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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on May 17, 2016 5:55:39 GMT -5
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Post by vulcanized crawler on May 17, 2016 7:01:41 GMT -5
yea, but, son in law of hillary married to chelsea just bankrupted his hedge fund, losing 95% of the 25 million he took in. will he be her financial advisor along with bill? without gingrich bill wouldnt have much to brag about in the 90s. he resisted just about everything
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on May 17, 2016 7:08:24 GMT -5
yea, but, son in law of hillary married to chelsea just bankrupted his hedge fund, losing 95% of the 25 million he took in. will he be her financial advisor along with bill? without gingrich bill wouldnt have much to brag about in the 90s. he resisted just about everything If so, you can bet that he would have no hope of Bankrupting the USA. We are already there..
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Post by 3bid on May 26, 2016 2:35:54 GMT -5
World’s 16 biggest banks, including RBC, ordered to face Libor lawsuits in ruling court warns could ruin them
Bob Van Voris, Bloomberg News | May 23, 2016
Sixteen of the world’s largest banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. must face antitrust lawsuits accusing them of hurting investors who bought securities tied to Libor by rigging an interest-rate benchmark, a ruling that an appeals court warned could devastate them.
The appellate judges reversed a lower-court ruling on one issue — whether the investors had adequately claimed in their complaints to have been harmed — while sending the cases back for the judge to consider another issue: whether the plaintiffs are the proper parties to sue, in part because their claims, if successful, provide for triple damages that could overwhelm the banks.
“Requiring the banks to pay treble damages to every plaintiff who ended up on the wrong side of an independent Libor‐denominated derivative swap would, if appellants’ allegations were proved at trial, not only bankrupt 16 of the world’s most important financial institutions, but also vastly extend the potential scope of antitrust liability in myriad markets where derivative instruments have proliferated,” the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York said in the ruling.
Libor Fines
About a dozen firms have paid almost US$9 billion in fines to resolve government investigations around the world into rigging of the key benchmark. Libor is used to set interest rates for trillions of dollars financial instruments. The ruling by a three-judge panel opens the possibility the banks may have to pay billions more.
This is far from a home run for the plaintiffs. But it does allow them to go forward with the case.”
Michael A. Carrier, a professor at Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey, said the ruling was “extremely important” because of the threat to the banks. Any kind of price manipulation by competitors is treated very seriously under U.S. antitrust law, he said.
The 24-company KBW Bank Index fell 0.3 per cent Monday, bringing its decline for the year to 6.1 per cent.
Antitrust Claim
The appeals court overturned a 2013 ruling by U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald who said the investors had failed to show that they were harmed in a way that would permit them to sue under U.S. antitrust law.
In their lawsuits, the plaintiffs claim that beginning in 2007 the banks colluded to depress the Libor rate to minimize the amount they had to pay out on investments linked to the benchmark. The Libor-tied investments included asset swaps, collateralized debt obligations and forward rate agreements.
Buchwald may still throw out the cases if she determines the plaintiffs aren’t the appropriate parties to sue — or, as antitrust law puts it, “efficient enforcers.” That could be because their potential damages are too speculative or too hard to calculate or for some other reason. The court also highlighted the risk that civil litigation could duplicate the fines and settlements imposed by government regulators.
“This is far from a home run for the plaintiffs,” said Carrier. “But it does allow them to go forward with the case.”
Government Enforcement
The ruling was unanimous, although only two appeals cåçourt judges joined the portion that instructed Buchwald to consider whether the plaintiffs are appropriate parties to sue. The two judges pointed to numerous enforcement actions involving Libor as they returned the case to the lower court.
“There are many other enforcement mechanisms at work here,” the two said in an opinion written by Judge Dennis Jacobs. “In addition to the plaintiffs in the numerous lawsuits consolidated here, the banks’ conduct is under scrutiny by government organs, bank regulators and financial regulators in a considerable number of countries. Lawrence Grayson, a spokesman for the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America; Andrew Gray, a spokesman for JPMorgan; and Danielle Romero-Apsilos, a Citigroup spokeswoman, declined to comment on the ruling. Representatives of HSBC and RBC declined to immediately comment.
