The Obama Deception

Originally posted by NuclearWinter
And yet still, the media says nothing about these things.

To be fair, only some people are interested in the details behind foreclosures.

I also don't think it's in the banks interests to flood the market and drive prices down. In fact it's counter intuitive and counter productive for them to do it. They're far better to trickle the houses back onto the market in order to get the maximum they can so they can pay back government loans.

Not to mention, although this is highly ironic, the banks can't sell the properties because hardly anyone can get a mortgage from the same banks who own the houses.

In the UK it probably wouldn't be a back thing to flood the market and drive down prices because they've been unsustainably and artificially high for 10 years. It might actually allow people to start buying again and kick start that section of the economy.

U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 640,000 Last Week

Bob Willis
Bloomberg
April 23, 2009

The number of Americans filing first-time applications for unemployment insurance rose last week to 640,000 as forecast, while total benefit rolls reached a record, indicating the labor market continues to deteriorate.

Initial jobless claims increased by 27,000 in the week that ended April 18, from a revised 613,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of people staying on jobless-benefit rolls rose by 93,000 to 6.14 million, the 12th straight week the figure has set a record.

Job losses may continue all year even as the longest recession in the postwar era shows signs of reaching a trough. The release indicates employment cuts may come close to topping 650,000 for a record fifth straight month in April because today’s report covers the week of the monthly payroll survey.

http://www.infowars.com/us-initial-jobless-claims-rose-to-640000-last-week/

I'd say the US has it a lot better than the UK. Our population is 1/5 of the US but out unemployment is between 1/3 and 1/2.

Originally posted by NuclearWinter
[B]U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Rose to 640,000 Last Week

Bob Willis
Bloomberg
April 23, 2009

The number of Americans filing first-time applications for unemployment insurance rose last week to 640,000 as forecast, while total benefit rolls reached a record, indicating the labor market continues to deteriorate.

Initial jobless claims increased by 27,000 in the week that ended April 18, from a revised 613,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The number of people staying on jobless-benefit rolls rose by 93,000 to 6.14 million, the 12th straight week the figure has set a record.

Job losses may continue all year even as the longest recession in the postwar era shows signs of reaching a trough. The release indicates employment cuts may come close to topping 650,000 for a record fifth straight month in April because today’s report covers the week of the monthly payroll survey.

http://www.infowars.com/us-initial-jobless-claims-rose-to-640000-last-week/ [/B]

unfortunately Obama is not just continuing what Bush got started,he's EXPANDING it.every president that gets in there whether they are a reprocrat or demopublican,is always worse than the previous one.

CFR Corporate Members Get Lion's Share of Bailout Funds

Written by Thomas R. Eddlem

Newspapers are fixated upon $160 million in bonuses given to American International Group (AIG) executives. And it’s nice to know where the millions are going (note: the bonuses could have been cancelled had the federal government let the company go bankrupt, as officials should have). But where are the trillions in TARP, TALC and Federal Reserve Bank bailout funds going?

The man in charge of administering the bailouts is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who served as a staff member of the New York City-based Council on Foreign Relations before being hired in 2003 to head the New York City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed). As the vice chairman of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, Geithner is probably a poor choice to get the nation out of it’s current economic mess. He served as Alan Greenspan’s number two man at the Fed, so Geithner is as responsible as anyone for facilitating the severity of the real estate and financial bubble and its subsequent collapse. After all, the Fed was the driving force behind the asset bubble, inflating the bubble larger and larger through artificially low interest rates and an inflationary easy-money policy.

Under Geithner and his predecessor (former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry “Hank” Paulson), the majority of bailout funds have been awarded to high-level donors to Geithner's former employer: the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Here’s a survey of TARP bailout awards to the CFR’s corporate members (there are a total of only a little more than 200 corporate members at all levels):

Among the “Founders,” those who give $100,000 or more to the CFR, can be found:

* American Express Company: $3.389 billion TARP
* Goldman Sachs: $10 billion TARP, plus a separate Federal Reserve bailout and more than $13 billion of the allotment to AIG
* Merrill Lynch: $45 billion through its corporate parent, Bank of America, which is also a CFR Premium corporate member, plus $6.8 billion of AIG’s bailout funds

“President’s Circle” CFR members ($60,000 or more) received the following bailout funds:

* American International Group (AIG): $182 billion in total TARP/TALF funds to date
* Citibank: $50 billion TARP
* Morgan Stanley: $10 billion TARP

Premium members ($30,000 or more to CFR):

* Bank of New York/Mellon Corporation: $3 billion TARP
* Freddie Mac: Sharing with Fannie Mae $1.25 trillion — that’s $1,250 billion — in mortgage securities being purchased from the Federal Reserve Bank
* Chrysler: $4 billion TARP, plus $1.5 billion TARP for Chrysler Financial
* JP Morgan Chase: $25 billion TARP
* CIT Group: $2.33 billion TARP

That’s a total of more than $1 trillion in bailout funds for CFR corporate members, easily the lion’s share of the total bailout funds awarded to date. CFR Membership seems to have its benefits, and then some.

So why is no one asking questions about why most of the funds are going to the former employers of our Treasury secretaries? Perhaps because many of the entities who should ask "why" are also CFR corporate members. Among the financial press, the CFR counts among its members Bloomberg, General Electric (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC), News Corporation (Fox, Fox Business), Standard and Poor's, ABC News, Time Warner (CNN, Time magazine, etc.), Moody's, and McGraw Hill (book publishers).

Somebody should ask the question why the same people who brought us this financial crisis are now bringing us the "cure," and why that cure necessarily involves financing former employers of the people making the decisions.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/economy/commentary-mainmenu-43/915

Bank Lending Keeps Dropping

Oxdown Gazette
April 22, 2009

This Wall Street Journal article confirms a milestone of what Krugman, Galbraith, Stiglitz, Prins and many others have been predicting. The TWELVE TRILLION that is being floated to insolvent US banks is essentially being looted in the paper economy. As Hugh has pointed out so often, it is not getting into the real economy and it will not be there when the paltry $787 billion in stimulus runs out in 2010.

