As if it wasn’t obvious, I read a tremendous amount of material from a variety of sources and resources. Yesterday, I read an article in “The Atlantic” about how the police are being militarized -(Turning Patrolmen Into Soldiers: How Did We Let This Happen? - The Atlantic - James Fallows - Nov 21 2011). The writers, a Gulf War veteran who now works for the US Department of Justice and a Georgetown Attorney who is also a Ph. D. candidate had quite a bit to say about how American police are using military technology, which is true. How they are using military grade weapons; also true. How they are using military tactics, uniforms, haircuts, and sunglasses to emulate military forces, maybe. How the civilian authorities are using attack helicopters; what? I read all of these things and the only evidence proffered was a raid in Arizona or somewhere on the residence of a former Marine by a S.W.A.T. team doing a drug raid and when the Gulf Vet landed at the airport in some place in Minnesota, the police there were carrying M-4 carbines. Every other statement in that article was unsupported one-sided ideological conclusion that would make the reader seriously consider what country it is they reside in. Then, as if that weren’t enough, that article listed on a blog sight so I followed along to read some of the comments. There were ‘veterans’ commenting about how the police are different from the military (duh) and how the military would not fire on American civilians, blah, blah, blah. Not to mention there has been a serious disconnect between the police and civilian populations since 9/11.
Did any of you happen to read this? I can’t believe a magazine with the reputation of “The Atlantic” would print such an ‘article.’ First of all, let me say this. Police forces are para-military organizations. Their primary mission is to enforce the laws of the United States, the State in which they find themselves, and any local government for which they might find themselves employed. They save and protect life and property, and they are tasked with abiding by those same laws they are sworn to enforce. There may be departments and Chiefs who would re-order those things in that list and that’s fine. However you slice it, the police are societies’ ‘or else’ factor. The police are the ones who get the call when citizens are nervous, under stress or attack, or fear something dire is about to transpire. In other vernacular, that would translate into, ‘keeping the peace.’ By society, I mean a bunch of people living together under a common set of rules, not by socio-economic status. Have weapons and tactics changed over the years, and not the years immediately after 9/11? Sure they have. Criminals are not just armed with a revolver or the ubiquitous “Saturday Night Special” any more. Criminals come in all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. And just yesterday in the Military Times, I read where gang members are infiltrating the United States Military.
However, I started researching some of the claims. A quick Google search produced nothing even remotely relevant to American police using or even having attack helicopters. Now, an attack helicopter to me is something in the Apache, Cobra, or MI-24D configuration with guns, rockets, and missiles hanging off of it. Not one source was found identifying any domestic police agency in the United States as having such an item. The NYPD was identified as having surface to air missiles. Given the nature of the last attack, that isn’t completely unreasonable. However, the nature of the police is usually showing up after the fact, so I don’t know what good it could possibly do in the event of another such attack. It could come in handy if there was an aircraft spraying or dispersing a biological or chemical agent to halt that spread, but again, right place right time would play a huge role. The one thing that I did find of interest was the pending use of drones and their approval by the FAA. The same remote controlled flying circus that uses sensors and rockets and bombs in Afghanistan could be patrolling the border soon. Problem is, there is no target identification capability with those things. They don’t know the difference between Farmer Brown carrying a bale of hay and Juan the drug smuggler carrying a bale of marijuana. They’re targets and guess what happens to targets.
No, reading that article, I got the hint of something much more sinister in mind by the writers; a fomenting of resistance against the civilian authorities to allow for a military installation of authority. Now the writers did talk about the difference between military and civilian law enforcement missions and how the military was to engage and destroy enemy. Depending on your frame of reference and the high regard with which soldiers are revered currently, it would seem that they were saying that, in essence, soldiers should be patrolling since there are no enemies here in the United States, so, no problem. Let me remind you of a few things you have known but perhaps forgotten. The third infantry division has been trained for domestic occupation here. There is a plan in place, so placed just after 9/11, for their deployment on American soil, to aid civilian authority in time of unrest or disaster. While that sinks in, let me state this, if that deployment happens, there will be no local civilian control over those forces. They will be under Federal control and that translates into DOD or DHS control. Now that violates several Acts and statutes of Federal code, but that hasn’t been a stumbling block prior to. If you happen to read the Defense Authorization Act of 2012, you will see that it proposes to give US Military forces sweeping powers domestically, including holding citizens without charge, for indeterminate lengths of time.
Let me point out to you that while civilian law enforcement is certainly not perfect, neither is the military. When was the last time you heard of a civilian police officer being convicted, or charged for that matter, of cutting noses off people arrested and jailed? No? Me either. I can’t fathom why a Department of Justice employee and a Georgetown attorney and Ph.D. candidate would collude on such an article. Clearly, the attorney would know the pratfalls of writing unsupported conclusions with not one shred of support for the conclusions drawn being provided is absurd and would cause the rational mind to dismiss the piece outright. But what if you don’t read that critically? What if you take the qualifications of the writers as themselves being quantifiable and assume each word as truth and take it at face value?
No folks, there is something askew with this article. Police forces have always drawn veterans from military service into their ranks. So talk of that basis of training or skill levels as being new is wrong since it has always been inherent in the police since before World War II. That is nothing new. The military doesn’t un-train you when you leave. The upsurge in that type of training is perhaps necessary because police forces in the last 20 or so years have been intent on hiring kids that went to college and have no practical experience and small amounts of common sense and thus, have to be taught those things that may prove practically useful at some point in time, with the hope that they never have to use those tactics or that weapon. Civilian law enforcement is not to be feared in this nation and there is a very small, limited, and unarmed role for the military to aid civilian authority on domestic soil. Part of the oath every person entering in to military service is, in part, “…defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic….” In light of that, I’ll ask this, who or what makes the decision about who is the enemy? Y’all think about it.
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Thursday, December 1, 2011
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Three Years into the Economic Depression (2008-????)
The Hound says be wary of this Christmas. Don't spend money you don't have. Family is more important than trinkets. You can enjoy Christmas by committing to action and helping others. Don't be sold that everything is about money and materialism. Let's say that the economy completely collapses. Will those trinkets provide comfort or will they be a burden. You can call me crazy. I have no problem with that. I'm just telling you to be prepared. What do you lose by being prepared. I am sure that I am preaching this message to the choir of those who visit this blog. I don't need to tell you to wake up, because you are already awake. That is the reason why you are here. Your curiosity about the world surrounding you has brought you here. To you I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now go forth and plant seeds and seek to wake up at least one person today. Most likely you aren't even going to know that you have woke that person up. But, at a time in the near future that seed you have sown will sprout. This is the only chance we have got to turn this mess around. I think that is an optimistic message. That we control our destiny.
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress - Bloomberg - Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz - November 27, 2011 - Banks worldwide earned an estimated $13 billion by taking advantage of below-market rates on emergency U.S. Federal Reserve loans from August 2007 through April 2010. The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets Magazine reports in its January issue.
The Fed, headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, argued that revealing borrower details would create a stigma -- investors and counterparties would shun firms that used the central bank as lender of last resort -- and that needy institutions would be reluctant to borrow in the next crisis. Clearing House Association fought Bloomberg’s lawsuit up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the banks’ appeal in March 2011. $7.77 Trillion The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.
Bankers didn’t disclose the extent of their borrowing. On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America (BAC) Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fall More Than Forecast, Case-Shiller Says - Bloomberg - Alex Kowalski - Nov 29, 2011 - Residential real estate prices dropped more than forecast in the year ended September, showing the industry at the center of the 2008 financial crisis continues to struggle.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities dropped 3.6 percent in September from the same month in 2010 after decreasing 3.8 percent in the year ended August, the group said today in New York. The median forecast of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey projected a 3 percent decrease.... “We continue to expect home prices to fall through mid- 2012,” said Anika Khan, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We still have an oversupply of existing homes, and distressed transactions continue to drive down home prices.”
Secret Fed Loans Gave Banks $13 Billion Undisclosed to Congress - Bloomberg - Bob Ivry, Bradley Keoun and Phil Kuntz - November 27, 2011 - Banks worldwide earned an estimated $13 billion by taking advantage of below-market rates on emergency U.S. Federal Reserve loans from August 2007 through April 2010. The Federal Reserve and the big banks fought for more than two years to keep details of the largest bailout in U.S. history a secret. Now, the rest of the world can see what it was missing. The Fed didn’t tell anyone which banks were in trouble so deep they required a combined $1.2 trillion on Dec. 5, 2008, their single neediest day. Bankers didn’t mention that they took tens of billions of dollars in emergency loans at the same time they were assuring investors their firms were healthy. And no one calculated until now that banks reaped an estimated $13 billion of income by taking advantage of the Fed’s below-market rates, Bloomberg Markets Magazine reports in its January issue.
