Archive for May, 2007

Top Picks ~ Week of May 28, 2007

Top Picks,
May 26, 2007 at 7:05 pm

US Buy-out Groups in Record $82bn Bids [Sign in to read Full Article]
By Francesco Guerrera - Financial Times.com (May 28, 2007)

Feds Lost $1.3Trillion in 2006
Foundation for Economic Education (May 29, 2007)

Denial: The 51st State
By Paul Levy

Homework Sucks: The Case Against Homework
By Cory Doctorow - boingboing (May 27, 2007)

Rigged Markets
From aljazeera.net (May 19, 2007)

Cliche Challenge - The Progressive Review
How various clicnes of our times are faring based on the number of references on Google over a three-month period

Fed Offers Explanation for $5billion Surge But Fails to Provide Documentation
By Ed Haas - muckraker report (May 28, 2007)

The Education of Cindy Sheehan
On cryptogon.com (May 29, 2007)

The GERM, or, Commie Dollars [Register to view Full Article]
By Chris Sanders - Sanders Research (May 29, 2007)

Cindy Sheehan ‘Resigns’ as Protest Leader, Drained by Biting Criticism
By Angela K. Brown - Canadian Press (May 29, 2007)

Google is Watching You
By Robert Verkalk - The Independent (May 24, 2007)

Project Turquoise is Goldman’s Scheme to Put Markets in the Dark
By Norma Cohen & Anuz Gangahar - Financial Times, London - May 24, 2007

Life on Our Small Farm in New Zealand
Farmlet.co.nz

MapLight.org - Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection

A World of Possible Financial Futures

Top Picks ~ Week of May 21, 2007

Top Picks,
May 22, 2007 at 11:05 am

The Era of China
Sprott Asset Management (Apr 2007)

Welcome to Speed Trap Exchange
List of Top Ten Speed Traps in the US

Goldman Puts New Meaning into the Word ‘Private’
Financial Times - London (May 24, 2007)

Bank of New York Sued by Russian Customs for $22Bln for Money Laundering
By Anatoly Medetsky & Miriam Elder - Moscow Times (May 18, 2007)

Chinese Businesses Fear Closure if Yuan Continues to Rise
By Joe Mcdonald - AP (May 20, 2007)

China to Buy 10% Stake in Blackstone While Yielding Voting Rights
By Francesco Guerrera - Financial Times, London (May 20, 2007)

BOC’s Dodge: Single North American Currency Could be Possible
By Stephen Wisnefski - FXStreet.com (May 21, 2007)

MineWeb: Much Dehedging in 1st Q, a Lot More to Come
By Rhoona O’Connell - MineWeb (May 21, 2007)

Australia’s Drought Puts Squeeze on Mining
By Elisabeth Behrman - Wall Street Journal (May 21, 2007)

Derivatives Grow Explosively, BIS Reports
By Hamish Risk - Bloomberg News (May 21, 2007)

Pilotless Police Drone Takes Off
BBC News (May 21, 2007)

Ron Paul’s YouTube Channel - May 21, 2007
As of 6:01pmET today, Congressman Ron Paul’s YouTube channel has 8,000 subscribers; giving Dr. Paul a commanding first-place position among all presidential candidates. Senator Barack Obama remains in second place with 5,749 subscribers.

Blanchard Note: Record Central Bank Gold Sales Offset Miners’ Dehedging
By Chris Powell - GATA (May 22, 2007)

The White House Navigates a Falling Dollar
National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive –
National Continuity Policy

Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet
By Cornelia Dean - New York Times (May 22, 2007)

Long Creek Herbs - Nail Fungus Soak

Hydroelectric Power is Renewable Energy [Sign in to read full article]
By Carlton Meyer - Sanders Research (May 22, 2007)

Trickle of Chinese Money Could Become Investment Food
By Florian Gimbel - Financial Times, London (May 21, 2007)

From Sam Smith’s “Great American Repair Manual, 1997″

Daily Musings,
May 14, 2007 at 1:05 pm

In the early 19th century, the little British Channel island of Guernsey faced a problem. Its sea walls were crumbling. its roads were too narrow, and it was already heavily in debt. There was little employment and people were leaving for elsewhere.

Instead of going still further into debt, the island government simply
issued 4,000 pounds in state notes to start repairs on the sea walls as
well as for other needed public works. More issues followed and twenty
years later the island had, in effect, printed nearly 50,000 pounds.
Guernsey had more than doubled its money supply without inflation.

