In Banking

Scot-Free:

Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo may face federal enforcement action related to mortgage-backed securities deals leading into the financial crisis, the banks said in regulatory filings on Tuesday.

The disclosures are the latest sign government officials are stepping up action against banks that packaged home loans into bonds during the housing boom. The underlying mortgages later soured, spurring billions in losses for investors.

Goldman [GS  117.11    1.23  (+1.06%)   ] and Wells Fargo [WFC  31.37    0.34  (+1.1%)   ] both said they received so-called “Wells notices” from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. A Wells notice indicates SEC staff plan to recommend that the agency take legal action and gives a recipient a chance to mount a defense.

Goldman received its Wells notice on Feb. 24, relating to a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage-backed securities deal in late 2006 that the bank underwrote. Goldman said it will be making a submission to the SEC related to the case and communicating with SEC staff to address their concerns.

The bank has also received inquiries from governmental, regulatory bodies and self-regulatory entities concerning certain transactions Goldman entered with MF Global prior to the brokerage firm’s bankruptcy filing. Goldman said it is cooperating with all such inquiries.

Reuters earlier reported that Goldman purchased $1.3 billion worth of commercial paper from MF Global days before its bankruptcy on Oct. 31.

Wells Fargo said its Wells notice related to its disclosures in offering documents for mortgage-backed securities. The bank said it is providing information requested by various regulatory agencies in connection with their investigations.

Representatives of Goldman, Wells Fargo and the SEC declined further comment.

The U.S. government is under intense pressure to show that it can hold Wall Street accountable for its contribution to the subprime housing meltdown that began in 2007.

Mortgage settlement updates:

Bank of America Corp. and a group of investors that reached an $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement with the bank won their bid to remove the case from a federal judge and return it to state court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned a lower court ruling and granted a request by Bank of America and the investor group to remand the case to New York state court, where it was first filed, according to a decision today.

“The case was not removable from state court and must be remanded,” the appeals court said.

The settlement, which would resolve claims from investors in Countrywide Financial Corp. mortgage bonds, was filed last year in New York State Supreme Court and was initially set for consideration at a November hearing. Before that hearing took place, the case was removed to federal court by entities under the name Walnut Place that own some of the securities.

The decision sending the case back to state court is good for investors in Countrywide bonds because it reduces uncertainty in the settlement, Barclays Capital said in a research note after the decision. Bank of America acquired Countrywide in 2008.

This theft and waste needs to stop, then again corruption and brazen fraud reigns high as zombie bullsh-t organizations remain in business…

Fannie requests $4.57 billion after posting 4Q loss:

Mortgage giant Fannie Mae said Wednesday that it lost money in its fourth quarter and is asking the federal government for $4.57 billion in aid to cover its deficit.

Perfect, write the blank check, whatever could go wrong?!

Washington-based Fannie said it lost $2.41 billion in the October-December quarter, stung by declining home prices. Revenue was $4.53 billion.

The government rescued Fannie and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans. Since then, a federal regulator — the Federal Housing Finance Agency — has controlled their financial decisions.

Still an abysmal failure…

Taxpayers have spent more than $150 billion to prop up Fannie and Freddie, the most expensive bailout of the 2008 financial crisis. The government estimates that figure could top $259 billion to support the companies through 2014 after subtracting dividend payments.

Fannie has received more than $116 billion so far from the Treasury Department, the most expensive bailout of a single company.

Screwing American taxpayers!

Fannie officials say losses have increased in recent quarters for two reasons: Some homeowners are paying less interest after refinancing at historically low mortgage rates; others are defaulting on their mortgages.

When property values drop, homeowners default, either because they are unable to afford the payments or because they owe more than the property is worth. Because of the guarantees, Fannie and Freddie must pay for the losses.

Doom.

Fannie’s October-December loss takes into account $2.6 billion in dividend payments to the government. That compares with a loss of $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010.

In November, Freddie requested $6 billion in extra aid — the largest request since April 2010 — after it reported losing $6 billion in the third quarter.

Fannie Mae and McLean, Va.-based Freddie Mac own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S., or nearly 31 million home loans. Along with other federal agencies, they backed nearly 90 percent of new mortgages over the past few years.

Repeated for emphasis: own or guarantee half of all US mortgages or 31 million home loans!

Fannie and Freddie buy home loans from banks and other lenders, package them with bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors around the world. The companies nearly folded more than three years ago because of big losses on risky mortgages they purchased.

Yeah, recall the toxic assets?

The Obama administration unveiled a plan one year ago to slowly dissolve the two mortgage giants. The aim is to shrink the government’s role in the mortgage system, remaking decades of federal policy aimed at getting Americans to buy homes. It would also probably make home loans more expensive.

The firms’ regulator, the FHFA, submitted a plan to Congress last week that would reduce the companies’ role in the mortgage market. Under the plan, Fannie and Freddie could also increase its prices to guarantee loans and establish agreements with private investors to take on added credit risk.

Exactly how far the government’s role in mortgage lending would be reduced was left to Congress to decide. But all three options the administration presented would create a housing finance system that relies far more on private money.

Wyoming doomsday bill fails 30-27

Interesting since expanding HLS and preparing is popular these days:

Wyoming lawmakers on Tuesday voted down the state’s “Doomsday Bill,” which among other things, called for the state to explore buying an aircraft carrier, creating its own currency and starting a military draft for its own army.

The Wyoming House of Representatives voted 30-27 against the bill during a session Tuesday; 31 votes are needed to pass the bill. It already was stripped Monday of provisions for the aircraft carrier and draft. State Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) said lawmakers did not debate the bill before the vote.

“There was no discussion on it today,” Zwonitzer told The Huffington Post Tuesday afternoon. “It went up and we voted.”

The bill originally was pushed as a study of the state’s homeland security and its approach to emergencies. The bill included a study of how the state would handle running out of food or a collapse of the nation’s economic system. Zwonitzer said that he was in favor of the bill.

“It was $15,000 for a study to see how Wyoming would handle an emergency, if we were prepared for a crisis,” he said. “It was an innocuous study to prepare for a crisis.”

Zwonitzer said the proposals for the state to look into purchasing an aircraft carrier, buying fighter jets, creating a military, launching a draft and creating a currency were added early in the process in order to defeat the bill. He said state lawmakers were surprised by the national media attention, which they aren’t used to, following the insertion of the aircraft carrier proposal.

“It was a poison pill,” Zwonitzer said of the creation of the state military. “We’re a landlocked state that does not need an aircraft carrier.”

Wyoming does have a National Guard with Army and Air Force units.

Previous coverage.

Gratuitous hilarious Atreyu’s doomsday.

These are the good ole’ days…

Wow, the right-left wing go around, around and around accomplishing so much! Just shut-up already:

Congressional Democrats are ramping up pressure on President Obama to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to prevent rising gas prices from threatening the economy and their election-year prospects.

What pressure? Ain’t gonna happen, ain’t gonna drill…

They are growing anxious that the price of fuel could reverse their political fortunes, which had been improving due to signs of growth in the economy.

What piss-poor leadership as millions of employed & unemployed Americans see their income wealth eaten away by devalued money to afford higher food and gas prices.

Republicans have hammered Democrats on the price spike, repeatedly noting that gas prices — now at $3.72 per gallon for regular — have doubled since Obama won the White House.

Blame is utterly pointless as the reality of higher gas prices are here:

GOP Rep. Ron Paul: Rick peddling conspiracy theories

The Hill:

Ron Paul brushed aside the idea that he and Mitt Romney are in an alliance against Rick Santorum, saying the former Pennsylvania senator is pushing a conspiracy theory.

Speaking on CNN shortly after polls closed in the Arizona and Michigan primaries, Paul said that Santorum seemed to be an “addict of conspiracies.”

“Some people are much more into conspiracies than others,” Paul said Tuesday on CNN.

Santorum accused Paul and Romney of having some kind of alliance —explicit or implicit— against him. Just after a Republican presidential debate in Mesa, Arizona, Santorum floated the idea of some kind of agreement between Romney and Paul.

“You have to ask Congressman Paul and Gov. Romney what they’ve got going together,” Santorum said just after the debate. “Their commercials look a lot alike, and so do their attacks.”

HC: IPAB

Independent payment advisory board:

The Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, is a fifteen-member United States Governmentagency created in 2010 by sections 3403 and 10320 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which has the explicit task of achieving specified savings in Medicare without affecting coverage or quality.^[1] Under previous and current law, changes to Medicare payment rates and program rules are recommended by MedPAC but require an act of Congress to take effect. The new system grants IPAB the authority to make changes to the Medicare program with the Congress being given the power to overrule the agency’s decisions.

