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Links 4/27/12

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Michael Pollan: The Omnivore’s Dilemma YouTube (Aquifer)

For Bison, a Touchy Path Back to the Plains New York Times

Megalopolis and its Rivals New Geography (Lambert)

Limits to Growth – The 30 Year Update Club of Rome (furzy mouse)

Who invented the computer? How Stuff Works (Aquifer)

US hires top lawyer to lead Google case Financial Times

Egypt’s women urge MPs not to pass early marriage, sex-after-death laws: report Al Arabiya News (Richard Smith)

Immigration Debate in Switzerland Der Spiegel (furzy mouse)

Young men in Mexico say the US no longer offers them a better future Guardian (John L)

Penn’s vice-dean resigns Philly.com (Lambert)

Obama courts the ‘angry white men’ Financial Times

Price of high-end Hamptons pads soars 35% Crains New York. Notice the headline item was cherry-picked but the trend still seems to be up.

U.S. Firms Add Jobs, But Mostly Overseas Wall Street Journal. Quelle surprise!

Washington Post’s Kaplan and Other For-Profit Colleges Joined ALEC, Controversial Special Interest Lobby Republic Report

Rep. Maxine Waters, CPC Members to Eric Schneiderman: Hire Rep. Brad Miller as Your Cop on the Beat Matt Stoller, Firedoglake

Ally says may put mortgage unit in bankruptcy Reuters. Bloomberg reported on this possibility earlier this month.

Bernanke Calls Krugman “Reckless”; Krugman and Bernanke Both in Academic Wonderland Somewhere Deep in Outer Space Michael Shedlock (furzy mouse)

Attorney General in Mexico Will Investigate Wal-Mart New York Times

Prosecute Wal-Mart, but get rid of anti-bribery law CNN (bob). Not sure I agree with the conclusion, but the observation is correct.

Oil’s Dark Heart Pumps Strong New York Times (Joe Costello)

Inventory Shortages Mean Bidding Wars Are Back (For Now) Wall Street Journal. Memo to readers: real estate is always local, and the Case Shiller index is down in 16 of 20 cities. This with remarkably warm weather which likely pulled activity forward.

The US recovery is thinning MacroBusiness

Justice Kapnick Keeps Bank of America Settlement As Suggests Middle Road Regarding Discovery, Article 77 Proceeding Structured Litigation Blog (Deontos)

Video of the 2012 Ridenhour Prizes (Aquifer)

It’s We Who Win Common Dreams (Aquifer)

Antidote du jour. From Abigail Field, who I gather is recuperating well:

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92 comments

    1. Jim

      Didn’t Representative Waters ask for a bailout of her husband’s bank? And we’re supposed to support her?

  2. Orco

    Living in DC since 2007, the market here merely stumbled briefly where in other places it plunged. I have thought about buying my first home here so I have been following the market and in the recent six months or so it appears to have become crazy. Any home that interests me is under contract in less than a week. Even homes that I find unappealing are scooped up quickly. On a local blog they noted that this past weekend a fixer-upper near U Street had around 130 people at the open house and was under contract soon after. Another person noted that there are more homes under contract right now then there are for sale.

    1. chitown2020

      There are no signs of depression in downtown Chicago either. Consider there is a bank or two or a multinational Corp at every turn. This is where the jobs are. Downtown is booming but it has lost its charm as it now resembles one giant megaopoly. It is sad and ugly to look around and see America has become one giant multinational corporation.

    2. Bill the Psychologist

      D.C. is a govt town, high level GS employees and many many govt contractors and lawyers. Their economy seldom suffers much from economic contraction of any kind.

      1. Klassy!

        Honestly, I don’t need to read the article. Everything in the comment next to the link is exactly right and needs to be included in all these “recovery” articles. Seems like the “all real estate is local” meme only resonated with the shills in 2007.
        But yeah… multiple offers on a house you’re selling at a 180K loss is not something to rejoice.

        1. chitown2020

          I agree. I have a real problem with anyone trying to paint a rosy picture out of this crime spree. Too many, millions in fact, have lost everything or are struggling to hang on to what they have left and not one crook has gone to prison and their bailout continues I don’t particularly want to hear how some people are feasting while millions are struggling to feed their families. My local news just reported that Lehman employees got $700 million dollar bonuses before the “collapse.” They all need to be arressted.