The case is Gelboim v. Bank of America Corp., 13-3565, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Manhattan).
business.financialpost.com/investing/global-investor/worlds-16-biggest-banks-including-rbc-forced-to-face-libor-lawsuits-in-ruling-judge-warns-could-bankrupt-them
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Post by vulcanized crawler on May 26, 2016 5:14:56 GMT -5
better go get those banks before they collapse and vanish and that is where most banks are at right now. on the road to oblivion. buy gold silver and bitcoin. the fiat dollar is doomed
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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Jun 1, 2016 16:27:52 GMT -5
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Post by 3bid on Jun 3, 2016 13:55:40 GMT -5
The End Of The American Dream - Half Of US Households Are "Financially Fragile"
Submitted by Simon Wilson via MoneyWeek.com,
The middle class in America is in crisis, with incomes falling and life expectancy worsening. Why? And what can be done about it?
What’s it like to be a middle-class American? Increasingly precarious, it seems. In an article entitled “The Secret Shame of Middle Class Americans” in this month’s issue of The Atlantic, the writer Neal Gabler – an author, film critic and academic – came out as one of the many millions of apparently middle-class Americans who are in fact living in a “more or less continual state of financial peril” – scrabbling around to make ends meet, and mostly failing.
Gabler draws attention to a regular survey by the Federal Reserve, which asks consumers a set of questions, including how they would pay for a $400 emergency. “The answer: 47% of respondents said that either they would cover the expense by borrowing or selling something, or they would not be able to come up with the $400 at all”, writes Gabler. “Four hundred dollars! Who knew? Well, I knew. I knew because I am in that 47%.”
Does the data support this? Yes. Research into this niche area of microeconomics – day-to-day “financial fragility” – has boomed since the Great Recession, according to David Johnson, an economist at the University of Michigan who specialises in income and wealth inequality. A 2014 survey study found that only 38% of Americans would cover a $1,000 emergency medical bill or a $500 car repair bill with money they had saved.
Another academic study found that a quarter of households would definitely fail to get their hands on $2,000 within 30 days in an emergency, and a further 19% would be able to do so only by pawning possessions or taking out a payday loan.
What does this tell us? On this basis the researchers concluded that nearly half of Americans are “financially fragile” – and that necessarily includes a sizeable chunk of the middle classes, as the details of the studies mentioned above show. Some 44% of middle-income households said they would struggle to raise the $400. Nearly half of college graduates would not cover a $500-$1,000 emergency with savings.
A quarter of people living in households earning $100,000-$150,000 a year (at the higher-income end of the middle class) claim not to be able to raise $2,000 within a month. Even if you take some of this with a pinch of salt – better off households are likely to have access to other forms of net wealth, albeit less liquid – the picture it paints of a middle-class crisis is stark.
Is this a growing problem? It seems to be. The respected and non-partisan Pew Research Center defines “middle income households” as those whose incomes range between two-thirds the median income to double the median. In 2014, that range of incomes was between about $42,000 to $125,000. For the first time in at least four decades less than half of the population fell into this broad swathe of the “middle classes” – compared with 61% at the end of the 1960s.
Meanwhile, the lower tiers have expanded to account for just under a third of the population. The upper tiers have expanded too, and now account for just over a fifth. In other words, more people are getting poorer and more are getting richer in a gradually more unequal society, as technological change and globalisation drive a wedge between the winners and losers.
Are incomes falling? Alas, yes. A major new analysis of income in America published by Pew earlier this month found that more than 80% of the country’s 229 metropolitan areas have seen real (inflation-adjusted) incomes fall steadily since the start of this century. Some of the steepest declines in median incomes have been seen in cities hit by industrial decline – for example a 27% drop in Springfield, Ohio and 18% in the conurbation that includes Detroit. But, ominously, even fast expanding success stories have seen incomes falling.
