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Tuesday 05.29.2012

U.S.A. 2012: Is This What We've Become?
Charles Hugh Smith - OffTwoMinds.com
Memorial Day is traditionally a day to speak of sacrifices made in combat. Like much of the rest of life in America, it has largely become artificial, a hurried "celebration" of frenzied Memorial Day marketing that is quickly forgotten the next day.
Instead of participating in this rote (and thus insincere) "thank you for your sacrifice" pantomime, perhaps we should ask what else has been sacrificed in America without our acknowledgement. Perhaps we should look at the sacrifices that need to be made but which are cast aside in our mad rush to secure "what we deserve."
The unvarnished reality is that most Americans have no idea what service members experienced in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they don't want to know. When 4,488 white crosses were erected on a hillside to remind us of all those who made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq, people didn't like it, labeling it "unpatriotic."

Gold retains bullish outlook,
$1665/oz forecast for Q2, 2012: Barclays
NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Gold prices are under pressure trading below $1600 but given the bullish macro-environment, concerns over long term inflation and continued central bank buying, the near-term prospects for gold is bullish, according to Barclays Capital.
Barclays said that it is retained a positive view on gold, given the on going market uncertainty, lower interest rate environment, concerns over longer-term inflation and continued central bank buying.

Gold to continue outperform Silver,
PGM's in 2012 but faces near term risk: Deutsche Bank
LONDON (Commodity Online): Gold to keep outperforming the other precious metals (mainly Silver and PGMs) this year, yet also suggests the yellow metal faces some near-term downside risk should the unstable outlook in Europe lead to more strength in the U.S. Dollar, said Deutsche Bank, the largest bank in Germany, in a weekly commodities report.
"However, the significant liquidation in speculative length is providing a more supportive positioning environment for the sector, in our view," the German bank added.

Dollar Scarce As Top-Quality Assets Shrink 42%
By John Detrixhe - Bloomberg.com
The dollar is proving scarce, even after the Federal Reserve flooded the financial system with an extra $2.3 trillion, as the amount of the highest-quality assets available worldwide shrinks.
From last year's low on July 27, the greenback has risen against all 16 of its major peers. Intercontinental Exchange Inc.'s Dollar Index surged 12 percent, higher now than when the Fed began creating dollars to buy bonds under its extraordinary stimulus measures at the end of 2008.

Value in Devaluation?
Mises Daily: Monday, May 28, 2012 by Patrick Barron
The euro is in trouble. That is not news. What is news is that people with deep pockets are willing to pay for economists to provide a solution. Lord Wolfson has offered a £250,000 prize for the best way a country can exit the European Monetary Union (EMU). Five finalists for the prize were announced in March. The winner will be announced in June.
None of the five finalists — Neil Record, Jens Nordvig, Jonathan Tepper, Catherine Dobbs, and Roger Bootle — advocates a return to sound money; all assume that new, national fiat currencies will float; and all assume that unproductive countries will benefit from devalued new currencies. The theory is that a devalued currency will spur export-driven economic growth. Furthermore, they have little confidence that economic reforms — which they all, by the way, do recommend — will be achieved in the near term and see devaluation as a quicker alternative. But will this work? First a word about devaluation itself.

Marc Faber: 100% Chance of Global Recession
By: Lee Brodie - CNBC.com
The stock market appears to be at a critical inflection point. That's the takeaway from widely followed economist Marc Faber, author of the Boom, Gloom & Doom newsletter.
Faber's bearish market calls have been followed closely since 1987 when he warned his clients to cash out before Black Monday.
And in a live interview on CNBC's Fast Money Halftime Report, Faber again warned that economies of the world may be on the brink of a serious slowdown.

