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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Aug 27, 2015 7:18:09 GMT -5
#2177352 ezal13 15 hours ago
This CLOWN today....says:
We're going to kick the can down the road.....AND THE MARKET TAKES OFF....DON'T BE FOOLED...OIL WENT DOWN....FOLLOW THE OIL.....THAT'S THE BAROMETER...
Fed's Dudley pours cold water on September rate hike Bingo! Federal Reserve policymaker William Dudley has just declared that a September interest rate hike is less likely.
IT'S A RIGGED GAME...PURE AND SIMPLE.
#2177438 mike_tysons_tiger 10 hours ago Reply to #2177352 The fed are a bunch of scumbags who are stealing money from people who have their money savings intheir banks and keeping the interest rates at ZERO. They make close to NOTHING on their savings.
The average interest rate on a savings account is a mere 0.44% right now, according to Bankrate. CRIMINAL!
So when these criminals at the fed decide to raise the rate, they will phuck over anyone who borrowed air money printed out of air from them. When the Fed likely raises rates this year, it will push mortgage rates and auto loans up ect and wham their ponzi scheme continues .
Then you have rosencramps a fed lackey here to protect all the evil they do. . imo
The fed is here to contnue to destroy this nation, wipe out families and keep them all in debt. imo
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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Sept 2, 2015 8:33:51 GMT -5
. . #2179260 ty....mike_tysons_tiger 11 hours ago Last Night NY Post broke away from the pack and Printed this -- Why the Federal Reserve should be audited By John Crudele August 31, 2015 |It is time for a comprehensive audit of Janet Yellen ’s Federal Reserve — and not just for the reasons presidential candidate Rand Paul and others have given. The Fed needs to be audited to see if its ruling body has broken the law by manipulating financial markets that are outside its jurisdiction. A thorough investigation of the Fed will show once and for all if its former chief Ben Bernanke and current Chairwoman Yellen should go to jail. I know, that’s a bold statement coming as it does on Sept. 1, 2015, with Wall Street still in half-bloom. But it won’t be so preposterous some day in the future if the stock market suffers a full-blown economy-busting collapse and Congress and everyone else are looking for scalps. The Fed should be audited as a brokerage firm would be — its financial holdings, its transactions, market orders, emails and phone calls. Special attention should be given to what is called the “trade blotter” at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which handles all market transactions for the Fed. The Fed’s dealing with foreign central banks — especially at times of market stress — should be given special attention. Trades in the wee hours of the morning should be in the spotlight. Not surprisingly, the Fed is strongly opposed to an audit and sees it as an intrusion into its autonomy. Washington shouldn’t be intimidated. Autonomy? Hah! That ended when the central bank started playing footsie with Wall Street. Let’s look at what happened to the stock market last week, and it’ll explain what I think those who audit the Fed need to look for. As you probably remember, stocks were headed for oblivion on Monday, Aug. 24. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 1,089 points early in the day before the index rallied for a close that was “only” 588 points lower. China’s problems. Weak US economic growth. Greece. The possibility of an interest-rate hike. Those and other issues were the root causes of last Monday’s woe. But Wall Street’s real problem is that there is a bubble in stock prices created by years of risky monetary policy by the Fed. Quantitative easing, or QE — the experiment in money printing that has kept interest rates super-low — hasn’t helped the economy (and even the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis concluded that). But QE did force savers into the stock market whether they wanted to take the risk or not. None of that is illegal. But the Fed now finds itself in the awkward position of having to protect the stock market bubble it created. So Yellen and her board of governors must have been pretty nervous when the Dow and other market indexes fell by an unprecedented amount on Aug. 24. Then, overnight, there was massive buying of Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures contracts. This was the remedy proposed by a guy named Robert Heller back in 1989 just after he left the Fed board. The Fed, Heller proposed, should rig the stock market in times of collapse. Were those contracts being bought overnight by some Wall Street cowboy for whom potential losses in the disastrous market were of no concern? Or was it the Fed propping up the market? Stock prices initially reacted well to the mysterious overnight buying on Tuesday, and the Dow was up 442 points — until it wasn’t anymore. The blue-chip index finished Tuesday, Aug. 25, with a loss of more than 200 points. Then the same magical buying of S&P futures contracts happened Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning. Stocks again went up at the opening on Wednesday, but this time the gain held. Credit was given to William Dudley, the head of the NY Fed I mentioned above, who offered his soothing opinion that interest rates probably wouldn’t be raised by the Fed at its September meeting. “Once