Matt Stoller is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. You can follow him on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/matthewstoller.
Santorum wins Alabama, Mississippi primaries (Washington Post)
Alabama: Spencer Bachus Holds On to Avoid Runoff, (Roll Call) House Financial Services Committee Chair Spencer Bachus, who had been busted for insider trading, nonetheless just won reelection in the Republican primary. It’s an old adage, Americans hate Congress, but they love their own Congressman when he is supported by Wall Street SuperPACs.
Incumbents Get the Nod, WSJ, Washington Wire – For all the talk of how Americans are disgusted by politics, the establishment is winning.
U.S. Lacks Hard Data Tracking Pay Fights (WSJ) This is a big deal – basically it’s an open invitation to looting by executives.
North Carolina County Sues Banks And MERS Over Robo-Signing (WSJ) This is Jeff Thigpen, County Recorder in North Carolina. Dude is serious.
The Mortgage Settlement Lets Banks Systematically Overcharge You And Wrongly Take Your Home (Reality Check)
New York to Settle Some Mortgage Claims With 5 Banks (Wall Street Journal) – This is the MERS lawsuit pursued by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The settlement amount is $25 million. That’ll show ’em.
Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Docs (I): Ally’s Side Deal, (Firedoglake) – David Dayen keeps dunking on the mortgage settlement coverage, Lebron-style. Boom!
Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Docs (II): Giving Homes to Charity as a Penalty (Firedoglake) More from Dayen.
Worker ‘Occupations’ in 3 States Yield Successes, but Counterattack Begins (In These Times)
An Officer Had Backup: Secret Tapes (New York Times) I first heard this story on This American Life. It’s an exceptionally creepy tale of falsified crime statistics and the lengths to which the police bureaucracy will go to protect itself.
AZ legislature passes bill allowing any employer to fire employees who use birth control (ACLU)
The ‘Father of Video Games’ Reflects on His 40-Year-Old Invention (Atlantic)
Lobbyists Call On Barack Obama To Tone Down Anti-Lobbyist Rhetoric (Huffington Post)
How Modern Demands Expose Old Core Systems (Bank Technology News) This one’s for IT geeks. Banks use old software that sometimes sucks and causes problems.
Citigroup, SunTrust Banks Capital Plans Fail Fed Stress Tests (Bloomberg)
Encyclopedia Britannica halts print publication after 244 years (The Guardian)
Vietnam offers manufacturers China alternative (FT)
New York State Set to Add All Convict DNA to Its Database (New York Times) What could go wrong?
Why I left Google (JW on Tech)
NYC man “steals” his own bike in front of police stations, etc, and very few damns are given (Boing Boing)
Grime Wave: It’s a dirty job: Police nationwide take on soaring Tide detergent theft (The Daily) There’s a rash of people stealing Tide detergent and exchanging it for meth. Huh.
Will New York City Get A Subway For Garbage? (Forbes)
DOJ Asks Court To Keep Secret Any Partnership Between Google, NSA, Legal Times
China to Speed FX Reform, Allow Freer Yuan Trade: Wen, CNBC
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It is extremely scary when you find out the police are corrupt.
All too common unfortunately. Let’s hope the corruption can be stopped.
Unfortunately the last two presidential elections were rigged, and this one is looking the same way too.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1599350/posts?
A link to a story on Powertrac, crime tracking software used in Broward County It was a huge scandal that developed long after this story appeared in 2006. The software originated in NYC and flavors are probably used all over the country. Google Powertrac and Jenne It gives you an idea of the internal pressure on cops.
Yep. I keep learning I’m not cynical enough.
Looks like our voting machines are rigged. Just like our media and government and banking and shit. What isn’t rigged by the fascists?
Check out this documentary about rigged voting, via reddit, and as I was told videos 8 and 9 are the best:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeXtPNP2a-s&feature=related
It shows how these optical scanning machines if Florida are hackable.
Also looks like Ron Paul’s votes are being screwed with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xcJG6X2kt4
The Director for Research and Development at Diebold says that votes cannot be changed merely using a memory card.
The documentary proves this to be false. The software can be hacked and done so in a way that does not change the total vote count, thereby making it difficult to uncover the fraud.
Also, as I mentioned at Moon of Alabama, the Russians developed their voting software and database system with the help of Oracle, a company started with CIA money and a company named after a CIA database.
