Gale Courey Toensing Indian Country Today Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:23 EDT
Handing big tobacco corporations a huge victory, the U.S. Senate has passed the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act - an act tribal leaders say is an attack on tribal sovereignty and economies that will devastate Indian tobacco businesses across the country.
The PACT Act passed by unanimous consent without a vote or a hearing late the evening of March 11. The act bans the shipment of cigarettes and certain tobacco products through the U.S. Postal Service, cutting off the only remaining delivery service for Indian retailers who do business through Internet sales. A few years ago, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who was ousted in a prostitution scandal, "persuaded" private carriers such as Federal Express and UPS to "voluntarily" stop shipping tobacco products.
A judge in Milan ordered banks JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Depfa, UBS and 13 people to stand trial for alleged fraud in the sale of derivative instruments, the prosecutor told AFP on Wednesday.
"JPMorgan, Depfa, Deutsche Bank and UBS have been ordered to stand trial for fraud along with 11 of their managers and two former Milan city officials," said Alfredo Robledo, a prosecutor at the Milan court.
The four banks allegedly hid the risks in the derivative financial products they sold to the city of Milan while restructuring its debt, promising that the products would save the city money.
John Perkins, author of Hoodwinked and Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, blames Iceland's economic collapse on the tactics of economic hitmen from multi-national corporations.
The world's five biggest AAA-rated states are all at risk of soaring debt costs and will have to implement austerity plans that threaten "social cohesion", according to a report on sovereign debt by Moody's.
The US rating agency said the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Spain are walking a tightrope as they try to bring public finances under control without nipping recovery in the bud. It warned of "substantial execution risk" in withdrawal of stimulus.
"Growth alone will not resolve an increasingly complicated debt equation. Preserving debt affordability at levels consistent with AAA ratings will invariably require fiscal adjustments of a magnitude that, in some cases, will test social cohesion," said Pierre Cailleteau, the chief author.
"We are not talking about revolution, but the severity of the crisis will force governments to make painful choices that expose weaknesses in society," he said.
Mortgage applications in the U.S. fell last week, led by a slump in purchases, a sign an extension of a tax credit for homebuyers has yet to spur demand.
The Mortgage Bankers Association's index decreased 1.9 percent in the week ended March 12. The Washington-based group's purchase gauge fell 2.3 percent, while its refinancing measure declined 1.7 percent.
The lack of demand even as borrowing costs dropped signals a sustained housing recovery will be slow to develop this year. Federal Reserve policy makers yesterday cited stagnant home construction, declines in commercial real estate and a lack of jobs as risks that continue to face the world's largest economy.
Six months ago, Deutsche Bank was overcome with concern about the planet - bless its soul - and launched this 70 ft. vision of climate doom opposite Madison Square Gardens, New York. You can feel relieved. The bank paid for the carbon credits (no doubt through one of its own funds), so the 40,960 low-energy light-emitting diodes are "carbon-neutral."
Kevin Parker for Deutsche Asset Management said: "We hope with this sign that it is going to foster a sense of urgency about the problem, raise public awareness, create a need for education and really spur a call for action"
Apparently, it's now news to the financial news media that Timothy Geithner and his CEO buddies on Wall Street deliberately defrauded the market - and the Treasury - of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Brasscheck TV has been pointing out massive fraud on Wall Street since Day One.
Now the "professional" journalists are catching up.
We don't deal in "conspiracy theories." It's the idiots in the news media and the idiots who accept their reports as reality who are living in a delusional fantasy land.
Petrol prices will reach record levels this year, according to research by the AA.
The organisation has warned unleaded fuel could soon cost £1.20 a litre or more and urged Chancellor Alistair Darling to delay the introduction of a planned 3p increase in petrol duty due to come in on April 1.
Zeitgeist Addendum YouTube Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:31 EDT
Comment: There's a deeper aspect to US involvement in Iraq involving Israel's regional designs. In many ways it could be said that the first stage to US corruption of other countries begins with Israel's corruption of the US:
Nelson D. Schwartz New York Times Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:39 EDT
When the Mayans envisioned the world coming to an end in 2012 - at least in the Hollywood telling - they didn't count junk bonds among the perils that would lead to worldwide disaster.
Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets.
With huge bills about to hit corporations and the federal government around the same time, the worry is that some companies will have trouble getting new loans, spurring defaults and a wave of bankruptcies.
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"The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty" Adlai E. Stevenson
"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle." Bill Moyers
"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." Simon Heffer in The Daily Mail, 7 June 2000
"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823
"A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.": Murray I. Gurfein
One of the shrewdest ways for human predators to conquer their stronger victims is to steadily convince them with propaganda that they're still free. N.A. Scott
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Yellow Journalism And Middle Eastern Wars