June 11, 2008

Spock: Captain, the Lehman ship has uncloaked and is nearing the event horizon. They’ll be drawn in to the black Morgan and disappear. Shall we shoot the photon torpedos?

Kirk: Sulu, don’t shoot; short that bitch! And go long Morgan! And turn towards Port Royal so we can collect our loot! Boy I love it when that happens! Do you have confirmations yet??

Spock: Captain, the Lehman ship has disappeared. I think I saw a flash of light at the end. The Morgan has now increased it’s pull and the event horizon is moving towards us.

Kirk: Dammit Sulu, get us to Port Royal! Warp drive!

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/money_matters/


...und heute: Lehman CFO Callan, COO Gregory leaving posts
9:04 AM ET, Jun 12, 2008 - By Greg MorcroftNEW YORK (MarketWatch) -Lehman Bros. Holding said Thursday that CFO Erin Callan and COO Joseph Gregory are leaving their posts. Lehman said Bart McDade will replace Gregory, and Ian Lowitt will replace Callan. Lehman stock has been buffeted lately as investors question the firm's capital position and its transparency amid the ongoing credit crisis.LEH

+++ EILMELDUNG +++

US- Regierung unterliegt in Guantanamo- Verfahren



Schlappe für die US-Regierung: Häftlinge des Gefangenenlagers Guantanamo haben ab sofort Zugang zu ordentlichen Gerichten. Das hat der Oberste Gerichtshof entschieden. Bisher konnten die Insassen nur bei Militärtribunalen klagen. mehr...

...ob "die Regierung" mit liest :confused:rolleyes

Page last updated at 22:38 GMT, Wednesday, 11 June 2008 23:38 UK



Canada apology for native schools

Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes the apology (Viedeo - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7447811.stm)

Canada has apologised for forcing about 150,000 aboriginal children to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools aimed at assimilating them.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the apology in parliament in Ottawa, in front of hundreds of ex-schoolchildren.

The schools operated from the late 19th Century until the 1990s, although most of them shut in the 1970s.

Accounts of physical and sexual abuse at the institutions, known as residential schools, have also emerged.

Most of the churches that ran the schools apologised in the 1980s and 1990s.

Australia apologised for a similar policy in February.

'We are sorry' (das geflügelte Wort der Politiker - und die Welt ist wieder in Ordnung :mad)

full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7447811.stm

Dick :verbeug

U.S. Population Under Control Attached Images

...informativ und gut :supi

The ECB Calls Bernanke’s Bluff

-- Posted Thursday, 12 June 2008 | Digg This Article | Source: GoldSeek.com

by Gary Dorsch, Editor, Global Money Trends

A new member of the British Parliament once solicited the advice of Benjamin Disraeli, the nineteenth century British prime minister, on whether he should speak up on a controversial issue. “Do you have anything to say that has not already been said?” Disraeli asked him. “No,” the man conceded. “I just want the people whom I represent, and the members of Parliament to know that I participated in the debate.”

Disraeli replied, “Then it’s better to remain silent and have people say, I wonder what he’s thinking, rather than to speak up, and have people say, I wonder why he spoke.” On June 3rd, the super-dovish Fed chief Benjamin Bernanke, couldn’t remain silent any longer, and shocked the global money markets, when he spoke out for the first time, about the need for the Fed to defend the US dollar in the foreign exchange market, before an international television audience.

“The Fed is working with the Treasury to carefully monitor developments in foreign exchange markets,” Bernanke warned. “We are attentive to the changes in the value of the dollar and inflation expectations. The Fed’s commitment to price stability is a key factor, insuring that the dollar remains a strong and stable currency. The possibility that commodity prices will continue to rise, and lift inflation expectations are significant risks, that might ultimately become self-confirming,” he said.

A week later, currency traders were left wondering if Bernanke had undergone a brain transplant, and re-programmed as a Bundesbank hawk, when he downplayed the biggest monthly surge in the US jobless rate in 22-years. “The risk that the US economy has entered into a substantial downturn appears to have diminished. The FOMC will strongly resist an erosion of longer-term inflation expectations. There are significant upside risks for inflation through commodities,” Bernanke declared.

Instinctively, foreign currency traders rushed to cover over-extended short positions in the dollar, as yields on the US Treasury’s 2-year note, jumped by a startling half-percent in just two-days, to 2.90%, discounting the likelihood of 75-basis points in Fed rate hikes by year’s end. Something must have changed, to cause “Helicopter” Ben to suddenly talk about switching gears, from inflating the US money supply at a 17% annualized rate, its fastest in history, to a more prudent course of defending the purchasing power of the dollar.




But if “Helicopter” Ben is just bluffing about his determination to defend the US dollar, then it would have been better, had he remained silent last week. Foreign currency traders know the first line of defense for a currency in the $3.2 trillion per day FX market is “jawboning” – or trying to alter trader behavior and psychology with words alone. Initially, “open-mouth operations” are cost-free, and might even achieve the central bank’s objective without more expensive remedies.....

......Since the Fed began its easing campaign in August 2007, the year-over-year increase in the Dow Jones AIG Commodity Index, has soared from a -5.5% to a record +33% today, led by a near doubling in crude oil and grain prices, and pushing the global inflation rate to its highest in three decades. Yet until this month, the Bernanke Fed refused to weigh food and energy prices in its inflation calculations, and instead, solely focused on bailing out Wall Street banks......

.....The Fed’s hands appear to be tied by a weakening economy. The problem is if the central bank is bluffing about a tighter money policy to defend the dollar, it will open a Pandora’s Box to even greater instability and volatility in global markets........

full story: http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1213296841.php

Breaking: Ireland votes No to Lisbon Treaty



Irish voters plunge Europe into fresh constitutional crisis and give their leaders a major headache in referendum upset

• 'It looks like a clear 'no' vote'

• Ireland v EU

• Novice politician aims to stop Brussels in its tracks

...und jetzt :confused:rolleyes



EU- REFORM

Warum die Iren den Europa- Vertrag ablehnten

Die Iren haben Nein gesagt zur EU-Reform, so wie Millionen Europäer das wohl auch getan hätten - wenn man sie denn gefragt hätte. Das Votum gilt dem Vertrag und dem europäischen Integrationsprojekt insgesamt. Das sollte der politischen Elite in Brüssel und anderswo zu denken geben. Von Sebastian Borger, London mehr... [ Forum ]

• Fotostrecke: Ein lautes Nein aus Irland

IRLAND- PLEITE

Merkel und Sarkozy wollen Europakurs fortsetzen


Die Iren haben den EU-Vertrag abgeschmettert, doch Kanzlerin Merkel und Frankreichs Staatschef Sarkozy wollen das Projekt EU nicht aufgeben - sie forderten die Mitgliedstaaten auf, den Ratifizierungsprozess fortzusetzen. Kommissionspräsident Barroso beschwor, das Nein sei "kein Votum gegen die EU". mehr... [ Forum ]

• Reform-Stopp: Iren schicken Euro auf Talfahrt
• EU-Kommissar: Merkel will Hintze nach Brüssel schicken
• EU-Referendum: "Wir sind von Natur aus Rebellen"

BIS Quarterly Review, June 2008

Overview: a cautious return of risk tolerance

Following deepening turmoil and rising concerns about systemic risks in the first two weeks of March, financial markets witnessed a cautious return of investor risk tolerance over the remainder of the period to end-May 2008. The process of disorderly deleveraging which had started in 2007 intensified from end-February, with asset markets becoming increasingly illiquid and valuations plunging to levels implying severe stress. However, markets subsequently rebounded in the wake of repeated central bank action and the Federal Reserve-facilitated takeover of a large US investment bank. In sharp contrast to these favourable developments, interbank money markets failed to recover, as liquidity demand remained elevated.

Mid-March was a turning point for many asset classes. Amid signs of short covering, credit spreads rallied back to their mid-January values before fluctuating around these levels throughout May. Market liquidity improved, allowing for better price differentiation across instruments. The stabilisation of financial markets and the emergence of a somewhat less pessimistic economic outlook also contributed to a turnaround in equity markets. In this environment, government bond yields bottomed out and subsequently rose considerably. A reduction in the demand for safe government securities contributed to this, as did growing perceptions among investors that the impact from the financial turmoil on real economic activity might turn out to be less severe than had been anticipated. Emerging market assets, in turn, performed broadly in line with assets in the industrialised economies, as the balance of risk shifted from concerns about economic growth to those about inflation.

