Yearly Archives: 2013

The Real State Secret: Spies Aren’t Very Good At Their Jobs

"It doesn't matter whether you hate the spies and believe they are corroding democracy, or if you think they are the noble guardians of the state. In both cases the assumption is that the secret agents know more than we do. But the strange fact is that often when you look into the history of spies what you discover is something very different. I want to tell some stories about MI5 - and the very strange people who worked there. They are often funny, sometimes rather sad - but always very odd. The stories also show how elites in Britain have used the aura of secret knowledge as a way of maintaining their power." Continue reading →

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Andrew Sullivan Change Of Heart: ‘Cameron Proves Greenwald Right’

"I can say this to David Cameron. Thank you for clearing the air on these matters of surveillance. You have now demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that these anti-terror provisions are capable of rank abuse. Unless some other facts emerge, there is really no difference in kind between you and Vladimir Putin. You have used police powers granted for anti-terrorism and deployed them to target and intimidate journalists deemed enemies of the state. You have proven that these laws can be hideously abused. Which means they must be repealed. You have broken the trust that enables any such legislation to survive in a democracy." Continue reading →

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Illinois governor Pat Quinn signs new ‘background checks’ law

"Private gun sales in Illinois must now be approved by state police under a law signed by Gov. Pat Quinn (D) on Sunday. WGN-TV reported that as of January 1, 2014, the law will require gun sellers to contact a police hotline to confirm that the buyer holds a valid state firearm owners’ identification card (FOID), Authorities vowed to expand their services to meet the demand for the new background checks. Another provision in the law requiring gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to authorities within 72 hours takes effect immediately, making Illinois the eighth state to adopt such a provision." Continue reading →

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Jack Lew’s “Extraordinary Measures” on Debt Just “Cooking the Books”

"A little known story that got absolutely no coverage from the mainstream media surfaced last week about the reports from the Treasury Department’s Financial Management Service. The FMS reports both the Daily Treasury Statement and the Monthly Treasury Statement. According to these reports the federal deficit rose by $98 billion dollars in July, but somehow the federal government’s debt remained exactly the same at $16,699,396,000,000 for the whole month. It seems that Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew got a bit creative and magically decided to stop the addition of more debt from showing up in the reports. Wow, don’t we all wish we could do that?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJack Lew’s “Extraordinary Measures” on Debt Just “Cooking the Books”

Who Can Best Advise You?

"It is safe to suggest that your reading of this publication has a great deal to do with the possibility that the country in which you live is approaching that critical stage. Therefore, it may be in your interest to seek the counsel of those who, for whatever reason, have made a long-term study of historical patterns. It would also be beneficial to keep a close eye on those countries in the world that (as stated above) are on the same path of self-destruction as our own but happen to be further along in the pattern. For this reason, the woman pictured above, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, may be quite useful to you as an advisor." Continue reading →

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Interest-Rate Market Going Berserk

"It seems the more bond yields surge, the more the bond fund managers say it’s not a 'real' crisis because 'inflation is still anemic.' These are the same guys who are bleeding assets, losing you money, and who have utterly failed to foresee the carnage of the past few months. Bond yields are not rising solely because of higher inflation, the traditional cause of rising rates. Instead, it’s all about the flow of hot money! Too much hot money piled into the bond market over the past four and a half years, encouraged by reckless Fed policy. And now the same investors who dog-piled into bonds to piggyback on the Fed’s policy are getting crushed." Continue reading →

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Summers vs. Yellen: Tweedledumb vs. Tweedledee

"The media are doing their best to create interest in who will be Bernanke’s replacement: Lawrence Summers or Janet Yellen. Summers is a dove. The media have re-defined 'exit.' Any reference to an exit these days means merely a reduction of the rate of increase in the present rate of $85 billion a month. The FED is buying over $500 billion of the Treasury’s estimated annual deficit of $650 billion. It is buying almost $500 billion in Fannie-Freddie bonds. What happens to interest rates if the FED stops buying? What happens to Wall Street? What happens to the housing recovery? No one asks Yellen what she thinks would happen. No one asks Summers." Continue reading →

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Germany recognizes Bitcoin as a “private money,” subject to capital gains tax

"In response to a query by a member of parliament, the German Finance Ministry has declared that it accepts bitcoins as a 'unit of account.' The Ministry added that bitcoins are a sort of 'private money' and that mining bitcoins constitutes 'private money creation.' The Ministry also clarified that if a German taxpayer holds bitcoins for more than a year, then she is exempt from paying the 25 percent capital gains tax. Such a tax would ordinarily be paid after profiting from the sale of a stock, bond, or other security. A taxpayer would be expected to declare them as part of her assets and income as part of her annual tax return." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin Bites: Germany recognizes digital currency as ‘private money’

"Bitcoin is slowly joining the big league of currencies. Germany has become the first country to accept the digital money - recognized in law and for tax purposes. Katie Pilbeam from RT's Venture Capital program explains." Continue reading →

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The Internet: We’re Doing It Wrong

"This week Facebook’s ban-bot went berserk; Github went down; and all Google services collapsed for a few minutes, taking 40% of the Internet with them. Just another week on the Internet, then. We love our centralized services, until they let us down. Bruce Sterling calls them “the Stacks”: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. They don’t want much, those Stacks. Just your identity, your allegiance, and all of your data. Just to be your sole provider of messaging, media, merchandise, and metadata. Just to take part in as much of your online existence as they possibly can, and maybe to one day mediate your every interaction with the world around you." Continue reading →

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