It’s a strange world when financial writers take to mythology and prophecy….and seem no less credible than anyone else you read in the mainstream media. Thus, trader Rick Ackerman:
“According to several prophetic sources, seismic activity is building towards an impending planetary event (worldwide) – the shifting of the axis of rotation of the Earth, which some sources indicate is forecast to occur in the 4th quarter of 2012. Continue reading
The Daily Bell on why the show trial of Goldman (albeit a worthy target, in my opinion) is most likely to be just another ruse of the powers that be:
“The progressive press, in our estimation, tries to blame individuals or certain corporations (Enron comes to mind, and now Goldman) to distract from the larger issue, which is the corruption of civil society itself by this horrid, pernicious mercantilism. Continue reading
“Dr. Copper” seems to be telling us something:
“Copper dropped sharply Monday as the general sour mood about Europe and the global economic rebound was heightened by news of rising copper inventories.
Copper for July delivery lost 20 cents, or 6.5%, to $2.93 a pound on Comex. That’s the lowest price for a most-active contract since early February.
The LME reported Monday a rise in copper stocks in South Korea, the first in that country since January, applying further pressure on prices, analysts at Commerzbank said in a report.”
“What I have learned about corporate capitalism, roughly, is that it is an act of theft, by and large, through which a very few live very high off the work, invention, and creativity of very many others. It is the Grand Larceny of our particular time in history, the Grand Larceny in which a future of freedom which could have followed the collapse of feudalism was stolen from under our noses by a new bunch of bosses doing the same old things.”
— Karl Hess
“Meanwhile, it is rumored by the Financial Times, AFP and others that Greece may spend more than it saves from austerity measures on arms deals with Germany, France and the US as a potential condition of receiving bailout funds.
If true, it is certainly not unprecedented for the global military industrial complex to benefit from deals made by their friends in the central banking community. After all, war is the health of the state. The last thing big government proponents want is for peace to break out in the world.”
“The bottom line is that we can expect real wages to stagnate for several years, as a predictable reflection of slack capacity in the labor market. While credit concerns will be helpful in augmenting the demand for U.S. government liabilities as a default-(food poisoning)-free alternative to other assets, there is a continued prospect for significant price inflation beginning in the second half of this decade. With the ECB surrendering monetary discipline for the sake of short-term expedience, that prospect has become even more hostile. Continue reading
From Giordano Bruno at Neithcorp Press:
“Goldman’s involvement in the Greek snafu is assuredly not isolated. Goldman deals with many countries and has likely pulled the same scam everywhere. But why would a large international bank deliberately sabotage the economies of the countries it does business with? Would this not ruin the banks as well in the long run? Not if you consider the possibility that Goldman is destabilizing countries deliberately to help the IMF… Continue reading
Along Came the Transnationals, by Daniel Brandt, Name Base Newsline, July-Sept 1996
“Those who escape thought-reform at the end of history may trace our decline back to 1886, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared that corporations are legal persons whose life, liberty and property are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Ratified to protect freed slaves, it took railroad-company lawyers less than two decades to turn this amendment into a loophole. By 1904, corporations controlled four-fifths of the nation’s industrial production. Today transnationals control the world’s cultural and economic production as well, and generate most of its pollution. Continue reading
Update (May 18): As solicitor general, she intervened on behalf of Monsanto’s right to contaminate non-genetically modified food with GM food, in Monsanto vs. Geertson Seed.
Update: Just to clarify the reference to neo-liberal, Elena Kagan has extensive ties to Goldman Sachs, D.E Shaw, and to Larry Summers on her resume. In other words, her so-called progressive positions are in the service of the kleptocracy.
Update (May 15 PM):
The Boston Phoenix has this, substantiating the main point of the Cockburn piece I’ve posted below it:
“On matters of executive authority — where the judicial branch has been a vital bulwark against post-9/11 “war on terror” civil-liberties violations — Kagan’s record indicates an ideological departure from Justice Stevens, who authored watershed detainee-rights opinions and organized the five-justice majorities that struck down other Bush administration power grabs. Continue reading
CBC News in Canada reports that bankster-associated gold miner Barrick Gold is shutting down critical writing on the Canadian mining industry. (Thanks to Chris Cook).
An excerpt:
“The threat of legal action from mining giant Barrick Gold has forced Vancouver-based Talonbooks to postpone publication of a book about the Canadian mining industry.
Publisher Karl Siegler calls it a clear case of “libel chill” by one of Canada’s largest mining companies.
The book, Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries, was to be published in spring 2010, but in February, the publisher and everyone else involved with the book got a threatening letter from Barrick lawyers. Continue reading