Top Clinton VP Pick Stands With Hillary … and Big Banks

Source: UndergroundReporter.org
Deirdre Fulton
July 22, 2016

Sounding another alarm for progressives wary of the Democratic establishment’s support for Wall Street, the man said to be leading the pack of potential Hillary Clinton running mates—Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine—has just this week sent a clear message to big banks: He’s in their corner.

Kaine, who is reportedly Bill Clinton’s favorite for the vice presidential slot, signed onto two letters on Monday pushing for financial deregulation—letters that show the Clinton camp “how Kaine could be an asset with banking interests on the fundraising trail,” according to David Dayen at The Intercept on Wednesday.

The news should “disqualify” Kaine from the ticket, one prominent progressive group declared Thursday.

The first missive, signed by 16 Democrats and every Republican senator, calls on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to exempt community banks and credit unions from certain regulations.

As Dayen explains:

While this seems benign, tailoring rules that exempt large classes of financial institutions leaves consumers vulnerable to deceptive practices. A rule of this type could allow community banks and credit unions to sell high-risk mortgages or personal loans without the disclosure and ability to pay rules in place across the industry.

The second letter (pdf) deals with even bigger regional institutions, as it is aimed at helping “major firms including Capital One, PNC Bank and U.S. Bank, all of which control hundreds of billions of dollars in assets,” according to the Huffington Post.

Signed by Kaine and three other Democratic senators—Mark Warner (Va.), Gary Peters (Mich.), and Bob Casey (Pa.)—the letter to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Martin Gruenberg “argues that it is unfair for these large banks to be required to calculate and report their liquidity―a critical measure of risk―on a daily basis,” HuffPo‘s Zach Carter continues.

“This distinction is applied unevenly across regional institutions despite similar risk profiles, simply by virtue of an asset threshold,” the letter reads.

Or, as Carter puts it, translating the senators’ bottom line: “just because they’re big, doesn’t mean they should be regulated more closely.”

But in fact, Dayen points out, “[i]n an interconnected financial system, a large regional bank that gets into trouble has as much chance of creating ripple effects as a mega-bank. It’s unclear why they should be exempted from regulations deemed appropriate for all facets of the financial sector.”

On top of these salvos on behalf of the banking industry, the Huffington Post notes that Kaine did not sign onto a third letter sent Wednesday from 28 senators urging the CFPB to crack down on abusive payday lenders and in turn, protect consumers.

That all this took place while Kaine is presumably being vetted for VP “could show potential financial industry donors that he is willing to serve as an ally on their regulatory issues,” Dayen wrote, especially because Clinton has been pushed to the left by Bernie Sanders on Wall Street.

Given existing concerns around Kaine’s support for the Trans Pacific Partnership and other so-called “free trade” deals, plus his mixed record on reproductive rights and now new proof of his bending to bankers, it’s no wonder RootsAction co-founder and Bernie Sanders delegate Norman Solomon told Common Dreams on Wednesday that choosing the Virginia senator or someone like him “would be a very pronounced middle finger to the 13 million people who voted for Bernie.”

Indeed, in a press statement on Thursday, critics of the Democratic Party’s superdelegate system said Kaine’s position at the top of the VP list provides “a perfect example of why the party needs to create policies and pick candidates who reflect the will of the voters, not the will of elites and special interests that the superdelegate system has come to embody.”

“Superdelegates are the embodiment of a system that is rigged in favor of the powerful at the expense of the powerless,” said Maine state representative Diane Russell, who originated an amendment to abolish superdelegates that will be taken up by the DNC Rules Committee on Saturday, “and there isn’t a more powerful industry in America than the big banks.”

And Democracy for America executive director Charles Chamberlain said in a statement Thursday: “Let’s be really clear: It should be disqualifying for any potential Democratic vice presidential candidate to be part of a lobbyist-driven effort to help banks dodge consumer protection standards and regulations designed to prevent banks from destroying our economy.”

“Our presidential ticket cannot beat the billionaire bigot by simply being not-Donald Trump,” he added. “To win in November, our ticket needs to have an unquestionably strong record in the fight against income inequality, one of the defining issues of the 2016 election.”

Read More At: UndergroundReporter.org
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This article (Top Clinton VP Pick Stands With Hillary … and Big Banks) by Deirdre Fulton originally appeared on CommonDreams.org and is licensed Creative Commons. Image credit: Flickr/DonkeyHotey

Thanks To Yellen, Gold Will Bounce Back

Source: TheDailyBell.com
May 31, 2016

Speculative traders abandon gold in latest week  …  Gold prices fell Monday, moving in the opposite direction of the U.S. dollar, which soared after comments by Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen last week indicated an interest-rate hike could come this summer.    –MarketWatch

Today, gold prices have been clinging to around $1,200 against the dollar. It is becoming increasingly obvious that the Federal Reserve has two goals.