For Wall Street Journal subscribers, the article contains a very helpful spread sheet sortable by TARP recipient.

"Bank Lending Keeps Dropping: Analysis of Treasury Data Paints Starker Picture Than Official Government Snapshots"

Lending at the biggest U.S. banks has fallen more sharply than realized, despite government efforts to pump billions of dollars into the financial sector.

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury Department data, the biggest recipients of taxpayer aid made or refinanced 23% less in new loans in February, the latest available data, than in October, the month the Treasury kicked off the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The total dollar amount of new loans declined in three of the four months the government has reported this data. All but three of the 19 largest TARP recipients with comparable data originated fewer loans in February than they did at the time they received federal infusions.

On a related matter, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has done a nice piece on Elizabeth Warren’s visit to Milwaukee on April 29.

"Is rescue of banks stabilizing economy? Panel seeks local input on U.S. fiscal efforts"

[...]The panel often criticizes TARP’s lack of transparency. Its chair, Harvard University law professor Elizabeth Warren, complains that the Treasury often blocks requests for information. "It is difficult for Congress and the American public to have confidence in an initiative for which so much money is at stake and so little key information is available," Warren told a congressional committee this month.

The stop in Milwaukee, scheduled at the UWM Student Union and open to the public, will be the panel’s third hearing outside the capital. It previously held public hearings near Las Vegas and Baltimore. Both of those, however, focused on home foreclosure issues.[...]

In my opinion it is critical that Ms. Warren receive a very strong showing of support. Lacking subpoena power, public support is the only leverage she and her panel have.

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/4863

Betrayal of the People By Wall Street, Banks, and Government

Bob Chapman
The International Forecaster
April 27, 2009

This past January, before the new president was inaugurated, in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the US and China, a conference was held by the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and the Kissinger Institute on China. Former President Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Brent Snowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski led the US delegation.

As the charlatan Timmy Geithner tells us, “Never before in modern times has so much of the world been simultaneously hit by a confluence of economic and financial turmoil such as we are living through.” No kidding Dick Tracy.

Mr. Brzezinski proposed at that conference that a US-China G-2 be formed. He stated a long list of international problems that China could help the US find solutions for, such as the global financial crisis, climate change, North Korean and Iranian nuclear ambitions, tension in India and Pakistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Behind Zbig’s proposals are his perpetual efforts to act to the disadvantage of Russia, so that a western power base can be built in Eastern Europe and down into the Middle East and over into West Asia. This is really what Iraq and Afghanistan are all about. He cited China’s rapid growth of the past 20 years and reminded China that it would have taken years longer without the expansion of US-China trade relations. He said there should be interdependence, yet relations still were those of unending US provocation and hostility.

On the other hand Larry Summers, Mr. Obama’s top economic advisor and director of the White House National Economic Council, has proposed a multilateral approach to deal with multilateral global economic problems that would involve a new grouping larger than the Group of Seven richest nations with advanced economies. This, of course, is in opposition to Brzezinski’s approach.

It looks like Summers has the upper hand at the moment, even though Brzezinski brought Mr. Obama to his present position.

China faces 30 million unemployed workers and inflation that will soon be close to 20% again. Demonstrations are widespread and often lead to violence and death. China, like the US and UK is taking the easy way out for the moment, but in time they will suffer hyperinflation and eventually deflationary depression. That will lead to a major challenge of Chinese Communist leadership.

Among that 30 million unemployed are bright college graduates who have been unable to find work for a year and they will be joined by 7 million more in 2009. Government expects 8% GDP growth in 2008 and 2009, and we see 6% at best. That represents a time bomb of civil disorder for the government. That would only produce six million new jobs each year leaving 20 million unemployed rural migrant laborers out of work for two years at least.

At the top of the heap are the party members that make large incomes and have access to large loans that do not really have to be repaid. The income disparity is enormous as are job opportunities. This has not gone unnoticed by the public, which displays simmering anger, particularly regarding massive corruption and illegal farmland seizures by private developers, who pay off party members to circumvent the law. Government believes things will work out fine, but we do not. One important problem is declining consumer spending that has been prevalent for ten years, which portends a slowing economy. High-income citizens invest and do not consume what they could and the poor cannot do anything other than to exist.

Zbigniew Brzezinski’s communist answer is for China to adapt a full employment objective and an income policy financed by sovereign credit in order to fund such a program. We find it of interest that he didn’t recommend using US dollars to finance such a project, but to go into debt to do so. Either that or demand payment for exports in yuan. That would, of course, make the yuan stronger and make Chinese goods for export more expensive, which would cut exports and GDP and put more people out of work.

The communists exercising power as a class of aristocracy want to maintain that position without revolution. They want peaceful rising global influence, but they have to remember how they came to power – by killing over 1 billion of their fellow citizens. The average still sees the blood on their hands. World deflationary depression will bring revolution to China and the destruction of communism; just as the Illuminati’s dream of world government will come to no good end.

The Congressional Budget Office, CBO, sees a fiscal deficit of 13% of GDP in 2009 and 10% in 2010, based on a strong recovery from stimulus and other massive spending. At that rate the ratio of government debt to GDP would be 80% by 2018. As a guideline we cite the eurozone Maastricht guideline of fiscal debt limits of 3% of GDP.

Financial history tells us fiscal and monetary profligacy brings about inflation - in today’s case, hyperinflation. Instead of purging the system and facing the music, governments worldwide are increasing money and credit at an exponential rate and lowering interest rates to zero. The outcome is guaranteed. Do not forget those sterilized ominous increases in commercial bank reserves sitting over at the Fed will be converted into faster money growth at a ratio of 10 to 1. M2 is already up 15% and M3, our original version, at about 18%. Do not think for one second that the Fed will reduce the excessive stock of money and credit. They can’t, because if they do the financial system will collapse.

