Thursday, December 16, 2010
How Can so Many People be so Incredibly Blind?
Anti-austerity riots erupt amid Greece strike
Police fired tear gas and flash grenades as the violence escalated outside parliament and spread to other parts of the capital.
Angry unions triggered the 24-hour strike to protest new labor reforms and pay cuts as Greece struggles to reshape its economy under conditions set by a euro110 billion ($146 billion) international bailout. The strike also grounded flights, closed factories, disrupted hospitals and shut down trains, ferries and buses across the country.
It was the seventh strike this year by unions appalled at a wave of austerity policies meant to pull Greece out of its worst financial crisis since World War II.
In Athens, youths wearing black masks and ski goggles used sledgehammers to smash paving stones and hurled the rubble at police. A post office near parliament briefly caught fire, forcing employees and bystanders to run for safety.
Christmas shoppers fled as rioters hurled petrol bombs wrapped in bundles of firecrackers, causing small explosions when they landed. Rioting youths torched several cars, overturned trash bins and vandalized storefronts, tossing Christmas decorations into the street.
At least 10 people were detained Wednesday and five were hurt, including a conservative politician who was beaten in the street by protesters. Two people were injured in Athens and three in Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki, where another anti-austerity protest turned violent.
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Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts And One Possible Unfolding of the Endgame
Will the US ultimately feel compelled to defend some of the gold and silver shorts, both in terms of bullion and derivatives, held by its Wall Street Banks? You could allow for the possibility, if you will, that there is a corresponding web of derivatives that has a links, and a possible chokehold, on a few key European institutions, particularly in England and Germany, involving counterparty derivatives and CDS, and collateral damage to professional and political careers. Ugly stuff, rather messy really. But there are historic precedents.
How Asian Buyers Are Maneuvering the Metals Shorts
There should be no confusion that this involves not only a few large Wall Street players, but also elements, past and present, in the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve. It makes the unfolding insider trading scandal look like a neighborhood numbers racket.
Therefore we should not discount the possibility that if a default should occur there will be an emotional and political reaction put forward as a means of deflecting the disclosure of the true nature of the financial corruption.
It would be most interesting and possibly entertaining to see if Ron Paul's congressional committee could be able to mount an effective investigation into the matter, or if events will take place to pre-empt and redirect such an inquiry to manage the potential collateral damage to careers and possibly governments, both at home and abroad.
It's never really the act itself, often minor infractions undertaken for practical purposes or what could be rationalized as such by some. Rather it is always the corruption of the policy actions to personal gain, and the subsequent cover-up, that tends to gather substance over time into a first class scandal, acts of felony and high crimes, and all the revelations that follow.
“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott
« Jon Stewart: Boehner Is Profoundly Retarded, Deficit Monster Is Going To Eat Our Babies (Must See) »
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Deductible Me | ||||
| www.thedailyshow.com | ||||
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Editor's Note - I'm reposting this excellent clip in honor of Boehner's 60 Minutes appearance earlier this week.
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Daily Show Video: Aired Aug. 12, 2010
- "Republicans don't realize that extending the Bush tax cuts will strengthen the deficit monster that's going to eat our babies."
- Jon Stewart didn't really know what to say last night about Republicans who complain about the deficit but advocate for renewing the Bush tax cuts. So he turned to House Minority Leader "and retired Syracuse mascot" John Boehner (R-OH) for a solution to the country's economic woes. Boehner has said that "the only way we're going to get our economy going again and solve our budget problems is to get the economy moving."
- "The only way to get our economy going, is to get it moving?" Stewart asked. "That is either the most profound or most retarded statement I've ever heard. You know what, actually it's the most profoundly retarded statement I've ever heard."
Mission f'ing accomplished. Seriously. And for the record, I could care less about the Bush tax cuts and whether or not they're extended. The top rate has alternated between 36% and 39% for 2 decades, and I honestly don't think it will make much difference if it shifts back to 39%. Shoot me. I believe that tax cuts generally encourage growth, but austerity is finally coming to our shores, and I prefer not to fight something I've been begging for.
