Fed Probes Goldman Role in Greek Crisis Financial Times (25 Feb 10) Bernanke Probing Goldman’s Dealings with Greece MarketWatch (25 Feb 10) London Firm Was Created to Route Cash GATA (22 Feb 10) Greece Turns

Zero Hedge (20 Feb 10) Much has been said lately about the record cash balance on the books of S&P 500 companies (ex. financials- those are a different story altogether). Bullish pundits claim that this

Pensions & Investments (11 Jan 10) The Internal Revenue Service wants to tax the State of Wisconsin Investment Board some $40 million, including interest, to recover income taxes owed by a company in which SWIB

GATA (20 Feb 10) Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: As you may have seen from the Bloomberg News story dispatched to you previously today,(http://www.gata.org/node/8352), Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is to appear next week

Bloomberg (22 Feb 10) WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Pacific Investment Management Co., clearing the way for a lawsuit seeking more than $600 million for the company’s alleged manipulation of the price

No, it’s not abstract, up there in the clouds!” exclaimed Talita Beck. “I can see it. I can measure it.” We were talking about carbon emissions; Beck is an emissions assessor, a profession that did

Two Breadwinners plus Extra Money to support the Banking Industry. How Middle Class Americans are losing Ground by Supporting the Financial Sector. MyBudget 360 (19 Feb 10) Continue reading the article. . .

The Economist (8 Feb 10) THERE was a time when conservation meant keeping people away from nature. America’s system of national parks, a model for similar set-ups around the world, was based on the idea

Talk about your political upsets. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, hero of a fervant band of libertarians, unexpectedly won the presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference today, claiming 31% of the votes cast.

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Tesla Motors, makers of sporty electrical cars, filed their registration statement on January 29th to go public with a $100 million offering through Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Deutsch Bank. The offering would

By Darrell Preston and Nanette Byrnes Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — U.S. states must contend with a more than $1 trillion gap between what they have saved and what they have promised to retired workers for

Posting rages at IRS, claims, “I have had all I can stand” FEBRUARY 18—The man suspected of intentionally crashing an airplane into a Texas office building today appears to have posted a lengthy online diatribe

Rasmussen Reports (16 Feb 10) Forty-three percent (43%) of U.S. voters rate the performance of their local government as tops compared to its counterparts on the state and federal level. A new Rasmussen Reports national

Introduced in the Georgia General Assembly B 416 – “Sound Money In Banking Act”; require any bank serving as a depository for the state to offer/accept gold and silver coin for deposit A BILL to

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Large financial institutions that engage in speculative activities for profit should be allowed to fail if they get in trouble, White House advisor Paul Volcker said on Sunday. “If a big non-bank

By Suzanne Goldenberg The brains trust of the Pentagon says it is just months away from producing a jet fuel from algae for the same cost as its fossil-fuel equivalent. The claim, which comes from

Kinzers, PA – At 9:40 a.m. Thursday, February 4, only a few miles from the scene of the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, another drama against the Amish began as agents of the U.S.

With Geoff Lawton Also see previous blog post: Greening the Desert

From Chris Powell – GATA – 7:45p ET Monday, February 15, 2010 Dear Friend of GATA and Gold: In a fascinating 50-minute interview with Eric King of King World News, JSMineSet.com’s Jim Sinclair remarks that

By Tom Engelhardt, Tom Dispatch Let me put American life in the Age of Terror into some kind of context, and then tell me you’re not ready to get on the nearest plane heading anywhere,

By Alan Feuer The critical lawsuit challenging that mystery of finance known as the Bailout started, oddly enough, with a casual newsroom chat. Mark Pittman, an investigative reporter for Bloomberg News, had filed a Freedom

By Daniel Tencer Concerns over privacy have aligned with apocalyptic Biblical prophecy in a proposed Virginia law that limits the use of microchip implants on humans because of a lawmaker’s concern that the chips will

I have been looking at the impact of various events and natural disasters on the price of gold. Paul Ferguson made this chart that marks various events on a gold price history for last week’s

By Paul Krugman For the truth is that lack of fiscal discipline isn’t the whole, or even the main, source of Europe’s troubles — not even in Greece, whose government was indeed irresponsible (and hid

In an attempt to rein in the shadow economy and collect more tax revenue, Greece outlaws cash transactions greater than 1500 Euros. Please consider Greek Finance Minister unveils tax reform, wage policy. “From 1. Jan.

