statism

Jeffrey Tucker: Has the Fed Met Its Match?

"'It is hard to imagine a world,' says the unimaginative study, 'where the main currency is based on an extremely complex code understood only by a few and controlled by even fewer, without accountability, arbitration, or recourse.' Blink, blink. This is the Fed talking here. Talk about complex. When the Fed governor speaks in Congress, he (soon she) speaks in such a blithering array of econ-babble that no one dare respond, for fear of seeming ignorant. It’s like the first day of an Intro to Physics class. The professor asks if there are questions, and everyone sits in terror. In a half-century of this nonsense, only Ron Paul ever really dared to ask serious questions of the Fed." Continue reading →

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U.S. Deal With JPMorgan Followed a Crucial Call To Justice Department

"On Sept. 24, four hours before the Justice Department was planning to hold a news conference to announce civil charges against the bank over its sale of troubled mortgage investments, Mr. Dimon personally called one of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s top lieutenants to reopen settlement talks, people briefed on the talks said. The rare outreach from a Wall Street C.E.O. scuttled the news conference and set in motion weeks of negotiations that have culminated in a tentative $13 billion deal. An account of the negotiations pulls back a curtain on the private wrangling to illuminate how the bank and the government managed to negotiate what would be a record deal." Continue reading →

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Bill Bonner: A Barbarous Fed…

"Barbaric people used force and violence to get what they wanted; civilized transactions are based on mutual consent and cooperation. We know that the economy of the Soviet Union, driven by brute force, was a disaster. How do you think the economy of the US – heavily persuaded by the padded force of the Yellen-led Fed – will fare? Is today’s Fed a modern, civilized institution? Or an archaic throw-back to the past? And what about the dollar itself? Is it a form of modern money… or a barbarous relic, depending on the police power of the state to give it value?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: A Barbarous Fed…

Their Propaganda….Our Propaganda

"The Guardian was able to get a hold of some paintings that were made by a North Korean propaganda artist, for the North Korean people. The paintings depict their 'glorious neighbor' China. Keep in mind, when you see these, that most North Koreans have never been to China. What a glorious place...a Heaven on Earth mixed with The Land of Oz. Fortunately, here in the United States, we have freedom of the press, and it takes hard effort for that press to pull the wool over our eyes! Americans are not so easily fooled..." Continue reading →

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Cybersecurity: The NSA’s Big Budget Action Movie

"The exercise had an awesome name, inspired by the movies: 'Quantum Dawn 2.' On July 18, scads of U.S. banks, stock exchanges and government agencies took part in a digital fire drill — a practice run in the event all of Wall Street came under massive cyberattack. The scope of this exercise was systemwide, full-on meltdown. 'In some cases,' reads a new account of the exercise from Reuters, 'a blue chip stock started to plummet inexplicably. Soon, shocking news about the company hit the market, but unbeknownst to the participant, the news was fake. For others, trading systems were on the fritz, or government websites stopped functioning.'" Continue reading →

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FINTRAC collecting too much info on innocent Canadians: privacy watchdog

"By law, Canadian banks, casinos and thousands of other businesses are required to report all financial transactions over $10,000, and any movement of money they suspect may be linked to terrorism or laundering the proceeds of crime. But in a special report to Parliament today, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart complains that an investigation of the Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre, known as FINTRAC, found found everyday financial transactions of ordinary Canadians — things such as down payments for homes and cars, and wire transfers from families overseas to their children studying here. FINTRAC has amassed over 165 million reports." Continue reading →

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Plans for Political Union Unravel in Europe

"Advocates of tighter integration believe that the euro zone needs to go further by borrowing elements from the American system of federalism. Many proposals reflect a belief that the euro zone needs to partially mimic the U.S., where the dollar works well across all states partly because of budgets, bonds, financial oversight and depositor protection at the national level. Over the past year, however, the political winds have shifted. Interviews with more than a dozen officials across Europe reveal how plans for deeper integration have run aground as financial markets have calmed and mistrust has simmered between power centers including Berlin, Brussels and Paris." Continue reading →

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India arrests man caught smuggling gold bars in cellphone

"The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) arrested a passenger for attempting to smuggle gold through Mumbai airport on Saturday. The passenger, Ibrahim Khaleel, was carrying four gold bars worth Rs 48 lakh. Two of the bars were concealed in his mobile phone in place of the battery. The other two were found in his bag. Khaleel landed in Mumbai from Riyadh by a Jet Airways flight. Just as he was trying to clear Customs through the green channel, AIU officials intercepted him on suspicion and asked for a thorough check." Continue reading →

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International Wire Fees going up from the new remittance transfer rule

"On October 28th, 2013 international wire fees are going up. This is due to the remittance transfer rule amendment to Regulation E from the Dodd-Frank Act. Ironically, as a ‘consumer protection’ amendment, these new stipulations are suppose to help protect and disclose more information to those that are sending money abroad. The issue is that it really does the opposite of that–it simply makes international wires more expensive at the cost of those who can afford it the least. JP Morgan Chase has announced that they will no longer be offer outbound international wire services in response to this new regulation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingInternational Wire Fees going up from the new remittance transfer rule