“Dead Broke” – Meet the Clintons’ $100,000 3-Week Hampton Rental

If being “dead broke” means dropping $100k on a 3-week rental in the Hamptons, then I’d like to be dead broke too.

In case you aren’t aware of what I’m referring to, recall that:

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Former Aide to Bill Clinton Speaks – “My Party Has Lost its Soul”

Screen Shot 2014-07-29 at 10.37.26 AMOne reason we know voters will embrace populism is that they already have. It’s what they thought they were getting with Obama. In 2008 Obama said he’d bail out homeowners, not just banks. He vowed to fight for a public option, raise the minimum wage and clean up Washington. He called whistle-blowers heroes and said he’d bar lobbyists from his staff. He was critical of drones and wary of the use of force to advance American interests. He spoke eloquently of the threats posed to individual privacy by a runaway national security state.

He turned out to be something else altogether. To blame Republicans ignores a glaring truth: Obama’s record is worst where they had little or no role to play. It wasn’t Republicans who prosecuted all those whistle-blowers and hired all those lobbyists; who authorized drone strikes or kept the NSA chugging along; who reneged on the public option, the minimum wage and aid to homeowners. It wasn’t even Republicans who turned a blind eye to Wall Street corruption and excessive executive compensation. It was Obama.

A populist revolt among Democrats is unlikely absent their reappraisal of Obama, which itself seems unlikely. Not since Robert Kennedy have Democrats been so personally invested in a public figure. Liberals fell hardest so it’s especially hard for them to admit he’s just not that into them. 

– From Bill Curry’s excellent article in SalonMy party has lost its soul: Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and the victory of Wall Street Democrats.

Bill Curry’s article published this past Sunday by Salon is simply extraordinary. One of the things I’ve felt has been lacking in America for some time is the ability for well-meaning people within the “power structure” to look inward and be honest with themselves about the immoral decay fellow members of their socio-economic class have wrought upon the nation via a singleminded pursuit of wealth and power. A perfect example of an ignorant, destructive oligarch completely devoid of self-awareness was put on full display earlier this year when Sam Zell appeared on Bloomberg TV and essentially said the poor just need to act more like the rich.

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More Evidence Emerges of Big Banks Abusing American Military Families

“Complaints that active military personnel and National Guard members were losing their homes while deployed in war zones set off national outrage and prompted Congressional hearings in 2011. The case of Sgt. James B. Hurley, a disabled veteran whose home outside Hartford, Mich., was sold two months before he returned from Iraq, dragged through the courts for years, highlighting the devastating effect of foreclosures.”

– From the recent New York Times article: Banks Find More Wrongful Foreclosures Among Military Members

The above is part of a very depressing theme I have covered in the past.  Most recently in my piece from last November titled:  Big American Banks Particularly Enjoy Ripping off Active Duty U.S. Soldiers.  Today’s post follows up on that one and what we find; unsurprisingly, is that the more you peer behind the curtain, the more filthy the whole thing becomes.  That’s precisely why the oligarchs don’t want anyone to peer behind the curtain for too long.  From the New York Times:

The nation’s biggest banks wrongfully foreclosed on more than 700 military members during the housing crisis and seized homes from roughly two dozen other borrowers who were current on their mortgage payments, findings that eclipse earlier estimates of the improper evictions.

Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo uncovered the foreclosures while analyzing mortgages as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement deal with federal authorities, according to people with direct knowledge of the findings. In January, regulators ordered the banks to identify military members and other borrowers who were evicted in violation of federal law.

These four banks just keep popping up in criminal schemes don’t they?

The analysis, which was turned over to regulators in recent days, provides the first detailed glimpse into the extent of wrongful foreclosures amid the collapse of the housing market. While lenders previously acknowledged that they relied on faulty documents to push through foreclosures, the banks claimed borrowers were rarely evicted by mistake, including military personnel protected by federal law.

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Insider Sales of Stock Hit 2 Year High as Retail Sheep are Fooled Once Again

For a while there it was looking as if the market might actually make its high and move lower before Wall Street and corporate insiders were able to hand the bag over to the suckers in retail.  It looks like that was just wishful thinking, as new stats show the retail sheep taking stock from the oligarchs at the highs as usual.  I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.  From Bloomberg:

Corporate executives are taking advantage of near-record U.S. stock prices by selling shares in their companies at the fastest pace in two years.

There were about 12 stock-sale announcements over the past three months for every purchase by insiders at Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) companies, the highest ratio since January 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and Pavilion Global Markets. Whenever the ratio exceeded 11 in the past, the benchmark index declined 5.9 percent on average in the next six months, according to Pavilion, a Montreal-based trading firm.

Confidence in equities from individual investors may soften the blow from insider sales this time, according to Pavilion’s Pierre Lapointe, head of global strategy and research.

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The Guardian: Paul Krugman should be U.S. Treasury Secretary

The friend who sent this article to me wrote:

Part of me actually hopes for this appointment because he will accelerate the collapse of the current psychotic Keynesian ideology and our unsustainable fiscal practices. The sooner it ends, the better…even if that end is painful.

I couldn’t agree more.  Now for some snippets from the latest Op Ed insanity from a major publication:

Not only is he the world’s best-known economist, Krugman has the intellect and integrity to resist Wall Street’s calls for austerity.

He could ignore what Wall Street and conservative media interests want and pick somebody who would represent what the electorate voted for. And not even just the people who voted for him: there are a lot of Republican voters out there who are also unemployed.

It didn’t take long for the author to expose his lack of understanding in the above paragraph, where he uses the same old false left-right divide to imply Wall Street is “conservative.”  They are the furthest thing from conservative, they are simply financial oligarchs that own both major parties and Paul Krugman would be an ideal tool for them as well.

Then again, he does make one point I agree with:

This was unprecedented and an historic change; Kim is practically the only World Bank president in 60 years who was not previously a banker or a war criminal.

However, he immediately reverts to nonsense very quickly when he states:

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Even Washington D.C. Insiders Admit Eric Holder is a Bankster Puppet

You know it’s bad when even Washington D.C. insiders (and Democrats to boot) cringe at the cruel joke that the Department of Injustice has become under Eric “Fast and Furious” Holder.  Look, we all know that in any government there is going to be some level of corruption, but when the country’s chief law enforcement … Read more

Best SNL Parody of Wall Street…Ever

In honor of another successful muppet slaying by the big Wall Street banks via the absurdly overpriced Facebook IPO (down a nice 12% today), I thought it would be appropriate to post what is one of my favorite SNL skits of all time.  “Straight Talk” with Global Century.  Have a nice day muppets. *Update: Unfortunately … Read more