Barry Ritholtz on the Crisis:
Causes, Cures, Corptocracy, and Suggested Reading
CapitalismWithoutFailure.com
I originally thought we were going to be talking about Wall Street today. But I got the sense from some of your book choices that one of the biggest offenders wasn't based on Wall Street at all, but on Constitution Avenue in Washington DC.
When you get bit by a dog, you don't just look at the dog, you have to look at the owner who is holding the leash.To me, a lot of the regulatory changes, and a lot of what the Federal Reserve did, stand on their own as a major factor. But if you've read David Hume, if you've studied the philosophy of causation, you have to look at what motivated those changes. I have these debates with friends. One group blames everything on big government; the other group blames everything on big corporations. The sad news is that there's really no difference between the two: Big government and big corporations work hand-in-hand. If you want to know who is the puppet and who is the puppet master, it sure looks like Wall Street has been pulling the strings of Congress for many, many, many years. I remember the Dick Durbin quote, right in the middle of the crisis. He was astonished at all the bankers and bank lobbyists running around the halls of Congress, and said, "I can't believe these guys – they act as if they own the place." The fact is, it's not an act – they do own the place.

A Tale of Two Deficits
By Matthew Feeney - Reason.com
Last week's summit in Brussels highlighted the fiscal deficits of Europe and the damage political activism will inflict on that continent's economy. Voices of caution seem to have fallen on deaf ears, and the summit has done little to reassure the markets or persuade account holders to keep cash in their accounts as millions of euros disappear from banks across the Mediterranean. While the summit might have brought to light the extent of the damage economic deficits can have, one must not forget that the political posturing we saw last week is only possible because of Europe's other crippling deficit.

U.S. hedge funds find ways to trade euro misery
CNBC.com
BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two decades ago, George Soros rose to fame and fortune on his now-historic trade in which he took on the Bank of England and shrewdly wagered on a devaluation of the British pound.
But it's unlikely the current European monetary crisis and worries about Greece's potential exit from the euro zone will give rise to an investing legend like Soros, who made $1 billion in 1992 by betting on a decline in the price of the pound.
Instead, there are a multitude of strategies to play Europe's troubles, and many different participants, according to U.S. hedge fund managers.

We're Not In Wonderland Anymore,
Alice... And The True Greek Debt/GDP Ratio Of 421.7%
by Mark Grant - ZeroHedge.com

"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like," she said, "but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!" -The Red Queen

Greece Through the Looking Glass
With all of the talk of Greece leaving the Eurozone and forfeiting the Euro as its currency; what if it does not? That, my friends, is now the question. The current estimation of Greece's GDP is $308.3 billion. All of the debt of Greece, direct, derivatives and guaranteed is $1.3 trillion giving the country an actual debt to GDP ratio of 421.67%. You may recall all of the talk, all of the pandering words spit out by the IMF and the European Union that the new austerity measures would take the Greek debt to 120%; all nonsensical and a nonfactual expression of a very fantastic and fairy tale imagination. If someone has actually stepped through the looking glass I suspect it is Christine Lagarde. Perhaps she is Alice's granddaughter? In my estimation she must have eaten some of the cake because her reputation has dwindled as she and Greece fell down the rabbit's hole.

Lloyd's of London preparing for euro collapse
The chief executive of the multi-billion pound Lloyd's of London has publicly admitted that the world's leading insurance market is prepared for a collapse in the single currency and has reduced its exposure "as much as possible" to the crisis-ridden continent.
By Andrew Cave - Telegraph.co.uk
Richard Ward said the London market had put in place a contingency plan to switch euro underwriting to multi-currency settlement if Greece abandoned the euro.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph he also revealed that Lloyd's could have to take writedowns on its £58.9bn investment portfolio if the eurozone collapses.

The End of the Euro: A Survivor's Guide
By Simon Johnson and Peter Boone - HuffingtonPost.com
In every economic crisis there comes a moment of clarity. In Europe soon, millions of people will wake up to realize that the euro-as-we-know-it is gone. Economic chaos awaits them.
To understand why, first strip away your illusions. Europe's crisis to date is a series of supposedly "decisive" turning points that each turned out to be just another step down a steep hill. Greece's upcoming election on June 17 is another such moment. While the so-called "pro-bailout" forces may prevail in terms of parliamentary seats, some form of new currency will soon flood the streets of Athens. It is already nearly impossible to save Greek membership in the euro area: depositors flee banks, taxpayers delay tax payments, and companies postpone paying their suppliers -- either because they can't pay or because they expect soon to be able to pay in cheap drachma.