    3. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      One can turn on the fiscal floodgate, but if you are a shark, the world just becomes a bigger playground for you.

      How is the for punishing the wicked (“I will destroy man”) 1%?

      Only land animals (except the 1% man-animals, the others are not the intended targets) would die.

      But sharks should flourish with the fiscal floodgate.

  4. Klassy!

    Does anyone find it ironic that Wal Mart is being investigated for bribery in Mexico and here in the US they (and other mega retailers) extract bribes from municipalities to build a store?
    Maybe Mexico could teach us something.

    2. Marcus Webster

      Does anyone think that MalWart is not also bribing US politicians? We just call ’em campaign donations.

      1. Klassy!

        Yeah, they bribe the politicians, but they also have a much more inexpensive tool to extract their subsidies: just scream jobs! sales taxes!

      1. Aquifer

        Good video of Heinberg talking about the ideas in his book – mentions the transition towns movement toward the end – methinks i have to look into that ….

  6. F. Beard

    re: “Egypt’s women urge MPs not to pass early marriage, sex-after-death laws: report” [emphasis added]:

    Can The End be far away? Where do they pull this crap from? Does the Koran allow necrophilia?

      1. Endymion

        My understanding of the article, and its comments, are that the cleric who issued the ruling regarding after-death sex was merely observing that while the Koran didn’t say that post-death sex was OK, it did say that A) the mariage relationship survived death (in that the surviving spouse was still responsible for the body of the other – and who would argue with that?) and B) a wife has a duty to submit to sex with her husband – as does the Bible, and until recently most Christian-based societies also held that a wife could not be raped by her husband as her consent to sex was assumed. Hence it inexorably follows in Islam that a husband who choses to have sex with his wife’s body is entitled to do so.

        What is the alternative? Do we legislate against anything and everything we personally find repugnant? Do we assume as an objective fact that a wife would not want her husband to have sex with her body immediately after death if he chooses to, or should not want him to even if she wouldn’t in fact have objected if asked beforehand? Should we hold hankies to our noses like Victorian ladies with the vapours if a man whose wife is taken from him suddenly and unexpectedly might wish to experience that ultimate intimacy with her one last time, knowing it is such?

        If there is a law that says a man cannot sexually penetrate the dead body of his wife, what is the justification for it? If there is no such law and a lawyer merely says as much to a man with the implication that no offense is committed if it is done, why the hue-and-cry?

        1. LeeAnne

          some things are best left un commented. this is still a finance blog. last time I looked.

  7. Leviathan

    Re the “bidding wars” piece, the WSJ gets ever more cheerleaderish in the RE recovery vs. dead cat bounce wars.

    Tellingly, the couple profiled as getting multiple offers is set to lose 150k on their house. Not clear if it is a short sale or they will eat the loss. Bottom line: most markets are way down, most homeowners can’t afford to eat the losses, and multiple offers are only on excellent, fully updated homes priced low to move fast. Some recovery.

  9. Eureka Springs

    The first line in Matt Stoller’s post says far more than any slightly progressive democrat need to know about the largest caucus (progressive) in the entire US House of Representatives.

    ***The Congressional Progressive Caucus met with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman today for a hearing on how to prevent a million foreclosures. Not much happened at the hearing.***

    How many times are so-called Dems going to keep calling these the good guys… and vote for this lessor evil? When is the last time the progressive caucus held up significant legislation until they got what they wanted (particularly as an offensive move rather than microscopic defensive moves)… like neo liberal centrists, republicans, tea-baggers do all the time?

    The criminal democratic party must be abandoned until it goes the historic route of the whigs.

      1. different clue

        Or even just let the Ds die and let several wannabe successor parties fight to conquer and occupy the vacated space. There are any number of wannabe-socialist parties in existence, not just the ran-McGaw-against-Wellstone Green Party.

  10. Literary Critic

    US Stock futures UP – Market open in 5 minutes

    futures up on

    Eurozone Retail Sales Plunge at Strongest Pace Since Late-2008; German Retail Sales Plunge Into Contraction; French Retail Sales Plunge at Record Pace; Record Job Losses, Record Retail Plunge in Italy

    Spain downgrade by S&P

    Ford earnings collapse 45% on weal Euro sales

    P&G earnings down 16%

    1Q GDP Missed at 2.2% vs Warm Weather 2.5% expectation

    Wall Street responds favorably!

