s ticket and can be used to tag into rides and other attractions at the park. It can also be used to open a guest’s hotel door, and to pay in stores at the resort. In the future, the Bluetooth link will make it possible for you to wander up to an attraction or Disney character and be greeted using your first name.

Read moreDisney’s Electronic Wristband Illustrates Why Big Companies Push Contactless Wallets

Why MERS-CoV Is So Scary

Why MERS virus is so scary (CNN, June 2, 2013):

Editor’s note: Laurie Garrett is senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist.

(CNN)The head of the World Health Organization warned the world this week of a new virus, awkwardly dubbed MERS-CoV, found in Saudi Arabia.

“Looking at the overall global situation, my greatest concern right now is the novel coronavirus,” Margaret Chan said, calling it “a threat to the entire world.”

“We understand too little about this virus when viewed against the magnitude of its potential threat,” the director general said in her closing speech to the 66th session of the World Health Assembly. “Any new disease that is emerging faster than our understanding is never under control.

“These are alarm bells and we must respond. The novel coronavirus is not a problem that any single affected country can keep to itself or manage all by itself.”

With just 49 cases of the new disease reported since June 2012, it may seem puzzling that Chan named the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus — MERS CoV or MERS for short — the greatest threat to world health today.

But Hong Kong-born Chan can be forgiven a strong reaction. After all, she managed the response to SARS there in 2003, and MERS is a close genetic cousin. At least 8,000 people in 30 countries contracted SARS in 2003; 774 died of the disease.

No doubt her sense of urgency also stems from the apparently high mortality rate: To date, 27 of the 49 people who have caught the disease have perished, or 52%. Although the majority of illnesses have been in the Saudi Arabia, cases have emerged in seven countries.

Read moreWhy MERS-CoV Is So Scary

‘The Real Threat: Acid Jobs’

Insight: California environmentalists fear frack fight a distraction (Reuters, May 28, 2013):

As California sets the ground rules for drilling in the Monterey oil formation, a hard-to-reach shale reserve that is the largest in the United States, some environmentalists worry that politicians, regulators and fellow activists are fighting the wrong battle.

Read more‘The Real Threat: Acid Jobs’

The Pentagon Has No Idea What 108,000 Contractors Are Doing

Pentagon Has No Idea What 108,000 Contractors Are Doing (Fiscal Times, June 3, 2013):

The number of contractors working in Afghanistan now vastly outnumbers American troops stationed there, according to a Congressional Research Service report. CRS, along with the Government Accountability Office, also determined that the Pentagon is unable to properly document the work these contractors are doing. And the information DOD is receiving is often unreliable and inaccurate.

According to CRS, there are now 108,000 private workers in Afghanistan, a workforce that dwarfs the 65,700 American troops still stationed there. That means there are 1.6 contractors for every American soldier in Afghanistan. This is an increase from last month, when The Fiscal Times reported that there were 1.4 contractors per American soldier.

Given the size of the private forces, it’s not surprising that CRS found that in recent years, the Defense Department spent more than any other agency to support contractor work.

Read moreThe Pentagon Has No Idea What 108,000 Contractors Are Doing

Some Obama Top Political Appointees Using Secret Government Email Accounts – White House Defends Practice

Some Obama political appointees using secret email accounts; White House defends practice (Washington Post/AP, June 4, 2013):

WASHINGTON — Some of President Barack Obama’s political appointees are using secret government email accounts to conduct official business, The Associated Press found, a practice that complicates agencies’ legal responsibilities to find and turn over emails under public records requests and congressional inquiries.White House spokesman Jay Carney on Tuesday acknowledged the practice and said it made eminent sense for Cabinet secretaries and other high-profile officials to have what he called alternative email accounts that wouldn’t fill with unwanted messages. Carney said all their email accounts, public and otherwise, were subject to congressional oversight and requests by citizens under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

“There’s nothing secret,” Carney said.

The AP reviewed hundreds of pages of government emails released under the federal open records law and couldn’t independently find instances when material from any of the secret accounts it identified was turned over. Congressional oversight committees told the AP they were unfamiliar with the few nonpublic government addresses that AP identified so far, including one for Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of the Health and Human Services Department.

Read moreSome Obama Top Political Appointees Using Secret Government Email Accounts – White House Defends Practice

Senior Russian Official: Boston Marathon Bombings Could Have Been Prevented

Russian Official: FBI Missed Boston Warning (ABC News/AP, June 4, 2013):

A senior Russian official said Tuesday that the Boston Marathon bombings could have been prevented if American officials had followed through with Russian intelligence.

Officials previously hewed to President Vladimir Putin’s statement that Russia had no information that could have prevented the attacks.

