FDA Knew Lab Committed Research Fraud, Approved Drug They Tested Anyway

(efkjr79)

After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration learned about potentially fraudulent work done on behalf of pharmaceutical companies by a contract research firm in Texas, they didn’t pull the drugs off the market. You might think, though, that they might hold off on approving new drugs based on testing that came from that lab. You would be wrong. Before they hit the market, generic drugs must undergo testing to show that they’re bioequivalent, which is a fancy way of saying “they do the same thing as the name brand.” Last week, we shared ProPublica’s reporting on a lab that cut corners in some of the tests it was hired to perform. The drugs went on to be approved and hit pharmacies and store shelves all over the world. The FDA won’t tell the public which drugs those were, and as far as we know they remain on the market in the United States. Now there’s something worse: drugs approved based on testing that the FDA already knew could be fraudulent.
The medication in question is another generic: Tussionex, a narcotic cough suppressant and antihistimine. The FDA didn’t just shrug and wave the drug through. A consultant audited the troubled lab’s data, and the FDA okayed the audit, saying there was no evidence that the drug is unsafe. As far as the research from the troubled lab shows.
FDA Approved New Drug Despite Ongoing Investigation of Lab Misconduct [ProPublica]

Gregory Mannarino: Physical Gold & Silver Shortages Are Accelerating

Maguire – Elaborates On The LBMA Default & Ensuing Panic

from KingWorldNews:
Today whistleblower Andrew Maguire spoke with King World News, providing even more details by elaborating on the events surrounding the LBMA default. Maguire, who recently appeared in the extraordinary CBC production titled, “The Secret World of Gold,” also told KWN about the ensuing panic which has taken place in the aftermath of the LBMA default. Maguire described entities as “panicking.” Below is what Maguire had to say in part II of his remarkable and exclusive interview….

Kunming mother sues US central bank over shrinking cash

She claims Federal Reserve has allowed her deposit of US$250 to lose a third of its value

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A Chinese woman is trying to sue the US Federal Reserve. Photo: Corbis

A woman in Kunming, Yunnan province, is trying to sue the United States central bank after discovering that the real value of the US$250 she put in an account in 2006 had shrunk by 30 per cent.
She claims it was a result of the Federal Reserve issuing too much money.
Her attorney, her son Li Zhen, called the lawsuit "litigation for the public good" which aimed to stop the Fed from continuing its quantitive easing policy and promote people's awareness of their rights.
He filed the lawsuit alleging "the abuse of monopoly in issuing currency" last month at the Kunming Intermediate People's Court on behalf of his mother, Liu Hua , but the court has yet to decide whether to officially place the case on file.
Since the global financial crisis, the Fed has been pumping more money into the economy via several rounds of so-called quantitative easing to try to boost consumer spending and revive economic growth.
The judges were "greatly surprised" to see the indictment, said the 36-year-old lawyer, adding he was the first mainlander to have filed a lawsuit against a foreign country's central bank.
Li, who works at the Yunnan Tongbang Law Firm, said he referred to Black's Law Dictionary, the most cited legal dictionary in the US, and concluded that the Fed is a private institution instead of a government department.
According to the dictionary, US financial institutions are required to invest in the Federal Reserve System if they want to join it, which he construed as meaning the Fed is privately owned.
"Since the Fed is a private institution which enjoys a monopoly over the issuing of currency, US dollar holders can sue it for printing too much money," he said.
Li said he requested two things from the court - that the Fed halts the abuse of its monopoly over the issuing of dollars and that it makes a "symbolic compensation" of US$1. Asked about the possibility of whether the court will accept the case, Li said it was "difficult to say".
He added: "Since the Anti-Monopoly Law was enforced in 2008, there have been not many serious lawsuits in this regard.
"It was not until early last year that a judicial interpretation for civil anti-monopoly cases was issued … besides, this case involves very professional issues and is very complex."
He said he was looking for more "victims" like his mother and expected to bring a class action in a US court.
Professor Wang Xiaoye , an expert on anti-monopoly law, said the depreciation of a currency was a business risk that holders had to bear.

BREAKING – China sends 8 ships to disputed islands, Japan threatens to use force

Coming through now. Japan saying if there’s a landing its navy will use force against China.
Japan PM vows to use force to expel any Chinese landing
TOKYO (AFP) – Japan’s prime minister on Tuesday vowed to “expel by force” any Chinese landing on islands at the centre of a territorial row, after eight government vessels from China sailed into the disputed waters.
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/asia/story/japan-pm-vows-use-force-expel-any-chinese-landing-disputed-islands-20130423

China-Japan showdown

The group of 168 mostly low-ranking conservative lawmakers visited the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo in what local news media described as the largest mass visit by Parliament members in recent memory. The shrine of the indigenous Shinto religion honors Japan’s war dead, including several who were executed as war criminals after World War II. This has made Yasukuni, and the political leaders who visit it, a target of criticism by China and South Korea, which suffered under Japan’s early 20th-century empire building.