The Fed, headed by Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, argued that revealing borrower details would create a stigma -- investors and counterparties would shun firms that used the central bank as lender of last resort -- and that needy institutions would be reluctant to borrow in the next crisis. Clearing House Association fought Bloomberg’s lawsuit up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the banks’ appeal in March 2011. $7.77 Trillion The amount of money the central bank parceled out was surprising even to Gary H. Stern, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 1985 to 2009, who says he “wasn’t aware of the magnitude.” It dwarfed the Treasury Department’s better-known $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Add up guarantees and lending limits, and the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion as of March 2009 to rescuing the financial system, more than half the value of everything produced in the U.S. that year.
Bankers didn’t disclose the extent of their borrowing. On Nov. 26, 2008, then-Bank of America (BAC) Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis wrote to shareholders that he headed “one of the strongest and most stable major banks in the world.” He didn’t say that his Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm owed the central bank $86 billion that day.
Home Prices in 20 U.S. Cities Fall More Than Forecast, Case-Shiller Says - Bloomberg - Alex Kowalski - Nov 29, 2011 - Residential real estate prices dropped more than forecast in the year ended September, showing the industry at the center of the 2008 financial crisis continues to struggle.
The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities dropped 3.6 percent in September from the same month in 2010 after decreasing 3.8 percent in the year ended August, the group said today in New York. The median forecast of 32 economists in a Bloomberg News survey projected a 3 percent decrease.... “We continue to expect home prices to fall through mid- 2012,” said Anika Khan, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We still have an oversupply of existing homes, and distressed transactions continue to drive down home prices.”
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I Got Effed by MF Global.
KINGSTON, NY, 28 November 2011 — The MF Global bankruptcy has more far reaching implications than are currently being acknowledged. Not simply an isolated instance of corporate mismanagement resulting in disastrous and irreparable effects on options and commodity futures markets, the MF bankruptcy – the eighth-largest in US history – is a harbinger of much worse to come. Who’s Going to Eff U? Don't be taken in by today's stock market bounce that's based on the belief that Europe is coming closer to resolving its debt crisis, and that strong US Black Friday retail sales are a sign recession has been averted. The European debt crisis is a long term trend with no quick fixes. And the retail surge is no more than a flash mob spending spree hyped by a corporate media. The more they hype it and the more consumers spend, the more advertising space the media sells to retailers The MF meltdown, however, is symptomatic of a global economic system on the verge of collapse. No financial sector will escape unscathed: banks, brokerages, hedge funds, insurance companies, stocks and stock markets are all at risk. Do you know where your money is? Will you get it back? Are you prepared? When the evidence is pieced together, it proves how corrupt, bankrupt and dishonest the financial/political cabal that runs America is, and reveals the complicity of the media in covering up their masters’ misdeeds. The MF crash provides glaring examples of the failure of the CME Group (the options and commodity exchange of which MF was a member) to do its own due diligence of member firms. It exposes the incestuous relationship between government agencies, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the entities they are charged with regulating and monitoring – in this case, the CME and its member firms (such as MF Global). The government’s response to the crash exposes a terminally corrupt justice system, committed to prosecuting any minor violation of the law by any average citizen, but turning a blind eye on the rich, powerful and well connected. It shows how, as in any authoritarian, fascist or communist system, members of the “party” are granted party privileges … immunity from prosecution among them. Such is the case for Jon Corzine, the man who headed MF Global and brought it to bankruptcy. The former Democratic Governor and Senator of New Jersey and former co-head of Goldman Sachs, has been given a free pass. Despite authorities’ inability to find more than a billion dollars of customers’ segregated funds, enforcement agencies, DA’s, the FBI et al., have not even called Corzine in for questioning, much less indicted him. For a media that feasts on titillation, gossip, scandal and sleaze – and has shown its passion for accusing, trying and convicting people before they are accused of a crime or brought to trial – it is instructive to note that when it came to White House-connected Corzine, his privacy was respected and he was left unaccused. There were no camera crews massed outside his house or reporters hounding him, demanding to know, “Where’s the money?” It is becoming clear that, in the final days before bankruptcy, MF Global raided its customer accounts. The failure to separate customer and house funds is a violation of US law. Moreover, even if MF Global were to claim the comingling of funds was inadvertent, that would not serve as a valid excuse. CFTC enforcement chief David Meister has stated that proof of intent was not a requirement for his agency to take action. “You should know the commission takes the laws on segregated funds very seriously,” Meister said. But evidently, not too “very seriously.” For the White House-connected and White Shoe Boy lawyer-protected Corzine, no questions asked, no indictments, no Perp walk and, as yet, no trial. So far, the only inconvenience facing Corzine is his scheduled testimony before Congress on December 15th (a full month and a half after the bankruptcy), at which time he will be allowed to plead the Fifth and refuse to testify on grounds that he could incriminate himself. How I got Effed by MF Global, And Why it is Important to You I’ve been trading and buying gold since 1978. I am not a “speculator.” I buy coins and bullion as well as futures contracts. My involvement with MF Global went like this: I made an agreement with the well-respected firm Lind-Waldock (subsequently bought by MF Global) to purchase gold future contracts, with due date for delivery of the gold in December 2011. Holding the gold “contracts” entailed a substantial “margin” requirement … in essence a deposit (similar to a lay-away plan at a retail store). From the time I bought the contracts, I kept building my account so that when it came time to take delivery in December, I would have a substantial amount of money in my account to complete the purchase. Within days of announcement of the MF Global bankruptcy, I received a call from my broker informing me that the funds had been taken from my account and transferred to a trustee, and that my gold contracts were now with another brokerage firm. Because most of my funds were no longer in my account, he said, I now faced a margin call to cover my open gold positions. Concerned with the integrity of the futures exchange itself (CME Group) and its failure to honor its claim to be “the guarantor of every transaction that happens in our markets” (click here for CME Group’s statement of “guarantee”). I refused to put up more money, so they closed out a number of my open positions at the current market price. Subsequent to the transfer of my contracts, statements from the new brokerage to which they’d been assigned indicated that that I had bought gold at $1,767 an ounce … the price of gold on the day of the transfer from MF Global to the assigned brokerage. This was not the case. Earlier statements prove that I bought my December gold contracts at $1,443 … not $1,767. So, although I had contracted to take delivery at $1,443, under the rules of the “we will do as we please, shut your mouth and do as you’re told” dirty deal made by the inside dealmakers, I was told I would have to pay $1767 an ounce. I had been Effed, and I had a lot of company. Others, who had seen the bankruptcy coming, closed out their accounts. But rather than wire transferring them their funds, MF Global Effed them by mailing checks that bounced. Those who had previously taken delivery but were holding warehouse receipts for physical gold and silver being stored via an MF appointed repository, also had their assets seized by the trustee. I want to make this absolutely clear: Buying gold to take delivery is NOT speculation! And it is delusion to believe that you are immune to the systemic criminality that pervades virtually every aspect of the financial sector. MF Global, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, IndyMac Bank, Bear Stearns, Northern Rock, Countrywide, Dexia, Anglo Irish, Wachovia, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard … do you really know what went on, or is now going on behind the closed doors of these firms? Which will be the next crooked insurance company, bank, brokerage, savings and loan, or financial institution to go belly up? And if and when it happens, what assurance do you have that you won’t be robbed and victimized? Sure, sure, your savings and checking accounts, up to $250,000, are protected by the FDIC in the event of bank failure. But how long will it take to get your money when banks start falling like dominoes? Sure, sure, under SIPC rules, stock accounts are partially protected when your broker/dealer goes bankrupt. But will you still be alive by the time the legal fight is over? The Big EFF is Coming The Berlusconi government fell on November 16, and bond yields have risen to unsustainable levels in Italy, the euro-zone’s third largest economy. Before that, it was the ongoing Greek sovereign debt crisis, and the fall of that nation’s Prime Minister. Last week, Hungary was begging for an IMF bailout that, 18 months ago, it pledged it would never need. Spain has just celebrated the election of a new Prime Minister who ran on a pro-austerity platform. To the bond markets, his election changed nothing. Spanish borrowing costs continued to rise, approaching their highest levels since the European debt crisis began. Distress signals were even sounding from Germany, the strongman of the euro-zone, considered a safe haven of financial stability amid the ongoing euro crisis. Last Wednesday, just two-thirds of the once much sought-after German bonds were sold at what has been described as a "disastrous" government bond auction. One analyst called it “…a complete disaster," while another said the auction was a "vote of no confidence against the entire euro zone … a change in sentiment has taken place." On Thursday, the “change in sentiment” hit Hungary and Portugal:
Hungary Cut to Junk at Moody’s After IMF Plea
Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Hungary lost its investment-grade rating at Moody’s Investors Service after 15 years as the Cabinet seeks International Monetary Fund help to boost confidence in the European Union’s most-indebted eastern member. Elliott Gotkine reports on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown" with Owen Thomas.