EUR Shorts Hit New Record
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Last week, when we reported on the then brand new record number of EUR non-commercial short contracts as reported by the CFTC, we said: "with such a massive surge in shorts in a short period of time, this means that the likelihood of major short squeezes is substantial on even the most innocuous of news, such as a G8 summit which promises much but delivers nothing, or China once again saying it will gladly focus on growth (as opposed to what? non-growth?), or some DieBold-inspired leadership change in the Greek pro/anti-bailout polls. Our advice to FX trading readers: be very careful with EURUSD stops: it is very likely that in their pursuit of short covering squeezes, (BIS) algos will take the pair substantially into the offer-side stop limit buffer just to force short hands out, which in turn may initiate short-term covering ramps." As of last Friday, the record number of net short contracts (-173.9K), just rose to a new all time high of -195.4K. The result: something as worthless and meaningless as uber-volatile Greek political polls (which had Syriza with a 4 point lead last Friday, which somehow dissolved and is now in second place about 24 hours later), was enough to send the EUR higher nearly by 100 pips overnight. Obviously, with ever more record shorts in the currency, expect the desperate continent to come up with nothing but more flashing red headlines in attempts to spook weak hands and incite even more very transitory short covering.

EU summit over, eurozone ills are not
By Raf Casert and Sarah DiLorenzo - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
BRUSSELS — European Union leaders concluded their latest summit early Thursday with few ways to cure the continent's festering financial crisis, even as the potential for a messy Greek exit from the euro appears to be rising. Some leaders stressed the importance of planning for just such an event but offered no measures that might help Greeceavoid it.
Also left unresolved was what Europe should do to spark economic growth and restore the confidence of investors, who have driven some countries' borrowing costs to unsustainable levels. The fiscal austerity agenda that Germany has pushed as the solution to Europe's problem of rising government debt has been met with skepticism in other euro countries.

Treaty sets aside Irish constitution if ratified
Preparing for European treaty vote
IrishTimes.com
Sir, – There has been little or no mention of what we are being asked to vote on, viz an amendment to the Irish Constitution.
The referendum is asking us to support or oppose the addition of the following subsection to Article 29.4 of the Constitution: "The State may ratify the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union done at Brussels on the 2nd day of March 2012. No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by the State that are necessitated by the obligations of the State under that Treaty or prevents laws enacted, acts done or measures adopted by bodies competent under that Treaty from having the force of law in the State."
To my layman's understanding, this clause is stating that the Irish Constitution is to be set aside when it comes to government activities conducted under the auspices of the fiscal treaty and is therefore effectively asking the Irish citizenry to suspend its own Constitution and the rule of law for any and all activities issuing from ratification of the treaty.

European Treaty - updates original rules which govern the single Euro currency as set forth in the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
TREATY ON STABILITY, COORDINATION AND GOVERNANCE IN THE ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION

1992 Maastricht Treaty

currency of the Fourth Reich...?
One nation (under Germany)
Historian Niall Ferguson tells Ben Laurance the single currency will survive and the crisis will leave Berlin heading a federal Europe
By Ben Laurance - The Sunday times - langa-rpcig.net
Where does it all end? What will be the outcome of the financial storm battering Europe and its single currency? Can the euro be saved? And if so, what will be the long-term consequences?
The financial historian Niall Ferguson, visiting London from his self-imposed exile in America to promote the paperback version of his most recent book, is typically confident that he has the answers to these difficult questions — and they are not what you might expect from this tireless proponent of free markets.

The Threat of German Amnesia
Joschka Fischer - Project-Syndicate.org
BERLIN – Europe's situation is serious – very serious. Who would have thought that British Prime Minister David Cameron would call on eurozone governments to muster the courage to create a fiscal union (with a common budget and tax policy and jointly guaranteed public debt)? And Cameron also argues that deeper political integration is the only way to stop the breakup of the euro.
A conservative British prime minister! The European house is ablaze, and Downing Street is calling for a rational and resolute response by the fire brigade.

Merkel Strikes Back Against Hollande
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
Some thought that German chancellor Angela Merkel would quietly take the abuse heaped on her, and her program of "austerity" (or deleveraging as we call it, but that just does not have quite the negative connotations of a word that has become symbolic for all that is wrong with a massively overlevered world) by the new French president and Germany's increasingly more insolvent "partners", without much of a fuss.

