Michael Krieger

My name is Michael Krieger, and I am the creator and editor of Liberty Blitzkrieg. I'm originally from New York City.

As far as my academic and professional background, I attended college at Duke University where I earned a double major in Economics and Spanish. After completing my studies in 2000, I took a job at Lehman Brothers where I worked with the Oil analyst in the Equity Research Department.  In 2005, I joined Sanford C. Bernstein where I served as the Commodities Analyst on the trading floor. About halfway through my time there, I started to branch out and write opinions on bigger picture "macro" topics that no one else at the firm was covering. These opinion pieces were extremely popular throughout the global investment community, and I traveled around providing advice to some of the largest mutual funds, pension funds and hedge funds in the world.

I loved my job, but as time passed I started to educate myself about how the monetary and financial system functions and what I discovered disgusted me. I no longer felt satisfied working within the industry, and I resigned in January 2010.  At that point, I started a family investment office and continued to write macro pieces on economic, social and geopolitical topics. That summer, I drove cross country for six weeks and ultimately decided to leave the crowded streets of Manhattan for the open spaces of Boulder, Colorado, where I currently reside.

In the years that followed, I gradually recognized that my true passion centers upon writing on issues of significant societal importance given the extremely challenging times we live in. This realization culminated with me losing interest in financial markets and eventually launching this website in early 2012.

If you are interested in a more detailed description, replete with colorful anecdotes, of how I ended up making this bizarre professional transition, take the time to watch the video below.

https//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/DcqMN-FXCIE?rel=0

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

How Jack “Bailout Bonus” Lew Got to Treasury

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As I and many others have pointed out for years, unless you are a crony Wall Street welfare queen you can pretty much forget about any high level position in the Obama Administration.  Barack made that clear from day one when he decided to surround himself with two of the people at the core of the 2008 financial crisis, Larry Summers and Tim Geithner.  The trend is simply continuing with the current nominee for Treasury Secretary: Jack “Bailout Bonus” Lew.  The revolving door is institutionalized and at this point as reliable as a Swiss watch.  From Bloomberg:

Jack Lew is the nominee for Treasury secretary whose own bonus as an investment banker was bailed out by the Treasury Department when it rescued Citigroup Inc. (C) in 2008.  He owes much to America’s taxpayers. He should also be grateful to Citigroup for agreeing to let him rejoin the government without suffering much for it financially.

An intriguing revelation from Lew’s Senate confirmation hearing last week was that he stood to be paid handsomely by Citigroup if he left the company for a top U.S. government job, under his 2006 employment agreement with the bank. The wording of the pay provisions made it seem, at least to me, as if Citigroup might have agreed to pay Lew some sort of a bounty to seek out, and be appointed to, such a position.

Of course he is close to one of the biggest snakes in the grass in modern American history, Robert Rubin.

He joined Citigroup in 2006 as chief operating officer of its global wealth-management division. Lew was recommended by former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who at the time was chairman of Citigroup’s executive committee. (There seems to be an unwritten rule that every Treasury secretary must have deep ties to Rubin.)

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Targeted Killings: “It’s Ok if Obama Does it”

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In a YouGov poll of 1,000 voters last August, Tesler found significantly more support for targeted killing of suspected terrorists among white “racial liberals” (i.e., those liberal on issues of race) and African-Americans when they were told that Obama supported such a policy than when they were not told it was the president’s policy. Only 27 percent of white racial liberals in a control group supported the targeted killing policy, but that jumped to 48 percent among such voters who were told Obama had conducted such targeted killings.

– Joan Walsh’s recent article at Salon:  Targeted killings: OK if Obama does it?

Think about how troubling the above passage is.  Basically, a reasonably large percentage of the population of America will simply allow Barrack Obama to do whatever he wants because he is black and a member of their “Democrat” football team.  The irony is incredible, but believe me this fact is not lost upon the elites that want to perpetuate the warfare state indefinitely. They fully understand that Obama essentially neutralizes a large part of the “liberal” resistance simply because he is black and ostensibly “liberal.”

I came across the above information while reading Glenn Greenwald’s article about how MSNBC has finally make the total transformation into official government propaganda arm by hiring Robert Gibbs and David Axelrod.  His article is a scathing must-read.  Here are my favorite excerpts:

Last month, MSNBC’s Al Sharpton conducted a spirited debate about whether Obama belongs on Mount Rushmore or instead deserves a separate monument to his greatness (just weeks before replacing frequent Obama critic Cenk Uygur as MSNBC host, Sharpton publicly vowed never to criticize Barack Obama under any circumstances: a vow he has faithfully maintained).  

A Pew poll found that in the week leading up to the 2012 election, MSNBC did not air a single story critical of the President or a single positive story about Romney – not a single one – even as Fox aired a few negative ones about Romney and a few positive ones about Obama.

