Privatization Of Greek Assets Runs Behind Schedule

In exchange for multibillion-euro bailouts, Greece was required to sell state-owned assets. But the sweeping privatization process is behind schedule. In addition, European governments are nervous that Chinese, Russian and Arab companies are lining up to take advantage of the Greek fire sale.
The website of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, the agency handling privatization, is filled with cheery slogans promoting Greece as an El Dorado for investors, rich in natural resources such as bauxite, marble and gold, as well as gourmet food.
But the International Monetary Fund was disappointed in its latest report, warning Athens that the asset development fund's managers might have to be replaced with foreign experts. In 2012, the agency completed only two sales worth $260 million — compared with a target of $4.16 billion.
Numerous independent analysts share the IMF's view.
"The projects are simply not well prepared," says Philip Ammerman, an investment consultant and co-founder of London-based Navigator Consulting Group.
"What we see coming out of the various government ministries or the office of the prime minister is simply not up to par on any international standards," he says. "The project concepts don't exist, the numbers don't stand up, there are no numbers supporting the project concept, and there is just too much ideology."
Daunting Domestic Obstacles
Greece has a long tradition of political party interference in state-owned companies; there is still an entrenched reluctance to give up total control over the state's assets. But Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is urging the privatization agency to hurry up.
Adonis Georgiades, a lawmaker in Samaras' conservative party, says he believes the state should not own anything.
"I would sell everything," Georgiades says. "This is the private economy. This is the 21st century. Communism is dead."
The list of what's up for sale is long: banks, utilities, the national lottery, ports, airports, motorways and other infrastructure. But the vast bulk is real estate, including prime beachfront land.
There are many interested buyers, but obstacles to closing deals are daunting. There are hardly any property registries, so land ownership is difficult to determine. In many places, public land is filled with illegal buildings, which require a long legal process to remove.
Most of all, Greek citizens — already paying a high price for draconian austerity measures — don't like privatization.
For 30 years, Dimetra Columbani has managed a branch of OPAP, the Greek national lottery, perhaps the most profitable state asset.
"I'm very worried. I have no idea what's going to happen, who is going to buy the lottery company, and how it will be operated," Columbani says. "I cannot risk losing everything I've invested here if a new company takes over."
Polls show that a majority of Greeks fear the country's assets are being sold off for too little, and many see privatization as an international takeover.
Geopolitical Issues Cause Delays
European governments, as well as Washington, are reportedly concerned over Russia's possible expansion into Europe. Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas monopoly, has made a high bid for the Greek gas utility company. Media reports suggest the privatization agency has delayed choosing a buyer — under international pressure.
There are also other strategic concerns, such as conflict with China over Greek ports.
George Stathakis, an economist and lawmaker for the opposition leftist party Syriza, says China wants to expand its current control of a part of the Port of Piraeus and also buy the south-north railway link, raising fears China will flood the European markets with its inexpensive products.
"German and Dutch interests are opposing the idea of using Greece as the primary source of Chinese trade with Europe," Stathakis says.
The original IMF privatization target had been 50 billion euros by 2015, but it has already been sharply reduced to 10 billion. Stathakis says he believes it will be cut back even more.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Greece is in the process of selling off state-owned assets, ranging from property to the national lottery. The country agreed to do this in exchange for billions of dollars in bailout funds. So the rest of Europe forced Greece to do this, but the rest of Europe is not so sure about what happens now. European officials worry about all the Chinese, Russian and Arab companies that are lining up to take advantage of the Greek fire sale.
NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports.
SYLVIA POGGIOLI, BYLINE: The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund is the agency handling privatization.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
POGGIOLI: Its website is filled with cheery slogans promoting Greece as an El Dorado for investors, rich in natural resources - bauxite, marble and gold - as well as gourmet food.
But in its latest Greece report, the IMF was disappointed, warning Athens it might have to replace the asset development fund's managers with foreign experts. In 2012, the agency completed only two sales worth $260 million compared with a target of 4.16 billion.
Numerous independent analysts share the IMF's gloomy view.
PHILIP AMMERMAN: The projects are simply not well prepared,.
POGGIOLI: Philip Ammerman is an investment consultant.
AMMERMAN: What we see coming out of the various government ministries or the office prime minister, very often directly, is simply not up to par on any international standard, so the project concepts don't exist, the numbers don't stand up, there are no numbers supporting the project concept, and there's just too much ideology.
POGGIOLI: Greece has a long tradition of political party interference in state-owned companies, and there is still an entrenched reluctance to give up control over the state's assets. But Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is urging the privatization agency to hurry up.
Adonis Gerogiades, an MP in Samaras's Conservative Party, believes the state should not own anything.
ADONIS GEROGIADES: I would sell everything. This is the private economy. This is the 21st century. Communism is dead.
POGGIOLI: The list of what's up for sale is long: banks, utilities, the national lottery, ports, airports, motorways, and other infrastructure. But the vast bulk is real estate, including prime beachfront land.
There are many interested buyers, but obstacles to closing deals have been daunting. There are hardly any property registries, so land ownership is difficult to determine. In many places public land is filled with illegal buildings, which will require a long legal process to remove.
Most of all, Greek citizens - already paying a high price for draconian austerity measures - don't like privatization.
This is one of the many branches of OPAP, the Greek national lottery, perhaps the most profitable state asset, bringing in nearly a billion dollars a year.
Dimetra Columbani has managed this branch for 30 years.
DIMETRA COLUMBANI: (Through translator) I'm very worried. I have no idea what's going to happen, who's going to buy the lottery company, how it will be operated. I can't risk losing everything I've invested here if a new company comes and takes over.
POGGIOLI: Polls show that a majority of Greeks fear the country's assets are being sold off for too little, and many see privatization as an international takeover. Geopolitical issues are also causing delays.
European governments, as well as Washington, are reportedly concerned over Russia's possible expansion into Europe. Russia's Gazprom has made a very high bid for the Greek gas utility company. Media reports suggest the privatization agency has delayed choosing a buyer under international pressure.
And there are other strategic concerns.
GEORGE STATHAKIS, ECONOMIST: The conflict with China has to do with the Greek ports.
POGGIOLI: George Stathakis is an economist and MP for the opposition leftist party, Syriza. He says China wants to expand its current control of a part of the Port of Piraeus and also buy the south-north railway link, raising fears that China will flood the European markets with its inexpensive products.
ECONOMIST: German and Dutch interests are opposing the idea of using Greece as the primary source of Chinese trade with Europe.
POGGIOLI: The original IMF privatization target had been 50 billion euro by 2015, but it has already been sharply reduced to 10 billion. Stathakis believes it will be cut back even more.
Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Boeing New Aircraft Orders Implode From 183 To Just 2 In January

