http://www.lewrockwell.com/…

Writes Stephen Fairfax: “Today on page A5 of the War Street Journal, the FDIC has a full-page ad. They have the gall to display a $100,000 Series 1934 Gold Certificate, with the words ‘One Hundred Thousand Dollars in Gold’ plainly visible.

“Of course, the FDIC has never paid an atom of gold to any depositor, and was created as part of the gigantic theft and fraud associated with FDR’s gold confiscation. Wikipedia reports that it is still illegal for private citizens to own the gold certificate whose image leads the FDIC propaganda.”

Things like this make it seem more plausible that some of the many conspiracies surrounding the Federal Reserve are true.

http://www.ft.com/…

Banks and investment banks whose health is crucial to the global financial system should operate under a unified regulatory framework with “appropriate requirements for capital and liquidity”, according to Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.Writing in Monday’s Financial Times, Mr Geithner, a key US policymaker throughout the credit crisis and one of the main architects of the rescue of Bear Stearns, says that the US Federal Reserve should play a “central role” in the new regulatory framework, working closely with supervisors in the US and round the world.

In his speech, Mr Geithner will also say the Fed is examining whether to make “permanent” some of the new liquidity facilities put in place during the credit crisis, and called for central banks to establish a “standing network of currency swaps, collateral policies and account arrangements” to bolster liquidity during a future crisis.

So when they screwup, which is all the time, they directly instead of indirectly effect everyone on the planet. Wonderful…

http://blog.wired.com/…

Arlen Specter, the Republican leader of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Wednesday demanded an independent investigation into “Spygate.”

The announcement came three years after it was first disclosed President Bush had authorized a secret electronic eavesdropping program on Americans without warrants in the wake of the September 11 terror attacks.

But Specter wasn’t referring to that.

Instead, the Pennsylvania senator is demanding an inquiry into the New England Patriots’ secret videotaping of opposing NFL coaches’ signals on the sidelines — an affair sports writers have dubbed “Spygate.”

We are not making this up. Specter said such behavior, a violation of NFL rules, is damaging to the sport. Call it Specter’s own Patriot Act.

“It’s really an insult to the people who follow it,” Specter said. He added that the Patriots “owe the public a lot more candor and a lot more accountability.”

The league has fined the Patriots and coach Bill Belichick $750,000 each. The team’s video assistant has turned over to the NFL eight tapes of opposing coaches giving signals during games.

Apparently real-world warrantless spying isn’t as egregious as snooping on opposing NFL coaches.

Specter and other lawmakers initially talked tough when The New York Times disclosed Bush’s spying program in 2005. “There is no doubt that this is inappropriate,” Specter said at the time.

But Congress, including Specter, eventually passed the Protect America Act, which allowed government officials to eavesdrop in the United States on telephone conversations and  e-mails without warrants, if the target of the surveillance is “reasonably believed” to be overseas.

The law expired in February after lawmakers deadlocked on whether to grant immunity to telecommunications companies being sued for assisting Bush in carrying out the administration’s secret spying program before it was legal.
The Protect America Act’s expiration means surveillance must be authorized by a secret intelligence court if the wiretap is physically planted on U.S. soil.

Still, President Bush maintains that, as commander in chief, his administration has warrantless spying powers regardless of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Again, we’re not making up this story.

Or total fucking tool? This really is just disgusting. At least the whole baseball drug thing it was related to the whole war on drugs thing which many people still oppose. This is related to an extreme breach of the Constitution and public trust which the executive branch not only hid from the public and the other branches of government but blatantly lied about. This asshole is more concerned with a fucking sporting event then the American people or even his own person and family. How does he think the ex-New York governor got caught?

And yet this jackball will get reelected.

http://www.businessandmedia.org/…

Some of the toughest obstacles American businesses face come not from other companies or the economy, but from the media – journalists exaggerating an issue to make a story sexier or anti-business groups influencing the media to advance their agenda. Four of the stories on the following list started with a press release or report from an environmentalist group, labor union or “consumer group.”

Those exaggerations or manipulations resulted in lost jobs, lost revenue, unfounded health scares, unnecessary government intervention, and even deaths. The Business & Media Institute has compiled a list of the nine worst business stories (of the last 50 years).

If we had a loser pays court system we’d have a lot less of this. The socialist court system mitigates the cost of suing and therefore encourages a sue happy system. It’d be nice if ostracism was a tool the businesses would use to get back at those who make false statements. I wonder if there is a reason they don’t. As you can see with the DDT issue when the government acts and does so incorrectly many people are affected and in this case likely died as a result.

http://www.nytimes.com/…

The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad new authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.

The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of financial regulatory agencies, which many experts say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they set off what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.

Democratic lawmakers are all but certain to say the proposal does not go far enough in restricting the kinds of practices that caused the financial crisis. Many of the proposals, like those that would consolidate regulatory agencies, have nothing to do with the turmoil in financial markets. And some of the proposals could actually reduce regulation.

According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a powerful trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms.

While the plan could expose Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds to greater scrutiny, it carefully avoids a call for tighter regulation.

More regulation, more centralization. Watch our economy continue it’s downward spiral and the D’s and R’s act as if they aren’t pushing us toward a centrally planned economy. It’s absolutely outrageous that they claim the current regulation “failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending.” Anyone with a preschool level of education in economics realized how absolutely screwed Wall Street was. Tying up all that capital in houses through people without the ability to pay? Lowering interest rates far below market level? The Federal Reserve and the Federal government facilitated this entire situation and now just like was done in 1907 and 1929 those in power will take advantage of the publics ignorance to further their agendas to increase their power and wealth at the expense of the rest of us.