Nuclear Ginza (1995)
July 8th, 2011Part 1
Part 2
Research Credit: Eileen
Treasury Secretly Weighs Options to Avert Default [???]
July 8th, 2011You may have noticed that I haven’t been paying much attention to the possibility of default via the legislative vector. The reason is because every time a situation like this comes up, the machine always somehow manages to lurch on to dig the hole deeper. I’m assuming that the same thing will happen this time.
My guess is that, if the risk of default was real, the dollar and the precious metals would not be rangebound, as they are now. These will be worth watching, perhaps a bit more closely than usual, over the next few weeks.
As of now, I’m assuming that no default will occur, regardless of what Congress does or doesn’t do. The United States is a banana republic with nuclear weapons. Anything goes: “The United States is formally in an ongoing limited state of emergency declared by several Presidents for several reasons.” A default would make the antics of 2008 look like a walk in the park, so if the machine was actually about to go off the rails, my guess is that there’s some clause or another in that morass of emergency declarations that would allow the regime to buy another few weeks or months—until the next crisis hits.
Via: Reuters:
A small team of Treasury officials is discussing options to stave off default if Congress fails to raise the country’s borrowing limit by an August 2 deadline, sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Senior officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, have repeatedly said there are no contingency plans if lawmakers do not give the U.S. government the authority to borrow more money.
But behind the scenes, top Treasury officials have been exploring ways to prevent a financial meltdown that would be triggered if the government were unable to pay its bills on time, sources told Reuters.
Treasury has studied the following issues:
– Whether the administration can delay payments to try to manage cash flows after August 2
– If the U.S. Constitution allows President Barack Obama to ignore Congress and the government to continue to issue debt
– Whether a 1985 finding by a government watchdog gives the government legal authority to prioritize payments.
The Treasury team has also spoken to the Federal Reserve about how the central bank — specifically the New York Federal Reserve Bank — would operate as Treasury’s broker in the markets if a deal to raise the United States’ $14.3 trillion borrowing cap is not reached on time.
The U.S. government currently borrows about $125 billion each month. The Obama administration wants Congress to raise the limit by more than $2 trillion to meet the country’s borrowing needs through the 2012 presidential election.
Update: U.S. Regime May Cite 14th Amendment to Keep Raising Debt Ceiling
Research Credit: ms
Hackers Are Everywhere. Panic!
July 7th, 2011Via: PC Magazine:
I think the number of recent hacks and the amount of news coverage on these attacks is suspicious. Could they be false flag events to help the government regulate the Internet?
…
Out of the blue, Citigroup was hacked, then the CIA, and then the FBI and other groups were hacked. Now I’m finding this a little odd and wondering who is being set up here. Supposedly, some of the hacks of government agencies stem from the arrest of a few hackers in Europe. This is an attempt to make the hackers appear to be online versions of Hezbollah, as there are retaliatory attacks reported. You know, the way terrorists would do it.
It’s all possible, but I’m suspicious of the whole scene. These hackers, who are normally casual in their approach, are made to look like bomb throwing Trotskyites from the 1920s, each wielding a Molotov cocktail and out to overthrow the government.
This above mental image, of course, is for public benefit. By making any one of these hackers appear to be a horrendous threat to public safety, a number of initiatives can be rushed through Congress. All sorts of onerous laws will be passed, which probably will not affect the scene at all but will allow more government intrusion into the Internet. It will become illegal to sell any programming tools that can be used by a hacker, despite the usefulness of these tools to security experts. It will also become a felony to attempt to deconstruct a password or enter a system for whatever reason.
I have predicted for years that at some point people are going to have to be registered and licensed to use the Internet at all. You can see it coming as clear as day. These hackers, of course, have to be stopped, and this is how they’ll do it.
Nuclear Industry Views Prevail on Radiation Risks
July 7th, 2011Via: FAIR:
U.S. media coverage of the nuclear disaster in Japan contains vanishingly little serious discussion of the human health risks posed by the radiation escaping from the Fukushima nuclear facility.
In place of a discussion informed by experts on these risks, journalism largely conveys vague, industry-friendly reassurances, frequently including no sources with expertise on the health effects of radiation on humans.
Research Credit: Eileen
As Commodity Prices Soar, So Does Demand for Wood Pulp—As a “Food Extender”
July 7th, 2011Just the other day, I was joking with my wife about how eating those cheap tacos is like eating meat flavored sawdust.
Well…
Via: The Street:
Are you getting what you pay for on your plate?
The recent class-action lawsuit brought against Taco Bell raised questions about the quality of food many Americans eat each day.
Chief among those concerns is the use of cellulose (read: wood pulp), an extender whose use in a roster of food products, from crackers and ice creams to puddings and baked goods, is now being exposed. What you’re actually paying for — and consuming — may be surprising.