Beginning in 2013, the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will determine in particular years the projected per capita growth rate for Medicare for a multi-year period ending in the second year thereafter (the “implementation year”). If the projection exceeds a target growth rate, IPAB must develop a proposal to reduce Medicare spending in the implementation year by a specified amount. If it is required to develop a proposal, the Board must submit that proposal in January of the year before the implementation year; thus, the first proposal could be submitted in January 2014 to take effect in 2015. If the Board fails to submit a proposal that the Chief Actuary certifies will achieve the savings target, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must submit a proposal that will achieve that amount of savings. The Secretary must then implement the proposal unless Congress enacts resolutions made to override the Board’s (or the Secretary’s) decisions under a fast-track procedure that the law sets forth.^[1]

Kaiser:

It sounds like a new Apple product, but IPAB is actually a controversial board at the heart of a highly charged battle over Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly and disabled.

The Independent Payment Advisory Board was created by the 2010 health care law. Last month, in releasing his deficit-reduction plan, President Barack Obama called for increasing the panel’s authority, saying it was critical to controlling the costs of Medicare, estimated at $524 billion in fiscal 2010. Republicans and some Democrats have denounced IPAB, saying it will be made up of unelected bureaucrats who will wind up rationing care to Medicare beneficiaries. As the spotlight turns back to the deficit, debates about IPAB are moving front and center. Here’s a look at the issues:

What will IPAB do ?

Beginning with fiscal 2015, if Medicare is projected to grow too quickly, IPAB will make binding recommendations to reduce spending. Those recommendations will be sent to Capitol Hill at the beginning of the year, and if Congress doesn’t like them, it must pass alternative cuts — of the same size — by August. A supermajority of the Senate can also vote to amend the IPAB recommendations. If Congress fails to act, the secretary of health and human services is required to implement the cuts by default.

Who will serve on the panel?

It will have 15 full-time members, and only a minority of them can be health care providers. The president is required to get suggestions from leaders of both parties in Congress in nominating 12 of the 15 appointees. For the other three, he doesn’t have to consult Congress. The members have to be confirmed by the Senate. Obama hasn’t nominated anyone yet, but said last month that he hopes to fill the slots with “doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers.” Board members, who will serve six-year terms, are to be paid the salary of senior executives in the federal government — $165,300 this year — and cannot hold any other jobs.

Hospitals, doctors, drug companies and some patients’ groups are worried IPAB will recommend reductions in Medicare payments — which they say already are too low — and that they won’t have the time or ability to counter the cuts during accelerated congressional action. Doctors and drug companies are particularly worried that they’ll bear a lot of the burden because hospitals and nursing homes aren’t subject to IPAB’s cost-cutting recommendations until fiscal 2020. Lawmakers — mostly Republicans but some Democrats as well — say that IPAB will have too much power and are pressing for repeal of the provision.

Some critics, including House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., charge that IPAB will ration needed care for seniors.

Defenders counter that the law bars it from rationing care, restricting benefits or changing eligibility criteria. And, in response to complaints from the health care industry, Sen. John Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who was one of IPAB’s architects, said that the board was specifically designed to reduce the influence of “special interests” on Medicare payment policy. Those interests, he and others say, have kept Congress from making the tough decisions needed to hold down spending and reduce the deficit.

The Hill:

What if I told you there was a country where medical decisions were made not by doctors in consultation with their patients, but by a panel of 15 unelected bureaucrats who determine the fate of millions of Americans? You would probably think that such a system would only exist thousands of miles off our shores, where access to even the most rudimentary healthcare is reserved for the privileged few. You would be incorrect.

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed, it created the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) with the intent of slowing future spending growth of Medicare, which already consumes $468 billion of our federal budget and is projected to rise ever higher. But Congress decided to give the Board unprecedented power to make cuts to Medicare where they see fit, and only a supermajority vote can overturn them. On Wednesday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health will vote on HR 452, the Medicare Decisions Accountability Act, which would repeal IPAB and send a clear signal that the American people will only fully except the ACA when all of its fatal flaws, chief among them IPAB, are rectified.

Regardless of one’s opinion of health care reform, IPAB will neither increase access nor lower the cost of care for America’s senior citizens. That’s because the Board is tasked only with controlling Medicare spending, which in deciding which providers should be paid what amount, could do serious damage to the sacred doctor-patient relationships Americans rely upon to ensure they are receiving the best care.

Controlling the rate of growth of Medicare spending is paramount if the program is to remain a vital health care component for millions of American seniors and disabled individuals. But decisions to ensure the long-term solvency of Medicare must be made by Congress, which is accountable to the American people. Otherwise it’s an unelected board tasked solely with making arbitrary spending cuts that may have severe consequences.

The reality of American HC is grim: drug shortages, unsustainable costs, higher premiums crushing the middle class, Medicare/Medicaid accounting gimmickry, fining citizens for non-compliance in the compulsory purchasing of policies and endless suffering – all a ruse to generate more revenue. Why else would a health care bill receive quick passage without a floor reading it during an economic slow-down?

American health care is neither health nor care.

 

Did President target GOP Rep. Ron Paul’s military supporters with higher hcare costs?

As our military men and women serve their country, they have suffered scaled-back pensions, a bureaucratic VA, many worry our military is used as cannon fodder, forced to follow orders as drug guards, returning troops are patted down by TSA as if they are the terrorists, returning home suffering from severe life-altering injuries, fight for disability status and are now asked to pay double to triple for HC?

From Jan. 26th Military Advantage:

As reported by Military.com, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey gave reporters a “preview” of the fiscal 2013 defense budget that will be sent to Congress next month, the first to reflect the bite of $487 billion in reduced budget growth over the next 10 years.

News around the 2013 budget has been mainly focused on the call for downsizing the military forces and equipment. However, there were also some references to pay and compensation that deserve some highlighting.

Military Pay Appears Safe (for Now): “Servicemembers will receive their full pay raises in fiscal 2013 and 2014,” Panetta said. “We will achieve some cost savings by providing more limited pay raises beginning in 2015,” he added.

20-Year Military Retirement Plan Safe (for Now): Panetta will ask Congress to establish a “commission with the authority to conduct a comprehensive review of military retirement” — with the understanding that current troops will be protected with a grandfather clause that keeps their existing benefits.

Military Retiree Health Care Changes: Panetta said troop health care and retirement are two huge issues that Washington can no longer avoid.

Panetta told reporters that “Health care is another important benefit, and one that has far outpaced inflation. Changes to health care will not affect active duty personnel or their families.” However, he added, “We decided that to help control growth of health care costs, we are recommending increases in health care [TRICARE] fees, co-pays and deductibles for retirees.” He added, “But let me be clear that even after these increases, the cost borne by military retirees will remain below the levels in comparable private-sector plans.”

Military retirees fear losing their TRICARE benefit and most understand that something has to be done to reduce TRICARE’s impact on the federal budget. Last week MOAA reported that the DoD is looking for ways, other than increasing fees, to reduce the cost of military health care.  Let’s hope that public pressure can force DoD to find other ways to lighten the cost of TRICARE without increasing the cost “borne by military retirees.”

As one report puts it, DoD’s budget is expected to spark a battle royale among lawmakers, who may scramble to try to protect programs, bases and politically popular troop pay and benefits.

+++++++++

From the Feb. 23rd Army Times:

Pentagon officials will continue pressing in 2013 for significantly higher Tricare fees for military retirees, including older retirees covered by Tricare for Life, as well as higher drug co-pays for all Tricare beneficiaries.

The Defense Department’s proposed 2013 budget calls for annual enrollment fees for retirees in Tricare Prime to rise next year by 30 percent to 78 percent, from the current $460 or $520 for families to between $600 and $820, depending on military retirement income.

“Working-age retirees” — those younger than 65 — also would pay annual enrollment fees for Tricare Standard and Extra: $70 for an individual and $140 for a family. These would be the first enrollment fees for Standard and Extra in Tricare history.

Deductibles for Standard and Extra also would rise by $10 for individuals and $20 for families.

Medicare-eligible retirees also would contribute more to their care: The budget calls for annual Tricare for Life enrollment fees of $35 to $115 per individual, depending on retirement income. A retiree and a spouse covered under TFL would each have to pay the enrollment fee.

Tricare for Life beneficiaries currently pay no enrollment fees but are required to enroll in Medicare Part B, which carries premiums of $99.90 a month.