By Jonathan Petre The academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information. Colleagues

By Chris Powell While our hopes to have a documentary film made from GATA’s conference in Washington on April 18 and 19, 2008, have not been realized, videos of the 17 major presentations there now

By Jeremy Singer-Vine A boost in blood sugar appears to increase the perceived value of future rewards, according to a study in Psychological Science. Researchers asked 65 college students seven questions about delayed rewards, such

Novella Carpenter on her experience moving to a ramshackle house in Oakland, California, and turning a weed-choked, garbage-strewn lot next door into a small farm, complete with egg-laying chickens, turkeys, geese, ducks, rabbits, and two

By Tony Marrero Charlie and Maria Cardoso are among the millions of Americans who have experienced the misery and embarrassment that come with home foreclosure. Just one problem: The Massachusetts couple paid for their future

By Jonathan Stray On Tuesday, the Icelandic parliament is expected to introduce a measure aimed at making the country an international center for investigative journalism publishing, by passing the strongest combination of source protection, freedom

The dirt is flying on Soros and his investments: Good news: Obama Backs Off-shore Drilling! Update: A Soros Connection? Hot Air (18 Aug 09) Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling The Wall Street Journal (18 Aug 09)

February 11, 2010 Dear Friends of the Crosby Mint Farm, We are thrilled to share the miracle that took place on Friday, February 5th, 2010 Some of you may have already heard through the mint

New Mexico’s House of Representatives voted Monday to pass a bill that allows the state to move $2 billion – $5 billion of state funds to credit unions and small banks. The municipal funds bill

By Julianna Goldman and Ian Katz President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman

By Karan Davis Cutler A decade ago, heirloom and open-pollinated, or OP, varieties of vegetables and flowers as well as certified organic seeds were the domain of small, regional seed houses. Today, most mainstream seed

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Friday it has abandoned a program that was intended to trace the movement of farm animals around the country but garnered little support from farmers. Instead, the department announced

By Ari LeVaux Big Ag is at fault for the nation’s food-borne illness outbreaks — but a raft of pending food safety legislation unfairly penalizes smaller producers. Thanks to a recent spate of high-profile, food-borne

By Paul Joseph Watson Subversives who think government is corrupt and should be controlled by the people face 10 years in prison and a $25,000 dollar fine if they fail to register with authorities in

By Paul Ferguson “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” I just had one of the best weeks ever! And also, one of the worst. As an investor in the

By Kathleen M. Howley When John King stopped making payments on his home in Coral Gables, Florida, two years ago, he assumed the foreclosure ended his mortgage contract, he said. Last month, a Miami-Dade County

By Dunstan McNichol Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, will consider Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection along with tax increases and asset sales as options to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year, the

By Michael Boldin Around the country, twenty two states are currently considering a bill known as the “Firearms Freedom Act.” This bill declares that guns, accessories, and ammunition made within a state, sold within that

Continue reading Illegal Baby DNA Profiling Without Parental Consent – Hello Gattaca! YouTube (24 Nov 09) Related articles: The Government Has Your Baby’s DNA CNN Health (04 Feb 10)

By Anny Shaw The last member of a 65,000-year-old tribe has died, taking one of the world’s earliest languages to the grave. Boa Sr, who died last week aged about 85, was the last native

Financial crisis Stalled too many customers CEO no more. – Haiku published by Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz on Twitter announcing his resignation as Oracle takes over Sun. Related articles: Sun CEO Tweets Resignation: And 9

By Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story Billions of dollars were at stake when 21 executives of Goldman Sachs and the American International Group convened a conference call on Jan. 28, 2008, to try to resolve

SWIFT headquarters in La Hulpe. The civil liberties committee in the European Parliament on Thursday recommended that the parliament’s MPs reject a deal that would allow U.S. authorities to continue accessing information held by a

Continue reading A No-Nonsense Look at Long-Term Care

By Jason Ditz In testimony before the House Intelligence Committee today, National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told representatives that American citizens can be assassinated by the US government when they are oveseas. Blair said the

By: Eamon Javers In the midst of two wars and the fight against Al Qaeda, the CIA is offering operatives a chance to peddle their expertise to private companies on the side — a policy

By Ellen Nakashima The world’s largest Internet search company and the world’s most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National

Eustace Clarence Mullins, Jr. was born in Roanoke, Virginia, the third child of Eustace Clarence Mullins (1899-1961) and his wife Jane Katherine Muse (1897-1971). His father was a salesman in a retail clothing store. He

By Stephen Bernard and Ieva M. Augstums The New York Attorney General’s office said Thursday it filed civil charges against Bank of America and its former CEO Ken Lewis, saying the bank misled investors about

Photo: Daniel Kurtzman’s Political Humor Blog

Dennis Bernstein, of the KPFA radio show, Flashpoints, interviewed Catherine last night (Feb 3, 2010.) Listen to the portion of the interview where Catherine talks about small business: Listen to the clip. . . Listen

Continue reading Who Owns Organic

By John Rubino The latest piece of deep thought from iTulip’s Eric Janszen explains why, if the recession is over, so many people remain in such bad shape. More specifically, how can U.S. GDP be

By Jesse “more than 519 municipalities that face 990 million euros in derivatives losses” As the quote indicates, its a big problem, and Bank of America is not the only bank involved. But they are

By Brady Dennis American International Group plans Wednesday to pay another round of employee bonuses, worth about $100 million, said several people familiar with the matter, a year after similar payments at the bailed-out insurance

By Tyler Durden Yes, slowly but surely it is happening. In a federal notice filed earlier, the DOL and Treasury are soliciting a response on what has been on many investors’ mind, namely the process

From Wikipedia A Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) is a government financial statement, which goes beyond the minimums established for public sector companies by NCGA (National Council on Governmental Accounting) statement 1. Public sector companies

