| Government & Big Banks Join Forces to Violently Crush Peaceful Protests Posted: 31 Dec 2012 10:30 PM PST Government and Big Banks Joined Forces to Violently Crush Peaceful Protests: Mussolini Would Call It Fascism The definition of fascism used by Mussolini is the "merger of state and corporate power". Government and the big banks are in a malignant, symbiotic relationship. And our economy now exhibits a merger of state and bank power. Prominent economist Robert Kuttner said in 2009: What we have is something perilously close to a dictatorship of the Fed and the Treasury, acting in the interests of Wall Street.
The government and banks use anti-terror laws to stifle dissent. As Naomi Wolf reports, they joined efforts to violently crush the occupy protests: The violent crackdown on Occupy last fall … was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves. [ A newly-released document] shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens. …. Plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target …. The FBI – though it acknowledges Occupy movement as being, in fact, a peaceful organization – nonetheless designated OWS repeatedly as a "terrorist threat"…. The executive Director of The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund – the group which obtained the document – Verheyden-Hilliard points out the close partnering of banks, the New York Stock Exchange and at least one local Federal Reserve with the FBI and DHS, and calls it "police-statism": "This production [of documents], which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI's surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement … These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America." The documents show stunning range: in Denver, Colorado, that branch of the FBI and a "Bank Fraud Working Group" met in November 2011 – during the Occupy protests – to surveil the group. The Federal Reserve of Richmond, Virginia had its own private security surveilling Occupy Tampa and Tampa Veterans for Peace and passing privately-collected information on activists back to the Richmond FBI, which, in turn, categorized OWS activities under its "domestic terrorism" unit. The Anchorage, Alaska "terrorism task force" was watching Occupy Anchorage. The Jackson, Michigan "joint terrorism task force" was issuing a "counterterrorism preparedness alert" about the ill-organized grandmas and college sophomores in Occupy there. Also in Jackson, Michigan, the FBI and the "Bank Security Group" – multiple private banks – met to discuss the reaction to "National Bad Bank Sit-in Day" (the response was violent, as you may recall). The Virginia FBI sent that state's Occupy members' details to the Virginia terrorism fusion center. The Memphis FBI tracked OWS under its "joint terrorism task force" aegis, too. And so on, for over 100 pages.
Eric Zuesse notes: The FBI was organizing against the OWS movement even before it was known to the general public, and they kept on their campaign against it, until it was dead. … The FBI's police-state snooping and tracking of Occupy Wall Street … had begun even before most Americans knew that there was any such movement for the FBI to snoop against. In other words, the reason why Barack Obama's "Justice" Department refuses to prosecute even a single one of the mega-bank executives who profited so enormously from having defrauded both mortgagees and the investors in mortgage-backed securities, and who were bailed out by future U.S. taxpayers whose government purchased those remaining "toxic assets" at 100 cents on the dollar, is clear: we live in a police state, and these elite crooks control it. This is not real democracy. Voters were given a choice in November between a President like that but whose liberal rhetoric is condemnatory of "Wall Street," versus a professional stripper of corporations, whose rhetoric was overtly supportive of Wall Street. And voters chose the former. But this nonetheless is a police state, not an authentic democracy.
