World-News

Zach Carter, AlterNet: "Derivatives are a hotbed of abuses and bailouts. So why are taxpayers footing the bill? For the Wall Street reform package currently making its way through Congress to work, it has to accomplish two broad goals: It must take a huge bite out of banking profits and end the too-big-to-fail oligopoly that encourages megabanks to take megarisks and stick taxpayers with the tab. Neither of these goals can be accomplished without taking on derivatives - the wild, unregulated market that brought down AIG. Right now, the U.S. government pays big banks for operating derivatives casinos. If we're going to clean up the derivatives mess, we have to move taxpayer money out of the market."

http://www.truth-out.org/lure-people-into-that-calm-and-then-just-totally-f-k-em-how-all-us-pay-derivatives-market60429

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Amnesty for the bankers, debtor’s prison for the serfs

Pto Libertate
by Will Grigg

06/13/10

Long before he orchestrated a scheme to rig auctions of tax liens in Baltimore, attorney and real estate mogul Harvey M. Nusbaum had a long and lucrative career in officially sanctioned crime as an IRS agent. In 2002, Nusbaum grew weary of robbing people on behalf of the state. Rather than repenting in sackcloth and ashes, as any decent person would, he hired out as a privateer — a freelance buyer and collector of tax debts. This form of retail fascism — a public-private partnership in plunder — was immensely profitable for Nusbaum. Had he exercised even the slightest restraint on his corrupt appetite, Nusbaum most likely wouldn’t be headed for prison...

http://tinyurl.com/39oyvck



The other national debt

National Review
by Kevin Williamson

06/14/10

About that $14 trillion national debt: Get ready to tack some zeroes onto it. Taken alone, the amount of debt issued by the federal government — that $14 trillion figure that shows up on the national ledger — is a terrifying, awesome, hellacious number: Fourteen trillion seconds ago, Greenland was covered by lush and verdant forests, and the Neanderthals had not yet been outwitted and driven into extinction by Homo sapiens sapiens, because we did not yet exist. Big number, 14 trillion, and yet it doesn’t even begin to cover the real indebtedness of American governments at the federal, state, and local levels, because governments don’t count up their liabilities the same way businesses do...

http://tinyurl.com/2akw3gh



The Greek plague: Sticky wages

Ludwig von Mises Institute
by David Howden

06/24/10

After the deaths of three bank employees, Greek president Karolos Papoulias lamented that the debt-ridden country had finally ‘reached the edge of the abyss.’ It should be so lucky. Abysses allow for falls into the deep unknown. If real wages would make the plunge, Greek workers would have a future with more options than striking and senseless destruction...

http://mises.org/daily/4490


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

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Moody's Latest To Downgrade Greek Debt To Junk

Moody's Investors Service slashed Greece's credit rating to junk status on Monday in a new blow to the debt-ridden country that is under intense international scrutiny after narrowly avoiding default last month.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127837304&ft=1&f=1004



Spanish banks teeter on brink of collapse

THE European economy edged towards a fresh crisis yesterday, as Spain's leaders were forced to admit that credit had dried up for some of the country's banks.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/Spanish-banks-teeter-on-brink.6361682.jp



Stage Two of the Credit Crisis

Austerity Measures Could Force a Depression

By Bob Chapman

Sovereign bonds and CDOs are not worth the paper they are written on. Worse yet, they, like US banks and other corporations, are carrying two sets of books. If one set of books were kept all the toxic waste would have to be written off and that would deplete their capital and most likely put them out of business. Is it no wonder banks do not want to lend to each other? Banks and nations are lying.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25969.htm


From Information Clearing House

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Bonds and the Fading Recovery
http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north868.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greece
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Greek
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=recovery
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=debt
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=bailout
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Banks
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=AIG+insurance
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Moody
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=rating
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=credit+crisis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=derivatives
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=public-private+partnership
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=taxpayer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Zach+Carter
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Will+Grigg
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=Kevin+Williamson
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=David+Howden
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bob+Chapman
http://sharenews.twoday.net/search?q=com/north