Back to the mission. Debt and deficit awareness. That's all it's about. It's why I launched the Bail. I saw the train coming and knew there had to be a site to chronicle, curate, aggregate. And frankly, after worrying about unfunded entitlements for most of my adult life, I am surprised, shocked even at the explosion of awareness in the past 18 months. When John Stewart does a clip mocking deficit fear-mongering and the audience gets it and laughs their ass off, then public awareness has been achieved. Even the kids have figured it out. It's awesome stuff. I'm happy. Two decades I've been waiting for this. Doesn't mean we've won.
So enjoy as Jon Stewart toasts John Boehner for deficit hypocrisy. By the way, the same John Boehner who said last month that the Social Security retirement age needs to be raised to 70 in order to fund the wars. Yes, he said that. As Pitchfork said last night, you have to remember that war funding is more or less equivalent to the $700 billion TARP, each and every year. And just like with TARP, we have little to show for the investment. Wall Street and the defense industry are thriving, just as Bush-Obama would hope, while just about everyone else is sufferring or knows someone who is. And I mean suffering. No job, family to support, few prospects and a hell of a lot of fear and self doubt. That's the aftermath of a 2-decade credit bubble in human terms.
With victory comes hubris, so how about a Friday F You to a few of the architects of our destruction. A large, collective middle finger aimed at Greenspan, Rubin, Summers, Nixon (gold standard), Roosevelt (gold standard), Wilson (Fed creation in 1914), Geithner, Bernanke, Clinton (glass-steagall), Phil Gramm and his wife Wendy, James Cramer, both Bushes, Hank Paulson, Dan Jensen, Stephen Friedman, Joseph Cassano, Obama, Paul Kanjorski, Gingrich, Boehner, McCain, Robert Byrd, Rostenkowski (I have a long memory), Reagan, Tip O'Neil, every single Kennedy ever, Reid, Pelosi, Mary Meeker, Frank Quattrone, Alan Blinder, every talking head who says: "No one saw it coming", the quasi-existent PPT (the FED has 400 traders now -- don't F with me), Ken Lewis, Stan O'Neill, Chuck Prince, that worthless piece of maggot shit John Thain, Dick Fuld, Jimmy Cayne, Neil Kashkari, Judd Gregg, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Paul Krugman. Just for starters.
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« Ireland's Choice: Default Now Or Later? »
By Dr. Pitchfork
If it isn’t clear yet, Ireland will default on its bank guarantee. The IMF bailout of French, German and British banks is more than the Irish economy can afford, and far more than the Irish people are willing to allow.
The austerity program put into place over the last two years in Ireland has been painful and people are angry, but the additional austerity that will come with (let’s be honest and call it what it is) the IMF takeover of Ireland’s budget will be crushing. More budget cuts and higher taxes will be pro-cyclical in the short term and disastrous in the long term. It will depress spending now and pile up huge debts and interest payments for later on -- what Hugh Hendry (after Keynes) refers to as “the economic consequences of the bailoot.” It won’t work. It’s not that the IMF and European politicians are short-sighted, it’s simply that they’re stupid. And even worse than stupid, they think they can control the markets. In fact they’re doing nothing but playing a high-stakes con-game, using obsolete economic models, and hoping against hope to reinflate the bubble just one more time. Bon chance, mis amigos.
Again, the only option -- the only viable option I should say (even if the Cowen’s and Lenihan’s of the world are too thick to see it) -- is to default. We’re not talking, of course, about defaulting on Irish government bonds, but defaulting on the ill-advised bank guarantees that went into place in the fall of 2008.
There has been much talk lately about stopping the “contagion” in Ireland, before it spreads to Portugal, Spain, and God knows where else. But here’s the problem: Additional public debts ARE the contagion. And the bailouts are their conduit. Bailing out “Ireland” has only proven that Europe’s TARP fund is full of holes and was never big enough to cover all the bad debts anyway. Meanwhile, countries like Belgium are starting to whinge. The contagion spreads, not in spite of, but because of the bailout. How long will it take for the markets to figure out that Spain is too big to bail? And what happens when they do? Will the Euro continue its slide against less-indebted currencies?
