Archive for May, 2010
Why We Could All Use a Heavy Dose of Techno-Skepticism
May 15th, 2010Via: Technofascism Blog: A new prophet, Jason Silva, joins the ranks of Ray Kurzweil as evangelist for the emerging Singularity techno-religion. In his new film, “Turning Into Gods”, Mr. Silva promotes the central tenet of this new cult: that all of us will one day become all-powerful deities, that will play with genes and atoms […]
Ten Things For 2010
May 15th, 2010Via: Market Ticket: Yes, I expected the game to end in 2009. I did not believe that our government could sell a net $1.5 trillion of new issuance (debt) for more than a year or so, nor could they roll over some $600 billion every month to keep the Ponzi going for long. They got […]
U.S. Government Can Execute Its Own Citizens With No Judicial Process And Based On Secret Intelligence
May 15th, 2010What do we learn from the New York Times in the article below? Some legal authorities are deeply uneasy about the U.S. Government’s arbitrary assassination of Americans. That is supposed to soothe us, I think. We can rest assured that someone feels deeply uneasy about the government murdering its own citizens. I don’t know about […]
Inside the Secret Interrogation Facility at Bagram
May 15th, 2010Via: The Atlantic: The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) runs a classified interrogation facility for high-value detainees inside Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, defense and administration officials said, and prisoners there are sometimes subject to tougher interrogation methods than those used elsewhere. Both the New York Times and the BBC reported that prisoners who passed through […]
Detroit to Use Federal Money to Demolish Thousands of Abandoned Homes
May 14th, 2010Via: Wall Street Journal: Detroit is finally chipping away at a glut of abandoned homes that has been piling up for decades, and intends to take advantage of warm weather and new federal funding to demolish some 3,000 buildings by the end of September. Mayor Dave Bing has pledged to knock down 10,000 structures in […]
Sarkozy Threatened to Quit Euro in Showdown with Germany
May 14th, 2010Via: EUbusiness: French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull his country out of the euro currency group to force Germany to help Greece with its debt crisis, El Pais newspaper reported Friday, quoting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Sarkozy made the threat at a Brussels summit of EU leaders last Friday that sealed […]
GULF OIL LEAK MAY BE 14X WORSE THAN OFFICIAL ESTIMATE
May 14th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: U.S. Representative Edward Markey said he is concerned BP Plc’s well in the Gulf of Mexico may be leaking as much as 70,000 barrels of oil a day, compared with previous estimates of 5,000 barrels. Underestimating the spill may hinder efforts to control it, the Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement yesterday. Markey […]
Morgan Stanley Conjured Doomed CDO Product, Shorted It
May 14th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: In June 2006, a year before the subprime mortgage market collapsed, Morgan Stanley created a cluster of investments doomed to fail even if default rates stayed low — then bet against its concoction. Known as the Baldwin deals, the $167 million of synthetic collateralized debt obligations had an unusual feature, according to sales […]
Volcker Sees Euro ‘Disintegration’ Risk From Greece
May 14th, 2010Via: Bloomberg: Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said he’s concerned that the euro area may break up after the Greek fiscal crisis that sparked an unprecedented bailout by the region’s members. “You have the great problem of a potential disintegration of the euro,” Volcker, 82, said in a speech in London yesterday. “The essential […]
Images of Alleged “New” Deutsche Marks Are Photoshopped
May 14th, 2010Since yesterday, a rumor has been circulating that Germany is about to drop the euro and re-issue the Deutsche Mark. Today, images purporting to show pallets of “new” Deutsche Marks are making the rounds. These images have been Photoshopped. The dates on the bundles of currency have been digitally manipulated. The original source of the […]