Last year, a group of 81 lawmakers visited the shrine during the same season, when Yasukuni celebrates a three-day spring festival.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/world/asia/japanese-and-chinese-boats-converge-on-contested-islands.html?_r=1&
Japan nationalists closing in on disputed islands. China warning Japan not to come any closer.
http://news.yahoo.com/japan-nationalists-close-islands-disputed-china-213636373.html
Japan has just summoned China envoy
Japan has summoned the Chinese ambassador in protest over a flotilla of Chinese government ships that entered territorial waters near a disputed island chain.
Japan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had called in the envoy after eight Chinese vessels entered waters near the Senkaku islands, which China calls Diaoyu, the most in a single day since Tokyo nationalised part of the archipelago in September.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/04/20134234352877776.html
‘Large number’ of Chinese ships around disputed islands
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/23/world/asia/japan-china-disputed-islands/


The Tauremini

MF Global’s Trustee Sues Firm’s 3 Top Executives

 

Alex Wong/Getty Images Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive of MF Global.

7:23 p.m. | Updated

A bankruptcy trustee has sued Jon S. Corzine and other former MF Global executives, claiming they were “grossly negligent” in the lead-up to the brokerage firm’s collapse.
The action by the trustee, Louis J. Freeh, comes just weeks after he agreed to postpone the lawsuit and enter mediation with Mr. Corzine. By filing litigation that appeared to catch the MF Global executives off-guard, Mr. Freeh may have jeopardized those talks.
“We question why the trustee chose to file this lawsuit, which is filled with seriously flawed allegations, while he is participating in court-ordered mediation of these very claims,” said a spokesman for Mr. Corzine, Steven Goldberg.
Mr. Freeh, who represents hedge funds and other creditors of MF Global, said on Tuesday that “the mediation process is ongoing,” and that it was “in the best interests of the Chapter 11 estates to file the complaint.”
The lawsuit, filed in United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York late on Monday, echoes a report Mr. Freeh issued this month that blamed MF Global executives for engineering a “risky business strategy” and ignoring “glaring deficiencies” in internal controls. The report and the lawsuit accuse the executives of allowing more than $1 billion in customer money to disappear from the firm.
In the new complaint, Mr. Freeh took aim at Mr. Corzine, a former Democratic senator and New Jersey governor who became MF Global’s chief executive in 2010. Mr. Freeh, a former director of the F.B.I., also sued two of Mr. Corzine’s top deputies: Bradley I. Abelow, the chief operating officer, and Henri J. Steenkamp, the chief financial officer. Mr. Freeh labeled the men as “Corzine’s handpicked deputies.”
“Defendants, in their capacities as officers, breached their fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, and oversight over the company, and failed to act in good faith,” Mr. Freeh wrote.
The action against Mr. Abelow and Mr. Steenkamp is unusual in that both executives remained at MF Global for more than a year after the firm’s collapse, working under Mr. Freeh. They stayed to help sort through the bankruptcy process.
Gary P. Naftalis, a lawyer for Mr. Abelow, noted that Mr. Freeh had himself described that work as “invaluable.” Mr. Naftalis criticized Mr. Freeh for “now making allegations that lack any factual or legal basis.”
Mr. Goldberg, the spokesman for Mr. Corzine, also said the assertions in the suit were unsubstantiated. “There is no basis for the claim that Mr. Corzine breached his fiduciary duties or was negligent,” he said. “We look forward to proving the actual facts in court.”
The suit, which could help Mr. Freeh recover money for MF Global’s creditors, blamed Mr. Corzine for ramping up a risky bet on European debt. While the bonds were not by themselves to blame for the collapse of MF Global, the wager unnerved its investors and ratings agencies, further undermining the firm.
“Corzine engaged in risky trading strategies that strained the company’s liquidity and could not be properly monitored by the company’s inadequate controls and procedures,” Mr. Freeh said.
Mr. Goldberg in turn called the complaint “a clear case of Monday morning quarterbacking.” Mr. Corzine, he said, inherited a firm in 2010 that had lost money in each of the previous three years.
It is unclear whether the lawsuit will alter the mediation talks. While Mr. Freeh said the discussions were continuing, the lawsuit could derail or delay the mediation process.
The litigation might also complicate an effort to return money to customers. Mr. Freeh pursued his own case against Mr. Corzine, rather than join an earlier lawsuit filed by a second MF Global trustee, James W. Giddens, and some of the firm’s customers. Mr. Giddens, who has the task of recovering money for the customers, has already returned about 89 percent of the shortfall to MF Global’s clients in the United States. Some people close to the case say Mr. Giddens has identified a path to potentially making customers whole.
The lawsuit, coming on the heels of a bankruptcy judge approving Mr. Freeh’s plan to liquidate MF Global, could empower him to recover additional money for creditors. But the case might not sit well with customers.
In a statement, Mr. Giddens said he had joined the customers’ class-action lawsuit “because it was the most efficient way to get money to customers and creditors.”
Federal authorities, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, also continue to investigate the misuse of customer money. Mr. Corzine has not been accused of any wrongdoing by the agency, and internal e-mails suggest he was not aware that at least some of the customer money was improperly sent to the firm’s banks.
“Anyone who violates the law, and particularly anyone at MF Global who used a billion bucks of customer cash that should have been protected, should be punished appropriately,” said Bart Chilton, a member of the trading commission.