Spain runs out of money
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
El Mundo reports that the country can no longer resist the bond markets as 10-year yields flirt with 6.5pc again, and the spread over Bunds – or 'prima de riesgo' — hits a fresh record each day.
Premier Mariano Rajoy and his inner circle have allegedly accepted that Spain will have to call on Europe's EFSF bail-out fund to rescue the banking system, even though this means subjecting his country to foreign suzerainty.
Mr Rajoy denies the story, not surprisingly since it would be a devastating climb-down, and not all options are yet exhausted.

Spain Bails Out Its Third-Largest Bank
Move to Pump $24 Billion Into Bankia Is Latest Step in Government's Bid to Ease Concerns About Financial Sector
By CHRISTOPHER BJORK and JONATHAN HOUSE in Madrid and SARA SCHAEFER MUOZ in London - WSJ.com $$
MADRID—Spain will pump €19 billion ($24 billion) into troubled lender Bankia SA, the bank said on Friday, effectively nationalizing the country's third-largest bank in a dramatic effort to assuage concerns about the stability of its financial sector.
Worries about Spain's banks, which are saddled with billions of euros in toxic real-estate loans, have heightened in recent weeks as Greece's political crisis has intensified and investors contemplate the effects of a potential Greek exit from the euro.

Spain's Borrowing Costs Near Danger Level: Bailout Next?
Reuters - CNBC.com
Spanish 10-year borrowing costs neared the 7 percent danger level and Bankia shares hit record lows on Monday after the government, struggling to sort out its finances, proposed putting sovereign debt into the struggling lender.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy pinned the blame for the rising borrowing costs—the spread over Germany reached the highest since the euro's launch—on concern about the future of the single currency.
He again ruled out seeking outside aid to revive a banking sector laid low by a property boom that has long since bust.

Spain's Rajoy fights losing battle to stave off EU rescue
Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy has given a fateful hostage to fortune. He told the nation that there will no EU rescue of Spain's banking system, even as `Black Monday' brought a further crash in bank shares and the IBEX index dropped to nine-year lows.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
So where will he find the money to finance his €23.5bn bail-out of Bankia, a bank deemed healthy just weeks ago? The Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) has €5.3bn, and other banks to worry about. It would be ruinous to tap the bond markets. Spanish 10-year yields are already at danger levels of 6.4pc. The spread over German Bunds has reached a post-EMU high of 514 basis points.
Capital flight has cut foreign holdings of Spanish debt from 50pc to 37pc since January. Spain's banks -- including Bankia -- have been propping up the state with €316bn borrowed from the European Central Bank. Now the state is propping up banks. The incestuous nexus is surreal.

Greece Pours $22.6 Billion Into Four Biggest Banks
Reuters - CNBC.com
Greece handed 18 billion euros ($22.6 billion) to its four biggest banks on Monday, an official said, allowing the stricken lenders to regain access to European Central Bank funding.
The long-awaited injection—via bonds from the European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund—will boost the nearly depleted capital base of National Bank, Alpha , Eurobank and Piraeus Bank.

Greece to Leave Euro Zone on June 18: Wealth Manager
By: Shai Ahmed - CNBC Associate Editor
Greece will leave the euro zone on June 18 if the populist government wins the country's elections on the 17 as the rest of the euro zone rounds on "cheaters," Nick Dewhirst, director at wealth management firm Integral Asset Management, told CNBC.com Monday.
"The euro zone is a club but you get cheaters who get away with it until everyone finds out and at that point you need to remove them otherwise everyone will cheat. It's better for Greece to leave," Dewhirst said.

"The funds have been disbursed," an official at the Hellenic Financial Stability Facility, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

Greece financial crisis-
On the Edge with Max Keiser-05-24-2012
In this edition of the show Max interviews Karl Denninger from market-ticker.org. He talks about the finical crisis in Greece and how it will unfold in near future. Karl Denninger was the CEO of MCSNet in Chicago, one of the area's first Internet providers. He is a founding contributor to conservative blog market-ticker.org and was one of the early members of the Tea Party movement.