A report of the island’s States Office in June 1946 noted that island
leaders frequently commented that these public works could not have been
carried out without the issues, that they had been accomplished without
interest costs, and that as a result “the influx of visitors was
increased, commerce was stimulated, and the prosperity of the Island
vastly improved.” By 1943, nearly a half million pounds worth of notes
belonged to the public and was so valued that much of it was being
hoarded in people’s homes, awaiting the island’s liberation from the
Germans.

About the same time that Guernsey started to fix its sea walls the town
of Glasgow, Scotland, borrowed 60,000 pounds to build a fruit market.
The Guernsey sea walls were repaid in ten years, the fruit market loan
took 139. In the first part of the 20th century, Glasgow paid over a
quarter million pounds in interest alone on this ancient project.

How did Guernsey avoid the fiscal disaster that conventional economics
prescribed for it? First and foremost by understanding that when you
build roads or sea walls or colleges or houses, you are not reducing
your society’s wealth. In fact, if you do it right, you are creating
something that will add to its wealth. The money that was created was
simply backed by public works rather than gold or “full faith and
credit.” It was, in fact, based on something more solid than the dollar
bills in our wallets today. In contrast, tacking on an interest charge
to public works — as we do in the US — creates no new wealth, but
merely transfers claims on existing wealth from debtors to creditors.

Great American Political Repair Manual

Top Picks ~ Week of May 14, 2007

Top Picks,
May 14, 2007 at 12:05 pm

Cox Confirms Possibility of Sea Change in SEC Regulation of Foreign BDs, Exchanges
By Rachel McTague - Bureau of National Affairs (May 14, 2007)

Profit As We Know It Could Be Lost With New Accounting Statements
By David Reilly - Wall Street Journal [Full Article - Subscribers Only]

From Wayne Madsen Report: Connections Between Sun Company Shipyard and CIA Arms Shipping
May 7, 2007 - Scroll down to see full report
Click here for more about Sun Shipbuilding

The Secret Stock Market - ‘Dark Pools’ and other New-Age Exchanges Rewrite the Rules, Under the Radar
By David Weidner - MarketWatch (Mar 14, 2007)

Amberjac Plug-In Prius: Hail the 130mpg Car
By James Ruppert - The Independent, UK (Apr 4, 2006)

There’s a Lot of Money Floating Around with Nothing To Do
By James Mackintosh - Financial Times London (Mary 12, 2007) [Sign in to read Full Article]

No Organic Bee Losses
From informationliberation.com (May 10, 2007)

Silver Prices Have Idaho’s Silver Valley Companies Booming
By Nicholas K. Geranios - Helena Independent Record (May 12, 2007)

MSNBC Poll - Vote on the California Republican Debate
ABC Poll - Which Republican Came Out On Top?
YouTube - Ron Paul in Debate at Reagan Library

Greenspan ‘Cringed’ at Strong Dollar Talk
CNN Money (May 15, 2007)

No Freedom of Info on Plunge Protection Team
By John Crudele - New York Post (May 15, 2007)

OutsourceCongress.org
E-mail Congress Staff Direct

Central Bankers Fear the Monsters They Created — Hedge Funds
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - London Telegraph (May 14, 2007)

Independent Cooperatives Fight Nationalizing Mines in Bolivia
By Dan Keane - AP (May 13, 2007)

Friends of Locally Owned Water
Felton Local Water — Local Control

Mongolia’s Gold Rush: Blessing or Curse?
By Evan Osnos - Chicago Tribune (May 13, 2007)

Foreign Bondholders Seen Undeterred by Weak Dollar
By Lucia Mutikani - Reuters (May 11, 2007)

Spain is Latest to Try to Clobber Gold
By Chris Powell - GATA (May 11, 2007)

Fears Over Treasury Losing Control of Gold Left in its Vaults
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - London Telegraph (Apr 17, 2007)

Hillary’s Mother-F’ing Tour Business
By Greg Palast - Scoop Independent News (May 8, 2007)

Michael Moore Wants to Investigate Treasury Department
Reuters News (May 16, 2007)

Exchange-Traded Funds are Great Tools for Short-Sellers
By Ian Salisbury - Dow Jones Newswires (May 14, 2007)

How Jenkens & Gilchrist Lost Its Way
By Katie Fairbank & Terry Maxon - Dallas Morning News (Apr 1, 2007)

Spain Risks Crisis Over Vanishing FX and Gold Reserves
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - The London Telegraph (May 16, 2007)

Aerosol Crimes (aka Chemtrails)
By Clifford E. Carnicom - Google Video (Jun 1, 2005)

China Reluctant to Turn its Markets Over to MorganChase, Goldman Sachs
By Richard McGregor and Sundeep Tucker - Financial Times (May 17, 2007)

NYPost Prods Treasury for Answers on Government’s Rigging Stock Market
By John Crudele - New York Post (May 17, 2007)

