Facing Federal Probe, JPMorgan Exits Municipal Swaps
Business Standard (5 Sep 2008)
“JPMorgan Chase & Co will stop selling interest-rate swaps to government borrowers in the $2.6 trillion US munic…

My focus during the presidential elections — as it has been for the last three elections — is on helping you understand what you can do to protect your assets before, during and after the election, …

If it is bothering you that the price of everything that is losing value is up and the price of everything that is increasing in value is down, Eric Sprott’s latest may help you stay grounded.

The Ph…

Fighting Foreclosure: Subprime Borrowers Battle (and Beat) Lenders in Court
By Amanda Stutt – Village Voice (3 Sep 2008)
Excerpt: “If the paperwork is garbage I deny it”

More and more Judges have dem…

“Deja Vu View” is our title to revive things we have written in the past that are worth revisiting given current events.

The federal government having to assume another $5 trillion in liabilities fo…

Moody’s ratings downgrades of Freddie and Fannie preferred last week are going to be bad news for insurance companies and regional and small banks who are believed to have large holdings in approximat…

Financial Permaculture Blog:
a resource for gathering information and conversations about financial permaculture

Also see: The Farm Blog

In 1989, I was serving as Assistant Secretary of Housing. The housing bubble of the 1980’s had burst, and foreclosures were rising. The mortgage insurance funds of the Federal Housing Administration…

The financial permaculture conversation continues . . .

Pebble Mine
At Gaiapoiesis – 19 Aug 2008)

Pebble Mine – at Wikipedia

This weekend, Barrons published a piece on Fannie and Freddie indicating the chances for nationalization were rising. Today, the stocks dropped like a stone.
Bailout Concerns Slam Freddie, Fannie Sha…

Charles Warns GM Farming Will End in Ecological Disaster
By Robert Booth – The Guardian (13 Aug 2008)

Bohemian Grove 2008 – July 11-27

Wikileaks: Bohemian Grove 2008 Guest List

Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 was passed by the United States Congress on July 24, 2008 and signed by Preside…

On August 12, Maureen Dowd writes in the New York Times that Hillary Clinton is planning on staging a commotion at the Democratic convention at the end of August. During the day, I keep hearing rumors…

Even Bloomberg is saying something stinks on the Bear Stearns option trading:

Bringing Down Bear Began as $1.7 Million of Options
By Gary Matsumoto – Bloomberg.com (11 Aug 2008)

Nestlé to renegotiate McCloud Deal
By David Benda – Redding News (6 Aug 2008)
“Nestle Waters North America announced Tuesday it’s pulling out of its original contract with McCloud Community Services …

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008:
An Analysis by Catherine Austin Fitts
~ Click here for the full article.

If there is to be any blessing in this housing bill, perhaps it will be to so …

In the Destruction of the Old, Let There Be the Creation of the New

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is now marketing a new documentary called I.O.U.S.A. I have only seen the trailer. Based on readin…

Gauging life by the Koolee Index
by Micheal Overall – Tulsa World.com (11 Aug 2008

The Two Great Financial Mysteries of Our Time: Missing Money and Collateral Fraud

There are two great financial mysteries in America:

where is all the missing money and how do we get it back?
…

Excerpt:

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth … later was removed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which said he had lost his objectivity. The government had asked t…

Andrew Cuomo Owes Us $5 Trillion

It is not easy to engineer the bankrupting of the American middle class and the U.S. government.

Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve banks and their members can p…

The Tapeworm Corporation Comes Out of the Closet

(Comparison Chart: Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and the DOW, 1989-2008)

Eisenhower warned us about a military industrial complex. I have read that he had …

Withholding Taxes Chart – Current through the Daily Treasury Statement dated August 4, 2008
From Matt Trivisonno’s Blog

~ Thanks to The King Report for pointing this out.

It looks like Royal Dutch Shell will end up paying about $600 million in connection with global class action lawsuits and enforcement that were triggered by its reclassifications of its oil and gas re…

Overview

I have had several requests to comment on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

This afternoon I read hundreds of pages of bill language. Essentially, my take on the bill is that …

Nation State or Investment Syndicate?