Fitch cuts Portugal credit rating to junk status
FRANKFURT, 25 November 2011 – Fitch Ratings on Thursday cut Portugal's sovereign credit rating to BB-plus from BBB-minus, putting the country's rating in junk status. The rating carries a negative outlook, which means a further cut is possible. "The country's large fiscal imbalances, high indebtedness across all sectors, and adverse macroeconomic outlook mean the sovereign's credit profile is no longer consistent with an investment-grade rating,” Fitch said in a news release.
Meanwhile, in the United States, the failure of the optimistically named “Super Committee” to reach a deal to rein in America’s spiraling deficit, was being blamed for dragging down financial markets around the world.
MF Global, Europe’s sovereign debt crises, the intractable American deficit and all the other financial problems plaguing the planet are interconnected and cumulative in their impact. Want to Buy a Bridge in Brooklyn? The big lie being peddled by politicians and parroted by the media, is that star-studded groups – possessed of superior brain power far beyond that of mere mortals – are putting their heads together to solve the mounting crises. Don’t buy into the lie. The same people that removed regulations and safeguards while passing laws and promoting policies that helped produce the global financial crisis are now undertaking the task of fixing what they have broken. Germany brags about its kitchen cabinet of economic “wise ones.” The Italians and Greeks celebrate their technocrats. The US simply assembles a bipartisan dozen of Republican and Democratic hacks, repackaging and promoting them to the public as a “Super Committee.” Even those of us with lesser brains know full well that the crises cannot be solved by these people or by the methods they prescribe. In a few weeks, we will be releasing a synopsis of our Top Trends for 2012. Among them will be a warning of the high probability for some form of “economic martial law” to be imposed early in the New Year to stop runs on banks and equity markets from collapsing. The reason we believe it will not occur sooner? Governments will wait until consumers finish their holiday spending spree. The Lesson I Learned The MF Global bankruptcy is just one example of how even knowledgeable and cautious people taking precautionary measures to protect their assets can still be robbed by the Wall Street mob. Having taken a hard hit from the MF Global scandal, it is now extremely difficult for me to put any trust in any financial institution. The Trends Research Institute is not permitted to provide financial advice or to recommend investments to prepare for the coming “Winter of Economic Discontent.” However, my own strategy (as I have repeatedly stated) is to keep only operating expenses in banks, and to invest only in gold and silver. Furthermore (again speaking only for myself), it makes absolutely no sense to leave my hard-earned money in the hands of others and get virtually no interest on deposits while taking the risk that I may never see my money again. |
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Monday, November 28, 2011
Governor Perdue's former assistant Morganton Attorney Juleigh Sitton indicted on Felony Campaign charges
Associated Press - Grand jury indicts 3 with ties to Perdue campaign - Associated Press - GARY D. ROBERTSON & MICHAEL BIESECKER - November 28, 2011 - Grand jurors handed up indictments in state court against former Perdue campaign finance director Peter Reichard of Greensboro; Juleigh Sitton of Morganton, until recently the director of the governor's Western Office in Asheville; and Trawick H. "Buzzy" Stubbs Jr. of New Bern, a former law partner with Perdue's late first husband. Stubbs and Sitton were each charged with one count each of filing false campaign reports and obstruction of justice, according to the indictments, while Reichard was charged with one count of obstruction of justice. All the charges are felonies, with potential penalties ranging from community service to prison time.
The indictments accuse Sitton and Reichard of hiding that Sitton was being paid an additional $32,000 — $2,000 a month for 16 months — to work full-time for Perdue's campaign through outside money. The money was funneled through a merchant banking firm operated by Reichard called Tryon Capital Partners. Reichard solicited and accepted money from Morganton business owner Charles M. Fulenwider, according to the indictment. The money paid by Fulenwider, who has not been charged, was disguised as consulting services to Tyron that were never provided, the report said.
PDF Link to the Indictments - (Charlotte Observer)
PDF of Governor Bev Perdue's statement on the issue - (Charlotte Observer)
From the News and Observer (Raleigh) - 3 Perdue associates indicted - Dan Kane - November 28, 2011 - A Wake County grand jury today handed down indictments alleging that a top aide to Gov. Bev Perdue's 2008 campaign schemed to pay a staffer $32,000 for work that was kept off the books in violation of state election laws.
The new charges, all felonies, are part of a long-running investigation into Perdue campaign activities that have focused on expenditures that would have triggered election law violations for exceeding the limit on personal donations if they had been reported. Earlier this year a retired state magistrate was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to hide an illegal campaign flight.
People seemed to know something was up when Juleigh Sitton resigned in August 2011. Recently, blog searches for "Juleigh Sitton", "Claude Sitton", "Juleigh Sitton resignation" have been prevalent, indicating someone was looking for the indictment story to break soon. The Hickory Hound blog ran their story on Morganton's Shenanigans on September 1, 2011. This was the first inclination that Juleigh Sitton may be accused in the matter.
From the Hickory Hound: Morganton Shenanigans - Wide Ranging & Far Reaching Implications - September 1, 2011 - The Governor is feeling the heat of corruption in the Democrat party. This is the reason for her "shake-up." Juliegh Sitton, an attorney from Morganton and until late last week was the Director of the Governor's Western Office, is accused of campaign "issue" involving a local millionaire in Morganton who is a Fast Food magnate. This Fast Food magnate has been implicated in several scandals including with the former Governor Mike Easley, Governor Bev Perdue, and from what I have read and heard the Football Scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Juleigh Sitton is the daughter of former Superior court Judge Claude Sitton.
Connect the Dots:
SBI investigates contributions for Perdue's campaign flights - Morganton News Herald - Mike Baker - October 8, 2010
Why Did Perdue Campaign Not Use Cheaper State Plane? - Carolina Journal - Don Carrington - September 30, 2010
Dozens Involved in Aircraft Provider Program for Perdue, Easley - Carolina Journal - Don Carrington - October 28, 2010
The indictments accuse Sitton and Reichard of hiding that Sitton was being paid an additional $32,000 — $2,000 a month for 16 months — to work full-time for Perdue's campaign through outside money. The money was funneled through a merchant banking firm operated by Reichard called Tryon Capital Partners. Reichard solicited and accepted money from Morganton business owner Charles M. Fulenwider, according to the indictment. The money paid by Fulenwider, who has not been charged, was disguised as consulting services to Tyron that were never provided, the report said.
PDF Link to the Indictments - (Charlotte Observer)
PDF of Governor Bev Perdue's statement on the issue - (Charlotte Observer)
From the News and Observer (Raleigh) - 3 Perdue associates indicted - Dan Kane - November 28, 2011 - A Wake County grand jury today handed down indictments alleging that a top aide to Gov. Bev Perdue's 2008 campaign schemed to pay a staffer $32,000 for work that was kept off the books in violation of state election laws.
The new charges, all felonies, are part of a long-running investigation into Perdue campaign activities that have focused on expenditures that would have triggered election law violations for exceeding the limit on personal donations if they had been reported. Earlier this year a retired state magistrate was charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly trying to hide an illegal campaign flight.
The indictment against him said his business, Tryon Capital Ventures, received $32,000 in contributions or loans from Charles Michael Fulenwider, a Perdue contributor from Morganton who owns fast food restaurants and had arranged several campaign flights for her. Reichard used the $32,000, disguised as consulting services, to compensate Julia Leigh Sitton, who later became the director of the governor's Western office. She is also known as Juleigh Sitton.