again, the Federal Reserve helped save the day for investors,” the New York Times wrote in a front-page article that cited Dudley’s speech. But that wasn’t true — not unless Dudley’s speech leaked ahead of time. Stocks were up before Dudley’s talk and actually fell when he began speaking. That was probably due to the fact that Dudley pooh-poohed the idea of another dose of QE. Wall Street got lucky the rest of the week ahead of this past weekend’s St. Louis Fed annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Plus, the month of August was coming to an end — usually a time when traders pretty up their books. Money managers don’t want stocks to go down right before their performance is locked in and reported to clients. The Fed has certain mandated responsibilities. It is supposed to keep inflation within a certain range. It is also charged with protecting the US dollar. Plus — and this is a modern-day responsibility — the Fed is supposed to help the economy and keep unemployment low. Even if you agree with Heller that the market sometimes needs help, there is an enormous risk in doing this too often. First, traders come to think that there is no risk in the stock market — a belief that has been proven wrong time and again. Second, investors have no way of telling what the real value of stocks is. And third, certain well-placed people on Wall Street will always know what the Fed is doing and benefit from it. And when the financial elite benefit, regular folks suffer. It’s time to find out what the Fed has been up to. In this case, ignorance isn’t bliss — it’s costly. nypost.com/2015/08/31/why-the-federal-reserve-should-be-audited/
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Post by 3bid on Sept 6, 2015 21:29:52 GMT -5
The 147 Companies That Control Everything
by Bruce Upbin -- Forbes
Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have taken a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide and analyzed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them. They built a model of who owns what and what their revenues are and mapped the whole edifice of economic power.
They discovered that global corporate control has a distinct bow-tie shape, with a dominant core of 147 firms radiating out from the middle. Each of these 147 own interlocking stakes of one another and together they control 40% of the wealth in the network. A total of 737 control 80% of it all. The top 20 are at the bottom of the post. This is, say the paper’s authors, the first map of the structure of global corporate control.
The #occupy movement will eat this up as evidence for massive redistribution of wealth. The New Scientist talked to one systems theorist who is “disconcerted” at the level of interconnectedness, but not surprised. Such structures occur commonly in biology, things like fungus, lichen and weeds. Economists say the danger comes when you combine hyperconnection with the concentration of power. The Swiss scientists warn that this can lead to an unstable environment. No Scheisse, Sherlock.
But the web of corporate control is not de facto a conspiracy of world domination. There are many reasons for tightly bundled nodes and connections: anti-takeover strategies, reduction of transaction costs, risk sharing, increasing trust and groups of interest.
A few caveats with the data set: It excludes GSEs and privately-held companies and is dominated by banks, institutional investors and mutual funds that don’t always have much in the way of control over assets. Reader danogden left an especially good comment below: “…pension plans, corporate 401(k) plans and individual funds..manage trillions in assets ultimately belonging to individuals who are predominantly not in the “1%”. …There are a number of “custodian banks” in the list — companies who hold the assets of asset managers to ensure timely processing of things like foreign dividend and bond interest, name changes (due to mergers, etc.), foreign currency conversion and the like…Again, they do not own the assets, or even really control the assets — they merely house the assets. A better list would be the actual asset OWNERS, rather than the vendors who manage, house and clear said assets.”
See the top 50 on the control list at the New Scientist. One of the co-authors, Dr. James Glattfelder, says he will be publishing next week the bigger list of 737 companies that control 80% of the global economy. The 147 are included in that group.
The Top Fifty Corporate Owners
1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC (holding company for Wal-Mart heirs)
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world – physics-math – 19 October 2011 – New Scientist.
(Also Read: The 147 Companies That Run The World? They’re You.)
www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2011/10/22/the-147-companies-that-control-everything/
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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Sept 10, 2015 7:14:52 GMT -5
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on Sept 10, 2015 12:38:10 GMT -5
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is expected to unveil new Justice Dept. policies in a speech today at New York University that are intended to increase the number of white-collar cases brought against corporate executives.
The new guidelines are intended to focus on individual executives from the start, and not just the companies charged with alleged criminal and civil offenses.