I wish I was on the committee writing this report. It would not have come out in this fashion. These reports are like watching people trying to count and track a bunch of ping pong balls falling from the balcony above while ignoring a bunch of huge bowling balls crashing through the floor. They can be quite correct about the trajectory and velocity of the ping pong balls but totally clueless about the heft and destruction of the bowling balls! I suspect this is two fold: the BIS staff desperately want to believe that the floating currency/international debt systems are not fundamentally flawed and ready to crash like they did from 1933-1945. No, they want the BIS system to work, damn it.

Also, they want to please their bosses. These bosses want the system to work because it makes them rich. Hearing about flaws or terrible, screwed up trajectories is unpleasant. And we know that the messenger bearing bad tidings gets executed. For example, the above opening paragraphs of this latest report mentions 'emerging market assets...performe broadly...'---this is a reference to the surge in speculators pouring all their funds into commodity markets! Question: was this a good sign or a terrifying signal?

The BIS writers admit that this performance in the commodity markets has 'shifted...concerns...to...inflation.' Well, duh! Welcome to reality! I suppose the writers of this report are counting their pfennings and wondering how they will make ends meet. Does this motivate them to meditate on the topic as to how all wild lending periods end with massive inflation taking root in all commodities while the value of assets that normally rise in inflation, collapse in value? Does this report anywhere, mention the dread words, 'stagflation' or heaven help us, 'depression'?

Of course not! Nor does this report mention 'trade deficits in America' and the US budget deficits. Or a lot of important things. Nor do they chat about the rise and fall of empires. Nor is Iran mentioned at all. Certainly, the costs of the global boycott of Iran's oil and how this helped trigger a collapse of international banking and trade is also not mentioned. The US housing collapse is mentioned but thankfully, it is not blamed for being the cause. I do appreciate that tiny, itty bitty honesty.

Thankfully, this BIS report is filled with graphs. Here is an example:



The numbers on the right are insane. We are not looking at spreads of these assets that are 160 points apart, they are 16,000 points apart! All the numbers here are totally insane. They really mean that the fiction of these ABX instruments being anything useful or reasonable is false. The ABX market has gone totally haywire and off the cliff and basically, has crashed. To admit this means admitting to vast losses within the banking system. So they pretend there is still some tiny value to these 16,000 basis point spread flophouses.

Below is yet another chart from this report:




Monolines have been in the news lately. They are dying, too. They are actually rather on the dead side more than the living. But since they are only at a 800 basis point spread, this isn't considered to be too horrid. We can see the spread is widening, not narrowing. The North American and European banks have this huge jump in the spread, too, from January to March with the crest being right where Bears Stearns gave up the ghost. The US System went crazy trying to fix this hike in the spread and sort of succeeded. But to fix it required destroying what little reserves the Federal Reserve holds. Far from the banking system being set to rights, we can see it is going off the cliff. The Fed has saved, sort of, only one aspect and this, the 'public' parts, not the parts that can grind down our economic system into dust.

....and much more: http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/money_matters/

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary - http://www.jsmineset.com/


Here lies the greatest problem for humanity and the biggest surprise to markets.

Pakistan, Iran discuss economic framework :schwitz


ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran discussed institutional economic framework of their respective countries here on Thursday.

Maa'shallah Shakri, Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan called on Syed Naveed Qamar Federal Minister for Finance, Privatisation and Investment. The minister apprised the Iranian Ambassador about government of Pakistan's pre-budget preparations and post-budget legislative debate in the Parliament along with other development related economic initiatives.

The finance minister stated that Pakistan was currently passing through the most challenging time since the democratic government took over and special measures are underway to reform the national economy. staff report

More…

...steht zwar auch schon im Gold-Abteil, ist aber so gut :supi;)

Posted On: Friday, June 13, 2008, 1:48:00 PM EST

Hourly Action In Gold From Trader Dan

Author: Dan Norcini :supi


Dear CIGAs,

The CONSTANT Price Index was released this morning and showed a 0.6% gain for May. Pundits were looking for 0.5%. The year over year rate on the headline number was 4.2%. The spinmeisters immediately went to work triumphantly exclaiming how "mild" the CORE reading was which came in at an annualized rate of a mere 2.3%. You know, that is the number that excludes everything that people really have no need of in life such as food and energy and spend ZERO % of their disposable income on.

Why my goodness - that news should completely put to rest any murmurings on the part of the authorities whatsoever about the role we "evil" speculators have had in pushing prices so high. If that wasn't enough good news, the U of M consumer sentiment index fell to 56.7 in June from 59.8 in May. Stocks did their usual thing with traders bidding prices higher on the wonderful reports which were topped off by falling crude oil prices in the session. All that is missing from this parade of happiness is James Brown's old song, "I FEEL GOOD".

Folks - I know I have said this many times before but I honestly believe that this generation of investors in the US is absolutely the most ignorant group of unthinking clods that God's green earth has ever managed to produce. To think that there are enough people who actually believe the government's worthless CPI numbers and act on that belief by bidding stocks higher on the notion that such tame readings take the urgency off of the Fed to hike rates makes me tremble for the future of my nation. What do we have - the Fed ramping up M3 by something like 14% or even higher on an annual basis and these bozos are stupid enough to think that rising prices are not going to follow as surely as the sun rises in the East? Are these mind-numbed zombies incapable of seeing what is going on around them? I am beginning to wonder if some of these folks ever go out into the real world and leave their quote screens. They might learn something if they did!

The U.S. markets have become nothing but a bundled mass of contradictions. On the one hand we have the Forex guys bidding up the Dollar because Bernanke is going to hike rates (or so they believe). On the other hand we have the equity guys bidding up stocks because they assert that Bernanke WILL NOT hike rates because the CPI number is so tame. The bond guys are so bewildered that they are wandering aimlessly around the pit in circles not knowing who or what to believe. Meanwhile, fair weather friends of gold are boldly proclaiming the demise of the yellow metal’s bull run (they always do this whenever we enter the summer months) based on the notion that the Fed is going to hike and kill off inflation. These are the same guys who have their own special pair of CNBC glasses, complete with fancy carrying case, that makes them believe their own nonsense and renders the wearer incapable of seeing a $trillion-dollar-plus-derivatives sword of Damocles hanging over their head.

This is what happens when you get nothing but misleading statistics, jawboning, spin and price manipulation. And to think that this is the "efficient" price discovery mechanism at its finest! I do not know about you, but sometimes I wish we would scrap the whole thing and go back to the barter system! At least it would be honest and we would not have to deal with the yapping dogs from the Fed or the pencil pushing bureaucrats who have found computers much more to their liking seeing the ease with which they can change numbers if they do not like the end result.

“Say John, that food number looks a bit too high in the May report you are working on. See what you can do about that”. “No problem Boss, let me just hit the delete key and clear that out”. Now, what was the number you wanted this report to say again”. Okay – give me a couple of minutes and I will fix it for you”.

Incidentally, soymeal, the product made from crushing soybeans, hit a 35 year high in price in today’s session. Corn put in yet another all time high as well. But not to worry – such things don’t count because it is not in the “core”. It is only the folks who have to feed livestock and poultry, you know, the protein sources in our diet, who need be concerned about that stuff.

Meanwhile, gold is engaged in quite a titanic struggle. It managed to claw its way back from support near yesterday’s low which came in at the 860 level. That is all the more remarkable considering that this is taking place with a “NO” vote coming from Ireland on the EU reform treaty which put pressure on the Euro this morning as well as with weakness in crude and in the products.

Keep in mind folks that seasonally, the early summer months are not normally a strong time for gold. It tends to top out in May, move lower into June or July and then stabilize as it builds a base before moving higher in August and continuing to move higher into the end of the year. The best way to use such seasonal tendencies is to see whether or not a market is following its normal pattern or is moving in a contrary fashion. Any market that refuses to move lower during a period in which it historically tends to move lower is by definition a strong market. Contrarily, any market which does not move higher during a period in which it tends to move higher is by definition a weak market. If gold can hold above major support near $850 and maintain that level or higher for the next 6 weeks or so, it will prove to be most revealing. If it does not and moves down below that level, it will only be doing what seasonally it normally does anyway. Those who therefore predict the end of the bull market in gold during a period of seasonal weakness are betraying a great deal of ignorance about markets in general. Either that or they are too damned lazy to study price patterns.

The mining shares have thus far stubbornly refused to break down in today’s session. This is forcing some of the opportunistic shorts to cover. GG put in a potential bullish hammer bottoming formation yesterday. Today it has so far found willing buyers at and just below the low of that hammer formation which is encouraging but we are not out of the woods yet as there remains plenty of time left in the session. A positive close today would be quite significant technically. Bulls need to assert themselves to keep any advantage they are attempting to secure and to not squander their efforts.

