The first very shy tick above $34 in the last 31 years is in the history books. Will soon be followed by many more. And only $16 more to go to all time nominal highs... and ~$160 to real ones. What is truly hilarious vis-a-vis claims that the dollar is a reserve currency is that in the period in which gold has risen by 2.9%, and silver, 12.3%, the DXY has dropped by 1.45%. It would be quite amusing if Schumer's push to unpeg the CNY came true, only for the US to realize that its currency is now completely irrelevant.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Colbert Announces Bernanke To Replace Greenspan: "Advocate For Greater Fed Transparency" - 2005 Video
http://tinyurl.com/4rmcrlj
Video - Stephen Colbert announces Bernanke's appointment - 2005 - 2 minutes
Pay close attention, starting at 50 seconds, to the laughable comments on greater Fed transparency under Bernanke, and also the early (lucky) reference to Ben the deflation fighter.
Top Ten Reasons We Should All Be Protesting
10. Because Obama and Congress are just like Wisconsin Governor Walker. They cut taxes and are pretending the budget crisis must be solved by cutting Social Security and Medicare.
9. Because the banking industry just manufactured a 'foreclosure crisis' based on fraud and illegal activities, stealing millions of people's homes, throwing them out on the streets and robbing pension funds in their scheme to bundle bad debts.
8. Because whenever there's a scandal, all we get is a "bi-partisan commission" shit sandwich. Face it- both parties are hopelessly corrupt- waiting for the next Diebold election is not the answer.
7. Because the Social Security Trust Fund was funded for the upcoming boomer years, until Clinton and Bush stole from it to pay for wars and tax cuts and now the politicians are lying to us because they don't want to pay it back.
6. Because the Government gave away Trillions to bankers so they could continue to make record profits without even ensuring they help the American people one bit, and now they are coming for your Social Security to pay for it.
5. Because your government wasted or 'lost' billions in two unnecessary wars, 'lost' 2.3 Trillion at the Pentagon and the only person that ever looked into it was fired... and they are coming for your Social Security money to pay for it.
4. Because the Government has wasted billions of dollars creating a whole new BIG Government Department of Homeland Security so they could subvert the Constitution illegally spying on US citizens. Former Homeland Security Department Chertoff is now making money x-raying your family and touching your junk at the airport.
3. Because the Government refused to even look at removing profit from health care, which is a driving force causing states to go bankrupt, as well as most personal bankruptcies in the country.
2. Because Obama was supposed to be Change We Can Believe In, and yet the wars continue at full speed, with drone strikes dramatically up, military spending is higher than ever, yet the poor and the old have to 'feel the pain' in our shared sacrifice. It's fucking bullshit!
and the Number One Reason We Should All Be Protesting
1. Because the evildoers continue to loot the nation thanks to our Congress full of Useful Idiots, with one "Representative" so stupid he thinks that Guam might tip over - ROFLYAO Video
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Food for thought for Ben
The mainstream media has fi nally caught up to what every grocery shopper in America already knows -- namely that food and other retail prices are on a tear and look to be headed even higher for the rest of 2011.
Amid news that prices have risen at a 3.9 percent annual rate over the past three months, every major news broadcast this week has led with the alarming news that inflation seems to be taking hold at the checkout counter and at the gas pump, two places where consumers feel it most.
Dramatic pictures of mudslides in Australia and skyscrapers in Shanghai make for better television than static, stoic images of another likely suspect -- Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, whose loose money ways have served to pump trillions of new dollars into the world economy over the past two years.
Bernanke, not surprisingly, bristles at the notion that his weak dollar and easy money policies are increasingly inflationary here and abroad, or that he had any role in the food price inflation that has egged on freedom protesters in the Middle East.
Long gone, too, are the days when the Fed could hide behind fears of deflation to hide its re-inflationary intent.
Corporate America is also feeling the pain of Bernanke's pump-priming. In the fourth quarter of 2010, 25 percent of all S&P 500 companies saw inflation squeeze their margins, a number that will likely grow when first-quarter earnings start to come out in April.
Still, Chairman Ben continues to keep his head in the sand. In a speech in Paris before the G20 late Friday, the Fed chief went out of his way to defend his bank against accusations of fanning the inflation he continues to deny really exists in the first place.
No mention of the more than $1.6 trillion in new money the Bernanke Fed has pumped out since 2009.
Yes, much to Bernanke's chagrin, inflation seems to be taking hold much sooner than he would have liked. It now looks like prices are responding faster to the Fed's policies than the labor market is. As a result, stagflation may be the painful legacy that Bernanke leaves behind.
