Free Republic

View Over at Salon, Glenn Greenwald has the goods on the latest astounding power grab by the Obama Administration. According to The Washington Post, Obama has just issued an executive order claiming the power to freeze any assets you own, if you "directly or indirectly" obstruct the new government of Yemen. There are hardly any criteria for judging just how broadly this order can be interpreted. Here's the background: Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is the new Yemeni president, and the former Vice President of long-time dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. Hadi was recently installed after an "election" where he ran unopposed,...

Fast running out of money, solar-panel maker Solyndra LLC last summer sold off nearly $60 million worth of inventory for less than $20 million in cash to a newly formed corporate entity closely tied to the company’s biggest investors, records show. Backed by $535 million in federal loan guarantees but burning through the little cash it had left, Solyndra made its first sale in late July to a corporate entity that had been formed just a day earlier. Three more transactions followed over the next few weeks with the same buyer, Solyndra Solar II.

I'm live at Freedom Fest's Global Financial Summit 2012 in the Bahamas. Trevor Bradley of Georgetown Trust joins me to discuss global banking jurisdictions. Georgetown Trust specializes in helping you obtain asset protection, management, and diversification. All of their work is offshore and is protected with respect to privacy and confidentiality. Trevor and I agree, Belize is one of the best banking jurisdictions out there. Belize has never had a banking failure in its history, and banks in Belize are regulated to keep a 24% liquidity rate all year round. You need to consider offshoring a portion of your wealth....

A Massachusetts fisherman pulled in an 881-pound tuna this week only to have the federal authorities take it away. It sounds like a libertarian twist on the classic novella by Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, but for Carlos Rafael, the saga is completely true.

Las Vegas copyright infringement lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC’s financial problems grew Tuesday when the federal court in Las Vegas commanded the U.S. Marshals Service to seize more than $63,000 in Righthaven assets to satisfy a creditor’s judgment and costs. Lance Wilson, clerk of the court, signed a writ of execution requested by attorneys for Wayne Hoehn, who was sued for copyright infringement by Righthaven — but then defeated Righthaven in court when his case was dismissed this summer. Righthaven since March 2010 has filed 275 lawsuits against websites, bloggers and message board posters claiming they infringed on material from the...

… Inequality in America is greater than it has been in almost a century. Those fortunate enough to belong to the 1 percent, made up of the super-rich, stand on one side of the divide; the remaining 99 percent on the other. Even for a country that has always accepted opposite extremes as part of its identity, the chasm has simply grown too vast. Those who succeed in the US are congratulated rather than berated. Resenting other people's wealth is viewed as supporting class struggle, which is something very frowned upon. Still, statistics indicate that the growing disparity is genuinely...

CHENGDU, China (AP) - Vice President Joe Biden wrapped up a visit to China on Sunday that offered him extensive face-time with the country's expected future leader, Xi Jinping, and delivered a strong message of U.S. mutual interdependence with the world's second-largest economy. Biden also made the case for continued U.S. economic vitality despite current budget woes and sought to reassure China's leaders and ordinary citizens about the safety of their assets in the United States following the downgrading of America's credit rating. "You're safe," Biden told students in a question-and-answer session following a speech at Sichuan University in the...

ROME May 5 (Reuters) - The White House hopes to change U.S. law to allow it to use some of the more than $30 billion in frozen Gaddafi regime U.S. assets to help the Libyan people, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday. "I'm pleased to announce that the Obama Administration, working with Congress, has decided to pursue legislation that would enable the U.S. to tap some portion of those assets owned by Gaddafi and the Libyan government in the United States, so we can make those funds available to help the Libyan people," she said in prepared...

WASHINGTON -- Vote for me 'cause mine's bigger. Donald Trump yesterday fired the opening salvo in a macho battle of bank accounts with rival presidential contender Mitt Romney, dismissing the former Massachusetts governor as a "small business" person and saying his own assets are "much, much" larger than his opponent's. Trump, whose approval ratings have rocketed upward since he started hammering President Obama, yesterday turned his fire on Romney, considered by many the front-runner in a divided Republican field. "I'm a much bigger businessman and have a much, much bigger net worth. I mean my net worth is many, many,...

Fox News Reports Switzerland has frozen the assets of Mubarak.