Yield on the Ten Year Note is all over the place this morning. It has been as high as 4.32% and as low as 4.17%. Discombobulated is the word that comes to my mind that can best be used to describe the poor Treasury market participants.

http://www.jsmineset.com/

:verbeug @Eldo ...bin ja sonst nicht unbedingt ein Mahendra Fan - hier finde ich ihn :supi hoffe, dass der letzte Abschnitt nicht so eintrifft


"Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
-Albert Einstein (1879-1955)



Dear Members,

Today I would like to begin by speaking about the world market and the economy.

We have previously talked about the three major revolutions, which brought the world to where we now stand. Though we seem to be in a confusing stage in which there are several transformations occurring together, we can at least agree that capitalism is a dominant part of this era. In the last 150 years, we have moved from “Agriculture” to “Industrialization” and to the “Technology Revolution”. We are now in a different era of capitalism where financial market cycles have complete domination and playing a key role in world economy and it future. The current era is also marked by an absence of fear for authority, as well as a lack of integrity and sense of responsibility; in a word, this is despotism. This despotism is gradually but completely taking control of the world economy and it is extremely difficult to know if we shall carry on, or indeed, if we are fit to survive. After the agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions, the question is whether the current financial wheel shall be able to serve the more than 6 Billion people. As far as I can see, financial policy makers and politicians have abdicated their responsibilities and they are steering the world towards greed and uncertainty.

The era of capitalism has created a bubble that makes the rich richer while the middle class continue to battle against higher living costs (which inflated by this richer group for their own benefits) to an extent of being unable to cope, thanks to the effects of rising inflation. Following the technology burst 2000, there was widespread uncertainty in the financial market, which drove powerful people to create a bubble in real estate by providing easy cash. Financial institutions and lenders began to change tact when they saw the crunch coming; and we witnessed interest rate cuts while the Federal Reserve began to dish money to financial institutions in order to stem the uncertainty but still situation is out of control. However, the low interest rates seemed not to make enough money for them and they devised ways and means of making quick bucks to cover loses and this gave birth to greed. As a result of this new born greed among the hedge funds and financial institutions herded together to bet against each other as though they were in a casino, the strongest taking away the spoils but one thing they are forgetting that they are in casino or they are gambling. Behind this game, there is an easy access to cash, thanks to the fed providing the means to gamble and create a historic bubble of inflation. Indeed, this explains why financial and banking stocks have been losing value because real money is away in gambling. The situation is very scary and I don’t know how many will come with real money from these casino or gambling room and in future where these powerful people will play once the current bubble bursts, or will new gaming room will be created for this people by policy maker.

Today the common man is fighting a vicious war for survival; a worse war than the one in Iraq. For instance, People do not know up to what price people are willing or will be able to pay to fill their cars with gas. The choice confronting people now is whether to first buy gold or get food for their children. Many do not know what instrument shall be used in the future to provide better financial security for the people. Though I do not have many answers today, I see for sure that the people’s purchasing power will drop very drastically in the next three months and a sudden depression or deflation will result, but this will be short-lived. I am naturally a very optimistic person and I see the world riding through and continuing well despite the ups and downs.

My most nagging worry has nothing to do with the USA, but with China, India and Europe. My prediction is that within the next three months, the GDPs of China and India will drop substantially and it will be too late by the time the rest of the world realises. Consequently, I urge that one be very cautious about where you place your money. The truth is that the USA still holds 61% of the world’s economy and if anything goes wrong with it or there is a further fall of the dollar, the world’s economy will soon be on its knees. The growth story will be finished and people China and India will talk about how to survive because burst of GDP growth. As I have said, I am an optimistic person and I see the world moving ahead despite the various ups and downs. Indeed, I am certain that the USA and the USD will survive in coming most uncertain period, but I am not so sure about Europe and some countries in Asia. If there is drought, all vegetation affected as the existing one wilts and dries, while growth of new vegetation cannot occur. Only big plants or those specially adapted can withstand and survive the effects of prolonged drought till the following rainy season. Such is the situation in the market as this analogy of the natural cycle of life is still applicable to our situation. I therefore hope that you find some answers and act accordingly.

http://www.mahendraprophecy.com/Lat...p?Id=388&Page=1

14.06.2008, 17:47 #2134

_SL_ OSSI

Registriert seit: 11.01.2005
Beiträge: 9.233



EURO vor dem AUS?

Samstag, 14. Juni 2008
Nach NEIN der Iren nun Abstimmung per Geldschein. Immer mehr Deutsche akzeptieren keine Euros aus den Süd-Staaten. Herkunftsland der Euro-Scheine erkennbar am Buchstaben-Code.
Immer mehr Deutsche befürchten eine Euro - Krise in Zukunft. Deshalb verweigern sie die Annahme von Euro-Noten aus Italien, Spanien, Griechenland und Portugal. Hintergrund:
http://www.mmnews.de/index.php/20080...r-dem-Aus.html


Wissenswertes zu Geldscheinen

Die Anfangsbuchstaben der Seriennummern geben das Herkunftsland an.

• L -Finnland
• M -Portugal
• N -Österreich
• P -Niederlande
• R -Luxemburg
• S -Italien
• T -Irland
• U -Frankreich
• V -Spanien
• X -Deutschland
• Y -Griechenland
• Z- Belgien

Die Eurobanknoten sind in allen Ländern identisch. Es gibt Banknoten zu 5 Euro, 10 Euro, 20 Euro, 50 Euro, 100 Euro, 200 Euro und 500 Euro. Die Scheine zeigen verschiedene Motive zu den Themen Zeitalter und Baustile in Europa.

Die Vorderseiten zeigen als Motiv ein Fenster oder eine Fensterfront, die Rückseiten jeweils eine Brücke. Dabei sind keine realen Bauwerke abgebildet, sondern es wurden die Stilmerkmale der einzelnen Epochen eingebracht:



Klassik auf dem 5-Euro-Schein
Romanik auf dem 10-Euro-Schein
Gotik auf dem 20-Euro-Schein
Renaissance auf dem 50-Euro-Schein
Barock und Rokoko auf dem 100-Euro-Schein
Eisen- und Glasarchitektur auf dem 200-Euro-Schein
Moderne Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts auf dem 500-Euro-Schein
Die Banknoten wurden nach einem EU-weiten Wettbewerb vom Österreicher Robert Kalina gestaltet und weisen verschiedene moderne Sicherheitsmerkmale auf, um die Fälschung zu erschweren. Eine Besonderheit ist das Counterfeit Deterrence System (CDS), welches das Reproduzieren auf Kopiergeräten oder per PC verhindern soll.


Zum 1. Januar 2002 wurden 14,8899 Milliarden Euro-Banknoten hergestellt



Ein 100 Euro schein. Oben rechts die Serien-Nummer. Davor steht ein "L" - Dieser Schein kommt also aus Finnland.

Has anyone been listening to

-> Posted by AuGirl @ 10:54 am on June 14, 2008 :verbeug
Jim Puplava’s “Crime of the Century” series on naked short selling? He says he was flooded with responses when part 1 was aired..Quote :

“People are saying ya know now I understand what is going on with my junior mining stocks. I could not understand when a company increased it reserves or reported incredible drill results why the stock would sell down.”

DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR TO ANYONE?

He talks about the techniques investment banks and hedge funds use to manipulate stock prices eg ; they will carpet bomb short the stock and naked short it to drive the price down just prior to a financing..Also, collusion between offshore entities to keep the counterfeit shares off the books..When you short a stock you have a certain amount days to cover and if not covered it will show up as a failure to deliver on the reg sho list.. BUT these entities will also play musical chairs with the shares, swapping between each other to cover and it just gets moved around and around..Says billions of these counterfeit shares are hidden in offshore accounts..

Looks like Sinclair might have to increase his $50 K reward bigtime LOL.I hope there’s a special place in he$$ reserved just for these bastages.

This is part 3 : (part 4 today)

http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadca...008-0607-3b.mp3

...ursprünglich gung es hier um Jason Hommel - Silber - naked Shorts - Antol Fekete - Ted Butler usw. usw., ich finde diese Antwort lesenswert - zeigt sie doch einige "scary" Möglichkeiten auf :rolleyes:schwitz

Fekete Questions Me, & Why Banning Usury Won't Work

(Fekete vs. Hommel on Basis vs. Usury)

Silver Stock Report

by Jason Hommel, June 14th, 2008

Antal Fekete was kind enough to respond to my last email, "Silver Shorts are so Naked, they've "Gone Wild", which was actually a response to his article, which was a response to my claims and Ted Butler's claims and others claims that many or most people who have promised silver for delivery probably don't have the silver to deliver. Fekete's direct response has enough good questions for a solid interview or debate. For the sake of clarity, below is the full text of his email. Below that, I will publish his email again, with my responses in between, in italics, starting with "Jason: " Finally, at the end, I have an essay that I had not previously published, that is important to publish at this time, called:
"Why Banning Usury Won't Work".

