June 2010

Sunday Morning Comics - Holier Than Dow Edition

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Brought to you by Congressional Hearings - We generate plenty of outrage in hopes you won't notice the lack of any real action.
Cup O' Joe

 

Good Morning! Rise and Shine! Get that Cup O' Joe...
break out the O.J....hang out with the pooch...time to check out the Funnies!

 

Holier Than Dow

 

BP announces a major alternative energy breakthrough, converting lies into energy. "Lies are abundant and we're full of them", a spokesperson said. BP is also considering the vast resources of hot air available.

 

Must Read Posts for June 20, 2010

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On The Economic Populist you might have noticed the right column. We try to list other sites and blogs who have exceptional insight and writing on what is happening in the U.S. economy.

Sometimes though, one cannot say it better but miss those who did.

Must Read Post #1

The New York Times has a great article on rip offs, scams and predators circling around the wounded gazelles as they run up their credit cards, out of money, in The New Poor: Peddling Relief, Firms Put Debtors in Deeper Hole. These creeps should not only be banned from operation, but should be tarred and feathered to boot.

Must Read Post #2

The Wall Street Journal investigated oil well construction and proved BP Relied on Cheaper Wells. Right, squeeze those costs and assume nothing bad will happen.

Must Read Post #3

The New York Times shows BP has a history of slashing costs, ignoring safety. While the spotlight is on BP, how many other corporations, do similar things from short term profits? From inane derivatives to security holes in software, squeezing the workers and costs is a never ending corporate mantra.

Must Read Post #4

China "Pledges" to "Reform" their Currency

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China is making front page news with a pledge to reform their currency.

Right. The specifics are clearly lacking and worse, China rejects a one time re-evaluation.

The decision to “increase the renminbi’s exchange-rate flexibility” was made after the economy improved, the central bank said in a statement on its website, without indicating a time-frame for the change. It ruled out a one-off revaluation, saying there is no basis for “large-scale appreciation,” and kept the yuan’s 0.5 percent daily trading band unchanged.

“The recovery and upturn of the Chinese economy has become more solid with the enhanced economic stability,” the People’s Bank of China said in the statement. “It is desirable to proceed further with reform of the renminbi exchange-rate regime and increase the renminbi exchange-rate flexibility.”

The Renminbi is considered undervalued from 23% to 40%. This appears to be a non-announcement announcement from China before the G-20 meeting in order to get the pressure off for China's currency manipulation.

Just yesterday China claimed their currency manipulation was not up for discussion at the G-20 meeting.

The actual announcement is here. China claims their currency peg helped with the financial crisis. Uh huh. From the press release:

Republicans kill unemployment extension

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A few weeks ago this bill was a foregone conclusion. But with solid opposition from Republicans, and a few defecting conservative Democrats, 1.2 million Americans will suddenly lose their last lifeline.

The measure would protect doctors from a steep cut in Medicare rates scheduled to take effect Friday and extend emergency unemployment benefits that support more than 5 million people. Without congressional action, an estimated 1.2 million people will stop receiving checks by the end of the month, according to independent estimates.
The package also would extend some expired tax breaks for businesses and individuals, including the hugely popular research and development tax credit. And it would raise taxes on oil companies, multinational corporations and investment partnerships.
During the past month, Democratic leaders have winnowed the overall price tag down from $200 billion and reduced its impact on the deficit by two-thirds. The House narrowly approved the package and sent it to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has been trying to add $24 billion in aid to state governments, a top Obama priority designed to avert thousands of state layoffs and prevent the 9.7 percent unemployment rate from shooting even higher.

Big Oil - First Nigeria then the World

Big oil in Nigeria - executions, pollution and suffering (Image)

Michael Collins

The big oil catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is not the first to threaten a people's way of life.

Just ask the Ogoni people from Nigeria's oil rich central Niger Delta. Their experience over decades offers a model of things to come without serious changes in consumption and regulation.

The Kill Switch, The Military, Reality Finance and The Plutonomy

Information Asymmetry

A recent news item mentioned that everyone's hero, Joe Lieberman, has proposed new legislation in the US Congress which would allow the president a "kill switch" to control and halt various portions of the Internet in the advent of national emergency.

Regardless of who the president might be, and I have as little faith in President Obama as I had in the previous bunch of presidents, going back to at least Nixon, this would represent the same possible conditions as we've observed in Myanmar, China and Iran; namely the censorship of the Web when they so desire.

This is what economists call "information asymmetry" -- or controlling the flowing information, or a controlled flow of information for selective profit and gain.

As I recently mentioned in a previous post, this administration's treasury department appears to be following the recommendation of avoidance of banning naked swaps, completely at odds of the mood over in the Eurozone!

This should leave everyone rather skeptical, especially given the record of our president when he was a senator; lobbying on behalf of, and attempting to pass legislation to establish a national DNA database for all citizens.








The Military


Major Bust for Mortgage Fraud, 485 arrests

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Some Progress! The DOJ announced a major bust on mortgage fraud, with a nice title too, Operation Stolen Dreams.

The nationwide initiative called Operation Stolen Dreams is the largest collective enforcement effort aimed at confronting the problem of mortgage fraud, Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference. It involves 1,215 criminal defendants in cases that uncovered more than $2.3 billion in losses.

The Justice Department also has engaged in civil enforcement actions to recover more than $147 million in the operation.

This was the largest criminal action on mortgage fraud in history. From the Department of Justice press conference:

In Miami, just yesterday we unsealed an indictment and arrested two defendants who allegedly targeted the Haitian-American community, often claiming they would assist them with immigration and housing issues, but then instead using victims’ personal information to produce false documents to obtain mortgage loans.

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