U.S. military and intelligence agencies would lose vital air, land and sea assets if Egypt falls into the hands of radical Islamists, as Iran did in 1979, foreign policy analysts say. The U.S. armed forces are entwined with Egypt's military more than with any other Arab country’s. But if Islamists seize Cairo, as the mullahs captured Tehran, this complex relationship unravels. “Let me count the ways,” said Ken Allard, a retired Army colonel and military analyst. “They are our biggest strategic partner in the Middle East. At that point, you’ve lost your biggest Arab partner. Geostrategically, the mind boggles.”

This headline is getting a little bit of attention this morning: Ahead of a state visit from Hu Jintao, Chinese Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai says his country is looking for some kind of "positive statement" about the safety of US dollar holdings. Read more: http://imarketnews.com/node/24868

31-Oct-2010 40,255 MEMBERS (Including FBI) InfraGard is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) program that began in the Cleveland Field Office in 1996. It was a local effort to gain support from the information technology industry and academia for the FBI’s investigative efforts in the cyber arena. The program expanded to other FBI Field Offices, and in 1998 the FBI assigned national program responsibility for InfraGard to the former National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) and to the Cyber Division in 2003. InfraGard and the FBI have developed a relationship of trust and credibility in the exchange of information concerning various...

Dear "Middle Class" Americans: Most Of You Are Debt Serfs With Zero Assets Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds Oct. 12, 2010, 11:53 AM Americans have been trained to believe that membership in the "middle class" is their birthright if they "work hard" in the status quo. What income defines "middle class" is a function of locale and prevailing wages/costs ($100,000 in Manhattan or San Francisco isn't much because costs are so high), but in terms of purchasing power we can probably agree that middle class membership includes: 1. reliable private transport 2. a home with meaningful equity 3. healthcare...

We're $12.3 Trillion Poorer Than We Were Three Years Ago Calculated Risk Sep. 18, 2010, 6:19 PM The Federal Reserve released the Q2 2010 Flow of Funds report yesterday: Flow of Funds. According to the Fed, household net worth is now off $12.3 Trillion from the peak in 2007, but up $4.7 trillion from the trough in Q1 2009. This is the Households and Nonprofit net worth as a percent of GDP. This includes real estate and financial assets (stocks, bonds, pension reserves, deposits, etc) net of liabilities (mostly mortgages). Note that this does NOT include public debt obligations. Note...

Wary investors are buying gold and silver despite signs of improving home sales and consumer confidence in the U.S. Gold for December delivery rose $11.10 to settle at $1,250.30 an ounce Tuesday, its highest level in about two months. Silver also settled higher. A new report shows consumer confidence is improving but concerns about unemployment linger. Another report says home sales are better, but much of the improvement was traced to government tax credits. The economic worries also are causing energy prices to retreat, while grains are mixed.

"...taxpayers don’t want the IRS to confiscate huge portions of what has been saved and invested over lifetimes of hard work. “You don’t know whether to commit suicide or just go on living and working,” says Eugene Sukup, an outspoken critic of the estate tax and the founder of Sukup Manufacturing, a maker of grain bins that employs 450 people in Sheffield, Iowa. Born in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl, the 81-year-old Mr. Sukup is a National Guard veteran and high school graduate who founded his firm, which now owns more than 70 patents, with $15,000 in 1963. He says...

The Red Queen's Race is an apt analogy for the meltdown in assets and debt now swamping the global economy. The Red Queen's race refers to running very fast to stay in the same place. As asset values fall globally (except where massive government stimulus has pushed the day of reckoning forward a bit), debt holders are frantically paying down or writing down debt--running very fast--but finding themselves in the same place--zero equity--despite their prodigious efforts. Owning an asset as it catapults ever higher in a credit/asset bubble offers a fateful temptation to leverage that rising equity ("free money") or...

From the headlines of the Wall Street Journal: “Banks Aiming to Play Both Sides of Coin — Industry Lobbies FDIC to Let Some Buy Toxic Assets With Taypayer Aid From Own Loan Books (subscription required, but Calculated Risk has an excerpt). I thought the headline had to be a mistake until I read the article. To recap: The Public-Private Investment Program provides subsidies to private investors to encourage them to buy legacy loans from banks. The goal is to encourage buyers to bid more than they are currently willing to pay, and hopefully close the gap with the prices at which...