=======

To: Jason Hommel
Re: Primer on Usury, Silver Stock Report, June 12, 2008.
Date: June 14, 2008.

Dear Jason,

Thank you for your civil rejoinder to my piece Putting Loin-Cloth on the Naked Bogeyman. I welcome this opportunity for a high level discussion on the basis. Please consider this as my acceptance of your challenge. I am looking forward to this debate and I am willing to abide by the verdict of an informed public opinion beforehand, even if it rules against my position. But before a debate, it seems to me, some clarification of your position will be necessary.
You condemn silver basis trading as „usury” in no uncertain terms. It would logically follow that trading the corn basis is also „usury”. And so is selling corn futures contracts with the intention of liquidating the commitment before expiry by purchasing an offsetting futures contract. Furthermore, lending silver at any other than zero interest is usury. Would you agree?
The meaning of the word „usury” has gone through many a significant change since Biblical times. To a large extent, Protestantism has triumphed over the Catholic Church in the 16th century thanks to its relaxed view of usury. Even the arch-conservatives of the Church reversed themselves, somewhat belatedly, in the 19th century, when they instructed confessors not to disturb penitents who admit to charging or paying ”reasonable” interest. Earlier, the scholastic fathers were way ahead of their contemporaries when they deemed discount on commercial bills of exchange as conceptually very different from interest and, as such, admissible. Foreign exchange trading was generally exempted from charges of usury, and provided a handy loophole to people wanting to escape from the clutches of the Inquisition. A clever way to get around canonical and secular prohibition of mortgage interest in the Middle Ages was the „rent charge contract”, under which the right to rental income from land holdings and buildings could be bought and sold without disturbing ownership. Religious orders prospered through trading rent charges.
There are other grey areas. For example, if silver is used in a profitable enterprise, but is withdrawn by the owner in order to lend it to a friend in need, there is an opportunity loss. Is the asking for compensation an instance of usury? Or another: is it usury if a doctor charges his patient for therapy involving silver?
Another area also needs clarification. Obviously, you are very vocal in your criticism of the short interest in the futures markets, while your criticism of the long interest is muted or non-existent. As you know, a debate is raging in Washington about the immorality of the long positions in energy and food-related futures contracts (see Reference below). Your wholesale condemnation of the futures markets will not solve the problem. Although it would put you in the same boat with Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, but don't forget, he may next propose legislation to check the activities of people who own more than, say, 100 ounces of silver. He could blame silver investors for the collapse of the dollar and, as such, silver hoarding could be declared against public policy.
Finally, I have just been reading an interesting news item in a British daily, reporting that European airlines could weather the supply-shock of aviation fuel better than their American counterparts, because they have been trading the oil basis. The article mentions Lufthansa by name as one airline which has put on hedges covering 80 percent of its fuel needs, and right now is flying its planes on oil costing only $70 per barrel, or about one half of the going price. In comparison, American airlines have hedged an average of 20 percent of their needs only. Question: is Lufthansa guilty of usury?
I am respectfully asking you to post this letter on your Silver Stock Report.
Thank you for your cheerful cooperation. With friendly greetings,
Yours very sincerely,

Antal E. Fekete
Gold Standard University Live

Reference. A Bull Market Sees the Worst in Speculators, by Diana B. Henriques, NYT June 12, 2008.
http://www.silverstockreport.com/2008/fekete.html

Originally Posted by goldberg
Dear GIMers, Looks like a lot of Americans don't even know the the Fed is not US government owned. Can anybody give me the links and who the major owners are so I can share it to my American friends who up until now are clueless on what's happening. Thanks.

Jive Dadson
The Fed does not have owners, just as OPEC and NATO do not have owners. There are banks that own shares in the Fed. However, the shares have no voting rights, and profit on the shares is capped by law at 6% per annum on the nominal value of the shares. All profits in excess of 6% of capitalization goes to the US Treasury.

A central banking system is a strange duck, sort of like a cartel, but not exactly.

BTW, the 6% cap used to be lower - in the fours - I don't remember the exact number. There is also a law that's to go into effect in a couple of years, or sooner if the banks get their way, that will have the Fed pay the member banks interest on the reserves they have on deposit at the Fed. Because it will not be included in the 6% figure, that interest money will in effect be paid out of the US Treasury.


Matt-themaddog-Dollar :verbeug
Actually, shareholders in the Fed do have rights. They elect the directors of the regional Fed Banks.

David Rockefeller is a class A director of the NY Fed. This means that he was elected by the shareholding banks. David Rockefeller was chairman of JP Morgan for 20-something years. JP Morgan recieved $30B in money from the NY Fed in order to buy out Bear Stearns -- JP Morgan then used Bear Stearns to borrow another $30B. Any person with no financial interest in the situation would have just lent $30B to Bear Stearns in the first place -- but then again, the directors of the Fed banks DO have a financial interest, since they are elected by the shareholding banks.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/Genera...act/sect04.htm

...aus Trader's Daily :verbeug

Ein landesweiter politischer Stromausfall
von Dr. Marc Faber

Auch wenn ich nicht immer mit den Ansichten des Kolumnisten Thomas Friedman übereinstimme, so muss ich doch seiner Kritik der amerikanischen Energiepolitik in jeder Hinsicht zustimmen. In einem seiner jüngsten Beiträge, mit dem Titel „Die Energie, ernst zu sein" nimmt er Hilary Clinton und John McCain in die Verantwortung, weil sie vorgeschlagen haben, dass die Bundesabgabe auf Benzin in diesem Sommer ausgesetzt werden soll.
Laut Friedman ist es „großartig zu sehen, dass wir Amerikaner doch endlich in einer Hinsicht Einigkeit bei der Energiepolitik des Landes erleben. Dummerweise ist die Idee, die zur Einigkeit führt, so lächerlich, so unwürdig derer, die anstreben die USA anzuführen, dass es einem den Atem raubt."

"Hillary Clinton hat sich dazu durchgerungen, sich hinter John McCain zu stellen, bei dem Versuch, durchzusetzen, dass die Bundesabgabe für Benzin in der Höhe von 18,4 Cent pro Gallone, während der Reisezeit im Sommer ausgesetzt wird. Das ist keine Energiepolitik. Das ist Geldwäsche: Wir Amerikaner leihen Geld von China und verschiffen es nach Saudi-Arabien und nehmen einen kleinen Anteil für uns selbst, während es durch unsere Benzintanks fließt. Was ist das für eine Möglichkeit, ein Land aufzubauen."

Wenn der Sommer dann vorbei sein wird, dann werden wir unsere Schulden gegenüber China erhöht haben. Der Transfer von Wohlstand nach Saudi Arabien wird zugenommen haben und auch unsere Beiträge zur Klimaerwärmung, die wir dann an unsere Kinder weitervererben werden.

Nein, nein, nein, wir bekommen einfach das Geld, indem wir das Große Öl besteuern, sagte Clinton. Doch selbst wenn das möglich wäre, dann wäre es eine schreckliche Möglichkeit, wertvolle Steuerdollar auszugeben - indem man diese auf dem Weg an den Strand verbrät, anstatt sie in Fortschritt zu investieren.

Der McCain-Clinton Ferien-Benzin-Vorschlag ist ein perfektes Beispiel für das, was der Energieexperte Peter Schwartz vom Global Business Network als die wahre amerikanische Energiepolitik von heute bezeichnet. „Die Nachfrage maximieren, das Angebot minimieren und den Rest von denjenigen kaufen, die uns am meisten verachten..."

Wenige Leute wissen es, aber seit fast einem Jahr streitet sich der Kongress darüber, ob man die Steuervorteile für Investitionen in Solarenergie und die Produktion von Windenergie erneuern soll oder nicht. Die Streitereien wurden so giftig geführt, dass es dem Kongress nicht gelangt, einen Stimulus für die Wind- und Solarenergieproduktion zu verlängern, als er im Dezember das Energiegesetz von 2007 erließ.

Öl und Gas haben ihre Kredite behalten, aber die Kredite für die Wind- und Solarenergie hat man im Dezember auslaufen lassen... diese Kredite sind wichtig, denn sie stellen sicher, dass die Investitionen in Wind- und Solarenergie auch dann noch profitabel sind, wenn die Preise für Öl wieder fallen - was häufig passiert.