Military advocacy groups said they understand the budget constraints facing DoD but feel this proposal “passes the buck” to beneficiaries.

“We take issue with the Pentagon’s decision to raise fees for beneficiaries, relying on them to pay for the budget when it’s the department’s responsibility to increase efficiencies and cut their own costs,” said Kathy Beasley, health care committee co-chairwoman for the Military Coalition, an umbrella group of more than 30 national military associations.

The groups also are concerned about the Pentagon’s call to link fee hikes to retirement income and index future increases to the medical inflation rate, which tends to rise faster than overall inflation or the annual cost-of-living adjustment in military retired pay.

When lawmakers last year approved the first fee increases since Tricare was created in the mid-1990s, they limited future hikes to the retiree COLA. The most recent COLA increase was 3.6 percent; medical inflation typically rises by 6 percent or 7 percent a year.

“These new increases, coming on top of last year’s changes, are a classic ‘bait and switch’ that would raise beneficiary fees by as much as $1,500 a year or more,” said retired Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the Military Officers Association of America.

Given, cuts and increases in HC costs are coming…

Another proposed change would boost pharmacy co-pays on brand-name drugs, a move designed to encourage patients to buy generic versions or fill their prescriptions at military treatment facilities.

Under the plan:

• Co-pays at retail outlets would remain $5 for generics but would more than double next year to $26 for brand names, then go up $2 per year through 2017. Co-pays for drugs not listed on Tricare’s formulary would be decided on a case-by-case basis.

• Generic drugs obtained by mail would remain free for a 90-day supply, but brand names would increase next year to $26 from $9 and rise by $2 a year through 2017. Nonformulary drugs would cost $51, up from $25.

Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said the proposals reflect DoD’s commitment to military families. He added that the tiered approach directs those with greater means to pay more for their health care.

Tricare “will still be quite generous compared to the private-sector plans, Aetna or Blue Cross Blue Shield. We still think it’s generous, as it should be, but we feel we need to move in that direction,” Hale said.

The enrollment fee hikes would not apply to survivors of military members who died on active duty or medically retired troops.

 

+++++++++

3rd source – current administration to cut HC (healthcare) benefits for troops:

The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget calls for military families and retirees to pay sharply more for their healthcare, while leaving unionized civilian defense workers’ benefits untouched. The proposal is causing a major rift within the Pentagon, according to U.S. officials. Several congressional aides suggested the move is designed to increase the enrollment in Obamacare’s state-run insurance exchanges.

The disparity in treatment between civilian and uniformed personnel is causing a backlash within the military that could undermine recruitment and retention.

The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.

And these are the outcomes of monstrous financial problems in America’s continuance of over-extended military assignments of wars that go on and on.

Many in Congress are opposing the proposed changes, which would require the passage of new legislation before being put in place.

“We shouldn’t ask our military to pay our bills when we aren’t willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population,” Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and a Republican from California, said in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon. “We can’t keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more.”

Only in my opinion, is America facing austerity and reduced cuts across the board.

 

+++++++++

Many in the military support and donate towards GOP Rep. Ron Paul, is this political payback or backlash for such support?

Consider the funds from the armed forces to Rep. Ron Paul along with the peaceful demonstration/march in support of  GOP Rep. Ron Paul.

Some highlights from that last link:

To truly support the troops is to consider whom they donate towards and lend support in that direction:

GOP presidential candidate and Air Force veteran Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) continues to highlight his strong support from members of the armed forces as he hits the campaign trail following his third-place finish in Iowa. And the numbers continue to bear him out, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Paul has collected $95,567 in campaign contributions from individuals who listed their occupation as one of the branches of the US military or US Department of Defense. That’s more than any other current presidential contender, including, notably, President Barack Obama.

The question must be asked, is charging more for HC an act of presidential passive aggression against those who serve, protect, defend the Constitution but also lean towards supporting GOP Rep. Ron Paul?

+++++++++

Semi-related, consider this op-ed by Pat Buchanan, bold emp. mine for the following content, all of which is reprinted in its entirety:

“I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident. … I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies.”

As President Obama sent this letter of apology to Hamid Karzai for the burning by U.S. troops of Qurans that were used to smuggle notes between Afghan prisoners, two U.S. soldiers were murdered in reprisal.

Saturday, a U.S. colonel and a major working in the Interior Ministry were shot dead by an Afghan protesting the desecration of the Islamic holy book. All U.S. officers have been pulled out of the ministries in Kabul.

Sunday, seven U.S. troops on base were wounded by a grenade.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. John Allen, commander in Afghanistan, have also offered their apologies.

Remarkable. After fighting for 10 years, investing $500 billion, and losing nearly 2,000 dead and many more wounded and maimed to save Afghanistan from a Taliban future, America is issuing apologies to the regime and people we are fighting and dying to defend?

And how has Obama’s apology been received?

Abdul Sattar Khawasi, a member of Parliament, stood with 20 other members to declare, “Americans are invaders, and jihad against Americans is an obligation.” He urged mullahs to “urge the people … to wage war against Americans.”

In what other war would we have tolerated this from an elected leader of a government we had sent an army of 100,000 to protect?

Undeniably, the soldiers who burned the Qurans blundered. Yet there is no evidence that it was malicious. If vandals desecrate a Bible in America, burning and replacing the holy book would not be regarded a valid excuse for mayhem and murder.

If Afghans cannot understand this mistake and have no other way to express their rage than rioting and ranting, “Death to America!” what kind of raw material are we working with in building a Western-style democracy in any foreseeable century?

Two pertinent questions needs to be posed.

While keeping Afghanistan free of the Taliban is a desirable goal, what vital U.S. interest would be imperiled should the Taliban take over again, now that al-Qaida is largely gone?

What price in blood and billions should we expend on what appears a dubious enterprise at best – creating a pro-American democracy in a country that seems mired in some distant century?

It is time we took inventory of all of these wars we have fought since the Army of Desert Storm restored the emir of Kuwait to his throne.

That 1991 war was seen as a triumph of American arms and a model of the global cooperation to come in establishing the New World Order of George H.W. Bush.

But the savage sanctions we imposed on a defeated Iraq and the planting of U.S. bases on Saudi soil that is home to Mecca was a casus belli for Osama bin Laden. Ten years after the triumph of Bush I, he brought down the twin towers.

This atrocity caused us to plunge into Afghanistan to dump over the Taliban and eradicate or expel al-Qaida. We succeeded, then decided to stay on and build a nation. After 10 years, what have we accomplished to justify the immense price we have paid?

In 2003, George W. Bush, seeking to complete the work begun by his father, invaded Iraq. But Saddam had no role in 9/11 and was no threat to America. Iraq did not even have weapons of mass destruction.

Today, after eight years of war, 4,500 dead, 35,000 wounded and a trillion dollars sunk, the 15,000 Americans we left behind are largely holed up in the Green Zone, as Iraq descends into sectarian, civil and ethnic war.

What did it all profit us?

How goes Libya after the U.S.-NATO intervention to dethrone Moammar Gadhafi?

Here is the Rand Corp.’s Frederic Wehrey:

“A weak transitional government confronts armed militias. … Defiant young men with heavy weapons control Libya’s airports, harbors and oil installations. Tribes and smugglers rule desert areas south of the capital. Clashes among various militias for turf and political power rage. …

“Libya teeters dangerously on the brink.”

Now we see a push for intervention in Syria from Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman. That would make us allies of al-Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, all of which also seek the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise of a Sunni regime in Damascus.

But it is the clamor for a U.S. war on Iran that grows loudest.

But why, when the U.S. intelligence community still claims to have no hard evidence Iran has even decided to build a bomb?

Since Ronald Reagan went home, the United States has attacked or invaded Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, and Libya.

How have Americans benefited from all this war? How have the Chinese suffered these 20 years by not having been in on the action?

Continuing the latest developments in Afghanistan, also consider another op-ed, the limits of freedom:

If we had to remove Saddam from power, Tony and I would have an obligation to help the Iraqi people replace Saddam’s tyranny with a democracy. The transformation would have an impact beyond Iraq’s borders. The Middle East was the center of a global ideological struggle. On one side were decent people who wanted to live in dignity and peace. On the other were extremists who sought to impose their radical views through violence and intimidation. They exploited conditions of hopelessness and repression to recruit and spread their ideology. The best way to protect our countries in the long run was to counter their dark vision with a more compelling alternative. That alternative was freedom. People who could choose their leaders at the ballot box would be less likely to turn to violence. Young people growing up with hope in the future would not search for meaning in the ideology of terror. Once liberty took root in one society, it could spread to others.

