I think Friday saw a power-shift from the central banks to the global private banks. I think the global banks served notice that the Central bank plan of 1) reining in the risk-taking of the TBTF banks and 2) stimulating growth in the real economy is now dead in the water. There is a new plan. (Let me apologise now for this video being too long. I really did try half a dozen times to make it shorter. I failed. )
Couple of things I forgot to mention in the video.
Lobbying in the US by the financial/Insurance and Real Estate sector in 2014 stands at $249,342,399. Its been above $450 million every year since 2008.
According to the Sunlight Foundation, Mr Melvin L. Watt, head of the FHFA, had received some 45 percent of his total campaign funds in 2009 from donors in the finance and real estate sector.
Waiting for Something Bad to Happen
Beneath are the links I used in the video roughly in the order I used them.
Blackstone quote and their $70 billion
Junk Bond market and Derivatives market
The FHFA and the new sub-prime housing push
Changes to Buy-backs and mortgage laws
UK housing – new mortgage rates
Frank Keating – Frank Dodd hurting the recovery Look up Frank Keating and Bloomberg to see how often he is on lobbying against regulations.
C. Boyden Grey – Regulatory overreach
Leveraged buy-outs – ignoring the regulators
What are Synthetic CDOs and how they work/don’t work. A really good but technical piece by the always good Janet Tavakoli
Don’t Have to Wait Very Long for Something Bad to Happen
33 Police Officers Fire 600 Bullets into Car Knowing It Contained a Hostage
“You do not riddle a vehicle with 600 shots, by 33 people, knowing there is an innocent person inside.”
An attorney for the family of Misty Holt Singh spoke out on Thursday, asserting that Stockton police used unreasonable force in the July 16th incident when they took the life of this 41 year old mother of two.
Holt-Singh was taken hostage by robbers at Bank of the West in Stockton, California, in front of her 12 year old daughter who was waiting for her in the car.
“Misty was crying,” a witness told KOVR. “She was saying her daughter was alone in the car. She said, ‘I don’t want my daughter to see me coming out with you,’ and they said, ‘Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen,’ and they took her anyway.”
Unfortunately it was not only the robbers that Holt-Singh needed to worry about.
Holt-Singh was in the vehicle as the three suspects lead police on a high speed chase which lasted for nearly an hour. The suspects reportedly fired over 100 rounds at officers during the 55 mile incident.
Two other women were taken hostage as well, but were either thrown or jumped from the vehicle as it was speeding from police, both survived.
The beloved wife and mother was ultimately shot at least 10 times- not by the suspects, but by the police- 33 of them, who fired 600 rounds into the vehicle despite knowledge that it contained a hostage. Holt-Singh as well as two of the three suspects were killed in the barrage of bullets.
The family attorney Greg Bentley said in a statement on Thursday that protocol calls for discriminate gunfire and described the 600 bullets shot into the suspects’ vehicle as excessive and unreasonable force.
The department has defended its officers, saying they were worried the violence would escalate.
“According to Chief Jones, at least 10 bullets struck Misty, killing her, and all 10 of those bullets, were fired by police officers.” Bentley stated.
Even if there hadn’t been an innocent hostage, are police such awful marksmen that they require 600 rounds to take down three men? On what planet could this be considered reasonable?
Jaime Ramos, 19, the sole surviving suspect, has been charged with her murder.
The family of Holt-Singh has not yet announced if they will file a lawsuit against the department.
Read more: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/33-officers-fire-600-bullets-car-knowing-contained-hostage/#2b5Pg2HC3FUhBEfz.99
Maybe it’s the change in seasons, maybe the Ebola scare, stock market fluctuations, world descending into chaos or some combination of all of these, but more people seem to be “waiting for something bad to happen.”
Just a few examples from stuff I’ve read just today:
The Era of Political Disruption
Independent presidential bids, a third party, and other big changes may be just over the midterm horizon.
From time to time in this column, I predict that the United States is entering an era of great political disruption, a bottom-up revolution on the scale of what upended the music, television, movie, media, and retail industries. Fueled by the radical connectivity of the Internet, abrupt new actors in those fields dismantled the status quo, shifted power downward, and created an explosion of options for consumers.
How long until Americans recognized they’re no less equipped to disrupt politics and government? How soon before we stop settling for an inferior product in Washington and at statehouses? When do we demand more and better from the Democratic and Republican parties—or create new political organizations that usurp the old?
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/the-era-of-political-disruption-20141021
Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change.
The people we elect aren’t the ones calling the shots, says Tufts University’s Michael Glennon
Six years into his administration, the Obama version of national security looks almost indistinguishable from the one he inherited. Guantanamo Bay remains open. The NSA has, if anything, become more aggressive in monitoring Americans. Drone strikes have escalated. Most recently it was reported that the same president who won a Nobel Prize in part for promoting nuclear disarmament is spending up to $1 trillion modernizing and revitalizing America’s nuclear weapons. Tufts University political scientist Michael J. Glennon says Obama couldn’t have changed policies much even if he tried.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/10/18/vote-all-you-want-the-secret-government-won-change/jVSkXrENQlu8vNcBfMn9sL/story.html?
Americans’ Gloom Marches Into Second Decade
The depressive donkey in A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” stories pretty much matches the mood of Americans lately, according to the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last week. When 1,000 potential voters were asked whether they think the nation is on the right or wrong track, 65% of them said the country had taken a wrong turn, and only 25% said the U.S. was on the right path.
The only time the public has felt worse was in October 2008, during the first, deep spasms of the recession. Then, 78% said the nation was on the wrong track, and only 12% felt good about the country’s direction. The last time “right direction” beat out “wrong track” was in January 2004 — and the last election cycle where that was the case was 2002.
“Why are people so gloomy? Well, it might just be everything,” says pollster Micah Roberts, sounding a bit like Eeyore himself. Mr. Roberts is vice president of Public Opinion Strategies, which along with Hart Research Associates conducted the poll. “We haven’t had a plurality saying ‘right track’ in over ten years so that’s pretty amazing. After 10 years it’s just part of the collective consciousness of Americans,” to think the nation’s gone off the rails, he added.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2014/10/20/americans-gloom-marches-into-second-decade/?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news