At BoE, Mark Carney could be handed powers to spur economy

"Last month, the Treasury set up a unit to explore changes to the Bank's remit amid mounting political pressure for action to boost economic growth. Options include giving the Monetary Policy Committee greater time to bring inflation back to the 2pc target, handing the Bank a dual mandate to target both employment and inflation – similar to that of the Federal Reserve in America – or targeting spending in the economy rather than inflation. The Canadian central banker, who replaces Sir Mervyn King in July, has said that 'considerable monetary policy' is required to take up the slack in the British economy." Continue reading

Continue ReadingAt BoE, Mark Carney could be handed powers to spur economy

Will Grigg: What Holder Really Said

"Like all statements from people who presume to rule others, this brief message from Holder – – who is Nickolai Krylenko to Obama’s Josef Stalin – should be read in terms of the supposed authority claimed thereby. What Holder is saying, in substantive terms, is that the President does have the supposed authority to use a drone to kill an American who is engaged in 'combat,' whether here or abroad. Under the rules of engagement used by the Obama Regime in Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan, any 'military-age' male found within a targeted 'kill zone' is likewise designated a 'combatant,' albeit usually after the fact." Continue reading

Continue ReadingWill Grigg: What Holder Really Said

Banking group warns there’s too much ‘easy money’ in global economy

"An influential group of leading world banks warned Thursday that central banks are pumping out too much easy money and markets risk becoming dangerously addicted to ultra-low interest rates. The Institute of International Finance, which groups 450 banks, said if central banks continue to flood money into the global economy then any future bid to get it under control could itself destabilize the financial system. 'These conditions — quantitative easing, very low interest rates — cannot last forever, but the risk is that financial markets have become addicted to them,' it warned." Continue reading

Continue ReadingBanking group warns there’s too much ‘easy money’ in global economy

Pepe Escobar: El comandante has left the building

"Compare it with US President Barack Obama - in what sounds like a dormant cut and paste by some White House intern - reaffirming US support for 'the Venezuelan people'. Would that be 'the people' who have been electing and re-electing Chavez non-stop since the late 1990s? Or would that be 'the people' who trade Martinis in Miami demonizing him as an evil communist? El Comandante may have left the building - his body defeated by cancer - but the post-mortem demonization will go on forever. One key reason stands out. Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves in the world." Continue reading

Continue ReadingPepe Escobar: El comandante has left the building

Bank of England Says Government Should Split Up RBS, Accept Loss

"Bank of England Governor Mervyn King urged the government to split up Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) and speed up the return of Britain’s biggest publicly owned lender to private ownership following its bailout in 2008. 'We’re four and half years on and there’s no sign of it going back to the private sector,' King told the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards at a hearing in London today. 'That indicates we’ve not been sufficiently decisive in recapitalizing or restructuring it.' RBS has been criticized by lawmakers for failing to boost lending to the economy, even though the taxpayer owns more than 80 percent of the lender." Continue reading

Continue ReadingBank of England Says Government Should Split Up RBS, Accept Loss

Eric Holder: Some Banks Are So Large That It Is Difficult For Us To Prosecute Them

"While it is widely assumed that the too-big-to-fail banks in the US (and elsewhere) are beyond the criminal justice system - based on simple empirical fact - when the Attorney General of the United States openly admits to the fact that he is "concerned that the size of some of these institutions becomes so large that it does become difficult for us to prosecute them, since, 'it will have a negative impact on the national economy, perhaps even the world economy,' one has to stare open-mouthed at the state of our union. It appears, just as the proletariat assumed, that too-big-to-fail banks are indeed too-big-to-jail." Continue reading

Continue ReadingEric Holder: Some Banks Are So Large That It Is Difficult For Us To Prosecute Them

Top 5 moments of Rand Paul’s filibuster

"It was a long, hard slog for viewers and participants in the filibuster of the vote to confirm new CIA chief John Brennan, most notably for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who, we are sad to say, found time to invoke Hitler and the Nazis, but never in the 13 hours of testimony, resorted to reading aloud from the latest edition of the Ron Paul Family Cookbook. Here are a few highlights of the filibuster, which, although clearly futile in that Brennan’s appointment is all but inevitable, we hope will be entertaining enough to help you weather the disappointment of not having Rep. Ron Paul’s family recipes." Continue reading

Continue ReadingTop 5 moments of Rand Paul’s filibuster

The Filibuster in Two Minutes

"A decent compilation. Sen. Paul referenced at least two videos during his speech. Here are two of them. Progressive WH spokesman Gibbs says that the president should be free to murder children. And Lindsay Graham of the Great State of South Carolina declares the Fifth and Sixth Amendments null and void." Continue reading

Continue ReadingThe Filibuster in Two Minutes

McCain blasts Rand Paul’s filibuster as a ‘political stunt’

"Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tore into Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) 'ridiculous' 13-hour filibuster, chastising the junior senator for a speech that was 'not helpful' and not in keeping with Republican orthodoxy on the terror war. McCain also quoted from a Wall Street Journal editorial that mocked Paul. 'If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in college dorms,' the editorial jibes. Still, McCain emphasized that 'if someone is an enemy combatant, that enemy combatant has nowhere to hide: not in a cafe, not anywhere.'" Continue reading

Continue ReadingMcCain blasts Rand Paul’s filibuster as a ‘political stunt’

Will Grigg: The Stalinist in the White House

"Until the filibuster staged by Senator Paul – who, despite his plentiful shortcomings, has proven that he has learned much from his heroic father – no Senate Republican had rejected the Stalinist premise that the President can order the summary execution of U.S. citizens. What about the Professional Left – the people who, like then-Senator Obama, were so agitated over the Bush administration’s crimes against the Bill of Rights? They’re too busy debating such weighty matters as the proper honorific by which to address the Dear Leader, or helping the Southern Poverty Law Center draw up 'kill lists' of domestic 'extremists.'" Continue reading

Continue ReadingWill Grigg: The Stalinist in the White House