It should be noted that many prime rated mortgage accounts of big hitters who haven’t made their mortgage payments for several months have not been contacted by their lenders – banks. The reason is upkeep, inventory and real estate taxes – all of which banks will have to assume if they take over the house. That means default rates are much higher than statistics show. These good loans now have a 50% default rate for subprime and ALT-A loans and prime loans will soon reach that level. We are seeing a complete looting of the system before they collapse it. Our corporate structure and are government are being run by crooks.

Regarding the stress test, it is apparent that most major banks won’t pass the test. They are insolvent and will have to be nationalized. It is no wonder the market was manipulated up to 8200 on the Dow, which was in anticipation of such news. This is a dire situation because banks will be forced to adhere to a higher fee structure. Banks will also have to set aside more funds to meet the requirements of the FDIC. The banks have no cushion for such legitimate demands. What are they going to do when the jumbo and prime loan defaults hit 50%?

Wells Fargo, as many others did committed fraud in their earnings statement. Wait until next quarter. They have 41% of their mortgages in California and 50% of their portfolio is in pay-option ARMs, which are entering a bulge period of resets and are widely considered to be the most toxic of the first lien mortgages.

As tax revenue plunges for all government entities, billions in additional debt will have to be funded. That means higher real interest rates.

The spending on unemployment insurance and other safety-net programs is rising exponentially as unemployment gets set to exceed 20%. Who pray tell will buy all this debt? The Fed, of course, as monetization flourishes. It is a nightmare as government spending has risen 33% in just six months.

Sadly and tragically we predicted all this chapter and verse. As the charlatan Timmy Geithner tells us, “Never before in modern times has so much of the world been simultaneously hit by a confluence of economic and financial turmoil such as we are living through.” No kidding Dick Tracy. Where were you nine years ago when we predicted all this? This guy is dumber than dumb. If you want to know who is to blame you need not go any further than our Illuminist banks and Wall Street.

Treasuries continue to sit on the 200 DMA and we have auctions for 2, 5 and 7-year paper coming next week. If that line is broken they’ll be lots of selling. If the offerings are larger than expected you can anticipate heavy Fed involvement in the market.

Large-scale layoffs rose again in March: 2,933 more mass layoffs of 50 or more workers. This brought the total number of people who lost their jobs in this manner to 299,388, the highest on a record that dates to 1995.

Since the recession officially began in December 2007 (it began in February 2007), layoffs now total 31,414 since the start of the recession.

In desperation GM wants to exchange $1 billion in bonds for common stock. If they cannot pay interest on bonds or redeem them what good is common stock? This is an attempt by derivative writers to avoid paying much more in credit default swaps. They will only have to wait 39 days to see what is going to happen.

The Federal government is now spending about double what they are collecting in taxes.

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis was told by Ben Bernanke and Hank Paulson to shut up about the “material adverse change,” that took place at Merrill Lynch before their merger. This is called strong-arm tactics in the underworld. Lewis was told if he did not follow orders his board would be disbanded and the management team would be fired. That is extortion as well. Lewis should have pulled the plug on this riff raff, but he didn’t have the guts to do so – what a wimp. He shafted the shareholders.

The bottom line now is BoA will be sued by every shareholder for accepting such a losing deal forced on them by government and for accepting this deal and not disclosing material information and lying.

There will now be a run on Bank of America because the liability is unpayable.

NY State AG Andrew Como has released a letter that will lead to lawsuits against BoA, Lewis, Bernanke and Paulson for fraud. The rats are trapped in a corner and are turning on each other.

The frugality trend has just begun, which will take us back to a lifestyle much like that of the 1940s and 1950s. the vast populace hasn’t gotten it yet. People do not view the current recession as a major economic phenomenon or as a major event. They believe government won’t let it happen, they will save us. They are incapable of thinking the unthinkable.

Unemployment of almost 20% is producing a downward spiral of negative growth. 85% of Americans have no clue as to what lies ahead. Until the system is purged there will be no recovery.

It will be interesting to see how little Timmy deals with Goldman Sachs’ TARP desertion. NYSE data shows Goldman traded 5 times as much volume for themselves compared to customer and agency orders in program trading. Huge short interest stocks were the largest market gainers and the cost to borrow shares to short have soared and it is almost impossible to get stock, because illegally the brokerage houses have called in share loans on financial stocks. How’s that for rigging the market?

New Rules Let Bank Increase Capital Reserves By $4 Billion: The increase could make a critical difference in the federal government’s evaluation of the company’s ability to withstand a deepening recession, accounting experts said.

After the FASB change, which allows banks to substitute their own judgment in some cases, Wells Fargo decided market prices were too low by more than $4 billion, and it returned that amount to its capital pool.

Something was curiously absent from Wells Fargo’s triumphant first-quarter earnings material: Any statement that the bank would try and quickly pay back government capital. 49% of Wells Fargo’s $119 billion of core home-equity loans are now on properties where the combined loan-to-value ratio is over 90%, up from 43% in the fourth quarter. With risks like these, don’t expect Wells Fargo to repay the taxpayers anytime soon.

The starkly different fates of the neighboring banks show how the U.S. government’s approach to dealing with the industry’s worst crisis in a generation has shifted. The decision to allow only one of the two banks to survive has fueled criticism that regulators are picking winners and losers, without disclosing their criteria for making the calls. That, in turn, has shaken the confidence of bankers and private investors trying to decide whether to wade into the troubled sector.

With spending on unemployment insurance and other safety- net programs rising, the deficit is already at a record $956.8 billion six months into the fiscal year. To help close that gap, the Treasury Department has more than quadrupled borrowing, pushing the government deeper into debt.

