Robert Scheer Remembers bill clinton . . . .

In honour of bill clinton's latest book tour, this video of Robert Scheer recalling the "rest of the story" at an Occupy LA event sheds a bit more light on the clinton legacy:



Still wanna buy the book ? ? ? ?

H/T Tiana

Need a Job? Here 'Ya Go . . . .

Times are tough all over, and folks are in need of gainful employment.

How 'bout a job with lots of pluses?:

Travel opportunities;

Paid benefits;

Stress reduction techniques;

Multiple skill categories.

What more could you ask for?





Well, maybe not having to support the military-industrial-congressional complex for one thing . . . .

Believing in Change Yet ? ? ? ?

Matt Taibbi on business as usual in DC and on Wall Street:



Wall Street = 1, Main Street = 0 . . . .

Banking Bast_rds . . . .

McClatchy has released the first report on their five-month investigation into Goldman Sachs' activities during the lead up to the financial fiasco.

You will be amazed to find out that the politically well-connected investment firm has not been exactly squeaky-clean in their activities.

Or maybe not.

How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash
Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

November 01, 2009 01:37:11 AM

WASHINGTON — In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

Goldman's sales and its clandestine wagers, completed at the brink of the housing market meltdown, enabled the nation's premier investment bank to pass most of its potential losses to others before a flood of mortgage defaults staggered the U.S. and global economies. Only later did investors discover that what Goldman had promoted as triple-A rated investments were closer to junk.

_______________


McClatchy's inquiry found that Goldman Sachs:


* Bought and converted into high-yield bonds tens of thousands of mortgages from subprime lenders that became the subjects of FBI investigations into whether they'd misled borrowers or exaggerated applicants' incomes to justify making hefty loans.

* Used offshore tax havens to shuffle its mortgage-backed securities to institutions worldwide, including European and Asian banks, often in secret deals run through the Cayman Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean that companies use to bypass U.S. disclosure requirements.

* Has dispatched lawyers across the country to repossess homes from bankrupt or financially struggling individuals, many of whom lacked sufficient credit or income but got subprime mortgages anyway because Wall Street made it easy for them to qualify.

* Was buoyed last fall by key federal bailout decisions, at least two of which involved then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, a former Goldman chief executive whose staff at Treasury included several other Goldman alumni.

The firm benefited when Paulson elected not to save rival Lehman Brothers from collapse, and when he organized a massive rescue of tottering global insurer American International Group while in constant telephone contact with Goldman chief Blankfein. With the Federal Reserve Board's blessing, AIG later used $12.9 billion in taxpayers' dollars to pay off every penny it owed Goldman.

Read the whole article and watch your blood pressure rise while you think about how many Goldman alumni have been and still are in very powerful positions in Washington.

Sleep well . . . .

Squid TV Coming to Your Tube ? ? ? ?

Are there no depths Goldman Sachs - or as Matt Taibbi refers to them: "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money" - will not go in the pursuit of power and $$$?

Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge has the story of GS' involvement in CanWest via financial and programming decisions. Amazing, but true:

Why Is Goldman Advising CanWest On Its Programming Line Up?

_______________

(Quoting from a Globe and Mail article):

Goldman Sachs sees no reason to revisit its arrangement with CanWest, which has been blessed by Canadian regulators, according to several sources close to the investment dealer.

To date, Goldman executives have not been invited into restructuring talks, a subject of considerable frustration at the investment bank, sources say. Financiers working with Goldman said that over the past year, the investment bank put forward programming ideas for the TV networks, and offered strategic advice on restructuring, but was ignored by CanWest management and its creditors.

One concept that’s been tossed around, but couldn’t move forward until CanWest recapitalization was set, would see Goldman Sachs provide programming and financial support to the conventional television network as part of a larger deal that reworks the entire ownership structure to more closely align all the TV holdings.

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Earmuff time: why the fuck is Goldman even considered to provide "programming ideas and support?" Granted this is a case where the firm obviously has extensive and deep tentacle reach, however it is the biggest Canadian media company. And if Goldman can act with impunity to determine what the channel line up and who can and who can't be on TV, does this not raise a huge ethical problem straight out of modern version of "1984"? Although CNBC anchors can rest assured that if the Comcast deal does work out and they all end up jobless, there will be a willing home for them to spin their propaganda.