One of the instructive features of the housing bill is the nature of creditor politics that is a subtext on housing and mortgage politics these days. One invest…

Your House Is Bigger than My House

When I was Assistant Secretary of Housing – Federal Housing Commissioner, then Secretary of HUD Jack Kemp asked me to his office for a private discussion. He explai…

The Profits of Playing Ball

The housing bill brings up a number of important questions about the risks and rewards that result from government subsidy and bail outs.

One recent market commentator p…

Where Is the Collateral?

Any government official asked to come up with a workout plan for troubled financial institutions, large portfolios of financial assets and liabilities and/or places that are…

What will be the successful business models of the future? This is an important conversation and our ally at Gaia Emerging has some thoughts. This is right in line with the mission investing conversa…

This Friday, we will experience a solar eclipse. Here are links to learn more:

NASA Eclipse Web Site

Solari Eclipse of August 1, 2008 – at Wikipedia

If a Single Household Loses $250,000, a Community Loses $3.3 Billion

As someone who lives in a rural community where everyone knows everyone else, I love to see people and communities prosper. In m…

This weekend each American became liable for another approximately $2,666 of debt (and counting) to bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: Congress Backs Rescue Package
By A…

NAB Will Shock Wall Street
By Robert Gottliebsen – Business Spectator, Australia (25 Jul 2008)

To the Business Speculator, Australia:

Good piece. Thanks.

You stated that “NAB had a 55 per cent loss…

New Green Deal Same as the Last
Gaiapoiesis Blog (21 Jul 2008)

“The deep answer to all of the myriad of social justice, environmental justice, and resource depletion problems lies not in centralized …

Case-Schiller Home Prices and Consumer Confidence Index
By Natalie – Swivel Preview (10 Jul 2008)

SEC Short-Sale Rule Gets Negative Reviews
By Kara Scannell – Wall Street Journal (19 Jul 2008)

The Backbone Campaign has asked Cabinet nominees to record recommendations for candidate positions. Here’s mine as nominee for U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

Listen here >>>
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Read the tr…

We live in a flow of economic warfare. There are no markets. There are resources, politics that weave into highly complex legal and regulatory issues, as well as operational and market issues which im…

Posted On: Monday, July 14, 2008, 9:33:00 PM EST

“Receiving Share Certificates For Stocks In An IRA Without Being Penalized”
Author: Jim Sinclair

Dear CIGAs,

The following comes with a disclaimer a…

If we look at a community as a financial ecosystem with financial sustainability as one of our goals in achieving overall sustainability, one of the questions we should ask as we reduce waste is “who …

Fannie and Freddie are down again this morning…

Fed’s Discount Window Said Open to Fannie and Freddie
By Romain Bostick – Bloomberg News (11 Jul 2008)

In 1997, in my attempt to persuade US leaders…

Fannie and Freddie are down this morning:

One consensus is emerging on line that the Fed is to blame for mortgage market woes:

Who Killed the Economy? – At Portfolio.com (24 Jun 2008)

The respon…

I am quite inspired these days by the folks I am working with on sustainability issues here in Tennessee. (Example: see Financial Permaculture ) I asked one of our sustainability leaders recently for…

The inflation of the U.S. financial and mortgage finance stocks that began in the mid-1990’s with institution of the strong dollar policy, the suppression of the gold price and the movement of signifi…

View the vote tally in the Oklahoma House of Representatives

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Wikipedia on Gun Politics

The Supreme Court Opens Fire
The Economist (26 Jun 2008)

Read the Supreme Court Decision

Charlie Black, in an interview with Fortune, said “a fresh terrorist attack ‘certainly would be a big advantage to him [John McCain].'” Black also “said that the December assassination of former Pakis…

Here is the year-to-date price change in commodities and stocks:

Crude oil up 43%
Ethanol up 21%
Heating oil up 44%
Natural gas up 77%
Unleaded gas up 40%
Cattle up 1%
Corn up 59%
Soy beans up; 26%
W…

Money High Street

By Mark Nestmann

For many years, I’ve advocated keeping valuable items in private vaults, rather than safety deposit boxes. A raid June 2 on three private vaults in London has le…

I just love reporters who take the time to dig into financial statements and come up with the truffles to be found there. I posted Jonathan Weil’s gem from Boomberg this week on the Fed’s treatment of…

Most Recent Hillary Clinton Stories:

The Clinton Scandals
What You Won’t Find in The Clinton Museum and Library
The Real Divide on Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama & Vanna White
Th…

Catherine’s post – “What’s Up in Alabama?” has been updated. ~ View it here.

