Mainstream News

Investors euphoric as US margin debt reaches ‘danger’ levels

"Bank of America’s monthly survey of investors showed a dramatic rise in confidence in August, with a net 72pc expecting growth to accelerate over the next year. It is the highest in reading since 2009. Almost everybody expects bond yields to rise as deflation fears evaporate, with just 3pc still worried about the risk of an economic relapse. Managers have slashed their bond allocation to a 28-month low. The exuberant mood comes as margin debt on Wall Street hovers near $377bn, just below its all-time high and well above peaks before the dotcom crash and the Lehman crisis." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInvestors euphoric as US margin debt reaches ‘danger’ levels

Fed links leveraged ETFs to 1987 crash

"Federal Reserve economist Tugkan Tuzun has warned leveraged exchange-traded funds could be the next problem for the stock market and could trigger a crash similar to that in 1987. Leveraged ETFs set out to generate multiples of daily index returns by gearing their portfolios twice or three times over. Turzun points to portfolio insurance, generally blamed for triggering the 1987 crash. Thanks to their trades, and their gearing, leveraged ETFs can have an outsized impact on the market. Tuzun argues that a 1% move in broadly-based market indices can produced rebalancing flows totaling $1 billion." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFed links leveraged ETFs to 1987 crash

Baltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

"Corrections officer Jennifer M. Owens pleaded guilty Tuesday to involvement in a racketeering conspiracy to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the Baltimore City Detention Center for an inmate, a gang leader who fathered two children with her and whose name she had tattooed on her neck. Owens, 31, of Randallstown, Md., is one of 13 female corrections officers who were indicted in April on charges of smuggling items into the state-run jail for Tavon White, a leader of the Black Guerrilla Family, enabling him to run a thriving drug enterprise inside the detention center. She is the first guard to enter a guilty plea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBaltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

Baltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

"Corrections officer Jennifer M. Owens pleaded guilty Tuesday to involvement in a racketeering conspiracy to smuggle drugs and other contraband into the Baltimore City Detention Center for an inmate, a gang leader who fathered two children with her and whose name she had tattooed on her neck. Owens, 31, of Randallstown, Md., is one of 13 female corrections officers who were indicted in April on charges of smuggling items into the state-run jail for Tavon White, a leader of the Black Guerrilla Family, enabling him to run a thriving drug enterprise inside the detention center. She is the first guard to enter a guilty plea." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBaltimore guard pleads guilty to drug smuggling racket in jail scandal

Muslim Brotherhood supporters to intensify protests against ‘military tyranny’

"Egypt’s government says 525 people were killed and thousands wounded in the worst day of civil violence in the modern history of the most populous Arab state. International condemnation rained down on Cairo’s military-backed rulers for ordering the storming of protest camps, six weeks after the army overthrew the country’s first freely elected leader. U.S. President Barack Obama canceled plans for upcoming military exercises with the Egyptian army, which Washington funds with $1.3 billion in annual aid. Senior U.S. and European officials were in contact with Egypt’s rulers until the final hour, pleading with them not to order a military crackdown." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMuslim Brotherhood supporters to intensify protests against ‘military tyranny’

U.S. Pulls Out of Egypt’s Bright Star War Game Over Massacres

"President Obama on Thursday cancelled the U.S. military’s participation in next month’s Operation Bright Star in Egypt – a biennial training exercise with the Egyptian military – following Cairo’s brutal crackdown on opponents that left more than 500 dead the day before. Continuing the charade – that the U.S. needs to continue to cooperate with Egypt to improve things there – would have been bizarre. The notion that such military cooperation can give the U.S. influence over a foreign military is dubious, despite the $1.3 billion in military aid the U.S. gives to Egypt annually, a bounty for signing the Camp David accords with Israel in 1978." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Pulls Out of Egypt’s Bright Star War Game Over Massacres

Bitcoin gets the FBI, Homeland Security treatment

"'The Committee directs the FBI, in consultation with the Department and other Federal partners, to provide a briefing no later 120 days after the enactment of this Act on the nature and scale of the risk posed by such ersatz currency, both in financing illegal enterprises and in undermining financial institutions,' said the bill, which was posted on the Committee's website, and reported Tuesday by several industry blogs. Jon Matonis, executive director of the Bitcoin Foundation, told CNBC that the wording of the bill is the type that encourages innovative startups to seek out more acceptable international jurisdictions." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBitcoin gets the FBI, Homeland Security treatment

One in 10 Americans have taken drugs prescribed for others

"One in 10 Americans admit taking a prescription drug they have not been prescribed, and a quarter of those people have used them just to get high, according to an ongoing Reuters/Ipsos poll. While about six in ten Americans who used another person’s prescriptions did so for pain relief, a fifth took them to sleep or to manage stress and anxiety, the poll showed. Pharmacies in the United States dispensed more than 4 billion prescriptions in 2012, according to IMS Health, a healthcare research firm. The poll indicated it is not difficult to get hold of such drugs even without a prescription." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingOne in 10 Americans have taken drugs prescribed for others

Why does America have such a big prison population?

"America has around 5% of the world’s population, and 25% of its prisoners. Roughly one in every 107 American adults is behind bars, a rate nearly five times that of Britain, seven times that of France and 24 times that of India. Its prison population has more than tripled since 1980. The growth rate has been even faster in the federal prison system: from around 24,000—its level, more or less, from the 1940s until the early 1980s—to more than 219,000 today. Probably the biggest driver of this growth has been ever-harsher drug penalties." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy does America have such a big prison population?

Former Obama Supporter Oliver Stone: Obama Is A ‘Snake’; ‘We Have To Turn On Him’

"Film director Oliver Stone—who has made no secret of his liberal political views—called President Barack Obama a 'snake' for his role in National Security Agency spying programs that have become, he said, more about silencing protestors than finding terrorists. Stone said that admitted NSA leaker Edward Snowden 'is a hero to me. He sacrificed his well-being for the good of us all.' Stone also called Snowden a hero last month and said it’s 'a disgrace that Obama is more concerned with hunting him down Snowden than reforming these George Bush-style eavesdropping techniques.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer Obama Supporter Oliver Stone: Obama Is A ‘Snake’; ‘We Have To Turn On Him’