“Tax receipts are just collapsing,” said Chris Ahrens, head of interest-rate strategy at UBS Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut, one of 16 primary dealers required to bid at Treasury auctions. The need to sell more debt “is a big issue in the Treasury market and it is ongoing. The surging budget deficit is the primary cause.” The government will have to sell $2.4 trillion in new bills, notes and bonds in fiscal 2009, according to UBS.

When Warren Buffett speaks, it’s usually worth paying attention. This time, the Oracle of Omaha is voicing concerns about the ability of some battered local and state governments to pay off their debts.

The WSJ notes that hedge funds are competing with end-users for homes. This boosts home sales data but it is a distortion of reality because the homes are not moving into ‘end user’ hands.

The Fed monetized another $7B (3s & 4s) on Thursday. The Treasury auction $8B of TIPS. Who’s the patsy?

Morgan Stanley notes that with 40% of S&P 500 reporting earnings, 77% of non-financial companies have met or beat earnings expectations but only 28% have met or beat revenue expectations, Cost cutting is the theme for Q1. But as we have cautioned, cost cutting will be more difficult in coming quarters.

Gold is back above $900. Though most of the western world is ignoring the Taliban’s attempt to take over Pakistan and its nuclear arsenal, some people are acutely aware of the gravity of the situation.

The Fed’s balance sheet surged to $2.2 trillion due to its monetization of $94.5B in securities for the week ended on Wednesday. The Fed bought an astounding $75B of mortgage-backed securities (MBS).

Last month West Coast real estate rose 3.6% says CNBC, as foreclosures rose 80% in California.

As American citizens bailout the financial system we see bonuses being handed out to incompetents, who caused the problems – companies like Merrill Lynch and AIG should not be giving bonuses. Politicians have expressed outrage but nothing will be done about it. We have also found out government was complicit in the hiding of the Merrill Lynch bonuses. It shows you what kind of government and financial institutions we have. At any price fellow Illuminists have to be bailed out or falsely rewarded. At AIG alone derivative traders received $165 million in taxpayer funds. It is no coincidence that Senator Obama received $103,000 from AIG – his biggest campaign contribution. Treasury’s Tiny Tim Geithner engineered all this even when he was at the NY Fed. Then there are the bonuses for Fannie and Freddie employees who lost $100 billion. these were performance bonuses and did not have to be paid – government paid them anyway. Adding frosting to the cake, 12 of the TARP recipient companies owe millions of dollars in back taxes, out of 23. We wonder how much is owed by the other 450 companies?

There is no question that Wall Street, banking and government have betrayed the American people. The question is how long will it be before Americans forcibly take their government back? All 3 branches, Executive, Judicial and Legislative are controlled from behind the scenes by Illuminists.

We are all now paying for the sellout of Congress that began years ago. The main cogs in this horrible machine were the 1999 passed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which eliminated The Glass-Steagall Act and the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, both of which allowed Wall Street to run rampant.

http://www.infowars.com/betrayal-of-the-people-by-wall-street-banks-and-government/

Originally posted by jaden101
I'd say the US has it a lot better than the UK. Our population is 1/5 of the US but out unemployment is between 1/3 and 1/2.

WTF, didn't know the U.K. was doing that poorly.

230,000 at last count....Projected to do as high as 320,000 by next year.

on average, every job vacancy gets about 200 applicants. It's exceptionally tough.

Obama Supports Treaty Outlawing Gun Possession

As Lou Dobbs notes here, Obama is in favor of the ratifying CIFTA, the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms. On its face, the treaty sounds reasonable because it would “prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials” (emphasis added). However, upon reading the bill we discover the following:

Stressing the need, in peace processes and post-conflict situations, to achieve effective control of firearms, ammunition, explosives, and other related materials in order to prevent their entry into the illicit market.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9X2VbhSH9o&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2Fobama-supports-treaty-outlawing-gun-possession%2F&feature=player_embedded

Obama has promised Mexican President Felipe Calderon that he would urge the Senate to take up CIFTA. He is doing this under the cover of the drug cartel violence in Mexico. Obama and Calderon quoted a statistic echoed by the corporate media that 90% of the weapons seized in Mexican raids were purchased from U.S. gun shops and a reason why the U.S. needs to ratify this treaty. In fact, this is a lie — only a mere 17% of guns found at Mexico crime scenes have been traced to the U.S.

CIFTA would bury the Second Amendment under “pertinent resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly.” It would criminalize ammunition reloading (defined as explosives manufacture) and gun assembly (including firearm kits and presumably breaking down weapons for cleaning or transport).

Language contained in the CIFTA treaty insists it respects “the principles of sovereignty, nonintervention, and the juridical equality of states.” Not mentioned is the fact the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties has a superior rank to national laws. If the CIFTA treaty is ratified without exception, it would kill U.S. sovereignty and lead the way to destroying the Second Amendment.

It should be noted that only the Senate needs to ratify the treaty. Article II, section 2, of the Constitution states that the president “shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.”

The United States was one of the first signatories to CIFTA in November, 1997. The Convention was transmitted to the Senate in June 1998 and to this day awaits the Senate’s advice and consent. 29 of the 34 OAS member states have ratified CIFTA. Only the US, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and St. Vincent & Grenadines have yet to do so.

http://www.infowars.com/obama-supports-treaty-outlawing-gun-possession/

Rep. Weiner: Do We Give Obama an Internet On-Off Switch?

C-Span
May 3, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rDEw3uSK54&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2Frep-weiner-do-we-give-obama-an-internet-on-off-switch%2F&feature=player_embedded

Obama Pushing Treaty To Ban Reloading

Remember CANDIDATE Barack Obama? The guy who “wasn’t going to take away our guns”?

Well, guess what?

Less than 100 days into his administration, he’s never met a gun he didn’t hate.

Obama went to Mexico, whined about the United States, and bemoaned (before the whole world) the fact that he didn’t have the political power to take away our semi-automatics. Nevertheless, that didn’t keep him from pushing additional restrictions on American gun owners.