Also if this is true for CanWest, just where else does Goldman Sachs provide "programming idea" advice? Granted, the gullible audience does not care as it is brainwashed into the next massive paradigm, be it securitization part 2, or "buy, buy, buy any stock on the dips," in fact max out your credit cards just so you can own the next pets.com for the short period of time before even that is worth zero. After all, those fine TV people said so, compliments of Goldman's TV station content line up brigade.

My hope is that the Canadian public will pay attention to this chilling development in broadcasting. A friend of mine here whom I respect greatly in "all things Canadian" (and you know who you are) told me: "Unfortunately, Canadians have lived with media concentration for so long we take it for granted."

I hope that's not the case . . . .

H/T Joylene

Taibbi on Goldman & Government . . . .

Upon the release of the Matt Taibbi article on Goldman Sachs in "Rolling Stone" I devoured every word of it. Guess I must have been asleep at the switch when this video of Matt discussing the article was released.

At any rate, here goes: (There are five parts, but the whole video totals less than 11 minutes. Check the bottom of the screen as each video stops to find the next in the series.)






Nice to know there are still some real journalists out there . . . .

Money, Military and Madness . . . .

Currently I'm reading and just about to finish The Sorrows of EMPIRE – Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic by Chalmers Johnson.

It's a great book with a look at US militarism and global monetary manipulation and their results both at home and abroad. The author's explanation and history of the Pentagon's influence on US government policies is eye-opening for the those not familiar in the ways of Washington. Written in 2004, some of his references are uncanny in their relevance today.

Some excerpts follow as a teaser for you:

After the 1992 election, Cheney left the Defense Department, and between 1995 and 2000 he was the chief executive officer of Halliburton. Under his leadership, Brown & Root took in $2.3 billion in government contracts, almost double the $1.2 billion it earned from the government in the five years before Cheney arrived. Halliburton rebuilt Saddam Hussein's war-damaged oil fields for some $23.8 million, even though Cheney, secretary of defense during the first Gulf War, had been instrumental in destroying them. By 1999, Halliburton had become the biggest nonunion employer in the United States, although Wal-Mart soon replaced it. Cheney also appointed Dave Gibben, his chief of staff when he was at the Pentagon, as one of Halliburton's leading lobbyists. In 2001, Cheney returned to Washington as vice president, and Brown & Root continued to build, maintain, and protect bases from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf.

During Cheney's term as Halliburton's CEO, the company advanced from seventy-third to eighteenth on the Pentagon's list of top contractors. Its number of subsidiaries located in offshore tax havens also increased from nine to forty-four. As a result, Halliburton went from paying $302 million in company taxes in 1998 to getting an $85 million tax refund in 1999.

_______________

In other words, feed at the taxpayer's trough, but never replenish it. Perish the thought, that would be un-American! “Profit=Good, Taxes=Bad” . . . .

_______________

Dick Cheney, Bush Senior's secretary of defense and Bush Junior's vice president, helped broker the deal, while out of office, between Chevron and Kazakhstan as a member of Kazakhstan's Oil Advisory Board. James A. Baker III, former secretary of state, mastermind of the scheme to get the Supreme Court to appoint bush Junior president in 2001, and senior partner of the Houston and Washington law firm of Baker Botts, had a hand in the negotiations. Baker's firm maintains an office in Baku staffed by five attorneys. He is a member of the U.S.-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce's advisory council, as is Cheney. During the 1990s the council's cochairman was Richard Armitage, a veteran administrator of the American-sponsored anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan during the 1980s and undersecretary of state in the second Bush administration. Brent Scowcroft, Rice's boss and mentor when he was Bush Senior's national security adviser, is a member of the board of Pennzoil, an active investor in the Caspian Sea oil consortia.

_______________

Is anyone else seeing a pattern here? High government positions and multi-national contracts. Who woulda thunk it ? ? ? ?

