Occupy protesters ‘squidding’ Goldman Sachs - BlogPost Posted at 09:22 AM ET, 12/12/2011 Dec 12, 2011 02:22 PM EST TheWashingtonPost Investment bankers and other employees arriving for work at 200 Wall St. in New York City early Monday morning were greeted by a strange scene: a demonstration by Occupy Wall Street protesters — and massive blow-up squids. “Let’s go squidding!!” The squid is a reference to Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi’s line about Goldman Sachs that came to define Wall Street’s behavior during the financial crisis. Occupy Wall Street said the action Monday “will highlight the audacity of Goldman’s private bonus scheme at the expense of taxpayers, union workers and the public good.” A theatrical finale at 10 a.m. featured a press conference in which a translator was on hand to translate “squid” and protesters chanted “Calamari!” <a href=" target="_blank">View the story "Occupy Goldman Sachs" on Storify</a>] (Via @Kstrel )
Copper Rout Unlikely to Halt Chile $67 Billion Bet: Commodities (For more commodities columns, click NI CMMKT BN <GO>) Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Chile, the world’s biggest copper- producing nation, expects mining companies to maintain their investment plans even after prices slumped by the most in three years and is seeing few signs of weaker Chinese demand. Spending on new or existing mines will reach $67 billion over the next eight years, Mining Minister Hernan de Solminihac said in an interview in London yesterday. Codelco, the state- owned copper company, will account for $20 billion of the total. While there has been “some adjustment” in China’s imports, the change hasn’t been “significant,” the minister said. Copper slumped 33 percent since reaching a record $10,190 a metric ton in February as mounting concern about growth eroded expectations for supply shortages. “The fundamentals don’t explain the decrease in the price,” said the 53-year-old minister. European Federation BHP Billiton Commodity Analysts New York
The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever | Politics News Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything. You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. The Scam Wall Street Learned From the Mafia Why? The bad news didn't stop with swaps and interest rates. "You name it," says Frenk.
Busted for Tweeting - “He didn’t produce an official press pass, so that means he was resisting arrest.” Monday morning marked yet another Day of Action for the Occupy Wall Street movement. Eight cities on the West Coast attempted to shut down ports. (The hashtag #PortShutdown on Twitter is moving a mile a minute.) In New York City, there was a solidarity march targeting Goldman Sachs that began at 7:30 a.m. The march was well attended, peaceful and culminated in a street-theater Vampire Squid press conference held in front of the Goldman Sachs building. John and I walked over with a couple of other media people. The protesters — maybe 100 or so — had gathered in the center of the floor and were dancing and chanting, “Occupy Brookfield!” That was when everything escalated completely out of control. A cop pulled me up by my shoulders and told me to step back. I was pushed behind a line of police. A protester next to me was yelling at the cops, something about free speech or unnecessary force or any number of logical things to say at a time like this; I was too distracted to pay attention.
Senate Gets 79 Votes to Advance China Currency Bill as Obama Sends So-Called Free Trade Agreements to Congress Yesterday, the Senate voted for cloture on a motion to proceed on a bill to discourage China’s currency manipulation, with a bipartisan 79-19 vote. 31 Republicans voted for the bill with 48 Democrats. There is nothing out there that would move the needle on jobs that would possibly get that kind of broad support. Functionally, the American Jobs Act is not a going concern, so lowering the trade deficit by ending the policy of China artificially keeping the cost of their exports low is what we have to work with. It’s a key step for now and the future to rebalance trade and give US manufacturing and exports a fighting chance. That would be a real trade agenda, one that the broad mass of the American public supports and that has the support of both parties. The series of trade agreements I am submitting to Congress today will make it easier for American companies to sell their products in South Korea, Colombia, and Panama and provide a major boost to our exports. This is unacceptable.