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      I think any time the distance between the 0.01% and the 99.99% gets wider, it’s celebration time for the former.

      Phew, I think they are gone now! I don’t even see them.

    2. Maximilien

      “WallStreet responds favorably [to bad news]!”

      Well, you know what they’ve said on the Street since March 18, 1988 when the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets was formed:

      “The Plunge Protection Team climbs a wall of worry.”

    1. CaitlinO

      Let’s hope mankind is unique. I’d hate to think there are two species out there messing things up as badly as we manage to.

  13. Anonymous Jones

    Speaking of Outer Space! That’s some hyperbole we get from Mish!

    I swear, I tried so hard not to click on that link!

    Not only did we get the preposterous ranting and blather, but we got an incoherent, inapposite union-busting message at the end for good measure!!!

    Yeah, if we busted those terrible unions so that we could get more people to work for the “same price” (well, the “same price” to us, not to the individuals actually selling their labor), we’d have no problems at all! Well, of course, with lower salaries, they might have a problem meeting their debt service and consuming more (#2 of his list of 8, which of course, no way does either Bernanke or Krugman disagree with…yes, we’re approaching STRAW MAN ALERT time…what a tool Mish is). And oh yeah, lowering those salaries are going to act as a signal to lower other salaries, because private business won’t have to compete against the higher union salaries. But yeah, this will all work out. [NB, I do have problems with public unions, but I’m not unhinged like Mish and do not think solving that problem solves what he thinks it solves].

    Yes, I know it’s my own fault. Why would I click on that deranged man’s site? I don’t know. I made a mistake. And I had to write about it. I’m sorry.

    1. Cletus

      I managed to resist clicking the link.

      A lot of what Mish writes is true, until he gets to his point. That point being: Unions are bad and austerity is good.

      It all reminds me of my mother-in-law, who suffers Alzheimers. Much of what she begins saying sounds like it will make sense, and then, without fail, it all turns to gibberish.

        2. Glenn Condell

          ‘He should be invited here to debate Hudson’

          I too am keen to see some debate between people whose views I have some respect for, but which clash to some extent. It seems to me everyone who’s anyone has been interviewed by Max Keiser, it’s all one big happy family, yet there seem to be quite basic disagreements between the beliefs (both diagnosis of problems and strategies for solutions) of some regular guests which aren’t explored as thoroughly as they might be.

          A wide-ranging discussion between Hudson and Shedlock would be illuminating; my feeling is that Hudson’s greater historical grasp and superior capacity to think outside of the strait-jacket of the American business paradigm would ultimately show Mish’s analysis up as compromised by the same shibboleths that have helped lead us to where we are.

          It is notable that even his friend Steve Keen’s ideas are only ever introduced to the blog to support some contention of Mish’s; Keen’s work on deflationary collapse for example aligning nicely with the Mish take, but the jubilee (and indeed MMT) don’t seem to be grappled with much at all. Can’t recall seeing Hudson mentioned at all, but I don’t visit there every day as I once did.

          It is these areas of difference among respectable status-quo dissenters that I need clarified, the pts of agreement less so. Shedlock is like Schiff in the baseline acceptance (it is almost cellular, ie impossible to envisage change) of certain archetypal business nostrums which favour capital over labour. These guys need David Graeber to live with and study their tribe, someone to read the entrails of their particular construction of reality.

          At the root lies duelling conceptions of what drives healthy economies – supply or demand. It is mystifying to me that rational people like Schiff and Shedlock seem genuinely to hold to the idea that simply removing road-blocks to business profitability (regulations, taxes and especially labour costs) will encourage employers to hire and therefore engender recovery, when all the evidence and sheer common sense surely points the other way: increased share of income going to workers/consumers encourages demand for goods and services, thereby generating employment, more consumption, more tax revenues, more debt paid down, more infrastructure, et al.

          I find myself nodding in agreement reading Mish almost as much as I do Hudson or Keen, but he provokes the odd violent shake too. He gets a lot of things right, but even a clock moving in a counter-clockwise direction is right twice a day.

          1. different clue

            Depending how fast the clock moves counterclockwise, it might be right many times a day. A blind pig on meth will find quite a few acorns.

      2. reslez

        Mish’s three-step plan to turn around the economy:

        1) Everybody suffers ruinous poverty and privation
        2) ???
        3) Profit!