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This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 23, 2013
An earlier version of this article misstated when Lehman Brothers collapsed. It was 2008, not 2012.

BRICS:The Coming Challenge to U.S. Economic Dominance

Source: TFT
Late last month, leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – the so-called BRICS – announced they were forming their own development bank to assist other emerging economies. The yet-to-be-named bank is expected to compete with the World Bank and the International Monetary fund, two institutions with power structures based firmly in the United States and Europe.
The announcement also serves as yet another sign that the world economy is quickly evolving to a place where United States global economic dominance is being challenged by regional interests.  Since the end of World War II, the United States was the driver of global monetary policy. When the Federal Reserve acted, the world listened and reacted.
Now, according to officials from the BRICS nations, emerging countries are trying to insulate themselves from the market shocks caused by the United States and Europe. They no longer trust the West to do the right thing. They’re forming their own “union” to create stability that the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Fed have been unable to provide.
[...]
BRICS Not Alone
In the wake of the global financial crisis, other countries are seeking alliances that will make them less reliant on the West. During the financial crisis, Japan, China and South Korea created a $120 billion emergency loan fund to shore up Asian nations’ finances. The Association of Southeast Asian nations, comprised of 10 countries from that part of the world, is also experiencing a period of robust growth.
New partnerships are also emerging closer to home. Álvaro Uribe, former president of Colombia, recently told The Fiscal Times that his country is considering entering into a formal economic alliance with Mexico, Peru and Chile, creating a bloc with a GDP of $2.2 trillion. These countries have already agreed to eliminate trade tariffs on 90 percent of the goods exchanged between them.
But the biggest challenge to U.S. dominance remains in Asia. The Pentagon is shifting its strategy to confront potential rivals in that part of the world. And U.S. companies are gaining ground in huge consumer markets in China, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Read more at TFT

Eurozone Debt Levels Reach Record High - Eurostat

Eurozone government debt levels reached the highest level on record last year, the region's official statistics office said, even as austerity measures around the single currency area narrowed budget deficits levels amid a deepening recession.

Government debt as a percentage of the eurozone economy 3.3 percentage points to 90.6 percent at the end of last year, Eurostat said Monday in a statement published on its website. At the same time the collective budget deficit of the 17 countries that use the single currency fell to 3.7 percent of Eurozone GDP from 4.2 percent the previous year, Eurostat said. Around the 27-memeber European Union, which includes Great Britain, the figures fall to 85.3 percent and 4 percent respectively.
Britain's debt was measured at 90 percent of GDP, according to Eurostat, one of only seven members of the European Union to breach the 90 percent threshold. Its annual deficit was pegged at 6.3 percent of GDP, equal to that of Cyprus and larger than any eurozone economy outside rescued Ireland, Portugal and Spain.

Spain recorded the largest eurozone budget deficit of 10.6 percent of GDP, Eurostat said, wider than the 9.4 percent recorded in 2011 while Italy had the second lowest - behind Germany's 0.2 percent - at 3 percent of GDP. Italy's overall debt load, however, did rise to 127 percent of GDP, according to Eurostat, the second largest in the single currency area behind Greece's 156.9 percent.
France's deficit fell to 4.8 percent of GDP from 5.3 percent the previous year, according to the Eurostat figures, and higher than the 4.5 percent target of Francois Hollande's government.