– George W. Bush, “Decision Points,” Page 232

It is both fascinating and frightening to be given insight into the thought processes that go into major foreign policy decisions such as the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Consider the basic flaws that are revealed in this single paragraph, beginning with the very first sentence. When in history, one wonders, has the removal of a tyrannical leader ever obligated those responsible for the removal to remake a nation’s entire system of government? And even if we accept this obligation, what is the basis for claiming that the revamped system of government must be a democratic one, especially if one considers that the elaborate structure which was imposed upon the Iraqi people is not only not a democracy, but was expressly designed to limit the free expression of their will on the basis of ethnic and religious identities?

Compounding the error of this nonexistent obligation is the idea that freedom represents the same thing to Muslim Arabs that it does to Christian Americans of English descent. As elections across the Middle East have amply demonstrated, when given the ability to choose their favored form of government, people in Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey have reliably preferred Islamic theocracy to Western-style secularism. And considering the ongoing economic and demographic collapse of the West, it is not even possible to honestly claim that their preference is an entirely unreasonable one. It is worth noting that there is now more democracy in Egypt and Iraq than in the European Union satrapies of Greece and Italy.

Moreover, it is the height of both historical ignorance and hypocrisy to claim that “people who could choose their leaders at the ballot box would be less likely to turn to violence.” The German people not only chose the German National Socialist Worker’s Party at the ballot box, but enthusiastically supported plebiscites to approve the Austrian Anschluss and confirm Adolf Hitler in his consolidation of the separate offices of Reich president and Reich chancellor. And no nation on Earth has committed more violence or invaded more countries since the end of the Cold War than the United States of America. The use of the ballot box to choose George Bush and Barack Obama as their leaders has clearly not prevented Americans from utilizing violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen and possibly Uganda as well, so there it clearly made no sense to assume that the magic purple fingers of democracy would prevent Iraqis, Egyptians, Pakistanis or anyone else from making use of violence.

The idea that the magic of Western culture would prevent young men from turning to terrorism has been belied by the home-grown terrorists of Britain and the Somali suicide bombers who grew up in Minneapolis alike. If Westernization does not suffice to prevent the production of jihadists in the West, there is absolutely no reason to believe it is capable of doing so in the watered-down form presently being offered in the Middle East. And finally, the former president reveals an all-too-common failure to understand that democracy, particularly in its very limited representative form, is neither synonymous with nor conducive to liberty.

So, it should come as no surprise that the military occupations have failed, that after a decade of forcing democracy on the people of Afghanistan, they are making use of their new-found freedom to murder U.S. military officers and storming NATO military bases. But the consequences of the fallacies exposed by President Bush go far beyond foreign policy, as they reveal why Western immigration policies at home are showing signs of similarly disastrous failure in the years to come.

Freedom isn’t for everyone because what freedom signifies is different to everyone. And in societies where the definitions and desires of freedom are too broad and too contradictory to permit a general consensus to take shape, the end result is that no one is going to be permitted any significant degree of freedom at all.

Semi-related is the latest fallout or blow-back of the Quran burnings:

When your nominal ally’s soldiers are shooting your troops, I think it’s safe to say that the “hearts and minds” strategy isn’t working:

An Afghan soldier, apparently angry over the burning of Korans at a U.S. air base, fatally shot two U.S. troops and wounded four others, Afghan officials said. The International Security Assistance Force said in a statement two military personnel were killed in eastern Afghanistan Thursday by “an individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform” but didn’t identify the troops’ nationality.

CBS News said an Afghan official said the dead and wounded in the attack in the eastern province of Ningarhar were American. The official said the shooting seemed to be motivated by the burning of Korans at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, but did not elaborate.

And they say it’s Ron Paul whose foreign policy is insane?

 

+++++++++

 

Civilian HC costs to increase, quote:

Medical costs for enrollees in the health-care law’s high-risk insurance pools are expected to more than double initial predictions, the Obama administration said Thursday in a report on the new program.

The health-care law set aside $5 billion for a Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, meant to provide health insurance to those who had been declined coverage by private carriers. Since its launch last summer, nearly 50,000 Americans have enrolled in the program.

The PCIP program will phase out in 2014, when insurers will be required to accept all applicants regardless of their health-care status.

Those who have enrolled in the program are projected to have significantly higher medical costs than the government initially expected. Each participant is expected to average $28,994 in medical costs in 2012, according to the report, more than double what government-contracted actuaries predicted in November 2010. Then, the analysts expected that the program would cost $13,026 per enrollee.

The costs also are significantly higher than those of similar high-risk pools that many states have operated for decades. States spent an average of $12,471 on enrollees in 2008, according to the National Association of State Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans.

The Obama administration has spent $600 million of its $5 billion budget for the program over the past 18 months. More than three-quarters of all spending has gone to covering cancer, heart disease, “aftercare” such as chemotherapy and degenerative joint diseases like osteoarthritis.

Enrollees in the plan tend to use health-care services at much higher rates than the general population, the report said. They have more than eight times as many hospital admissions as government workers in a traditional Federal Employee Health Benefits plan, and more than three times as many emergency room visits.

The Obama administration says that the high cost of PCIP patients shows that the high-risk pools are serving the exact population it hoped to target: Americans with significant health-care needs who previously could not afford coverage. It’s also a result of how the federal government structured the high-risk pools.

“We certainly have seen higher costs than what you have seen in some of the state-run programs,” said Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO). “There are design features that are different in the federal program than in state-run programs.”

Larsen cited the federal requirement that an individual must be uninsured for at least six months to become eligible for the plan. Such enrollees may have “pent up medical demands,” he said, that had gone untreated until the individuals enrolled in the new, federal coverage.

“Once you’re enrolled you can begin chemotherapy the first day of your coverage,” said Richard Popper, deputy director of insurance programs at CCIIO. “We had individuals who enrolled and in their very first week went into surgery.”

Enrollees in the high-risk pools also tend to be older, with 67 percent of participants over the age of 45. Fewer than one in five enrollees are under 34.

 

End quote.

Ohio Dimora trial continues

Morbid entertainment:

Jimmy Dimora’s racketeering trial resumes Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi expected to spend much of the day reading instructions to the jury of seven men and five women, explaining in plain language the elements of all 37 corruption-related charges.

Prosecutors will deliver their closing arguments beginning at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, followed by the closing remarks of attorneys for Dimora and co-defendant Michael Gabor. Prosecutors will have the opportunity to rebut the defenses’ closings on Thursday, and the jury could begin deliberations by Thursday afternoon.

Previous coverage here.

‘Big Four’ Auditors Brace for Big Changes in China

Accounting changes in China:

The Big Four global audit firms, which dominate the Chinese market, are negotiating with Beijing to lessen the impact of forced changes that could mean only accountants with Chinese qualifications can be partners in their audit practices.

The overhaul comes at a delicate time for an audit industry reeling from a rash of accounting scandals at Chinese companies, particularly those listed in high-profile overseas markets such as the United States.

Any reduction in the audit capacity of KPMG, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) would increase foreign regulators’ and investors’ concerns about Chinese auditing.

“The Big Four play a critical role in the integrity of financial markets, it’s essential they have the right to practice in China,” said Paul Gillis, visiting professor of accounting at Peking University and author of the China Accounting Blog.

The foreign joint venture arrangements signed in China 20 years ago by KPMG, Deloitte and Ernst & Young expire later this year. PWC’s joint venture expires in 2017, but it is also involved in restructuring discussions.

China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) is using the expiry milestone to force the global auditing giants to form special group partnerships, which in theory would mean all partners would need to hold notoriously tough Chinese accountancy qualifications.

In pharmaceutical news

What a scandal:

Borojevic’s story, some of which emerges here for the first time, is a particularly gruesome example of what even people in the global drugs business concede is a growing problem: bribery and corruption in emerging markets. The 51-year-old cancer specialist was one of a group of 10 Serbia-based doctors and drug company officials charged in 2010 with taking, or offering, more than 500,000 euros in bribes to persuade the medics to use specific products. The doctors are alleged to have personally gained from the choice of medicines used; the drug company representatives with illegally offering the incentives.

In recent years, Big Pharma has forked out billions of dollars to settle scandals involving improper promotion of medicines in the United States. Now bribes paid to foreign doctors and other state employees are shaping up as the next major legal liability threat for the industry. A Reuters examination of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings by the world’s top 10 drug companies has found that eight of them recently warned of potential costs related to charges of corruption in overseas markets.

