A Common Man's Guide to the Federal Budget. Ahhh.... Now lets get down to the brass tacks and the meat of our meal. What are the numbers the last 3 boards are meant to give context to? Well, I'm glad someone asked! At the time of this work, 2012 is still in the category of Projection because the year has not yet ended. The Federal Budget and Deficit - Revealed Please excuse the clutter here. A couple explanations are due for some of the display. Entitlement Programs - The Reality vs. Moving along, I've created a grid of Entitlement costs to show two things that came as a surprise to me as much as anyone else. Next however, was a shock. There are the main portions of Social Security and the Food Programs, but how is medical? Now I hate to get out of order in my board sequence, but in this case, they were created in a different order than they present by topic, at least in this one case. I had a lot of ways I could have gone with this one. There is enough there to make 10 boards by itself..and likely many more.
Too Big To Jail: Wall Street Executives Unlikely To Face Criminal Charges, Source Says A last-ditch effort by federal and state law enforcement authorities to hold Wall Street accountable for nearly bringing down the U.S. economy is unlikely to lead to any criminal charges against big bank executives, according to a source close to the investigation. Barring a "hail mary pass," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still ongoing, the members of a task force President Barack Obama formed in January to investigate fraud in the residential mortgage bond industry will instead most likely bring civil lawsuits against some of the banks involved, though it isn't clear when these cases might come. That means any penalties for those accused of fraud or other misconduct would be measured in dollars, not jail terms. A spokesman for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a co-head of the task force and the driving force behind its formation, declined to comment. "I don't think the criticism is fair," White said. Also on HuffPost:
The One Percent Is 288 Times Wealthier Than The Median U.S. Household The rich are getting even richer as most other Americans fall behind. Households in the wealthiest one percent were 288 times richer than the median American household in 2010, possessing an average net worth of $16.4 million. In contrast, the median American household had a net worth of $57,000 in 2010. That's according to "The State of Working America," a report released Tuesday by the Economic Policy Institute. The wealthiest one percent now own 35 percent of all wealth in the U.S, and income inequality is growing as wages have not kept up with workers' increased output. EPI, a left-leaning think tank, blames economic policies such as the deregulation of the financial industry, lower tax rates and weakened protections for collective bargaining. Check out 10 ways things are getting worse for most American workers: Loading Slideshow 10 Ways The U.S. 1 of 11 Hide Thumbnails Economic Policy Institute Related on HuffPost:
World's richest woman says poor should have less fun, work harder Just in case you were beginning to think rich people were deeply misunderstood and that they feel the pain of those who are less fortunate, here's the world's wealthiest woman, Australian mining tycoon Gina Rinehart, with some helpful advice. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain," she said in a magazine piece. "Do something to make more money yourself -- spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working." Yeah, let them eat cake. Rinehart made her money the old-fashioned way: She inherited it. "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she said by way of encouragement. "Become one of those people who work hard, invest and build, and at the same time create employment and opportunities for others." Boom. Why are people poor? "The millionaires and billionaires who choose to invest in Australia are actually those who most help the poor and our young," she said. And now it's out there. Thank you, rich people.
Janet Tavakoli: Prince Harry Offered Partner Position at Goldman Sachs Dear Sir, It has come to our attention that you have been offered a role in a porn film for $10 million. We urge you to reject it. Princely Pay and Elite Status Goldman Sachs is prepared to pay you much better than porn, and as a partner, your position will be much more prestigious than the Duke of York's role as a representative for international trade and investment. As a royal, you'll regain your rightful status. Department of Jesters Our mortgage unit, Goldman Sachs Alternative Mortgage Products (GSAMP) was nicknamed "Garbage Sold at Mythical Prices" by financial professionals. The complaint showed "an accelerating meltdown for these subprime lenders, and despite known serious loan problems, [we] continued to securitize the loans and sell them in packages of residential mortgage backed securities." We paid a record $550 million to settle SEC fraud charges related to one subprime collateralized debt obligation (CDO) called Abacus. Were we seriously investigated? William K.
Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts The first ever GAO (Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out. Ben Bernanke (pictured to the right), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve's nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander's webpage earlier this morning. What was revealed in the audit was startling: $16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland.
Lord Rothschild in $200 Million Bet Against Euro: Report - Business News Lord Rothschild, an elder member of the dynastic Rothschild banking family, has taken the position against the euro through RIT Capital Partners, the 1.9 billion pound investment trust of which he is executive chairman, according to a report in the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. As cynicism that the single currency is on its last legs continues to spread among some euro zone politicians and the public, the influential financier has used the currency as a form of hedge. RIT has taken a 7 percent net short position in July, in terms of principle currency exposures on the euro , up from a 3 percent net short position in January. “Given a net asset value of £1.836 billion at the end of July, the position is worth £128 million,” the newspaper reported. The Telegraph quoted sources close to the banker as saying that that his current position against the euro is a realistic one given that the currency remains weak and not a “dogmatic, negative view” on the currency per se.