It’s called the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials. To be sure, this imponderable title masks a really nasty piece of work.

First of all, when the treaty purports to ban the “illicit” manufacture of firearms, what does that mean?

1. “Illicit manufacturing” of firearms is defined as “assembly of firearms [or] ammunition … without a license….”

Hence, reloading ammunition — or putting together a lawful firearm from a kit — is clearly “illicit manufacturing.”

Modifying a firearm in any way would surely be “illicit manufacturing.” And, while it would be a stretch, assembling a firearm after cleaning it could, in any plain reading of the words, come within the screwy definition of “illicit manufacturing.”

2. “Firearm” has a similarly questionable definition.

“[A]ny other weapon” is a “firearm,” according to the treaty — and the term “weapon” is nowhere defined.

So, is a BB gun a “firearm”? Probably.

A toy gun? Possibly.

A pistol grip or firing pin? Probably. And who knows what else.

If these provisions (and others) become the law of the land, the Obama administration could have a heyday in enforcing them. Consider some of the other provisions in the treaty:

* Banning reloading. In Article IV of the treaty, countries commit to adopting “necessary legislative or other measures” to criminalize illicit manufacturing and trafficking in firearms.

Remember that “illicit manufacturing” includes reloading and modifying or assembling a firearm in any way. This would mean that the Obama administration could promulgate regulations banning reloading on the basis of this treaty — just as it is currently circumventing Congress to write legislation taxing greenhouse gases.

* Banning gun clubs. Article IV goes on to state that the criminalized acts should include “association or conspiracy” in connection with said offenses — which is arguably a term broad enough to allow, by regulation, the criminalization of entire pro-gun organizations or gun clubs, based on the facilities which they provide their membership.

* Extraditing US gun dealers. Article V requires each party to “adopt such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over the offenses it has established in accordance with this Convention” under a variety of circumstances.

We know that Mexico is blaming U.S. gun dealers for the fact that its streets are flowing with blood. And we know it is possible for Mexico to define offenses “committed in its territory” in a very broad way. And we know that we have an extradition obligation under Article XIX of the proposed treaty. So we know that Mexico could try to use the treaty to demand to extradition of American gun dealers.

Under Article XXIX, if Mexico demands the extradition of a lawful American gun dealer, the U.S. would be required to resolve the dispute through “other means of peaceful settlement.”

Does anyone want to risk twenty years in a sweltering Mexican jail on the proposition that the Obama administration would apply this provision in a pro-gun manner?

* Microstamping. Article VI requires “appropriate markings” on firearms. And, it is not inconceivable that this provision could be used to require microstamping of firearms and/or ammunition — a requirement which is clearly intended to impose specifications which are not technologically possible or which are possible only at a prohibitively expensive cost.

* Gun registration. Article XI requires the maintenance of any records, for a “reasonable time,” that the government determines to be necessary to trace firearms. This provision would almost certainly repeal portions of McClure-Volkmer and could arguably be used to require a national registry or database.

------------------

ACTION: Write your Senators and urge them to oppose the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials.

http://gunowners.org/a042109.htm

Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress

Sen. Dick Durbin, on a local Chicago radio station, blurted out an obvious truth about Congress that, despite being blindingly obvious, is rarely spoken: "And the banks — hard to believe in a time when we’re facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created — are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place." The blunt acknowledgment that the same banks that caused the financial crisis "own" the U.S. Congress — according to one of that institution’s most powerful members — demonstrates just how extreme this institutional corruption is.

The ownership of the federal government by banks and other large corporations is effectuated in literally countless ways, none more effective than the endless and increasingly sleazy overlap between government and corporate officials. Here is just one random item announcing a couple of standard personnel moves:

Goldman Sachs' new top lobbyist was recently the top staffer to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., on the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Frank. Michael Paese, a registered lobbyist for the Securities Industries and Financial Markets Association since he left Frank's committee in September, will join Goldman as director of government affairs, a role held last year by former Tom Daschle intimate, Mark Patterson, now the chief of staff at the Treasury Department. This is not Paese's first swing through the Wall Street-Congress revolving door: he previously worked at JP Morgan and Mercantile Bankshares, and in between served as senior minority counsel at the Financial Services Committee.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/30/ownership/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/29/dick-durbin-banks-frankly_n_193010.html

Economy on the Ropes

MIKE WHITNEY
Counterpunch
Saturday, May 2, 2009

The economy continued to shrink in the first quarter of 2009 at an annual pace of 6.1 percent, making it the worst recession in more than 50 years. Gross Domestic Product slipped into negative territory from January to March for back-to-back quarters of negative 6 per cent growth. The news of falling GDP was preceded on Tuesday by a dismal housing report which showed that housing prices have continued their historic downward plunge with only modest slowing in the tempo of doom. Since their peak in July 2006, housing prices have dropped 31 per cent, falling 18.6 per cent in the last year alone. The rate of decline has decelerated slightly but — on their present trajectory — prices are on target to tumble 45 to 50 per cent from their 2006 highs. Another 20 per cent loss in home equity means another $4 trillion loss for US homeowners.

The news on the employment front is equally bleak. In the week ending April 25, initial jobless claims increased by another 631,000, bringing the 4-week moving average to 637,000. Ongoing unemployment claims are now at 6.27 million, an all time record.

According to the Associated Press:“Unemployment rates rose in all of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas for the third straight month in March… The Labor Department reported Wednesday all 372 metropolitan areas tracked saw jobless rates move higher last month from a year earlier.”

Consumer spending also fell more than forecast, with purchases decreasing 0.2 per cent in March and wages and benefits rising at the slowest pace in three decades.

GDP is falling, unemployment is soaring and business and residential investment are at their nadir. Even so, the stock market has continued its seven-week surge, on signs that the market may be bottoming.