When the tree fell in the financial forest, the reported sound was deafening but hardly anyone talked about the ax. Imagine if Hitler had won World War Two and having done so, his historians and propaganda machine would never speak of his crimes. Rather, they would blame all the problems on those horrible, nasty Jews led by Churchill and Roosevelt...

BEIJING (Reuters) – Premier Wen Jiabao held out the prospect of extra stimulus spending if needed to hit China's 8 percent growth goal this year and called on Washington to ease worries Beijing has about the safety of its vast U.S. assets. In his annual news conference ending the nine-day session of China's ceremonial parliament, Wen on Friday reaffirmed China's commitment to keeping the yuan broadly steady and noted that the currency, far from having depreciated, had been rising in value. Wen, who fielded questions for well over two hours, said the 8 percent growth target was a measure of...

States Consider Selling Off Roads, Parks to Confront Financial Meltdown Saturday, New York Gov. David Paterson is considering selling assets like the Tappan Zee Bridge, seen above, which connects two New York counties. New York Gov. David Paterson is considering selling assets like the Tappan Zee Bridge, seen above, which connects two New York counties. ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota is deep in the hole financially, but the state still owns a premier golf resort, a sprawling amateur sports complex, a big airport, a major zoo and land holdings the size of the Central American country of Belize. Valuables like...

AugustReview.com [Editor's note: members of the Trilateral Commission and companies with Commission representation appear in bold type.] Since 1973, this writer has made inquiry as to the location and ownership of the vast stores of monetary gold (400 oz., .999 pure bars) in the world. There has not been a formal audit on Fort Knox, for instance, since the Eisenhower administration. Official statistics on gold holdings are often contradictory. Getting plain answers from any Central Bank in the world, including the Fed, is virtually impossible. This paper points out a pattern of manipulation that has been clearly observed by many...

Kenneth Vogel comes up with the answer at Politico that eluded John McCain in his earlier interview. The actual number of houses owned by McCain is … zero. That’s right — the Senator doesn’t own a single property in his own name.... Sen. McCain himself does not own any of the properties. They’re all owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control. …

Press Release: New Zealand Government Strategic assets to be protected in national interest Greater protection for New Zealand’s major strategic assets will be delivered by new Overseas Investment provisions announced by Finance Minister Michael Cullen today. A new regulation under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 was introduced by Order in Council today. The regulation will bolster the factors Ministers may take into account when considering overseas investment applications that affect a very narrow range of strategically important assets. The changes have been made in response to the uncertainty and debate that have emerged surrounding the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board’s...

Nearly 15 years ago, the state of California seized about $25,000 worth of stock that Richard Valdes had set aside and forgotten about. He's been fighting to get it back almost ever since. Valdes' stock was in an escrow account that the state declared dormant. But no one from the government tried to contact him before the shares were taken and sold. Valdes said he was effectively robbed of stock that would now be worth at least $100,000. "It's unbelievable to me that they can destroy records and sell your property without notifying you," Valdes, 71, said. "I've lived in...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States froze the assets Friday of four Iranian companies, alleging they are involved in Iran's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The Treasury Department named the companies as Pars Tarash (aka Pars Trash Company), Farayand Technique, Fajr Industries Group, and Mizan Machine Manufacturing Group. The action was taken under an executive order aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of WMDs and their supporters, the department said in a statement. The Treasury is barring all transactions between the companies and any US person and freezes any assets the companies may have under US jurisdiction. "So...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal judge Thursday froze the assets of Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La., who was indicted this week on charges of soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Among the 16 criminal counts Jefferson is facing is a criminal forfeiture count, and prosecutors have already said they will seek to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars from Jefferson that they believe he obtained illicitly by peddling his influence to help broker business deals in Africa. Jefferson is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in U.S. District Court. The restraining order issued by U.S. District...

WASHINGTON -- Republican Mitt Romney is expected to report financial assets between $190 million and $250 million, an amount that would likely make him the wealthiest of the 2008 presidential candidates. Aides to the former Massachusetts governor said his assets have been held in a blind trust that he and his wife set up when he took office in 2002. The adviser who provided the estimate of his assets cautioned that the number is based on 2005 and 2006 financial activity and could amount to a bigger total once the disclosure report is filed later this year. Romney lent his...