One factor driving the trend is a search for new business. Companies whose profit margins have been squeezed in the developed world are increasingly turning to thinly regulated emerging markets for growth. At the same time, U.S. and European governments are toughening up on bribes paid by companies overseas. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and Britain’s new Bribery Act, which came into force last July, are both targeting drugs companies for special scrutiny, providing new impetus for the industry to clean up its act.

Wash-Po: GOP Rep. Ron Paul has best plan

Media admits that out of the 4 GOP hopefuls only Rep. Ron Paul’s plan would be best for America’s interests, quote:

 

+++++++++

 

The national debt would balloon under tax policies championed by three of the four major Republican candidates for president, according to an independent analysis of tax and spending proposals so far offered by the campaigns.The lone exception is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who would pair a big reduction in tax rates with even bigger cuts in government services, slicing about $2 trillion from future borrowing.

According to the report released Thursday by U.S. Budget Watch, a project of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and former House speaker Newt Gingrich would do the most damage to the nation’s finances, offering tax and spending policies likely to require trillions of dollars in fresh borrowing.

Both men have proposed to sharply cut taxes but have not identified spending cuts sufficient to make up for the lost cash, the report said. By 2021, the debt would rise by about $4.5 trillion under Santorum’s policies and by about $7 trillion under Gingrich’s plan, pushing the portion of the debt held by outside investors to well over 100 percent of the overall economy, the study said.

The red ink would gush a little more slowly under former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the report said. Until this week, Romney had paired $1.35 trillion in tax cuts with $1.2 trillion in spending reductions, leaving the debt rising on a trajectory that closely tracks current policies.

Only Paul emerged as a fiscal conservative in the report. His policies would cut tax revenue by more than $5 trillion over the next decade, the report said, but the loss would be offset by more than $7 trillion in spending cuts, including deep reductions in defense and federal health programs.

The report marks the first independent attempt to gauge the overall impact of policies proposed by the GOP candidates on the nation’s $15.4 trillion debt.

 

+++++++++

End Quote

Conflicting stories and excuses continue to swirl about ’1,000 days without a budget’.  Heritage.org calls it a senatorial failure, the left says running a nation without a budget is no big deal and fixnews whines about CR’s (continuing resolutions) meanwhile Americans face high unemployment and $4-$5/gal gas.

Zero Hedge: EDU-Debt-Slavery, Name that bubble!

Submitted by MZ.

From Zero Hedge:

If you said student loans, you were correct. What is curious is that while virtually everyone has known about the student loan bubble in recent quarters, it is only for the past 3 that the Fed has actually started to disclose this data in its consumer loan excel spreadsheet (link – page 3). For historical data prior to 2011 we had to pull Bloomberg data (TDBCSTUD Index) going back to 1999. Perhaps the recent astronomical jump is why the Fed has been keeping a tight lip on this data…

And for those to whom this is news, here are some thoughts on the matter from before.

Consider the looming $1 to $2 trillion in edu-debt…

From Oct. 2011 quote:

While one of the biggest complaints of #OccupyWallStreet protesters, and much of the balance of middle-class America, continues to be the burden of student loans, the paradox is that, as the USA Today reports once again on one of its favorite subjects, student loans are set to surpass $1 trillion in total notional for the first time in history on what appears to be relentless demand and interest for this cheap form of educational financing, making this debt burden the single largest form of consumer debt, well bigger than outstanding credit card debt, and smaller only compared to mortgage debt. “The amount of student loans taken out last year crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time and total loans outstanding will exceed $1 trillion for the first time this year. Americans now owe more on student loans than on credit cards, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Students are borrowing twice what they did a decade ago after adjusting for inflation, the College Board reports. Total outstanding debt has doubled in the past five years — a sharp contrast to consumers reducing what’s owed on home loans and credit cards.” What explains this insatiable demand for this kind of debt? Well, it’s cheap, it’s easily accessible (the collateral is education), and it is fungible – a student can take out a loan, yet use part or all of the balance for tangential purchases (that iPhone 4S sure would make me cool). But this, like every other debt, comes at a price.

Per USA Today:

Taxpayers and other lenders have little risk of losing money on the loans, unlike mortgages made during the real estate bubble. Congress has given the lenders, the government included, broad collection powers, far greater than those of mortgage or credit card lenders. The debt can’t be shed in bankruptcy.

 

The credit risk falls on young people who will start adult life deeper in debt, a burden that could place a drag on the economy in the future.

 

“Students who borrow too much end up delaying life-cycle events such as buying a car, buying a home, getting married (and) having children,” says Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org.

Naturally, just like in the credit bubble days, when NINJA loans were fast and furious, the lines in front of banks stretched around the block. Banks may or may not have known that the loans would be repaid, but nobody pressured borrowers to live in that big McMansion that “demanded” $1 down and a 99.9% LTV. Sure enough, when the day of reckoning comes, it is never the fault of the person who probably should have shown some restraint, but no: after all everyone else is doing it.

Well, it is the same thing now. And with generations of people indoctrinated that only those with a college degree can be successful, it is only obvious that student debt is now the next big bubble.

“It’s going to create a generation of wage slavery,” says Nick Pardini, a Villanova University graduate student in finance who has warned on a blog for investors that student loans are the next credit bubble — with borrowers, rather than lenders, as the losers.

 

Full-time undergraduate students borrowed an average $4,963 in 2010, up 63% from a decade earlier after adjusting for inflation, the College Board reports. What’s happening:

Granted, unlike with the mortgage bubble collapse, this time we know, as Zero Hedge reported earlier in the week, that everyone is on the fraud. We quote from “The Fraud At The Heart Of Student Lending Exposed – The One Sentence Everyone Should Read“

A key reason why a preponderance of the population is fascinated with the student loan market is that as USA Today reported in a landmark piece last year, it is now bigger than ever the credit card market. And as the monthly consumer debt update from the Fed reminds us, the primary source of funding is none other than the US government. To many, this market has become the biggest credit bubble in America. Why do we make a big deal out of this? Because as Bloomberg reported last night, we now have prima facie evidence that the student loan market is not only an epic bubble, but it is also the next subprime! To wit: “Vince Sampson, president, Education Finance Council, said during a panel at the IMN ABS East Conference in Miami Monday that lenders are no longer pushing loans to people who can’t afford them.” Re-read the last sentence as many times as necessary for it to sink in. Yes: just like before lenders were “pushing loans to people who can’t afford them” which became the reason for the subprime bubble which has since spread to prime, but was missing the actual confirmation from authorities of just this action, this time around we have actual confirmation that student loans are being actually peddled to people who can not afford them. And with the government a primary source of lending, we will be lucky if tears is all this ends in.

So… debtors know it’s a bubble, lenders know it’s a bubble, everyone knows it’s a bubble, yet it is growing faster now than ever before.

If nothing this is a fantastic exercise in observing a slow at first, then fast-motion train wreck from the side. It is without a shadow of a doubt, that not only will the student debt bubble pop, but writedowns on amounts outstanding will be massive, potentially resulting in another hit of 50% to total notionals, or about $500 billion. And since the borrowers will be fully tapped out, and the lenders will plead ignorance, and control the regulators and administration any way, is there any doubt who will once again be forced to pay for this upcoming bail out? This is something that does not require a college degree to figure out…

+++++++++

The noteworthy tragedy is that Americans actively refuse to hire their own citizens, meaning we have no one else to blame for unemployment but ourselves. Blaming the lack of education, immigration, dead-zones like a depressed area, uncertainty in the taxation/regulations (like health care costs) are no longer effective answers to why millions of Americans remains unemployed.

It is an insult, farce and injustice to tell millions of Americans they must submit to the FAFSA return to college for retraining for non-existent jobs are simply not out there. Consider an associates degree program for medical coding that attracts 50 students, only 2 to 7 graduates would be hired for these clerical gigs. All 50 students cannot be possibly absorbed into a position in that field.

Submitting to the FAFSA’s bureaucratic hell for an education paired with loans, grants and other aid is a farce. But the deception doesn’t end there, a college education doesn’t promise employment.

Facts:

Gov’t edu-debt is not discharged in bankruptcies.

Only the movers and shakers who are willing to risk poverty or gain great wealth via self-employment will survive. And even I’m no longer sure about that as there is less money lent and less demand.

Those who wish to remain regular W-2 employees have a difficult road to tow as the competition is fierce and the excuses to not hire only increase.

The title 4 and title 5 funding is relative and can be withdrawn at any time. Many returning students/displaced workers have found themselves in the middle of completing a program only to learn that the funding is depleted or the program is suspended due to failing state certification standards, lack of interest, etc.

