Tag Archives: banks

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America, What Economic Recovery? The truth is finally told about how much the Federal Reserve spent to bail out the too big to fail banks; nearly $8 Trillion! Ron Paul is right!!!

“This is an issue that can unite the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.”-Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator from Ohio

Lies, scandals, cover ups, all part of the “too big to fail’s” plan to squeeze the United States dry.  Now there’s proof!

Bloomberg Markets magazine has gotten a hold of a 29,000(!) page document, that shows just how much the big banks lied and cheated to the tune of U.S.$7.77 trillion, and that’s not counting the taxpayer funded bailouts!

The bottom line is everybody close to the process lied like crazy.”-Naked Capitalism

Ever since 2007, when the Federal Reserve (a privately run bank) began bailing out the “too big to fail” banks, like Bank of America, the exact amount of the bail outs had been kept secret.  Ben Bernanke even said it was because if the public knew how much it really cost it would cause more problems.  He’s right!

While the average American in the United States lost their credit, lost their home, and lost their job, Corporate America got a $7.77 trillion bailout from the Federal Reserve. That’s a record!  And that doesn’t even count the taxpayer funded bail outs!!!

By the way, average Americans in the United States are still losing their credit, their homes and their jobs, because of bailed out Corporate America!!!

Here’s some more interesting facts about the Federal Reserve bailouts:

1; On December 5, 2008, a record $1.2 trillion was issued on one day!!! 

2; The Federal Reserve actually set up the supposed bail out “loans” so that some members of Corporate America made a profit off of paying back those loans!  How would you like to be paid for paying back your loans?  Corporate America made an estimated $13 billion off some of the bail out loans!

3; Citigroup made the most money off of the Federal Reserve loans, to the tune of $1.8 billion!

4; In fact the top U.S. banks (JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley) used the bail out loans to increase their power. By September 2011, their combined assets had increased to $9.5 trillion!!!

5; Most of these bail out loans were issued when the “too big to fail” banks (case in point Bank of  America and JP Morgan Chase & Company) were telling their stockholders that they were in no trouble at all!

6; Most of these bail out loans were issued at the same time that the government was giving away taxpayer dollars to save Corporate America!  Treasury Department boss Timothy Geithner was well aware of how much money the Federal Reserve was loaning to the “too big to fail’s”!

7; The U.S. Treasury Department’s taxpayer funded TARP program cost a record $700 billion, but that is now dwarfed by the newly revealed Federal Reserve bail outs.

8; The six biggest U.S. banks, got $160 billion of taxpayer TARP funds, and, as much as $460 billion from the Federal Reserve!

Bloomberg got the 29,000 page document after winning a lawsuit (amazingly) against the Federal Reserve, and the country’s biggest group of banks, know as the Clearing House Association.

What this proves is that Corporate America is one big ass FAIL!!!  Either they were in the financial hole and really did need the bail outs, which means they had already failed as Capitalist Captains of Industry, or, they were not in the hole, as they repeatedly told their stockholders, and they just pulled off the biggest scam in world history!!!

The result is that the Untied States is now toast: “…we’re absolutely, totally, 100% not prepared for another financial crisis.”-Ted Kaufman, former U.S. Senator from Delaware

Ron Paul is right!!!

 

 

Fukushima

Government & Farmer Incompetence: Yet again, more rice contaminated with cesium, lots of cesium!

Once again, rice harvests in Fukushima Prefecture are coming up contaminated with cesium.  But this time the levels are even higher than before.

Five farms in Oonami district have rice that’s contaminated with as much as 1,270 becquerels per kilogram of cesium!  At the beginning of November rice containing 630 becquerels was found in the same district. The national government safe limit is 500.

The national government already banned rice from Oonami from being shipped to markets.

In several postings (back in March) I warned that Japanese farmers (specifically those in the Fukushima Prefecture) should not plant their crops because of the radiation contamination.  They did anyway, and many said it was because no ‘government official’ told them not to.  This is a clear case of too much reliance on ‘authority’!