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Ann Coulter Calls Iraq a “Magnificent War” and is Booed by Libertarians

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If you had any doubt that Ann Coulter is a total raging psycho, this video should make it crystal clear.  She can barely contain her enthusiasm for war when she refers to Iraq as a “magnificent war.”  She then goes on to talk about how she wants to “make divorce more difficult.”  Strange position for … Read more

America in 2013: Florida Football Stadium Named After a Private Prison Company

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As much as any event in recent years that epitomizes America’s descent into a decrepit gulag state in which doing the right thing and building a healthy and productive culture takes a back seat to money and profits at all costs, plastering the name of a for-profit prison company on a new football stadium passes … Read more

Keeping us Safe: TSA Tries to Pat Down a Three Year Old Girl in a Wheelchair

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I think we should all do the patriotic thing here and honor the brave TSA agents who decided to pull aside a three year old girl in a wheelchair and drive her to tears in a pat- down attempt.  It’s not as if Lucy hasn’t already been through enough in life by suffering from spinal … Read more

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

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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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Interview Two with Wall Street for Main Street: Look for Capitulation

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Everyone is talking about the bloodbath in the miners, but if you’ve stayed in the space this long, or are just waiting on the sidelines, this seems to be the time for a clear head and to be on the lookout for capitulation.  While I don’t spend as much time on the markets these days, … Read more

Micro-Drones Have Landed: “Unobtrusive, Pervasive, Lethal”

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As if we didn’t already have our hands full dealing with their larger cousins, the United States Air Force now informs us of their latest killing machine…micro-drones.  Specifically called “Micro Air Vehicles” or MAVs, these little robots can fly like birds, crawl like spiders and kill like snipers.  It’s just another extremely disturbing development that we all need to keep a close eye on.  Thank you General Dynamics for the latest “freedom birds.”  From the UK’s Daily Mail:

The U.S. Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even sneak up on unsuspecting targets and execute them with lethal precision.

The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, has released a computer-animated video outlining the the future capabilities of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). The project promises to revolutionize war by down-sizing the combatants.

‘Unobtrusive, pervasive, lethal – Micro Air Vehicles, enhancing the capabilities of the future war fighter.’

As the drones fall, they begin to fly – not like planes, but like insects. High frequency flapping wings allow the drones to hover and maneuver in tight spaces.

Now check out the video…

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A 75 Year Old Indiana Farmer Takes on Monsanto

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From what I have read about Monsanto over the years, I have a very negative opinion on the company.  Not only do I think their products are doing more long-term harm than good to the environment, but I find the way they attack small farmers to be ruthless and morally indefensible.  As of yesterday, many of the controversies are coming to a head with the case Bowman v. Monsanto coming in front of the Supreme Court.  Fortunately for the company, Clarence Thomas was a former Monsanto attorney and the Obama Administration is also actively siding with them.  Banana Republic 101.  From Think Progress:

Monsanto is notorious among farmers for the company’s aggressive investigations and pursuit of farmers they believe have infringed on Monsanto’s patents. In the past 13 years, Monsanto has sued 410 farmers and 56 small farm businesses, almost always settling out of court (the few farmers that can afford to go to trial are always defeated). These farmers were usually sued for saving second-generation seeds for the next harvest — a basic farming practice rendered illegal because seeds generated by GM crops contain Monsanto’s patented genes.

Monsanto’s winning streak hinges on a controversial Supreme Court decision from 1981, which ruled on a 5-4 split that living organisms could be patented as private property.  As a result of that decision, every new generation of GM seeds — and their self-replicating technology — is considered Monsanto’s property.

Unfortunately, second- and third-generation seeds are very hard to track, which may explain why Monsanto devotes $10 million a year and 75 staffers to investigating farmers for possible patent violations. Seeds are easily carried by birds or blown by the wind into fields of non-GM seeds, exposing farmers who have never bought seeds from Monsanto to lawsuits. Organic and conventional seeds are fast becoming extinct — 93 percent of soybeans, 88 percent of cotton, and 86 percent of corn in the US are grown from Monsanto’s patented seeds. A recent study discovered that at least half of the organic seeds in the US are contaminated with some genetically modified material.

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Cornel West: Obama is a “War Criminal”

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It’s refreshing to know that at least some public figures still have the critical thinking capabilities and courage to speak the truth.  From Raw Story:

“I think, my dear brother, the chickens are coming home to roost,” West told Smiley. “We’ve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. It’s been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.”

“I think we have to be very honest, let us not be deceived: Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals,” West said. “They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they’re suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us. You and I, brother Tavis, if we kill an innocent person we go to jail, and we’re going to be in there forever.” 

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