So much for the diet: Anti-obesity crusader Michelle Obama feasts on ribs during pricey family vacation
Obama's already under fire for going to Vail for Presidents Day
- Rush Limbaugh calls her a hypocrite for not 'following her own advice'
Michelle Obama feasted on ribs while on her skiing holiday, it has emerged.
The First Lady, who has spearheaded a campaign to change American eating habits, ate ancho-chile short ribs from a restaurant next to her luxury ski hotel in Vail, Colorado.
The Obamas have already come under fire for the vacation, with the President accused of double standards after appealing for Americans to sacrifice their holidays just days before his wife and children went on the costly skiing trip.
Nationally lampooned Obama vacation: The First Lady and daughter Sasha, 9, get their tickets scanned at the Eagle-Bahn Gondola before heading up the mountain to ski for the second day Sunday in Vail
Campaign: Michelle Obama's 'Let's Move' healthy eating campaign has been running for a year
Ribs: The Kelly Liken restaurant where the ribs were ordered (left) is right next to the Sebastian Hotel (right) in Vail, Colorado
First Lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha are on the ‘private family trip’ for Presidents' Day Weekend.
The first lady went to Restaurant Kelly Liken in Vail Village on Saturday night, dining on a braised ancho-chile short rib with hominy wild mushrooms, the Vail Daily reported.
Chef and owner Kelly Liken said: 'Yes, it's true, the first lady dined at our restaurant tonight and seemed to really enjoy it.'
Criticism: Conservative DJ Rush Limbaugh attacked the First Lady as a hypocrite for eating ribs
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh hit out at the First Lady for her choice of food on Monday.
Speaking on his radio show he said: 'The problem is, and dare I say this, it doesn't look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritional, dietary advice.
'And then we hear that she's out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving ... I'm trying to say that our First Lady does not project the image of women that you might see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue or of a woman Alex Rodriguez might date every six months or what have you.
'She's a hypocrite. Leaders are supposed to be leaders. If we're supposed to go out and eat nothing, if we're supposed to eat roots and berries and tree bark, show us how.'
The family are staying at the upscale Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms start at $650 a night and range up to more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites.
Pictured on the first day of their holiday, the First Lady's cream ski jacket was open, perhaps indicating that temperatures were not as bitter as they are in other parts of the country.
A light snow appeared to be falling on Mrs Obama and her daughter, who herself was clad in fluorescent pink snowboarding pants and a sky blue puff jacket.
Both wore gloves and hats. They were not carrying skis.
The family appear to have flown there on Air Force Two.
Luxury: The upscale Sebastian Hotel where the family are staying. The trip will cost the taxpayer thousands of dollars in security, at a time when the President is calling for spending restraint
Family time: The First Lady puts her arm around her daughter as they head for the gondola at the resort of Vail, Colorado
The trip came just days after the President tried to sell his cost-cutting budget to the American people by asking them to stay at home.
‘If you’re a family trying to cut back, you might skip going out to dinner, or you might put off a vacation,’ he said.
While Mr Obama is staying put at the White House, the rest of his family headed to Colorado – rather than visiting slopes closer to Washington in Virginia or Pennsylvania.
Their trip came despite previous criticisms over the family's extravagant vacations, including a trip last summer to Spain.
Mrs Obama also raised eyebrows when she left earlier than her husband for their annual Christmas holiday in Hawaii, incurring additional expenses estimated to be more than $97,000.
Picture postcard: The Sebastian Vail hotel in Colorado, where the Obamas are staying for a ski holiday. Rooms cost up to $2,400 a night
In August it cost taxpayers an alleged $375,000 for her security detail - and two flights on Air Force One - on a holiday to Spain with her daughter, Sasha, and 40 friends.
Although the Obamas will pay for a portion of the skiing trip, taxpayers will still shoulder many of the costs.
A motorcade of about a dozen vehicles, including at least 15 police officers, travelled from Eagle County Regional Airport to Vail on Friday night when the presidential party arrived.
Family vacation: President Obama with daughters Malia, right, Sasha, and First Lady Michelle Obama. Mr Obama has not joined his wife and daughters on this ski trip
Roads were temporarily closed to make way for the cavalcade, which arrived at the hotel at about 9.30pm.
No public events have been scheduled for the visit.
‘I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,’ said one of the president’s most outspoken critics, conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. ‘He’s got the single largest deficit in the history of the country and he’s trying to tell us that we really cut back here.’
Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife are spending the holiday weekend in the U.S. in Florida’s Key Largo resort town.
The White House said the Bidens arrived in Key Largo on Thursday night and will remain there until Monday night.
