Puppet MastersS


Footprints

Banksters will keep on escaping justice until the politicians act

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© UnknownBank of England governor Mervyn King holds a scathing view of practices.
It shows how much party conference speeches matter to leaders that Ed Miliband and his advisers are already worrying about what he will say in the autumn - an event that lies three months in the future. His inner circle have been debating whether he should try out some new ideas or instead build on the theme that he launched from last year's conference platform when he talked about "producers versus predators". Thanks to the bankers, I suggest Mr Miliband need not agonise any further. The latest, multiple scandals to erupt from the moral cesspit of the City should help the Labour leader to the conclusion that there is plenty of mileage left in making the case for radical reform of how we do capitalism.

He may, mind, have to find a stronger word for the City than predatory. We already knew from the financial crisis that the banksters were greedy, reckless and incompetent. We already knew from their reluctance to account for themselves or change their behaviour that they were shameless. The latest mis-selling scandals confirm something else we already knew: that they fleece their customers. What has changed over the past few days is that we now have proof that they are also corrupt and fraudulent. The rigging of Libor, the key interest rate which is used to value contracts worth trillions and affects everything from home loans to credit card charges, has shocked those who thought they were beyond being shocked. Sir Mervyn King has long held a scathing view of modern banking culture, but even the governor of the Bank of England seemed staggered that they had fallen so low. Barclays and the other institutions involved in this particular fraud were not just practising casino capitalism. They were rigging the wheel, loading the dice and marking the cards. The "few bad apples" defence will not wash. Some 20 further banks, including several other big household names, are also under investigation for perpetrating this scam. This could only happen in a City in which cheating and deception have become institutionalised.

Newspaper

Banking scandal: our whole society has been warped by the City

George Osborne described the damning trail of emails that emerged from the bowels of Barclays last week, in which traders addressed each other as "big boy," and "dude," as they connived to fix the Libor rate, as "the epitaph to an age of irresponsibility". He would dearly like us to believe the comforting fiction that under the failed regulatory regime designed by Gordon Brown and Ed Balls, selfish bankers ran amok, wreaking havoc on the economy and society; but that since the credit crunch - and his own arrival in Downing Street - the culture in the Square Mile has changed.

Barclays boss Bob Diamond has sung from the same hymn sheet in recent months, insisting that far from being a rapacious, morally bankrupt monster, the bank is now a "good citizen".

Yet the Libor revelations were only the most recent of a string of scandals over the past weeks and months that have laid bare what Sir Mervyn King, capturing the public mood, has called "shoddy" and "deceitful" behaviour.

Chess

Germany Rejects Obama's Criticism in Euro Crisis

Obama
© APUS President Barack Obama has heaped criticism on Europe's handling of the euro crisis in recent weeks.
In a sign of tensions between Berlin and Washington, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said on Sunday that President Barack Obama should focus on cutting America's own budget deficit before advising Europe on how to tackle its debt problems.German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble rebuffed recent criticism of Germany's handling of the euro crisis from Barack Obama, telling the US president to get his own house in order before giving advice.

"Herr Obama should above all deal with the reduction of the American deficit. That is higher than that in the euro zone", he told German public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday night. It is easy to give advice to others, he added,

Obama, worried about the impact of the debt crisis on the global economy and financial markets -- and on his own prospects for re-election --has been urging Europe to step up its efforts to tackle the problem.

In the interview, Schäuble also reiterated his opposition to euro bonds, saying countries must remain individually liable for their public debt as long as they were taking sovereign decisions on how the money was being spent.

"If you spend the money from my account, you won't be frugal with the money," said the finance minister. He added that he was against devoting large sums of money -- for example from the European Central Bank -- to fight the crisis. The roots of the crisis needed to be fought credibly, he said, adding that that was succeeding in Ireland and Portugal, which have both received international bailouts. "It's not succeeding so well in Greece", he added.

Robot

New-tech moguls: the modern robber barons?

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© AP; GettyFrom left: Co-founders of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Chairman and CEO of Dell Michael Dell, Co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates, and Chairman and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg
Are today's captains of industry - the wealthy and powerful figures who control the digital universe - any different from the ruthless corporate figures of the past?