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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After the now several week old exploding battery fiasco, Boeing is nowhere closer to resolving the recurring problem for its appropriately renamed Nightmareliner. But the worst for the company may be yet ahead: as the following chart from Stone McCarthy shows, January new aircraft orders collapsed from 183 in December to a meaningless 2 in January: a seasonally strong month, with some 150 orders a year ago, and more weakness to come as Boeing just warned its first Norwegian delivery due in April may be delayed. But while it was expected that the company’s quality control failure would eventually catch up to it, the broader implication is that this month’s Durable Goods number, released February 27 and of which transportation is always a key variable at least at the headline level, will be a disaster.

Greed and dishonesty laid bare as scale of Libor rigging revealed

RBS fined £390m for manipulating rate, with five more financial firms under investigation

Link to video: RBS CEO Stephen Hester reacts to Libor fine
More than 10 City workers are under investigation by the Financial Services Authority for rigging Libor, a top regulator said after Royal Bank of Scotland was fined £390m for manipulating the key benchmark rate.
Tracey McDermott, the FSA's enforcement director, said some bankers had decided "the rules did not apply to them" and that another five financial firms, including banks and inter-dealer brokers, remained under investigation as part of the on-going inquiry into the rigging of Libor, which is used to set the price on £300 trillion of financial products.
"I can assure you we are looking at individuals," she said as the FSA and US regulators, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the department of justice, published documents showing the widespread rigging of Libor at RBS.
A series of electronic exchanges linked RBS traders to those at other banks, particularly Swiss bank UBS, who submitted rates to the Libor panel. There was also unethical contact involving inter-dealer brokers who act as intermediaries, with promises of "sushi rolls" and "making love" in return for rigging Libor submissions.
"It's just amazing how Libor fixing can make you that much money … it's a cartel now in London," wrote one RBS trader specialising in yen Libor in an instant message sent in August 2007.
Libor is the London interbank offered rate and is set across 15 time frames of up to one year and in 10 currencies. Twenty-one individuals at RBS were involved in manipulating the yen and Swiss franc Libor "either falsely high … or falsely low", according to the CFTC, which in turn helped the profitability of swaps positions held by the bailed-out bank.
The documents published by the regulators said "corrupt payments" of £212,000 were made to unnamed inter-dealer brokers and that RBS "abetted UBS's attempts to manipulate" Libor in yen. The Swiss bank has already been fined £940m and two of its traders have been charged by the US regulators in connection to the scandal.
One of those charged, former UBS trader Tom Hayes, is named in documents filed by the US justice department as asking a RBS trader: "mate did you manage to spk [speak] to your cash boys". The response from "trader 3" at RBS indicating that he had attempted to change the rate was met with the comment "i owe you big time".
The justice department stressed that the charges against Hayes, who is facing extradition from the UK to the US, were "merely accusations and he is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty". The other former UBS trader charged by the US is Roger Darin.
The department secured a guilty plea from the Asian subsidiary of RBS to rigging Libor – as it did with UBS – which assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer described as "extraordinary results". He added: "Our message is clear: no financial institution is above the law."
Stephen Hester, chief executive of RBS, refused to identify the 21 individuals – out of a workforce of 137,000 – involved in the "wrong doing". Six staff were dismissed, including two managers, while six have been "severely disciplined" or were still involved in a disciplinary process and remain at the bank. Another eight left before disciplinary action could be taken while one was dismissed for misconduct not related to these findings.
One of those to be fired, Tan Chi Min, is bringing a case in Singapore of wrongful dismissal on the basis that the bank condoned the manipulation of Libor. He sent instant messages in April 2008 saying, "Nice Libor … our six-month fixing moved the entire fixing hahaha", according to transcripts filed in Singapore court.
The extent of the Libor rigging forced Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of RBS, to defend the role of Hester. The Libor manipulation had carried on for two years after Hester was parachuted into the bank following the £45bn taxpayer bailout in October 2008. The systems and controls inside the bank were considered inadequate by the FSA until last year.
"While the evidence shows that senior management was not involved in or aware of any wrongdoing, we accept that systems and controls were not as strong as they should have been and were not fixed quickly enough," said Hampton.
He made a contrast with Barclays, which when it was the first bank fined for rigging Libor had found that its top management had been aware of attempts to deliberately reduce submissions to the Libor panel during the 2007 and 2008 financial crisis. Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond resigned, as did chairman Marcus Agius and chief operating officer Jerry del Missier.
"It is important to make clear that, in contrast with some other banks, there is no evidence that any attempt was made by group management to suppress Libor submissions, in order to present a false picture of the group's funding costs. The findings against RBS concern the activities of traders," he said.
But regulators pointed to failures at RBS which had allowed the manipulation to take place by placing derivatives traders and submitters together on the same desk, heightening the conflict of interest between the profit motives of the traders and the responsibility of submitters "to make honest submissions". Even when they were separated – for business, not compliance reasons – the misconduct continued through Bloomberg chats and an internal instant messaging system.
The fallout of the Libor rigging is expected to continue for months while the FSA and regulators around the world continue their investigations. More immediately, though, Hampton and Hester are now preparing to face further questions on Monday from the members of the banking standard commission, chaired by the Tory MP Andrew Tyrie.
McDermott added that it would be some time before the FSA was able to give any indication if any of individuals under scrutiny – not all of them from RBS – would face penalties from the regulator.