Investors clamor to take over America's highways, bridges, and airports

The world's financial system is overflowing with stocks, bonds and other financial assets -- $140 trillion worth, to be precise. The figure was released in a study by McKinsey & Co. that maps financial assets around the globe and seeks to track the flows of these assets as they move from one region to another, putting hard numbers on the oceans of capital washing up around the globe. At $140 trillion in 2005, the value of the world's financial assets hit a new peak and was more than three times as large as the total output of goods and services...

TIRANA, Albania: The Albanian government said Friday that it has seized assets of a man who allegedly worked with Osama bin Laden to provide support to terror networks in Albania. The Finance Ministry said it ordered authorities to block four apartments, a house, four bars and shops, and more than 2 hectares (about 5 acres) of land belonging to Yasin al-Qadi, a Saudi businessman whom the United States accused of being a terrorist in October 2001 and who is on a U.N. sanctions list requiring all U.N. members to impose a travel ban on him and block his assets, according...

A team of Marines and civilians work an assembly line to inspect recovered Iraqi weapons before redeploying them to Iraqi Army. Photo taken by Lance Cpl. Ben Eberle. CAMP TAQADDUM -- Since March 2003, coalition forces have seized thousands of unauthorized small arms through security patrols and urban search operations. Marines and civilians with Ammunition Platoon, Supply Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 15, 1st Marine Logistics Group (Forward), are redeploying these weapon systems into the Iraqi Army, turning insurgent resources into coalition assets. “We need to arm our allies,” said Warrant Officer Robert P. Smith, officer-in-charge of Camp Taqaddum’s Ammunition Supply...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration moved Tuesday to isolate a Lebanese organization financially for allegedly funneling money to bankroll terrorism by Hezbollah. The Treasury Department's action, which covers the Islamic Resistance Support Organization, or IRSO, means any assets belonging to the group found in the United States must be frozen. Americans also are prohibited from contributing to the organization. Hezbollah uses the organization to solicit donations to support terror, the department alleged. Treasury said the group solicits money for the Lebanese Shiite militia and political party through advertisements aired on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station, which was put on the government's...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - A Chinese court has frozen the personal assets of two journalists at the China Business News after Apple iPod contract manufacturer Foxconn sued the two following a report on work conditions at its factory, the Shanghai Daily reported. The paper said that Foxconn's subsidiary in Shenzhen petitioned the city's Intermediate People's Court in early July to freeze the property of China Business News reporter Wang You and editor Weng Bao. The locked-up assets include apartments, a car and bank accounts, according to the report. Foxconn has also filed a lawsuit against the journalists, seeking 20 mln yuan...

WASHINGTON: The Bush administration has indicated it is prepared to form an independent coalition to freeze Iranian assets and restrict trade if the United Nations Security Council fails to penalise Tehran for its nuclear enrichment programme, The Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. A Security Council resolution gives Iran until Aug.31 to stop uranium enrichment, which could provide fuel to produce electricity or possibly atomic weapons, or face penalties. US Ambassador John Bolton said in an interview late this week that the United States planned to introduce a resolution imposing penalties such as a travel ban and asset freeze for...

SHANGHAI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Fuyao Group Glass Industries Co. Ltd. (600660.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), China's biggest auto glass maker, is set to bid for North American glass making assets of Ford Motor Co. (F.N: Quote, Profile, Research), two sources familar with the matter said. Automotive Component Holdings LLC, a parts subsidiary of Ford, is discussing the sale of glass manufacturing operations and other assets as part of the U.S. auto maker's restructuring. Fuyao has held two rounds of talks with Ford and has been selected to submit a final bid for the glass assets, a source told Reuters. The...

This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon. Companies disclose little about any of this. But a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate filings reveals that executive benefits are playing a large and hidden role in the declining health of America's pensions. Among the findings: • Boosted by surging pay and rich formulas, executive pension obligations exceed $1 billion at some companies. Besides GM, they include General...

US blocks Hariri suspects' assets A massive car bomb targeted Mr Hariri's motorcade in Beirut US President George W Bush has ordered a freeze on the assets of anyone linked to the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri. The order called for the assets to be blocked of anyone linked to the Hariri killing - or to "terrorist acts" in Lebanon in which Syria is implicated. Mr Bush said the order was based on UN findings against Lebanon and Syria. A UN probe has implicated top Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the February 2005 attack on...

