People Digging Holes in the Ground, Burying Cash and Gold
November 26th, 2008There are a few things to consider with cash.
First, in the U.S., police may seize cash from motorists even in the absence of any evidence that a crime has been committed. People routinely have large amount of cash stolen from them by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies.
Second, there has been a long running rumor that the cash will… change at some point, and that the old notes will have to be exchanged for new notes. I have no idea if there is anything at all to that rumor, but I wouldn’t chance it. You can imagine how it could easily go. You’ll have all the necessary documentation handy for when you go to exchange all of your old paper (that may have been buried under your porch for several years) for the new paper, right? Maybe people who try to exchange more than $5000 or $10,000 need to check with someone from Department of Homeland Security first.
Third, in any serious financial crisis, cash may or may not provide much purchasing power. In a hard crash, forget it. Items, such as food, guns, ammo, booze, drugs, etc. may be much more fungible.
Cash is just another basket. Why put too many eggs in just one?
Via: Smart Money:
The day the Dow fell 777 points, David Latham, a 45-year-old Alabama cattle farmer and electrician, was busy doing errands. Driving his Chevy pickup into Montgomery, he dropped by the hardware store, then stopped into the bank, where he withdrew $8,000 from his CD account, all in 20s. Back home, he slipped the four inch-thick bundles into a Ziploc bag, popped them into a waterproof PVC tube and set out for a remote location on his 300-acre property, where he dug a deep hole with a post digger. And then he buried his money.
Research Credit: Lagavulin
She Who Measures
November 26th, 2008Research Credit: JH
Melamine Traces Found in U.S. Infant Formula; FDA Says, “No Cause for Concern”
November 26th, 2008Via: New York Times:
Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it had discovered the toxic chemical melamine in infant formula made by an American manufacturer, raising the possibility that the problem was more extensive in the United States than previously thought.
While few details were available late Tuesday, agency officials said they had discovered melamine at trace levels in a single sample of infant formula. It was also discovered in several samples of dietary supplements that are made by some of the same manufacturers who make formula.
F.D.A. officials insisted that the levels of melamine were so low that they did not pose a health threat.
“There’s no cause for concern or no risk from these levels,” said Judy Leon, an agency spokeswoman. Ms. Leon said the contamination was most likely the result of food contact with something like a can liner, or from some other manufacturing problems, but not from deliberate adulteration.
She declined to name the company that made the tainted infant formula.
Home Prices: Record Plunge in September
November 25th, 2008Via: Reuters:
Prices of single-family homes in September plunged a record 17.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices issued on Tuesday.
The composite index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 1.8 percent in September from August, S&P said in a statement.
It said its composite index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 1.9 percent in September from August for a 18.6 percent year-over-year drop, also a record.
The U.S. housing market is currently suffering the worst downturn since the Great Depression. A huge supply of unsold homes, tighter lending standards and record foreclosures have pushed down home prices, deflating a bubble from the early part of this decade.
The U.S. economy is considered to be either in or on the brink of a recession, so most economists and experts contend that an end to the downward spiral in house prices is crucial to any recovery.
“House price declines have been at the root of the financial crisis and it appears, as of September, that this decline continued unabated,” said Lawrence J. White, professor of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
“Until we have some kind of stabilization in the house price sector, we will continue to see problems in the financial sector,” he said.
“House prices will probably drop another 10 percent, but I am hopeful that a bottom will be reached in the late spring of 2009,” he said.
The rate of home price declines has accelerated on a quarterly basis too.
In the third quarter, the decline in the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index — which covers all nine U.S. census divisions — remained in double digits, posting a record 16.6 percent decline versus the third quarter of 2007. This has worsened from the annual declines of 15.1 percent and 14.0 percent, reported for the second and first quarters of the year, respectively.
The U.S. National Home Price Index dropped 3.5 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter.
“The turmoil in the financial markets is placing further downward pressure on a housing market already weakened by its own fundamentals,” David M. Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s, said in a statement.
As of September 2008, the 10-City Composite is down 23.4 percent from its peak, the 20-City Composite is down 21.8 percent and the National Composite is down 21.0 percent.
Phoenix was the weakest market, reporting an annual decline of 31.9 percent, followed by Las Vegas, down 31.3 percent, and San Francisco, which was down 29.5 percent. Miami, Los Angeles, and San Diego did not fair much better with annual declines of 28.4 percent, 27.6 percent and 26.3 percent, respectively.
Cryptogon Reader Signs Up for Hosting with BlueHost
November 25th, 2008Thanks to the owner of thenerdery.biz for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $90!