Although the bad news continues to mount, Northern Trust economists Asha Bangalore and Paul Kasriel have issued a report “US Economic and Interest Rate Outlook” asserting that the worst is over and that the huge quarterly contractions to GDP should gradually improve ending in positive growth by the forth quarter of this year. Kasriel is a first-rate economist and his work should be taken seriously. Still, whether there is a uptick in business activity in the near-term or not, deeper economic problems persist. There is no doubt, however, that Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s massive injections of liquidity have had an effect on stabilizing the financial system and reviving the sluggish economy. The Fed chief has committed or loaned $13 trillion in public funds to avoid an impending disaster and to restart speculation in the equities markets.

Barron’s Randall W. Forsyth provides an original account of Bernanke’s intervention:

“The Federal Reserve has been roundly castigated in some quarters — even former high officials of the central bank — for its aggressive and unprecedented steps to combat the credit crisis. But data just released by the Bank for International Settlements suggest that, if anything, the expansionary measures taken by the Fed (and in concert with the Treasury) were dwarfed by the record contraction in the global banking system brought on by the crisis. According to the BIS, which acts as a central bank for central banks, total bank claims shrank by $1.8 trillion in the fourth quarter, or 5.4 per cent, to $31 trillion. This was the largest decline ever recorded.

“In other words, there never has been a global run on the banking system such as was seen in the final three months of 2008, which followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the near-collapse of American International Group in September. The numbers serve to confirm the extent of the tsunami the swept through the world’s financial system….

…Unlike in the 1930s, when central banks actually aided and abetted the collapse of the banking system, today’s leaders responded to the unprecedented crisis in the fourth quarter with equally unprecedented force…..

“To be sure, banks, including the I-banks, have benefited from the actions of the Fed and the Treasury. But that is separate from the question of the macroeconomic impact of their actions.

“Those who contend that the expansion of central bank balance sheets is inflationary ignore the contraction of balance sheets in the banking system, as well as the so-called shadow banking system of assets and liabilities not recorded on banks’ books. …The new BIS data bear out the justification for the Fed’s actions, notwithstanding the critics’ claims.” (”Fed Fights a Record Global Bank Run”, Randall W. Forsyth, Barrons)

While Bernanke may have avoided a global bank-run, the bleeding continues in housing, business investment, manufacturing, industrial capacity, and global trade. Every sector is falling precipitously with no end in sight. Even worse, nothing has been done to remove the trillion dollars of toxic assets from the banks’ balance sheets which is causing credit to tighten even more.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has failed to take advantage of the uptick in investor confidence to resolve the problem of underwater banks. Instead, he has stubbornly stuck with his Public Private Investment Program (PPIP) which has made less than $6 billion in transactions so far. Unless the banks are restored to health and their balance sheets repaired, a sustainable recovery will not be possible. According to Bloomberg, 6 of the 19 largest banks (which contain 75 per cent of the system’s total assets) are insufficiently capitalized.

Geithner continues to nibble at the edges, using unreliable accounting maneuvers instead of addressing the problem head-on and forcing a debt-to-equity swap that would recapitalize the banks by giving bond holders a haircut. Geithner thinks that if he stalls long enough, the rotten assets will regain their original value and the banks will be fine. He’s ignoring the fact that many of the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are collateralized with fraudulent loans to borrowers who have no way of paying the money back. The losses need to be accounted for and written down while there’s still a glimmer of optimism in the market. The IMF believes that the losses on securitized assets may reach $4 trillion by the end of 2010 and that banks will be on the hook for roughly 61 per cent of the writedowns. Nonperforming loans at the big banks are skyrocketing. “Bank of America Corp. bad assets increasing 229 percent to $25.7 billion. Problem assets at New York-based Citigroup Inc. rose 128 percent to $27.4 billion, and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co.’s jumped 180 percent to $12.6 billion.” (Bloomberg)

There’s no way to sweep losses of this magnitude under the rug.

In an article in the Financial Times, economics editor Martin Wolf fleshes-out the projected costs of the financial system bailout:

“These are not the only sums required. Governments have so far provided up to $8,900bn in financing for banks, via lending facilities, asset purchase schemes and guarantees. But this is less than a third of their financing needs. On the assumption that deposits grow in line with nominal GDP, the IMF estimates that the “refinancing gap” of the banks – the rollover of short-term wholesale funding, plus maturing long-term debt – will rise from $20,700bn in late 2008 to $25,600bn in late 2011, or a little over 60 per cent of their total assets. This looks like a recipe for huge shrinkage in balance sheets. Moreover, even these sums ignore the disappearance of securitized lending via the so-called “shadow banking system”, which was particularly important in the US.” (Fixing bankrupt systems is just the beginning”, Martin Wolf, Financial Times)

Fixing the banking system will be a continual drain on public resources ensuring that any rebound will be slow and any recovery weak. Even if the equities markets show signs of life, the real economy will stumble listlessly from one quarter to the next unable to make up the losses from unemployment and under-consumption. Working people will feel as if they are in the grips of another Great Depression whether GDP shows marginal gains or not. Housing prices will stay flat for a decade or more, plundered 401ks will force older workers to stay on at their jobs longer than they planned, and reduced credit-availability will force consumers to set aside more of their wages in savings accounts. 10 per cent unemployment and 10 per cent personal savings is the nightmare scenario that economists dread. The 10-10 combo will send the economy into a deflationary tailspin regardless of “green shoots” in the stock market or other fleeting intimations of hope. In a bifurcated system, where most of the public resources go to the banks and investor class, the underlying economy is bound to slip into severe inertia. The Fed has become the guarantor of investor class entitlement while the working stiff gets table-scraps.

This is from an article “Income Gaps hit record levels in 2006, new data show”:

”New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation’s after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths of households had smaller shares, than in any year since 1979, the first year the CBO data cover. As a result, the gaps in after-tax incomes between households in the top 1 percent and those in the middle and bottom fifths were the widest on record.

