CLibertyC

The Lady Who Votes Against Bernanke and Other Fed Members

"The Fed will continue its $85 billion bond buying program and the Fed says price inflation is below its 2% target, while the MIT Billion Prices Index shows price inflation around 2.5%, One FOMC voting member, Kansas City Fed President Esther George, continues to vote against current Fed policy. Why does she vote this way? George gives few speeches, but she did deliver a speech in June where she discussed her views. She is far from a hard money person, but her speech does contain some concern about the current massive additions to the monetary base." Continue reading →

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You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

"There appears to be a tendency for market observers to follow the same news stories. The result of this phenomenon is that entire sectors are ignored or understudied for long periods of time. When the attention shifts, large swings can occur as the mob draws similar conclusions and takes action. Here are two phrases to wrap up the point: The first is: 'Liquidity only matters when it’s the only thing that matters.' This is a comment from the 2007-08 crisis, when otherwise functioning firms disappeared overnight because funding became impossible to find. Think Bear Stearns or Lehman Bros. The second is: 'Borrowing is cheap until it isn’t.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYou Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows

The Financial System Doesn’t Just Enable Theft, It Is Theft

"Needless to say, those with access to leveraged credit and the issuance of fiat money have the power to make claims on resources without actually having produced anything of value or earned tangible forms of wealth. Those with political power and wealth naturally have monopolies on the issuance of credit and paper money, as these enable the acquisition of real wealth without actually having to produce or earn the wealth. This system is intrinsically unstable, as the financial claims of credit and fiat money on limited real-world resources and wealth eventually exceed real-world resources, and the system of claims collapses in a heap." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Financial System Doesn’t Just Enable Theft, It Is Theft

Illinois Legislative Leaders Sue Governor Over Vetoing Lawmakers’ Pay Raise

"The Democratic heads of the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging Governor Pat Quinn's veto of lawmakers' pay during a legislative impasse over pension reform. Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton said in a letter to fellow lawmakers that the purpose of the litigation 'is to protect the independence of the legislature and preserve the separation of powers.' 'It is our hope that the court will remedy this constitutional violation and that future governors will not feel empowered to use such coercive tactics,' the legislative leaders wrote." Continue reading →

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Obama’s Next Big Blunder

"Many believe Janet Yellen, the Fed’s current vice chairman, is the best option because she’s been involved in all major recent monetary policies. But I won’t be taken aback if Obama picks Summers. He’s perfectly qualified for the job. If you have a terrible track record of predicting the economy and like to favor big banks at the expense of everyone else, then you’ve got a good shot at becoming the Fed chief. Because that’s precisely what the Fed does. It punishes savers and helps make bankers rich. And it fails to predict all major economic developments. That’s why Obama is considering Summers." Continue reading →

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Ride-sharing companies like Uber may lose ‘bandit cab’ stigma in California

"The draft rules to govern companies that already operate under such names as Lyft, SideCar and Uber, allowing passengers to electronically hail rides through smartphone applications, were unveiled by the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Among the proposed regulations are requirements for ride-share operators to obtain a license with the PUC to do business in California, to submit their drivers to criminal background checks and to carry liability insurance of at least $1 million per incident. Taxi drivers registered their disapproval by staging a noisy demonstration against the ride-sharing services on Tuesday, circling San Francisco City Hall in their cabs." Continue reading →

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CFR Steps Up Attack on the Second Amendment Using Discredited Statistics

"In 2007 and 2008, some 29,000 weapons of various types and varieties were recovered at crime scenes by Mexican authorities. Of those, only 11,000 of them had serial numbers on them that would allow them even to be traced by the BATFE. And of those 11,000, just 5,114 were successfully traced back to sources in the United States. That’s 17.6 percent, not 70 percent or 90 percent. Just 14 percent of the 203,300 prisoners serving time in a state or federal prison in 1997 obtained their weapons from a gun shop, pawnshop, flea market, or gun show. An updated study by the DOJ in 2004 showed that the number dropped to 11 percent." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCFR Steps Up Attack on the Second Amendment Using Discredited Statistics

Who Really Started the Korean War?

"We were fighting on behalf of Syngman Rhee, the US-educated-and-sponsored dictator of South Korea, whose vibrancy was demonstrated by the large-scale slaughter of his leftist political opponents. For 22 years, Rhee’s word was law, and many thousands of his political opponents were murdered: tens of thousands were jailed or driven into exile. Whatever measure of liberality has reigned on the Korean peninsula was in spite of Washington’s military presence. When the country finally rebelled against Rhee, and threw him out in the so-called April Revolution of 1960, he was ferried to safety in a CIA helicopter as crowds converged on the presidential palace." Continue reading →

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Secret DARPA Mind Control Project Revealed: Leaked Document

"What if the government could change people's moral beliefs or stop political dissent through remote control of people's brains? Sounds like science fiction, right? Well, a leaked document reveals that the US government, through DARPA research, is very close to accomplishing this. Activist Post was recently contacted by an anonymous whistleblower who worked on a secret ongoing mind-control project for DARPA. The aim of the program is to remotely disrupt political dissent and extremism by employing 'Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation' (TMS) in tandem with sophisticated propaganda based on this technology." Continue reading →

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Indiana education commissioner made sure GOP donor’s charter school got top marks

"The new grading system had initially given Christel House a 'C' grade, because of the school’s poor test scores in algebra. 'This will be a HUGE problem for us,' Bennett wrote in a Sept. 12, 2012 email. At the urging of Bennett, the grading system was quickly altered so that Christel House ended up with an 'A' grade. Bennett told the Associated Press that he wasn’t trying to tilt the system in favor of Christel House because of DeHaan’s contributions. He said Christel House was a top-performing school and its 'C' grade indicated the grading system was flawed. Bennett is currently serving as Florida’s education commissioner." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIndiana education commissioner made sure GOP donor’s charter school got top marks