Banks Will Always Suck At Trading, Badly Need A Volcker-Like Rule: Study Science has spoken: Banks are doomed to suck at trading forever and should be stopped before they crash the global economy again. A new study by economists Arnoud Boot at the University of Amsterdam and Lev Ratnovski at the International Monetary Fund finds that recent blow-ups in the banking sector -- JPMorgan Chase's $6.8 billion "London Whale" losses and that whole financial-crisis thingy, to name two -- are not isolated events, but "a sign of deeper structural problems in the financial system." The only prescription? Less trading by big dumb banks. "Without policy action, crises associated with trading by banks are bound to recur," Boot and Ratnovski write in a blog post about the paper. Why can't banks just trade like George Soros and everybody else? First, banks have tons of capital laying around, relative to, say, a hedge fund, which specializes in trading. Also on HuffPost:
HuffPo's 11 Myths About the Fed, Refuted (by Tom Woods and Bob Murphy) The other day the Huffington Post ran an article by a Bonnie Kavoussi called “11 Lies About the Federal Reserve.” And you’ll never guess: these aren’t lies or myths spread in the financial press by Fed apologists. These are “lies” being told by you and me, opponents of the Fed. Here are the 11 so-called lies (she calls them “myths” in the actual rendering), and our responses. HuffPo’s Myth #1: “The Fed actually prints money.” She leads off with this? HuffPo’s Myth #2: “The Federal Reserve is spending money wastefully.” You may think the Federal Reserve is throwing around money like crazy, just like the federal government. She then points out that hey, the Fed earned a profit of $77.4 billion last year. HuffPo’s Myth #3: “The Fed is causing hyperinflation.” Is it just us, or does Bonnie Kavoussi word things awkwardly? HuffPo’s Myth #4: “The amount of cash available has grown tremendously.” HuffPo’s Myth #5: “The gold standard would make prices more stable.”
Charles Ferguson: Banking Is a Criminal Industry Because Its Crimes Go Unpunished Consider just this month's news in financial services. First, Barclay's has been manipulating the Libor, the main interest rate upon which most other interest rates and financial transactions are based, since 2005. Moreover, Barclay's traders were colluding with traders in many other banks to assist them in manipulating the Libor too, so that they could all profit from their bets on it. Second, JP Morgan Chase is having a really great month. Third, HSBC is paying a fine because it allowed hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars of money laundering by rogue states and sanctioned firms, including some related to terrorist activities and Iran's nuclear efforts. Fourth, a new private lawsuit cites documents indicating that Morgan Stanley successfully pressured rating agencies into inflating the ratings of mortgage-backed securities it issued during the housing bubble. Just another month in financial services. So, July 2012 really isn't abnormal at all. And what is that number? Zero.
£13tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite | Business | The Observer A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network. James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has compiled the most detailed estimates yet of the size of the offshore economy in a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, released exclusively to the Observer. He shows that at least £13tn – perhaps up to £20tn – has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks, which vie to attract the assets of so-called high net-worth individuals. Oil-rich states with an internationally mobile elite have been especially prone to watching their wealth disappear into offshore bank accounts instead of being invested at home, the research suggests.
Elizabeth Warren: Libor fraud exposes a rotten financial system The British financial giant Barclays has admitted to manipulating the rate from 2005 to at least 2009 . When the bank made a bet on the direction in which interest rates would turn, the Barclays employees who submit data for calculating interest rates would fake their numbers to help Barclays traders win the bet. Day after day, year after year, bet after bet, Barclays made money by fixing bets for its own traders. We don’t know who else was fixing bets. Other big banks, including some of the largest in the United States, are under investigation . It is also clear that many of those who didn’t have a fixer — including consumers, community banks and credit unions — lost money. In most markets, consumers could simply take their business elsewhere once they learned that the scales were rigged. It gets worse. Real accountability would mean prosecuting the traders and bank officials who violated federal laws and prosecuting the executives who knew what they were up to.
Police: 2 kids of CNBC exec, mommy blogger fatally stabbed by nanny NEW YORK—A nanny suspected of stabbing two young children to death in a luxury apartment near Central Park was in critical condition Friday with apparently self-inflicted injuries. The children’s mother, Marina Krim, came home with her 3-year-old daughter on Thursday evening. Puzzled by the darkened apartment, she returned to the lobby to ask the doorman if the nanny had gone out with 2-year-old Leo, just learning to walk, and 6-year-old Lucia, known as Lulu, lover of “all things princess.” She was told they hadn’t left, so she returned upstairs. “There was some kind of screaming about, ‘You slit her throat!”’ The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, who was found near a knife, remained hospitalized Friday. The children’s father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, had been away on a business trip. The mother’s blog, called Life with the Little Krim Kids, portrays a devoted mother who adores her children, and is charmed by their daily observations and latest tricks.
CNBC Reports $43 Trillion Bankster Lawsuit...CNBC Exec's Children Murdered Next Day | Politics New York (CNN) — A Manhattan mother returned home early Thursday evening to find two of her young children stabbed to death in a bathtub, as their nanny lay bleeding nearby, police said. NEW: The father is a CNBC executive, officials familiar with the investigation say. The mother, 38, had just returned around 5:30 p.m. to the family apartment on Manhattan’s West Side with her 3-year-old daughter, who she had just taken to swimming lessons, police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. All the lights were out in the residence, so she went downstairs to ask the doorman whether her two other children and their nanny had gone outside. Peering into a bathroom, she let out a scream upon finding her 1-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter stabbed to death in the bathtub, according to Kelly. The children’s 50-year-old nanny was on the bathroom floor unconscious and bleeding from what appeared to be self-inflicted stab wounds to her neck, Kelly said. The nanny is at St. Here the story takes a dark turn!