If Britain had joined the euro
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
"Just think where we would be if Britain had joined the euro", someone recently said to me at a City lunch. There is actually a very obvious answer to this proposition – out of it.
If Britain had joined the euro, it would by now have broken the single currency beyond redemption, for it is impossible to imagine a major advanced economy tolerating the sort of nonsense which is being imposed on the highly indebted nations of the eurozone periphery.

Greece-Proofing China
By Yu Yongding - Project-Syndicate.org
BEIJING – Despite repeated assurances by European Union leaders, after more than two years, there is still no light at the end of Europe's debt-crisis tunnel. Recently, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, referring to a possible Greek exit from the eurozone, told the European Parliament that there is no "Plan B."
Barroso's statement was meant to be reassuring. But, after so many disappointments, China cannot accept at face value the assurances of European politicians, which even they themselves do not know whether they can redeem. China should have its own Plan B in case Greece has to leave the eurozone.

Bad debt banks 'should go bankrupt'
By PAMELA DUNCAN - IrishTimes.com
RULES OF CAPITALISM: IF BANKS obey the rules of capitalism and make a bad debt they should go bankrupt, the outspoken US financial analyst and former stockbroker Max Keiser said at an event in Dublin yesterday.
"If they are capitalists they should obey the rules of capitalism; if you make a bad debt and screw up then you've got to pay the consequences. You can't go to the government and get a bailout . . . that's not capitalism, that's not even socialism, that's crapitalism," Mr Keiser said in a talk marked by black economic comedy.

The US Treasury prize, the Euro's demise,
and Facebook lies w/Paul Craig Roberts
As an informal summit of European leaders has observers seeking signs of the eurozone's direction...look at the market: German 30-year bunds tumbled to below 2 percent for the first time ever. Meanwhile, for the privilege of lending your money to the German government for 2-years you get paid a stunning...wait for it...0%. These rates aren't suppressed by QE or ZIRP like in the US. They are a fear gauge as people run to there perceive safety of Europe's largest and strongest economy.
And according to media reports the guessing game is underway for who will replace Timothy Geithner as US Treasury Secretary. You may be asking yourself why anyone would want to try and tackle the trillion dollar budget deficit, overhaul the tax structure and catch flack for a flailing economic recovery for a salary 115 times less than their private sector equivalent of Jamie Dimon. So are we. We'll ask former assistant secretary of the treasury, Paul Craig Roberts if he thinks that this public service is actually a private gain...a one-way ticket to a massive private sector payoff.
Also, in the wake of Facebook's flop of an IP, we see small investors suing, regulators subpoenaing, and US lawmakers searching for answers. Retail investors for one, are asking if they were fleeced.

How is Facebook like prison?
By Barry Randall - MarketWatch.com

• You have a profile picture;
• You spend a lot of your time there writing on walls;
• Insiders desperately want out; and
• You're constantly worried about being 'poked' by people you don't know.

Of course, with over 900 million monthly users, FacebookFB -3.39% is a prison that apparently people are mostly trying to break into, not out of.
A couple of weeks ago (pre-IPO), I wrote how Mark Zuckerberg needed to stop worrying about Wall Street and just keep the world at large informed of his plans for the company. The future would take care of itself. Of course, that was before Wall Street, in the form of Facebook's lead underwriter Morgan Stanley MS -0.45%and the Nasdaq Stock Market, messed up Facebook's IPO.
OK, Zuck, maybe your antipathy to going public wasn't so naive after all.

Keiser Report: Reform = Crime
To Favor Wall St. Crooks (E293)
In this episode, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, discuss the 99% knocking on Timmy Geithner's door looking for 'reform' of criminal behavior. In the second half of the show Max talks to independent video journalist, Luke Rudkowski, about livestreaming to the world from a smartphone and his recent work covering the NATO summit in Chicago.