The prefectural government of Fukushima is in the process of testing all 154 rice farms in the Oonami district.  This is going to create a huge rice (and other agricultural products) shortage in Japan, which will only add to the coming global food crisis.

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Mountains of Eastern Japan now Radioactive!

Japan’s science ministry conducted helicopter surveys of radiation, covering 22 prefectures in eastern and central Japan.  They found that long lasting cesium is contaminating a large area.

The highest level of cesium contamination is around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, with some areas hitting more than one million becquerels per square meter!

The scientists also found that the mountain ranges nearby have been blocking a lot of cesium from spreading further south.  As a result, geographic regions about 60 kilometers (37 miles) to the north, and about 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest, are contaminated with more than 30,000 becquerels per square meter.

They say the cesium contamination will last decades.  And remember, the Fukushima Daiichi disaster reactors are still emitting lots of radiation!

 

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Pacific Cod & Tuna contaminated with Cesium!

Greenpeace Japan has been monitoring radiation levels in sea food for the past several months.  They say Pacific cod and tuna are proving to be very susceptible to cesium contamination.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is not only spewing radiation into the air, but pouring it into the Pacific Ocean.

Greenpeace Japan tested seafood in just five supermarkets in Japan, from October through the beginning of November.  Out of 75 samples, 27 were positive for radioactive cesium 134 and 137.

They found that Pacific cod was the most contaminated, along with Bigeye and Skipjack tuna.  The fish had been caught off the coasts of Hokkaido, Iwate and Miyagi.  These are areas directly affected by the radiation pouring into the Pacific Ocean.

The researchers discovered that canned fish could potentially be more contaminated, because in Japan regulations for canned fish are less strict than fresh fish.  Greenpeace Japan says they did find a small level of radiation in a can of mackerel.

Fukushima

Farmer Incompetence: Japanese fruit farmers to strip the bark off their trees, hope to prevent radiation contamination, more proof of a coming global food crisis!

Fruit farmers in Fukushima Prefecture (home of the radiation spewing Fukushima Daiichi nuke plant) say radiation is coating their trees and fruit. They’ve come up with a plan to stop the absorption of radiation; use power washers to strip top layers of bark.

The Japanese Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives believes that by stripping the bark off the fruit trees, they can halve the amount of radiation contamination.  Major problem: Fukushima Daiichi is still spewing radiation!

By stripping the bark, in an ongoing radioactive contamination environment, they will actually increase the chances of contamination!

Fukushima

Government Incompetence: Radioactive Strontium found in Tokyo & Yokohama, for the second time!

A citizens group tested soil from three location in Tokyo and Yokohama, and found radioactive strontium, as much as 51 becquerels per kilogram.

The samples were taken at the end of October.  This is not the first time strontium 90 has been found.  At the beginning of October it was confirmed that samples taken on a building’s roof top, in Yokohama, was contaminated with 195 becquerels of strontium 90.

Strontium 90 has a half life of 28.8 years. It can cause bone cancer.

The citizens group believes the strontium 90 came from the disaster reactors at Fukushima Daiichi, which is about 170 miles from Yokohama.  However, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is claiming that it could not have come from Fukushima Daiichi.

The government officials say it would be more likely that strontium 89 would be coming from the failed nuke plant.  This doesn’t make sense, because strontium 89 is used medically, to treat bone cancer, and in rare cases to treat pain.  In my quick research I could not find anything that said strontium 89 is a by product of nuclear reactors.  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency web site only said that it could be found around nuclear plants.

I can only conclude that the Japanese government officials don’t know what they’re talking about.  When you look up strontium 90 you’ll find that it is specifically a creation of nuclear fission, and found in nuclear fallout, so the citizens group is right!

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Global Economic War: Apple now takes the Chinese Yuan, over the U.S. Dollar. Chinese buyers dominate the internet!