Mussolini would recognize it as fascism.  |
| Happy New Year 2013 Posted: 31 Dec 2012 08:59 PM PST 
I wanted to say “Thank You” to all of The Big Picture readers, contributors, commentors, editors and staff who make TBP such a deeply rewarding endeavor for me. It is a labor of love, and a source of joy and inspiration. I thank you all. Here is wishing you a healthy, happy and rewarding 2013!  |
| 10 New Year’s Eve Reads Posted: 31 Dec 2012 01:30 PM PST Here are some last minute reads to keep you busy while your significant other gets dressed tonite: • Which professions have the most psychopaths? The fewest? (Barking Up the Wrong Tree)
• 2012: The Year in Graphs (Wonkblog)
• Experts back Deutsche whistleblowers FT Alphaville)
• No Matter How You Look at It, Apple’s Shares Are Cheap (Barron’s)
• In discussing compromise, remember: Republicans lost the election (The Plum Line) see also This Political Polarization Is Really Bad for America (Huffington Post)
• The Fiscal Cliff Is A Diversion: The Derivatives Tsunami and the Dollar Bubble (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Settlement Expected on Past Abuses in Home Loans (NYT) but see BofA Settlement Hits Snags (WSJ)
• The 15 Best Gadgets of 2012 (Paste)
• The Unhappy Marriage of Capitalism and Conservatism (Economix) see also Democrats and Republicans belong to different groups (Mischiefs of Action)
• A Congregation of Motherfuckers in the Senate (The Rude Pundit)
What are you doing tonight? Jobless Claims Make a Post Recession Low
Source: Bespokeource: WSJ  |
| How Your Buy Order Gets Filled Posted: 31 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST |
| Surplus/Deficit As A Percentage of GNP/GDP Posted: 31 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST Click for ginormous chart
Source: Bianco Research Since we are debating the deficit, debt and upcominn sequester/tax expiration, lets take a closer look at the history of the American Surplus & Deficits over time. As you can see, going wildly into the red or black was common in the days before an income tax existed in the 19th century. The 20th century saw the two world wars and the great depression as sources of spiking deficits relative to GDP. Note the trend that began in the 1970s, accelerated in the 1980s and did not reverse til the late 1990s, only to start again in the 2000s. What occurred over these eras? The deficit eras were during the 1970s when the US went off the Gold Standard, the 1980s, during a period of huge unfunded tax cuts and massive military build up; the 2000′s saw more unfunded tax cuts, post 9/11 homeland security spending, rising military spending for 2 wars, additional domestic spending under Bush, then the financial crisis, the Obama stimulus, and even more defense spending and unfunded tax cuts and extensions. The surplus was during the late 1990s when there was an economic boom accompanied with rising taxes. ~~~ Surplus/Deficit As A Percentage of total debt after the jump
Click for ginormous chart
Source: Bianco Research  |
| 10 New Year’s Eve Day Reads Posted: 31 Dec 2012 07:00 AM PST My morning reads: • The Odd Couple of Indexes (Barron’s)
• Focus on Process (Derek Hernquist)
• Treasury 10-Year Yields Head for Record Low on Demand for Haven (Bloomberg) see also BRIC Dominance Fades as State Meddling Curbs Equity Returns (Bloomberg)
• ECRI Update: Flunking Recession 101 (dshort)
• What's the use of economics? (Vox)
• Peter Orszag’s Chart Of The Year Could Change Everything You Think About Healthcare (Business Insider)
• Silver: As Swing Districts Dwindle, Can a Divided House Stand? (538)
• Google's big push to make better iOS apps than Apple (Gigaom)
• The irresponsible Republican Party (The Plum Line) see also Blodget: This One Chart Shows That The Fiscal Cliff Fiasco Is The Republicans’ Fault (Business Insider)
• New book slams financial advice industry (InvestmentNews)
What are you reading? Can Bank Stocks Continue to Party in New Year?
Source: WSJ  |
| Tail Risk And The Market Bears Posted: 31 Dec 2012 05:30 AM PST 
Tail Risk And The Market Bears An unusual pattern is developing when it comes to market opinion. No one is turning bearish anymore.
The charts to the right show the Investor's Intelligence survey of stock market newsletter writers. The green line in the top chart shows the percentage of bullish newsletter writers. The blue line shows the percentage of newsletter writers who are bullish but expecting a 10% correction first. The red line in the bottom chart shows the percentage of bearish newsletter writers. As we pointed out in July: It is very unusual for the percentage of bullish newsletters (green line) to come down this much without a meaningful rise in the percentage of bearish newsletters (red line). We believe the underlying belief of QE3, and its potential to boost stock prices, is the reason for this action. Newsletters writers recognize the market's poor technical position, but they also recognize that the Federal Reserve has a printing press which it has repeatedly used over the last five years. So, they are reluctant to turn outright bearish. The presence of the Federal Reserve is affecting the overall view of the stock market.