Sitton was charged with obstruction of justice and causing the Perdue campaign to file false reports. She resigned from the director's position in August and had been making $50,000 a year. She is a Morganton attorney who has long been active in Democratic political campaigns. Perdue campaign finance records show she was reimbursed for roughly $4,500 in campaign expenses in the 2008 election.
From the Burke Ed Blog: Judge Claude Sitton's Daughter Indicted by Grand Jury... but Morganton businessman Mike Fulenwider was not charged. - According to AP reports (which are everywhere on the World Wide Web since this story broke on 11/28/11 at 12:51pm), the Wake County grand jury indicted two attorneys (WPCC Trustee Juleigh Sitton, and Trawick "Buzzy" Stubbs, Jr.), as well as a Greensboro businessman, Peter Reichard, with campaign violations. According to the AP, all charges are felonies with potential penalties ranging from community service to prison time.
The News & Observer's report states that Mike Fulenwider donated or loaned funds to Reichard's business, Tryon Capital Ventures, which then compensated Juleigh Sitton $2,000 per month for work on the Perdue campaign that was kept off the books. Sitton was charged with obstruction of justice and causing the campaign to file false reports, according to the News & Observer.
People seemed to know something was up when Juleigh Sitton resigned in August 2011. Recently, blog searches for "Juleigh Sitton", "Claude Sitton", "Juleigh Sitton resignation" have been prevalent, indicating someone was looking for the indictment story to break soon. The Hickory Hound blog ran their story on Morganton's Shenanigans on September 1, 2011. This was the first inclination that Juleigh Sitton may be accused in the matter.
From the Hickory Hound: Morganton Shenanigans - Wide Ranging & Far Reaching Implications - September 1, 2011 - The Governor is feeling the heat of corruption in the Democrat party. This is the reason for her "shake-up." Juliegh Sitton, an attorney from Morganton and until late last week was the Director of the Governor's Western Office, is accused of campaign "issue" involving a local millionaire in Morganton who is a Fast Food magnate. This Fast Food magnate has been implicated in several scandals including with the former Governor Mike Easley, Governor Bev Perdue, and from what I have read and heard the Football Scandal at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Juleigh Sitton is the daughter of former Superior court Judge Claude Sitton.
Connect the Dots:
SBI investigates contributions for Perdue's campaign flights - Morganton News Herald - Mike Baker - October 8, 2010
Why Did Perdue Campaign Not Use Cheaper State Plane? - Carolina Journal - Don Carrington - September 30, 2010
Dozens Involved in Aircraft Provider Program for Perdue, Easley - Carolina Journal - Don Carrington - October 28, 2010
Unnamed Source Paid for Perdue Campaign Flight - Lincoln Tribune - February 24, 2011
( The Hound ): Who can you trust in this area. Every time we see the light shined upon one of these issues it looks dirty. We always look to the eastern side of North Carolina and point a finger towards the corruption we see there. What about the corruption we see in our own backyard? It's the same thing!
The Hound: This is why the Hound is real journalism. We don't mind talking about the issues and we are constantly at the forefront of the issues. Where are the other local media outlets. You want to know what is going on, then this is the place to come find out.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- November 27, 2011
Contagion in the System - The Hickory Hound - November 24, 2011 - The problem lies with these Huge Multi-National Mega-Corporations and their marriage to global governance. They are supposed to represent all interested parties. The customer/client, the employee, the community where they do business, as well as the shareholders. Instead they have only looked towards the interests of Executives at the top and the largest shareholding interests. Everyone else is screwed.
Who has control over these entities, which many have deemed "too big to fail?" Domestically, these entities have bought into every facet of our political party structure through lobbying influence and political contributions. This means that Mega-Corporate Interests take precedence over those of the American people. When these entities break the law they are rarely held accountable, especially in a punitive fashion.
In Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography (from 98 years ago) he addresses this issue in relating the Progressive Platform of the Bull-Moose party, which was formed as a splinter group from the Republican Party led by President William Taft who had succeeded Roosevelt in 1909. This was during the first Robber Baron period of this nation, when Incorporated Business growth was leading to monopolies, collusion, price fixing, anti-competitive practices, and other unregulated power through these interests, which led to such regulation as the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act...
MF GLOBAL REVELATIONS KEEP GETTING WORSE - Pragmatic Capitalism - Janet Tavakoli, Tavakoli Structured Finance - November 22, 2011 - When MF Global collapsed on October 21, it was the biggest financial firm to collapse since Lehman in September 2008. Then Chairman and CEO Jon Corzine is connected to the head of one of his key regulators, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), through his former protégé at Goldman Sachs, Gary Gensler. He also knows the Fed’s William Dudley, a key member of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, from their days at Goldman Sachs. The Fed approved MF Global’s status as a primary dealer, a participant in the Fed’s Open Market Operations, just before Jon Corzine took its helm and beached it on a reef called leveraged credit risk. MF Global’s officers admitted to federal regulators that before the collapse, the firm diverted cash from customers’ accounts that were supposed to be segregated.... Cash in customers’ accounts may be invested in allowable transactions, and MF was allowed to make extra revenue from the income. But what isn’t allowed, and what MF Global apparently admitted to doing, is to commingle customers’ money with its own and take money from customers’ accounts to meet margin calls on MF Global’s own allowable transactions. Even if all of the money is eventually clawed back and recovered, this remains an impermissible act. Moreover, full recovery—even if it is possible—is not the same as restitution. People have been denied access to their money, and businesses and reputations have been tarnished. MF Global reportedly employed 35:1 leverage—some reports are 40:1—against a portfolio comprised around 20% of European Sovereign risks including Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. MF Global would have had several trading days in 2011 with moves of 5% to 10% on this sovereign risk. MF Global was so thinly capitalized that this trade alone could eat up half of its capital. Any of MF Global’s other asset positions moving the same way in 2011’s highly correlated markets would have put MF Global in a position of negative equity. From a risk management point of view, examiners have to consider the very strong possibility that MF Global had several negative equity days throughout 2011. How did MF Global meet margin calls throughout 2011? It seems an investigation into money flows throughout 2011 is in order. By the end of October, the combination of a $90 million August legal settlement against MF Global coming due, increased capital calls by FINRA, and margin hikes from counterparties worried about MF Global’s credit made it impossible for MF Global to cover up its shortfall. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) gave Jon Corzine a waiver from his Series 7 and Series 24 exams when he took the helm of MF Global in March 2010. The former is required for anyone involved in the investment banking or securities business including supervision, solicitation, or training of persons associated with MF Global, and that included Corzine. As an officer of MF Global the latter was required for Corzine, since he had been out of the business for around 12 years or more than six times the 2 year expiration date for reactivating these qualifications..... The test waiver by regulators seems to be blatant cronyism, because Corzine not only hadn’t been involved in the day-to-day markets for more than a decade, his responsibilities at MF Global included active decision making. The waiver wasn’t justified. Corzine reportedly authored the strategy for the MF Global killing trades, and he also had authority on the trading floor..... Gary Gensler, head of the CFTC, did not investigate or begin transferring accounts out of MF Global before the bankruptcy, and that is unprecedented for the CFTC. Given that Gary Gensler was a protégé of Jon Corzine at Goldman Sachs, one should question why Gary Gensler didn’t act and why he should be allowed to remain head of the CFTC..... Gary Gensler, Jon Corzine’s former Goldman Sachs colleague and current head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), had reason to be concerned about MF Global’s risk management. In early 2008, a rogue trader racked up $141.5 million in losses in unauthorized trades that exceeded his trading limits. It seems he accomplished this in under seven hours. In August of this year, MF Global and the underwriters of its 2007 initial public stock offering (IPO) paid around $90 million to settle claims by investors that they were misled about MF Global’s risk management prior to the rogue trader’s actions. Since 2008, MF Global’s financial condition has been nothing to brag about. Now the settlement is in jeopardy due to the bankruptcy. [Michael Stockman, the chief risk officer of MF Global as of January 2011 (after the previous mentioned incident) was in my Liar’s Poker training class lampooned by another classmate, Michael Lewis.]...... The “risk wizards” of Goldman Sachs once again look like market wrecking balls. The futures market is a globally connected market and it is a key mechanism for farmers, metals miners, and metals fabricators (among others) to hedge their risk. Confidence in the futures market has been shaken. No one knows if their money is safe, but what is more disturbing is the appearance of crony capitalism once again giving favored treatment, lax regulation, and absent oversight to a crony capitalist that abused all of these perks to blow up a large financial firm and damage a key global market.
