The Importance of the Navy
Friedman argues America’s power on the world stage will actually increase in the 21st Century for three major reason:
The immense size of the U.S. economy: The current crisis is painful and America’…
Novavax (NVAX) Up 25% on Flu
Novavax Annual Proxy
Novavax Lead Investors
The Unknown Knowns
Albert Bates
PRUDEN: A Pandemic of Panic — Are We Dead Yet?
Washington Times (28 Apr 09)
The Swine Flu Pandemic—Fact or Fictio…
The World's Best Places to Live in 2009
In Mercer Consultings annual Quality of Living Survey, Europe once again dominates the list of 215 countries around the world. The top three cities are, by rank, Vienna, Zurich (last years winner), …
"Goldman Sachs-NJ Gets 747 Fly-by"
Click here for “official story”
Wall Street Journal (28 Apr 09)
Turk on Gold
“The outlook for gold remains bullish. Central bank ‘printing presses’ are running at full steam trying to keep up with those governments around the world that are spending more money than they have o…
Forget Gold; 1 oz Opium = $10,000
read article
Lots of Tax Hikes Coming in 2011
By Joan Pryde, Senior Tax Editor, the Kiplinger letters
“But there may be a silver lining, at least for big corporations: Congress will consider lowering the 35% top corporate tax rate by several per…
Quarterly Report to Congress from SIGTARP
Quarterly Report to Congress from SIGTARP: Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is now available.
America's Top 10 Urban Farms
More than a decade ago, Mary Seton Corboy and her partner, Tom Sereduk, transformed a toxic industrial site into a thriving 1-acre urban farm.
read article . . .
PPT…Where are you?
PLEASE help me find the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets. The Working Group, which is also affectionately known as the “Plunge Protection Team,” was a favorite of former Treasur…
More Creative Municipal Finance
As part of $6.9 Billion “Build America” Bond Issue, California Issues Taxable Bonds to Fund Stem Cell Research.
. . . read more
Pulitzer in Drama
The wonderfully talented American playwright Lynn Nottage has won this year’s Pulitzer Prize in Drama—the play explores the systematic destruction of the local community through the rapes of the w…
Freddie Mac Official Found Dead
Reports: Freddie Mac official found dead
Wednesday April 22, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, was found dead at his home Wednesday morning …
Ten Principles For a Black Swan-proof World
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
1. What is fragile should break early while it is still small. Nothing should ever become too big to fail. Evolution in economic life helps those with the maximum amount …
Audit the Federal Reserve
read article
Guantanamo Prisoner Calls Al Jazeera
“Since Obama took charge he has not shown us that anything will change.”
– Guantanamo captive Mohammad el Gharani
Excerpt:
Gharani, now 21, has been held at Guantanamo for seven years. He was order…
Criminal Probe of Death of 21 Polo Ponies Opened
View Article
Vets Ponder What Killed 21 Ponies at U.S. Open Polo Championship
Daily News (21 April 09)
Army: 3 Vials of Virus Samples Missing From Maryland Facility
CNN.com/US (22 April 09)
Scrut…
Knowledge Maps
NetAge OrgScope provides a tool for mapping trees and networks for collaboration.
Biodynamic Gardening Workshop
The host of this workshop is a personal friend of mine. If you are in the Ashland area, you might want to take it in.
It’s springtime! And I urge everyone everywhere to search out the many activiti…
In From the Network . . .
Two (unrelated) headlines appeared next to each other on Yahoo today:
White House Will Not Prosecute CIA Officials for Waterboarding
Yahoo.com (16 Apr 09)
Not On the Menu: Pizza Workers Charged in P…
Meet Susan Boyle
47 year old Susan Boyle wows the judges with her performance in the auditions for Britains Got Talent, singing “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables.
Susan Boyle – Singer – Britains Got Talent 200…
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs is very much in the news. The most astute comment on Goldman these days comes from a taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur:
“Why does Goldman Sachs run your government? What’s wrong with A…
Anybody Seen Our Gold?