Sports scholarships are withdrawn just as easily as any other grants (further information to be provided regarding Project HOPE, an education assistance program local to my state). To receive certain grants, the programs requires monthly counseling for recipients of the funds. You read that correctly, student coaches are assigned to students for monthly meetings/progressive counseling sessions to assist them back into the work force. Where in the bizzaro world does this level of intrusive busy-body counseling make any sense? When everyone knows the hope of placement post graduation is slim.

Fake infiltrated groups

During late a night PVP session on PS3, I turned to C2C for whatever topic would be featured. I found this particular show laughable that well-meaning people are taken in by a ruse and farce. All this silliness is coordinated and babysat by feds.

Lest anyone seriously trusted or believed in the various white supremacists, black supremacist, Islam supremacist, tea parties, online militias & OWS loons:

George Knapp was joined by journalist and radio host Brian Holland, who shared his story of becoming a high ranking member of the White Power movement while simultaneously acting as an informant for the FBI. Holland detailed how, at the age of 18, he joined an organization in Virginia and quickly rose up the ranks of the movement. As his profile grew in the Neo Nazi subculture, Holland became the “national liaison” for a prominent White Power organization, trying to unite smaller groups, and was even named their Presidential candidate in 2008. Holland attributed his position as a public face of the White Power movement to his clean cut image and his understanding that less extreme rhetoric would help to entice new members.

Oh please, any invitations, no matter your race should be met with rejection and askance.

Concurrent to Holland’s ascension in the White Power movement, he was surreptitiously working for the FBI to provide them with information on various groups and individuals, beginning in 1999. He explained that the job entailed going to Neo Nazi gatherings as well as meetings with prominent leaders in the movement and then filing reports on the events for the government.

Notice the financial allure:

According to Holland, at times he was making 7 or 8 thousand dollars a month as an informant and all of that income was tax free.

He was also subjected to random polygraph tests to insure that his reports were accurate and that he wasn’t withholding information. Based on his experience, including being tasked to infiltrate PETA, Holland surmised that there are government informants in most organizations, regardless of their agendas and beliefs.

The burn notice or blackballing:

Ultimately, and without warning, Holland saw his employment with the FBI terminated and was told that “now you don’t exist.” He lamented that “with the shake of a bureaucratic hand, the third highest ranking Neo Nazi in the country was put out to pasture after 11 years of risking my life.”

His break with the government was so stark that they refused to accept further information from him, including insight into a drug and gun smuggling ring that Holland had later uncovered. He expressed some trepidation that a handful of White Power movement members could seek retribution on him for his role as an informant. However, Holland said that he was actually more concerned that reprisal could come from the government, since he has seen, first hand, the depth and scope of their machinations.

Wealth of Chinese politicians make U.S. peers look poor

The richest 70 members of China’s legislature added more to their wealth last year than the combined net worth of all 535 members of the U.S. Congress, the president and his Cabinet, and the nine Supreme Court justices.

The net worth of the 70 richest delegates in China’s National People’s Congress, which opens its annual session on March 5, rose to 565.8 billion yuan ($89.8 billion) in 2011, a gain of $11.5 billion from 2010, according to figures from the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy. That compares to the $7.5 billion net worth of all 660 top officials in the three branches of the U.S. government.

The income gain by NPC members reflects the imbalances in economic growth in China, where per capita annual income in 2010 was $2,425, less than in Belarus and a fraction of the $37,527 in the U.S. The disparity points to the challenges that China’s new generation of leaders, to be named this year, faces in countering a rise in social unrest fueled by illegal land grabs and corruption.

“It is extraordinary to see this degree of a marriage of wealth and politics,” said Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at Washington’s Brookings Institution. “It certainly lends vivid texture to the widespread complaints in China about an extreme inequality of wealth in the country now.”

Continue here.

Economic collapse goes mainstream: bears vs. bulls

Public opinion does not support the irrational hopium belief that the economy is recovering, it was only a matter of time for the media to admit it address a gloomy national mood public opinion. Overall, this article was a poorly written, simplified version of the challenges facing America. The article was limited in its scope of economic theory, the business cycle, inflation vs. deflation, monetary policy and other countless other issues. At least the problem of unsustainable wild spending, monstrous debt and unacceptable unemployment received some mention. The views of countless other economists and market watchers were omitted.

From USAToday:

Behind the mainstream Wall Street happy talk about more stable financial markets and an improving economy are grim warnings of tough times ahead from a small cadre of doomsayers who warn that the worst of the financial crisis is still to come.

Harry Dent, author of the new book The Great Crash Ahead, says another stock market crash is coming due to a bad ending to the global debt bubble. He has pulled back on his earlier prediction of a crash in 2012, as central banks around the world have been flooding markets with money, giving stocks an artificial short-term boost. But a crash is coming in 2013 or 2014, he warns. “This will be a repeat of 2008-09, only bigger, when it finally hits,” Dent told USA TODAY.

Gerald Celente, a trend forecaster at The Trends Research Institute, says Americans should brace themselves for an “economic 9/11″ due to policymakers’ inability to solve the world’s financial and economic woes. The coming meltdown, he predicts, will lead to growing social unrest and anti-government sentiment, a U.S. dollar with far less purchasing power and more people out of work.

Robert Prechter, author of Conquer the Crash, first published in 2002 and updated in 2009, is still bearish. He says today’s economy has similarities to the Great Depression and warns that 1930s-style deflation is still poised to cause financial havoc. Prechter predicts that the major U.S. stock indexes, such as the Dow Jones industrials and Standard & Poor’s 500, will plunge below their bear market lows hit in March 2009 during the last financial crisis. The brief recovery will fail as it did in the 1930s, he says.

If he’s right, stocks would lose more than half of their value. “The economic recovery has been weak, so the next downturn should generate bad news in a big way,” Prechter said in an e-mail interview. “For the third time in a dozen years, the stock market is in a very bearish position.”

These dire forecasts differ sharply with the brighter outlooks being espoused by the bulls, or optimists, on Wall Street. Recent stock performance and fresh readings on the economy also suggest a future that is less gloomy than the doomsayers predict.

The Dow, for instance, is in rebound mode and has climbed back to levels not seen since the early days of the financial crisis in May 2008. Tech stocks in the Nasdaq composite are trading at levels last seen in 2000. Data on auto sales, manufacturing and consumer confidence have been firming. Job creation is also on the rise. The unemployment rate dipped to 8.3% in January, its lowest level in three years.

The causes of economic calamity

So what has the super-bears so worried?

Dent says the combination of aging Baby Boomers exiting their big spending years and a shift toward debt reduction and austerity around the world will cause the economy to suffer another severe leg down, making it more difficult for the government and Federal Reserve to avert a new meltdown. He has not always been bearish. In 1993 he wrote The Great Boom Ahead.

Celente, who as far back as 2008 has been warning of economic calamity, argues that the ballooning debt and the growing divide between the haves and have-nots has put the U.S. in a weakened state.

As a result, he says, the nation is more vulnerable to potential shocks. He worries about potential chaos caused by people all trying to yank their money out of financial markets at the same time. He also sees risk in the event there is a loss of confidence in elected leaders.

Societal unrest in the form of street protests and increased crime are possible, too, he adds. Markets could also be spooked by an oil price shock due to a military conflict between Israel and Iran, or a bad outcome to Europe’s debt crisis.

“2012 is when many of the long-simmering socioeconomic and political trends that we have been forecasting and tracking will climax,” Celente noted in his Top 12 Trends 2012 newsletter. In an interview he added: “When money stops flowing to the man on the street, blood starts flowing in the street.”

While bulls are urging investors to get back into stocks, the doomsayers are advising a far different strategy. Dent’s investment advice is simple: “Get out of the way.” He recommends buying short-term U.S. Treasury bills and the U.S. dollar, which will benefit from safe-haven cash flows. He says stocks will fall sharply in value.

Celente’s advice centers on survival. He says buy gold so you don’t lose purchasing power when the value of the dollar plummets. He says buy a gun to protect your family against desperate people in search of food and money. He says plan a getaway to places with more stable finances and governments.

Prechter says to keep your powder dry and buy when things get really bad: “When things get really scary, as in early 2009, I get bullish.”

Char-Meck county property revals propose changes

Revenue generation:

As Mecklenburg County continues to sort through remaining appeals from the 2011 property revaluation, officials are pitching a new way of setting a date for the next one.

The proposal could mean revaluations are done more frequently than the eight years between the last two. It also might make property owners less likely to see big jumps or declines in values between appraisals.