Jefferies Bankruptcy Imminent? CEO Is "Weighing Whether Firm Can Remain Independent" - SilverDoctors - November 22, 2011 - Jefferies' CEO Richard Handler is reportedly looking for buyers for the distressed firm, and is "weighing whether the firm can remain independent".
The Doc's Translation (in the MF Global timeline of events): We are currently in a mad rush to confiscate client funds and gold and silver warehouse certificates, receipts, and bullion in a desperate attempt to secure a short term loan to make it until we reach a deal with JP Morgan. If we can't secure a short term by Wednesday, don't expect to see us in the office on Monday or your segregated funds ever again.
Gerald Celente : we look at a Global Meltdown - Pakalert Press - Michael Harris - November 23, 2011 - Michael Harris – 21 November 2011 : The white shoe boyz are immune to this and this is the immorality that is running through America , not one head has rolled from the financial panic of 2008 and all the dirty deals that were done , justice means Just US says Gerald Celente , ” I am the only guy that broke the story about the CME group” he added , and by the way the CME is the Chicago Mafia Enterprise , they do not have gold to deliver we look at a Global Meltdown the whole global financial system is in collapse look at what’s going on in Europe.
THE RETURN OF DEBTORS PRISONS: Collection Agencies Now Want Deadbeats Arrested - By Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker – Tue, Nov 22, 2011 - As if life wasn't already tense enough for Americans who can't pay their debts, collection agencies are now taking advantage of archaic state laws to have some debtors arrested and sent to jail. More than one-third of US states allow debtors to be arrested and jailed, says Jessica Silver-Greenberg in the Wall Street Journal. Judges typically grant arrest warrants when the debtors have failed to show up for court dates or failed to make court-ordered payments. Of course, the reason debtors have failed to make court-ordered payments is often the same reason they didn't pay their debts in the first place: They don't have any money.
The truth behind the new jobless generation - The Telegraph (London) - Emily Gosden, and Neil Tweedie - November 26, 2011 - As the economy continues to splutter, with third-quarter growth of 0.5 per cent, the Coalition is faced with a political running sore. A sticking plaster was applied yesterday when the Government announced £1 billion of spending over three years to provide young people with subsidised places in the private sector. From next April, employers will be offered £2,275 per recruit for taking on people aged 18 to 24 for six months. Some 160,000 young people should benefit from the scheme, and up to 410,00 are to be offered placements of some kind or another, but the number of real jobs created is anyone’s guess. In any case, such solutions do nothing to address one of the central failings of the British economy: the chronic inability of the British education system to deliver useful employees to commerce and industry. People like the tongue-tied business studies graduate illustrate a problem cited time and time again by employers: young people lacking basic skills, even at the graduate end of the scale, but imbued with an over-healthy sense of entitlement. “It’s all very good going to university and coming out with these degrees, but you must have the social skills to go with them,” says Mandy Brook, director of the Eastbourne-based agency, Recruitment South East. “You need to be able to look someone in the eye and have a conversation. I would say 70 per cent of the children out of university and further education can’t do those things.” Few applicants, she says, are prepared to lower their sights and take more menial jobs to gain knowledge of the workplace. “They turn around and say: 'That’s not what I was looking for.’ You explain the market to them but they say they will wait or they strop off. They are hoping for £20,000 or more.” A solution is readily available: thousands of polite, hard-working, well-qualified young people from the eastern countries of the European Union and elsewhere. With much of Britain’s human capital wasted, the gaps have been filled by foreigners. Of the 29.17 million people aged 16 and over in employment in the United Kingdom, 2.56 million are non-British nationals. At the same time there are 2.62 million in this country unemployed and 9.36 million people classed as economically inactive. While the British component of the workforce shrank by 280,000 in the year to September, the overseas workforce in Britain expanded by 147,000. By far the biggest foreign contingent is from the eastern EU – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic states. There are 669,000 workers from those countries here, an increase of 94,000 on last year. “The foreigners are the keenest,” says Miss Brook. “They have the skills and they will work for pretty much any money. They are hard working, there on time and stay late if needed. It’s easier to take someone like that on than someone who thinks the world owes them a living.” The competition for British young people comes not only from foreigners of a similar age. Miss Brook says she is encountering more applicants aged 55 and over, people driven back into work by inadequate pensions and rising prices.
Scott Millar - The Future Economy Council - Catawba County Economics 101 - The Hickory Hound - November 22, 2011
Who has control over these entities, which many have deemed "too big to fail?" Domestically, these entities have bought into every facet of our political party structure through lobbying influence and political contributions. This means that Mega-Corporate Interests take precedence over those of the American people. When these entities break the law they are rarely held accountable, especially in a punitive fashion.
In Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography (from 98 years ago) he addresses this issue in relating the Progressive Platform of the Bull-Moose party, which was formed as a splinter group from the Republican Party led by President William Taft who had succeeded Roosevelt in 1909. This was during the first Robber Baron period of this nation, when Incorporated Business growth was leading to monopolies, collusion, price fixing, anti-competitive practices, and other unregulated power through these interests, which led to such regulation as the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act...
"Behind the ostensible Government sits enthroned an invisible Government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.... This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest." This assertion is explicit. We say directly that "the people" are absolutely to control in any way they see fit, the "business" of the country. I again challenge Mr. Wilson to...
MF GLOBAL REVELATIONS KEEP GETTING WORSE - Pragmatic Capitalism - Janet Tavakoli, Tavakoli Structured Finance - November 22, 2011 - When MF Global collapsed on October 21, it was the biggest financial firm to collapse since Lehman in September 2008. Then Chairman and CEO Jon Corzine is connected to the head of one of his key regulators, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), through his former protégé at Goldman Sachs, Gary Gensler. He also knows the Fed’s William Dudley, a key member of the Fed’s Open Market Committee, from their days at Goldman Sachs. The Fed approved MF Global’s status as a primary dealer, a participant in the Fed’s Open Market Operations, just before Jon Corzine took its helm and beached it on a reef called leveraged credit risk. MF Global’s officers admitted to federal regulators that before the collapse, the firm diverted cash from customers’ accounts that were supposed to be segregated.... Cash in customers’ accounts may be invested in allowable transactions, and MF was allowed to make extra revenue from the income. But what isn’t allowed, and what MF Global apparently admitted to doing, is to commingle customers’ money with its own and take money from customers’ accounts to meet margin calls on MF Global’s own allowable transactions. Even if all of the money is eventually clawed back and recovered, this remains an impermissible act. Moreover, full recovery—even if it is possible—is not the same as restitution. People have been denied access to their money, and businesses and reputations have been tarnished. MF Global reportedly employed 35:1 leverage—some reports are 40:1—against a portfolio comprised around 20% of European Sovereign risks including Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. MF Global would have had several trading days in 2011 with moves of 5% to 10% on this sovereign risk. MF Global was so thinly capitalized that this trade alone could eat up half of its capital. Any of MF Global’s other asset positions moving the same way in 2011’s highly correlated markets would have put MF Global in a position of negative equity. From a risk management point of view, examiners have to consider the very strong possibility that MF Global had several negative equity days throughout 2011. How did MF Global meet margin calls throughout 2011? It seems an investigation into money flows throughout 2011 is in order. By the end of October, the combination of a $90 million August legal settlement against MF Global coming due, increased capital calls by FINRA, and margin hikes from counterparties worried about MF Global’s credit made it impossible for MF Global to cover up its shortfall. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. (FINRA) gave Jon Corzine a waiver from his Series 7 and Series 24 exams when he took the helm of MF Global in March 2010. The former is required for anyone involved in the investment banking or securities business including supervision, solicitation, or training of persons associated with MF Global, and that included Corzine. As an officer of MF Global the latter was required for Corzine, since he had been out of the business for around 12 years or more than six times the 2 year expiration date for reactivating these qualifications..... The test waiver by regulators seems to be blatant cronyism, because Corzine not only hadn’t been involved in the day-to-day markets for more than a decade, his responsibilities at MF Global included active decision making. The waiver wasn’t justified. Corzine reportedly authored the strategy for the MF Global killing trades, and he also had authority on the trading floor..... Gary Gensler, head of the CFTC, did not investigate or begin transferring accounts out of MF Global before the bankruptcy, and that is unprecedented for the CFTC. Given that Gary Gensler was a protégé of Jon Corzine at Goldman Sachs, one should question why Gary Gensler didn’t act and why he should be allowed to remain head of the CFTC..... Gary Gensler, Jon Corzine’s former Goldman Sachs colleague and current head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), had reason to be concerned about MF Global’s risk management. In early 2008, a rogue trader racked up $141.5 million in losses in unauthorized trades that exceeded his trading limits. It seems he accomplished this in under seven hours. In August of this year, MF Global and the underwriters of its 2007 initial public stock offering (IPO) paid around $90 million to settle claims by investors that they were misled about MF Global’s risk management prior to the rogue trader’s actions. Since 2008, MF Global’s financial condition has been nothing to brag about. Now the settlement is in jeopardy due to the bankruptcy. [Michael Stockman, the chief risk officer of MF Global as of January 2011 (after the previous mentioned incident) was in my Liar’s Poker training class lampooned by another classmate, Michael Lewis.]...... The “risk wizards” of Goldman Sachs once again look like market wrecking balls. The futures market is a globally connected market and it is a key mechanism for farmers, metals miners, and metals fabricators (among others) to hedge their risk. Confidence in the futures market has been shaken. No one knows if their money is safe, but what is more disturbing is the appearance of crony capitalism once again giving favored treatment, lax regulation, and absent oversight to a crony capitalist that abused all of these perks to blow up a large financial firm and damage a key global market.