‘The First Lady and several close family friends are chaperoning their children on a ski trip. Personal expenses are being paid for by the Obamas,’ said a spokesman for the President.
Sasha, nine, and Malia, twelve, have been skiing once before, at Liberty Mountain Resort, in Carroll Valley, Pennsylvania, in February last year.
At the time, the First Lady said her family had been thrilled to discover the resort.
'You can go from 60- and 50-degree weather to being on a slope,' she said.
'Not too many places in this country you can do that and still be at the seat of power. It's kind of cool.'
U.S. to boost naval forces as China develops carrier: admiral
(Reuters) - The U.S. navy will continue to upgrade its military capabilities in the Pacific given its steadfast commitment to the region, a U.S. vice admiral said on Monday, while urging China's growing navy to avoid provocation.
China's swelling defense budgets, rapid development of advanced systems including aircraft carriers and anti-satellite missiles, and its growing naval aggression in bordering seas, have unnerved regional neighbors and the United States in recent years.
"It is our sincere hope that as China continues to develop a blue-water navy, one which may soon include an aircraft carrier, it will employ that navy in a way that is responsible and constructive," said Vice admiral Scott Van Buskirk during a visit to Hong Kong.
The vice admiral who commands the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet -- the largest forward deployed military force with up to 70 ships and 300 aircraft -- also urged China not to utilize such military hardware in a "threatening or provocative manner."
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month a U.S. military presence in the Pacific is essential to restrain Chinese assertiveness.
Following on from Gate's comments that China's military advances in cyber and anti-satellite warfare technology could challenge the ability of U.S. forces to operate in the Pacific, Van Buskirk said the United States would upgrade its hardware there.
A new Littoral combat ship (LCS) will be deployed to the area soon, carrier fighter squadrons upgraded, attack submarine attack capabilities increased, and surface destroyers rekitted to "boost their ability to detect and kill enemy submarines", Van Buskirk said.
Faster P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will replace P-3 Orion planes in the next two years.
"We remain committed. We remain engaged," he said.
While Gates breakthrough visit to Beijing last month reestablished high-level strategic level ties, Van Buskirk said much more needed to be done at a tactical level to ensure encounters at sea wouldn't escalate or lead to conflict.
"We're just not as successful in receiving return communications," said Van Buskirk of attempts by U.S. ships to hail Chinese vessels on the high seas.
"People Say You're On A Witch Hunt Congressman, I Say More Power To You": Countrywide VIP Subpoenas
http://tinyurl.com/4je5qt3
Where are the Wall Street handcuffs.
Video - Ratigan with Darrell Issa, Chairman of House Oversight, discussing his first committee subpoena: Countrywide's VIP loan program for friends of CEO Angelo Mozilo - Feb. 17, 2011
Full story from the Washington Post inside. According to Issa, besides Senators Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad and likely others still unnamed, more than 150 fannie, freddie employees got sweetheart loans.
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New subpoena seeks records on sweetheart loans
WASHINGTON -- A House committee chairman renewed efforts Wednesday to obtain names of current and former federal, state and local policymakers - including congressional colleagues - who received sweetheart mortgage deals from the former Countrywide Financial Corp.
The subpoena by Rep. Darrell Issa of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee makes it more likely that the records could be made public.
A subpoena in 2009, when Democrats controlled the committee, specified that information on discounted loans to members of Congress and their spouses go only to the House Ethics Committee - with all names deleted. The ethics committee has never revealed the information it obtained.
Issa did not favor the restrictions but agreed to them as a compromise so that the committee's former chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., would issue the subpoena.
"Countrywide orchestrated a deliberate and calculated effort to use relationships with people in high places in order to manipulate public policy and further their bottom line to the detriment of the American taxpayers even at the expense of its own lending standards," said Issa.
"This subpoena will allow us to obtain the information needed to answer the outstanding public interest questions regarding the full size and scope of the VIP program," he said. "The American people have a right to know the totality of who participated in the Countrywide's VIP program and what they did in return for access to it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/16/AR2011021604808.html
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Rent Is Too Damn High Interrupts Peter Schiff At CPAC
http://dailybail.com/home/rent-is-too-damn-high-interrupts-peter-schiff-at-cpac.html
Video - Schiff is being interviewed in the lobby of CPAC 2011 - Feb. 12
Comedy ensues.
- "Cuz the deficit is too damn high!"
The bank bailout message comes at 2:45 into the clip. It is a thing of beauty.
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Jimmy McMillan's message for Rahm...
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Schiff says Trump can't win...
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