“The service has been there since last Friday. It’s really good news for our customers and local application developers.”-Apple China statement

California based Apple Incorporated decided to accept the Chinese yuan (aka Renminbi, or RMB) in an unannounced move last week. One reason is that China is now the world’s biggest internet market!!!

The App Store will now accept yuan credit and debit cards issued by more than 20 Chinese banks.  Another reason for the move is that many Chinese customers using credit and debit cards issued from outside China, were getting their info ripped off.

Apple’s fiscal 4th quarter revenues from China hit $4.5 billion. Their U.S. operations had more revenue, but revenue from China is growing so fast it will soon pass up the revenues made in the U.S.

Business/Economics, U.S.

Occupy America! Corporate Lobbyists present plan to shut down OWS & Tea Party, more proof that the elites want turn the U.S. into a Prison Planet

MSNBC revealed a memo, written by former employees of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, which basically asks for money to research ways to shut down the OWS and Tea Party movements.

Part of its goal is to prevent Democrats from joining the OWS movement, because that would threaten Corporate America: “This would mean more than just short term political discomfort for Wall Street…It has the potential to have very long lasting political, policy and financial impacts on the companies in the center of the bullseye.”

The proposal was written on the letterhead of the lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford and addressed to the American Bankers Association. It asks for more than $850,000 to conduct a 60 day study, which would include identifying Democratic candidates that are anti-Corporate America.

The Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford proposal also suggests that members of the Tea Party are close to joining forces with the OWS movement, and that upcoming end of year bonuses for corporate officials could result in Tea Party and OWS becoming one powerful movement: “Well known Wall Street companies stand at the nexus of where OWS protestors and the Tea Party overlap on angered populism…This combination has the potential to be explosive later in the year when media reports cover the next round of bonuses and contrast it with stories of millions of Americans making do with less this holiday season.”

The Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford proposal strongly suggest making examples of anyone who goes against Corporate America: “A big challenge is to demonstrate that these companies still have political strength and that making them a political target will carry a severe political cost.”

You need any more proof that Wall Street/Corporate America runs this country?




Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Occupy the World! Greeks attack U.S. Embassy, Hundreds arrested in New York, Bank of America occupied in California, retired Cop says police work for the 1%!

“All the cops are just workers for the 1%…As soon as I’m let out of jail, I’ll be right back here and they’ll have to arrest me again.”-Ray Lewis, retired Philadelphia Police Captain

Don’t think the OWS movement is dead, thousands are trying to shut down Wall Street today, November 17.  Those thousands include health care workers, retired police officers and even investment brokers!

“The fact of the matter is, there is a schism between the rich and the poor and it’s getting wider.”–Gene Williams, bond trader

The NAZI NYPD physically attacked the protestors, so far more than 200 have been arrested.  At one point, when the protestors stared to sign the National Anthem, the NYPD blasted them with sound cannons.

Across the country, in California, at least 100 protestors were arrested after they tried to take over the Bank of America, California HQ, in San Francisco.  For awhile the protestors were successful, disrupting bank operations for about four hours.

In Greece, in what could be a revival of the anti-U.S. revolutionary movement, known as 17 November, thousands of Greeks attacked the U.S. Embassy.  In 1973 the Greek people overthrew the U.S. backed military government. Now they see what’s happening in their country as an attempt by the corporate world, specifically Corporate America, to take over their country again.

More than 20,000 people marched through central Athens, while another 12,000 protesters joined a rally in Greece’s second-largest city, Thessaloniki.  The Greek government called out 6,000 cops to handle the protests.

Thousands of Italians also took to their streets, to protest their new non-elected technocrat controlled government’s draconian budget cuts.  Italian college students tried to use firecrackers as weapons against the cops.

Transportation unions shut down Italian public transportation services for several hours.

 

Business/Economics, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Citigroup to layoff 3,000

The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, have been reporting that an unnamed source says Citigroup will layoff 3,000 employees.

Some employees have already been notified.

900 layoffs will take place in the banking and securities divisions.  The unnamed source says the number of laid off Citi workers could exceed 3,000 by next year.