Jefferies Bankruptcy Imminent? CEO Is "Weighing Whether Firm Can Remain Independent" - SilverDoctors - November 22, 2011 - Jefferies' CEO Richard Handler is reportedly looking for buyers for the distressed firm, and is "weighing whether the firm can remain independent".
The Doc's Translation (in the MF Global timeline of events): We are currently in a mad rush to confiscate client funds and gold and silver warehouse certificates, receipts, and bullion in a desperate attempt to secure a short term loan to make it until we reach a deal with JP Morgan. If we can't secure a short term by Wednesday, don't expect to see us in the office on Monday or your segregated funds ever again.
Gerald Celente : we look at a Global Meltdown - Pakalert Press - Michael Harris - November 23, 2011 - Michael Harris – 21 November 2011 : The white shoe boyz are immune to this and this is the immorality that is running through America , not one head has rolled from the financial panic of 2008 and all the dirty deals that were done , justice means Just US says Gerald Celente , ” I am the only guy that broke the story about the CME group” he added , and by the way the CME is the Chicago Mafia Enterprise , they do not have gold to deliver we look at a Global Meltdown the whole global financial system is in collapse look at what’s going on in Europe.
THE RETURN OF DEBTORS PRISONS: Collection Agencies Now Want Deadbeats Arrested - By Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker – Tue, Nov 22, 2011 - As if life wasn't already tense enough for Americans who can't pay their debts, collection agencies are now taking advantage of archaic state laws to have some debtors arrested and sent to jail. More than one-third of US states allow debtors to be arrested and jailed, says Jessica Silver-Greenberg in the Wall Street Journal. Judges typically grant arrest warrants when the debtors have failed to show up for court dates or failed to make court-ordered payments. Of course, the reason debtors have failed to make court-ordered payments is often the same reason they didn't pay their debts in the first place: They don't have any money.
The truth behind the new jobless generation - The Telegraph (London) - Emily Gosden, and Neil Tweedie - November 26, 2011 - As the economy continues to splutter, with third-quarter growth of 0.5 per cent, the Coalition is faced with a political running sore. A sticking plaster was applied yesterday when the Government announced £1 billion of spending over three years to provide young people with subsidised places in the private sector. From next April, employers will be offered £2,275 per recruit for taking on people aged 18 to 24 for six months. Some 160,000 young people should benefit from the scheme, and up to 410,00 are to be offered placements of some kind or another, but the number of real jobs created is anyone’s guess. In any case, such solutions do nothing to address one of the central failings of the British economy: the chronic inability of the British education system to deliver useful employees to commerce and industry. People like the tongue-tied business studies graduate illustrate a problem cited time and time again by employers: young people lacking basic skills, even at the graduate end of the scale, but imbued with an over-healthy sense of entitlement. “It’s all very good going to university and coming out with these degrees, but you must have the social skills to go with them,” says Mandy Brook, director of the Eastbourne-based agency, Recruitment South East. “You need to be able to look someone in the eye and have a conversation. I would say 70 per cent of the children out of university and further education can’t do those things.” Few applicants, she says, are prepared to lower their sights and take more menial jobs to gain knowledge of the workplace. “They turn around and say: 'That’s not what I was looking for.’ You explain the market to them but they say they will wait or they strop off. They are hoping for £20,000 or more.” A solution is readily available: thousands of polite, hard-working, well-qualified young people from the eastern countries of the European Union and elsewhere. With much of Britain’s human capital wasted, the gaps have been filled by foreigners. Of the 29.17 million people aged 16 and over in employment in the United Kingdom, 2.56 million are non-British nationals. At the same time there are 2.62 million in this country unemployed and 9.36 million people classed as economically inactive. While the British component of the workforce shrank by 280,000 in the year to September, the overseas workforce in Britain expanded by 147,000. By far the biggest foreign contingent is from the eastern EU – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic states. There are 669,000 workers from those countries here, an increase of 94,000 on last year. “The foreigners are the keenest,” says Miss Brook. “They have the skills and they will work for pretty much any money. They are hard working, there on time and stay late if needed. It’s easier to take someone like that on than someone who thinks the world owes them a living.” The competition for British young people comes not only from foreigners of a similar age. Miss Brook says she is encountering more applicants aged 55 and over, people driven back into work by inadequate pensions and rising prices.
Scott Millar - The Future Economy Council - Catawba County Economics 101 - The Hickory Hound - November 22, 2011
What does America's Economic Future Look Like?
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Contagion in the system
Below is Warren Pollock's Open Letter to the CME Group.
The corporate world headquarters are in the Chicago Loop financial district The corporation was formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). On March 17, 2008, it announced its acquisition of NYMEX Holdings, Inc., parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange and Commodity Exchange, Inc (COMEX), which was formally completed on August 22, 2008.[2] The four exchanges now operate as designated contract markets (DCM) of the CME Group.[3]
On February 10, 2010, CME announced its purchase of 90% of Dow Jones Indexes including the Dow Jones Industrial Average.[4]
Problems in the system - Insight: Farm belt rage over MF Global could chill markets - Reuters - By Bob Burgdorfer and Philip Shishkin - CHICAGO/WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 21, 2011 - When the CME Group pledged $300 million of its own money to help former MF Global customers get their cash back faster, the exchange was likely thinking of customers like Kansas cattle rancher Tim Rietzke. Fed up and frustrated with his broker's collapse and what he sees as the CME's slow efforts to help him retrieve $30,000 in stranded capital, Rietzke says his faith in the futures industry has been shaken to its core. "I would be hedging some feeder cattle right now, but I'm not going to do it. I'm leaving them exposed to the cash market and I don't like that," Rietzke said. Rietzke may reside far from the trading pit in Chicago, but he and thousands of other ranchers and farmers across the country are at the heart of futures trading. With billions of their dollars locked up by MF Global's October 31 bankruptcy filing, they are a key voice in determining if and when the futures business regains its poise and reputation. "I have no confidence in the market, because it could happen at any other brokerage," Rietzke told Reuters from his 8,000 acre ranch near the southwest Kansas town of Coldwater......
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE - The victims of MF Global's bankruptcy have experienced a range of emotions, from anger and betrayal over the missing funds to criticism of regulators being slow to spot problems. With billions of dollars still frozen at MF Global, the outrage has turned to the CME Group for failing to help its customers regain speedy access to their accounts. Far more than the failure of Refco six years ago, MF Global's downfall has triggered a call to arms for medium-and small-scale traders across the marketplace who say it has exposed previously obscured risks in the system -- and the fact that there's no 'white knight' to save them. "The exchange should make this right. Let them hold the bag instead of us," says cattle broker Lynn Wagnon. "We can't trust the system anymore." So far, the CME has offered $300 million to help MF Global's bankruptcy trustee make up for potential customer losses. But even that measure has been criticized. Some of the MF Global's former clients argued in a recent court filing that the guarantee was "an insufficient band-aid, at best." Some $50 million of the offer is from an emergency fund that will help make up for any customer account shortfall; the remainder is simply a "limited guarantee" to allow the trustee to return client funds more quickly. Crain's Chicago Business wrote in an editorial that the CME had suffered "a dramatic and unforgivable void in leadership." CME's shares have fallen nearly 14 percent since the day before MF Global's collapse through to Monday's close....