So basically, it’s possible that a few perps were able to develop and control the software that has run significant portions of elections in the U.S. and Russia for over 15 years. At least. Who knows how extensive this software is. As the documentary mentions, the industry has led and created the standards. It’s not like the government is regulating the industry and telling it what to do to make sure democracy is safe—it’s the opposite, the whores that represent citizens have given over responsibility to private industry run by shadowy secret government spooks.
And then there is PROMIS. A real spooky system (pun intended).
Another view.
Only the tip of the information iceberg.
Interesting.
Yeah, of course the CIA is going to be interested in these databases and is going to have a an interest in giving technology it controls to other governments.
I was flabbergasted when I read about the Russian system developed by Oracle, HP, etc. They use this database in Russia for many different purposes, in addition to counting votes, and no one seems to be suspicious that a company started by the CIA developed and named after a CIA database sets up the Russian database based on presidential decrees by Boris Yeltsin. Hmmm. And others have alleged Oracle got rich by ripping off Soviet technology and the Russians claimed Oracle and gang used Soviet technology to help construct the Soviet database and election technology.
Interesting story above that the allegations the U.S. tried to control or compromise the database it gave to Canada.
You provide good information securecare.
PROMIS was supposedly sold to a number of buyers. I believe I’d heard al-Qaida may even have a version. It has supposedly evolved from the original(s).
Like HFT, the competition has got to be fierce.
Can’t believe this was allowed on mainstream media?
“The Military Industrial Complex Has Got Us By The Throat!” Jack Cafferty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L78c8sLQqG4#!
Jack is one of the few bright outspoken lights on mainstream media. I vaguely remember him as a news anchorn on WNBC-NYC.
He deserves a spot on Current TV where he can really let it fly.
“Lobbyists Call On Barack Obama To Tone Down Anti-Lobbyist Rhetoric”
Are you sure that is not from The Onion?
The story about Adrian Schoolcraft is shocking. I remember, as a kid, hearing about how the Soviet Union had dissidents committed to psychiatric institutions. It seems that the United States is looking to history to learn better police state tactics. From the This American Life episode:
“He just vanished.” The whole segment – which is “Act Two” of episode 414 – is worth listening to. You can buy an mp3 of the episode from Amazon.com. It’s also available via iTunes.
Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
By GREG SMITH
Published: March 14, 2012
TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html?ref=opinion
Wow
I like this version better:
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/why-i-am-leaving-the-empire%2c-by-darth-vader-201203145007/
Thanks for this. I recommend it too.
But do read the NYT original first.
Hilarious, thanks for the link!
“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more.”
bowahahah ahahaha aahahahahaha
Oh well, at least he got it while the getting was good.
A decade at the Squid must be worth a heavy 7 figure nest egg. If it were me, I’d go straight to Paris and the Absinthe Bar or maybe sequester myself in a monestary. Or maybe a Money-Stary speculating in emerging growth stocks. LOL.
A decade at the Squid must be worth a heavy 7 figure nest egg. craazyman
I imagine so. But it’s nice to see that with some people, “enough is enough.”
My sister was a bank VP at Chase in Houston. I asked her about banking once. She said “It’s all bullshit.” She now does volunteer work in her spare time. And yea, she lives comfortably (if such is possible in Houston except during the winter).
Beard I was thinking of loading up on a waay out of the money Put on the Squid last year.
I had myself making about $2 million on the trade, for very little up front investment — thinking they might get indicted and smashed like a Pinata in a matter of weeks.
But I didn’t do it, fortunately, because I would have lost everything.
But now, this might be the time. :) I can see it all unraveling if the Muppets start defecting one by one and then in hoards. Not sure where they’d go, but there must be somewhere. And the Big Zero might actually benefit down there in DC, trying to get reelected. it could happen.
I don’t know what the hell I’d do with $2 million anyway. Probably something really stupid. Or I’d give it away. I don’t need much more than $2000 a month.
This may sound crazy, but you are better off taking that amount in equivalent Goldman shares.
Tell your broker you need the original certificates.
“Tell your broker you need the original certificates.” Er, why?
“But now, this might be the time. ”
Don’t do it. Those “muppets” are probably well locked in.
Why? To generate additional CO2?
Holy smokes!