_______________

Clinton camouflaged his policies by carrying them out under the banner of “globalization.” this proved quite effective in maneuvering rich but gullible nations to do America's bidding – for example, Argentina – or in destabilizing potential rivals – for example, South Korea and Indonesia in the 1997 economic crisis – or in protecting domestic economic interests – for example, in maintaining the exorbitant prices of American pharmaceutical companies under cover of defending “intellectual property rights.” During the 1990s, the rationales of free trade and capitalist economics were used to disguise America's hegemonic power and make it seem benign or, at least, natural and unavoidable. The main agents of this imperialism were Clinton's secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin, and his deputy (today, president of Harvard University), Lawrence Summers. The United States ruled the world but did so in a carefully masked way that produced high degrees of acquiescence among the dominated nations.

_______________

Now where have we heard those last two names? Oh yeah, I know: Rubin was also a former Goldman Sachs and Citigroup big wheel and advisor to the current US president on the economic crisis, and Summers is actually a member of the current administration. Great how this is working out so far . . . .

_______________

Starting in approximately 1981, the United States introduced, under the cover of globalization, a new strategy intended to accomplish two major goals: first, to discredit state-assisted capitalism like Japan's and prevent its spread to any countries other than the East Asian NICs, which had already industrialized by following the Japanese model; and second, to weaken the sovereignty of Third world nations so that they would become even more dependent on the largesse of the advanced capitalist nations and unable to organize themselves as a power bloc to negotiate equitable with the rich countries.

The United States's chosen instruments for putting this strategy into effect were the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the World Bank and the IMF were created after World War II to manage the international economy and prevent a recurrence of the beggar-thy-neighbor policies of the 1930s. What has to be understood is that both the fund and the bank are actually surrogates for the U.S. Treasury. They are both located at 19^th and H Streets, Northwest, in Washington, DC, and their voting rules ensure that they can do nothing without the approval of the secretary of the Treasury. The political scientist Thomas Ferguson compares the IMF to the famous dog in the RCA advertisements listening to “his master's voice” - the Treasury – on a Victrola.

_______________

Appears to be a bit incestuous, don't you think? Probably not too much of a problem, though. These guys are trustworthy, or they wouldn't be in these positions, right ? ? ? ?

_______________

Thus was born the weird phenomenon of “moral hazard,” meaning American bankers could make outrageously irresponsible loans without any risk of having to absorb the loss or make good the money they had mismanaged. Before it was over, the 1970s loan bonanza produced a disaster of exactly the sort Keynes and the reformers at the end of World War II had sought to avoid. Virtually every country in Africa and Latin America was deeply in debt. In August 1982, Jesus Silva Herzog, the Mexican minister of finance, announced that his country was bankrupt and would no longer be able to pay interest on any of its loans. Just as the bankers had assumed, the U.S. Government stepped in – not to save Mexico but to ensure that American banks did not collapse. At no time, then or later, did our government suggest that the people who made the bad loans bore some responsibility for the results.

_______________

Well, golly gee whiz. Where have we heard that tune before? Perhaps during the end of the bush regime and now at the beginning of the new one? One would think that learning by past mistakes would be a no-brainer, but I guess not . . . .

(Remember this book was written in 2004, not 2009.)

_______________

The United States was the architect of and main profiteer from these efforts. From 1991 to 1993, Lawrence Summers was the chief economist at the World Bank and the man who oversaw the tailoring of “austerity measures” to each country that needed a loan. He decided exactly what a country had that Washington wanted to open up. On December 12, 1991, Summers became notorious for a leaked memo to senior officials of the bank encouraging polluting industries in the rich nations to relocate to the less developed countries. He wrote, “I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage countries is impeccable and we should face up to that.” Brazil's secretary of environment, Jose Lutzenburger replied, “The best thing that could happen would be for the Bank to disappear.”

_______________

There's that Summers guy's name again. What's he doing nowadays? Oh yeah, he's currently the Director of the White House's National Economic Council. This oughta work out just great . . . .

As my friends hear me say on a semi-regular basis:

“We're doomed! Doomed!”

Get the book or check it out at your local library like I did.

Then, tell your friends . . . .

Dennis Does ken . . . .

Thanks to the Louis Riel Trail for posting this Dennis Kucinich vs. ken lewis (of bank of america infamy) video yesterday:




Just one more example of why "drf" and I were Dennis supporters before he pulled out of the race for Prez.

He would have really been "Change You Can Believe In" . . . .

Religion Rides to the Rescue of Wall Street . . . .

It's about a week late for April Fool's, so maybe this is actually legit.

It ought to have a dramatic effect on the current financial situation, so pay attention.

