MooPig Financial Trends :: "Bank Subsidies"

Government Cheese
Re-fashioned by Pat Darnell | June 29, 2013 | Bryan TX

"This is a clear case of socialism for the rich, -- and rugged, you're-on-your-own individualism for everyone else." (Bernie Sanders)  [Picture/MEME from faceBook]

Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year? - Bloomberg: "So what if we told you that, by our calculations, the largest U.S. banks aren't really profitable at all? What if the billions of dollars they allegedly earn for their shareholders were almost entirely a gift from U.S. taxpayers?"

'via Blog this'

On television, in interviews and in meetings with investors, executives of the biggest U.S. banks -- notably JPMorgan Chase and Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon -- make the case that size is a competitive advantage. It helps them lower costs and vie for customers on an international scale. Limiting it, they warn, would impair profitability and weaken the country’s position in global finance.

In June 2011 Bernie Sanders and crew audited for the first time ever "from top to bottom" the Federal Reserve. It revealed that $16 trillion was provided by American banks, during the greatest economic failure since the Great Depression. The trillions were used to bail out "American and foreign, banks and businesses.

" ... Among the investigation's key findings is that the Fed unilaterally provided trillions of dollars in financial assistance to foreign banks and corporations from South Korea to Scotland, according to the GAO report. "No agency of the United States government should be allowed to bailout a foreign bank or corporation without the direct approval of Congress and the president," Sanders said. (Sanders, Bernie. June 21, 2011. LINK ) ... "

In Senator Sander's report from his web site it is implied that no one knows what the Federal Reserve System is, or how it does what it does; except for those employed by it. Those few executive yes men and women sitting at CEO positions at FRBNY, Federal Reserve Bank New York, and others are privy to secret information known only to the owners of the Federal Reserve Banks. Central Banks of Europe are included in this banking cartel.

For example:

"...the CEO of JP Morgan Chase served on the New York Fed's board of directors at the same time that his bank received more than $390 billion in financial assistance from the Fed. Moreover, JP Morgan Chase served as one of the clearing banks for the Fed's emergency lending programs. (Sanders, Bernie. June 21, 2011. LINK ) ... "

CONCLUSION
If the Federal Reserve Bank were a mouth, it would be chock full of cavities. Deep, dark, secret caves exist in our financial system.

"Neither bank executives nor shareholders have much incentive to change the situation. On the contrary, the financial industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars every election cycle on campaign donations and lobbying, much of which is aimed at maintaining the subsidy. The result is a bloated financial sector and recurring credit gluts. Left unchecked, the superbanks could ultimately require bailouts that exceed the government’s resources. Picture a meltdown in which the Treasury is helpless to step in as it did in 2008 and 2009. (By the Editors. Feb 20, 2013. LINK and LINK) ... "

NEXT WEEK ::  The Federal Reserve Act of 1913 is scheduled to expire at midnight December 31, 2013. It's renewal needs to be stopped.

__________________Reference
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-20/why-should-taxpayers-give-big-banks-83-billion-a-year-.html
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/GAO%20Fed%20Investigation.pdf
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/index.php

MooPig FWD Email :: "Criminalization of Us"

Re-grouped by Pat Darnell  |  Feb 20, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]

You Might be Committing a Felony at This Very Moment ... | Uncommon Wisdom Daily: "How many felonies have you committed today? The answer may surprise you. That’s because, if you’re like most Americans, you probably violate federal or state law several times each day — without even knowing it.

The “criminalization” of American law is nothing new. But most citizens don’t realize just how frequently their state and federal governments expand the list of activities that are considered criminal offenses.

But it’s not just adults being targeted. More recently, children attending public schools have been deemed criminals as well. Sounds absurd, right? Trust me, we haven’t even yet scratched the surface …"

'via Blog this'

Have You ‘Defaced a Hamburger’ Lately?

In Las Vegas, you can be thrown in jail for spilling a drink in a nightclub. That’s what happened to Justin O’Connell last summer. Apparently a bouncer watched O’Connell spill his drink and then asked him to leave. O’Connell then asked for his $30 cover charge back. The nightclub then called police, who escorted O’Connell to jail. He now faces criminal trespassing charges.

Here are some other criminal offenses in Las Vegas (and many other cities, for that matter):

• Sitting or lying down on public sidewalks in the downtown redevelopment district.
• 
  
• Buying drinks for more than three people within 24 hours.
• 
  
• Feeding the homeless in public. Incidentally, it’s also illegal to feed pigeons.
• 
  
• Pawning your dentures.
• 
  
• Defacing a hamburger, by leaving its contents anywhere in public.
• 
  
• Jaywalking.