Damit entwickeln sie neue Energietechnologien und helfen dabei, auf dem aktuellen Stand zu bleiben, so dass sie auch ohne Subventionen weiter wettbewerbsfähig bleiben... das ist so alarmierend, sagt Rhone Resch, der Präsident der Solar Energy Industries Association, dass die Vereinigten Staaten bereits einen Punkt erreicht haben, an dem die Prioritäten des Kongresses durch die Politik so verzerrt werden, „dass er der nächsten großen weltweiten Technologie den Rücken zukehrt" - einer sauberen Energie - „aber das ist genau das, was gerade passiert."

Während alle Präsidentschaftskandidaten über den Stellenverlust in Ohio fluchten, ies es niemandem aufgefallen, dass Amerikas wichtigstes Unternehmen für Solarenergie, First Solar aus Toledo in Ohio, die größte Fabrik in Ostdeutschland aufmacht - mit 540 gut bezahlten Stellen für Ingenieure.
Und das, weil es Deutschland gelungen ist, einen boomenden Solarmarkt aufzubauen und Amerika nicht. [In Deutschland und Japan gibt es Anreizprogramme über 20 bzw. 12 Jahre für Solarenergie - Anm. des am. Verfassers] 1997, sagt Resch, war Amerika mit einem 40%igen Anteil der weltweiten Produktion in der Solarenergietechnologie führend. „Im vergangenen Jahr machten wir weniger als 8% aus und auch davon bestand ein großer Teil aus der Produktion für die Märkte im Ausland.

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UpInArms (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-16-08 07:26 AM
Response to Original message 18. N.Y. Fed's private OTC actions under fire http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN15432607200...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve's closed-door rule making with top players in the massive $60 trillion credit default swaps market came under legal fire on Sunday, as a fair finance activist filed a complaint questioning why it was done in the dark.

"The Federal Reserve seems to think it can engage in rule making in secret only with the industry," said Matthew Lee, executive director of the New York-based non-profit group Inner City Press/Community on the Move.

Lee filed the administrative complaint on Sunday with both the New York Fed and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. In the complaint, he demanded that the central bankers explain why the meetings earlier this month were private and requested copies of all communications and details about the New York Fed-sponsored talks.

Officials at the Federal Reserve could not immediately be reached for comment.

The meetings were held with more than a dozen companies led by investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. :mad The companies -- which account for the bulk of business in the $60 trillion market -- met to help set new rules for credit default swaps trading, including the establishment of a clearinghouse.

Credit default swaps are privately negotiated transactions used by companies to hedge against default risks. Over the past decade, the market has grown exponentially, from about $1 trillion to $60 trillion.

Lee, referring to the Fed-led rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co, said, "It was one thing to bail out Bear Stearns without any comments from the public. Now the Fed is trying to bail out or benefit 17 of the largest financial institutions behind closed doors."

Citing the federal Administrative Procedures Act, he said it was illegal to have conducted the meetings.

...more...

16. Juni 2008, 15:18, NZZ Online

Spürbare Folgen der Überschwemmungen in Iowa

Ernteausfälle dürften die Nahrungsmittelkrise verschärfen



Die Cargill Mais-Fabrik am Ufer des Cedar-River. (Bild: Reuters)

Die Überschwemmungen im amerikanischen Teilstaat Iowa dürften Folgen haben, die über die USA hinausgehen. Beobachter rechnen damit, dass Ernte-Ausfälle bei Mais, Soja und Getreide die Nahrungsmittelkrise noch verschärfen dürften.

(ap) Die Überschwemmungen im Mittleren Westen der USA führen zu drastischen Ernte-Einbussen und könnten damit die weltweite Nahrungsmittelkrise noch verschärfen.

Bilderstrecke: Überschwemmungen in Iowa



Im amerikanischen Gliedstaat Iowa ist der frisch gepflanzte Mais überschwemmt, oder die Bauern haben noch gar nicht gesät, weil auf den Feldern zu viel Wasser steht. Doch die Zeit läuft. «Es sieht nicht gut aus. Es gibt noch Hoffnung, aber sie schwindet mit jedem neuen Regenguss», sagte ein Landwirtschaftsexperte der Universität Iowa.....

http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/panor...h_1.760725.html

axstone :verbeug

SUPER GOLD BULL

I had a hunch it was a bailout..
Lehman Brothers sack finance, operating chiefs

Posted by honey

:verbeug merci @Königswasser und @Edel Man (Goldseitenforum)



La Lettre Confidentielle de LEAP/E2020






GEAB N°26 is available! LEAP/E2020 Summer 2008 Alert – July-December 2008: The world plunges into the heart of the global systemic crisis


- Public announcement GEAB N°26 (Summer 2008 Special Edition - 31 pages!) -






On the occasion of this 26th – Summer 2008 Special – edition of the Global Europe Anticipation Bulletin, the LEAP/E2020 team has decided to launch an alert on the July-December 2008 period. Indeed, our team is now convinced that this period will consist for the whole world in a major plunge into the heart of the phase of impact of the global systemic crisis. The upcoming six months are in fact the core of the unfolding crisis. The troubles met in the past six months were mere harbingers.



US consumer confidence index (1978-05/2008) – Source: Briefing.com / Conference Board

In the next semester indeed, all the components of the crisis (financial, monetary, economic, strategic, social, political… ones) will converge at the height of their intensity (1). Avoiding to repeat a description of the various sequences already anticipated in the previous editions of the GEAB, our researchers have decided to describe the trends that will be at work in the world's main regions in the next six months. Therefore they analyse eight fundamental processes that will mark the next semester and affect decisively the years 2009-2010, i.e.:

1. A Dollar in distress (EUR 1 = USD 1.75 at the end of 2008): Panic-fear of a US currency and economy collapse eats into the American collective psyche

2. Global financial system: An impossible requirement – placing Washington under international trusteeship – provokes the system's break

3. European Union: The periphery sinks into the recession, the Eurozone only slows down

4. Asia: The « double whammy » inflation/export-collapse

5. Latin America: Difficulties increase but growth remains steady in most parts of the region, Mexico and Argentina in crisis

6. Arab world: Pro-Western regimes go adrift / 60 percent risk of socio-political explosion on Egypt-Morocco axis

7. Iran: 70 percent probability of an attack by October 2007 confirmed

8. Banks/Speculative bubbles: When bubbles collide

In parallel, LEAP/E2020 presents five strategic advices for the intention of central banks, governments and regulatory authorities, aimed at reducing and channelling the very bad consequences of the phase of impact of the crisis.

As to private investors, LEAP/E2020 develops in this 26th issue of the GEAB, a series of 8 operational advices for them to avoid committing fatal mistakes in the course of the next semester.

For this public announcement, LEAP/E2020 chose to present its anticipation on the upcoming break of the global financial system.



Global financial system: An impossible requirement – placing Washington under international trusteeship – provokes the system's break


Who owns the US debt? – Source: Fincher

Washington's decision to raise the bids for the return to a « strong Dollar », by compelling Ben Bernanke to intervene, bears the seeds of an acceleration of the global financial system's breaking process (2).

Ben Bernanke is indeed the last wall before the largest US currency and asset owners become fully aware of the fact that Washington no longer has the means of its monetary policy. What used to be a deliberate policy of currency drop (when it was decided to stop publishing M3 in March 2006, as announced by LEAP/E2020) in order to reduce the country's trade deficits and the real value (for themselves) of the their debt (labelled in Dollar), turned against its perpetrators entailing a major outflow (capital outflow, steadiness of trade deficits, soaring inflation...). The « Bernanke » card is the last « psychological » card Washington can play. The fact of using it proves that US leaders have reached the last limits of what they can do to hold back their partners into the system founded after 1945 and based on the US economy and currency (3).

In a few weeks time (after the next G8- and other organisations-meetings have taken place), when it will be confirmed that there is no way to stabilise the US currency (not to mention the eccentric idea of pushing it up) because the US economy is sinking always deeper into the recession and because the world is already filled with US Dollars no one knows what to do with, then the global financial system will burst out in various sub-systems trying to survive as much as they can before a new global financial equilibrium is found (4). As he is embarking on this road to nowhere, consciously or not, voluntarily or not, Ben Bernanke is signing the end of the current financial system. The return to a “strong Dollar” is a bit like the « liberation of Iraq » : wishful thinking turning into a nightmare.