UK: People who fail to tell the authorities of a change of address or amend other key personal details within three months will face fines of up to £1,000 per offense
November 25th, 2008Madness.
Or comedy gold?
The crazed fascist nature of this is over the top, but the sections that pertain to transgendered and homeless people are priceless.
Via: Guardian:
People who fail to tell the authorities of a change of address or amend other key personal details within three months will face civil penalty fines of up to £1,000 a time when the national identity card scheme is up and running, according to draft Home Office regulations published yesterday.
The Home Office made clear that repeated failures to keep an entry on the national identity register up to date could ultimately be enforced by bailiffs being sent round to seize property.
But yesterday’s detailed regulations to implement the national identity card scheme make clear that they intend to avoid the creation of ID card “martyrs”, by levying no penalty on those who refuse to register for the national identity card database in the first place.
The Liberal Democrat peer, Lady Williams, is amongst ID card “refuseniks” who have said they are prepared to go to jail rather than sign up for the scheme.
But the regulations show that the main sanction they are likely to face is being barred from leaving the country when it is time to renew their passport.
The regulations confirm ministers’ intention to make passports a “designated document” which means anyone applying or renewing their passport will be automatically issued with an ID card at the same time. Ministers claim that this does not amount to compulsion but ID card critics disagree.
The consultation on the fine detail of how the ID card scheme will work in practice published yesterday also makes clear:
• The £30 initial fee for a standalone ID card valid for travel in Europe only is capped for the year 2009/10 when it will be compulsory for airport workers and on a voluntary basis for students. The regulations allow for this fee to be “modified” in future years including by 2012, when it is anticipated that mass rollout will take place with 5-6 million combined passports/identity cards a year expected to be issued. Passport fees will be on top of this basic charge.
• If it necessary to change any of the details held on the card, such as name or fingerprints which entail a new card being issued, a further £30 will be charged. Changes of address or other details which do not appear on the card will not be charged.
• Transgendered people: those “moving from their birth gender to an acquired gender” will be able to apply for two ID cards – one for each gender. The second ID card will use a different name, signature and photograph although they will be linked as one entry on the national ID card register. Nevertheless they will be charged two fees for the privilege of holding two cards.
• Homeless people and others who live “transient lifestyles” will also be able to register under the scheme. The Home Office expects to be able to agree with homeless people a suitable place to be registered as their residence – presumably even if it is only a railway arch. Those who move around frequently for work will be able to register their principal residence without notifying each move.
But the draft regulations also set out in detail the escalating series of fines for those who fail to keep their ID card register entry up to date or fail to correct errors on it.
The kind of details that must be provided within three months are a change of address, a change of name perhaps because of marriage or by deed poll, a change of nationality, a change of gender, or a significant change in an individual’s face or their fingerprints perhaps because of an accident.
The Home Office say they will not need to police this aspect as it will soon become apparent when somebody tries, for example, to get on a plane with a ID card/passport with an out of date address that does not match that the bank debit/credit card they used to book the flight.
They say they may well find themselves not being allowed to travel. Those who lose their ID Cards or have them stolen will have to report the loss within a month.
Fines for failure to update the register start at £125 going up to £1,000 for repeatedly failing to comply. As a civil penalty the bailiffs may be sent in to enforce payment.
The shadow home secretary, Dominic Grieve, said the scheme was truly the worst of all worlds – expensive, intrusive and unworkable.
“The home secretary has confirmed the worst element of the scheme – a single, mammoth and highly vulnerable database exposing masses of our personal details to criminal hackers.
“Worse still, she has magnified the scope for fraud by allowing spot fines to be issued by email,” he said.
The NO2ID campaign say that in just four weeks in 2005, more than 10,000 people pledged online to refuse to register for an ID card.
“It is possible that refusal could be made a crime but the government has shied away from that so far. If enough people say no, it will be impossible,” said a campaign spokesman.
Research Credit: Mickinnz
U.S. Taps Online Youth Groups to Fight Crime, Terrorism
November 25th, 2008Via: AFP:
The US State Department announced plans on Monday to promote online youth groups as a new and powerful way to fight crime, political oppression and terrorism.
Drawing inspiration from a movement against FARC rebels in Colombia, the State Department is joining forces with Facebook, Google, MTV, Howcast and others in New York City next week to get the “ball rolling.”
It said 17 groups from South Africa, Britain and the Middle East which have an online presence like the “Million Voices Against the FARC” will attend a conference at Columbia University Law School from December 3-5.