Per Seeking Alpha today:

New SRI ETFs Will Target Different Branches of Christianity

April 07, 2009

The market for socially responsible investing continues to grow for exchange-traded funds investors. Now, a group based in Oklahoma City, Okla., is proposing a set of faith-specific ETFs to launch in the near future.

FaithShares Inc., which is advised by FaithShares Advisors, is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to offer five new SRI-themed ETFs. Those would be:

* The FaithShares Baptist Values Fund

* The FaithShares Catholic Values Fund

* The FaithShares Christian Values Fund

* The FaithShares Lutheran Values Fund

* The FaithShares Methodist Values Fund

_______________


The FaithShares will be screened for social values of each faith through KLD indexes. FTSE Group, the well-known international index provider, will calculate the indexes. Various broad FTSE indexes will also be used as benchmarks against the KLD indexes.

Not having the expertise in valuing different christian FaithShares, I'll have to rely on experts such as:

pat robertson, pope bennie, ted haggard, charles stanley, et al.

That oughta handle it, eh ? ? ? ?

H/T "drf"

Hey Paul Krugman . . . .

we need you now:

Turn those speakers up, as the tune is actually quite catchy . . . .




H/T bobcesca.com

Kucinich is Like Kojak: "On the Case" . . . .

Just one more reason we were Dennis Kucinich supporters 'way back when.

Those hearings could be quite interesting.

Get the popcorn ready . . . .

Battling the Banks . . . .

There's something about this story that gives great satisfaction . . . .

Uncle Sam's Suckling Little Piggies . . . .

As only Lewis Black could explain:



End of story . . . .

Year End Cleanup . . . .

Some end of the year cleanup is in order, and how fitting it is to feature the bush administration.

From Bob Herbert of the New York Times we get:

Add Up the Damage
By BOB HERBERT - December 30, 2008

Does anyone know where George W. Bush is?

You don’t hear much from him anymore. The last image most of us remember is of the president ducking a pair of size 10s that were hurled at him in Baghdad.

We’re still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is thrashing the Palestinians in Gaza. And the U.S. economy is about as vibrant as the 0-16 Detroit Lions.

But hardly a peep have we heard from George, the 43rd.

















When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.

This is the man who gave us the war in Iraq and Guantánamo and torture and rendition; who turned the Clinton economy and the budget surplus into fool’s gold; who dithered while New Orleans drowned; who trampled our civil liberties at home and ruined our reputation abroad; who let Dick Cheney run hog wild and thought Brownie was doing a heckuva job.

_______________


The catalog of his transgressions against the nation’s interests — sins of commission and omission — would keep Mr. Bush in a confessional for the rest of his life. Don’t hold your breath. He’s hardly the contrite sort.

He told ABC’s Charlie Gibson: “I don’t spend a lot of time really worrying about short-term history. I guess I don’t worry about long-term history, either, since I’m not going to be around to read it.”

The president chuckled, thinking — as he did when he made his jokes about the missing weapons of mass destruction — that there was something funny going on.

Paul Krugman, winner of the Nobel prize in economics, also of the New York Times now weighs in:

Looking for a word
December 31, 2008

Unusually, I’m having a vocabulary problem. There has to be some word for the kind of person who considers his mild discomfort the equivalent of torture, crippling injury, or death for other people. But I can’t think of it.

What brings this to mind is this from Alberto Gonzales:

"I consider myself a casualty, one of the many casualties of the war on terror."

This reminded me of Laura Bush’s remark on carnage in Iraq:















"And believe me, no one suffers more than their president and I do when we watch this."

Remember this. And remember, too, that for long years these people were considered heroic patriots, defenders of the nation.

And now it is time for them to go away . . . .

Begone, Bungling Bankers . . . .

What is it with these international banking fund guys, anyway? It wasn't that long ago that we had the wolfowitz/World Bank incident and now this by way of Reuters:

Probe clears IMF chief of abuse of power
Sat Oct 25, 2008 8:11pm EDT - By Lesley Wroughton


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's board on Saturday cleared Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn of harassment, favoritism and abuse of power following an inquiry into his affair with a subordinate.

While the board stopped short of any type of disciplinary action, its leader, Shakour Shaalan, acknowledged there was concern among female staff about Strauss-Kahn's behavior.

