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How Banks Cheat Taxpayers

Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:28 UTC
Bond Certificate
© Buyenlarge/Getty Images
A Municipal Bond Certificate

A good friend of mine sent me a link to a small story last week, something that deserves a little attention, post-factum.

The Bloomberg piece is about J.P. Morgan Chase winning a bid to be the lead underwriter on a $400 million bond issue by the state of Massachusetts. Chase was up against Merrill for the bid and won the race with an offer of a 2.57% interest rate, beating Merrill's bid of 2.79. The difference in the bid saved the state of Massachusetts $880,000.

Afterward, Massachusetts state treasurer Steven Grossman breezily played up the benefits of a competitive bid. "There's always a certain amount of competition going on out there," Grossman said in a telephone interview yesterday. "That's good. We like competition."

Well ... so what, right? Two banks fight over the right to be the government's underwriter, one submits a more competitive bid, the taxpayer saves money, and everyone wins. That's the way it ought to be, correct?
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Dollar

Stocks slide on signs of jitters at European banks


Associated Press
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:25 UTC
Image
© Unknown
New York - Stocks fell Wednesday after Europe's central bank reported that its overnight deposits hit another record, the latest indication of worry among European lenders.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell [over] 100 points in morning trading, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell after five days of gains.

The European Central Bank said the continent's banks parked a record $590.72 billion overnight. That means those banks are unwilling to take the risk of lending to each other in the short term, opting to earn low interest rates from the ECB instead. The disclosure also hurt the euro, which fell 1 percent against the dollar, to $1.29.

The worrying news from the ECB overshadowed two successful auctions of Italian government debt. Italy was able to pay much lower borrowing rates than it did in auctions last month. The strong demand from investors raised hopes that Italy would be able to avoid sinking into a financial crisis, as smaller countries like Greece and Portugal have.
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Boat

U.S. Fifth Fleet says won't allow disruption in Hormuz

Joseph Logan
Reuters
Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:20 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The U.S.S. Enterprise and other 5th Fleet ships.
Dubai - The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it will not allow any disruption of traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran threatened to stop ships moving through the strategic oil route.

"The free flow of goods and services through the Strait of Hormuz is vital to regional and global prosperity," a spokesperson for the Bahrain-based fleet said in a written response to queries from Reuters about the possibility of Iran trying to close the waterway.

"Anyone who threatens to disrupt freedom of navigation in an international strait is clearly outside the community of nations; any disruption will not be tolerated."

Asked whether it was taking specific measures in response to the threat to close the Strait, the fleet said it "maintains a robust presence in the region to deter or counter destabilizing activities," without providing further detail.

Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Andrew Hammond; Editing by Louise Ireland

Comment: Slowly step by step, tensions are being built.

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Vader

Iraq War: Reaffirmation or the End of U.S. Exceptionalism?

Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez
Information Clearing House
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:24 UTC
soldiers/iraq
© usmilitary.com
In the United States, the most significant event of 2011 hands down should have been the withdrawal of the last U.S. troops from Iraq. But for most Americans, the end of this illegal and immoral war and occupation hardly registers a ripple.

The reason: the continued belief in American exceptionalism.

In the United States, only U.S. casualties matter. According to the Iraq Coalition Count, almost 4,500 U.S. soldiers perished during the war and slightly more than 32,000 U.S. soldiers were officially listed as wounded. No U.S. agency officially keeps track of Iraqi numbers.

Not counting "enemy" casualties seems to be the ultimate form of dehumanization (The non-governmental Iraq Body Count group officially lists between 104, 308 - 113,962 Iraqi documented deaths). That's the point of a war; dehumanize and demonize the enemy. No need to count them because they are not worthy of being identified or even acknowledged.
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USA

US: Better than Obama: Why the Establishment is Terrified of Ron Paul

David Lindorff
Information Clearing House
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:16 UTC
ron paul
© n/a
Ron Paul says he'd end the wars, end the drug "war" and "war" on terror, and respect the Bill of Rights. Who else would do that?

It's fascinating to watch the long knives coming out for Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, now that according to some mainstream polls he has become the front-running candidate in the Jan. 3 GOP caucus race in Iowa, and perhaps also in the first primary campaign in New Hampshire.

Remember, we're talking about a guy who has been in Congress on and off for 12 terms, dating back to 1976. His views have been pretty consistent, and because he has run for president several times, also pretty well known. A practicing physician who claims to have helped in the births of over 4000 babies in his career, the 76-year-old Paul is a free-market advocate, an abortion opponent, an uncompromising defender of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, an opponent of government regulation, the Federal Reserve and the IRS, and of big government in general--especially big federal government.