More importantly, which banks will be dragged down with Anglo-Irish, Bank of Ireland and AIB? And who will be foolish enough to try to bail those banks out? As Chuck Prince has shown us, at some point the music will simply stop. This time, everyone except the central bankers seems to know that the bailout waltz is winding to a close, but who or what will be left standing is another question altogether.
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Jimmy Rogers explains how the situation should have been handled...
More detail on this clip is here:
Even better, Rogers never mucks around with airtime. This is a solid 2 minutes of pain for bank-bullshitting fear mongers on both sides of the Pond.
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« Video: Bill Clinton Returns To White House Stage And Won't Leave As Obama Departs For Christmas Party »
There's a lot in this post. Short highlight clips plus video of the complete press conference, and multiple links on the growing backlash against the Obama tax bill as it heads to the House.
My thoughts on the tax cut bill are here...
I would have no objection to the 2-year extension had it been paid for - balanced by commensurate cuts in federal spending. The Pentagon would be a good place to start. But there were no spending cuts. Congress couldn't find the courage. So the tax cuts should have been allowed to expire.
The 2-year increase to the deficit because of the extension will be approximately $700 billion, about the price of TARP. The easy fix, that won't hurt anyone but the military, is to cut the Defense budget by 50% over the next 5 years.
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Now onto the Bill Clinton show...
Funny mash-up - Runs 1 minute
"Tough" off-prompter questioning and Michelle's incessant party demands cause Obama to surrender the Presidency to Bill Clinton.
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Video - Clinton says Dems should support tax deal - Runs 1 minute
December 10, 2010 -- Bill Clinton joined President Obama at a press conference where he urged the Democrats in Congress to cooperate to extend tax cuts, saying "I believe this will be a significant net plus for the country."
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Good summary clip - Runs 2 minutes
The 15 Senators who had the guts to say 'NO' to bankrupting America...
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The complete press conference - Runs 30 minutes
Watch the first 30 seconds so you can see how Obama strolls onto the stage, and then Obama's departure starting at 10:45.
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Recent updates on the Obama tax bill...
"The sand is shifting under this very fast," said Craig Shirley, a Washington consultant who advises the Tea Party Patriots among other groups. "If it doesn't get voted on soon, it could get voted down."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/tax-bill-now-its-the-tea-_n_796849.html
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Mitt Romney disses tax deal
http://news.bostonherald.com/business/general/view/20101215mitt_rom
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Will the Tea Party Punish GOP for the Tax-Cut Deal?
"The GOP is going to pay dearly," says Colleen Conley, president of the Rhode Island Tea Party, "for so quickly forgetting that the people want deficit reduction and limited government."
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2036857,00.html#ixzz
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Kill The Deal
Some in the GOP are arguing that they will have time to make up for this sin or for what is at best a hand badly played. But as Mark Meckler of TeaPartyPatriots.org said on my radio show yesterday, the voters never forgot or forgave TARP, and unlike TARP, there is no financial crisis driving the rush to vote for this deal.
http://townhall.com/columnists/HughHewitt/2010/12/09/kill_the_deal/page/full/
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Tea Party Patriots compares tax deal to TARP, warns of ‘House cleaning’
http://www.americanindependent.com/161367/tea-party-patriots-compares-tax-deal-to-tarp-warns-of-house-cleaning
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Say NO to the Obama Tax Compromise! - Sign The Petition
http://www.notaxcompromise.com/
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« Deficit Giveaways Turn Obama GOP Tax Cut Bill Into 'Christmas Tree' - CBO Estimates $858 Billion Cost For JUST Two Years »
http://dailybail.com/home/deficit-giveaways-turn-obama-gop-tax-cut-bill-into-christmas.html
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« Bernie Sanders On Tavis Smiley - Bush Tax Cuts »
http://dailybail.com/home/bernie-sanders-on-tavis-smiley-bush-tax-cuts.html
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And finally...
The 15 Senators who had the guts to say 'NO' to bankrupting America...
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