        And by “everybody suffers” I mean just the 99%. And by “Profit” I mean things magically get better, but the 1% benefits throughout.

        This is not a serious economic plan. Unfortunately it seems to be shared by all austerians/Austrians.

        Once I figured out Mish’s only proposal was imposing pain on 99.999% of the population I stopped reading him.

        1) Economies are designed and run by humans.
        2) If the economy doesn’t serve 99.999% of the population, it should be changed.
        3) Ruinous economic depression for 99.999% doesn’t magically lead to improvement. It leads to political turmoil, societal collapse and war.
        4) Imagining that by enduring a ruinous economic depression things will suddenly improve on their own is a fantasy of Christian suffering myth.
        5) Austrians think debt must be purged by deflation and depression. Yet there is no reason this is necessary — and if our system makes it necessary, we should change the system. Finally, experience has shown this sort of economic turmoil leads to the fascist dictatorships and war.

        1. F. Beard

          4) Imagining that by enduring a ruinous economic depression things will suddenly improve on their own is a fantasy of Christian suffering myth. reslez

          Not really. That nonsense comes from the Austrians. And at least Mises and Rothbard were agnostic at most. Christians are or should be concerned with justice and kindness not inflicting suffering.

          I like the rest of your comment though. I take it you have seen “The underpants gnomes” episode of South Park?

        2. F. Beard

          5) Austrians think debt must be purged by deflation and depression. Yet there is no reason this is necessary — reslez

          Correct. A universal bailout ala Steve Keen’s “A Modern Jubilee” would fix the debtors without disadvantaging non-debtors. Moreover, if the bailout was combined with a ban on further credit creation and metered to just replace existing credit as it is paid off then no significant price inflation should be expected either.

          I’ve spelled this out at Mish’s site but so far no response.

          and if our system makes it necessary, we should change the system. reslez

          Amen! I’m all for that.

          Finally, experience has shown this sort of economic turmoil leads to the fascist dictatorships and war. reslez

          Yes, but the Austrians will blame that on not being cruel enough in the liquidation process.

    2. F. Beard

      Well, of course, with lower salaries, they might have a problem meeting their debt service Anonymous Jones [emphasis added]

      Good point! If the economy is to shrink to the volume and velocity of the money supply then debt needs to shrink proportionally too, not just wages. If the debt is to remain “sticky” then so should wages.

      But there is hope for Mish. His friend Steve Keen has the proper solution – a universal bailout. And Mish is mindful that the Austrians continually have failed with their hyperinflation predictions.

    3. craazyman

      I hear ya AJ. I read Mish for his Eurozone rundowns and the interesting folks in his links, but his psychotic anti-union screeds confirm my theory that all economic comentators are, at some level, total lunatics.

      Each one of them seems to have some issue that gives them the head twitch and the gleaming crazy eye and then they go off like rockets. And you just think “Yeah, I knew it Another one.”

      I don’t know what it is. Whether analyzing money and econoimcs makes people nuts or whether they started that way, and just found their natural habitat there where they can blossom in full fruityness. Either way, the intrinsic indeterminacy of the topic gives free reign for their absolutisms to align themselves with some sort of moral fervor and overpower any hint of restraint and reason.

      Also, him and John Hussman have persuaded me to stay in cash. I can tolerate reading about this stuff as long as I think it’ll make me money, if not, I couldn’t care less.

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        The key here is to keep repeating the same, bad ideas over and over again.

        Perhaps worn-out people will finally give in and agree.

    4. wunsacon

      I read every Mish column and love his work. However, I wish he wouldn’t resort to name-calling or (using certain terms like “Keynesian claptrap”). Amping up the hostility gets in the way of understanding one another. (No, I doubt any of his regular readers are the kind who, for instance, read something on Glenn Beck’s website and then make threatening phone calls. But, I wish Mish would set an “even better” example for other right-wing bloggers than he already does.)

      1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

        I’d like to see him quote himself not so much.

        And he could help by making readers comments more accesiable.

    5. wunsacon

      A corporation’s goal is to maximize profit — deliver the least value at the highest price the market will bear.

      A union’s goal is the same. A union is in the business of maximizing its workers’ standard of living. It’s a corporation of people.

      Generally, right-wingers love the first and hate the second.

    6. Jack Parsons

      Yup, the reflexive hatred of public unions.

      You’re just not a real libertarian if you don’t hate school teachers.