Companies will also be pushed to name offending workers involved in alleged frauds and hand over evidence in any settlement talks. The new guidelines come as Wall Street already paid an estimated $139 billion in fines to U.S. regulators since January 2012 for the subprime and credit derivatives mess. “Our mission here is not to recover the largest amount of money from the greatest number of corporations; our job is to seek accountability from those who break our laws and victimize our citizens,” Yates is expected to say.
Corporate executives are also increasingly concerned about a new push by the Securities & Exchange Commission to return to the source of most of its famous perp walks: Accounting frauds like Enron or Worldcom. No Wall Street executives were imprisoned for the 2008 financial collapse, and virtually no one went to prison for the recent manipulations of the currency market and benchmark interest rates.
The federal government has been deploying computer programs to catch miscreants for some time. For instance, the IRS has historically used software to catch tax cheats.
The SEC’s computer program launched a couple of years ago to detect bookkeeping and white collar fraud in publicly-traded companies’ financials is becoming increasingly powerful and sophisticated, says the law firm Jones Day. It is now a central tool in the agency’s enforcement efforts. And it’s been increasingly active lately—just take a look at the recent BDO, Bankrate (RATE), and MusclePharm alleged bookkeeping fraud cases.
The SEC’s Robocop, or “Accounting Quality Model,” is a far-reaching super computer program, as it combines data from financial statements, corporate reports, auditors, third-party databases, market data and other sources.
The agency has been supplementing “Robocop” with its primary sources for white collar fraud cases, such as whistle-blower tips, complaints, referrals, corporate restatements, or companies that self-report problems. Moreover, the SEC is getting better at rooting out ‘false positives,’ relying on human judgment to better target fraudulent activity.
The computer program scours publicly-traded companies filings with the SEC. For instance, it looks at accounting and tax policies, changes in auditors, filing delays, problems with market share, cash flow, profit margins and off-balance sheet transactions. It even looks at a filing’s “Management Discussion & Analysis” section to detect words or statements that were commonly used in prior bookkeeping frauds. The computer program then assigns an earnings report a risk score, a red flag to SEC enforcement officials that a filing is problematic.
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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Sept 17, 2015 16:05:03 GMT -5
holein1par4 DIAMOND JEDI MASTER Post by holein1par4 on about an hour agoWe all have wondered this at times...is someone just doing an experiment on us. I know I have. I spotted this today. Our wonderful leader has ordered behavioral experiments on the American public. Makes me sick. I know I would like to do an experiment on him! We have talked in the past, wondering if some sick entity is just experimenting on us with this whole CMKX debacle. I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me. I just hope there is a reward for being guinea pigs, if it is an experiment. I have attached a link I hope it works. Even if cmkx is not an experiment. WTF is our president doing? Politics
President Obama Orders Behavioral Experiments on American Public Published September 15, 2015 By Chuck Ross, The Daily Caller 2:12 PM 09/15/2015President Obama announced a new executive order on Tuesday which authorizes federal agencies to conduct behavioral experiments on U.S. citizens in order to advance government initiatives. In its 2013 memo, which was reported by Fox News at the time, the White House openly admitted that the initiative involved behavioral experimentation. The initiative draws on research from University of Chicago economist Richard Thaler and Harvard law school professor Cass Sunstein, who was also dubbed Obama’s regulatory czar. The two behavioral scientists argued in their 2008 book “Nudge” that government policies can be designed in a way that “nudges” citizens towards certain behaviors and choices. Read the full story at The Daily Caller→ nation.foxnews.com/print//2015/09/15/president-obama-orders-behavioral-experiments-american-public
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on Sept 18, 2015 10:10:07 GMT -5
Steve Forbes: The Fed is Part of the Problem, Not the Solution By Matthew Kazin ·Published September 17, 2015 ·FOXBusiness During an interview on the FOX Business Network, Steve Forbes blasted the Federal Reserve, saying it is “part of the problem, not the solution.” “The Fed may be the only game in town, but it’s been a destructive one,” Forbes told Trish Regan. “No one asked the question why after seven years of zero interest rates we still have this punk economy. And why do small businesses still have a hard time getting credit? What the Fed has done is like bleeding an anemic patient.” With presidential campaigns continuing across the country, Forbes cited the economy as the big issue facing candidates. “The economy is critical,” he said. “We now learn that in 2014 median incomes in America fell once again. This in the sixth and seventh year of a recovery, so the economy is punked… and the Fed is part of the problem.” www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2015/09/17/steve-forbes-fed-is-part-problem-not-solution/?cmpid=prn_dailyfinance