One is to keep the dollar strong against gold and the other is ensure that the world’s quasi-depression continues.

Yellen doesn’t say so, but this will be the result of her actions.

“It’s appropriate — and I have said this in the past—for the Fed to gradually and cautiously increase our overnight interest rate over time,” Yellen said in a recent speech at Harvard University where she received an award. “Probably in the coming months such a move would be appropriate.”

But it’s probably not appropriate. Nothing in the US economy is signaling “recovery.” US statistics are endlessly optimistic anyway.

We’ve reported previously on this: Yellen is raising rates because she wishes to raise rates not because of any particular financial evolution that is forcing her hand.

In a recent CNBC article, “The Fed could be blindsided by ‘stagflation’,” contributor Michael Pento went even further.

Pento doesn’t seen any real US economic strength. And he believes that if Yellen raises rates, any possibility of a recovery is lessened.

“Janet Yellen is creating ’70’s style stagflation with her monetary policies,” he writes.

Since July of 2015 economic growth has been languishing, while CPI has been rising during a relatively similar time span.  In fact, the most recent month over month increase in the CPI of 0.4 percent was the highest since February 2013.

At the same time, Pento writes that the economy only expanded by 160,000 new jobs in April whereas Wall Street had expected a 203,000 gain.

The Fed is seeking higher employment and low inflation. “What is becoming manifest is the exact opposite.”

Is Yellen prepared for an economic scenario that opposes the one that she anticipates? Pento believes neither Yellen nor Wall Street are prepared for such a turn of events.

In fact, “The government’s effort to engender viable growth through debt and inflation is virtually guaranteed to fail.”

Pento believes the medicine of Paul Volcker is necessary: an  environment of much higher interest rates.

This is because he doesn’t believe the economy is improving but asset bubbles are forming nonetheless. It is these asset bubbles that carry the greatest risk.

Yellen’s slow-motion rate increases do nothing to alleviate these risks.

She is adopting the tactic of raising rates slowly while asset bubbles expand quickly – eventually causing an economic meltdown.

Continue Reading At: TheDailyBell.com

The Mind-Blowing Criminal Racket Of The FDA: Hiding Prescription Dangers From The Public So The Politically Connected Elite Can Make Millions

Source: NaturalNews.com
Sarah Landers
May 2, 2016

In a new report by Health Ranger Mike Adams, former FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg has been named in a massive conspiracy lawsuit involving Johnson & Johnson, a Wall Street hedge fund and the commonly prescribed drug Levaquin.

As reported by Natural News, the former head of the FDA is accused of using the federal agency to run a massive conspiracy in order to generate millions of dollars in drug company profits for her husband’s hedge fund firm – according to the lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Hamburg is accused of having engaged in a wide-ranging conspiracy whilst acting as FDA commissioner – approving an extremely dangerous drug known to cause severe and even deadly side effects, called Levaquin.

Problems with Levaquin

According to DrugWatch, Levaquin is an inherently dangerous and actually deadly antibiotic that has been linked to aortic dissections, or tears, and aneurysms. These conditions weaken the walls of the aorta and may lead to a rupture of leak – which can often be life-threatening.

Levaquin has also been linked to permanent, painful nerve damage known as peripheral neuropathy and tendon ruptures that have been known to leave people disabled. During Hamburg’s tenure as FDA Commissioner from 2009 to 2014, more than 5,000 people died as a result of consuming Levaquin and other dangerous drugs that were approved by the FDA and sold by Johnson & Johnson.

Thousands of others are suffering and dying from the dangerous side effects of Levaquin, suffering debilitating, life-threatening illnesses as a result.

Hamburg and her conspiracy

It is thought that Hamburg made the decision to approve this drug in order to financially benefit her husband’s hedge fund, which held very large financial positions in Johnson & Johnson, between the years of 2009 to 2015.

As reported by Natural News, the lawsuit alleges that over 5,000 people died as a result of this greedy, selfish decision to protect her husband’s financial position rather than allow the plaintiffs and the general public to know more about the dangers of the drug being prescribed on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, as reported by Blacklisted News, it is thought that Hamburg actually bribed her way into the FDA by paying off Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The lawsuit regarding the alleged conspiracy also accuses Hamburg of giving President Obama “gratuities” and Hillary Clinton “political contributions,” leading to her being nominated for the position at Mrs. Clinton’s recommendation.

Natural antibiotics

So with all that said about Big Pharma, the dangers of antibiotics and the fact that you can’t trust a drug approved by the FDA, what are the alternatives to taking antibiotics when you have a bacterial infection?
Most people are prescribed an antibiotic at some point or another, but there are several natural alternatives that will do the same job.

For example, oregano and the oil found in this common herb have been found to fight bacteria that cause digestive infections and certain yeast infections. Meanwhile, certain types of honey – in particular Manuka honey – are known for their healing properties and have the ability to fight infection.