New York - The Forbes 2000 is not only a comprehensive list of the world's largest, and most powerful, public companies. It is also unique in its way of measuring corporate size. Our logic for using sales, profits, assets and market value in a composite ranking: a list based on a single metric provides a lopsided view of which companies are most important to the world's economy.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris continued her attempt to take her campaign to national television and to add religious overtones to her quest for a U.S. Senate seat with an appearance on ABC News "Nightline" Tuesday. Harris told John Donvan, of "Nightline," that she intends to sell all her personal assets to fund the race. "My husband has real estate, but I will not own anything." Since making a pledge last week to put $10 million of her money into the race, Harris has made the phrase "putting everything on the line" a new campaign theme. "I am willing to take...

Confusion over Iran 'assets move' Iran has broken the seals on three nuclear facilities There is confusion over whether Iran is moving foreign exchange reserves from Europe to avoid possible sanctions, after conflicting remarks by officials. The deputy head of Iran's central bank has said that Iran has no plans at the moment to shift its money. But Iranian news agencies reported on Friday that the bank head had said the state had started to withdraw assets, amid a row over its nuclear programme. Iran denies US and European claims that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons. The UN's...

The Massachusetts Department of Revenue began notifying 48,000 taxpayers yesterday that they owe capital gains taxes on the sale of assets that occurred nearly four years ago, outraging consumer advocates and business leaders who called the retroactive taxation plan unfair.

State Treasurer Phil Angelides' proposal to sell or lease idle state property and use the money for higher education has drawn fire from a taxpayers organization. A bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee would establish the California Hope Endowment, which would enact Angelides' idea of taking about $5 billion in state land and putting it in a trust. With a 6 percent return, the trust would generate $300 million for outreach, counseling, help with college preparation and scholarships, the treasurer asserted last week. "One of the biggest needs facing our state is to educate a work force who can compete...

SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal bankruptcy judge ruled today that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests. The decision, expected to have ramifications for dioceses across the nation, was a defeat for Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, who had argued that he did not control individual parishes and thus they were not available to cover settlement costs. "It is not a violation of the First Amendment to apply federal bankruptcy law to identify and define property of the bankruptcy estate even though...

Bankruptcy judge rules parish assets available to victims The Associated Press   SPOKANE, Wash. — A federal bankruptcy judge ruled today that all the parish churches, parochial schools and other property of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane can be liquidated to pay victims of sexual abuse by priests. The decision, expected to have ramifications for dioceses across the nation, was a defeat for Spokane Bishop William Skylstad, who had argued that he did not control individual parishes and thus they were not available to cover settlement costs. "It is not a violation of the First Amendment to apply federal...

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration moved Friday to freeze the finances of Muhammad Yunis al-Ahmad, who is on a list of the most-wanted supporters of insurgent groups in Iraq. The Treasury Department's action means any bank accounts or financial assets belonging to him that are found in this country will be blocked. The government also is asking the United Nation's member countries to freeze al-Ahmad's assets. It's the latest effort by the administration to try to make it harder for insurgent groups in Iraq to get financial support. The department said al-Ahmad is currently a "financial facilitator" and "operational leader"...

Occupation authority said unable to account for $8.8 billion - The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found. The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred....

Chancellor Gordon Brown has ordered the Bank of England to freeze any UK assets of an alleged al Qaida supporter believed to be living in London in exile from Saudi Arabia. Mr Brown made the move against Sa'ad Al-Faqih and his Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia after he was named by the United Nations as an associate of al Qaida. The Treasury said in a statement: "The Chancellor today instructed the Bank of England, acting as HM Treasury's agent, to direct all UK financial institutions to freeze any funds held for or on behalf of the entity, the Movement...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has frozen the assets of two Saudi nationals for allegedly providing support to al Qaeda, and asked the United Nations to take similar action. The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it had listed the two men -- London-based dissident Saad al-Fagih and Adel Batterjee, another Saudi national -- as "specially designated global terrorists" for providing financial and material support to al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden. "The U.S. is submitting both names to the United Nations (Security Council) 1267 Committee, which will consider adding them to the consolidated list of terrorists tied...