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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Sept 24, 2015 7:59:46 GMT -5
alrich DIAMOND JEDI MASTER Sep 18, 2015 at 10:46pm IceCrush and cmkxtoo like this. Post by alrich on Sep 18, 2015 at 10:46pmThursday, September 17, 2015 48 Swiss Banks Are Turning Over Their US Client's Names The number of Swiss banks that have entered deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. government keeps growing. The IRS keeps updating its list of foreign banks where the holders of these offshore accounts are subject to a 50% (rather than 27.5%) penalty in the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). This penalty is based on the highest account balance measured over up to eight years. On July 13, 2015 we posted 2 More Swiss Banks Agree to Turn Over Names of US Depositors Bring the Total to 29 Banks!" well make that 47 now. The IRS recently added Schroder & Co. Bank AG (effective 9/3/15), Valiant Bank AG (effective 9/10/15), Bank La Roche & Co AG (effective 9/15/15) and Belize Bank International Limited, Belize Bank Limited, Belize Corporate Services Limited, their predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates (effective 9/16/15). 1.UBS AG (effective 8/4/14) 2.Credit Suisse AG, Credit Suisse Fides, and Clariden Leu Ltd. (effective 8/4/14) 3.Wegelin & Co. (effective 8/4/14) 4.Liechtensteinische Landesbank AG (effective 8/4/14) 5.Zurcher Kantonalbank (effective 8/4/14) 6.swisspartners Investment Network AG, swisspartners Wealth Management AG, swisspartners Insurance Company SPC Ltd., and swisspartners Versicherung AG (effective 8/4/14) 7.CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank Limited, its predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates (effective 8/4/14) 8.Stanford International Bank, Ltd., Stanford Group Company, and Stanford Trust Company, Ltd. (effective 8/4/14) 9.The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in India (HSBC India) (effective 8/4/14) 10.The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited (also known as Butterfield Bank and Bank of Butterfield), its predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates (effective 8/4/14) 11.Sovereign Management & Legal, Ltd., its predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates (effective 12/19/14) 12.Bank Leumi le-Israel B.M., the Bank Leumi le-Israel Trust Compay Ltd., Bank Leumi (Luxembourg) S.A., Leumi Private Bank S.A., and Bank Leumi USA (effective 12/22/14) 13.BSI SA (effective 3/30/15) 14.Vadian Bank AG (effective 5/8/15) 15.Finter Bank Zurich AG (effective 5/15/15) 16.Societe Generale Private Banking (Lugano-Svizzera) SA (effective 5/28/15) 17.MediBank AG (effective 5/28/15) 18.LBBW (Schweiz) AG (effective 5/28/15) 19.Scobag Privatbank AG (effective 5/28/15) 20.Rothschild Bank AG (effective 6/3/15) 21.Banca Credinvest SA (effective 6/3/15) 22.Societe Generale Private Banking (Suisse) SA (effective 6/9/15) 23.Berner Kantonalbank AG (effective 6/9/15) 24.Bank Linth LLB AG (effective 6/19/15) 25.Bank Sparhafen Zurich AG (effective 6/19/15) 26.Ersparniskasse Schaffhausen AG (effective 6/26/15) 27.Privatbank Von Graffenried AG (effective 7/2/15) 28.Banque Pasche SA (effective 7/9/15) 29.ARVEST Privatbank AG (effective 7/9/15) 30.Mercantil Bank (Schweiz) AG (effective 7/16/15) 31.Banque Cantonale Neuchateloise (effective 7/16/15) 32.Nidwaldner Kantonalbank (effective 7/16/15) 33.SB Saanen Bank AG (effective 7/23/15) 34.Privatbank Bellerive AG (effective 7/23/15) 35.PKB Privatbank AG (effective 7/30/15) 36.Falcon Private Bank AG (effective 7/30/15) 37.Credito Privato Commerciale in liquidazione SA (effective 7/30/15) 38.Bank EKI Genossenschaft (effective 8/3/15) 39.Privatbank Reichmuth & Co. (effective 8/6/15) 40.Banque Cantonale du Jura SA (effective 8/6/15) 41.Banca Intermobiliare di Investimenti e Gestioni (Suisse) SA (effective 8/6/15) 42.bank zweiplus ag (effective 8/20/15) 43.Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino (effective 8/20/15) 44.Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG (effective 8/27/15) 45. Schroder & Co. Bank AG (effective 9/3/15) 46. Valiant Bank AG (effective 9/10/15) 47. Bank La Roche & Co AG (effective 9/15/15) 48.Belize Bank International Limited, Belize Bank Limited, Belize Corporate Services Limited, their predecessors, subsidiaries, and affiliates (effective 9/16/15) Outside of these banks, the norm within the OVDP remains 27.5%. That is far better than prosecution or much bigger civil penalties. Some taxpayers can opt for the easier and less costly Streamlined program. This list does not impact the Streamlined programs because you must be non-willful to qualify. All of this is part of the June 2014 improvements to the OVDP, which sparked new interest in cleaning up offshore accounts. With roughly 96 Swiss banks taking the DOJ deal and FATCA requiring the entire world to report to the IRS resulting in increasing disclosures, everyone American is eventually going to be discovered. Banks worldwide want to know if there US clients are compliant with the IRS. Within the OVDP, people who pre-cleared before the various effective dates are generally safe from the higher 50% penalty. As additional banks are added to the list, only those American taxpayers that request pre-clearance before their bank is listed, will get the 27 1/2% OVDP penalty. The 50% penalty now applies to all taxpayers with accounts at financial institutions or with facilitators which are named, are cooperating or are identified in a court filing such as a John Doe summons. Although the 50% penalty is high, willful civil violations can result in tax, penalties and interest totaling 325% of the highest balance in the account for the most recent six years period. Recent guidance suggests that the IRS could be more lenient in the future, but the IRS’s definition of leniency can still make the OVDP a very good deal that provides certainty.
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Post by imSINGLEruRICH on Sept 29, 2015 9:10:55 GMT -5
Interesting.... Not directly related to cmkm but interesting to see how involved Saskatchewan is with diamonds
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Post by 3bid on Oct 1, 2015 16:17:21 GMT -5
Head of Bank of England Warns of Risk of Investing in Fossil Fuels The governor of the Bank of England has issued a sharp warning about the financial risk of investing in fossil fuels. Mark Carney said Tuesday night that investors could face potentially huge losses if reserves of oil, coal and gas are deemed "unburnable." Environmental groups have long warned companies of the financial risks of not divesting from fossil fuels. Carney said the window for fossil fuel divestment is closing. Mark Carney: "The combination of the weight of scientific evidence and the dynamics of the financial system suggest that in the fullness of time climate change will threaten financial resilience and longer-term prosperity. While there’s still time to act, the window is finite and is closing." www.democracynow.org/2015/9/30/headlines#9308
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on Oct 2, 2015 7:38:50 GMT -5
Identity Theft--By Bank Insiders It's the dirty secret in banking. Bank employees often steal personal account information from bank customers so as to rob money from bank accounts or commit fraud via identity theft, bank employees tell FOX Business. Few banks seem immune. Ten clients at Citizens Bank and Commerce Bank, as well as 25 Prudential Insurance customers in Lehigh County, Penn. either had money stolen from their bank accounts or fake credit cards set up in their name by thieves in an identity theft ring that included a Commerce bank teller, a former Citizens Bank manager, and a Prudential Insurance employee. The ring operated out of the Philadelphia area from 2006 through 2012. The former bank and insurance employees have pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting bank fraud and identity theft, and face time in prison. A former Regions Bank worker in Birmingham, Ala. was indicted in 2010 for setting up a fake Capital One credit card in a customer’s name in order to use the plastic for his own expenses. Wash Taylor Coleman, Jr., also made unauthorized cash withdrawals from accounts of three Regions customers, including the client whose identity he had stolen to set up his Capital One credit card. Another former Regions Bank employee, Kimbriuna Dyer, was part of an identity theft ring that stole money from accounts out of one of the bank’s Memphis, Tenn. branches. The stolen money was then used to buy thousands of dollars’ worth of goods. Regions Bank had no comment for either instance. And now, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a JPMorgan Chase Bank customer, who says the financial giant must be held liable for an identity theft committed by former workers who allegedly were part of a ring that facilitated an estimated $77 million Medicare fraud via her stolen identity. The lawsuit from bank customer Yelena Galper seeks to hold Chase liable for this identity theft Under the New York Fair Credit Reporting Act. Chase did not return calls seeking comment. "All the places that have your Social Security number, all present potential of identity theft," said Richard Goldberg, chief of economic crimes at the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia. The banking industry’s human resources divisions try to stop insider identity theft by screening out potential hires and conducting extensive training. But bank and law enforcement officials warn that any outfit you give your personal identity information to may employ workers who could steal your information. That even includes the IRS. A former IRS employee in Austin, Tex. stole personal information from taxpayers so as to file fraudulent returns and pocket the refund money. Kenneth Goheen had worked for the IRS as a Tax Examining Technician. He confessed