We hope Warren Buffett enjoyed that hamburger … and properly disposed of it when he was done!

That’s the tip of the criminalization iceberg. Have you ever purchased sinus medication over the counter? Well, so did Diane Avera, a 45-year-old Mississippi grandmother. Now she faces a year in prison after being convicted of intent to manufacture amphetamine.

It’s a long story, but basically, Mississippi law requires a prescription to purchase pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in many sinus medications. To save time and aggravation, Avera drove to Alabama to purchase her medication, but got caught up in a sting operation.

It’s no wonder the United States has by far the world’s largest prison population per capita anywhere on earth. More people rot in local, county, state or federal prisons in the United States than in all other developed countries combined.

According to the World Prison Population List, Ninth Edition (2012): “More than 10.1 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pretrial detainees/remand prisoners or as sentenced prisoners.

Almost half of these are in the United States (2.29 million), Russia (0.81 million) or China (1.65 million sentenced prisoners) … “The U.S. has the highest prison population rate of 743 per 100,000 of its national population followed by Rwanda (595 per 100,000).”

Paraphrasing President Obama, “Yes we can … put you in prison!” Even more disturbingly, the criminalization of America is now creeping into high schools, junior high schools … and most recently, even kindergarten classes.

Last month, a 5-year-old boy (from Mississippi … again!) wound up in the back of a police car because he didn’t wear the right color shoes to class. His teacher told him he had to wear black shoes. Unfortunately, the little boy had no black shoes, and his mother apparently didn’t have the money to buy any. So she improvised. She used a marker to cover up his red-and-white tennis shoes. Unfortunately, she missed a couple of spots.

When the boy showed up at school the next day, his teacher called the cops. Shortly thereafter, police escorted him home in a police car and delivered a stern warning to his mother.

Apparently, this is “business as usual” in Mississippi.

Indeed, the U.S. Justice Department recently filed a lawsuit against officials in one Mississippi county for running what critics call a school-to-prison pipeline.

You’ll hopefully excuse me from making a couple observations: Anyone can inadvertently run afoul of America’s metastasizing network of criminal laws. Spilling a drink in a nightclub is hardly what anyone would consider a criminal offense. Neither is purchasing medication over-the-counter. Once you have a criminal record, especially a felony conviction, you’ll find it much more difficult to live outside the United States, or to acquire a second citizenship and passport.

Not to belabor the obvious, but if you have any interest at all in establishing a second nationality, don’t wait until some inadvertent slip-up results in an arrest and possible felony conviction.

Contact me today for more information about how to acquire a second passport, and keep your eye on this column for more ways that you can protect yourself and your wealth from ridiculous — but real — threats that continue to grow in number as your rights continue to dwindle.

Best,
Mark
Mark Nestmann is President of The Nestmann Group, Ltd., an international tax planning and wealth preservation consultancy. For nearly 30 years, he's made it his life's work to document the escalating threats to privacy and wealth, and devise original and fully legal strategies to protect his clients from them. His most recent book is “The Lifeboat Strategy,” which you can learn more about by following this link.

To sign up for Mark Nestmann's free blog and notification list, click here.


 ______________________________Reference
http://www.mindfully.org/Food/2007/Sharing-Food-Prohibitions15nov07a.htm
http://www.uncommonwisdomdaily.com/you-might-be-committing-a-felony-at-this-very-moment-15756?FIELD9=1
http://www.nestmann.com/the-lifeboat-strategy-to-financial-security/?affid=15
http://www.nestmann.com/signup

MooPig Economic Crisis Department :: "Filling Geithner's (Small) Shoes"

Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  Oct 22, 2012  |  Bryan TX  | Thanks to Pribek.net

[Picture LINK] ...Timmy Geithner Knows Diddly-Squat...

Our Economic Crisis is years -- no, decades -- in the making. Propaganda has been spewed about a "strong dollar" ... "trade partners" ... "why the costs of gold and silver rose..." and what does all the talk bring us?

For answers you have to research Tim Geithner's regime as Treasury Secretary. Ho-hum... boring... it's not about kittens and teenagers. No; it's more like a story about "if you can't screw it, or throw money at it, it isn't worth anything..." rhetoric.