The inverted pyramid of global liquidity - Sources: Bank of International Settlements / Independent Strategy

As a matter of fact, if Washington really intended to stabilise the Dollar or, more ambitiously, to push it up against the other currencies, there would only be one way (5), in two parts: raising significantly the Fed's interest rates, and lowering drastically the pace of money printing. But if the government decided to implement this type of policy, the US economy (both real and financial) stops dead a few weeks after : the real estate market falls to zero by lack of affordable credit and as a result of soaring interests on Adjustable Rate Mortgage loans, consumption becomes negative (i.e. shrinks back each month), corporate failures multiply exponentially, Wall Street collapses under the burden of innumerable debts and succumbs to the instantaneous implosion of the CDS market due to counterparties default...

Such a series of events, sure to happen if Washington implements a voluntary policy of dollar-rescue, is probably unacceptable by the US authorities. Therefore, apart from talking – and further self-discrediting – they cannot do anything. The method used in the past decades is no longer available: no one will accept to buy large amounts of Dollars in order to rescue the US currency if some voluntary policy (like the one described previously) is not implemented by Washington. As they will not do it, the rest of the world will draw its own conclusions: everyman for himself, knowing that from mid-August onward, as Beijing is relieved from the constraint of the Olympic Games, a large number of “tough” options (6), put on the back burner until the Games, will resurface (7).


http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-26-is...obal_a1800.html
http://www.leap2020.eu/index.php?action=&=

Pretzelnut Tipsy McDrinky's farewell tour is producing throngs of adoring fans.

Crowds often turn out in Britain for the farewell tours of famous American names and yesterday was no exception. Some 2,500 had gathered in Parliament Square hours before the big event was due to start, and there plenty of T-shirts and memorabilia on sale.
But despite non-stop chants of his name, the star of the show made no appearance in front of the crowds. The fact that the chants were "George Bush terrorist" and "Arrest George Bush" may have had something to do with it. Certainly the noise was loud enough to be heard above the polite conversation 200 yards away at 10 Downing Street.

The world absolutely LOVES him!

McCain touts energy conservation and oil exploration...
Hits Obama on windfall profits tax...


DRILL!!

USA Macro News sector headlines

US Senate vote blocks extending wind and solar energy tax breaks- in a 52-44 procedural vote that blocked closure of debate on the bill, Republicans blocked the tax break extension for the second more...

:mad

....alles wird teurer - wobei ich immer fand Bananen seien zu billig im Vergleich zu unseren Früchten :rolleyes

June 17, 2008
Shoppers set to count rising cost of bananas

Suzy Jagger in New York

Bananas have joined the ranks of dairy, meat and wheat products among foodstuffs whose prices are set to surge because of the sharp rise in fuel costs. Chiquita, one of the world’s biggest banana groups, said yesterday that the price of Britain’s most popular fruit had risen 36 per cent last month against the same period a year ago.

The company also said that it expected prices to continue to rise throughout the rest of the year, lifted by mounting fuel and fertiliser costs and adverse weather conditions in Central America.

To add to the gloom, Chiquita said that it had raised its forecast for the total cost of increased fuel and fertiliser by $200 million (£101.8 million) over the past four weeks. It expects additional costs of $265 million over the year as a whole. Shares in Chiquita yesterday fell by 28.63 per cent to $16.65......

...... Bananas are so integral to the British diet that the Office for National Statistics includes the fruit in the country’s inflationary basket of goods to help to calculate the cost of living. Britain imports the bulk of its bananas from the Windward Islands, Latin America and from a handful of plantations in West Africa......

full story: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/t...icle4151774.ece

@Eldo :verbeug

:rolleyes

...hier etwas ausführlicher ;)

Washington Fails Renewable Energy, Again
Carl Gutierrez, 06.17.08, 10:46 PM ET
Solar and wind energy stocks slipped in afternoon trading in New York after the U.S. Senate once again failed to pass tax breaks for the industry.

For the second time in a week, a Republican fillibuster prevented the Senate from taking up a tax bill that includes $17 billion worth of extensions of tax credits to help the private sector develop renewable energy sources. (See: " Congress Tries Again To Extend Solar Tax Credits")

"There is no serious opposition among the Republicans to the Democratic sponsored tax credits," said Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov. "The problem is the bill includes some unrelated provisions that Republicans do have a problem with.......

full story: http://www.forbes.com/2008/06/17/so...artner=yahootix

With a Modest Decline in Profit, Goldman Sachs Outshines Rivals Again :rolleyes

By LOUISE STORY
Published: June 18, 2008
Over the past year, one investment bank after another has let down Wall Street.....
......“Goldman earnings, not surprisingly :confused:rolleyes really stand out and shine relative to others’,” :rolleyes said Lauren Smith, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. “It’s really hard to find anything disappointing :rolleyes to be candid.”......
.......Any slip-up in profits in the coming year would cast doubt on the firm’s vaunted risk management, and some analysts are starting to look for more answers behind Goldman’s stellar numbers......(na hoffentlich wird da mal etwas hinterfragt :rolleyes)
......But Goldman’s prime brokerage business had a revenue increase of $425 million over the second quarter last year, a 33 percent increase. Goldman may have benefited from hedge funds that stopped using Bear Stearns’s brokerage services as well as from international growth.....:rolleyes:hihi

full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/b...gin&oref=slogin

...mit freundlichen Grüssen von Herrn Paulson & Co. :rolleyes

RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert


By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor
Last Updated: 1:23pm BST 18/06/2008

Have your say Read comments

The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks.

"A very nasty period is soon to be upon us - be prepared," said Bob Janjuah, the bank's credit strategist.

A report by the bank's research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as "all the chickens come home to roost" from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets.



RBS warning: Be prepared for a 'nasty' periodSuch a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century.....

full story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/18/cnrbs118.xml


:schwitz:nw ....wenn denn das alle gelesen haben :rolleyes

...jetzt auch auf deutsch :)

http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-26-ist-angekommen!-LEAP-E2020-Warnung-f%FCr-Juli-bis-Dezember-2008-Die-Schockwellen-der-Aufprallphase-der_a1824.html?PHPSESSID=65e081313bb24b7e3f72ab5b14dc5045

zuletzt aktualisiert: 17.06.2008 - 10:12

Nur Krippen werden ausgebaut

Staat spart drastisch bei der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe

Die "Süddeutsche Zeitung" berichtete unter Berufung auf Berechnungen des Deutschen Jugendinstituts (DJI), zwischen 2002 und 2006 sei in der klassischen Jugendarbeit fast ein Drittel des Personals eingespart worden. "Die kommunale Jugendarbeit droht zu verschwinden", sage DJI-Chef Thomas Rauschenbach dem Blatt.

Der Zeitung zufolge hatten deutsche Kinder- und Jugendheime im Jahr 2006 etwa sechs Prozent weniger Personal als noch vier Jahre zuvor. Für die Beratung und Betreuung von Familien, die Probleme bei er Kindererziehung haben, setzte der Staat 13 Prozent weniger Beschäftigte ein, obwohl die spektakulären Fälle von Kindstötungen in den vergangenen Jahren den Ruf nach früheren Interventionen ausgelöst hatten.

In Jugendämtern, denen der Gesetzgeber nach den bekannt gewordenen Kindstötungen neue Pflichten auferlegte, ging der Personaleinsatz um zwei Prozent zurück.

Rauschenbach kündigte an, wer wolle auf dem Kinder- und Jugendhilfetag, der am Mittwoch von Bundespräsident Horst Köhler eröffnet wird, davor warnen, die Sparmaßnahmen fortzusetzen. "Wenn Jugendliche ins rechtsextreme Lager abdriften, wenn sie gewalttätig werden, kann Schule allein das nicht korrigieren", sagte er. Klassische Jugendarbeit sei genauso nötig wie Hilfe und Beratung durch Sozialarbeiter.

http://www.rp-online.de/public/arti...stisch-ein.html

:rolleyes irgendwie kommt mir immer wieder die Doppelmoral hoch :Prost :bad

Jim Sinclair’s Commentary

A clearing account financed by the Fed? Sure, but a clearing house for items without standards - that is a joke.

The following is not a joke.

"Lee, referring to the Fed-led rescue of investment bank Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co, said, "It was one thing to bail out Bear Stearns without any comments from the public. Now the Fed is trying to bail out or benefit 17 of the largest financial institutions behind closed doors."

N.Y. Fed's private OTC actions under fire
Sun Jun 15, 2008 6:10pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The New York Federal Reserve's closed-door rule making with top players in the massive $60 trillion credit default swaps market came under legal fire on Sunday, as a fair finance activist filed a complaint questioning why it was done in the dark.

"The Federal Reserve seems to think it can engage in rule making in secret only with the industry," said Matthew Lee, executive director of the New York-based non-profit group Inner City Press/Community on the Move.

Lee filed the administrative complaint on Sunday with both the New York Fed and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. In the complaint, he demanded that the central bankers explain why the meetings earlier this month were private and requested copies of all communications and details about the New York Fed-sponsored talks.