Here's an interesting fact: 10 of the people on Forbes magazine's tally of the world's 100 richest billionaires made their money from computer and/or network technology. At the top (second on the list) is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, whose net worth is estimated by Forbes at $61bn, despite the fact that he continues to try to give it away. Gates is followed by Larry Ellison, boss of Oracle, with $36bn, and Michael Bloomberg with $22bn. Larry Page and Sergey Brin - co-founders of Google - occupy joint 24th place with $18.7bn each. Jeff Bezos of Amazon is No 26 with $18.4bn while the newly enriched Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook sits at No 35 with £17.5bn. Michael Dell, founder of the eponymous computer manufacturer, is at No 41 with $15.9bn while Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, is three places lower on $15.7bn and Paul Allen - co-founder of Microsoft - brings up the rear at No 48 with a mere $14.2bn. Steve Jobs, who was worth about $9bn when he died, doesn't even figure.

What's striking about this is not just the staggering wealth that these people have managed to squeeze out of what are, after all, just binary digits (ones and zeros), but how recent are the origins of their good fortunes. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, went from zero to $17.5bn in less than eight years. Microsoft - the company that has propelled Gates, Ballmer and Allen into the Forbes pantheon - dates only from 1975. Oracle was founded in 1977. Bloomberg turned a $10m redundancy cheque from Salomon Brothers into his personal money-pump in 1982. Dell started making computers in his university dorm in 1984. Bezos launched Amazon with his own savings in 1995. Brin and Page turned their PhD research into a company called Google in 1998. And Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004.

Cult

Katie Holmes files for divorce from ardent Scientologist Tom Cruise

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Katie Holmes was scared she was turning 'into a robot' while with Tom Cruise.

The former Dawson's Creek actress - who has filed for divorce from the 'Rock of Ages' star after five years of marriage - felt like she had changed 'so much' in her time with Tom.

Sources close to the 33-year-old, who played innocent Joey in the popular teen drama, told friends she had found her relationship with the megastar, 49, had become 'too much' for her.

A source said: 'After five years of this Katie really felt like she was going crazy and that she was actually turning into the robot that the press had always made her out to be.

'Katie has actually got a great personality and she used to be spunky and feisty. She changed so much when she was with Tom, she became downtrodden and insipid.

'In the end it just got too much, she was sick of it and decided she had to do something. Basically, she grew up and lost the starstruck goggles she had been wearing.'

Katie is reportedly seeking full custody of their six-year-old daughter Suri after beginning to question her life with Tom and his control of their decision making.

Comment:



Arrow Up

Complaint Against New Zealand Govt for Crimes Against Humanity

The International Criminal Court - Processing Complaint Against The New Zealand Government for Crimes Against Humanity

Right to Life is pleased that the International Criminal Court [ICC] in The Hague has initiated a formal legal preliminary examination into a complaint against the New Zealand government for crimes against humanity. Right to Life welcomes the preliminary examination by the Prosecutor of the ICC and expects that it will encourage the government to comply with its obligations under international law and United Nations Conventions.This complaint was lodged with the Court by SavingDowns and Right to Life New Zealand. SavingDowns is an organised group of parents with children with Down syndrome. Their children are greatly loved and valued as members of their families and communities.

The complaint is in respect to the government's controversial ante-natal screening programme introduced nationally in February 2010. The Ministry of Health directed that doctors and midwives were obligated to offer screening to all pregnant women in New Zealand. One of the declared objective of this programme was to prevent the births of babies born in New Zealand with Down syndrome and other conditions such as Spina Bifida.. It was expected that the screening programme would result in up to 90 per cent of babies diagnosed in the womb with Down syndrome being killed before birth. This is eugenics that decrees that only the perfect may be born. It is a crime against humanity.

Human life begins at conception. At the moment of conception the new human being is endowed by its Creator with human rights, the foundation right being an inalienable right to life. From conception the unborn child is entitled to the respect and protection that is accorded to the human person. Unborn children diagnosed as having Down syndrome are members of the human family and do not forfeit their right to life because of a genetic condition. Right to Life calls upon the government to cease discrimination against the unborn with Down syndrome or other conditions.

