Big Lie

The “I Thought Bonds Were Safe” Fallacy…

"Now remember, Bernanke didn’t change rates, he just implied that rates may increase in the future. The market, however, took that rhetoric and ran. Accordingly, the bond market fell. For instance, from its high around May 1st the 30-year treasury market has fallen some 9%. Nine….freaking….percent. That’s a huge move for a seemingly steady and professional market like bonds. It’s also a devastating move to risk-averse bond investors (like my dad.) All said, safety seekers got burned. And you can thank the 'Ber-nank.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe “I Thought Bonds Were Safe” Fallacy…

Manning Show Trial Exposes the Fraud of Representative Democracy

"The U.S. government fears an informed American people, and an informed world public opinion, far more than it ever feared al Qaeda. What we’ve called 'representative democracy,' since the rise of universal suffrage in the West a century or so ago, has been an elaborate exercise in securing the outcome desired by ruling elites — preserving an intersecting alliance of corporate and state oligarchies — while maintaining the fiction of popular rule. Manning committed the one unforgivable sin in a sham representative democracy: He let the 'sovereign' people in on what 'their' government is really doing, and whose interests it’s really serving." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingManning Show Trial Exposes the Fraud of Representative Democracy

Inflation is rotten to the core: Regardless of what Fed says, prices are rising

"You might be just a trifle curious about how the use of the core rate of inflation (leaving out food and energy) came into being. The core rate of inflation was the brainstorm of Arthur F. Burns, chairman of the Federal Reserve during the early 1970s. The object of this exercise was to take people’s eyes off what was really happening to prices so that the Fed of that era could run an ultra-easy monetary policy. The professorial Burns managed to convince the Congress, the government’s statistical agencies, the press and his fellow economists that excluding food and energy was the right way to look at prices." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInflation is rotten to the core: Regardless of what Fed says, prices are rising

Cities’ Strategy in Health Insurance for Retirees: “Dump Them Into ObamaCare!”

"The 61 largest U.S. cities in 2009 were in the hole by about $118 billion to retirees’ health insurance obligations. They now think they have a way out: default on these obligations and force retirees into ObamaCare. This gets the obligations off their backs and onto the backs of the federal government. This is what Detroit is doing. Other cities’ officials are impressed. But Detroit is declaring bankruptcy. How can the other cities get out from under without declaring bankruptcy?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCities’ Strategy in Health Insurance for Retirees: “Dump Them Into ObamaCare!”

Glenn Greenwald: Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy

"Pew finds that 'a majority of Americans – 56% – say that federal courts fail to provide adequate limits on data the government is collecting as part of its anti-terrorism efforts.' And 'an even larger percentage (70%) believes that the government uses this data for purposes other than investigating terrorism.' Moreover, '63% think the government is also gathering information about the content of communications.' That demonstrates a decisive rejection of the US government's three primary defenses of its secret programs. Overall, 47% say their greater concern about government anti-terrorism policies is that they have gone too far." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy

America’s public finances: The Unsteady States of America

"Detroit’s population has fallen by 60% since 1950. The murder rate is 11 times the national average. The previous mayor is in prison. Shrubs, weeds and raccoons have reclaimed empty neighbourhoods. The debts racked up when Detroit was big and rich are unpayable now that it is smaller and poor. Though some of its woes are unique, a crucial one is not. Many other state and city governments across America have made impossible-to-keep promises to do with pensions and health care. Detroit shows what can happen when leaders put off reforming the public sector for too long." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s public finances: The Unsteady States of America

How the Media Has Distorted a Tragedy

"As a fiction, Zimmerman the white supremacist rivals Obama the Kenyan-born commie Muslim. Obama is right that our racial history—a history in which, a few decades ago, young black males in much of the country really could be murdered at will for looking at a white person the wrong way—gave Trayvon Martin’s death a powerful and painful resonance for black Americans. That made it all the more incumbent on the media to be scrupulously truthful and responsible in their coverage. At this, they have spectacularly failed, with deplorable consequences." Continue reading →

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Ex-Obama Aide (Stupidly) Dismisses Glenn Greenwald as a Fake Journalist

"Steven Rattner, a former member of Barack Obama's Treasury Department, appeared on the news show Morning Joe on Monday offering an opinion about The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke the story about NSA spying. Rattner's opinion? Greenwald isn't a journalist. This is apparently because Rattner may not have seen how Greenwald's reporting has shifted public opinion and moved public policy. Rattner may actually be unaware of what journalists do. Perhaps this blind spot is because the journalists he hangs out with work for Morning Joe." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEx-Obama Aide (Stupidly) Dismisses Glenn Greenwald as a Fake Journalist

David Galland: “Trained-Monkey Collaborators of Death”

"Acting under political pressure, the government brought a case that clearly had no merit, with no supporting evidence, then proceeded in an underhanded way that clearly demonstrated bias… but when the jury votes unanimously to acquit, somehow the verdict is 'surprising'? Also choosing to ignore the verdict, certain leading lights in the black community have organized protests and even threatened Zimmerman with death. And just to add a little comedy to the proceedings, this week the Detroit City Council took time out from their busy schedule of lording it over their bankrupt domain to unanimously pass a resolution calling for a civil rights investigation into Zimmerman." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDavid Galland: “Trained-Monkey Collaborators of Death”

Glenn Greenwald and other NSA critics to testify before Congress

"Congress will hear testimony from critics of the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices for the first time since the whistleblower Edward Snowden’s explosive leaks were made public. Democrat congressman Alan Grayson, who is leading a bipartisan group of congressman organising the hearing, told the Guardian it would serve to counter the 'constant misleading information' from the intelligence community. The hearing, which will take place on Wednesday, comes amid evidence of a growing congressional rebellion [on] NSA data collection methods." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald and other NSA critics to testify before Congress