GATA Renews Requests to Treasury, Fed for Gold Data
Responding to President Obama’s instruction to government agencies of January 21 this year, seeking greater openness in government, GATA today re…
Gov. Perry Backs Resolution Affirming Texas Sovereignty
“I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state,” Gov. Perry said. “T…
Estonia's Bank of Happiness: Trading Good Deeds
From dog-walking to rubbish clearance, civic-minded Estonians can now draw on a virtual Bank of Happiness which trades in good deeds. Anjana Ahuja reports from Tallinn
On one level, it was just a…
Spotless Days
“The lack of sunspots in 2008, made it a century-level year in terms of solar quiet. Remarkably, sunspot counts for 2009 have dropped even lower. As of March 31st, there were no sunspots on 78 of t…
The Real Deal on Somalia Pirates
YouTube Video
Ask ‘But Why?’ (11 April 09)
Liquidating Thy Neighbor-Part II
Morgan Keegan defended itself today against the NY Times report which we commented on yesterday, titled Liquidating Thy Neighbor – Part I.
I do agree with Morgan Keegan’s spokesman that this was …
Homegrown Stimulus
While the wheels of state bureaucracy grind away on how to use stimulus funds and how much of those funds to accept, some communities are taking matters into their own hands.
According to the “Advers…
Liquidating Thy Neighbor – Part I
LEWISBURG, Tenn. — Five years ago, this small factory town was struggling to pay the interest on a bond for new sewers. Bob Phillips, Lewisburg’s part-time mayor and full-time pharmacist, was ur…
Community Business
In my segment on Flashpoints Radio with Dennis Bernstein. April 8, 2009, I address real levels of unemployent and describe why the financial fraud is not limited to Washington and Wall Street – fraudu…
What Did Newt Say About Electromagnetic Pulse Weapons?
YouTube (05 April 09)
Continue reading “Retracted” in The Raw Story
Electromagnetic Pulse from Wikipedia
To Make Newt Feel Better: "You Can't Handle the Truth"
From A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise.
Communities Print Their Own Currency To Keep Cash Flowing
View the full article at USA Today . . .
Eliot Spitzer with Fareed Zakaria on CNN
A four part video series at YouTube
10×10
The 10×10 website
“Every hour, 10×10 scans the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources, and performs an elaborate process of weighted linguistic analysis on the text contained in th…
From A Network Member
This in this morning:
“My construction friend said he talked to two separate people who had been to Chernobyl recently and asked how things were there. They both separately said concrete is constan…
Paul Stamets: 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World
Fungi Perfecti (fun ji’ per fect’ i)
fungi.com
Latest from shadowstats.com
Click each image to view larger ones.
From Shadow Government Statistics ~ John Williams
Harvard Derivatives Whiz Fired For Emailing Larry Summers About "Frightening" Trades?
“A former quantitative analyst at Harvard Management Company, the university’s once-vaunted endowment manager, tells the Harvard Crimson she was fired for voicing concern to then-university president …
Should Obama Control the Internet?
“Should President Obama have the power to shut down domestic Internet traffic during a state of emergency?
Senators John Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) think so. On Wednesday th…
Oldie but Goodie From shadowstats.com
Hyperinflation Special Report
Shadow Government Statistics (8 Apr 08)
Excerpt: “Howard J. Ruff, who has been writing about these problems and issues since Nixon closed the Gold window, rightly argu…
DJIA "Bear's Eye View"
View larger image here.
Evans-Pritchard on G-20
A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders amounts to revolution in the global financial order.
“We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject …
WSJ on Treasury's Very Private Asset Fund
The investment community was already suspicious last week when Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled his plan, announcing that Treasury would select four or five companies as “fund managers” to purcha…
Kauffman Economic Bloggers Survey
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (April 1, 2009) — America’s top economics bloggers—a diverse group of writers with wide-ranging intellectual and political vantage points—largely agree on one important issu…
G20 Communiqué
This is the full version of the communique agreed by the G20 group in London today.
