Free Republic

You Tube video 59:18 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JtdY9SGPq5E Senator Paul introduced a bill to cut off foreign aid to Egypt, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen unless they met certain conditions (which they would not.) He then used procedural moves to put the Senate into "slow motion" until he got his vote. The bill failed, incidentally, 10-81. Who voted for Senator Paul's resolution?

It just never ends, does it? Starting next year, new rules designed to prevent another meltdown will force traders to post U.S. Treasury bonds or other top-rated holdings to guarantee more of their bets. The change takes effect as the $10.8 trillion market for Treasuries is already stretched thin by banks rebuilding balance sheets and investors seeking safety, leaving fewer bonds available to backstop the $648 trillion derivatives market. The solution: At least seven banks plan to let customers swap lower-rated securities that don’t meet standards in return for a loan of Treasuries or similar holdings that do qualify, a...

There isn't any way to spin this one; I looked, I studied, I read it twice, three, four times. Facts are what they are, and the facts are that this report sucks: Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 96,000 in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 8.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in food services and drinking places, in professional and technical services, and in health care. Uh huh. The reason the unemployment rate "edged down" is that 1.483 million people gave up and exited the workforce! The Department of Labor Lies...

The alleged Governor Veto wants you to believe he slashed spending and is a model of fiscal restraint. The truth is that state level spending increased by about 7.5% annually over his eight-year term. County and local governments did a better job of restraining spending; their spending advanced by "just" 6.5% annually during the same period. Population advanced by about 12% over the same period, so don't let Governor Liar tell you this was all population increase; the facts are that he spent 75% more the year he left office than was spent the year he entered it. Much-more-damning, State...

From WSJ: After David Hubbard underwent a routine echocardiogram at his cardiologist's office last year, he was surprised to learn that the heart scan cost his insurer $1,605. That was more than four times the $373 it paid when the 61-year-old optometrist from Reno, Nev., had the same procedure at the same office just six months earlier. "Nothing had changed, it was the same equipment, the same room," said Dr. Hubbard, who has a high-deductible health plan and had to pay about $1,000 of the larger bill out of his own pocket. "I was very upset." _____________________ Why? Because the...

There are a few hard, fast rules in politics when you're playing on the top of the ticket. The first is that picking someone that's dumber than a box-o-rocks may cost you the election, as the electorate may think about your untimely demise and whether they can live with the other party in the left seat. The second is that picking someone who's smarter than you are isn't that good of an idea either, because then the electorate may wonder if they made the wrong choice for the top of the ticket. And the third is that picking someone who's...

Those who think that we're going to "muddle through" have another think coming... China’s export growth collapsed and imports and new yuan loans trailed estimates in July, reports today showed. Outbound shipments increased 1 percent from a year earlier and imports rose 4.7 percent, the customs bureau said. The growth in July exports compared with the 8 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey and 11.3 percent in June. Analysts estimated a 7 percent gain in imports after a 6.3 percent increase in June. [snip]

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company. The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions. .... One email dated Thursday, April 2, 2009 shows PBGC staffer Joseph House discussing a meeting he and his colleagues were anticipating with the entire auto bailout team the following day. House emailed PBGC colleagues Karen...

The USSC upheld Obamacare by, basically, twisting the Constitution into a pretzel, crapping on it, whizzing on that and then eating it. Finding first that the Commerce Clause bars the government from compelling one to enter into commerce, the analysis then turned to whether there was any way to save the constitutionality of the act. The justices found one. They re-interpreted the penalty clause as a tax. And of course, Congress can levy taxes.

The U.S. economy will probably tip back into recession next year if Congress fails to address an impending “fiscal cliff,”the Congressional Budget Office said. The nonpartisan agency said in a report late yesterday that the economy would contract at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the first half of 2013 if lawmakers allow the George W. Bush-era tax cuts to expire and $1.2 trillion in government spending cuts to take effect in January.