What a gutsy letter. I think it’s reflective of the general short term thinking that dominates most areas now from business to politics to personal choices. Its not just GS. Hell the whole financial industry has been ripping off individual investors for years; witness most mutual funds marketing companies. We also know that executive compensation and goals are often not aligned with shareholders in some (many?) cases. I see personal goals placed ahead of patient interest at times in my field. The interesting thing is how well GS can manipulate sophisticated big money clients. I guess one lesson is to avoid complicated investments in ones 401k, as Swenson advises.
How does one rise to the position of “executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa” after twelve years and only now, after everything that’s happened, come to realize that the company is morally bankrupt?
Also, how does GS (or any investment bank, really) keep clients when it seems to be evident that they don’t act in the client’s interest? Does every client think, well, I’m smart enough to know when I’m getting screwed, and I don’t care if they’re screwing everyone else?
Why did it take so long for him to realize this? I imagine the changes he listed happened gradually and I also imagine the author was rather conflicted. He had worked very hard to get where he was.
I too am surprised that large clients are stupid. Certainly largest individual investors have long been targeted with “special” products that require a higher minimum. There are also some examples of pension funds Pershing active management of equities and of a herd mentality trying to emulate Yale. Maybe they don’t really know what the hell they are doing.
Few pension fund managers, including large public funds, are as shrewd or cunning as GS swindlers and make easy marks for “shitty deals”. Just imagine what will happen if/when Obama delivers the Social Security Administration to these moneychangers. Bernie Madoff’s will seem like a cheap street hustler.
It’s Izvestia. The corruption we’re allowed to know about is just the surface sheen on an ocean of scum. I mean, good for Smith, maybe he can sleep nights, but the issue isn’t culture (fer gawdsake). It’s criminal behavior.
Any calls for CEOs in orange jumpsuits doing the perp walk? No? Then jolly good show for Smith and his newly tender conscience, but this is a public relations exercise to kick the can down the road.
an ocean of scum
Pleeeeaassssee, the proper term is sleeze since scum has a real purpose in the physical world. Let’s not prejudice people against biological life forms.
Seriously.
It seems that Yves, Nomi Prins, and other GS alums were able to see the corruption of culture and culture of corruption long before Greg Smith. Greg, what took you so long?
The fact that the rigged market continues to stay afloat in such moral quicksand indicates that GS now probably runs the Criminal Reserve Bank and SEC as well. The market appears to be managed exclusively for the one percent.
I thank Yves for putting me two years ahead of the curve. And now, after the settlement, the garbage is being exposed.
Maybe they forced him out and he’s playing tough.
Either way, no problems. They’re already lining up the replacements:
“Guy Who Rented All 94 Rooms of Aspen Hotel for Party Scores Awesome New Goldman Job,” Matt Taibbi
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/guy-who-rented-all-94-rooms-of-aspen-hotel-for-party-scores-awesome-new-goldman-job-20120312
Citigroup has published a new corporate timeline. At Columbia Journalism Review Ryan Chittum has corrected some of its more blatant omissions.
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/an_alternate_history_of_citigr.php
Why I left Google (JW on Tech)
We need to find a way to compensate knowledge creators other than advertising and that does not involve hiding the created knowledge behind patent, copyright, or other barriers (in other words, creating monopolies, rents, and artificial scarcity of knowledge).
“An Officer Had Backup: Secret Tapes”
The corruption is systemic across different social institutions.
Useless knowledge ought be freely available until some clever person finds a use for it.
And after that, the price of that formerly-useless knowledge ought to reflect what it is that it is good for!
Or maybe, the price of knowledge ought be only and strictly the costs of its transmission and replication for use by people other than its discoverer. Others may say that she who “created” that knowledge ought to be recompensed.
If so, what of those unfortunates who provided the rest of us with the certain knowledge of which specific species of mushrooms are poisonous to eat?
So. Which pricing model for knowledge would be of the most use?
For its discoverer? For the rest of humanity?
And what should we pay people to think about these questions? Or are we all free-riders?
How much for what the info you just shared?
Is it free?
Science based on the shoulders of those who went before will wither, the kids will attend madrasses.
Re: NC County Sues Banks and MERS.
Local press account, not behind a paywall like the linked WSJ article:
http://www.news-record.com/content/2012/03/13/article/guilford_files_suit_against_banks
Go, Jeff, go!
thanks for the freebie link!
this suit presents the real crux of the problem. these broken chains of title are going to have to get fixed. someone has to figure out how. good for them for finally putting the issue forward, formally.