Observers from seven organizations that do not have an online presence — such as groups from Iraq and Afghanistan — will attend. There will also be remote participants from Cuba.
They will forge an “Alliance of Youth Movement,” said James Glassman, under secretary of state for public diplomacy.
“The idea is put all these people together, share best practices, produce a manual that will be accessible online and in print to any group that wants to build a youth empowerment organization to push back against violence and oppression around the world,” he told reporters.
The conference will be streamed by MTV and Howcast, he said.
Obama and McCain Teams Worked on Appointee List Together
November 25th, 2008Via: Washington Note:
A senior Obama campaign official shared with The Washington Note that in July 2008, the McCain and Obama camps began to work secretly behind the scenes to assemble large rosters of potential personnel for the administration that only one of the candidates would lead.
Lists comprised of Democrats and Republicans were assembled, sorted into areas of policy expertise, so that the roster could be called on after the election by either the Obama or McCain transition teams.
Change: Timothy Geithner, (Fed, IMF, Kissinger Associates, CFR, BIS) Nominated for U.S. Treasury Secretary
November 24th, 2008This is Geithner’s bio from the New York Fed. I’ve emphasized a few little mom and pop outfits that any agent of Change/Hope would obviously be involved with. By some miracle, though, he’s not a former CEO of Goldman Sachs!*
*But read the Bloomberg piece below.:
Timothy F. Geithner became the ninth president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on November 17, 2003. In that capacity, he serves as the vice chairman and a permanent member of the Federal Open Market Committee, the group responsible for formulating the nation’s monetary policy.
Mr. Geithner joined the Department of Treasury in 1988 and worked in three administrations for five Secretaries of the Treasury in a variety of positions. He served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs from 1999 to 2001 under Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers.
He was director of the Policy Development and Review Department at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 until 2003. Before joining the Treasury, Mr. Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, Inc.
Mr. Geithner graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor’s degree in government and Asian studies in 1983 and from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a master’s in International Economics and East Asian Studies in 1985. He has studied Japanese and Chinese and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan.
Mr. Geithner serves as chairman of the G-10’s Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems of the Bank for International Settlements. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Group of Thirty.
He and his wife, Carole Sonnenfeld Geithner, have two children.
Via: Bloomberg:
The appointment of Timothy Geithner as U.S. Treasury secretary would deprive Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke of his top troubleshooter on Wall Street, compelling the Fed chief to act fast to find a replacement.
Geithner’s departure would mean the loss of the Fed executive Bernanke has relied on most to keep the financial system from collapsing in this year’s credit crisis. His successor may be another official involved in the government’s response, such as Fed Governor Kevin Warsh or New York Fed markets chief William Dudley, economists said.
Bernanke turned to Geithner, 47, president of the New York Fed, to carry out the rescues of Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc., and to help stem market turmoil after the decision to allow Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to fail. Geithner was involved in the weekend’s government rescue of Citigroup Inc. and oversees most of the Fed’s special lending programs set up this year to channel more than $1 trillion to banks and other financial institutions.
Leadership of the New York Fed is “always an important post but vastly more important at the moment,” said former Fed Governor Lyle Gramley, now senior economic adviser at Stanford Group Co. in Washington. “It would be very important to fill it as rapidly as possible.”
Obama’s Announcement
President-elect Barack Obama announced today that he will nominate Geithner as Treasury secretary, and will appoint Lawrence Summers, Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, to head the National Economic Council.
The president of the New York Fed serves as the vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee and is the only district bank president with a permanent vote on interest rates. The other 11 presidents rotate votes every two or three years.
The New York Fed is the largest of the 12 district banks and plays a unique role, serving as the central bank’s chief liaison to securities firms and trading with bond dealers to keep the Fed’s main interest rate close to the target set by policy makers. The bank, which employs about 2,800 people, supervises some of the biggest U.S. commercial banks, with examiners reviewing their books on a regular basis.
Should Geithner become Treasury secretary, Dudley, the New York Fed’s executive vice president for markets, may serve as interim president, Gramley said.
Dudley, 55, former chief U.S. economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., worked with Geithner on conceiving and operating the special lending programs. He joined the New York Fed in January 2007 after two decades at Goldman and is in charge of the central bank’s trading with Wall Street bond dealers.
New Sponsor: Oracle Broadcasting Network
November 24th, 2008I’d like to thank Oracle Broadcasting Network for becoming a Cryptogon sponsor. I hope that you guys will head over there and check out what they have to offer.
