Free Republic

Sorry for the late post. My uncle passed away this morning at 2:14. I want to sincerely thank every one of you for your prayers, because I know they were heard. He passed very peacefully and surrounded by family. Again, my most humble, and sincerest, as well as deepest appreciation for all who've expressed thoughts and said prayers on my and his behalf.

A senior Chinese official who oversees the country's largest state-owned enterprises has publicly slammed Western investment banks for "maliciously" peddling complicated derivative products that caused huge losses for Chinese companies over the last year. In Beijing's strongest criticism on the matter to date, Li Wei, vice director of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, singled out Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup in a long and highly critical article in the latest issue of an official Communist party newspaper. The large losses suffered by Chinese state companies were "closely associated with the intentionally complex and highly leveraged...

Goldman Arming Itself? :-> This is a riot (well, ok, I might be a week - or a month early on that): Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the...

As we have been reading the latest coverage on the AIG bailout from the SIGTARP report and the Treasury Secretary Geithner’s Congressional testimony, a nagging question remains unresolved: why did AIG get bailed out but the monoline bond insurers did not? . . . I hate to get sucked into the vampire squid line of thinking about Goldman, but the only explanation i can think of for why AIG got rescued and the monolines did not is because Goldman had significant exposure to AIG and did not have exposure to the monolines. When it became clear that AIG could face...

The role of fat cat climate profiteers' bundled contributions in so-called "climate legislation"We read in our morning paper that the Obama Administration promises that proposed carbon regulations will cost American families less than a dollar a day, and will reduce deaths from air pollution. The latter proposition is an outright fraud because carbon dioxide is not a pollutant; our lungs always contain a far higher concentration than the air around any coal-fired power plant. Obama's dishonest efforts to equate carbon dioxide to genuine pollutants like sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, mercury, and so on shows just how eager he is to...

“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank...

An aide to billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, Jerome (Jerry) was named to General Motors Corp.'s board of directors Monday, (2-6-06) Jerome (Jerry) York is Chief Executive Officer of Harwinton Capital Corporation,a private investment company he founded in 2000. Harwinton Capital‘s principal investments are in the cosmetics, technology,biotechnology,wine distribution and real estate sectors. From 2000 to mid-2003 he was Chief Executive Officer of Micro W arehouse,Inc.,a multi-national reseller of computer hardware,software and peripheral products. From 1995 to 1999 he was Vice Chairman of Tracinda Corporation,the private investment company owned by Mr.Kirk Kerkorian,with major investments in the automotive,filmed entertainment and gaming...

Corporate boards are shedding their sleepy images and becoming more ruthless when something is not quite right at the top. The result: Top U.S. executives are being knocked off their pedestals faster than ever. Boards are asking high-level company officers to hit the road for anything ranging from a financial scandal, lackluster results, improper insider trades or even an affair with another executive. In February, U.S. companies announced 103 CEO changes compared with 92 in January, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement and employment research firm. It was the fourth consecutive increase in monthly turnover and the first...

The NRA's Board of directors set the course of policy and direction for the organizations 4.3 million members, its scores of programs, publications and institutions. The board consists of 75 three year term members and 1 one year term member. Out of 4.3 million member, 1.2 are eligible to vote in NRA elections. yet, only about 9% of them do. This means that NRA's elected leadership is elected by less than about 100,000 people. these few voters decide for over 4 million, who their representatives are.