1. We, the Leaders of the Group of Twenty, met in London on 2 April 2009.
2. We face the greatest challenge to the…
The Queen Gives Orwell's 1984 to President of Mexico
At Buckingham Palace, Felipe Calderon was presented with a first edition of George Orwell’s nightmarish book, which tells of a totalitarian regime and coined the concept Big Brother.
The Royal Hou…
G This and G That
The G-20 Meeting in London this week is a reminder that many of us do not know exactly who it is that is getting together to squabble our way to one world government. Here are definitions of G-7, G-…
DOJ Litigation Case Management System
One of the great mysteries is who controls, uses and really has access to the Department of Justice’s information and data systems. The idea of private corporations building and managing such systems…
Vandana Shiva: The Future of Food and Seed
Click Here to View
Max Keiser on Bankers Bonuses Face Off – 27 March 2009
Max Keiser: ….they (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan et al) are systematically undermining the entire system. They are creating a mechanism to carve out equity and capital for themselves at the expense of …
Geithner's Plan: $1 Trillion for Shredding?
Jim Sinclair of MineSet.com reports that James Galbraith, author of The Geithner Plan Won’t Work, was on Bloomberg TV this morning and noted the mortgage collateral fraud that I have been warning ab…
A Comment on Geithner's Plan
By Carolyn Betts
I am an attorney who was working in Washington with RTC during the S&L crisis, so I know something about “toxic asset” sales. I have been poking around the legal and contractin…
Details on Treasury Public Private Partnership Investment Program
From The U.S. Department of the Treasury Press Room
Treasury Press Release
Fact Sheet (PDF)
White Paper and FAQs
Catherine’s comments on her Community Business segment on Flashpoints on how to …
Attack on Credit Unions?
Credit unions have provided a serious alternative to banking with big banks. Their strength in their communities commands a market share that the big banks want. So this news is ominous. Given what I …
The Goldman Trough
I must say, it sure pays to have the Secretary of Treasury working for you and your partners instead of for the citizens or the good of the whole.
I just finished reading Goldman Sach’s latest Form 1…
How is Your Pension Fund Doing?
With special thanks to one of our favorite sources, Jim Willie at Golden Jackass, here is a roundup of some of articles that indicate the growing challenges faced by pension funds.
Ever wonder why yo…
Flawed Food Safety Bills in Congress
We have received many e-mails about the Food Safety Bills introduced in Congress. We share your concerns. One of our most trusted sources on food issues is the Weston A. Price Foundation. Here is thei…
Is the Baltic Dry Index Rising?
Wikipedia on the Baltic Dry Index
Great Time to Cut Operations at the SEC, Huh?
“Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro warned yesterday that the agency will “make significant cuts in its current operations” this year unless Congress authorizes it to spend more…
Groundwater Resources of the World
View larger map here.
Find this map at: WhyMap.org
Stewart vs Cramer
“You knew what the banks were doing and yet were touting it for months and months – the entire network was. And so now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy once in a lifetime tsunami that nobod…
The Fed Did Indeed Cause the Housing Bubble
To: The Wall Street Journal
Re: “The Fed Didn’t Cause the Housing Bubble”
By: Alan Greenspan, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve
Dated: Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Ladies and Gentlemen:
In hi…
Hersh on Government Assassinations
Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh Describes ‘Executive Assassination Ring’
Minnesota Post (11 March 09)
Catherine Austin Fitts at GoldRush 21 (August 2005)
Catherine Austin Fitts speaking at the GoldRush 21 conference held in Dawson City, Yukon Canada on August 7-9 2005 – predicts current crisis and the importance of Main Street to real solutions.