Continue Reading At: NaturalNews.com

Criminal Bankers and Icelandic Justice – F. William Engdahl

Source: TheNewsDoctors.com
F. William Engdhal
April 17, 2016

TND Editor’s Note:  If you want to know how bankers got away with no prosecution in the United States, John Titus’ latest documentary is truly a “must-watch” tour-de-force.  Titus details the exact language and associated strategy that was executed to protect bankers following the 2008 financial crash.  Click here to access it.

TND Guest Contributor: F. William Engdahl

On September 15, 2008, a former Goldman Sachs chairman, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen, deliberately triggered a predictable global financial meltdown when he decided to break precedent and let Lehman Bros, the fourth-largest Wall Street investment bank, go bankrupt. The reasons for his decision are for another time. The fallout from that traumatic financial crisis remains very much with the world financial system to this day, more than seven years later. One of the little-noticed casualties of that Lehman Bros. debacle was the worst banking crisis in the history of one of the world’s smallest countries, Iceland. How that country of 323,000 citizens chose to deal with the crisis is a model for the rest of the world. Instead of beatifying the criminal bankers responsible for worst world financial crisis in history, the people of Iceland did something quite different.

Iceland, a beautiful Nordic island in the far North Atlantic between Greenland and Norway, with active volcanoes, streams with some of the most delicious non-industrial and non-GMO wild salmon, self-sufficient in energy from thermal springs and hydroelectric power, got lured into the mad, greed-driven frenzy of the US sub-prime real estate crisis in a big way. In October 2008, amid the global financial Tsunami triggered by Paulsen’s Lehman act, the Iceland government nationalized the three largest private banks, Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing, following depositor panic withdrawals. The three banks, in a few short years after they were privatized had managed to amass debts ten times Iceland’s annual DGP.

When a group of sensible US economists proposed Paulsen nationalize the top Wall Street banks behind the crisis–JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs– to restore order and keep credit flowing to the real economy, he replied that would be “socialism. We don’t do that in America.” Instead, Paulsen’s US Treasury used hundreds of billions of US taxpayer dollars to buy non-voting shares of the Wall Street banks, meaning the Government didn’t demand any say in the banks’ policies in return. That might be called bankers’ socialism–privatize the profits and socialize the losses.

By November 2008 the UK and Dutch investors in a now-defunct savings scheme of Landsbanki, Icesave, found their hundreds of millions of Pounds of investments were, indeed, frozen like ice—their savings were frozen ice. When the British government demanded of the Iceland government the repayment of the deposits in the UK branches of the formerly private Landsbanki bank, an international dispute, known as the Icesave dispute, erupted. The British government invoked anti-terrorism legislation against Iceland in order to freeze the UK-based assets of Kaupthing, Iceland’s biggest bank, bankrupting the bank. Iceland’s government turned to the IMF for a $5 billion bailout, the first European country since Italy in 1976 to do so.

Citizen revolt

The Governor of the Iceland Central Bank, David Oddsson went against the government of Geir Haarde, who had been complicit in facilitating the private bankers’s criminal Ponzi schemes, and stated on national TV, “Icelanders will not pay the debts of profligate financiers.”  In January 2009 Haarde’s coalition was forced to resign following massive protests as unemployment soared from 1% before the crisis to over 9% in months. The IMF, as always, was demanding severe Greek-like austerity from the government as condition for its bailout. In September 2010, Haarde became the first Icelandic minister to be indicted for misconduct in office, and the only politician in the world to be charged with responsibility for the financial crisis. He stood trial before a special court for official offenses, the Landsdómur. He was convicted on one count.

The Haarde government had twice negotiated terms under which Iceland would repay the UK and the Netherlands governments, with interest, for the cost of bailing out Icesave savers. The IMF demanded it as condition for its money. And Parliament bowed. But Iceland’s staunchly independent voters twice passed popular referenda rejecting the UK, Dutch and IMF demands.

Continue Reading At: TheNewsDoctors.com

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F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.  This work was published at the New Eastern Outlook and is reprinted with permission.

JFK & The United Putsch of America – A Conversation with Dr. Joseph Farrell

Source: ForumBorealis
April 3, 2016

Dr. Farrell is back and takes on JFK: After the failed Business plot, did the Sullivan & Cromwell based Wall Street/CIA elite replace Wallace with Truman and murder Roosevelt, in a behind the scenes coup? Why did the Kennedy Brothers challenge them despite Papa Joe being one of them? Is Bormanns Nazi International linked to them? How was shadow players in Argentina connected? What’s the 7 factions behind the cover-up? Whats the conspiracy theories about the Bomb plot against Hitler? Was Oswald connected to a Nazi spy network? Did JFK & Khrushchev plan a joint space program?