The Militarization of Neuroscience
By Hugh Gusterson - Bulletin of Atomic Scientists (Apr 27, 2007)

Satellite Wars
By Carlton Meyer - Sanders Research (May 10, 2007) [Sign in to read Full Article]

Top Picks ~ Week of May 7, 2007

Top Picks,
May 7, 2007 at 7:05 pm

Doug Casey: GATA is Right
By Doug Casey - Casey Research (May 2007)

The Last Confessions of E. Howard Hunt
By Erik Hedegaard - Rolling Stone

Carlyle Group to Acquire philosophy, Inc.
Press Release (Jan 31, 2007)

New Hampshire Town Bans Corporate Water Withdrawals
Susquehanna - The newsletter of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (Jun 1, 2006)

UBS Investment Bank Launches - UBS Global Warming Index
UBS Media Release (Apr 24, 2007)

Bee Colony Collapse Disorder - Where is it Heading?
Celsias.com (Mar 15, 2007)

The Evolution of Targeted Currencies and an Introduction to OS-Earth
Targeted Currencies Network

Social Lending Gains Net Interest
By Katie Ledger - BBC Click (May 4, 2007)

The Spirituality of Collapse
By Carolyn Baker - Speaking Truth to Power (May 5, 2007)

Bush is Funding al-Qaeda, Making Him an Unlawful Combatant
By Dave Lindorff - The Smirking Chimp (Feb 27, 2007)

You Can’t Stop a Tidal Wave with a Fork
By David Silverman - salon.com (May 9, 2007)

Gold’s Infallible Indicator is Screaming ‘Buy!’
By James Turk - kitco.com (May 7, 2007)

UBS to Shut Hedge Fund Unit After Mortgage Market Losses
FinancialNews online.us (May 4, 2007)

Dick Cheney’s Banker Sees World Bubble
By William Pesek - Bloomberg.com (May 3, 2007)

Loan Derivatives Poised for Explosive Growth
By Paul J. Davies - Financial Times, London (May 3, 2007)

Asia Will Start its Own Currency Pool so it Can Dump IMF
By Shamim Adam - Bloomberg News (May 3, 2007)
Continue reading ‘Top Picks ~ Week of May 7, 2007′

Top Picks ~ Week of April 30, 2007

Top Picks,
May 2, 2007 at 10:05 am

9/11 and the Evidence
By Paul Craig Roberts - Information Clearing House (Mar 27, 2007)

The Growth Consensus Unravels
By Jonathan Rowe - dollars&sense (Jul-Aug 1999)

Australia Suffers Worst Drought in 1,000 Years
By John Vidal - GuardianUnlimited (Nov 8, 2006)

Dixie Chicks - Shut up & Sing
The Movie

Beijing Fund Pulls Back from China Stock Market
By James T. Areddy - Wall Street Journal (Apr 27, 2007)

Vermonters’ Support for Secession Increases Dramatically
Second Vermont Republic - Green Mountain Independence Movement

Super-Imperalism: The Shameful Legacy of Liberal Democrats
By Carolyn Baker - carolynbaker.org (May 1, 2007)

Feds Accuse E-Gold of Money Laundering, Unlicensed Banking
Chris Powell submission - GATA (Apr 29, 2007)

Lie. Conceal. Fabricate. Stephen Harper’s $35billion Income Trust Scandal
From the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors

Are GM Crops Killing Bees?
By Gunther Latsch - Spiegel Online (Mar 22, 2007)

Iran, China and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Need to register to see full article.
By Andrea Crandall - Sanders Research (Apr 19, 2007)

In a Major Step, Saudi Arabia Agrees to Write Off 80% of Iraqi Debt
By Steven Mufson & Robin Wright - Washington Post (Apr 18, 2007)

Government Trust Fund and Deficit/Surplus Report
By Michael Hodges - Grandfather Economic Report Series

Barrick’s Dirty Secrets: Communities Respond to Gold Mining’s Impacts Worldwide
CorporateWatch (May 1, 2007)

Membership by Inheritance Only Need to register to see full article.
By Linda Minor - Sanders Research (Apr 30, 2007)

European Junk Bond Supply Grows Dramatically
By David Oakley & Saskia Scholtes - Financial Times, London (May 2, 2007)

Blanchard Research: Central Banks are Biggest Factors in Gold Market
Submitted by Chris Powell - GATA (May 2, 2007)

Hedge Fund Risk Worst Since LTCM Crash, Fed Report Says
By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - Reuters (May 2, 2007)

Increased Central Bank Gold Sales No Reason for Concern
By Jon A. Nones - ResourceInvestor (May 2, 2007)