“Taken together with prior research, the new data suggest greater income concentration at the top than at any time since 1929.”

Among the CBO’s findings was that “The average after-tax income of the top 1 percent of the population more than tripled, from $337,000 to over $1.2 million. (An increase 256 per cent) while “The average after-tax income of the poorest fifth of the population rose only from $14,900 to $16,500″ (an increase of 11 per cent.)

The CBO shows that the same inequality thrives in the tax system which is blatantly regressive: “Households in the bottom fifth of the income spectrum received tax cuts averaging $20″ whereas “within the top 1 percent, those with incomes exceeding $1 million received tax cuts averaging $118,000.” (”New data show the rich-poor gap tripled between 1979 and 2006.” Center on Budget and Policy priorities, Arlen Sherman)

Growing inequality–now more flagrant than ever given the government bailouts and preferential treatment of financial institutions–is feeding an anger which is spreading across America. Timothy Geithner has become the face of a thoroughly corrupted system run by money-grubbing speculators, avaricious banksters and shyster fund managers. He has become a lightening-rod for all manner of criticism which should be directed at the inherent flaws of a system which provides obscene riches to crafty tycoons and securities fraudsters while the people who shine the rich folks’ limos or build their homes find themselves perusing the want ads the end of an unemployment line.

The real economy is sinking fast and, with it, any hope for a quick recovery. Policymakers are completely at a loss. The public knows that things are worse than they are being told.

http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney05012009.html

International Monetary Fund Slowly Taking Over as Global Economic Regulator and Banker

Washington’s Blog
Saturday, May 2, 2009

AP writes:

The Group of 20 countries have made the [IMF] the linchpin in their efforts to combat the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090425/ap_on_an/us_imf_to_the_rescue_analysis

The Washington Post notes:

Global financial chiefs agreed yesterday to reshape the International Monetary Fund, moving to broaden its mission …

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/25/AR2009042502769.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR

The IMF, which in recent years had become largely an advisory body to nations in crisis, will now be charged with aggressive monitoring of the global economy. Underscoring that role, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said yesterday that Washington had consented to a rigorous IMF review of the U.S. financial system for the first time since the fund was created at the end of World War II.

(Actually, the IMF began the review last year - under the condition that the results not be released until Bush was out of office).
So the IMF appears to have become the world’s global financial cop.

The IMF will also, apparently, sell treasury-like bonds to raise money for loans it makes to ailing countries. This ties into statements some time ago by an economist that investors would eventually buy IMF bonds as a safe-haven investment, thus quickening the shift away from the dollar and American treasuries as reserve currency and safe-haven investments.

As previously noted, the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights currency may replace the dollar as world reserve currency.

Indeed, the Telegraph’s lead financial writer Ambrose Evans-Pritchard argues that “the world is a step closer to a global currency, backed by a global central bank, running monetary policy for all humanity.”

http://www.georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/05/international-monetary-fund-imf-is.html

Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, May 6, 2009

On the eve of the 2009 Bilderberg Group conference, which is due to be held May 14-17 at the 5 star Nafsika Astir Palace Hotel in Vouliagmeni, Greece, investigative reporter Daniel Estulin has uncovered shocking details of what the elitists plan to do with the economy over the course of the next year.

The Bilderberg Group meeting is an annual confab of around 150 of the world’s most influential powerbrokers in government, industry, banking, media, academia and the military-industrial complex. The secretive group operates under “Chatham House rules,” meaning that no details of what is discussed can ever be leaked to the media, despite editors of the world’s biggest newspapers, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times, being present at the meeting.

According to Estulin’s sources, which have been proven highly accurate in the past, Bilderberg is divided on whether to put into motion, “Either a prolonged, agonizing depression that dooms the world to decades of stagnation, decline and poverty … or an intense-but-shorter depression that paves the way for a new sustainable economic world order, with less sovereignty but more efficiency.”

The information takes on added weight when one considers the fact that Estulin’s previous economic forecasts, which were based on leaks from the same sources, have proven deadly accurate. Estulin correctly predicted the housing crash and the 2008 financial meltdown as a result of what his sources inside Bilderberg told him the elite were planning based on what was said at their 2006 meeting in Canada and the 2007 conference in Turkey.

Details of the economic agenda were contained in a pre-meeting booklet being handed out to Bilderberg members. On a more specific note, Estulin warns that Bilderberg are fostering a false picture of economic recovery, suckering investors into ploughing their money back into the stock market again only to later unleash another massive downturn which will create “massive losses and searing financial pain in the months ahead,” according to a Canada Free Press report.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/10854

According to Estulin, Bilderberg is assuming that U.S. unemployment figures will reach around 14% by the end of the year, almost doubling the current official figure of 8.1 per cent.

Estulin’s sources also tell him that Bilderberg will again attempt to push for the enactment of the Lisbon Treaty, a key centerpiece of the agenda to fully entrench a federal EU superstate, by forcing the Irish to vote again on the document in September/October despite having rejected it already, along with other European nations, in national referendums.

“One of their concerns is addressing and neutralizing the anti-Lisbon treaty movement called “Libertas” led by Declan Ganley. One of the Bilderberger planned moves is to use a whispering campaign in the US media suggested that Ganley is being funded by arms dealers in the US linked to the US military,” reports CFP.

Daniel Estulin, Jim Tucker, and other sources who have infiltrated Bilderberg meetings in the past have routinely provided information about the Bilderberg agenda that later plays out on the world stage, proving that the organization is not merely a “talking shop” as debunkers claim, but an integral planning forum for the new world order agenda.