  14. Fíréan

    ‘Economists are scared’ Paul Zarembka is interviewed by Lars Schall on the overwhelming evidence of insider trading immediately prior to “9/11”, and both the resultant article and whole sublect matter get little attention nor included in links in other economic blogs i felt it appropiate to include here:

    http://atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/ND27Dj02.html

    Zarembka believes that economists are to scared to go near the subject matter regardless of the validity of the evidence. This is a follow on article from Schall’s previous.

    ( i knew not how to email this as a proposed link for this blog, and hence just posted)

    1. Aquifer

      Do you get NC in your e-mail each day? You can just use the e-mail address it is sent from …

      1. Fíréan

        @ Aquifer . Thank You for Your reply.
        Each and every day, for some years, i read Naked Capitalism at the website. I do not receive in the email.

  15. JerseyJeffersonian

    In regard to “Who Invented the Computer?”, I would strongly recommend a book by James Essinger Jacquard’s Web: How a Hand Loom Led to the Birth of the Information Age. Published by Oxford University Press in 2004 in hardback (seemingly now also available in paperback), it follows the arc of conceptualization and execution in the development of computational devices across a span of centuries. A central place is reserved for Babbage, but also for Lady Ada Lovelace, Babbage’s friend and one of the few among his contemporaries who seemed to be able to fully grasp the significance and the theoretical underpinings of Babbage’s concepts. She was the only legitimate child of the poet, Lord Byron, and quite a fascinating person in her own right.

    Essinger’s book examines other contributors and devices along the course of development, from Jacquard and his programmable loom, to the advent of electronic digital computers; it is an engrossing read.

  17. kevinearick

    The Re Clock

    Oh, and in case you didn’t know, you can adjust the ratio of CO2 (or any other gas) and O2 to act as an anesthesia. That will solve some of your fusion/fission problems. It is also how meditation and the sweat lodge work, which is how that “educated priest” killed those kids.

    The research doctorates “think” they can enforce breeding at gunpoint to keep the ponzi going, or trigger a die-off. Heads they win, tails you lose. WHO my a-; f-ing witch doctors. They can go f- themselves right along with the German horses they rode in on. They are about to get a few doses of their own medicine. Let’s see how they like suffocation.

    What is the difference between IPO, stock, bond or dividend in an automated, rigged ponzi economy? They might want to peddle faster, continuously, but not catch up to the underlying bond. At the end of the process, Mr. Krugman, the family budget is the only one that counts, but you all go ahead and keep proving me wrong, with the proliferation of false assumptions. Who do you think built the foundation upon which you all stand on anyway?

    When I was 3, my best friend fished exclusively in his stocked pond. He grew up thinking he was a great fisherman, and he HAD the land to prove it. You can’t service what you have, but you always want more, pumping the margin and discounting the past.

    Educating idiots is a great economic activity, like fishing in a barrel, but property income is not and never will be profitable without intelligent toil. Public, private, and non-profit accounting is a lot like masturbation in a circle, more pressure on less volume over time.

    Borrow, spend and steal is no substitute for toil, save and invest; jobs are no substitute for skills; and extrinsic value is no substitute for intrinsic value. The manufactured majority always chooses the former on the expectation of stealing from the latter.

    You are going to tell our kids that they cannot work on their farms, because it is really your farm, while you adopt manufactured kids to slave in your chocolate factory. Heal thyself physician. Heal thyself. The empire is on an automated collision course, with itself. You might want to re-examine that stepping stone; it’s a plunger.

    An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

    Judo.

    Tick tock Captain Hook, tick tock.

    America is not a place; it’s a being, where content of character counts. When the time comes, and it is coming, it is not going to be the Krugmans or Bernankes of the world that you seek to pull you from the fire you started.

    No other critter is stupid enough to build (hospital) memorials to its own stupidity, and labor doesn’t care if capital is stupid enough to pay government a tariff for the privilege of euthanizing itself. The show must go on, it will go on, and you are in the way. Caves are great for resurrections, a parlor trick, and that’s about it.

    Charge the customer for creating a problem and then again for “fixing” it, in growing iterations. That’s what empire do, build boxes inside of boxes inside of boxes, all of which amount to nothing relative to God. You might want to start writing a new Book on that TABLET of yours, because Christianity, like all mythologies, has run its course. It’s still feudalism, and obsessing over Christ is not love, which is the one and only path to God, the unknowable.