The area around Denver, Colorado, has seen its population grow by 600,000 since 1999, but its median income has fallen from $83,500 to less than $76,000. Similarly Raleigh, North Carolina, is a fast-growing city buoyed by a cluster of research universities and biotech firms; the population has shot up from 800,000 to 1.3 million this century. Yet its middle class has shrunk from 55% of the population to 50%, and median incomes have fallen by more than $11,000 to about $74,000.
What about the rest of the world? In his recent book, Global Inequality, the former World Bank economist Branko Milanovic includes a fascinating chart showing how the real incomes of the world’s population have changed in recent decades according to where they stand on the global income distribution. The vast bulk of the world’s population is better off in real terms.
However, one important group is either poorer or only marginally better off – those between the 75th and the 90th percentile, meaning the lower- and middle-income populations of rich Western countries. What this suggests is that if mainstream policymakers wish to contain the rise of populists such as Donald Trump, they first need to recognise that the populists’ middle-class supporters have reason to be unhappy.
End of the American Dream – why voters turn to Trump The rise of Donald Trump to be a contender for the US presidency may seem hard to understand, but remarkable data on American mortality rates (which are rising) and life expectancy (which is falling) hints at the middle-class problems that drive his popularity.
Princeton professors Anne Case and Angus Deaton found a sharp change in these between 1990 and 2010 among less educated, middle-aged white people, due to drug and alcohol misuse and suicide. “It is tough to fail in a culture that worships personal success,” says Martin Wolf in the FT. “Support for Mr Trump among this group must express this despair. As their leader, he symbolises success. He also offers no coherent solutions. But he does provide scapegoats.”
www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-06-01/end-american-dream-half-us-households-are-financially-fragile
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Post by vulcanized crawler on Jun 3, 2016 14:03:12 GMT -5
ok, but, you gona pay with the fiat dollar? that nobody wants? hmmmmm. if it isnt worth squat we have a problem houston. now coins, nickels , dimes , quarters, are not fiat. they are treasury and be worth what they say they are worth. the paper money that says ''federal reserve'' is the problem child. buy silver, gold and bitcoin.....and stock up on canned food and water
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Post by vulcanized crawler on Jun 3, 2016 14:07:09 GMT -5
as for trump...hard to understand? not. obama was hard to understand. in bo he had accomplished zippo. trump however had build an empire. so i was shocked at obama, but, then many of us got sucked into guilt and voted to receive forgiveness for our ancestors misdeeds against humanity. my ancestora, however, were down in south america killing indians, so i felt no guilt. anyone for buyers remorse?
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Post by marbearcat on Jun 3, 2016 17:53:19 GMT -5
ok, but, you gona pay with the fiat dollar? that nobody wants? hmmmmm. if it isnt worth squat we have a problem houston. now coins, nickels , dimes , quarters, are not fiat. they are treasury and be worth what they say they are worth. the paper money that says ''federal reserve'' is the problem child. buy silver, gold and bitcoin.....and stock up on canned food and water No one wants? Take your so called worthless reserve notes down to your local shops, see if they'll accept them. Come on with this dollar no good garbage.
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Post by 3bid on Jun 3, 2016 19:10:16 GMT -5
In memory of:
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Post by vulcanized crawler on Jun 3, 2016 19:20:01 GMT -5
in time fella, in time. it has just begun. china is going gold backed . russia is gold backed already. it is spreading. fiat meaning nothing backed, is dying. gotta do your home work. im not talking today man......but, coming to the usa in time. ''when'' is always the question one cant answer. china opened a gold exchange. physical gold exchange. not paper gold exchange. gotta pay for your education one way or the other, pay for it, or school of hard knocks. doubting thomas' have not done their homework.
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Post by 3bid on Jun 12, 2016 14:15:19 GMT -5
Despair and death in small-town America: Your comments By Joel Achenbach | Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/news/achenblog/wp/2016/04/11/despair-and-death-in-small-town-america-your-comments/
By now I hope you’ve had a chance to read the first two installments of the new Washington Post series Unnatural Causes: Sick and Dying in Small-Town America. We’re exploring rising death rates among midlife white Americans, particularly women. The first two stories come at the subject from opposite directions: The first, by Eli Saslow, looks at one family. The second is a data analysis that looks at the whole country.