Cellulose is virgin wood pulp that has been processed and manufactured to different lengths for functionality, though use of it and its variant forms (cellulose gum, powdered cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose, etc.) is deemed safe for human consumption, according to the FDA, which regulates most food industry products. The government agency sets no limit on the amount of cellulose that can be used in food products meant for human consumption. The USDA, which regulates meats, has set a limit of 3.5% on the use of cellulose, since fiber in meat products cannot be recognized nutritionally.
“As commodity prices continue to rally and the cost of imported materials impacts earnings, we expect to see increasing use of surrogate products within food items. Cellulose is certainly in higher demand and we expect this to continue,” Michael A. Yoshikami, chief investment strategist at YCMNet Advisors, told TheStreet.
Agent Orange Being Used to Clear Rainforrest in Brazil
July 7th, 2011Via: Treehugger:
Agent Orange is one of the most devastating weapons of modern warfare, a chemical which killed or injured an estimated 400,000 people during the Vietnam War — and now it’s being used against the Amazon rainforest. According to officials, ranchers in Brazil have begun spraying the highly toxic herbicide over patches of forest as a covert method to illegally clear foliage, more difficult to detect that chainsaws and tractors. In recent weeks, an aerial survey detected some 440 acres of rainforest that had been sprayed with the compound — poisoning thousands of trees and an untold number of animals, potentially for generations.
Officials from Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA were first tipped to the illegal clearing by satellite images of the forest in Amazonia; a helicopter flyover in the region later revealed thousands of trees left ash-colored and defoliated by toxic chemicals. IBAMA says that Agent Orange was likely dispersed by aircraft by a yet unidentified rancher to clear the land for pasture because it is more difficult to detect than traditional operations that require chainsaws and tractors.
Research Credit: cptmarginal
Native Americans Now Living in Deadly FEMA Trailers; Thousands Already Distributed, More Requested
July 7th, 2011Via: Seattle Times / AP:
Wanda Tiger and her husband needed a new home after a long-term house-sitting arrangement came to an end. But for members of their American Indian tribe in rural Oklahoma, affordable housing options were few.
Then tribal leaders learned of an impossibly attractive offer: Mobile homes that had never been occupied were available from the government almost for free. They had stood vacant for years after being rejected as temporary housing following Hurricane Katrina.
To Tiger and members of other tribes, the homes seemed perfect, even luxurious.
“When you ain’t got nothing, you’re happy with whatever you can get,” said Tiger, a member of the Absentee Shawnee tribe who now lives in a three-bedroom home courtesy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “They call them temporary homes, but hey, sometimes it’s your permanent home, and we’re satisfied with it.”
Nearly six years after the hurricane, the mobile homes that became a symbol of the government’s failed response are finally being put to good use. FEMA has quietly given many of them away to American Indian tribes that are in desperate need of affordable housing.
In the aftermath of the 2005 hurricane, FEMA bought thousands of temporary homes for $20,000 to $45,000 each – both mobile homes and travel trailers.
The mobile homes proved impractical in areas where power and water service had been destroyed. And some people living in travel trailers started to fall sick because the RVs had high levels of formaldehyde, a cancer-causing chemical common in building materials.
Since then, it seemed doubtful that many of the mobile homes would ever be used. But on American Indian reservations, the offer of free housing has been welcomed, particularly among families who live in conditions so crowded that it’s not uncommon for a single mobile home to be shared by more than a dozen relatives.
Tribes have taken almost 2,000 of the government homes and requested more.
Related:
Children in Katrina Trailers May Face Lifelong Ailments
FEMA Trailer Manufacturers Knew About Formaldehyde, Findings Went Undisclosed
Formaldehyde-Laced Death Trailers to Haiti!?
Judge Rejects Class-Action Status in FEMA Trailer Suits
Banned FEMA Formaldehyde Trailers Return for Latest Gulf Disaster
Research Credit: ottilie
America for Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?
July 7th, 2011In general, big is bad. Centralized is bad. Whether it’s public or private doesn’t matter.
Now, when it comes to something like a municipal sewer system, or other infrastructure assets where competition isn’t possible, handing those assets over to private corporations should be considered treason, and the politicians responsible should be arrested. (Don’t hold your breath.)
There’s a big difference between using private contractors for something like janitorial services at a city hall, for example, and handing over a city’s critical infrastructure to some corporation. With janitorial services, there’s going to be a lot of competition to do that work. With something like a municipal sewer system, on the other hand, how many competing sets of underground pipes, pumping stations, water filtration systems, effluent tanks, etc. are there going to be? If there’s only one option, and that thing was built with pubic money, it has to be run in the interest of the people who paid for it, the taxpayers.
It’s worth keeping in mind that markets can fail to operate efficiently even when multiple corporations are allegedly competing.