    Logic and emotion are lenses, and neither is of any utility without the other, leaving them both dead in the no sail zone, quarrelling in prisonerS dilemma, which is why the sanctity of marriage is The Imperative. Don’t hand your kids over to peer pressure, with lies instead of skills in black hole navigation, and expect anything other than stupid times stupid.

    Apple vinegar and hiking is the prescription. Division by zero is no more imaginary than the rest of the number line. You will only find truth at the intersection of the alpha and the omega. Everything else is misdirection. Now, go FORTH and multiply.

    Timing is everything.

    1. F. Beard

      Now, go FORTH and multiply. kevinearick

      I remember FORTH. It was kinda fun but I have never quite mastered RPN.

      1. reslez

        I loved FORTH. We used it as a toy language in some applications, not for full-scale development. It was the first language I learned, and a pretty nice introduction to procedural languages.

        Man it was fun. 1 2 DUP ROT SWAP POP +

    2. Jim

      “Charge the customer for creating a problem and then again for “fixing” it” — That’s the pitch a VP at Lehman used on me, senior at Stanford, during 3rd round interviews for an analyst position in M&A. “Well charge a company to buy another, then, a few years later, we’ll charge it to divest it.”

  18. Hugh

    Megalopolis sounds like the villain in one of the endless stream of comic book based movies.

    The story about the Penn vice-dean’s resignation was short but contained the wonderful admission that the vice-dean was “unaware that he didn’t have the [PhD] degree.” I would love to know how Penn failed to do basic vetting of Lynch. I am always amazed how stories like these keep turning up from time to time even though this is pretty basic verification and the telephone has been around for more than a 100 years. But what I really would like to know is Lynch’s story for how it was that he was “unaware” he didn’t have a PhD.

    I agree with Eureka Springs that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is worse than useless. We have seen that movie so many times before. They make a statement, nothing happens, end of story. Rinse, repeat.

    The US Recovery is Thinning has an interesting graph at its end which shows the performance of the S&P tracking with Fed QE programs, rising during them and falling when they end.

  19. KFritz

    Re: WaPo/Kaplan Lobbying Article

    Kaplan is keeping WaPo, the paper, alive. Can it collapse too soon?

    The Marijuana Law link(s) on the right margin of the article is excellent.

  20. John Drake

    press release

    April 23, 2012, 12:01 a.m. EDT
    Home Owners Across the Nation Sue All Bank Servicers and Their Offshore Havens; Spire Law Officially Announces Filing of Landmark Lawsuit
    Largest International Money Laundering Network in History Formed During Obama Administration; U.S. Banks’ Theft of Home Owners’ Money Laundered Through Cayman Islands, Isle of Man and Numerous Offshore-Based Affiliates

    NEW YORK, NY, Apr 23, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — In a lawsuit alleged to involve the largest money laundering network in United States history, Spire Law Group, LLP — on behalf of home owners across the Country — has filed a mass tort action in the Supreme Court of New York, County of Kings. Home owners across the country have sued every major bank servicer and their subsidiaries — formed in countries known as havens for money laundering such as the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Luxembourg and Malaysia — alleging that while the Obama Administration was publicly encouraging loan modifications for home owners, it was privately ratifying the formation of these shell companies in violation of the United States Patriot Act, and State and Federal law. The case further alleges that through these obscure foreign companies, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, Citigroup, One West Bank, and numerous other federally chartered banks stole hundreds of millions of dollars of home owners’ money during the last decade and then laundered it through offshore companies. The complaint, Index No. 500827, was filed by Spire Law Group, LLP, and several of the Firm’s affiliates and partners across the United States.

    Far from being ambiguous, this is a complaint that “names names.” Indeed, the lawsuit identifies specific companies and the offshore countries used in this enormous money laundering scheme. Federally Chartered Banks’ theft of money and their utilization of offshore tax haven subsidiaries represent potential FDIC violations, violations of New York law, and countless other legal wrongdoings under state and federal law.

    “The laundering of trillions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money — and the wrongful taking of the homes of those taxpayers — was known by the Administration and expressly supported by it. Evidence uncovered by the plaintiffs revealed that the Administration ignored its own agencies’ reports — and reports from the Department of Homeland Security — about this situation, dating as far back as 2010. Worse, the Administration purported to endorse a ‘national bank settlement’ without disclosing or having any public discourse whatsoever about the thousands of foreign tax havens now wholly owned by our nation’s banks. Fortunately, no home owner is bound to enter into this fraudulent bank settlement,” stated Eric J. Wittenberg of Columbus, Ohio — a noted trial lawyer, author and student of US history — on behalf of plaintiffs in the case.