“The Russian side warned the American side about the Tsarnaev brothers, but this information was not taken seriously by the American side, which is what led to that tragedy,” Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of Russia’s senate, said Tuesday, referring to suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Interfax news agency reported.

Read moreSenior Russian Official: Boston Marathon Bombings Could Have Been Prevented

Taiwanese Fight Back Against Internet Censorship … And Win!

Taiwanese Fight Back Against Internet Censorship and Win! (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 3, 2013):

Great update here from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), of the outcome from government attempts to censor the internet in Taiwan in a similar manner to what was proposed in the U.S. with SOPA/PIPA. Just goes to show that we can stop these authoritarians if we stand up for ourselves.

From the EFF:

Taiwan’s intellectual property office proposed a new Internet blacklist law that would have targeted websites for their alleged use in copyright infringement. The initiative would have forced Internet Service Providers to block a list of domains or IP addresses connected to websites and services found to enable “illegal” file sharing. In the face of massive online opposition and a planned Internet blackout, the IP office has now backed down and abandoned support for the law.

Read moreTaiwanese Fight Back Against Internet Censorship … And Win!

Super Secret Treaty Will Push The Deindustrialization Of America Into Overdrive

Obama’s Super Secret Treaty Which Will Push The Deindustrialization Of America Into Overdrive (Economic Collapse, June 3, 2013):

Did you know that Barack Obama has been secretly negotiating the most important trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization?  Did you know that this agreement will impose very strict Internet copyright rules, ban all “Buy American” laws, give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and force even more domestic manufacturing offshore?  If you have not heard about this treaty, don’t feel bad.  Obama has refused to even give Congress a copy of the draft agreement and he has banned members of Congress from attending the negotiations.  The plan is to keep this treaty secret until the very last minute and then to railroad it through Congress and have it signed into law by October.  The treaty is known as “the Trans-Pacific Partnership”, and the nations that are reported to be involved in the development of this treaty include the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.  Opponents of this treaty refer to it as “the NAFTA of the Pacific”, and if it is enacted it will push the deindustrialization of America into overdrive.The “one world” economic agenda that Barack Obama has been pushing is absolutely killing the U.S. economy.  As you will see later in this article, we are losing jobs and businesses at an astounding pace.  And each new “free trade” agreement makes things even worse.

For example, just check out the impact that the recent free trade agreement that Obama negotiated with South Korea is having on us

Read moreSuper Secret Treaty Will Push The Deindustrialization Of America Into Overdrive

Massive Economic Problems Are Erupting All Over The Planet (18 Signs)

18 Signs That Massive Economic Problems Are Erupting All Over The Planet (Economic Collapse, June 2, 2013):

This is no time to be complacent.  Massive economic problems are erupting all over the globe, but most people seem to believe that everything is going to be just fine.  In fact, a whole bunch of recent polls and surveys show that the American people are starting to feel much better about how the U.S. economy is performing.  Unfortunately, the false prosperity that we are currently enjoying is not going to last much longer.  Just look at what is happening in Europe.  The eurozone is now in the midst of the longest recession that it has ever experienced.  Just look at what is happening over in Asia.  Economic growth in India is the lowest that it has been in a decade and the Japanese financial system is beginning to spin wildly out of control.  One of the only places on the entire planet where serious economic problems have not already erupted is in the United States, and that is only because we have “kicked the can down the road” by recklessly printing money and by borrowing money at an unprecedented rate.  Unfortunately, the “sugar high” produced by those foolish measures is starting to wear off.  We are going to experience a massive amount of economic pain along with the rest of the world – it is just a matter of time.

But for the moment, there are a lot of skeptics out there.

For the moment, there are a lot of people that are declaring that the problems of the past have been fixed and that we are heading for incredibly bright economic times ahead.

Unfortunately, those people appear to be purposely ignoring the economic horror that is breaking out all over the globe.

The following are 18 signs that massive economic problems are erupting all over the planet…

Read moreMassive Economic Problems Are Erupting All Over The Planet (18 Signs)

Virtual Currencies Under Scrutiny: Bitcoin’s Next

Virtual currencies under scrutiny: Bitcoin’s next (RT, June 4, 2013):

Systems for virtual currencies, largely perceived as an alternative to crisis stricken traditional banking, are now pressed on all fronts. Since US federal prosecutors halted digital payment network Liberty Reserve, the Bitcoin currency is now under fire.

The largest exchange of the digital Bitcoin currency is now requiring all accounts to be verified as the US piles the pressure on the coin.

Read moreVirtual Currencies Under Scrutiny: Bitcoin’s Next