FOR TRADERS OR PROFIT? - And yet many traders still look to the CME Group to make it right somehow, a sentiment that dates back more than a century to the CME's roots as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Until its listing in 2002, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was run as a member-owned club, providing a degree of comfort to traders that the exchange had their best interests at heart. But as big money hedge funds replaced traders as its main constituency, the CME focused on boosting profits, buying first the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007 and the New York Mercantile Exchange the following year, even as exchange members complained loudly they were being short-changed by the deals. CME executives regularly emphasize they are bound to put their "fiduciary duty" to shareholders above any loyalty to their members and Chicago, promising this year they will leave the city -- the home of many of their traders -- unless the state reverses a tax hike made earlier this year. That shift in allegiance may be fueling criticism from market participants.....
The Hound: The problem lies with these Huge Multi-National Mega-Corporations and their marriage to global governance. They are supposed to represent all interested parties. The customer/client, the employee, the community where they do business, as well as the shareholders. Instead they have only looked towards the interests of Executives at the top and the largest shareholding interests. Everyone else is screwed.
Who has control over these entities, which many have deemed "too big to fail?" Domestically, these entities have bought into every facet of our political party structure through lobbying influence and political contributions. This means that Mega-Corporate Interests take precedence over those of the American people. When these entities break the law they are rarely held accountable, especially in a punitive fashion.
In Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography (from 98 years ago) he addresses this issue in relating the Progressive Platform of the Bull-Moose party, which was formed as a splinter group from the Republican Party led by President William Taft who had succeeded Roosevelt in 1909. This was during the first Robber Baron period of this nation, when Incorporated Business growth was leading to monopolies, collusion, price fixing, anti-competitive practices, and other unregulated power through these interests, which led to such regulation as the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.
Mr. Pollock was not invested in a Derivative contract, at the time, so his money should be secure. Everyone understands the inherent risks of Futures Commodity investments. That is not the issue. This issue is not about day traders and hedge funds. The issues involve the separation of cash accounts and contracts. If one makes a bad investment, then it is understandable that they can lose, but if their money is parked, then it should be secure.
The big issue is the purpose of these markets. These markets were initially implemented to allow Enterprises that need to procure commodities in huge volumes over extensive periods of time to be able to smooth out waves (price fluctuations) in the market. Without a reliable market, we are all going to be left vulnerable to shocks (price fluctuations) in the market place involving short term crises leading to panics.
This is the reason why the Federal Reserve needs to be taken out of the marketplace. Their manipulations are what have caused many of these issues and they are an unelected (and basically unregulated) body. I believe the Fed is using their recently printed up Federal Reserve Notes to manipulate the commodity markets. It is the paper precious metal markets that are driving the price of precious metals, much like the paper (derivative) markets are driving up most commodities at this time. In reality there are shortages in relation to the paper assets. As an example, right now it is hard to get a hold of U.S. Mint Walking Liberty silver ounces, because the U.S. Mint is having a hard time sourcing the metal. There are several times multiples of paper versus actual physical metals in the futures market. Listen to what they are saying about MF Global. It is (could be) basically the beginning of a cascading default in the futures market. What is a future? It is a derivative investment off of the actual physical asset, but in the end it is backed by nothing other than a guarantee of delivery. The same holds true whether for a long or short position. What if the deal is that all of these future contracts are looking to take delivery and the metal isn't there? Do you see where this is leading? It is leading to a default and a cascading effect. It can take down the CME and then it will take down the hedgefunds, which leads to the financial houses going down and who owns the financial houses? That would mean that the economy would be tied up in knots and non-functional.
We are in big trouble folks!!!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011What is the CME Group? (Wikipedia) - CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CME) owns and operates large derivatives and futures exchanges in Chicago and New York City, as well as online trading platforms. It also owns the Dow Jones stock and financial indexes. The exchange-traded derivative contracts include futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, rare and precious metals, weather and real estate.[1]
Open Letter to the CME
To: Terrence A Duffy, Chairman CME Group
As illustrated by the failure of MF Global, I am of the opinion that, the CME has not met its basic obligations to the marketplace as a “public fiduciary.”
Our society depends on “basic finance” to provide “utility function” such as banking, hedging, insurance, and/or capital formation. Presently, we have an “innovative system” that degrades the integrity needed for “basic finance” to perform as required in a well-structured economy.
Worse yet, our “innovative” financial system impedes the effectiveness of the greater “physical economy.” The “physical economy,” consisting of all those individuals and entities tasked with meeting actual need. The "physical economy" consists of many of your customers including farmers, manufactures and electric companies.
Our society needs people working in the "physical world" to create jobs more desperately than it needs the continuity of the CME. Must we endure another market catastrophe to figure this out?
The 2008 bailouts defined “moral hazard,” as the socialization of losses due to over-leverage. MF Global consumers are currently subsidizing losses attributable to over-leverage and “innovation.” Perhaps, small percentage moves in speculation rationalized an internal choice between corporate survival and the sanctity of customer funds. Complexity has been specifically designed, by “modern finance” to intentionally allow over-leverage leading to out sized profits and reactively-subsidized losses.
The word, “theft,” comes to mind.
I believe that, the products traded by your member firms, at the CME exchange and elsewhere, well exceed the capacity of the monetary system to cover relatively small percentage losses or speculative miscalculations. Clearing OTC derivatives on an exchange does not, and will not, correct the problem.
With repeal of Glass Steagall, and the conversion of mutual companies to publicly traded entities, meaningful regulation has proved to be politically impossible to recapture. The solution therefore resides in simplification from “innovative” towards “basic” finance.
Presently, I would urge you to make MF Global customers whole as a perquisite to market reform towards a “utility function.” More than just the continuity of the CME may be at stake.
Warren E. Pollock
The corporate world headquarters are in the Chicago Loop financial district The corporation was formed by the 2007 merger of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). On March 17, 2008, it announced its acquisition of NYMEX Holdings, Inc., parent company of the New York Mercantile Exchange and Commodity Exchange, Inc (COMEX), which was formally completed on August 22, 2008.[2] The four exchanges now operate as designated contract markets (DCM) of the CME Group.[3]
On February 10, 2010, CME announced its purchase of 90% of Dow Jones Indexes including the Dow Jones Industrial Average.[4]
Problems in the system - Insight: Farm belt rage over MF Global could chill markets - Reuters - By Bob Burgdorfer and Philip Shishkin - CHICAGO/WASHINGTON | Mon Nov 21, 2011 - When the CME Group pledged $300 million of its own money to help former MF Global customers get their cash back faster, the exchange was likely thinking of customers like Kansas cattle rancher Tim Rietzke. Fed up and frustrated with his broker's collapse and what he sees as the CME's slow efforts to help him retrieve $30,000 in stranded capital, Rietzke says his faith in the futures industry has been shaken to its core. "I would be hedging some feeder cattle right now, but I'm not going to do it. I'm leaving them exposed to the cash market and I don't like that," Rietzke said. Rietzke may reside far from the trading pit in Chicago, but he and thousands of other ranchers and farmers across the country are at the heart of futures trading. With billions of their dollars locked up by MF Global's October 31 bankruptcy filing, they are a key voice in determining if and when the futures business regains its poise and reputation. "I have no confidence in the market, because it could happen at any other brokerage," Rietzke told Reuters from his 8,000 acre ranch near the southwest Kansas town of Coldwater......
CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE - The victims of MF Global's bankruptcy have experienced a range of emotions, from anger and betrayal over the missing funds to criticism of regulators being slow to spot problems. With billions of dollars still frozen at MF Global, the outrage has turned to the CME Group for failing to help its customers regain speedy access to their accounts. Far more than the failure of Refco six years ago, MF Global's downfall has triggered a call to arms for medium-and small-scale traders across the marketplace who say it has exposed previously obscured risks in the system -- and the fact that there's no 'white knight' to save them. "The exchange should make this right. Let them hold the bag instead of us," says cattle broker Lynn Wagnon. "We can't trust the system anymore." So far, the CME has offered $300 million to help MF Global's bankruptcy trustee make up for potential customer losses. But even that measure has been criticized. Some of the MF Global's former clients argued in a recent court filing that the guarantee was "an insufficient band-aid, at best." Some $50 million of the offer is from an emergency fund that will help make up for any customer account shortfall; the remainder is simply a "limited guarantee" to allow the trustee to return client funds more quickly. Crain's Chicago Business wrote in an editorial that the CME had suffered "a dramatic and unforgivable void in leadership." CME's shares have fallen nearly 14 percent since the day before MF Global's collapse through to Monday's close....