The link is not only a freebie, it’s got more detailed information. The more local sources often do, at least for breaking stories. Although, as always, it depends…
There are a number of articles in the links today where the local source is better than the frauds in the MSM who are the ones that get the links. The Police whistleblower case above is another example (the Village Voice, and not the linked NYTimes, first reported it).
Here’s my humble request to all the link providers to say “no thanks” [or “fuck you” would actually be my preference] to the criminal press, like the New York Times, and provide linkage to better sources like local on-the-scene reporters–especially when the local reporters have done the real reporting and discovered the story and the MSM is simply riding its fat lazy ass in to steal all the glory at the end.
Plus, these MSM sources are known liars and disinformation agents so why promote them?
Thank you in advance for your consideration . . .
The BBC’s Paul Mason on the financial repression in all our futures.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17301032
Maybe they can make a movie and call it ‘The Unbearable Heaviness of Being.’
NYT Op-ED: Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
I found this first on the NYT website, was surprised to not see it here. Well, now somebody from the center of the rot confirms that the rot is that bad.
Yeah, I’d like to see Yves and others take on that one.
The local free bohemian paper that broke the Thigpen suit against MERS and the banks story. I can’t access the WSJ story, and it pisses me off that it doesn’t download on my Kindle subscription, but this version has a few more details than Fox or Bloomberg. Of interest is the mention of nationally renowned attorney working on contingency who is “the one who wrote the book on securitization law”. While mentioned twice in article, attorney’s name is conspicuously not mentioned. What attorney doesn’t want his name mentioned in a high publicity case? And why not? Odd……
http://greensboro.rhinotimes.com/Articles-Articles-c-2012-03-07-211268.112113-Banks-Broke-It-Now-County-Wants-It-Fixed.html
Google the exact title of the article. It will come up in a lot of places and you can read in peace.
After two years reading doom and gloom predictions on this web site — banking system insolvent, Europe falling apart, MMT cranks, everything going to hell any day now — two years spent following the Pied Pipers of doom and gloom right into the financial graveyard, while the stock market doubles and I’m stuck in cash.
I’m tired of worrying. It hasn’t paid a dime.
But fortunately, right when you think all hope is lost, that spider story liberates me to explore new realms of worry and terror.
Rather than waste time reading nonsense about money and econonsense, I’m going to turn my apartment over inch by inch, every book, every corner, every closet, every rumpled pile of clothing. At least I’ll know what I’m loooking for and what do do when I see it.
while the stock market doubles and I’m stuck in cash. craazyman
Haha! I explained years[?] ago that common stock was the ideal private money form. Heck, if common stock was not tied for better and worse to the present corrupt and unstable money system then the stock market as a whole should only go up (because of general progress).
Are you saying the guy who is 100% invested, with 10,000,000 shares of Genetic Engineered Food Corp. common stock, doesn’t need to sell any in order to buy that Picasso?
Instead, he can just print his own money backed by his shares?
It sounds like a ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’ scheme.
Are you saying the guy who is 100% invested, with 10,000,000 shares of Genetic Engineered Food Corp. common stock, doesn’t need to sell any in order to buy that Picasso? MLTPB
Well, does he? Can’t he just “spend” his stock for the painting?
Instead, he can just print his own money backed by his shares? MLTPB
Common stock IS a money form or at least could be if it was not disadvantaged wrt to conventional money by government.
It sounds like a ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’ scheme MLTPB
No. You are describing the current system. Without the government enforced counterfeiting cartel to borrow from then it is likely that the corporations would have to “share” wealth and power with their employees by paying them with common stock.
Both systems.
Spending stock for the painting – are you talking about bartering?
are you talking about bartering? MLTPB
Only if the stock certificates were very handsome or otherwise valuable IN THEMSELVES.
Do we carry paper stock certificates or in some digit format (to be tracked)?
Do we carry paper stock certificates or in some digit format (to be tracked)? MLTPB
That would depend on the issuing company.
Say you are buying a pack of Marlborough light, how do you get exact change with your stock certificates?
@MLTPB… Ummm in borderline calligraphy?
Skippy… Paste together after enough transactions and you have some cubist art to hang on the wall.
Say you are buying a pack of Marlborough light, how do you get exact change with your stock certificates? MLTPB
The value of each share could be kept close to 1 cent (via stock splits) so no change would be needed.
Amen. Same boat. Nightmare.
Should have listened to CR at calculatedriskblog but I never could quite keep up with what he was saying. It’s pretty subtle and maybe you got to follow really closely. Plus the commenters are doom and gloom in spite of CR. Funny thing nobody ever quite admits it.
