American Ruling Class

India’s financial prophet Raghuram Rajan to run central bank

"Mr Rajan, a Chicago professor and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, clashed openly with US Federal Reserve officials and top policymakers in 2005 over the risk that derivative contracts would amplify any financial crisis once the cycle turned. He said the US had created incentives for destructive behaviour, effectively pushing homeowners and banks into risky ventures. He was called a 'Luddite' by none other than Larry Summers, former US Treasury Secretary and now front-runner to take over as Fed chairman. The two men may soon be direct counterparts. Mr Rajan’s warnings were borne out by events." Continue reading →

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America’s Emerging Police State: A Brief History

"As Congress and the American people grapple with the fallout from Edward Snowden’s stunning revelations, we are hearing a kind of defense coming from the authoritarians in our midst: none of this is new, they argue, so what’s all the fuss about? In a sense, they are right: the 'legal' and political outlines of an American police state have been emerging from the fulcrum of war and the turbulence of our domestic politics since World War II. The only difference now is the technology, which has developed far beyond the imagination of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI’s first director, who widely deployed the earliest wiretapping capabilities of government snoops." Continue reading →

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How the CIA Helped Disney Conquer Florida

"Starting in the mid-1960s when Disney set out to establish the Disney World Theme Park, they were determined to get land at below market prices and Disney operatives engaged in a far-ranging conspiracy to make sure sellers had no idea who was buying their Central Florida property. By resorting to such tactics Disney acquired more than 40 square miles of land for less than $200 an acre, but how to maintain control once Disney's empire had been acquired? The solution turned out to be cartoon-simple, thanks to the CIA." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: What if Mr. Summers weren’t so brilliant, after all?

"We read Mr. Summers' commentaries regularly, in the Financial Times. We don't recall a single insight worth repeating or a single proposal that merits further discussion. Like Tom Friedman, he sees problems everywhere and finds solutions for them readily. And every solution he comes up with would be neat, logical, and disastrous. Unintended consequences? Has he ever heard of the concept? For him, reason has no limits...intervention has no risks...and the world has no black swans. Seeing no danger to further monetary stimulus, he will put the pedal to the metal and run at full speed...right into a brick wall." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: What if Mr. Summers weren’t so brilliant, after all?

7 surveillance reforms Obama supported before he became president

"As a senator, Obama wanted 1. to limit bulk records collection; 2. to require government analysts to get court approval before accessing incidentally collected American data. 3. the executive branch to report to Congress how many American communications had been swept up during surveillance; 4. to restrict the use of gag orders related to surveillance court orders; 5. to give the accused a chance to challenge government surveillance; 6. the attorney general to submit a public report giving aggregate data about how many people had been targeted for searches; 7. the government to declassify significant surveillance court opinions." Continue reading →

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I Only Regret That I Have But One Life to Give for My Country: Yours

"Today, for America’s spies, Nathan Hale’s job comes with health and retirement benefits. Top officials in that world have access to a revolving door into guaranteed lucrative employment at the highest levels of the corporate-surveillance complex and, of course, for the spy in need of escape, a golden parachute. So when I think about Nathan Hale’s famed line, among those hundreds of thousands of American spies and corporate spylings just two Americans come to mind, both charged and one convicted under the draconian World War I Espionage Act. Only one tiny subset of Americans might still be able to cite Hale’s words and have them mean anything." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingI Only Regret That I Have But One Life to Give for My Country: Yours

CFR Admits Drones May Be Creating Sworn Enemies of the United States

"With its so-called signature strikes, Washington often goes after people whose identity it does not know but who appear to be behaving like militants in insurgent-controlled areas. The strikes end up killing enemies of the Pakistani, Somali, and Yemeni militaries who may not threaten the United States at all. Worse, because the targets of such strikes are so loosely defined, it seems inevitable that they will kill some civilians. The drone campaign has morphed, in effect, into remote-control repression: the direct application of brute force by a state, rather than an attempt to deal a pivotal blow to a movement." Continue reading →

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Fmr. NSA chief: Snowden defenders ‘20-somethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex’

"'If and when our government grabs Edward Snowden, and brings him back here to the United States for trial, what does this group do?' said retired air force general Michael Hayden, who from 1999 to 2009 ran the NSA and then the CIA, referring to 'nihilists, anarchists, activists, Lulzsec, Anonymous, twentysomethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex in five or six years'. 'I’m just trying to illustrate that you’ve got a group of people out there who make demands, whose demands may not be satisfiable, may not be rational, from other points of view, may not be the kinds of things that government can accommodate,' Hayden said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFmr. NSA chief: Snowden defenders ‘20-somethings who haven’t talked to the opposite sex’

Kristin Davis, Libertarian Candidate for NYC Comptroller, Arrested By FBI On Drug Charges

"A cooperating witness (the 'CW') was arrested in or about December 2012, and has pled guilty in this district to narcotics conspiracy and distribution offenses. The CW is cooperating with the FBI and the Government in the hope of obtaining leniency with respect to sentencing in the CW’s case. From in or about 2009, up to and including in or about Fall 2011, KRISTIN DAVIS, the defendant, purchased controlled substances, including ecstasy pills, Adderall pills, and Xanax pills, from the CW. DAVIS told the CW that she purchased ecstasy and Adderall pills at least in part to provide them to others at house parties." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKristin Davis, Libertarian Candidate for NYC Comptroller, Arrested By FBI On Drug Charges