Officials at the Federal Reserve could not immediately be reached for comment.

More…




.....The meetings were held with more than a dozen companies led by investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The companies -- which account for the bulk of business in the $60 trillion market -- met to help set new rules for credit default swaps trading, including the establishment of a clearinghouse.....es geht doch nichts über ein paar gute Freunde :bad Mr. Paulson lässt grüssen :rolleyes

June is Bustin’ Oil All Over!

Michael Fox
email: TheCulturedEconomist@yahoo.com
June 18, 2008

According to Rep Peter DeFazio (D-Or), the entity that owns the most oil in the United States right now is not ExxonMobil or Chevron or Valero: it’s Morgan Stanley. So what’s Morgan Stanley doing with all that oil? Speculating on the petrofraud bonanza.

The problems with the short-sightedness of this utterly stupid investment pattern are many:

1. The faster they ratchet up the cost of oil, and, in turn, the gasoline that comes from it, the faster the public will change its patterns of consumption, the demand will go down, and the bottom will fall out of the market. That is the most logical supply-and-demand scenario, which ends in Morgan Stanley left holding billions of dollars of lost equity on the oil futures contracts. Note that Ford, GM. and Toyota – so far – have shuttered factories building large SUVs and trucks (the behemoth Toyota Tundra got axed today), thus, even the opportunity to continue buying these gas guzzlers has begun to be eliminated. GM has already hybridized the most ostentatious gas sucker of them all – the Cadillac Escalade – thus more than doubling the city mileage of that vehicle.

2. There is no reason for oil prices to be what they are, because there is no shortage. If there were a shortage, there would be rationing and/or gas lines. We have been through genuine shortages, most recently in 1979. In 1979, the price of gasoline increased from 69¢/gallon to 99¢/gallon, while an OPEC embargo was keeping the flow to a trickle. That was an increase of 43%. With no embargo, why has gasoline gone up over 100% in the past year (it is roughly $5/gallon in Los Angeles today, and was less than $2.50/gallon a year ago)?

3. The curves of a bubble are predictable, and this one, as was discussed here last month in Blowing Bubbles, is following in the pattern of several previous bubbles. Only this bubble, according to the economists at Bloomberg happens to be exceeding the curve of the dot.com bubble, which, when it burst, caused a loss of SIX TRILLION DOLLARS. Let me repeat. This bubble exceeds that one.

4. The “Enron Exemption”, part of a commodities trading legislation written by former Senator Phil Gramm (now John McCain’s economics advisor), has enabled the kind of under-regulated commodities trading that is still happening in energy markets. Enron was a private company engaging in capitalism without ethics (remember those?); the devastation was limited to the energy consumers in California (38 million people) who had to empty their wallets to cool their homes during a blistering hot summer, and, ultimately, investors, employees and the auditing firm that oversaw the criminality. The present oil bubble is dearly costing every driver in North America, Europe and Asia, and will, upon bursting take down Morgan Stanley and several other large investment companies that are deeply invested in oil futures, and with them, millions of investors.

5. The Oil Ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and even the President of Iran have all said that there is no reason for the present trading price of oil. Well, they don’t get paid that price for most of the oil that is pumped from their soil (they are paid a fractional royalty), but they are, of course, making vulgar amounts of money from this bubble. They clearly, however, can see that the end result will be the reduction of demand, and after the inevitable price decline, they will suffer long-term.

6. As certain as I am about the forthcoming collapse of this bubble, is how certain I am that the price of gasoline will plummet after Labor Day (Sept. 1). The powers-that-be will want you to have forgotten the “pain at the pump” by Election Day. But you won’t forget. How could you? If you have any retirement savings or oil stocks, you will be broke. If you have a gas guzzling car it will have no resale value. And while the Fed may bail out still more investment houses (thus further devaluating the dollar) they will not bail you out. You won’t get a dime back.

http://www.321energy.com/editorials/fox/fox061808.html

des00s :verbeug
Silver Member+


Ex-Bear Stearns Fund Managers Arrested by FBI Agents (Update3)
This is huge. This sets an example to other managers/CEOs that there are consequences to the positive "spin" they are dishing out, as JS would put it...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...0OI&refer=home

Ex-Bear Stearns Fund Managers Arrested by FBI Agents (Update3)

By Patricia Hurtado and David Scheer


June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. former hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were arrested at their homes this morning over their roles in the collapse of hedge funds that ignited the subprime mortgage crisis last year.


Cioffi, 52, was taken into custody at his Tenafly, New Jersey, home and Matthew Tannin, 46, at his Manhattan apartment, said James Margolin, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office. He said they were to be taken to federal court in Brooklyn for a court appearance later today in connection with an indictment.


``The arrests are appropriate given the magnitude and the egregiousness of their alleged misconduct,'' said attorney Steven Caruso, who is representing investors in arbitration claims against the funds. Cioffi and Tannin engaged in a ``gross violation of the public trust.''


The charges would be the first from a federal investigation of possible fraud by banks and mortgage companies whose investments in subprime loans and securities plunged in value, causing losses that now total $396.6 billion. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may sue the two men as early as today, claiming they committed fraud by telling investors the hedge funds they managed were in good condition when in fact they knew otherwise, people with knowledge of the case said.

Cioffi's lawyer, Edward Little, declined to comment. A call to Tannin's lawyer, Nina Beattie, wasn't immediately returned.
Senior Portfolio Manager
Cioffi was a senior portfolio manager of the two funds that collapsed and Tannin served as his chief operating officer. The hedge funds invested almost all of their assets in subprime- mortgage-related securities. Their investment bets failed last June when prices for collateralized-debt obligations, called CDOs, linked to loans plummeted amid rising late payments by borrowers with poor credit histories or heavy debt.
U.S. prosecutors are focusing on an e-mail allegedly sent by the two suggesting that their funds were headed for trouble, four days before they told investors they were comfortable with their holdings, the Wall Street Journal reported today, citing people familiar with the situation.
Tannin allegedly e-mailed Cioffi saying that he was afraid that the market for bond securities they had invested in was ``toast,'' and suggested shutting the funds, the Journal said. The two have told colleagues that they quickly were convinced that Tannin's concerns were misplaced, according to the newspaper.
SEC spokesman John Nester declined to comment.
Merely the Start
Indictments against Cioffi and Tannin might be merely the start of other criminal and civil suits, said former prosecutor Robert Bunzel, who is now a white-collar criminal lawyer with Bartko, Zankel Tarrant & Miller in San Francisco.
``The floodgates could open,'' he said.
Cioffi left Bear Stearns in December amid government inquiries by prosecutors and the SEC into whether he withdrew $2 million from two funds before their collapse in July, three people with knowledge of the matter said at the time. He was relieved of his duties as a fund manager in June, when his funds' subprime mortgage investments began to unravel.
Since the failure of the two Bear Stearns hedge funds, investors claimed in lawsuits that banks and financial companies such as the New York-based securities firm knew their underlying investments weren't worth what they were telling shareholders.
`A New Chapter'
The indictments ``signal a new chapter in the subprime debacle,'' Bunzel said.
Investors in the two Bear funds, which filed for bankruptcy in July, lost $1.6 billion. Barclay's Bank PLC said in a lawsuit that the funds once held a total of about $20 billion in assets.
Cioffi allegedly pulled the $2 million of his own money, one third of the amount he'd invested in one of the funds, before March 2007, so he could commit it to another fund he set up, said a person familiar with the investigation. The withdrawal occurred before the funds ran into trouble, the person said.
CDOs are created by packaging assets including bonds and loans and using their income to pay investors. The securities are divided into different portions of varying risk and can offer higher returns than the debt on which they are based.
The two Bear Stearns funds are part of Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc. They were the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Master Fund Ltd. and the Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Master Fund Ltd.
Dropped in Value
As the securities dropped in value, the funds' creditors demanded more collateral. Bear Stearns extended $1.6 billion in credit to one of the funds before seizing its assets in July. Both funds filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks after the firm told investors they would get little if any money back.
The credit crunch led to lawsuits against other lenders including Countrywide Financial Corp., American Home Mortgage Investment Corp., Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Bear Stearns agreed to sell itself to New York-based JPMorgan in March after a run by clients and lenders threatened it with bankruptcy.
The hedge funds tried to liquidate in the Cayman Islands before a U.S. judge held that New York was a more appropriate jurisdiction, ruling they can't shield their U.S. assets from lawsuits.
Barclays, the U.K.'s third-biggest bank, claimed in its lawsuit, filed last year in federal court in New York, that it was misled about the health of the so-called enhanced fund.
Bear Stearns, Cioffi and Tannin are named as defendants in London-based Barclays suit. The British bank accused Cioffi of withdrawing his $2 million at the same time Bear Stearns persuaded Barclays to double its investment, according to the complaint.
February E-Mail
The suit cites a February e-mail to Barclays in which Tannin allegedly said the fund is ``having our best month ever'' and that our ``hedges are working beautifully.''
By then, the fund was having ``severe'' liquidity problems, said Barclays, which said it lost ``hundreds of millions of dollars,'' as a result. Internally, Cioffi and Tannin discussed the ``wipe out'' of the fund, according to the complaint.
Elizabeth Ventura, a spokeswoman for New York-based Bear Stearns, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
The Barclay's case is Barclay's Bank PLC v. Bear Stearns Asset Management Inc., 07-11400, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporters on this story: Patricia Hurtado in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn at pathurtado@bloomberg.net; David Scheer in New York at dscheer@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: June 19, 2008 09:41 EDT

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ist ja ok ...aber die wirklich echten Drahtzieher/Hintermänner kommen wohl wieder einmal ungestraft davon :grrrr

.