    The suing home owners reveal how deeply they were defrauded by bank and governmental corruption — and are suing for conversion, larceny, fraud, and for violations of other provisions of New York state law committed by these financial institutions and their offshore counterparts.

    This lawsuit explains why loans were, in general, rarely modified after 2009. It explains why the entire bank crisis worsened, crippling the economy of the United States and stripping countless home owners of their piece of the American dream. It is indeed a fact that the Administration has spent far more money stopping bank investigations, than they have investigating them. When the Administration’s agencies (like the FDIC) blew the whistle, their reports were ignored.

    The case is styled Abeel v. Bank of America, etc., et al. — and includes such entities as ML Banderia Cayman BRL Inc., ML Whitby Luxembourg S.A.R.L. and J.P Morgan Asset Management Luxembourg S.A. — as well as hundreds of other obscure offshore entities somehow “owned” by federally chartered banks and formed “under the nose” of the Administration and the FDIC.

    Commenting further on the case, Mr. Wittenberg stated: “As if it is not bad enough that banks collect money and do not credit it to homeowners’ accounts, and as if it is not bad enough that those banks then foreclose when they know they do not have a legally enforceable interest in the realty, we now learn that they have been operating under unbridled free reign given by the Administration and some states’ Attorneys General in formulating this international money laundering network. Now that the light of day has been shined on it, I believe we can all rest assured that the beginning of the end of the bank crisis has arrived.”

    All United States home owners may have the right to bring a lawsuit of this kind if they paid money to a national bank servicer during the years 2003 through 2009.

    One lawyer impacted by the corruption — Mitchell J. Stein, who formerly represented the FDIC, the RTC and the FSLIC during the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1990s, and who predicted all of the foregoing in open court two years ago — commented: “Two years ago, I remarked in open court to a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge, as well as to legislators including Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office during a multitude of in-person meetings, that the ongoing violations of the Patriot Act by these financial institutions was outrageous and a breach of the public trust of unprecedented proportions,” said Stein.

    “The size and scope of this misconduct — stretching to far-away islands never before having standing as approved United States Bank affiliates — is remarkable and emblematic of what we have seen,” he continued. “The bank crisis represents the height of corruption and brazen behavior where our historically trusted financial institutions have no qualms about breaking the law, because they have the Administration behind them. Banks do well enough when they operate lawfully without needing to be permitted to operate as criminal enterprises that steal money from United States citizens.”

    Additional plaintiffs’ counsel Nicholas M. Moccia commented: “Having been in the trenches of the bank crisis for years, I always knew that the misconduct was being conducted by a network. When I started litigating against banks, however, I could have never imagined that it would be this extensive. I look forward to taking discovery of these thousands of obscure foreign entities and to obtaining for homeowners their constitutionally entitled injuries for this international ring of theft and deception.”

    Comments were requested from the Attorney Generals’ offices in NY, CA, NV, and MA and the White House, but no comment was provided.

    About Spire Law Group

    Spire Law Group, LLP is a national law firm whose motto is “the public should be protected — at all costs — from corruption in whatever form it presents itself.” The Firm is comprised of lawyers nationally with more than 250-years of experience in a span of matters ranging from representing large corporations and wealthy individuals, to also representing the masses. The Firm is at the front lines litigating against government officials, banks, defunct loan pools, and now the very offshore entities where the corruption was enabled and perpetrated.

    Contact:

    James N. Fiedler, Esq.
    Managing Partner
    Spire Law Group, LLP
    877-475-2448
    Email Contact

    SOURCE: Spire Law Group, LLP

  21. Jesse

    Babbage was certainly ahead of his time in his thinking but the real inventors of the computer as we know it were Alan Turing and John Von Neumann, based largely with their war time experience with the specialized machines Colossus and ENIAC respectively.

    I had the opportunity to study with some of the fellows who had worked on ENIAC and we had discussed this in some detail. Really, I think the nod goes to Turing, although V.N. wrote a very influential paper based on his wartime experience.

    1. MyLessThanPrimeBeef

      The Antikythera Mechanism from about 2,000 years ago is the oldest known computing device.