Indeed, just last month Belgian viscount and current Bilderberg-chairman Étienne Davignon bragged that Bilderberg helped create the Euro by first introducing the policy agenda for a single currency in the early 1990’s. Bilderberg’s agenda for a European federal superstate and a single currency likely goes back even further.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg-chairman-%E2%80%98bilderberg-helped-create-the-euro%E2%80%99.html

http://euobserver.com/9/27778

A BBC investigation uncovered documents from the early Bilderberg meetings which confirmed that the European Union was a brainchild of Bilderberg.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/bbc_radio_4_bilderberg.mp3

In spring 2002, when war hawks in the Bush administration were pushing for a summer invasion of Iraq, Bilderbergers expressed their desire for a delay and the attack was not launched until March the following year.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bilderberg_split_on_iraq_war.html

In 2006, Estulin predicted that the U.S. housing market would be allowed to soar before the bubble was cruelly popped, which is exactly what transpired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y99WD9ejfmk&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infowars.com%2Fleaked-agenda-bilderberg-group-plans-economic-depression%2F&feature=player_embedded

In 2008, Estulin predicted that Bilderberg were creating the conditions for a financial calamity, which is exactly what began a few months later with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Bilderberg has routinely flexed its muscles in establishing its role as kingmaker. The organization routinely selects presidential candidates as well as running mates and prime ministers.

Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were both groomed by the secretive organization in the early 1990’s before rising to prominence.

Barack Obama’s running mate Joe Biden was selected by Bilderberg luminary James A. Johnson, and John Kerry’s 2004 running mate John Edwards was also anointed by the group after he gave a glowing speech at the conference in 2004. Bilderberg attendees even broke house rules to applaud Edwards at the end of a speech he gave to the elitists about American politics.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/may2008/052308_bilderberg_luminary.htm

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2004/080704bilderbergperformance.htm

The choice of Edwards was shocking to media pundits who had fully expected Dick Gephardt to secure the position. The New York Post even reported that Gephardt had been chosen and “Kerry-Gephardt” stickers were being placed on campaign vehicles before being removed when Edwards was announced as Kerry’s number two.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0706041post1.html

A 2008 Portuguese newspaper report highlighted the fact that Pedro Santana Lopes and Jose Socrates attended the 2004 meeting in Stresa, Italy before both going on to become Prime Minster of Portugal.

Several key geopolitical decisions were made at last year’s Bilderberg meeting in Washington DC, again emphasizing the fact that the confab is far more than an informal get-together.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2008/060308_bilderberg_kingmaker.htm

As was reported at the time, Bilderberg were concerned that the price of oil was accelerating too fast after it hit $150 a barrel and wanted to ensure that “oil prices would probably begin to decline”. This is exactly what happened in the latter half of 2008 as oil again sunk below $50 a barrel. We were initially able to predict the rapid rise in oil prices in 2005 when oil was at $40, because Bilderberg had called for prices to rise during that year’s meeting in Munich. During the conference in Germany, Henry Kissinger told his fellow attendees that the elite had resolved to ensure that oil prices would double over the course of the next 12-24 months, which is exactly what happened.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2008/061008_secret_agenda.htm

Also at last year’s meeting, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice formalized plans to sign a treaty on installing a U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic with Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2008/061208_missile_defense.htm#

Rice was joined at the meeting by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who reportedly encouraged EU globalists to get behind an attack on Iran. Low and behold, days later the EU threatened Iran with sanctions if it did not suspend its nuclear enrichment program.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2008/061008_iran_threatened.htm

There was also widespread speculation that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s “secret meeting,” which was accomplished with the aid of cloak and dagger tactics like locking journalists on an airplane to keep them from tracking the two down, took place at the Bilderberg meeting in DC.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/june2008/060608_hillary_obama.htm

It remains to be seen what kind of mainstream media press coverage Bilderberg 2009 will be afforded because, despite the proven track record of Bilderberg having a central role in influencing subsequent geopolitical and financial world events, and despite last year’s meeting being held in Washington DC, the U.S. corporate media oversaw an almost universal blackout of reporting on the conference, its attendees, and what was discussed.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/060708_media_blackout.htm

Once again, it will be left to the alternative media to fill the vacuum and educate the people on exactly what the globalists have planned for us over the coming year.

http://www.infowars.com/leaked-agenda-bilderberg-group-plans-economic-depression/

People “Running” Into Gun Shows, Panic Buying Ammo

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

A San Francisco Chronicle report about a gun show in Daly City notes that when the doors were opened, people came running in and immediately started panic buying ammo, again emphasizing fears about shortages and the Obama gun ban agenda.

“Everybody’s panic buying,” said a wholesale ammunition dealer, who also requested anonymity. “When the doors opened (on Saturday), people we’re running in,” according to the report.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/04/BA3817DSLR.DTL

Gun dealers across the country are reporting a virtual run on ammo as prices soar.

Semiautomatic firearms “are going fast,” according to a dealer quoted in the report. “People are afraid the Obama administration will ban assault weapons.”

Gun owners are also concerned that Obama, despite claiming before the election that he wouldn’t target the second amendment, recently bemoaned the fact that he didn’t have the political power to ban semi-automatic weapons, falsely blaming U.S. gun shops for the violence in Mexico.

Obama is also pushing a treaty that would ban “illicit” manufacture of firearms and reloading.

According to Gun Owners of America,”Illicit manufacturing includes reloading and modifying or assembling a firearm in any way. This would mean that the Obama administration could promulgate regulations banning reloading on the basis of this treaty — just as it is currently circumventing Congress to write legislation taxing greenhouse gases.”

http://gunowners.org/a042109.htm

Despite Obama promising that he was not interested in going after the second amendment before his election, one of his first actions was to appoint the rabidly anti-gun Eric Holder as his Attorney General.

http://gunowners.org/a012009.htm

The leaked Obama gun ban list would make millions of Americans criminals for owning weapons such certain types of rifles or pistols. Anti-gun legislation has found its way into stimulus and other unrelated bills as pork barrel. The first steps of the Obama administration with regard to gun control have resulted in record firearm and ammunition purchases across the country.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/obamas-gun-ban-list-is-out.html

http://gunowners.org/a021809htm.htm