to stealing Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) from taxpayers. Goheen then used the TINs to file more than 50 fake tax returns from 2013 to 2015. He then got fraudulent refunds of over $120,000. Goheen was sentenced on August 26 to two years in prison. Law enforcement also busted up an identity theft ring that included Viririana Hernandez, a former IRS worker in Fresno, Calif. Hernandez had allegedly conspired with three others to steal personal information not just of taxpayers, but fellow IRS employees, the Justice Dept. says. They then opened fake credit cards in the victims’ names or added themselves as “authorized users” on the victims’ existing accounts. The ID theft ring stole identity information from about 160 victims and attempted fake credit card charges of more than $1.2 million over two years, the Justice Dept. says. Back to JPMorgan Chase customer Yelena Galper. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York yesterday said Galper can proceed with her law suit against JPMorgan Chase Bank. Her suit says former bank workers were involved in an identity theft ring that scammed Medicare using her bank accounts. In her suit, which seeks $10 million in damages, Galper says the banking giant should be held liable in the theft of her personal identity information. Galper alleged Chase employees stole her identity and used it to further a $77 million Medicare money laundering scheme. Specifically, Galper said in her complaint that three New York City-based Chase employees — a branch manager, a business account manager and a teller — conspired to open business, checking and saving accounts in her name so as to conceal proceeds from a Medicare fraud scheme operated by several medical clinics in the city. Galper also goes so far as to charge in her complaint that the bank actually paid for the legal defense of its employees and did not take any disciplinary action against them. The three workers are not parties to Galper's suit. “In participating in and facilitating the money laundering scheme, [the Chase] employees acted within the scope of their employment and for the benefit and profit of Chase,” Galper’s complaint says. “Thus, Chase is liable for the illegal conduct the ... employees.” According to the suit, Galper said the bank employees helped the owners of three New York City area health care clinics set up shell companies. In September 2009, the alleged money launderers opened three accounts for the companies at Chase Bank. The accounts, however, falsely named Galper, a Chase customer, as president of the companies and the signatory on the accounts. Her suit also alleged the launderers and the bank employees used Galper’s dormant personal Chase checking account to carry out their fraud. The bank employees allegedly changed bank records to make it look as if Galper made transactions on the accounts used in the fraud, even though she had no knowledge of the scam. Elizabeth MacDonald joined FOX Business Network (FBN) as stocks editor in September 2007 and is the author of Skirting Heresy: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe (Franciscan Media, June 2014). Follow Elizabeth MacDonald on Twitter @lizmacdonaldfox. www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2015/10/01/indentity-theft-by-bank-insiders/?cmpid=prn_dailyfinance
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on Oct 2, 2015 9:16:00 GMT -5
www.foxbusiness.com/economy-policy/2015/10/02/governments-nearly-1-trillion-in-overpayments/?cmpid=prn_dailyfinanceThe Government’s Nearly $1 Trillion in Overpayments Government waste took a significant turn for the worse in fiscal 2014, rising dramatically to $124.7 billion from $105.8 billion in fiscal 2013. That’s a striking increase of nearly 20% in improper federal payments. As the White House and Congress continues to blow out the federal deficit to $18 trillion in their Miracle-Gro, “Supersize Me” approach to government, little is being done to stop federal overpayments. Since fiscal 2003, “cumulative improper payment estimates have totaled almost $1 trillion,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a new report. U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro testified yesterday on the GAO’s new findings before the Senate Finance Committee. In total, overpayments accounted for approximately 90% of the federal government’s improper payment estimate, the GAO said. The waste spans 24 federal programs across 22 government agencies. Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said: "There is, of course, plenty of questionable spending that the government does on purpose on a more or less daily basis – but that’s a whole other hearing," And ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said: “Every taxpayer dollar lost to mistakes -- no matter the cause -- is a dollar that’s not available to help seniors cover medical costs, put a student through college, or rebuild our aging infrastructure.” The GAO said three programs were most at fault: Medicare, Medicaid and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). These three government programs were responsible for a full three-quarters of the nearly $19 billion in erroneous payments the federal government made in fiscal 2014, the GAO said. “Improper payments remain a significant and pervasive government-wide issue,” the Congressional watchdog unit warned. Overall, the Earned Income Tax Credit program was the worst offender out of all government programs. Specifically, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimated that it erroneously handed out $17.7 billion worth of “improper” EITC payments. That amounts to a whopping 27.2% of the total $65.2 billion in EITC refund checks the IRS sent out in fiscal 2014. And that means the federal government is now fast approaching the day when one out of every three earned income tax credits is erroneous. Medicare was nearly as bad. The program, which covers about 54 million elderly and disabled beneficiaries, incorrectly doled out $59.9 billion in fiscal 2014, which is about a tenth of its $603 billion budget. So, one out of every $10 Medicare spent last year was erroneous, the GAO said. Medicaid made $17.5 billion in mistaken payments out of its $304 billion budget, for a nearly 6% error rate. Besides the EITC program, the federal programs with the highest reported error rates for fiscal year 2014 included the School Breakfast program (25.6%) and the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act Programs (23.1%). The Congressional watchdog group also warned that unless Congress and the Administration cracks down, these taxpayer-funded overpayments will continue to rise, since “federal spending in Medicare and Medicaid is expected to significantly increase---on average by 8.6% per year over the next three years." Moreover, Comptroller Dodaro repeatedly said both Congress and the White House must do more to protect taxpayer money, demanding they enforce accountability at these agencies. Most glaring is the fact that the federal government still can’t gauge how bad the problem is. “GAO has reported for several years that the federal government is unable to determine the full extent to which improper payments occur and reasonably assure that actions are taken to reduce them,” its report said. It’s only been since fiscal year 2003 that federal agencies began reporting improper payments, as required by the Improper Payments Information Act of 2002 (IPIA), the watchdog unit noted. Elizabeth MacDonald joined FOX Business Network (FBN) as stocks editor in September 2007 and is the author of Skirting Heresy: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe (Franciscan Media, June 2014). Follow Elizabeth MacDonald on Twitter @lizmacdonaldfox.
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Post by John Winston Lennon O'Boogie on Oct 2, 2015 10:21:50 GMT -5
www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/10/02/third-quarter-wiped-10-trillion-off-global-stocks/?cmpid=prn_dailyfinanceThird-Quarter Wiped $10 Trillion Off Global Stocks Investors pulled a combined $75 billion from U.S. and emerging market equity funds in the third quarter, wiping a record $10 trillion off the value of global equities in the period, according to EPFR Global and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In data released late on Thursday, Boston-based fund tracker EPFR Global said European and Japanese funds were the only equity classes to receive net inflows between July and September, most likely motivated by the possibility of more central bank money-printing. Funds pulled $35.2 billion from dedicated U.S. equity funds over the quarter, according to EPFR, bringing year-to-date outflows to $138 billion. That along with September losses in European markets has led to a $10 trillion drop in global equity market capitalisation, the largest quarterly fall ever, BAML said. Global equity market cap now stands at $60 trillion, a two-year low, after peaking at $71 trillion in April, the bank said. The latest week saw global equity fund redemptions of $6.6 billion, the bank said in its weekly report, which also uses EPFR figures. This coincides with a setback for European stocks that have been hit by troubles at mining firm Glencore and German automaker Volkswagen. European equities remain broadly in favor however. Dedicated Europe funds saw tiny $20 million outflows in the past week, but Q3 inflows amounted to $31.3 billion or 190 percent of the full-year record set in 2013. EPFR added also that Japan equity inflows of $25 billion were the biggest quarterly figure since it started tracking them at the start of 2002. Japanese and European equities have absorbed $56.4 billion and $104.5 billion year-to-date, well above last year's levels, the data shows. U.S. outflows are running at $138 billion, dwarfing the $32 billion received last year "Mutual fund investors continued to pin what faith they have on markets and asset classes supported by robust quantitative easing programs," EPFR said. But fears of how the Volkswagen emissions scandal would affect German companies led European flows to favor Italian and Dutch equity funds towards the end of the third quarter, BNP Paribas noted, citing EPFR. European investment grade as well as junk-rated credit saw bigger losses of $824 million and $617 million respectively in the