US military loses nuclear parts in fresh embarrassment: report

Thu Jun 19, 9:17 AM ET


LONDON (AFP) - The US military has lost hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components, in the latest embarrassment for The Pentagon, the Financial Times reported in its online version Thursday.


Citing US officials familiar with a Pentagon report, the British daily said the US Air Force could not account for many sensitive components previously in its nuclear inventory. One official put the number at over 1,000, it said.

The latest incident comes after blunders which saw live nuclear warheads transported over US skies, and an accidental shipment of nuclear triggers to Taiwan.

A senior official said the report had "identified issues about record keeping" for sensitive nuclear missile components. There was no suggestion they could have ended up in countries that should not have received them, he said.....

full story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2008061...ar_080619131724

Keepin' us safer! :bad

Arrest EVERYONE Involved In Bubble

June 19, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis


One of my favorite themes is to say, 'Arrest them all!' Well, over 400 people involved in the recent big fat, ugly bubble are now under arrest. But not the important criminals! Greenspan still hobnobs with war criminals like Kissinger and Bush, just for example. Arrest them! Arrest Bernanke for lying. After all, if a bunch of hedge fund hell hounds and pirates can be arrested for lying to investors, how about the top people in the banking system? I can prove they are all liars. They see the exact same numbers and the exact same news stories as I see! There is NO EXCUSE. They are not stupid nor demented. They are con men and should be arrested! Not to mention Congress and the President: all criminals on so many levels, it hurts to even think about it. And the media liars! Tonight, we revisit a number of stories I wrote during the first 'boggle' in the stock markets before the markets roared to a new high and then utterly collapsed. It pays to retrace our steps so we can see clearly that I could see clearly and ergo: these criminals knew perfectly well, what the hell was going on.


Ex-Bear Stearns Fund Managers Indicted for Fraud

Former Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were indicted for mail fraud and conspiracy in the first prosecution stemming from a federal investigation of last year's mortgage-market collapse. The two men were charged with misleading investors about the health of two Bear Stearns hedge funds whose implosion ignited the subprime mortgage crisis. Cioffi was also charged with insider trading in the indictment, which cites a series of e-mails between the two men. They both face as much as 20 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy, and Cioffi faces an additional 20-year term if found guilty of insider trading.

The U.S. government has been investigating possible fraud by banks and mortgage firms whose investments in subprime loans and securities plunged in value, causing losses that now total $396.6 billion. Cioffi and Tannin were also sued today by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

These are sacrificial animals. This is to tell the little con men not to overdo things when the big con men are at work undermining global banking systems and running things very deeply in the red while publicly lying about everything :mad I get up each day to make my weary way though the news and then tear into all the lies of the ruling elites. Are any of the real rulers being arrested tonight? HAHAHAHA. No. Just as the Real Rulers with toss the entire Jewish population onto the pitchforks of raging mobs, so it is with anyone who isn't sexually or socially very connected with the dominant Norman ruling elites. When the Dot Com scam collapsed, a few key people were tossed to the mobs to be rent to shreds. We got to see the chandeliers in the garages of the Enron executives in Texas. Some died, others committed suicide. Some went to jail. But did Greenspan go to jail? Bush?


Nope! They went onwards and upwards. They rang up $5 trillion in new public debt. They worked to create a second bubble that now is broken. And is now destroying our nation. Tonight, Congress is passing yet another stupid funding bill for our failed wars, another nearly-$200 billion we can't afford! And the debts are being sold to foreign powers that are very intent on destroying our nation and enslaving us. Arrest them! Arrest them all! HOW DARE THEY???? WE ARE GOING BANKRUPT!...........

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/money_matters/

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High

Wednesday, Jun. 18, 2008 By KATHLEEN KINGSBURY

As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town. School officials started looking into the matter as early as October after an unusual number of girls began filing into the school clinic to find out if they were pregnant. By May, several students had returned multiple times to get pregnancy tests, and on hearing the results, "some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Sullivan says. All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Then the story got worse. "We found out one of the fathers is a 24-year-old homeless guy," the principal says, shaking his head.

The question of what to do next has divided this fiercely Catholic enclave. Even with national data showing a 3% rise in teen pregnancies in 2006—the first increase in 15 years—Gloucester isn't sure it wants to provide easier access to birth control. In any case, many residents worry that the problem goes much deeper. The past decade has been difficult for this mostly white, mostly blue-collar city (pop. 30,000). In Gloucester, perched on scenic Cape Ann, the economy has always depended on a strong fishing industry. But in recent years, such jobs have all but disappeared overseas, and with them much of the community's wherewithal. "Families are broken," says school superintendent Christopher Farmer. "Many of our young people are growing up directionless.".......

....."They're so excited to finally have someone to love them unconditionally," Ireland says. "I try to explain it's hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m." .......

full story: http://www.time.com/time/world/arti...1815845,00.html

:schwitz ....die echten Beweggründe :confused

DU :verbeug .

UpInArms

Fri Jun-20-08 07:42 AM

Response to Original message 11. Woman charged with helping hedge fund manager flee - (Bayou Fund tied to Bush Cousin) http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN192571...

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities arrested on Thursday the girlfriend of fugitive former hedge fund manager Samuel Israel III, accusing her of helping to stage his suicide on the day he was to report to prison for fraud.

Debra Ryan confessed on Thursday to federal authorities that she helped Israel pack a recreational vehicle with his belongings and park it at a rest stop near a highway in New York on June 9, the day he went missing.

The details are contained in a three-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, that said Ryan "unlawfully, willfully and knowingly aided and abetted" Israel's failure to show up for prison.

Israel, who engineered the $2 trillion hedge fund industry's most brazen and long-running fraud, sparked a federal investigation after his GMC Envoy was found on a bridge above the Hudson River on June 9, its engine idling and the words "suicide is painless" etched in dust on its hood.

Authorities last week ruled out suicide and have issued a "wanted" posted for the balding 48-year-old co-founder of the Bayou Group, a Connecticut-based hedge fund. He pleaded guilty in 2005 and was sentenced in April for his role in a scheme to fabricate returns and cheat investors out of $450 million.

...more...

here's the connection:

Bayou and the Bush Cousin

A first cousin of President Bush is emerging as a peripheral player in the increasingly bizarre Bayou Management hedge fund scandal.

Sources say John P. Ellis, a former journalist turned investment banker, represented several companies in investment presentations to IM Partners, a side venture set up by Samuel Israel and Daniel Marino. Israel and Marino were the management team that ran Bayou and who federal prosecutors allege defrauded investors out of $300 million.

People familiar with the Bayou saga say Ellis, a personal friend of Israel for the past several years, helped arranged at least five investment deals for IM Partners while working as a managing director for GH Venture Partners, a New York City-based investment bank. In all, IM Partners, a Connecticut-based investment partnership, invested at least $25 million in deals handled by GH Venture.

<snip>

A former columnist for the Boston Globe, Ellis may be best known for his work as an electoral consultant for Fox News during the 2000 presidential election. It was Ellis' analysis of the Florida vote total that led Fox to declare Bush the victor before any of the other networks.

<snip>

IM Partners also invested $2 million in Debit Direct, another Isle of Man company with close ties to Kycos. Last year IM Partners and Marino, who is listed as the general partner of IM Partners, sued Debit Direct in federal court seeking the return of its money. The lawsuit is still pending.

It's believed that IM Partners stands for Israel Marino Partners.

...more...


......stinkt aber so ziemlich alles zum Himmel :rolleyes:mad