Year: 2016

Interview with The Keiser Report – Notes from the Central Banking Gulag

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The Keiser Report is the most informative and entertaining show you will find anywhere on planet earth. I consider myself honored to have been featured as a guest on the program regularly over the past several years, including earlier this week. Take some time over the weekend to watch my latest appearance. You won’t be disappointed. In Liberty, Michael … Read more

Liberty Links 4/15/16

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14 links today. Enjoy. The Fed Sends a Frightening Letter to JPMorgan and Corporate Media Yawns (Must read, Wall on Street Parade) Germany’s Merkel Criticized for Allowing Prosecution of Comedian Who Mocked Erdogan (EU values on full display, Reuters) New Balance Accuses Pentagon of Reneging on Sneaker Deal (Despicable, Boston Globe) The First Ever Scientific Study … Read more

Hillary Clinton’s Net Favorability Rating Among Democrats is Cut in Half and Hits New Low

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ll know that New Yorkers go to the primary voting booths on April 19th. Unfortunately, only a small sliver of the population will actually be able to vote. First, it’s a closed primary, so you have to be registered as a member of one of the two corrupt political parties in order to participate. As the Guardian recently reported, 27% of New York state’s active voters were not registered in either party as of April 2016, meaning these people will have no say in the primary. Even worse, what about all those residents who aren’t active voters, but would very likely vote in this particular election given the increased turnout seen in other states? They’re iced out as well.

New York has one of the most archaic primaries in the nation. Not only is it one of only 11 states with closed primaries, but if you are a registered voter who wanted to change your party affiliation in order to vote in next week’s primary, you would’ve had to do it by last October. In contrast, if you weren’t yet a registered voter you had until March 25th to register under one of the two parties in order to vote in the primary. So if you live in New York and haven’t registered by now, you can’t vote. 

– From the post: Hillary Clinton Will Win New York, Because New York is Running a Banana Republic Primary

The more people get to know Hillary Clinton, the more they dislike her. The more people get to know Bernie Sanders, the more they like him.

For the latest evidence, let’s turn to Gallup:

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Elizabeth Warren Takes a Swipe at Paul Krugman’s “Revisionist History”

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Paul Krugman made the above statement in 1998, and while I stand guilty for plenty of bad forecasts, Krugman’s internet call is arguably the worst prediction in human history. Naturally, that doesn’t prevent the man from retaining his tenured position of punditry at the New York Times, a perch from which he continues expose millions of unsuspecting Americans to his incoherent, status quo coddling nonsense.

It appears Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has had enough.

The Huffington Post reports:

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“Let Them Sell Their Summer Homes” – NYC’s Largest Public Pension to Ditch Hedge Funds

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Despite the at times disconcertingly polite tone, the SEC has now announced that more than 50 percent of private equity firms it has audited have engaged in serious infractions of securities laws. These abuses were detected thanks to to Dodd Frank. Private equity general partners had been unregulated until early 2012, when they were required to SEC regulation as investment advisers.

Bowden pointed out that private equity is unique among the investment advisers the SEC supervises. The general partners’ control of portfolio companies gives them access to their cash flows, which the GPs can divert into their own pockets in numerous ways.

– From the post: SEC Official Claims Over 50% of Private Equity Audits Reveal Criminal Behavior

Is this the beginning of the end for the damaging and often predatory relationship between public pensions and “alternative asset managers” such as hedge funds and private equity? It should be.

Here’s what I had to say on the matter in January’s post, Additional Details Emerge on How Hedge Funds and Private Equity Firms Loot Public Pensions:

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Inspiration for Wall Street’s “Gordon Gekko” Proclaims – Only Sanders Can Stop the Banksters

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Asher Edelman just penned a powerful endorsement of Bernie Sanders in the The Guardian titled, I’m the real-life Gordon Gekko and I support Bernie Sanders.

So who is Asher Edelman? According to the paper:

Asher Edelman is an art collector and financier. He worked on Wall Street from 1962 to 1988 and taught a course at Columbia University School of Business titled Corporate Raiding: The Art of War. He is one of the inspirations for the Gordon Gekko character in the film Wall Street. 

Now here’s some of what he wrote regarding the state of the U.S. economy and the 2016 presidential election:

Banking is the least understood, and possibly most lethal, of all the myriad issues at stake in this election. No candidate other than Bernie Sanders is capable of taking the steps necessary to protect the American people from a repeat of the recent debacle that plunged the nation into a recession from which we have not recovered.

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The Truth About Hillary Clinton and Verizon

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By now, all of you will be aware of the fact that 39,000 Verizon workers are on strike. You might also know that both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton went to the picket lines to offer support. Here’s what you might not know.

From Salon:

In some ways, it would hard for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton to be more different. 

Hillary Clinton, a Wall Street-backed multimillionaire, served for six years on the board of directors of Walmart, the world’s largest company based on sales. She remained silent at a time when the mega-corporation was viciously cracking down on workers’ attempts to unionize.

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Hillary Clinton Accused of Using “Static Noise Machine” at Colorado Fundraiser

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Typical Clinton shadiness. Gawker is reporting the following:

Last week, a local Denver journalist named Stan Bush reported that Hillary Clinton’s campaign appeared to be using a hidden static noise machine to prevent reporters and other passerby from hearing the candidate’s stump speech at an outdoor fundraiser held at the private residence of Colorado’s governor, John Hickenlooper. The general allegation hung in odd kind of limbo, however, since Bush managed to record the machine’s (inherently indiscriminate) sound but was unable to photograph the actual device, while Clinton’s press shop ignored reporters’ attempts to confirm the machine’s existence. Meanwhile, the underlying question went unanswered: Why was Clinton using a static noise machine in the first place?

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“Nuit Debout” – Have Protests in France Turned Into a Larger Movement?

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The French people have been protesting new labor laws for a couple of weeks, but what I find particular interesting is the potential for these gatherings to turn into a full fledged political movement.

We all know by now that the status quo doesn’t care if the peasants get out in the streets for a few days to blow off some steam after being raped and pillaged by politicians. What really worries them; however, is when people get together, start talking to each other and then form cohesive movements. With “Nuit Debout,” or “Up All Night,” this may be happening in France.

Reuters reported the following yesterday:

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Liberty Links 4/13/16

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12 links today. Enjoy. Robert De Niro on “Vaxxed”: ‘The Movie is Something That People Should See’ (Infowars) UK Regulators Declare Start of “Beautiful Friendship” With Bitcoin, Ethereum (Brilliant move by the UK government, CoinTelegraph) Forget Flipping Houses — These Retail Investors Flip Mortgages (Nuts, Market Watch) Inspector General Says FBI Not Doing Enough To … Read more