A lot of reporting is still to be done on this — it’s a sprawling and complicated subject. It’s not easy to disentangle factors such as gender, race, income, education and geography. Statistics can be enigmatic. They can enlighten but they can also mislead. So we have tried to be rigorous and cautious in reporting what we’ve found in the data. What we discovered, in our second story, is a very distinct divide between urban and rural death rates among whites (“rural” used expansively because it includes small cities — basically everything outside of a major metropolitan area). This is consistent with other research and with what anecdotally many people have seen in recent years: greater poverty, disability and hopelessness in white working-class communities and in small-town America.
So what do we do about it? Our readers have ideas, and I’m going to post some of their comments below. As you’d expect, there are great differences in opinion about what is driving this, and whether these dying folks are victims of larger societal forces or of their own bad decisions. Some of the comments echo the controversial Kevin Williamson essay that recently appeared in National Review. But what I find most interesting are the personal stories.
Here’s one:
It’s one thing … if all of us have to bear the short, hard, bitter life together. It’s another if we are working harder than ever, not being rewarded for it, and we are constantly being shown how a tiny percentage at the top of society is reaping the rewards of our hard work. I have a simple life, despite a graduate degree. For years before Obamacare, I went without health insurance involuntarily. I drive a 20-year-old car. I live in a humble neighborhood. I have much to be thankful for, but it’s hard not to be resentful of CEOs that earn literally thousands of times as much as I do while doing less productive work. This enormous disparity in distribution of resources is really quite new in our society.
Here’s an excerpt of another:
Four decades ago my wife and I escaped the rust belt for Silicon Valley. When I return I am appalled at the physical condition of family, friends and neighbors. Even the healthiest of those with college educations look 10-15 years older than my neighbors here. Most look much worse. It seems nearly all are carrying an extra 100+ pounds, eating too much sugar, processed snack foods and useless calories.
People there still smoke, and smoke heavily. Their kids, now adults, smoke. Curiously, those who mostly smoke marijuana look healthier than those who are heavy drinkers.
The overriding impression is one of hopelessness masked by consumerism. The 7% GDP shift in incomes from 40 million working people to the top 1/100th of 1% literally has taken its toll on those in the lower middle. They borrowed on credit cards to buy more stuff at Walmart, and then couldn’t pay the bills, lost the house and filed bankruptcy.
I saw two in-laws, mother and daughter, who worked at Walmart for a period that literally accelerated their decline into near-poverty. Even with both parents and both teens working they barely could keep the very used cars running and the rent paid.
Here’s one from Oregon:
I moved to a rural area in Oregon 3 years ago. This area has many challenges related to isolation and lack of infrastructure. Our economy is having difficulty transitioning from forestry and milling to a more tourism based economy. We still have fishing, but closures and variable harvests create challenges for the folks in the fishing industry. We do have some local farmers adding revenue by selling more finished products locally. State mandated zoning restrictions and lack of adequate commercial zoning limit business opportunity. Basic health care is generally available, but if you need a specialist, you will need transportation and time to drive 100 miles or so to the nearest cities. No dialysis, dermatologists or oncologists here. Our area also lacks resources for treatment of addiction and psychiatric conditions. We seem to have a high rate of methamphetamine use and a growing problem with heroin to accompany the lack of resources to treat addiction. As I think about it, we do seem to have more deaths of middle aged residents from illness than I recall seeing in the city. Thanks for the interesting piece, WaPo.
(Yes, kudos are appreciated!)