Here's how that rhetoric goes:

" ... Unbowed by the dollar's recent weakness — it hit its lowest level since August 2008 Tuesday -- or record-setting gold and silver prices, Geithner reiterated a now familiar theme among policymakers: The dollar's strength during the "darkest moments" of the crisis is "very encouraging," he said, and shows investors "retain fundamental confidence in the ability of the U.S. to manage" its long-term budget issues. (Cohen, Dave. 04/27/2011. HERE) ... "

 Filling Geithner's (Small) Shoes: "In an economic crisis, the treasury secretary (tied with the Fed chairman) becomes the most important domestic public official after the president. Two huge and interconnected issues will face the next secretary: what to do about the still dysfunctional and largely unreformed banking system; and how to deal with the elite clamor for deficit reduction uber alles." (Robert Kuttner: 09/23/2012. HERE)

'via Blog this'


Timothy Geithner has said that he'll step down as Treasury Secretary at the end of Obama's first term. Assuming that Mitt Romney keeps self-destructing and Obama wins a second term, who should succeed him?

" ... Here are some people who might be taken seriously. I hope my comments don't spoil it for the relative good guys...

• Erskine Bowles.
• Jack Lew.
• Larry Fink
• Lael Brainard.
• Gene Sperling.
• Michael Barr.
• Laura Tyson.
• Daniel Tarullo.
• Gary Gensler.
• Ben Bernanke.
• Janet Yellen.
• Sheila Bair.
• Martin Gruenberg.
• Sarah Bloom Raskin.
• Barney Frank,
• James Galbraith,
• Damon Silvers
• Joseph Stiglitz, Brooksley Born, Phil Angelides.

" ... Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. This is a key appointment, folks. Should not be left to the usual suspects. Progressive community should be paying attention, big time. (Robert Kuttner: 09/23/2012. HERE) ..."


_____________________Reference
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/filling-geithners-small-s_b_1908111.html
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2011/04/timmy-geithner-knows-diddly-squat.html

Federal Government Unplugged -- Halleluja!

Military: Troops would remain on duty, receiving IOUs rather than paychecks.
Retrieved by Pat Darnell

[SOURCE]
" ... WASHINGTON - Social Security checks would still go out. So would tax payments and refunds for e-filed returns. Soldiers would remain on duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, and sailors off the coast of Libya. FBI agents would still work. Mail would be delivered.
Those are some of the services that would continue even if the federal government runs out of money at 9:01 p.m. Tucson time Friday with no agreement between Republicans and Democrats in Congress and the White House to extend the budget.
But much of the government would shut down.
Roughly 800,000 federal employees would be furloughed, including many civilian workers in the Defense Department, much of the White House staff, and at least some staff in Congress. National parks would close. Hand-mailed tax returns would go unopened. (Bodfield, Rhonda. Thursday, April 7, 2011. Copyright 2011 Arizona Daily Star. LINK ) ... "

*

*

*

Location; location; location

Olympic-like Re-locating Sites for The Federal Government: Hey!! Why not?

Uncle Sam Going Mobile

by Pat Darnell, Correspondent

20 Mar 08

I think the US Government would have a better chance of surviving the ensuing divisive nature of global politics. Open letter to the Comm-in-chief:

March 20, 2008

Dear Dubya:
"Please unplug DC on your way out. Please sell it to Disney. Then please have our great cities in different states sponsor the Federal Government in increments of eight years."

"It breaks my heart to see my Federal Capital looking so unfriendly. That style of centralized, fortified government locale has lost all its meaning and appeal. Besides, castle balustrade structure was all about ancient day rivaling feudal warlords who provided protection for local folk. We are the land of the free and home of the brave, still aren't we?"

"I strongly suggest the beauty that is our heritage Capitol in Washington DC would be preserved as an amusement and entertainment capital. It looks like a ghetto now. Maybe it could start earning afew bucks instead of sucking dollars into its gaping pie hole!"

Thank you for listening
Sincerely,
[add your name]

Or something like that.

Could we have a change of locale every eight years or so: like the Olympics. Salt Lake City for eight years, then to Fort Lauderdale for eight years, and so on? Why not? Hey even Las Vegas could house the gambling, horny legislators for a term or two. A mobile government is much less a target for terrorist style cheap shot tactics.

It would propel the various state economies into prosperity. Also, natural selection and various tribal-like rivalries, like football rivalries could crop up. We all know how prosperous our national sports programs are. This would naturally extinguish much of the waste of federal governmental bureaucracy. It would create natural attrition, just like Uncle Sam needs in this hour of seven-hundred battlefront lines world wide.

Hey, and also why not limit lame duck re-elected Presidents to only two more years, for a total of six years, in office. We wouldn't have to watch a president going around for the last two years in office looking for things to do. And the additional benefit is off-year Presidential elections. Isn't that exciting??

Faithful Reader -- Please add your two cents, or scents, to this one... [sense, pence, tuppence, coin, bank roll]
>>mpw/ pdarnell real estate correspondent