The U.S. Economy Is Now Dangerously Detached From Reality

Brandon Smith, Contributor
Activist Post

Recently I was asked to give a presentation on the current state of the global economy to a local group of concerned citizens here in Northwest Montana.  I was happy to oblige but when composing my bullet points I realized that, in truth, there were no legitimate economic numbers to examine anymore.  You see, financial analysts have traditionally used multiple indicators of employment, profit, savings, credit, supply, and demand in their efforts to divine the often obscured facts of our financial system.  The problem is, nearly every index we used in the past, every measure of capital flow and industry, is absolutely useless today. 

We now live in an entirely fabricated fiscal environment.  Every aspect of it is filtered, muddled, molded, and manipulated before our eyes ever get to study the stats.  The metaphor may be overused, but our economic system has become an absolute “matrix”.  All that we see and hear has been homogenized and all truth has been sterilized away.  There is nothing to investigate anymore.  It is like awaking in the middle of a vast and hallucinatory live action theater production, complete with performers, props, and sound effects, all designed to confuse us and do us harm.  In the end, trying to make sense of the illusion is a waste of time.  All we can do is look for the exits…

There is some tangible reality out there, but it is difficult to find, and there are few if any mainstream numbers to verify.  One has to remember always that the fundamental world of money and trade revolves around real people and real circumstances.  No matter how corrupt our economic system is, as long as there are human beings, there will always be supply and demand that cannot be hidden.  We have to look past the “official numbers” and look at the roots of trade.  Where has demand fallen?  Where has supply diminished?  Where are the tangible goods and needs and how have they changed?

Let’s first start with the mainstream version of our system, looking at each aspect of the economy that no longer represents the truth of our situation…

 Employment, Savings, And Debt

Much of this information is old news to those of us in the Liberty Movement, who tracked the progress of the global collapse long before the general public even knew of its existence.  However, it is useful to take a step back and look at the basic picture every once in a while. 

According to numbers issued by the Department of Labor, weekly unemployment reports have dropped to a five year low, and the overall employment rate is holding at 7.9%.  This would seem to be a vast improvement over the dreadful bloodletting in the system only a few years ago.  Has the private Federal Reserve and the Obama Administration really done it?  Have they turned back the tide on the greatest fiscal crisis the U.S. has seen since the Depression?

No.  They haven’t. 

They have only changed how the data is disseminated to the public. In order to understand how the employment statistics con is being engineered, it is important to understand the difference between “Adjusted” and “Unadjusted” numbers.

Labor Department data is “seasonally adjusted”, using a series of statistical assumptions including something called “Trend Cycle Analysis”.  Trend Cycle Analysis is, basically, a sham, but a sham put together in a very complex and confusing manner.  If you ask a mainstream economist what it is, you’ll likely get a three hour long dissertation filled with financial babble and very little concrete explanation.  So let me break it down as simply as I can…

 Imagine that you are going to estimate how much profit you plan to make in a particular month, but you don’t just consider your current pay rate and pop it into a calculator; you also throw in the possibility of a few pay raises, an inheritance from a grandma who might kick the bucket, and, your exaggerated expectations of the entire year’s profit on top of that.  You may also take into account future bad weather, a mugging, a nuclear war….whatever.  All hypothetical situations not based in reality.  Basically, you decide that a particular trend in your income is inevitable, then, mold your statistical analysis around that assumption.      

When your real profit numbers come in (the unadjusted numbers) and they do not meet your expectations, you simply change them according to what you believe SHOULD have happened.  If you insist that your profits are going to go up for the year, and they go down for a couple months instead, you change the variables you use to calculate the statistical average so that the results match your expectations, assuming that it will all balance out in the end.

Now, this sounds utterly insane for the common person out there trying to make a living.  If you ran your household this way, without accepting the cold hard unadjusted numbers in front of you, you’d find yourself broke and on the street in no time.  Unfortunately this is EXACTLY how our government handles most financial data; by coming to a final conclusion before hand, and then forcing the numbers to fit that conclusion.

This is why in February of 2013, “adjusted” first week unemployment rate was reported at 366,000 – a 5000 person drop from the week before.  A seeming improvement in the trend.  But, unadjusted numbers came in at 386,176 – a 16,000 person spike from the week before.  When one examines real unemployment numbers, he finds that the divergence between the adjusted and unadjusted statistics is growing larger with each passing quarter.  That is to say, the contradiction is becoming so blatant between the hard numbers and the Labor Department’s fantasy numbers that one must question whether or not the government is lying to us outright about the state of the economy (hint – they are lying). 