BreakThru Radio Dec 16, 2011| By: DJs John & Molly Radio Dispatch John spends 37 hours in jail after being arrested covering an OWS protest. Molly appears on Olbermann and writes about it for Salon. Here's the story. More information at theradiodispatch.com 00:00 Welcome to Radio Dispatch00:28 John's arrest story from the inside, Molly's story from the outside.59:05 Solidarity Forever - Pete Seeger / Credits60:43 Finish John's arrest OWS in Winter Garden WC Solidarity Banner Category: Media, Talk Fed to Buy $44B, Sell $44B of Debt in Oct. The Federal Reserve will purchase $44 billion of longer-maturity Treasuries and sell the same amount of shorter-term debt in October under its monetary stimulus plan that’s become known as Operation Twist. Purchases will begin Oct. 3 with the acquisition of $2.25 billion to $2.75 billion of Treasuries maturing between February 2036 and August 2041, according to a statement today from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the branch of the Federal Reserve System that implements monetary policy. The Federal Open Market Committee said last week that it would replace $400 billion of short-term debt in its portfolio with longer-term Treasuries in an effort to further reduce borrowing costs and counter rising risks of a recession. Treasury 30-year bonds extended gains after today’s announcement. Yields on 30-year bonds fell 14 basis points, or 0.14 percentage point, to 2.91 percent at 2:31 p.m. in New York, according to Bloomberg Bond Trader prices. Long-Bond Rally
When John Knefel calls, you answer photo by Jessica Lehrman “Do you know where I’m calling you from?” No John Knefel, I have no idea where you’re calling me from. The one you yourself sat in for years before finding a sweet, sweet escape. “Well I’m calling you from the tombs. Oh, from jail you say John Knefel? The movement was only a few weeks old at that point, the tents had just begun arriving and the world was still trying to figure out what Occupy Wall Street was. “Have you heard anything about people getting arrested at a protest this week? Well, you’ve picked the one night I’ve been out of the loop John Knefel. “What a stupid question,” I thought. So I didn’t read the story, if I had, I would have seen what is now one of the iconic images of the post-occupation Occupy Wall Street movement. “I was wondering if you could Tweet something for me and a few other people.” Tweet something for you John Knefel? Sorry about that @God_Damn_Batman RT. Lets talk about how jealous I was that you had your own hashtag. “Thanks man.”
Lloyd Chapman: Could a Simple Bill Save the World Economy? The indications that we are heading toward another recession are crystal clear. Markets are plunging, unemployment is soaring and investors, businesses and the general public are losing faith in Washington's ability to stimulate the economy. However, a bill aimed at directing federal infrastructure spending to the middle class could change everything. The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act is a very simple bill that will close loopholes and end fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs. The reason this bill is so powerful is because of the job creating potential of the small business community. Because of fraud, abuse, loopholes and lack of oversight of federal small business contracting programs, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts are actually awarded to large, publicly traded and foreign-owned companies. But this is not a conspiracy theory.
johnknefel: #FF Jail friends @justinwe... Press Releases - PR-154-2011 9/23/2011 Press Releases Tri Counties Bank, Chico, California, Assumes All of the Deposits of Citizens Bank of Northern California, Nevada City, California Citizens Bank of Northern California, Nevada City, California, was closed today by the California Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Tri Counties Bank, Chico, California, to assume all of the deposits of Citizens Bank of Northern California. The seven branches of Citizens Bank of Northern California will reopen on Monday as branches of Tri Counties Bank. Depositors of Citizens Bank of Northern California will automatically become depositors of Tri Counties Bank. This evening and over the weekend, depositors of Citizens Bank of Northern California can access their money by writing checks or using ATM or debit cards.
Jamilah King on the digital divide, John Knefel on OWS arrests 1. CounterSpin121611 Jamilah King and John Knefel Ready pop out Download MP3 This week on CounterSpin: Few deny anymore that internet access is becoming critical to taking part in political and economic life. Also on the show: The epidemic of strong-arm police tactics being applied to Occupy activists and the journalists covering Occupy alike came very close to home recently. --"How Big Telecom Used Smartphones to Create a New Digital Divide," by Jamilah King (Colorlines.com, 12/6/11) Gold, gold, gold as world places Swan on a pedestal Good news at last ... Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year, Wayne Swan. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen THE Treasurer, Wayne Swan, has been named the world's best finance minister for his work in steering Australia through the global financial crisis. Last night, Mr Swan was named as the Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year for 2011 and will receive his award at a ceremony in Washington on Sunday at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund. It is only the second time in the award's 30-year history that an Australian has won. In statement from London, the finance and banking publication Euromoney said ''Swan receives his award for his careful stewardship of Australia's finances and economic performance during and since the global financial crisis''. Advertisement ''Throughout that time, Australia has not only avoided falling into recession but has been the best performing of the world's developed market economies.
Who is a journalist? Writer and comedian John Knefel reaches for his glasses as police pull him away during an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York City yesterday. This really great photo was taken by Jessica Lehrman in the lobby of Winter Garden, a building owned by Brookfield Property, the same company that owns Zuccotti Park. To get a different view on the same scene, check out a video that someone else was filming at the same time. You can see Knefel falling down around 6:30. The photo and video bring up something interesting. Knefel doesn't work for a major media outlet. Knefel is a biased source of information. Knefel didn't have a press pass. We live in an age where publishing is easy and the tools to do it are available to a much wider swatch of people. I don't know the answer to these questions.
A well written article by Matt Taibbi by icewufz Dec 11