And now the reaction from Hungary:
Having spent the last 15 years in Europe I’ve come to see how some elements of American life that have become normalized are profoundly dysfunctional but not recognized as such by too many. Consider funding for schools, which is tied to property taxes: a sure fire way to maintain inequality and prevent social mobility. Or health care. I have raised three children in Hungary and can say unequivocally that the single payer system here is better than the American system in most respects. In terms of public health it is far better. And it is virtually unheard of to put people on opioids or anti-depressants. Doctors are much more likely to recommend lifestyle changes, the state pays for extended rehab at spas and so forth. It’s cheaper and works better. When I visit the U.S. I’m just astounded by what and how much people eat. It’s grotesque and most of what’s in supermarkets can’t be described as food. Hungarians and most Europeans eat most of their meals with family, and most food is still home cooked. It makes all the difference. Towns and cities are people friendly and even less affluent people spend time, often daily, relaxing with friends at cafes. Everyone takes at least a month off — usually at one go — during the summer. There is way, way less stress for most people. There may be costs in terms of economic efficiency, but so what? Life is better, and this is true for all countries here, including poorer ones like Hungary.
Another reader gives us the view from Colorado:
When I first started working here in Vail Colorado I moved to Leadville. But it’s a dying town full of drunks and drug addicts. I met people who literally had not had a job in a decade, and many who made a living mowing lawns and picking up trash. The people looked like hippies but they had some decidedly right wing views, along with paranoia about chem trails and other government conspiracies. Their Congressman is a right wing kook who never speaks to any of them. The chief of police got arrested for drunk driving and then got indicted on 14 felony counts. Everyone in the town smokes. I think this is the world the article speaks of.
And this one from the UP in Michigan:
Please visit the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The area is not culturally barren, not anti-science, and very few religious zealots of any flavor. There are druggies, and some people drink far too much, but we also have very high unemployment. Things were not always this way. One hundred years ago, this region had well over 1 million people. Anyone could get a job that paid decent. The mines closed for good in the late 1960s, early 70s and it has been all down hill since then. Just like all the other mining areas.
Most people live as simply as possible and eat as healthy as they can afford. Often they grow their own food and live off the land as much as possible. It is always easier to make such sweeping judgments when one lives in a concrete jungle.
And then there’s this very powerful comment from a woman who doesn’t give her location:
I’m a 56 year old white woman. A working class white woman with a job with a salary that very rarely increases. I struggle. This string of comments makes me want to commit suicide. Most of you have no idea what you are talking about except for your own views and pushing your own agenda. Our government has failed us. This has been going on for MANY years. Lost hope is the cause. If you don’t understand this, then you are one of the lucky ones. Yes luck. We aren’t all lazy, drug and alcohol addicted worthless human beings. We are molded by environment and family history, race and education. Loss of compassion for our fellow man, narcissism and greed are what this country is about today. Go ahead you nasty jerks. Tell me that my politics are wrong, or that if I don’t like it to go ahead and kill myself. You know that’s what you’re thinking. Prove my point.
Further Reading:
Where living poor means dying young
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Post by 2018 on Jun 13, 2016 11:34:37 GMT -5
Can't make this stuff up.. That there is funny.. We should put a copy of this in the HUMOR thread.. that is so small in comparison for her whole "list" Husband Clinton got rid of Glass Steagal law.. so that banks can merge , which means.. they can gamble your money from your regular banking savings and checking accounts.. Hillary Clinton opposed reinstatement of Steagal Glass law to bring the banks back .. to NOT TOO big to fail size and also preventing them from gambling with Our Money. Bernie sanders fought to have Glass steagal law back. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Speeches to the banks? 200k She does not want to show the transcripts.. obviously it would not bode well for her to do that regarding what is in those transcripts.. donations from all the banks.. directly to Hillary.. but then also again from her superpacks.. and I think there is at least 4 or more.. when you cant pinpoint exactly who donated. etc etc.. now.. its not like someone in her family can not work in financial industry.. we are not going to eradicate that industry.. but.. are you really voting and fighting that financial industry plays fair .. and plays by he rules.. and is not endangering and abusing main street. but you see how she voted.. and you know it was her husband that got rid of glass steagal law.
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Post by 2018 on Jun 13, 2016 11:53:30 GMT -5
WHAT IS TPP?
JImmy Fallon Makes AAR***SE of Himself Helping Obama Sell Transpacific Partnership (TPP) Betrayal
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