Wind farms that use spinning blades and turbines to generate electricity have the undesirable side effect of disrupting the operation of radar systems. The JASON defense science advisory group was ask…

A new report from the Bank of International Settlements indicates that global outstanding derivatives just keep growing in amount.

Highlights of International Banking and Financial Market Activity – …

I first met Jim Johnson in the early 1990’s. I was a great admirer of his predecessor at Fannie Mae, David Maxwell. David had recruited Jim from Lehman Brothers to serve as Vice-Chairman at Fannie Mae…

Money Supply at 5 Jun 2008
St. Louis Federal Reserve Report

~ Previous blog posts on MZM: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

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Adjusted Monetary Base
St. Louis Federal Reserve Report

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Water Crisis to be Biggest World Risk
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard – London Telegraph (6 Jun 2008)
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Just 17% Say Federal Government Represents Will of the People
Rasmussen Reports (3 Jun 2008)

Just 17% of voters say that the federal government represents the will of the American people. A Rasmussen…

Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
By Russell Mokhiber & Robert Weissman – Multinational Monitor.org (Nov/Dec 2007)

“A November 2007 Harris poll found that less tha…

From Phil Cubeta – At GiftHub.org:

Getting Your Philanthropy Advice from a Loan Shark?
(31 May 2008)

Mr. Repo Man as Philanthropic Advisor
(31 May 2008)

Total Borrowings of Depository Institutions from the Fed – 1910 to present:

Rob Kirby wrote to the Wall Street Journal earlier this week:

Kate Kelly:

Congratulations on your article, “Fear, Rumors Touched Off Fatal Run on Bear Stearns.

Quite a story you’ve written there….

The proprietor of GiftHub.org has his next comment for us:

Read the full article here.

Oh, my.

Terrorizing honest government regulators and their contractors in life threatening ways, seizing and stealing their software tools and databases providing public access to transparency regard…

If you are curious to know more about the headlines regarding losses on auction rate securities, here is a new lawsuit filed against UBS that outlines some of the background and issues.

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Good news! The Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor has announced the April Producer Price Index. You will be delighted to hear their finding that gasoline prices decreased 4.6 p…

Rob Kirby of Financial Sense discusses his conversation with Catherine about the demise of Bear Stearns and related events.

The Next Shoe to Drop
By Rob Kirby – Financial Sense WrapUp (19 May 2008)…

Dmitry Orlov’s book “Reinventing Collapse” is an excellent introduction to the de-industrialization that numerous areas of the world have experienced, written for Americans interested in preparing for…

One of the signs watched to determine risks of inflation or deflation is the relationship of current commodities prices to those expressed in future contracts. Here are two words we are going to be se…

I was speaking with Dennis Bernstein of Flashpoints about our show, Community Business, which we do each Wednesday night. We were talking about Solari Audio seminar, “The REAL Economic Hit Men” I me…

Update:

Men’s Health ranks Birmingham as one of the four most impotent cities in the country. Could this help explain the problems in Alabama?
Impotence Hits You Where You Live
Men’s Health.com
~ Vie…

Human Flourishing in a Constitutional Republic
By Phil Cubeta – Gift Hub (4 May 2008)

Two Gems From Gift Hub
Catherine Austin Fitts Blog Post – Solari (2 Aug 2007)

I find Peter Barnes proposals in Capitalism 3.0 to be/have:

1. Well intended. That’s important. Smart people, who are willing to try to figure out what is going on, communicate and collaborate, can…