Greece Considering Labor Camp for Those Who Can’t Pay Their Taxes
"Apparently the Greek government is planning to use an old army base as a forced labor camp for those unable to pay their taxes." Continue reading →
Europe Opens $80 Trillion Shadow Banking Pandora’s Box: Will Seek To Collapse Repo “Collateral Chains”
"Banks and brokers face a clampdown on using assets they hold for clients as collateral for their own trades as part of European Union moves to bolster market stability and rein in shadow banking. The handing over of collateral is an integral part of repurchase agreements, or repos -- one of the activities under review by global regulators as part of their efforts to regulate shadow banking. The reuse of clients’ assets poses a potential threat to financial stability should one of a chain of firms that handled the securities go bankrupt, according to the document prepared by commission officials and dated May 15." Continue reading →
As the market panic demonstrates, central banks are stuck on a treadmill of money printing
"Last night's panic in Tokyo, where the Nikkei dropped a stomach churning 7 per cent, demonstrates just how difficult it's going to be for the world's central banks to exit their loose money policies. It's not even as if Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, said he was planning to exit; in fact, initially he said the reverse in testimony to Congress. What the subsequent violent gyrations in markets indicate is that any hint of applying the brakes risks generating a fresh financial crisis, which in turn would render the economic recovery still born. Both financial markets and the real economy have become addicted to 'quantitative easing', such that they can't do without it." Continue reading →
The Bank of Japan must crush all resistance, and will do so
"Kudos to Kyle Bass at Hayman Advisers for warning that the Bank of Japan would lose control of its ¥70 trillion bond buying blitz. The spike in the 10-year yield to 1pc on Thursday was certainly shocking to behold. His point is that the BoJ faces a 'rational investor paradox'. The authorities are trying to drive up the inflation to 2pc and therefore to devalue Japanese government bonds (JGBs), so why on earth would you want to own them? He says the scramble to sell has 'overwhelmed' buying by the BoJ. Governor Kuroda will now have double down with a huge increase in the scale of QE." Continue reading →
The deeper agenda behind Japan’s “Abenomics”
"The policy known as 'Abenomics' is a mix of monetary easing, stimulative spending and growth-inducing steps including deregulation in sectors such as energy. Some Abe allies worry that a hasty push for constitutional changes could upset voters who want the focus to stay firmly on the economy - repeating a mistake seen as a key factor in Abe's first failed attempt to govern. 'He wants to achieve what he left undone - to break free of the ‘post-war regime',' said Koichi Hagiuda, a lawmaker and special aide to Abe. 'What is most symbolic of that is the constitution that was drafted in one short week under (U.S. General Douglas) MacArthur's Occupation.'" Continue reading →
Glenn Greenwald: Andrew Sullivan, terrorism, and the art of distortion
"I used to wonder how people who continuously justify any manner of violence and militarism by their own side could possibly spend so much time pointing to others and depicting them - those people over there - as the embodiment of violence and savage aggression. But at some point I realized that it's precisely because they continuously justify so much violence and aggression from their side that they have such a boundless compulsion to depict others as the Uniquely Primitive and Violent Evil. That's how they absolve themselves. It's how they distract themselves from the reality of what they support and what their governments do in the world." Continue reading →
Getting Up-to-date on Syria
"The rebel leader has called for reinforcements. That article mentions that 'More than 80,000 Christians were forced to flee al-Qusayr in late 2012 to escape the frenzy of the jihadists.' The U.S. is on the side of a collection of certain jihadist groups. Hezbollah, associated with Iran, has joined the Syrian government side. It is the prospect of an Assad win that has Obama, Kerry and the Senate warmongers scrambling with new propaganda angles so that they can find cover and more freely supply the rebels with stronger weapons. They are also pushing to end an embargo on arms shipments from Europe." Continue reading →
Will Grigg: The Protected Predator Class
"In Utah, as elsewhere in the Soyuz, 'battering' a police officer is considered an especially grievous crime. Any incidental contact between a Mundane and the sanctified personage of a police officer – including the act of breathing on an officer – can be prosecuted as 'battery.' This would apply to cases in which a woman is desperately trying to prevent an officer from violating her sexually: A victim who puts up resistance in such circumstances can expect to be violently subdued, arrested, and charged with 'assaulting an officer.'" Continue reading →
California Police Kill Again, Hit Restrained Man In The Head At Least 10 Times With A Baton
"A man taken into custody by the Sacramento Police Department has died, according to the police department. Video obtained by CBS13 of the arrest on the 8300 block of Folsom Boulevard shows a suspect being restrained by a male officer’s legs, while a female officer strikes him 10 times with a baton." Continue reading →
3D printing saves a life
"For the first three months of his life, Kaiba Gionfriddo’s airway collapsed repeatedly, occasionally causing his heart to stop and leaving many doctors at a loss for how to help him. Then, in the first procedure of its kind, doctors in Michigan used a 3D printing method to create an artificial splint to help Kaiba breathe without the assistance of a breathing machine for the first time, according to the Associated Press. Since the operation, which was performed in February 2012, the now 19-month-old Ohio boy has been able to breathe on his own without a single breathing crisis. Doctors will soon remove his breathing tube, the AP reports." Continue reading →