By Lance Lewis Since December 2009, gold bears have had a ray of hope as gold has corrected (as all bull markets do), and now the bears are keying in on a headline from George

By PK Semler A proposal by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to limit bank’s proprietary trading will be either be dropped or significantly modified in the Senate, lawmakers and staffers told deal Reporter. Senate

By Tyler Durden The chart below demonstrates the amount of borrowing per state, as well as trust fund holdings. (View Larger Chart) Continue reading A Majority Of States Are Now Insolvent: Quantifying The Disastrous Unemployment

By F. William Engdahl Former President becomes UN Special Envoy to earthquake-stricken Haiti. A born-again neo-conservative US business wheeler-dealer preacher claims Haitians are condemned for making a literal ‘pact with the Devil.’ Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, Bolivian,

By Margaret Collins and Alexis Leondis U.S. President Barack Obama’s effort to increase retirement savings by requiring all businesses to offer automatic IRA accounts may face opposition from small companies, says a Washington-based trade group.

By David Reilly The idea of secret banking cabals that control the country and global economy are a given among conspiracy theorists who stockpile ammo, bottled water, and peanut butter. After this week’s congressional hearing

By Scott Thompson and Paul Gallagher If the rising movement of American patriots is going to clean out the London/Wall Street swamp of the Obama Administration, not only must Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner go immediately;

Continue reading Boston Globe Names Elizabeth Warren ‘Bostonian of the Year’

YouTube | February 04 2010 Sir James Michael “Jimmy” Goldsmith (26 February 1933 18 July 1997) was an Anglo-French financier. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In

There recently was an article in the St. Petersburg Fl. Times. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on: “How Would You Fix the Economy?” I think this guy nailed it! Dear Mr. President, Please

By Robert Britt Tonight’s full moon — called the wolf moon — will be the biggest and brightest full moon of the year. It offers anyone with clear skies an opportunity to identify easy-to-see features

1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street 2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s 3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates 4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina 5. Europe Blocks

Whitley Strieber writes, “For years, I have grappled with strange memories from early childhood that suggested involvement in some sort of abusive program. But I was never sure what these memories meant, until, in December

J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose “The Catcher in the Rye” shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91. Salinger died of natural causes

By Jesse Just returned last night from Beijing. While on standby at airport from 11:30 AM until 6:30 PM (all classes of all half-hourly flights of all airlines were overbooked and loaded full, and so

By Sven Egenter The police commander heading security at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland was found dead on Tuesday, local authorities said, adding that his death appeared to be suicide. Markus Reinhardt, head of

The heavily-redacted regulatory filing that spells out the details of the New York Federal Reserve’s controversial bailout of American International Group is a secret no more. Reuters has obtained a copy of the five-page document

By Emily Singer The anti-aging power of blood might not be just the stuff of vampire stories. According to new research from Harvard University, an unspecified factor in the blood of young mice can reverse

From the Federal Register today: [Federal Register: January 28, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 18)] [Rules and Regulations] [Page 4635-4654] From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov] [DOCID:fr28ja10-13] [[Page 4635]] SUMMARY: The Office of

Ben Bernanke’s great reflation gamble appears to be working. Unfortunately, it appears to be working in all the wrong places. View Larger Chart Continue reading The Trillion Dollar Mean Reversion

CAF Note: Not enough time to ask about: the Chair of the NY Fed being a former Goldman Co-Chair, a member of the Goldman board and shareholder; what % of the shares of the NY

By James MacPherson A federal appeals court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by two North Dakota farmers who said they should be allowed to grow industrial hemp without fear

By Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova Continue reading Chart of The Day: How The AIG Bailout Really Worked

1. You and those you love are your assets – invest in you, your health, your homebase and your own business first; 2. Bank and do business with people you respect and trust; 3. Stick

The 2010 State of the Union Address will be given by United States President Barack Obama on January 27, 2010, to a joint session of Congress. It will be Obama’s first State of the Union

I am watching the Congressional testimony about AIG. It’s a parade of people lying to themselves and to you. My expectation is that you will get a much more accurate explanation of the government’s gift

Today the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held hearings on: “The Federal Bailout of AIG” to examine the Federal response to the collapse of AIG. The hearing will focus on the decision to

By Tyler Durden Zero Hedge discussed a month ago the disastrous prospects of what would happen if the new proposal contemplated by the SEC, which would allow the suspension of redemptions from Money Market Funds,

By Ryan Grim A Republican senator said Tuesday that documents showing Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernake covered up the fact that his staff recommended he not bailout AIG are being kept from the public.

By Gretchen Morgenson and Louise Story Weeks after rescuing the American International Group with an $85 billion taxpayer loan in late 2008, Federal Reserve Board officials rejected a proposal that would have forced the insurer’s

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an

View Larger Map

By Nick Turse One moment there was the hum of a motor in the sky above. The next, on a recent morning in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, a missile blasted a home, killing 13 people. Days

By Joe Weisenthal and Kamelia Angelova View Larger Chart In the last several days, a view emerged that the tightening has un-officially begun. Continue reading Chart of The Day: Say Goodbye To The Great Liquidity