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Bradford Pear blossoms. April, 2013. Photo by joanneleon.
Wall Street Shuffle - 10cc
News and Opinion
Pete Peterson Linked Economists Caught in Austerity Error
It would all be a Massachusetts "Ivory Tower" kerfluffle if the Reinhart-Rogoff study were not cited by practically everyone in Washington, including Paul Ryan, Simpson-Bowles, and the entire "Fix the Debt" crowd, to justify harmful cuts and a stalemate on stimulus currently condemning millions to mass unemployment.
And it should come as no surprise that the economists have ties to Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson.
[...]
It will come as no surprise that Reinhart and Rogoff have ties to Wall Street billionaire Pete Peterson, a big fan of their work. Peterson has been advocating cuts to Social Security and Medicare for decades in order to prevent a debt crisis he warns will spike interest rates and collapse the economy. (Peterson failed to warn of the actual crisis building on Wall Street during his time at the Blackstone Group.)
[...]
As the Center for Media and Democracy detailed in the online report, "The Peterson Pyramid," the Blackstone billionaire turned philanthropist has spent half a billion dollars to promote this chorus of calamity. Through the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, Peterson has funded practically every think tank and non-profit that works on deficit- and debt-related issues, including his latest astroturf supergroup, "Fix the Debt," which has set a July 4, 2013 deadline for securing an austerity budget.
Reinhart, described glowingly by the New York Times as "the most influential female economist in the world," was a Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics founded, chaired, and funded by Peterson. Reinhart is listed as participating in many Peterson Institute events, such as their 2012 fiscal summit along with Paul Ryan, Alan Simpson, and Tim Geithner, and numerous other Peterson lectures and events available on YouTube. She is married to economist and author Vincent Reinhart, who does similar work for the American Enterprise Institute, also funded by the Peterson Foundation.
Austerity's Spreadsheet Error
Austerity's Spreadsheet Error
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff's 2010 debt study inspires austerity around the world, but grad student Thomas Herndon debunks the results. (07:43)
Austerity's Spreadsheet Error - Thomas Herndon
Jeremy Scahill with Sam Seder.
Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield (with Jeremy Scahill) (Parts 1 - 3)
Published on Apr 24, 2013
Jeremy Scahill, the author of Dirty Wars, explained what inspired his new book, covering the victims of America's covert wars, The concept of America as a hyper power, the continuity of Dirty Wars from Bush to Obama, the evolution of JSOC,the story of Anwar al-Awlaki, The killing al-Alwlaki's son and how the Obama Administration is codifying the rules of Dirty War.
Twitter hack crash cost Wall Street much cash
In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss the season for CRASH as algos reading Twitter cause a hack crash in New York; ghost traders in the shadow banking system cause gold 'slaughters' in the precious metals markets and Joe Weisenthal seeks smoke signals from the Pope of Fraud, Ben Bernanke. In the second half of the show Max talks to Andrew Maguire about precious metals markets, manipulation and failures to deliver.
WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE Wed Apr 24 17:24:44 BST - Milestone Supreme Court Decision for WikiLeaks Case in Iceland
WIKILEAKS PRESS RELEASE Wed Apr 24 17:24:44 BST
Milestone Supreme Court Decision for WikiLeaks Case in Iceland
Today's decision marked the most important victory to date against the unlawful and arbitrary economic blockade erected by US companies against WikiLeaks. Iceland's Supreme Court upheld the decision that Valitor (formerly VISA Iceland and current Visa subcontractor) had unlawfully terminated its contract with WikiLeaks donations processor DataCell. This strong judgement is an important milestone for WikiLeaks' legal battle to end the economic blockade that has besieged the organisation since early December 2010. Despite the effects of the blockade having crippled WikiLeaks resources, the organisation is fighting the blockade on many fronts. It is a battle that concerns free speech and the future of the free press; it concerns fundamental civil rights; and it is a struggle for the rights of individuals to vote with their wallet and donate to the cause they believe in.
If the gateway to WikiLeaks donations is not re-opened within 15 days Visa's Valitor will be fined 800,000 ISK ($6,830) per day.
WikiLeaks publisher, Julian Assange, said:
"This is a victory for free speech. This is a victory against the rise of economic censorship to crack down against journalists and publishers" [...]
Action
Congress: We're planning the largest online protest since SOPA. Vote NO on CISPA sooner rather than later.
CISPA -- the bill that would END our online privacy and violate the 4th Amendment -- will go to a vote in the House today. We're planning the largest online privacy protest in history to stop this bill. Can you contact your reps now to warn them?
What's wrong with CISPA? (in as few words as possible)
As it's written, CISPA won't protect us from cyber threats, but it will violate our 4th Amendment right to privacy.
It lets the government spy on you without a warrant. (read more)
It makes it so you can’t even find out about it after the fact. (read more)
It makes it so companies can’t be sued when they do illegal things with your data. (read more)
It allows corporations to cyber-attack each other and individuals outside of the law. (read more)
It makes every privacy policy on the web a moot point, and violates the 4th amendment. [...]
Write Congress
Blog Posts and Tweets of Interest
Will the library opening give Tweety a tingle up his leg?
steely dan - the royal scam