FOR TRADERS OR PROFIT? - And yet many traders still look to the CME Group to make it right somehow, a sentiment that dates back more than a century to the CME's roots as the Chicago Butter and Egg Board. Until its listing in 2002, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange was run as a member-owned club, providing a degree of comfort to traders that the exchange had their best interests at heart. But as big money hedge funds replaced traders as its main constituency, the CME focused on boosting profits, buying first the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007 and the New York Mercantile Exchange the following year, even as exchange members complained loudly they were being short-changed by the deals. CME executives regularly emphasize they are bound to put their "fiduciary duty" to shareholders above any loyalty to their members and Chicago, promising this year they will leave the city -- the home of many of their traders -- unless the state reverses a tax hike made earlier this year. That shift in allegiance may be fueling criticism from market participants.....
The Hound: The problem lies with these Huge Multi-National Mega-Corporations and their marriage to global governance. They are supposed to represent all interested parties. The customer/client, the employee, the community where they do business, as well as the shareholders. Instead they have only looked towards the interests of Executives at the top and the largest shareholding interests. Everyone else is screwed.
Who has control over these entities, which many have deemed "too big to fail?" Domestically, these entities have bought into every facet of our political party structure through lobbying influence and political contributions. This means that Mega-Corporate Interests take precedence over those of the American people. When these entities break the law they are rarely held accountable, especially in a punitive fashion.
In Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography (from 98 years ago) he addresses this issue in relating the Progressive Platform of the Bull-Moose party, which was formed as a splinter group from the Republican Party led by President William Taft who had succeeded Roosevelt in 1909. This was during the first Robber Baron period of this nation, when Incorporated Business growth was leading to monopolies, collusion, price fixing, anti-competitive practices, and other unregulated power through these interests, which led to such regulation as the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography - NEW YORK: MACMILLAN, 1913 - NEW YORK: BARTLEBY.COM, 1999We need to get these corporate structures back under control and number one they must adhere to the rules and regulations of this nation. Corporate Powers have a fiduciary responsibility to protect all interested parties, not just executives and shareholders. When you represent to a client/customer that their money is secure, then it damned well better be there and available.
(Chapter) XV - THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS - APPENDIX B - THE CONTROL OF CORPORATIONS AND "THE NEW FREEDOM"
"Behind the ostensible Government sits enthroned an invisible Government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.... This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest." This assertion is explicit. We say directly that "the people" are absolutely to control in any way they see fit, the "business" of the country. I again challenge Mr. Wilson to...
Mr. Pollock was not invested in a Derivative contract, at the time, so his money should be secure. Everyone understands the inherent risks of Futures Commodity investments. That is not the issue. This issue is not about day traders and hedge funds. The issues involve the separation of cash accounts and contracts. If one makes a bad investment, then it is understandable that they can lose, but if their money is parked, then it should be secure.
The big issue is the purpose of these markets. These markets were initially implemented to allow Enterprises that need to procure commodities in huge volumes over extensive periods of time to be able to smooth out waves (price fluctuations) in the market. Without a reliable market, we are all going to be left vulnerable to shocks (price fluctuations) in the market place involving short term crises leading to panics.
This is the reason why the Federal Reserve needs to be taken out of the marketplace. Their manipulations are what have caused many of these issues and they are an unelected (and basically unregulated) body. I believe the Fed is using their recently printed up Federal Reserve Notes to manipulate the commodity markets. It is the paper precious metal markets that are driving the price of precious metals, much like the paper (derivative) markets are driving up most commodities at this time. In reality there are shortages in relation to the paper assets. As an example, right now it is hard to get a hold of U.S. Mint Walking Liberty silver ounces, because the U.S. Mint is having a hard time sourcing the metal. There are several times multiples of paper versus actual physical metals in the futures market. Listen to what they are saying about MF Global. It is (could be) basically the beginning of a cascading default in the futures market. What is a future? It is a derivative investment off of the actual physical asset, but in the end it is backed by nothing other than a guarantee of delivery. The same holds true whether for a long or short position. What if the deal is that all of these future contracts are looking to take delivery and the metal isn't there? Do you see where this is leading? It is leading to a default and a cascading effect. It can take down the CME and then it will take down the hedgefunds, which leads to the financial houses going down and who owns the financial houses? That would mean that the economy would be tied up in knots and non-functional.
We are in big trouble folks!!!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Scott Millar - The Future Economy Council - Catawba County Economics 101
I don't think that one can help but like Scott Millar, the CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Catawba County. This guy is constantly on the go and you see him everywhere. He's also easily approachable in a job that requires him not to divulge everything he knows. I think he has done an excellent job under trying circumstances.
The following is his presentation from his visit with us at the Chamber of Commerce as part of the monthly Future Economy Council meetings. This is the second such meeting that Scott has held with us over the last couple of years. I call it a lesson in "Catawba County Economics 101," because from nearly the beginning this discussion went into critical thinking mode. I appreciated the way that Scott acted as a mediator and professor in allowing the people of the group to ask candid questions and express concerns with issues and the direction of the area's economy. If you listen to this meeting, then you will understand why we all walked away from this meeting feeling better about the direction we are headed and the steps we (all of us) need to take to move our area forward.
Part 1 - Intro and discussion about long term economic objectives.
Part 2 - Attracting and growing Small Businesses versus recruiting established major corporations. Success and failure of start-ups and complaints about competition from existing businesses.
Part 3 - Why do businesses we recruit go elsewhere? Developing and Marketing Assets... Breaking down Silos...Vision and Credibility
Part 4 - Perception is Reality... Scott talks about the Apple facility... and about Turbocoating
Part 5 - Energy, Information, and manufacturing possibilities... Why companies come to Catawba County... Developing specific opportunities that are fertile for targeted market centers... Utilizing existing vacant infrastructure.
Part 6 - Problems with the existing regional Economic Development Partnership... and the positive developments of the Regional Partnership to the west... We will sell where we can sell... Opportunities and needs to watch developments... Makers and Doers... A Life Well Crafted... The Big Elephant Issue... Attracting 20 to 44 year olds... State Incentives and the problems with the tier system... Danny Hearn talks about strategies and hiring someone from the outside a leader, that can help get a collaborative investment action plan.
The following is his presentation from his visit with us at the Chamber of Commerce as part of the monthly Future Economy Council meetings. This is the second such meeting that Scott has held with us over the last couple of years. I call it a lesson in "Catawba County Economics 101," because from nearly the beginning this discussion went into critical thinking mode. I appreciated the way that Scott acted as a mediator and professor in allowing the people of the group to ask candid questions and express concerns with issues and the direction of the area's economy. If you listen to this meeting, then you will understand why we all walked away from this meeting feeling better about the direction we are headed and the steps we (all of us) need to take to move our area forward.
Part 1 - Intro and discussion about long term economic objectives.
Part 2 - Attracting and growing Small Businesses versus recruiting established major corporations. Success and failure of start-ups and complaints about competition from existing businesses.
Part 3 - Why do businesses we recruit go elsewhere? Developing and Marketing Assets... Breaking down Silos...Vision and Credibility
Part 4 - Perception is Reality... Scott talks about the Apple facility... and about Turbocoating
Part 5 - Energy, Information, and manufacturing possibilities... Why companies come to Catawba County... Developing specific opportunities that are fertile for targeted market centers... Utilizing existing vacant infrastructure.
Part 6 - Problems with the existing regional Economic Development Partnership... and the positive developments of the Regional Partnership to the west... We will sell where we can sell... Opportunities and needs to watch developments... Makers and Doers... A Life Well Crafted... The Big Elephant Issue... Attracting 20 to 44 year olds... State Incentives and the problems with the tier system... Danny Hearn talks about strategies and hiring someone from the outside a leader, that can help get a collaborative investment action plan.
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