Wolf

Are Mexicans about to vote for the return of the 'perfect dictatorship'?

After seven decades of rule, the PRI lost power 12 years ago. Now, under telegenic leader Peña Nieto, it is on its way back. But many still fear that none of the candidates can bring longed-for change to a country weary of violence

Mexican masks
© Esteban Felix/APMasks depicting Mexican presidential candidates and former presidents at a shop in Mexico City.
For weeks the sky over Mexico City has kept its inhabitants guessing - one moment it has been azure and sunny; the next an ominous grey vault of clouds belly full with rain. The downpours, when they come, whip flash floods across streets and topple trees.

"At my age you learn to be ready for anything," said Mario Rojas, 86, clutching an umbrella and tramping in rubber boots across Avenida Alvaro Obregón to his tailor's shop. He wasn't referring to the weather. "This vote, God knows what happens after."

Mexico elects a new president and congress on Sunday, after a fraught campaign that has shone a harsh light on its fledgling democracy. Whoever wins the keys to Los Pinos, the presidential mansion, will inherit a country as uncertain as its current weather and a people demoralised by the seemingly never-ending "war on drugs".

Bell

Syria conference leaves open Assad question

An international conference on Saturday accepted a U.N.-brokered peace plan for Syria, but left open the key question of whether the country's president could be part of a transitional government.

The U.S. backed away from insisting that the plan explicitly exclude President Bashar Assad from any role in a new Syrian government, hoping the concession would encourage Russia to put greater pressure on its longtime ally to end the violent crackdown that the opposition says has claimed over 14,000 lives.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insisted that Assad would still have to go, saying it is now "incumbent on Russia and China to show Assad the writing on the wall."

"There is a credible alternative to the Assad regime," she said. "What we have done here is to strip away the fiction that he and those with blood on their hands can stay in power."

Comment: The "credible alternative to the Assad regime" is clearly one postulated and created by Western Governments. "What [Western Governments] have done here is to" create in the minds of the Western World a fiction that Assad and his Government have blood on their hands.

CIA or Mossad Snipers Caught in Syria?
The U.S. & Syria: Facts you should know


Cult

France: Libel and lies in MIVILUDES' report denounced

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Georges Fenech, tripping on the cult of power. We'd suggest kidnapping and deprogramming HIM, except his type can't be changed into human.
HRWF (27.06.2012) - Russian Bishop Konstantin Bendas reacts to report about his visit to MIVILUDES in Paris

Georges Fenech, the president of MIVILUDES, convicted by the Paris Criminal Court

The Russian media dealing with religious issues have widely echoed the 1 June 2012 decision of the Paris Criminal Court convicting Georges Fenech, the president of MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combatting Cultic Deviances), for public defamation, as it can be seen hereafter.

Arrow Up

Stocks surge after agreement in eurozone

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© Brendan Mcdermid/ReutersTraders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Stocks surged Friday as investors cheered an agreement by European leaders to stabilize the region's banks, a pact that helped remove some of the uncertainty that has been plaguing markets.

The broad rally saw the Dow Jones industrial average tack on 278 points and chalk up its best day since June 6.

Still, for the quarter the broader stock market ended lower, down 3.3 percent, marking the first down quarter for the benchmark S&P 500-stock index in the last three after inconclusive Greek elections and concerns about the solvency of Spanish banks roiled financial markets around the world.

The S&P 500 is up 8.3 percent since the start of 2012.

Crucially, euro-zone leaders agreed that countries would be able to recapitalize banks directly without increasing a country's budget deficit.

Comment: Another sign money is being made from thin air: "countries would be able to recapitalize banks directly without increasing a country's budget deficit".

Think anyone will be coming along and Recapitalizing your savings or 401k plan any time soon? More evidence they are refilling the coffers to tear it down again. What have they done to help the poor and needy? Nil.

Another tidbit: "Brent and U.S. crude oil prices soared". When such things happen the prices at the pump rapidly soar, but when there are major reductions in crude oil, prices are very slow to go down. A sign there is little, if any, concern for (middle class-poor) people trying to make ends meet.