FORUM BOREALIS = in depth conversations with the most interesting and important authors, researchers, & thinkers of today, who’s work often overlaps in areas including :

Health Solutions
Structures of Consciousness
Human Relationships
Innovative Culture
Front-Line Dissidence
The Crisis of Academia
Esoteric Philosophy
Planetary Mysteries
The Antediluvian Civilization
Covert History
The Deep State
The Black Economy
The Nazi International
Fringe Science
Anti-Gravity & Zero Point Energy
The Breakaway Civilization
The Classified Space Program

Currencies Around The World Race To Zero – Jeff Nielson

Source: SGTReport.com
SGT
March 13, 2016

Mario Draghi pledged to destroy the Euro last week with Bazooka money, Japan continues to debase the Yen, Venezuela has hit outright hyperinflationary status, and currencies around the world are in an unprecedented suicidal race to zero – while the blasphemous Banksters in the City of London lick their chops on Threadneedle Street, as their plans to kill cash entirely are well underway. In an environment such as this, there remains only one good question: Got PHYSICAL gold and silver? Jeff Nielson from Bullion Bulls joins me to discuss.

Read More At: SGTReport.com

Austerity in US brought on nation’s water crisis

Source: RT
March 17, 2016

The water crisis in Flint, Michigan and many other cities across the US go much deeper than budget cuts, but following the money is tough. To help, RT America’s Simone Del Rosario is joined by Carrie Sloan, a senior research analyst at the Refund America Project.

Wall Street Bankers and Lobbyists Move to Ensure Industry Continues to Regulate Itself

Source: LibertyBlitzkrieg.com
Michael Krieger
March 17, 2016

Not content with continued prosecutorial immunity and trillions in taxpayer bailouts and backstops, Wall Street banksters are making moves to ensure they regulate themselves.

In case you’re still wondering who the real owners of this country are…

The Wall Street Journal reports:

ORLANDO, Fla.—Wall Street’s top lobbying group wants a closer relationship with the policy makers that oversee its member firms.

John Rogers, chairman of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and a top official at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., on Tuesday called for a standing body made up of bankers and regulators to discuss developments in policy, examination and enforcement. A key responsibility for the panel would also involve regularly providing guidance on postcrisis rules and other issues to financial firms.

Continue Reading At: LibertyBlitzkrieg.com

Catherine Austin Fitts: UFO Economy 3.0 – The Black Budget Rockets Into Space

Source: Dark Journalist
Daniel Liszt
March 7, 2016

Join Dark Journalist as he welcomes back Former Assistant Housing Secretary Catherine Austin Fitts for Part 1 of their mind blowing examination of the intense secrecy surrounding the futuristic UFO Economy and Black Budget totalitarian domination over all activities in Space.

Drawing on her rich career in top positions in Washington and on Wall Street, Catherine carefully unravels the layers of deceit and misdirection inherent in the covert Deep State system of using public resources for developing new economic opportunities in space for the benefit of private elite corporate interests. She sees the real danger on planet Earth today of super advanced technology being in the hands of a small, unaccountable group of privileged insiders that consider themselves so above the law that they can kill with impunity whenever their greedy interests are threatened.

Secret Space Program

She traces the Secret Space Program from a historical perspective to the National Security Act of 1947 where enormous resources were handed over to covert operators to develop a Secret System of Finance. This eventually created the CIA and a select group that were in charge of advanced UFO technology, completely hidden from the public. By the time JFK came into office ready to challenge this shadow government and make the space program the centerpiece of his administration, the civil war between the Deep State and the public state was in full force.

After JFK was assassinated, the space program was eventually split into two aspects. One was a faltering, de-funded, accident prone parody of the original NASA that had put a man on the moon, and the other was a super-advanced, black budget funded, covert space marvel that helped develop a Breakaway Civilization for dominance in space using diverted public funds. This space program developed the SDI Star Wars Technology that weaponized space in violation of global treaties. The true mystery of this covert program is that it was likely developed not only to control life and resources on Earth, but also to confront an off-world UFO civilization that had been observed dominating our skies since 1947. Recently Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev confirmed that President Reagan had asked him for assistance in dealing with a UFO space threat.The split of the space program into two parts, one overt and the other covert, created a schizophrenic situation between the official reality and the hidden truth that is becoming more and more difficult to conceal as public awareness grows and the choke-hold of corporate interests and the National Security State are exposed.

Brave New Worlds

It now appears the entire dysfunctional economy of the globe is being organized to cope with the presence of off-world visitors and for a tiny group of elites to monopolize space resources and colonize selected planets while dominating the population with AI, Robotics, Invasive Satellites, Drones and GPS Tracking Advanced Technology. Can this small group of insiders that control the corporate media be stopped by rising awareness of their pernicious activities before they develop the final phase of the UFO Economy and plunge the world into a soulless, totalitarian artificial intelligence nightmare ?