Gonna run out and buy bank stock now?
You too can be a usurer and counterfeiter!
No way. I’m too risk averse.
I can’t even bring myself to buy Cody Willard’s hot stocks. (I’m a subscriber to his Revolution Investing newsletter).
I don’t think God intended me to be a wealthy man.
Naw, just wait for a good fat one. 8-)
I guess you could say that all the doom and gloom that stopped you was really right anyway, since who can tell what the actual risk was.
There’s no telling what God has for you. Could be a nice surprise.
It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22
Same boat. I wish Uncle Sugar would offer a Treasury IRA-type instrument that would allow me to roll over my money market IRA without a tax penalty. At this point I have more faith in Treasury than in mutual fund money market management.
I say “faith” instead of “trust” because I feel like I can’t trust anybody. That’s the way it is in war — you don’t want to trust anybody, but if you are going to get along and work together, it is necessary to extend a measure of trust to your comrades in arms.
Somebody is using my retirement money for something. My green fund lost over 60% in the GFC and still has not fully recovered. Socially responsible investing is attractive from an ethical perspective, but ethics doesn’t pay these days, eh?
Socially responsible investing is attractive from an ethical perspective, but ethics doesn’t pay these days, eh? citizendave
“Socially responsible” according to who? Unlike many on this site, I consider that additional CO2 is a blessing, not a curse since it will enable more food to be grown.
F. Beard, I’ve never heard anyone else say plants are suffering from too little carbon or carbon dioxide. I admit there is something comically appealing about palm trees growing on the (formerly) frozen tundra around Lambeau Field in Green Bay. But along with swimming in Lake Michigan in February, we would get the brown recluse spiders, fire ants, kudzu, etc.
When choosing socially responsible mutual funds you can filter for your favorite causes, including nukes, tobacco, worker rights, green-friendly, green industry, whatever is most important to you.
Are you confident you aren’t invested in Monsatan, or Blockhead-Marlin? Do you rail against the empire while allowing them to use your money? Divest while you still can.
Examples:
http://www.socialfunds.com/
http://michaelbluejay.com/sri/
Are you confident you aren’t invested in Monsatan, or Blockhead-Marlin? citizendave
Right now I am but soon I’ll have to decide between a lump sum or an annuity for my pension.
I guess I’ll go with the annuity and ask no questions. :)
Additional CO2 blessing…
Are you for burning paper stock certificates then?
Via an online brokerage I invested three quarters of a thousand dollars in a US manufacturer of photovoltaic modules. Their early advantage became a disadvantage. They split one-for-six. They filed for bankruptcy. I have not yet liquidated, and today my stock is worth $5.46. If I had a paper stock certificate, at least it would have some value as art suitable for framing. But I ain’t even got that. Reminds me of Paul Ryan.
Re: Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs
Greg Smith: “I don’t know of any illegal behavior…..”
Hey Greg, I share your frustration. Like you, like everyone at Goldman I dreamed of being an outlaw and a criminal. The problem is the Holder Justice Department. These days it’s almost impossible to find something to do that’s illegal. But this is not for lack of trying….
How about the time we ripped the eyeballs out of that Kosovo organ trafficking muppet! Remember, right after he’d arranged for 300 to 500 Serbs to be killed, so their organs could be harvested. Remember how excited we got thinking, “Man, we got ourselves a crime to commit…..organ trafficking, man, that’s got to be illegal, right”?
And it was high fives all around….
Wrong! Justice could find nothing illegal with that deal either. All’s they wanted was one fresh kidney delivered in person every morning……..(for breakfast?)
And so forth….not easy trying to be a white collar criminal in the United States today…
Funny on NSA and Google. I was thinking that if Google wanted to get its mojo back, they’d confess their sins, then ask FaceBorg to do exactly the same. Because I’d bet the connection to the state is the real source of FB’s clout and a major source of funding; the ads are the worse I’ve seen, even worse than Google’s. Also, too, they could stop being evil. Heck, isn’t Schmidt rich enough already? Or is the problem prosecution?
In olden times we could say NSA measures their computing power in acres. In modern times that is doubtless still true, but now Google can say the same. And Google probably scales up and distributes easier than No Such Agency because NSA needs the highest orders of physical security, surely more than Google does.