Tail Risk And The Market Bears 2 According to the gray box on the second chart on the previous page, a core of newsletters writers, about 25% of respondents, are bearish. It seems nothing shakes them from their belief and nothing adds to this core. The other 75% are either bullish or see a small correction before bullishness resumes (top chart, previous page). The marketplace no longer thinks tail risk exists. We noted this last month. The chart to the right shows the 26-week range of bearish newsletter writers. It is calculated by taking the highest percentage of bearish newsletters writers less the lowest percentage of bearish newsletters writers over the previous 26 weeks (gray box, second chart, previous page). The Investor's Intelligence survey was started in 1963 and the range of bearish newsletter writers is now at its lowest point in the last 50 years. Again, this highlights the core number of bears is unchanging. 
Source: Bianco Research  |
| So Simple Even A Congressman Could Understand It… Posted: 31 Dec 2012 04:53 AM PST I don’t know about you, but I am bored to death with the Fiscal Cliff obsession. This may be the signle greatest example of excess media hype since Y2K. We find out how devastating this will be very soon. I do not believe history will look back kindly at how many people and institutions handled themselves over this period. (Pathetically irresponsible are the first words that come to mind). What is causing all the sturm und drang? Is this really a Mayan apocalypse of expiring tax breaks and sequestered spending cuts. Hardly — here is what we are discussing, in terms so simple even a congressman could understand it: • Bush tax cuts expire; tax rates revert to Clinton-era levels. Recall this was originally designed to get rid of that pesky surplus (mission accomplished), and to expire in 10 years. It is now year 13; • Top marginal rate go from 35% to 39.6%; Middle-class tax payers see increases of ~$2,200 per year; • Payroll tax cut stimulus expires; Americans will go back to paying 6.2% up from the current 4.2%, this rate applies to the first $113k of income. • Unemployment insurance expires for 2.1 million long-term unemployed, with another 1 million Americans scheduled to see those benefits terminate Q1 2013. • Sequestration kick in. $1.2 trillion in cuts spread out over the next decade. (That’s hardly a cliff after all). • Specific Savings: $492 billion come from Defense; half from discretionary programs (non defense, non entitlements). That adds up to $984 billion — the balance of $1.2 trillion are interest rate savings on the smaller debt. • Annual Spending Cuts: The specific savings amounts to $55 billion in Pentagon cuts plus $55 billion from non-defense discretionary programs. • Alternative Minimum Tax patch expires. A messy set of repairs to that operates to fix the simple error of the AMT not being inflation adjusted since 1969. • Medicare doctor payment adjustments: Another annual fix-the-original-error expires tomorrow. Without this, Medicare doctors get a 26.5% Medicare payment reduction.
All Most of these will be phased in over the next year and decade. For example, the tax rate increase won’t have to be paid until you file your taxes in April 2014.
None of these are simple or painless, but they hardly amount to the world ending depression many are claiming. It will be a minor drag on the economy at a time when it is still soft, not yet fully recovered from the financial crisis. All of the above is the opposite of classic Keynesian stimulus — raising taxes and cutting spending during economic weakness (then reversing it during strength). Those of you who are anti-Keynes should therefore be rooting for this. Sources:
Falling Off the Fiscal Cliff
Jason Saving
Dallas Fed, December 2012
http://www.dallasfed.org/research/eclett/2012/el1214.cfm The Fiscal Cliff: Absolutely everything you could possibly need to know, in one FAQ
Suzy Khimm, Ezra Klein, Dylan Matthews and Brad Plumer
Washington Post, December 3, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/11/27/absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-fiscal-cliff-in-one-faq/ The Guide to Going Off the Cliff
George Zornick
Nation, December 29, 2012
http://www.thenation.com/blog/171932/guide-going-cliff#
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| IMF: The Human Cost of Recessions: Assessing It, Reducing It Posted: 31 Dec 2012 04:00 AM PST |
| Visual Timeline of Historical Futures Posted: 31 Dec 2012 03:00 AM PST |
| Personal Finances and the Fiscal Cliff Posted: 31 Dec 2012 02:36 AM PST Ron Lieber, the NYT "Your Money" columnist, discusses the implications of the fiscal deadline on personal finances.  |
| Self-Description, Black & White Edition Posted: 31 Dec 2012 02:00 AM PST |
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