There are many examples of astonishing collusion amongst several corporations to fix prices. Here are a few recent examples:
Nine Chipmakers Fined by EU for Price-Fixing
Airline Price Fixing Fines: Prosecutors Target 21 Companies Over Passenger, Cargo Fees
I keep coming back to Kiwibank in New Zealand. Before Kiwibank, several Australian banks were colluding to screw New Zealanders raw. It took a government owned bank to give New Zealanders a non-rape option for banking. That’s right! The best deal for banking services in New Zealand is offered by a government entity. If you want to pay more, feel free to use one of the Aussie banks.
Does this mean that governments should be in the business of manufacturing vitamins or remote control cars or hunting knives? Of course not. Where there are dozens or hundreds of options, there’s no way that the government would win. But when an outlaw cartel has formed in an area as critical as banking, when there is no option available to people outside the cartel, this is one of the few areas where a government can actually improve the situation.
So, in my opinion, ensuring that markets are running efficiently is one of the handful of legitimate roles of government. And in areas where a market solution is not possible—as with large municipal infrastructure assets—the role of government should be to stop private interests from turning a place into a company town.
Via: Dylan Ratigan:
In Chicago, it’s the sale of parking meters to the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi. In Indiana, it’s the sale of the northern toll road to a Spanish and Australian joint venture. In Wisconsin it’s public health and food programs, in California it’s libraries. It’s water treatment plants, schools, toll roads, airports, and power plants. It’s Amtrak. There are revolving doors of corrupt politicians, big banks, and rating agencies. There are conflicts of interest. It’s bipartisan.
And it’s coming to a city near you — it may already be there. We’re talking about the sale of public assets to private investors. You may have heard of one-off deals, but what we’ll be exploring with the Huffington Post is the scale and scope of what is a national and organized campaign to shift the way we govern ourselves. In an era of increasingly stretched local and state budgets, privatization of public assets may be so tempting to local politicians that the trend seems unstoppable. Yet, public outrage has stopped and slowed a number of initiatives.
While there are no televised debates around this issue, there is no polling, and there are no elections, who wins it will determine the literal shape of modern America. The Dylan Ratigan show is teaming up with the Huffington Post to do a three part series called “America for Sale”, showing the pros and cons, and the politics and economics, of a new and far more privatized government.
Research Credit: Matt
Usual Suspects Now Heavily Involved with Commodity Warehousing
July 6th, 2011This is beyond ridiculous. It gives a whole new meaning to front running.
“There is no evidence to suggest they share information…”
Oh sure.
My guess is that this is the primary reason that these firms have gotten involved with commodity warehousing. If the left hand isn’t sharing information with the right hand, with hundreds of millions of dollars in potential trading profits hanging in the balance, I’m Santa Claus.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
About 600 miles from Wall Street, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. employees are busy doing deals.
But instead of a sleek office tower, they work in a rundown warehouse deep in an industrial section of Detroit. And rather than trading in stocks or bonds, they move metal—lots of metal.
Goldman’s warehouse on the banks of the Detroit River is one of more than 100 storage facilities controlled by the giant securities firm around the world. The warehouses are part of Wall Street’s effort to forge a new frontier in the commodities markets: warehousing metal.
In the past 18 months, Goldman, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and trading firms Glencore International PLC and Trafigura Beheer BV have snapped up warehouse operators, all of them accredited to house metal traded through the London Metal Exchange, or LME. The buying binge means the four firms now are landlords to about two-thirds of the LME’s entire metal stocks, from aluminum to copper to zinc.
LME metal stocks represent a small portion of the global supply. For example, LME’s total aluminum stocks are about 4.5 million tons, or about 10% of the world’s annual supply.
For Wall Street, warehouses are a way to earn extra income, especially as core businesses like trading are suffering. The facilities represent a relatively small but profitable way to bet on commodities markets without actually trading, the firms said.
But the growing muscle of securities firms in the metal-storage business is riling users and traders, who say the firms have both a bird’s-eye view of supply and demand and the ability to control what goes in and out of their warehouses. These traders worry the firms could exploit their knowledge. The new owners say they keep their trading arms and warehouse operations separate, and there is no evidence to suggest they share information.
Related: They Made a Killing: The Use of Knowledge of Covert Operations in the Stock Market
Research Credit: MS
Two-Thirds of Britons Think Economy Is Getting Worse
July 6th, 2011Via: Reuters:
Two-thirds of Britons think the economy is getting worse and most are cutting back drastically on their spending to make ends meet in the face of rising food, fuel and energy prices, according to a poll on Sunday.
The findings follow a string of retail failures in recent months as shoppers cut back on non-essentials while Britain’s economic recovery remains sluggish.
Research Credit: afterhours