      Not sure who made it though.

      Maybe one day, we will discover the Neanderthal Man had something similar made of stone also.

    2. aet

      The real inventor of the computer – if by “computer” you mean “mechanical calculator” – would be the unknoen Asian who invented the abacus, would it not?

      Isn’t an abacus a type of computer?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abacus

      Well, it lookas like there’s a difference of opinion on that question:

      http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_Abacus_a_computer

      …so I guess it’d be whoever invented the first calculator which had data storage – memory – built-in.

      so afaik, it was Mr.Babbage:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Babbage

      2. craazyman

        you are correct sir.

        but even before that some dude probably figured out he had ten fingers and if he counted five on one hand and then put up a finger on the other hand at 6, and kept doing this, he could count to 35 on two hands.

        each person has their own computer. but if you try to use your feet it gets too complicated, and you also have to worry about your shoes getting in the way.

      3. Flying Kiwi

        An abacus is a computer in that it computes. I suggest the distinction sought here is for a ‘programmable computer’ ie a machine which is capable of responding in different but predictable and usable ways to different inputs. A loom can be set up to produce woven cloths of great complexities, but it can only produce cloth. An abacus can conduct complex arithmetical computations but that’s all it can do. A ‘computer’ in the modern sense of ROM, RAM and CPU can using the same physical structure be programmed to do an almost infinite variety of things – display images, control other machines cyberneticly, manipulate databases, even conduct experiments, etc.

  23. Benedict@Large

    What exactly is the point of linking anti-labor, work-for-peanuts Mike Shedlock here?

    “Finally, I would like to point out that Krugman is totally clueless about the damage that public unions cause. We could get far more roads and bridges repaired, employing far more people for the same price, while alleviating budget constraints at the same time if only we could get rid of Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage laws and end collective bargaining of public unions.”

    Krugman is clueless? Mish needs a better mirror. Any substantial bridge and road repair is already contracted out to private parties.

  24. Alex SL

    From Michael Shecklock:

    Finally, I would like to point out that Krugman is totally clueless about the damage that public unions cause. We could get far more roads and bridges repaired, employing far more people for the same price, while alleviating budget constraints at the same time if only we could get rid of Davis-Bacon and prevailing wage laws and end collective bargaining of public unions.

    Why yes, and if you could force people to work for 2 cent per hour and deploy the army against protesting workers, you could hire even more people and get even more work done for the same price! Wouldn’t that be great? Argh. Argh. Argh. What is it with the USA and this bizarre hatred of unions?

    1. F. Beard

      What is it with the USA and this bizarre hatred of unions? Alex SL

      Mish hates government enforced cartels including the banking cartel. Unfortunately, he spend a lot more time attacking labor cartels than he does the banking cartel – failing to realize that it is the banking cartel that has led to the need for labor cartels.

      1. JTFaraday

        Yeah, I don’t know. It seems to me that the drive to punish– without respect to guilt– is very widespread.

        For example, the MMT-ers insist that there is no limit on government spending (except inflation), thus no need for austerity. Then they turn around immediately–evidencing no sense of self awareness whatsoever never mind any sense of irony–and write up positively austerian policy proposal after austerian policy proposal.

        As when, for example, they would eliminate entirely the current unemployment plan– something even the Tea Party has yet to think of– because it galls them that some welfare cheat might sit in front of the TV and eat bon bons for 6 months**, or because someone might, over the course of that 6 months, manage to escape the MMT minimum wage gulag because they had time to look for a new job without having Marshall Auerback’s overseer crawling up their butt.

        I think we can safely say that Shedlock’s appeal to “principle” is probably equally thin.

        **More than one of them has crapped out some version of this, and their fanboys didn’t even blink. Thus, my thesis that the drive to punish– without respect to guilt– is widespread and crosses (self professed) ideological lines.

      2. Skippy

        Ahhh the old libertarian government bad… private good shtick, any type of group action is bad. Ummm whom does that benefit the most, the lower classes or the higher?

        Skippy… Remember beardo… the Personal Sovereignty Movement is purest libertarian of them all. Watch were you step mate.

      1. F. Beard

        someone has a question you might answer, about religion, Skippy

        Be more specific, please.

          1. F. Beard

            I don’t see it but I do see the Oreo commercial.

            I’ve already bothered more than I should have to. How about YOU bothering to just quote the question?

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