These same methods are used by the government to calculate progress in the housing market, disposable income, etc. 

The claim of “recovery” in the jobs market simply doesn’t jive with other indicators, like 2012 Christmas retail, which had the worst showing since the crash in 2008 (and these are still mainstream numbers!):

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/26/us-holiday-retail-sales-growth-weakest-since-2008/

Average household savings continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel, indicating that the public is not spending or withholding cash.  They are simply broke:

And the overall GDP of the U.S. contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012 for the first time in three years (again, according to official numbers, meaning the reality is much worse):

http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/30/news/economy/gdp-report/index.html

The downturn in consumption and industry also seems to be supported by the Baltic Dry Index, a measure of global shipping and rates.  The BDI has fallen to near historic lows THREE TIMES in the past year, which to my knowledge, has never happened before.  In the past, the BDI has been a strong prophetic indicator of future market volatility.  Usually, around a year after a severe decline in the index, a dangerous economic event takes place.  The BDI made its first sharp drop to all time lows at the end of January 2012, exactly a year ago. 

U.S. household debt was recently reported to have fallen to a 29-year low, but the ratio used by the Federal Reserve applies a statistic for disposable income that is derived from the Trend Cycle boondoggle method.  While markets cheer, the truth is, the only reason household debt obligations have fallen at all is because bank lending and credit issuance remains frozen.  Consumer debt falls when there is no money to borrow.  In fact, the Federal Reserve actually pays large banks NOT to lend to the public; an activity which was exposed by Dennis Kucinich in 2009 on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  An activity that continued through 2012:
Keep in mind, one of the primary arguments the Federal Reserve used when promoting the bailout concept was that it would “free up credit markets” so that lending could pick up again and fuel a recovery, and yet, at the same time, they were paying banks to NOT lend.

Meanwhile, the supposed job recovery has produced an astonishing increase in welfare recipients in the U.S., including a record 46 million Americans on foodstamps (approximately 15% of our population):

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/report-15-americans-food-stamps-980690

If we are to apply any “trend” to our calculations on overall economic health, then we should include the extreme level of government handouts, and poverty levels which are now at all time highs.  The facts are undeniable; the number of people who have much less than they did in 2008 has grown.  How then could the U.S. be considered “in recovery”?

National Debt And The Fiat Lie

With the Dow Index hovering near highs of 14,000 our system truly looks to be on a rocket ship to pre-2008 money market bliss.  In a mere five years we have returned to equity spikes that stagger the mind and the wallet.  At least, that’s how it all appears…

What needs to be taken into account, though, is the amount of fiat money being created by the Federal Reserve, and how much of that printed pixie dust currency is fueling our magical flight to Neverland.  Since 2008, our official national debt has increased from $10 trillion to $16.4 trillion, and some estimate $17 trillion to $18 trillion by the end of 2013 (unless, of course, a collapse occurs).  Which means our national debt, which took decades to reach the $10 trillion mark, will have nearly doubled in only six years! 

So, what has a doubling of our national debt in such a short span of time bought us?  Well, credit markets remain frozen, property markets remain stagnant, poverty is at historic levels, welfare recipients are at epic highs, and consumer activity and GDP is back at 2008 lows.  Where did all that printed money go?  Where was it spent?  To answer that question, we only need to find what area of the economy has seen the most positive (or fantastical) activity.  What sector is seeing a massive boost while the rest tumbles?

I suggest that a large portion of QE1 through QE3 has gone to prop up the stock market, and nothing else.  I suggest that American taxpayers are fronting the bill for the equities bonanza we see today.  I suggest that the Dow is being used as a Red Herring to distract the populous for as long as possible while real assets are being snapped up and hoarded by international banks and foreign entities.  I suggest that we are being leached dry and that the parasites are almost ready to move on…
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/the-fed-should-stop-paying-banks-not-to-lend/

 When will it all end?  Perhaps sooner than many people think.  The decision by D.C. to delay talks on the so-called “Fiscal Cliff” until March may not be coincidence.  Extensive cuts in federal spending are absolutely necessary and cannot be dismissed forever, but, because the last vestiges of our system that still operate do so through government money, such cuts will cause immediate damage to the economy, including possible default and dollar devaluation.  Refusal to make cuts will result in credit downgrades, currency inflation, and a loss of the greenback’s world reserve status.  There is no “right” way out of this quandary. 