I would guess NSA and Google compete to recruit from the same pool of PhD mathematicians. Imagine a geek-fest of Google and NSA computer jocks, after signing all the necessary NDAs, sitting down together in a secure area and trying to out-geek each other. Can any good flow from that intercourse?
Barnarke implements a means to whipsaw markets at will (Fed Twitter account set up)
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/other/20120314a.htm
Stewart at the Daily Show could have a feast with this one…
Matt Taibbi about a whistleblower, Linda Almonte, at JP Morgan who witnessed credit card fraud and robosigning:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/j-p-morgan-chases-ugly-family-secrets-revealed-20120313
Just another day in Kleptocratia. The circus of the primaries/political process. The corruption of the police. Links between the state and corporations. General signs of decay. Even a little kitty angst from one of the looters. It must be Tuesday.
Or Wednesday, or Thrusday, or …
Or 1793, or 1834, or 1887, or 1911, or 1959, or…
We are only a few months away from 2013, assuming we survive the Mayan End of The World.
Is ’13 an unlucky year?
So if today’s wealth inequality is no different from 1959 (or any other period in history) it follows that wealth inequality is nothing to be concerned about.
Is that why you never supported the Occupy Movement?
Matt and Yves – yet more quiet desperation from Greece:
From a Link at Eschaton:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2012/mar/13/greece-breadline-hungry-children-pe
PE teachers don’t ask may kids to do PE because they are underfed and prone to pass out. Local schools are organizing food drives to feed hungry kids quietly, without embarrassing them.
This is how revolutions start.
The great GS Elevator on Greg Smith’s GBCW:
#1: I bet Greg Smith doesn’t know shit about ‘guy code’ either.
JPMorgan Chase is a sac of pus waiting to burst. American Banker:
It’s weasels all the way down!
NOTE I helpfully clarified, [in brackets], some of AB’s wording, and added the bold emphasis.
UPDATE I forgot to mention that I think it’s time for another round of retroactive immunity. After all, these guys are “savvy businessmen.” Also, too, the money.
The linked tag line of the day award goes to . . . .
envelope please . . .
“JP Morgan Chase is a sack of pus waiting to burst”
The line sweeps the awards by winning for “Imagery”, “Cogency”, and that all to rare quality in abbreviated language: “Gesture”. (You have to be an artist to understand gesture).
Well done. I actually clicked on it and read. how about that?
[lambert blushes modestly]
Re: NYC man “steals” his own bike in front of police stations, etc
When I was a teenager, the well-known best place to buy cosmic debris was behind the local police headquarters. They literally never looked in their own back yard.
China to Allow Freer Yuan Trade: Wen.
When?
“AZ legislature passes bill allowing any employer to fire employees who use birth control.”
‘WORD’ almighty! This headline is not from the Onion? Will someone wake me when this shit is over?
Some entertaining financial snark from The Economist…
The lexicon of hedge funds – From alpha to smart beta, The industry’s language is changing http://www.economist.com/node/21547809?fsrc=nlw%7Cpub%7C3-14-2012%7Cpublishers
“(Wall Street Journal) – This is the MERS lawsuit pursued by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. The settlement amount is $25 million. That’ll show ‘em. ”
Simply too funny.
The popped balloon has struck, with justice both swift and severe, lol.
The systematic overcharging in mortgage servicing has retroactively vindicated by strategy of paying several hundred dollars extra a month, in the hopes of paying down principal. It turns out I was really potentially paying bogus (yet now pseudo-legal) overcharges and avoiding the associated (pseudo-legal) penalties.
AZ legislature passes bill allowing any employer to fire employees who use birth control (ACLU)
So what about guys that have had a vasectomy? Isn’t that “birth control”?
Good evening.
I just stumbled upon this funny quote in ‘The Atlantic’ article “The Villain”, on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, via Huffington Post:
[The visceral criticism of Bernanke is hard to fathom, but it is in part the flip side of the enormous trust that we are asked to place in the modern Federal Reserve. At least in the time of Nicholas Biddle, and even during the formative years of the Fed, banknotes, being liabilities, could be redeemed for something of value, usually gold. Now our dollars are exchangeable only for more dollars. This is what alarms the originalists. As the publisher, Bernanke critic, and gold bug par excellence James Grant eloquently put it, “We have exchanged the gold standard for the Ph.D. standard, for soft central planning.” ]
I’m not a gold bug, but I still think this is a ‘funny-because-it’s-true’ kind’a thing…
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/04/the-villain/8901/4/