No date has been set, but the county is recommending that future revaluations be scheduled based on Mecklenburg’s score on an annual state report that looks at how close property assessments are to actual sales during the preceding year.

Once the county hits certain triggers, an appraisal would take place within two years, Cary Saul, director of the county’s Land Use & Environmental Services Agency told county commissioners recently.

Commissioners could vote on the new proposal in March. If approved, the system would get its first test a month later, when the state sends out the annual assessment-to-sales ratio report.

But Saul said it was unlikely the upcoming report would show that Mecklenburg needs to do another revaluation right away.

Both the county proposal and new state law rely on a report published each spring by the N.C. Department of Revenue. The assessment-to-sales ratio report is based on a random sampling of 400 sales in a county in a year and compares them to the property’s assessed value.

A lower score means properties are selling for more than their assessed value, while any score above 100 means the median county assessments are higher than sales prices.

Mecklenburg scored a 96 on the most recent state report, which considered assessments from the 2011 revaluation.

Saul said the county has never exceeded 100 percent on the state report in the past two decades.

The county is proposing that a revaluation be done within two years of Mecklenburg County either falling below 92 percent, or exceeding 108 percent, on the state report.

At the county’s recent strategic planning conference, Commissioner Bill James questioned whether it was appropriate to use the state report in setting the revaluation schedule. He said the state report considers only certain sales and excludes foreclosures and other distressed transactions in the market.

AAP endorses HPV vax for boys

Medical tyranny questionable vaccinations pushed on little boys in the form of unpopular, unnecessary immunizations:

Despite lackluster acceptance among girls for a vaccine to prevent cancer-causing sexually transmitted viruses, the American Academy of Pediatrics is fully recommending that boys get the shots as well.

AAP.org.

Boys 11 and 12 should be immunized routinely, with three doses of a vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), the AAP said Monday in its online issue of Pediatrics. This formally updates the academy’s previous policy of “permissive recommendation” for vaccination of males.

The AAP has recommended since 2007 that girls ages 11 and 12 receive the HPV vaccine.

The new policy should end any resistance among health insurers to covering HPV vaccines for boys. Each HPV shot cost about $130 in July; three shots are needed for the vaccine to be fully effective.

Varying costs, nothing but a rip-off at $300 to over $400 per regimen.

Merck & Co.’s Gardasil is the only approved HPV vaccine for males; both Gardasil and Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, are approved for females.

The HPV vaccine exploded into a presidential political issue last year when Texas Gov. Rick Perry entered the race.

In 2007, when the first HPV vaccine was approved for girls ages 11 and 12, Mr. Perry issued an executive order mandating it for Texas girls. An outcry ensued over the usurping of parental rights and the idea that the vaccine gave tacit permission for children and teens to engage in premarital sex.

The Texas Legislature quickly overturned the order, and as a presidential candidate, Mr. Perry called it “a mistake” he regretted because he didn’t discuss it “with the people of the state of Texas.”

Mistake? This is child abuse.

In America, those who were injured by vaccinations are unable to sue for damages. See HPV hoax here, here, read open letter from SaneVax questioning concerns surrounding the HPV vaccine. Many note the FDA’s shifting positions about the HPV vaccination. Numerous paralyzing side effects, concerns of medical ethics and the link to Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS).

Are American children safer or healthier under the current immunization schedule?

As of 2009, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends vaccination against at least fourteen diseases. By two years of age, U.S. children receive as many as 24 vaccine injections, and might receive up to five shots during one visit to the doctor.[3] The use of combination vaccine products means that, as of 2009, the United Kingdom’s immunization program consists of 10 injections by the age of two, and a further three injections (or four, including the human papillomavirus vaccine) by the time of leaving school.[6

In security news: expansion of drone use in America, detention centers

Foxnews prepares viewers for the shifting narrative:

Heads up: Drones are going mainstream.

Civilian cousins of the unmanned military aircraft that have tracked and killed terrorists in the Middle East and Asia are in demand by police departments, border patrols, power companies, news organizations and others wanting a bird’s-eye view that’s too impractical or dangerous for conventional planes or helicopters to get.

Along with the enthusiasm, there are qualms. Drones overhead could invade people’s privacy. The government worries they could collide with passenger planes or come crashing down to the ground, concerns that have slowed more widespread adoption of the technology.

Despite that, pressure is building to give drones the same access as manned aircraft to the sky at home.

Recall drone use in North Dakota for allegedly rounding up or stealing cows. How soon til innocents are killed on American soil?

National paranoia, absurdity goes mainstream:

A bipartisan team ranging from former Al Gore consultant Naomi Wolf to Ronald Reagan Justice Department official Bruce Fein have committed to working with state and local governments to make sure the citizen detention plans signed into law by Barack Obama are not enforced.

“Journalists aren’t safe. Union leaders aren’t safe. Activists aren’t safe. Liberty is not safe,” Wolf, an author of half a dozen books, said during a telephone conference call announcing plans.

The focal point of their worry is the National Defense Authorization Act, which includes several sections that provide for the unrestricted detention of even U.S. citizens under some circumstances.

Obama, in signing the law, suggested that such detentions are a possibility but promised not to exercise his power.

It is clear that American liberty is in danger. No leader can request citizens to trust them with such power implied in the NDAA law. Overall, it remains an unpopular and a worrisome notion to law-abiding, freedom loving citizens. Many fear that the narrative of hunting down Islamists has shifted to demonizing or criminalizing regular Anglo-Saxon/African American citizens, bold emp. mine:

Commentator Chuck Baldwin, who himself has been the target of smears by the Department of Homeland Security-related apparatus, explained the law, “for all intents and purposes, completely nullifies a good portion of the Bill of Rights, turns the United States into a war zone, and places U.S. citizens under military rule.”

“When signing the NDAA into law, Obama issued a signing statement that in essence said, ‘I have the power to detain Americans … but I won’t,” Baldwin wrote.

Baldwin was vilified by an anti-terror campaign in Missouri several years ago when authorities there described suspicious characters as those who might have supported him or other third-party candidates during a presidential election.

A state agency, and later the Department of Homeland Security, offered warnings that returning veterans, those who oppose abortion and others who advocate conservative issues could pose a danger to the nation.

Others have pooh-poohed the concerns about the apprehension of Americans. Wayne Bowen, a professor at Southeast Missouri State University not far from where state officials had issued that warning about Baldwin, said, “The NDAA not only does not empower the U.S. military to detain American citizens indefinitely, it specifically prohibits this.

“The NDAA confirms as U.S. law the practice that foreign terrorists … will be held indefinitely by the U.S. military. Indeed, this is a far more generous policy than allowed under international law,” he wrote.

It was the Bill of Rights Defense Committee that arranged the online meeting of experts. Officials there noted that during the first few weeks of 2012, at least six jurisdictions have enacted local resolutions opposing the military detention provisions of the NDAA.

And legislation to nullify the act has been introduced in several state legislatures. Just last week a Virginia bill passed the House of Delegates 96-4.

“Concerns about NDAA detention provisions transcend political party, ideology, and geography, and representatives in these diverse jurisdictions have stood up to resist an ongoing bipartisan assault on constitutional rights by federal officials,” the committee announced. “While a debate about the scope of the NDAA’s potential abuses continues to distract congressional policymakers, who voted without realizing the law’s terrifying implications, their counterparts in state and local governments are proving more conscientious, proactively acting on their oaths of office to defend the Constitution.”

Notable reactions to the NDAA including comments from Sen. Ran Paul, The Hill.com and Judge Andrew Napalitano.

UK admits the obvious

Broke is broke:

In a stark warning ahead of next month’s Budget, the Chancellor said there was little the Coalition could do to stimulate the economy.

Mr Osborne made it clear that due to the parlous state of the public finances the best hope for economic growth was to encourage businesses to flourish and hire more workers.

“The British Government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years,” the Chancellor said. “The money and the investment and the jobs need to come from the private sector.”

Mr Osborne’s bleak assessment echoes that of Liam Byrne, the former chief secretary to the Treasury, who bluntly joked that Labour had left Britain broke when he exited the Government in 2010.

He left David Laws, his successor, a one-line note saying: “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left”.

Meanwhile, stateside market watchers note that extend and pretend is a failure as well.

GOP Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Rand Paul VP non-story?