If we get another MF Global folks the market will drop 5,000 DOW points and not bounce, as that will be that -- in the grains, in the commodities, in everything. [snip] I have no idea what their [Penson(PNSN)] liquidity position actually looks like. All I know is what I see in their stock price. But this does not look good, and as Ann points out there is now history with MF Global and the CME refusing to make good when their oversight fails and customer funds "disappear." In short don't expect that you're safe if Penson blows because there...

And now, one man has taken his own life and left behind a note -- a call to revolution. "The Tsolakoglou government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state. And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting (although if a fellow Greek were to grab a Kalashnikov, I would be right behind him), I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don’t find myself fishing through garbage...

Banks were closed and reorganized, depositors protected and external creditors told to stuff it. Despite claims at the time of "dire consequences" they never materialized -- oh threats were made, but in the end nobody invaded and nobody did a damn thing about it, because they couldn't. As for handcuffs, we might get those too.... Iceland’s special prosecutor has said it may indict as many as 90 people, while more than 200, including the former chief executives at the three biggest banks, face criminal charges. That would be a great thing indeed. The lesson here is that you don't have...

Worth watching.... and thinking about. But do so soon, because if we don't the system will collapse, and then there will be no benefits at all. Bill puts into graphs in a couple of minutes what I've been writing about for the last five years. Your choice is to either act on it or go to the store, right now, and buy all the vasoline you can find -- because if you don't act you're going to need it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u24nH03NccI&feature=player_embedded#!

There are times when one questions a report as possibly being wrong or in error, and then there are times when one has to raise a flag and say "This is an intentionally false picture being presented by a government agency."I'm in the latter camp with this one, and it is rare for me to brand something as not possibly wrong and in error, but intentionally fraudulent. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread in the private sector,...

My fellow Americans;Four years ago, on this day in 2008, Bear Stearns stood on the edge of collapse.  We did not know this, of course, as other than their two hedge funds' failure their internal condition was hidden -- by the company and by the regulators who were charged with keeping our financial system safe.Over the next six months we came close to losing America.Today, we're not in much better shape.We have failed to address the first, and only, reason we find ourselves mired in an economic situation where we cannot grow and we cannot prosper.  Where The Senate has...

... and that pretty colored thing you're about to stick in your mouth, which came from the back side of the alleged unicorn, is not candy. How many times do we have to go over this? How long will you, dear reader, continue to suspend disbelief and basic logic along with 5th grade mathematics? Take a personal inventory on this MLK day. Let us presume that today, at 12:00 Noon local time, you are fired and discover that all of your credit (visa/mc/discover/amex/store cards/etc) have been revoked. The Federal Government comes up on the TV and radio, telling you that...

The Game Is About DoneKarl Denninger November 23, 2011 It's pretty-much over at this point.... This morning Germany had a failed Bund auction. That's not particularly noteworthy; it happens from time to time. But what's noteworthy is what happened to bond yields everywhere through Europe in response: They blew out. The Greek and Italian "problem" is no longer about Greece and Italy. It has been creeping into Spain and more-recently France, but this morning jumped into Germany and everywhere else "all at once." Capital has said "no more" to the lies in Europe. While this does not mean an instant...

The SEC alleges that Citigroup Global Markets structured and marketed a CDO called Class V Funding III and exercised significant influence over the selection of $500 million of the assets included in the CDO portfolio. Citigroup then took a proprietary short position against those mortgage-related assets from which it would profit if the assets declined in value. Citigroup did not disclose to investors its role in the asset selection process or that it took a short position against the assets it helped select. Citigroup has agreed to settle the SEC’s charges by paying a total of $285 million, which will...

That's what all the crooners want you to believe. Today is 10/4. Yesterday the S&P closed at 1099. It also closed at 1099 on that same day in 2008. Over the next month and a half it would fall to 750, rally for a couple of months to about 900, and then collapse to 666. Are we about to have a repeat - or a rhyme?