economic Trends

Do Police See Guns as a threat to “Officer Safety”?

"The view that so-called weak gun laws endanger the lives of police doesn’t seem to be shared by many police officers. A survey of 15,000 active-duty police officers conducted on behalf of PoliceOne.com found that nearly all of them – 95 percent – said that a federal ban on high-capacity ammo magazines would not reduce violent crime. Seventy-one percent said that a federal ban on so-called assault weapons would likewise be useless as a crime reduction measure – and twenty percent said that it would actually have a negative effect on reducing violent crime." Continue reading →

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Leaked report: Nearly half of US drone strikes in Pakistan not against al-Qaeda

"A trove of leaked classified reports has confirmed what many had suspected – US drone kills in Pakistan are not the precision strikes against top-level al-Qaeda terrorists they are portrayed as by the Obama administration. Instead, many of the attacks are aimed at suspected low-level tribal militants, who may pose no direct danger to the United States – and for many there appears to be little evidence to justify the assassinations. The statistics illustrate the breadth of the US ‘drone doctrine’ – which has never been defined by consecutive US administrations." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLeaked report: Nearly half of US drone strikes in Pakistan not against al-Qaeda

Atlanta: Anti-Police Rebellion, Rocks And Bricks Thrown At Police Cars

"Today, April 9th 2013, there was a riot in Edgewood, a neighborhood northeast of downtown Atlanta. Around fifty people gathered for a 'March Against the Police' with drums, banners, and a desire for vengeance at the playground in Edgewood Courts, an apartment complex in the back of the neighborhood. Edgewood Courts contains some of the few remaining low income housing units in Atlanta. Yesterday, the police pepper sprayed a group of kids and beat and arrested a man grieving over his lost father. All in all the police were forced to retreat 4 times — leaving the neighborhood completely. The crowd of people never backed down." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAtlanta: Anti-Police Rebellion, Rocks And Bricks Thrown At Police Cars

These 12 Banks Got the Fed Minutes a Day Early

"It wasn't just Capitol Hill staffers and trade groups that received the Federal Reserve minutes a day early. Many banks and other financial institutions also got an early look at the minutes. A list of recipients obtained by CNBC reveals that at least 12 banks, a Wall Street law firm, a hedge fund and a private equity fund were on the distribution list that got the minutes early. The banks included Fifth Third, Citigroup, UBS, Barclays, U.S. Bancorp, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, HSBC, BNP Paribas, BB&T, JPMorgan Chase and PNC. Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most powerful Wall Street law firms, also got the email." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThese 12 Banks Got the Fed Minutes a Day Early

For Most Homeowners, Gov’t Foreclosure Deal Brings A Few Hundred Bucks

"The government’s largest effort to compensate victims of the banks’ foreclosure practices is finally sputtering to an end. But for most of those eligible – nearly three million borrowers – it won’t be much of an ending: they’ll be receiving a check for $300 to $500. For many borrowers, it’s a likely an unsatisfying end to a process defined by years of frustration. Only about 11 percent of eligible borrowers filled out complaints, a low response rate both consumer advocates and the Government Accountability Office attributed to borrower confusion and poor outreach by regulators and the banks." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFor Most Homeowners, Gov’t Foreclosure Deal Brings A Few Hundred Bucks

Home Prices in Washington, D.C. Hit Record High

"A lot of the money Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is printing is finding its way back to the crony government-private sector operatives in Washington D.C. The median price of a home in the District reached its highest point in history last month, according to the latest data from RealEstate Business Intelligence. D.C.’s median sale price soared to $460,000 from $405,000 in March 2012, an increase of 13.6 percent year over year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHome Prices in Washington, D.C. Hit Record High

Another Federal Housing Bailout: FHA Needs $943 Million

"What’s the problem at the FHA? It’s almost out of money. But what about all those loans it made? Too many of them have gone bad. Sorry about that. For four years, the FHA has assured Congress that this was not a problem. Sorry about that. What will Congress do about that? Hand out our money, of course. Congress will blame the FHA for making all those bad loans. It will blame the FHA for having misinformed Congress. Then it will reward the FHA to the tune of about a billion dollars. Lesson: nothing succeeds like failure." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnother Federal Housing Bailout: FHA Needs $943 Million

Dutch bank ABN has no gold left for its clients

"This week, a well-known Dutch bank was the first financial institution to inform its clients that their 'gold investments' are no longer physically deliverable, proving that the physical gold and 'paper gold' are different commodities with different prices. The world’s financial system is short on gold and no gold bars, except those that are kept by the owners, are safe from confiscation. ABN AMRO, the biggest Dutch bank, has sent a letter to its clients stating that they will no longer be able to take physical deliveries of the gold they have bought through ABN. Instead they are offered money at the current market rate for gold." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDutch bank ABN has no gold left for its clients

City of Yokohama Mistakenly Tweets of North Korean Missile Launch

"In this environment, it's easy to make a mistake and jump the gun. And that's precisely what happened in Yokohama, Japan. On Wednesday, city officials used Twitter to warn of a North Korean missile launch — one that never had happened. At 8:11 p.m. local time, the official disaster management Twitter account of the city prematurely announced: 'North Korea has launched a missile'. As it turns out, it was just a misfired tweet that was ready in case of a real launch. The tweet stayed up for approximately 20 minutes, when the city took it down and posted an official apology (Google Translate), saying the tweet was delivered by mistake." Continue reading →

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FOIA documents suggest IRS may have ignored court ruling on email privacy

"The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), commonly thought of as accountants with the power to garnish wages and seize property, is also a law enforcement agency with the power to spy on communications, so it’s not totally surprising that it has typically followed Supreme Court precedent regarding law enforcement’s broad spying powers when it comes to emails more than 180 days old. However, in a ruling issued December 2010, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the IRS to always obtain a warrant before rifling through emails, no matter how old, contained on services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, which otherwise have significantly less privacy protections." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFOIA documents suggest IRS may have ignored court ruling on email privacy