With voters and the media interested in GOP VP picks, we have this:

The media speculation about some supposed cooperation between the Ron Paul campaign and Mitt Romney has gotten completely out of hand. Ron Paul is running for President of the United States. His son, Sen. Rand Paul, is supporting his father’s run for President of the United States. That’s all that’s going on here. There is no secret “conspiracy.” During a radio interview this morning in Chicago, Sen. Paul said:

“If there’s a secret deal they’re keeping it secret from me, I think that’s mostly internet chatter and fun for people to speculate on…”

Speculative fun is exactly right. Sen. Paul explained his own views on the supposed Romney/Paul connection this morning, including his comments about being “honored” if he were to be considered as the GOP vice presidential nominee:

I think the story kind of got misrepresented, because you know when I was asked, every time I’m asked these kind of questions, these are hypothetical questions, I always say you know what? I still have my first choice in the race and that’s Ron Paul. My first choice would be a Ron Paul presidency and my first choice for a position would be an unofficial adviser to a Ron Paul presidency…

But when they push and push and push, and say ‘What about Romney? Would you do it?’ I mentioned that it would be an honor, and what I meant by that is sort of like if you were nominated for an academy award, what’s your response? You’d say “It’s be an honor to be nominated’ and so I think it would be silly for me not to say that if anybody considered me that I’d be honored by it, but I think it was somewhat overblown, it sort of fits into this sort of cabal that people write about…

Initial story.

The Leverage of Prayer

Do you understand what you are reading?

Acts 8:30

We would be more able teachers, and not so easily carried away by every wind of doctrine, if we sought to have a more intelligent understanding of the Word of God. As the Holy Spirit, the Author of the Scriptures, is the only one who can enlighten us rightly to understand them, we should constantly ask His help to lead us into truth. When the prophet Daniel was called upon to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, what did he do? He set himself to earnest prayer that God would open up the vision.

The apostle John, in his vision at Patmos, saw a book sealed with seven seals that none was found worthy to open or so much as to look upon. The book was afterward opened by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to open it; but it is written first, “I wept much.” The tears of John, which were his liquid prayers, were, so far as he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the folded book was opened.

Therefore, if, for your own and others’ profiting, you desire to be “filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”¹ remember that prayer is your best means of study.

Like Daniel, you shall understand the dream and its interpretation when you have sought it from God; and like John you shall see the seven seals of precious truth unloosed after you have wept much.

Stones are not broken except by a constant, diligent use of the hammer; and the stone-breaker must go down on his knees. Use the hammer of diligence, and let the knee of prayer be exercised, and there is not a stony doctrine in revelation that is useful for you to understand that will not fly into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. You may force your way through anything with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and reasoning are like the steel wedges that give a hold upon truth; but prayer is the lever that pries open the iron chest of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure hidden inside.

¹ Colossians 1:9

Cheerfully Pray for Another

Pray for one another.

James 5:16

Be encouraged to cheerfully offer intercessory prayer, by remembering that such prayer is the sweetest God ever hears. The prayer of Christ is of this character. In all the incense that our Great High Priest now puts into the golden censer, there is not a single grain for Himself. His intercession must be the most acceptable of all supplications–and the more our prayer like Christ’s, the sweeter it will be.

Thus while petitions for ourselves will be accepted, our pleadings for others, having in them more of the fruits of the Spirit–more love, more faith, more brotherly kindness–will be, through the precious merits of Jesus, the sweetest sacrifice that we can offer to God. Remember, again, that intercessory prayer is exceedingly prevalent [powerful]. What wonders it has accomplished! The Word of God teems with its marvelous deeds.

Believer, you have a mighty engine in your hand; use it well, use it constantly, use it with faith, and you will surely be a blessing to others.

When you have the King’s ear, speak to Him for the suffering members of His body. When you are favored to draw very near to His throne, and the King says to you, “Ask, and it will be given to you,” let your petitions be, not for yourself alone, but for the many who need His aid. If you have any grace at all and are not an intercessor, that grace must be as small as a grain of mustard seed. You have just enough grace to float your soul clear from the quicksand, but you have no depth of grace or else you would carry in your vessel a heavy cargo of the wants of others, and you would bring back from your Lord rich blessings for them that apart from you they might not have obtained.

Oh, let my hands forget their skill,
My tongue be silent, cold, and still,
This bounding heart forget to beat,
If I forget the mercy-seat!

Slow to Anger

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power.

Nahum 1:3

Jehovah “is slow to anger.” When mercy comes into the world, she drives winged horses; the axles of her chariot-wheels are red-hot with speed. But when wrath goes forth, it toils on with tardy footsteps, for God takes no pleasure in the sinner’s death. God’s rod of mercy is always in His hands outstretched; His sword of justice is in its scabbard, held down by that pierced hand of love that bled for the sins of men.

“The LORD is slow to anger” because He is “great in power.” He is truly great in power who has power over himself. When God’s power restrains Himself, then it is power indeed: The power that binds omnipotence is omnipotence surpassed. A man who has a strong mind can bear to be insulted and only resents the wrong when a sense of right demands his action. The weak mind is irritated at a little; the strong mind bears it like a rock that doesn’t move though a thousand breakers dash upon it and cast their pitiful malice in spray upon its summit.

God marks His enemies, and yet He bestirs not Himself but holds in His anger. If He were less divine than He is, He would long have since sent forth the whole of His thunders and emptied the cannons of heaven; He would have long ago blasted the earth with the wondrous fires of its lower regions, and man would have been utterly destroyed.

But the greatness of His power brings us mercy. Dear reader, what is your condition this evening? Can you by humble faith look to Jesus and say, “My substitute, You are my rock, my trust”? Then, beloved, do not be afraid of God’s power; for if by faith you have fled to Christ for refuge, the power of God need no more terrify you than the shield and sword of the warrior need terrify those whom he loves. Rather rejoice that He who is “great in power” is your Father and Friend.

Rejoice in God’s Compassionate Love

O Lord of Hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem? . . . And the Lord answered gracious and comforting words to the angel.

Zechariah 1:13-14

What a sweet answer to an anxious inquiry! This night let us rejoice in it. O Zion, there are good things in store for you; your time of travail will soon be over; your children shall come forth; your captivity shall end. Bear patiently the rod for a season, and under the darkness still trust in God, for His love burns toward you.

God loves the church with a love too deep for human imagination: He loves her with all His infinite heart. Therefore let her sons be of good courage; she cannot be far from prosperity to whom God speaks “gracious and comforting words.” The prophet goes on to tell us: “I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.” The Lord loves His church so much that He cannot bear that she should go astray to others; and when she has done so, He cannot endure that she should suffer too much or too heavily.

He will not have his enemies afflict her: He is displeased with them because they increase her misery. When God seems most to leave His church, His heart is warm toward her.

History shows that whenever God uses a rod to chasten His servants, He always breaks it afterwards, as if He loathed the rod that gave his children pain. “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.”¹

God has not forgotten us because He strikes–His blows are no evidences of absence of love. If this is true of His church collectively, it is also necessarily true of each individual member. You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: He who counts the stars and calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting His own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature He ever made or the only saint He ever loved. Approach Him and be at peace.

¹ Psalm 103:13

The Consequence of Disobedience

But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the lord. He went down to Joppa.

Jonah 1:3

Instead of going to Nineveh to preach the Word, as God told him, Jonah disliked the work and went down to Joppa to escape from it. There are occasions when God’s servants shrink from duty. But what is the consequence? What did Jonah lose by his conduct? He lost the presence and comfortable enjoyment of God’s love. When we serve our Lord Jesus as believers should do, God is with us; and though we have the whole world against us, if we have God with us, what does it matter? But the moment we retreat and seek to establish our own agenda, we are at sea without a pilot. Then we will bitterly lament and groan out, “O my God, where have You gone? How could I have been so foolish as to shun Your service, and in this way lose all the bright shinings of Your face? This is a price too high. Let me return to my allegiance, that I may rejoice in Your presence.”

In the next place, Jonah lost all peace of mind. Sin soon destroys a believer’s comfort. It is the poisonous tree whose leaves distill deadly drops that destroy the life of joy and peace. Jonah lost everything upon which he might have drawn for comfort in any other case. He could not plead the promise of divine protection, for he was not in God’s ways; he could not say, “Lord, I meet with these difficulties in the discharge of my duty; therefore help me through them.” He was reaping his own deeds; he was filled with his own ways.

Christian, do not play the Jonah unless you wish to have all the waves and the billows rolling over your head. You will find in the long run that it is far harder to shun the work and will of God than to at once yield yourself to it. Jonah lost his time, for he had to go to Tarshish after all. It is hard to contend with God; let us yield ourselves to Him immediately.

Housing: Nonrecovery

In 3 simple charts