When this collapse is initiated, it would certainly behoove all parties involved, including central banks, international banks, and criminal politicians, to have a scapegoat handy for the citizenry to direct their rage at.

Event Horizon Economics

An “Event Horizon” in physics is a moment or singularity in spacetime at which a gravitational pull becomes so great that there is no way to escape it.  It is a point of no return.  I believe America’s economy has reached its own Event Horizon.  Our system is now entirely fiat driven, with very little or no true economy left.  Without constant injections from the Fed, and perpetually low interest rates, the country would implode tomorrow.  This is not recovery.  Actually, I’m not sure what to call it. 

Today, independent economic analysts cannot look to the numbers to determine future trends.  Most are fake, and the rest are ugly, and I’m not sure much else can be said in their regard.  Instead, we must now look to events, rather than statistics, because our country has been maneuvered into a position of utmost frailty.  Like an avalanche shelf waiting for that perfectly timed disturbance to trigger its roaring collapse.  All that is needed is a macro-crisis, and it is no great feat for such a thing to be created in our tension filled global environment.

War in Syria and Iran leading to a tripling of energy prices.  Sanctions and strife with North Korea leading to Chinese economic retribution.  Conflict between China and Japan, again leading to Chinese economic warfare and perhaps real warfare.  An opportune “cyber attack” which could be used as an excuse for a market crash and even an internet shutdown.  A “political impasse” between Reps and Dems which leads to a default of U.S. credit.  Any one of these catastrophes could easily occur (with a little nudge from some well placed people) and feed a wider global tragedy.  The important thing to remember is that while this event will be blamed for the breakdown, it was international banks, the Federal Reserve, and elements of our own government that made the domino effect possible.  They put the pieces in place.  The act that knocks them over is secondary.


I have spent the past seven years writing about “potential” threats to our overall system, but these dangers were always just beyond our sight.  Just around the corner.  Today, it is as if the journey is over, and all those threats have materialized right before my eyes as real, and imminent.  I am watching that which I warned of come to fruition, and this is certainly not a pleasant thing.  What is valuable, though, is what we have all done in the Liberty Movement with the time that we had.  From when I began writing for the movement until now, I have seen an overwhelming increase in public awareness.  It may not be obvious to newer activists, but it is there all the same.  While we still face disparaging odds, and millions upon millions of oblivious bystanders, there is, amidst these darker moments, a steadfast community of free men and women forming.  I have full faith in the future.  Much more so than I ever did before.  Our economy may be detached from reality, but our endeavors as individuals will not be.  Our resolve will be the great game changer.  Not fiscal calamity.

Clint Eastwood on CNBC: America Needs to Cut Spending (Video) 2-08-13

Frontline: Secret History of the Credit Card (Full Version)

In “Secret History of the Credit Card,” FRONTLINE® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt.
“The almost magical convenience of plastic money is critical to our famously compulsive consumer economy,” Bergman says. “With more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and accounting for an estimated $1.5 trillion of consumer spending, the U.S. economy has clearly gone plastic.”
Millions of American families use their personal, general-purpose credit cards such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover to make ends meet; credit cards have been a discreet lifeline for families in financial straits.
But other consumers, like actor and author Ben Stein, use plastic purely for convenience. While it would appear that Stein — who says he charges a small fortune every month on his credit cards — is the ideal customer, in reality, he is what some in the industry call a “deadbeat.” That’s because he pays his balance in full every month.
The industry’s most profitable customers, the ones being sought by creative marketing tactics, are the “revolvers:” the estimated 115 million Americans who carry monthly credit card debt.

David Stockman Says The US Economy Has No Free-Market Element To It, Everything's Manipulated

David Stockman Says The US Economy Has No Free-Market Element To It, Everything's Manipulated