third quarter, partly as a result of these problems. SHUNNING BONDS AND EMERGING MARKETS Fears for China's economy deepened over the quarter as the country suffered a huge equity plunge and devalued its currency, while economic data in most emerging markets confirmed fears of a protracted growth slowdown across the developing world. While the U.S. Federal Reserve held off raising interest rates in September it could move in December, despite the increasingly fragile outlook for world growth, especially in China and emerging economies. Bond funds of all stripes saw outflows in the third quarter. Global bond funds lost $16.9 billion while U.S. and European debt shed $8.9 billion and $2.8 billion respectively. "During a quarter marked by a sharp correction in China's equity markets and persistent fear that the (Fed) would make good on its stated desire to start normalizing interest rates investors steered clear of most fixed income fund groups," the report said. Bond funds lost $7.4 billion in the past week, the biggest outflow in five weeks, the BofA note said. Meanwhile risk-shy investors pumped around $100 billion from global and European money market funds over the quarter, EPFR said. Emerging equities and bonds extended their run of losses on signs the developing world is headed for a protracted period of weakness or even crisis in the case of China and Brazil. The EM equity exodus accelerated during the quarter, with outflows of $39.7 billion bringing year-to-date losses to $59.8 billion. The biggest losses were in Asia which saw outflows of over $20 billion. The lossmaking streak now extends for 12 straight weeks for emerging equity funds, with $1.7 billion pulled out in the most recent week, BAML said. Emerging bond funds shed $15 billion in the third quarter, versus $4.5 billion outflows in the first nine months of 2014. They have seen redemptions for 10 straight weeks, with $1.4 billion pulled out this past week. Allocations to Brazil in emerging equity funds were on the brink of falling below 7 percent for the first time in more than a decade, EPFR noted, amid fears of a currency and political crisis in the country. Brazil's bonds, equities and currency are among this year's worst performers "Latin America's largest economy currently offers investors a toxic mixture of stalled growth, political gridlock, soft demand for commodities, above-target inflation and sliding credit ratings," EPFR said. Net capital flows to emerging markets will be negative this year for the first time since 1988, the Institute of International Finance said on Thursday, highlighting the extent of problems faced by the developing world (Reporting by Sujata Rao; editing by John Stonestreet)
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cano1
Dr. Of Diamonds
Posts: 211
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Post by cano1 on Oct 4, 2015 19:42:57 GMT -5
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Post by 3bid on Oct 6, 2015 12:10:23 GMT -5
Another kind of housing bubble...
Tiny Homes For Homeless People Built By The Homeless Could Be Key To Getting People Off Streets
Poor residents in Greensboro may soon be getting a new lease on life, and all it will take is a little bit of elbow grease.
The North Carolina city is the latest to move forward with plans to create tiny homes for some of its residents living in extreme poverty -- a growing trend communities across the country are implementing in attempts to curb homelessness, Fox 29 News reported. The initiative, run by a team of volunteers, is led by Tiny Houses Greensboro, the Interactive Resource Center and other local organizations that have come together for the cause, according to WFMY News 2.
The team, which held a "How to Build a Tiny House" workshop with homeless residents and community members this past weekend to construct the first home's framing, is hoping to have the model complete and ready for residents to move in by mid-January, according to its Indiegogo page. According to the fundraiser, the project has garnered more than $2,100 of the $5,000 goal.
"The person experiencing homelessness has got to put a lot of sweat equity into the house," a member of Tiny Houses Greensboro said of the project, according to Fox 29 News. "You know, sometimes it takes a village. Well, there's also a saying that says, 'If it takes a village, build one.'"
As WFMY News 2 reported, the house will be 128-square feet and contain a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Once the prototype is complete, organizers said they hope to work with city and county officials to make plans for a village of similar models.
As Fox 29 noted, "tiny homes initiatives are sprouting up all over [the] country as a new, creative way to provide housing for the homeless." Similarly constructed projects in Madison, Wisconsin, and Austin, Texas, have experienced success combating the crisis, and just this August, Portland, Oregon announced plans to move forward with building micro-homes for its poorest residents.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/27/greensboro-north-carolina-tiny-homes_n_6054590.html
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