What's interesting is what he's being attacked for: being a racist, being "anti-Israel" and being an isolationist.
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Vader

How the US government will Justify Torture of US Citizens Under NDAA: Obama and the War Criminals


Activist Post
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 14:43 UTC
The Republicans and Democrats play for the same team. It is all window dressing to keep us divided cheering for our 'Red' team or our 'Blue' team when in reality, they are of the same cloth. There is no change. It is the same basic message only it is now delivered with a new eloquence. If we are to put our wedge issues aside and listen to our conscience to what is just, what is right and if we are to judge a tree by the fruit it bears we can clearly see that our government is rotting on the branch. The players of each team will never enact any accountability on each other. The people of this country must demand it.
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MIB

Unknown armed groups blow up pipeline in Syria


Press TV
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 06:00 UTC
Image

Smoke is seen coming up from a pipeline carrying oil from east to west Syria, which was blown up in the Soltaniyeh area near a refinery in the city of Homs on December 8, 2011.
Unknown armed groups have blown up a gas pipeline in the al-Rastan area near the western Syrian city of Homs, Press TV reports.

Following the explosion, clashes erupted between Syrian security forces and armed groups in Homs.

According to reports, a Lebanese and a Libyan national have been killed in the clashes.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of President Bashar al-Assad.

Hundreds of people, including security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

While the West and the Syrian opposition accuse the Syrian government of the killings, Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
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Star of David

Declassified FBI and CIA docs confirm Israel stole US uranium to build nukes in 1950s


Press TV
Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:57 UTC
Image

An aerial view of Israel's Dimona plutonium and uranium processing facility (file photo)
Newly-disclosed documents have revealed that the Israeli regime stole nuclear material from a US stockpile of enriched uranium to build Tel Aviv's first atomic weapons.

The Institute for Research on Middle Eastern Policy examined hundreds of newly-declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other agencies.

The study revealed that Israel used its intelligence operatives in the US as well as American Jews to infiltrate a US uranium stockpile between the 1950s and the 1960s and stole hundreds of kilograms of weapon-grade nuclear materials to manufacture its first atomic bombs.

After decades of Washington-imposed information blackout over the issue, the US Department of Energy finally confirmed in 2001 that 269 kilograms of uranium were stolen from the Numec nuclear facility in Apollo, Pennsylvania .
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MIB

British-Controlled Monajed Is Source Of All the Press Accounts of How Many Syrians Assad Supposedly Killed


Executive Intelligence Review
Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:43 UTC
Image

Ausama Monajed
As we have reported previously, the London-based "Syrian Human Rights Observatory" is the single source for all Western press accounts - including those of UN Human Rights Commission head Navi Pillay and Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon - of the numbers of Syrians supposedly killed by Assad every day. The "Syrian Observatory Committee for Human Rights" in turn gets these numbers from the London-based "Strategic Resource and Communications Center," headed by Syrian-born Ausama Monajed.

Who is Monajed? His background makes it clear that not only are these death-counts completely unverified, and not only do they come from the opposition itself, as columnist Phil Giraldi has noted, but that they probably originate from British Intelligence.

As was the case with the Libyan terrorists, LIFG, operating from Britain against the Qaddafi regime, Britain controls the Syrian, Ausama Monajed, head of the London-based Strategic Resource and Communications Center. Monajed, who provides the information to the western media about the "mayhem" committed by the Bashar al-Assad regime, wears many hats and is well-protected by British intelligence. He is a founder-member of the Syrian National Council, the group that is urging the Arab League to remove al-Assad, and Monajed is also a member of the London-based Syrian Observatory Committee for Human Rights.
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Pistol

Egypt to Try Israelis for Arms Trafficking


Press TV
Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:24 UTC
Egyptian authorities have charged two Israelis as well as a Ukrainian national with smuggling weapons into Egypt.
Image
© Press TV
Egyptian protesters, who demand an end to the rule of the junta, take cover and hurl stones at security forces.

Egypt's State Prosecutor said in a statement on Monday that the three would be put on trial in a security court usually used for terrorism cases. Although no date has yet been set for the trial.

According to the statement, the smuggled weapons were to be used in "illegal operations aimed to implicate Egyptian security."

In June, Egypt arrested an Israeli for spying during the revolution. The Israeli spy was later freed in a swap deal with Tel Aviv.
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