Dirty, Dirty…
Congress Saves on Online Contracts: Senate Makes Major Concession in Stripping Internet Posting Provision from Stimulus
Internet junkies and wonks alike may have jumped the gun in looking forward to …
The Illustrations the New York Times Paid Money Not To Print
This Kissinger image (by David Levine) is one of 320 illustrations—by 142 of the world’s most acclaimed contemporary artists – that The New York Times itself originally commissioned for its Op-Ed …
Confiscation = Government Run
If the Administration wants to provide bailout relief, here is a simple solution. Waive taxes on 401ks and IRAs and allow Americans to withdraw all monies tax free so they can reinvest in real asset…
Bailout Mo’ Money
We thought we would dig out the data to update Bloomberg’s calculation of November 2008 that totaled the bank bailouts at $8.5 trillion.
Here is our list of additional commitments:
I. $750 Billi…
Cash On The Sidelines
Click here to view larger charts.
Most Foreclosures Pack Into a Few Counties
STATE-BY-STATE GRAPHIC: Foreclosures in 2008
WASHINGTON — More than half of the nation’s foreclosures last year took place in 35 counties, a sign that the financial crisis devastating the nationa…
Sound Advice From Don Coxe
“Believing that you could put together bad stuff with good stuff, mix it up, and make it great stuff, is the debauched, debased, phony belief system that brought down Wall Street.
Believing that you…
The Race to Zero
“I was standing there, about to put a dollar bill into a vending machine, and it hit me: I could use my dollar to buy a pack of gum or a package of mints, or else I could use my dollar to buy a shar…
Brother, Can You Spare a Trillion?
The full page ad in Ruppert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal for its “Future of Finance Initiative” starts off by saying that the financial system has stopped working.
I completely disagree.
The fina…
Beware the Privatization of State and Local Assets
At its beginning, the ruling powers in Great Britain embarked on one of the most sustained efforts to destroy community life ever undertaken.
From 1770 to 1830 some 3,280 enclosure bills were passed …
Proposed U.S. Budget
The new budget tells the story. The U.S. government collects taxes from Americans and debt tithes globally and then gives the money to the banks and funds the military.
Proposed US Budget
Global Re…
Sam Smith Moves To Maine
The Progressive Review is one of the finest news sources around. It’s esteemed publisher is proof positive that not everyone who graduates from Harvard goes along with the game. Sam’s comments on le…
Numbers in the News
Mathematicians Discover the Largest Number
Consent of the Governed Blog (11 Feb 2009)
PALO ALTO, CA – An international mathematics research team announced today that they had discovered a new integ…
The China Question
There is a Internet rumor that the U.S. has granted the Chinese the power of eminent domain if the U.S. defaults on its debt. This does indeed raise the question: “What is the U.S. giving the Chine…
Letter to the Editor
Editor, The Nation
Ladies and Gentlemen:
On February 13th, you published “The Peterson Foundation Responds” by David Walker, CEO of The Peterson Foundation (See Peterson Foundation Tax Return, Pet…
Financial Coup d'Etat & Your 401k: Uh-oh
Now that social security is being looted, the time has come to replenish it with the remaining balances in our 401k’s.
The George Orwell award to Dean Baker, who thinks the solution is to give the go…
Bubba Goes Green; Fox is Miffed
This first video is a documentary which describes a Southern Christian community exploring the creation of an ethanol business for energy independence and other businesses to build local self-sufficie…
The Data Beast – Part VI
In Stanley Kubrick’s thriller, Eyes Wide Shut, we watch as Dr. Bill Harford (played by Tom Cruise) attends a private party given by a secret society whose members have the power, among other things,…
Looting Social Security
William Greider of The Nation has written a excellent description of the coming assault on the social safety net.
Trillions have been stolen, yet rather than recapture it and hold people accountab…
Bank Nationalization
A question in from a network member:
So I would like your take on the situation: Is the movement to nationalize banks:
a way to increase productivity and predictability – by eliminating a
whole la…
Seed Monopolists
From “Planting Seeds” in The Guardian in January:
“Bill and Melinda Gates hate controversy, but the world’s top philanthropists do seem to be moving ever deeper into political lobbying. They’ve jus…
Kiss an Entreprenuer Today!
Did you know that from 1980-2005, firms less than five years old accounted for all net job growth in the United States? This statistic is one of many from a great new Research Roundup from the Kauff…