Shaalan said he had warned Strauss-Kahn, a former French finance minister, against any further improper conduct.

"The executive board noted that the incident was regrettable and reflected a serious error of judgment on the part of the managing director," the IMF's board of member countries said in a statement.

_______________


The investigation by an outside lawyer into allegations of improper conduct by Strauss-Kahn found that his affair with Piroska Nagy, who worked in the IMF's Africa department as a senior economist until taking a buyout in August, had been consensual.

"I very much regret the incident and I accept responsibility for it," said Strauss-Kahn who is married to French television personality Anne Sinclair.

_______________


The board sought to deal with the investigation quickly so as not to distract the IMF from its role in dealing with the global financial crisis that has sent markets plunging on fears that the world economy is in for a long and deep recession.

Shaalan told a conference call with reporters that Strauss-Kahn still had the confidence of the board.

"Our conclusion was that this will in no way affect the effectiveness of the managing director in the very challenging and difficult period ahead," said Shaalan, who represents Egypt and other Arab countries on the board.

"This was an unfortunate incident where he expressed his regrets and the board has accepted his apologies," he said, adding, "I personally spoke to him after the meeting and informed him this should not happen again."

Well, isn't that just great? A little slap on the wrist, and all is well again.

Now, on to ruling over the nations of the world banking systems like nothing's happened. These are the guys we are supposed to entrust with major international financial decisions? Get real.

This crew is so damn out of touch with reality. Betcha they had their fingers in the sub-prime loan mess, derivatives and credit swaps if truth be told.

What a crock . . . .

Paper Shredder, Nick ? ? ? ?

Man, this financial fiasco is really getting out of hand. Even world leaders are feeling the effects now.

Per Canoe Network:

Thieves hack Sarkozy's account
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - October 19, 2008

PARIS - The French Cabinet's spokesman says "swindlers" have broken into the personal bank account of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Spokesman Luc Chatel told France's Radio-J an investigation is under way and insists the incident "proves that this system of checking (bank accounts) via the Internet isn't infallible." He did not elaborate.

Weekly Journal du Dimanche reported Sunday that thieves seized Sarkozy's bank account information and swiped small sums of money.

_______________


The press service for Sarkozy's office declined comment.

Maybe an infusion of government funds into the system will rectify the situation.

Sure hope 'Ole Nick isn't making any loan applications soon.

Expensive gifts to Carla Bruni might have to be reconsidered . . . .

Positive Poll Portends Possible Party Potential . . . .

On CTV's local noon news show yesterday they had a segment on "Battleground BC" that featured local competitive ridings in the federal election. (Apologies to Dana as this bit of info was gleaned from CTV here in Vancouver before his decision.)

I was able to snatch the following two graphics off the clip as I found them both very interesting.

The first shows the period of time from September 22 through October 8 and the rise and fall of all four parties. Bear in mind, these polls are reflective on polling BC residents only, hence the name "Battleground BC."




The reporter, Jim Beatty in Victoria, then produced the next graphic showing the incredible correlation between the fall of the conservative's poll numbers to the fall in the Toronto Stock Exchange during the same period.





Looks like stevie's timing in calling an election could use some work.

Kind of makes one wonder if the rest of the country might have a similar correlation?

Just askin' . . . .

Spreading the "Joy" . . . .

It appears that bushco is attempting to SPP-ize the international financial markets.

Courtesy of Reuters:

Paulson to discuss G7 financial coordination
Wed Oct 8, 2008

by David Lawder and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson at a news conference on Wednesday will discuss coordinated actions by wealthy industrialized countries to ease financial system stress.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Paulson may discuss a plan floated by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for concerted action to guarantee inter-bank lending.

_______________


She declined to provide any more details about the Brown plan, which was disclosed by a G7 source who said the British leader sent a letter to G7 counterparts urging them to issue a set of similar national guarantees aimed at restoring trust in the global market for bank funding.

_______________


Perino said Paulson also will focus on the Treasury's coordinated actions with other federal regulators to tackle "the four key challenges in our financial markets today: confidence, capital, systemic risk, and liquidity."

The Treasury will host the finance ministers and central bank governors of Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Friday ahead of semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Well, I feel better now . . . .


UPDATE: Now the party's getting even bigger! What shall we wear, what shall we wear ? ? ? ?