The newly appointed head of the TARP reassures his buddies at Wall Street that the caps on executive pay are placed there just to fool the public and are, in fact, meaningless.
The next meltdown: Credit card debt
The troubles sound familiar. Borrowers falling behind on their payments. Defaults rising. Huge swaths of loans souring. Investors getting burned. But forget the now-familiar tales of mortgages gone bad. The next horror for beaten-down financial firms is the $950 billion worth of outstanding credit-card debt-much of it toxic. Link
Why do so many credit card companies have a Wilmington, Delaware, address?
[I]n the early 1980s, Delaware attempted to lure large banks away from New York and other large financial companies by dramatically redrafting tax laws for banking industries. Laws also changed to allow banks to charge any interest they wished on credit cards. Link
Pentagon planning ambush
Looks like the Defense Department is getting ready to present a president-elect Obama with a tough choice, either abandon domestic spending priorities in favor of a huge and pointless hike in defense spending, or else open your administration with a politically bruising battle with the top brass. Link
NY sends absentee voters ‘Osama’ ballots
Hundreds of absentee voters from Rensselaer County, NY, were sent ballots offering them the exciting opportunity to cast their vote for Democratic candidate “Barack Osama.” Election officials are saying it’s an honest mistake. Except that the ballots in question were supposed to be proofread by at least six people. So, in other words, election fraud.
How Bluetooth surveillance works
Is anyone watching you now? If you have Bluetooth enabled on your smart phone, someone might know exactly where you are. HowStuffWorks.com
IMF warns of meltdown; France says Europe to act
The IMF warned the world’s financial system was near meltdown and France promised that a meeting of European leaders in Paris will detail measures to keep a market panic from triggering the most severe global downturn in decades.
On Outsourcing, the Economy and the United States
If you think the current world economic crisis was caused by poor people with bad loans you need to read this.
Ron Paul has the last laugh
I’ve noticed lately that a lot of people seem to have discovered that Barack Obama is a socialist.
There’s a lot of that going around.
Socialism, I mean.
The only politician that I know of on the national scene who is definitely not a socialist is Texas congressman Ron Paul. And look where that got him. During the presidential primary campaign Paul was treated as a laughingstock by his fellow Republicans for such stances as his call for young people to be permitted to opt out of Social Security.
Florida court orders man to jail- without bond- for failure to plant fresh sod
That’s right folks, teachers who rape kids get bond. Thieves get bond. Parents who beat their children half to death get bond. Even those suspected of murder are sometimes able to post bond. No so in the case of green grass. [The Weekly Vice]
The “silent” bank run
What if there were a run on a bank and no one knew? In recent days some U.S. media have focused on a “silent run” on the deposits of Wachovia bank, which is now being taken over, after a bailout plan stalled and its rival Washington Mutual was seized. Link
Army orders pain ray trucks
The Army is buying five of the truck-mounted systems for $25 million. But the energy weapon may face new hurdles, before it’s shipped off to the battlefield; a new report details how the supposedly non-lethal blaster could be turned into a flesh-frying killer.
Scramble to save banks as IMF warns of meltdown
Rich nations rushed to shore up the global financial system after the International Monetary Fund warned of meltdown, with Australia and New Zealand guaranteeing bank deposits and newspapers reporting plans for Britain’s biggest retail bank rescue. Link
Highlights of Paulson statement at World Bank
Highlights of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s statement Sunday to a meeting of the World Bank’s development committee, as provided by the Treasury Department.
The plans to implement martial law in America have been taking shape for decades, hidden behind “Continuity of Government” contingency planning. Now, with public outcry over the banker bailout bill at fever pitch, all of the pieces are in place for the U.S. Army to start policing American citizens.
Roosevelt’s emergency measure, which gradually restored confidence in the financial system, came after his rousing inaugural address in which he reassured Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” (A clip is below.) By contrast, this international financial rescue plan has been leaked by the most corrupt and irresponsible leader in the Western world and is presumably to be discussed tomorrow by international finance ministers at a White House meeting hosted by a leader despised by foreign leaders even more than he is by the American public. But that isn’t a constructive thought.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that the Bush administration will move ahead with a plan to buy stock in financial institutions.
A time to praise central banking?
This is truly an awful op ed from today’s WSJ. I am hoping that a bunch of us can write Letters to the Editor, so maybe one of ours will get published. The writer claims that our periodic banking panics are the fault of Thomas Jefferson, because he didn’t understand commerce and hated rich people, and thus killed (through his disciples) a strong central bank that could prevent crises. Oh, the writer also explains Jefferson got these weird views because he grew up on the backs of slaves. Link
Pentagon’s secret budget numbers
$450b over previous fig- ure; Ex-budget official calls it a ‘political document.’
Ailing Wachovia preps cruise for top brokers
As ailing Wachovia Corp. waits to see whether it will be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co. or Citigroup Inc. — possibly with taxpayers paying the tab for hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans — some of the company’s top brokers are preparing to depart Saturday for an all-expenses-paid cruise of the Greek Isles.
Military arming shadow drones, could give novice teen pilots the power to kill
Today, only seasoned, rated pilots are allowed to step behind the controls of an armed Predator or Reaper drone. However, the Defense Department is planning to change all that by fitting their low-flying Shadow counterparts with precision weapons. Currently Shadow drones function primarily as an intelligence asset-hunting down and collecting information on potential targets. They are also much lighter, smaller and cheaper than Predators or Reapers-which is why the Air Force felt comfortable allowing the most junior officers to pilot missions.
Combine that with the fact that high-end Predator pilots are severely fatigued from round-the-clock duty, and you can see why the DoD is making this move. It would expand the fleet of armed UAVs and make them cheaper to operate overall. Sure, the thought of 18 or 19 year old pilots fresh out of basic behind the controls of these machines is a bit unsettling-but it’s not like this would be the first time the US threw a teenager into battle. Plus, we are taking about unmanned vehicles looking for specific, high-value targets. There is probably less chance of major incidents involving friendly fire or civilian casualties. Link
The US government secretly holds the largest short position in silver
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs likely to be nationalized by weekend’s end
As the financial crisis threatens to spiral out of control, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is taking extraordinary steps through the extensive authority granted to him under emergency rescue legislation.
Media misstating Palin report
After hearing on the Obama Infomercial Network (MSNBC) that a bipartisan legislative committee in Alaska found Sarah Palin guilty of abuse of power, I thought I would check it out for myself. I have some expertise in this area of unlawful behavior by government officials concerning public employees.
Well, as far as I can tell, and this is breaking fast, there is no legislative finding whatsoever! In fact, the report itself recommends only some legislative changes and no penalties or sanctions that I can find.
There is a report by a lawyer named Stephen Branchflower. A committee voted to release the report but took no further action.
The gulf between what the MSM is saying about this and what actually happened is huge. It makes you wonder what else they are fibbing about.
Canada rated world’s soundest banking system
The United States, where some of Wall Street’s biggest financial names have collapsed in recent weeks, rated only 40, just behind Germany at 39, and smaller states such as Barbados, Estonia and even Namibia, in southern Africa. Link