Ally Financial: Newly Released Letter
Show Scope Of Possible Mortgage Screwups
By Ben Hallman - HuffingtonPost.com
Trying to count the number of bank screwups during the foreclosure crisis is a little like guessing the amount of change in a huge jar: You can see that the answer is "an awful lot," but without breaking the jar and counting by hand, there's no way to know for sure.
On Thursday, however, just how much homeowner misery Ally Financial may be responsible for came to light after the Federal Reserve released a letter that details exactly how many borrowers' cases may have been mishandled.

Arizona Sheriff Not Backing Down On Obama Birth Issue
Unimpressed with state's announcement on presidential Ballot
By Steve Watson - Infowars.com
Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, the man leading an investigation into the eligibility of the president, says he will not back down on the birther issue despite last week's attempts by Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett to lay the controversy to rest.
Bennett said he was happy that an email from officials in Hawaii sent to him last week "proves President Obama's American birth and satisfies Arizona's requirements for having the president on the upcoming election ballot."

The Provenance of Barack Obama with Dr. Jerome Corsi
Dr. Jerome Corsi talks with Alex on the Thursday, May 24 edition of the Alex Jones Show. Corsi talks about the latest on the Obama Kenya birth story, including a threat by Arizona to strike Obama from the ballot this November if the issue cannot be resolved. Corsi is the author of Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President, Saul Alinsky:The Evil Genius Behind Obama and The Obama Nation.

How Nasdaq Lost Control of Facebook IPO, by the Minute
Reuters - CNBC.com
Dead silence.
For nearly 20 minutes on the morning of Facebook's trading debut last Friday, the line Nasdaq had opened up to keep traders informed about the social media company's $16 billion IPO had been mute.
Well after the stock was supposed to have opened at 11 a.m. New York time, no one from Nasdaq was talking—and there was still no sign of trading.
Finally, at 11:28 a.m., an unidentified person announced that the shares would open in about 2 minutes.
Nasdaq also said orders and cancellations were still being processed, according to several sources listening to the call.

College dropouts have debt but no degree
By Ylan Q. Mui and Suzy Khimm - WashingtonPost.com
As the nation amasses more than $1 trillion in student loans, education experts say a vexing new problem has emerged: A growing number of young people have a mountain of debt but no degree to show for it.
Nearly 30 percent of college students who took out loans dropped out of school, up from fewer than a quarter of students a decade ago, according to a recent analysis of government data by think tank Education Sector. College dropouts are also among the most likely to default on their loans, falling behind at a rate four times that of graduates.

A New Look at the 'New Poor'
By: Michael S. Barr - CNBC contributor
These are tough times for most American households.
The financial crisis wiped out savings and home equity, cut millions of jobs, and shuttered businesses. And the financial system often seems to benefit the wealthy while providing little solace to the broad middle of our country.
For those further down the income scale, the financial system often does even worse—with banks often shunning low-income clientele or charging high overdraft and other fees, and prepaid debit cards, a potential alternative to bank accounts for some individuals, often loaded up with hidden and high cost fees themselves.

Saying goodbye to the middle class concept of retirement –
many workers plan to work up until they are 80
well beyond the typical life expectancy of Americans.
How long will $25,000 last in retirement?
MyBudget360.com
The romantic concept of being able to retire on a sunny beach with endless drinks is a modern notion largely pushed by mainstream advertising. It is hard for manymiddle class Americans to imagine a world where retirement is a luxury for the very few. However that is the path we are now following. The ability to retire is being severely impaired for most Americans given their lack of savings but also the massive spending occurring by the government. Recently we have heard that Social Security is expected to run out of funding far quicker than was once expected. This information in itself is troubling but couple that with the incredibly low to non-existent savings rate for younger Americans and you realize the day of reckoning that is lining up. Even recent data has looked at pushing the retirement age from 65 to 80 for some workers which might be hard to do given it is beyond the normal life expectancy of most Americans. The new retirement model appears to be no retirement.

Gerald Celente - Brian Wilson - WSPD Toledo - 24 May 2012

Federal Rules Threaten to Suffocate the Fracking Industry
By Gary Hunt - OilPrice.com
In Medieval times one form of dispatching miscreants was called "pressing". The punishment involved piling stones on top of the offender one at a time slowly suffocating him from the weight on his chest. Not only did this rid the kingdom of troublemakers but it had a "crucify him" like effect on the gathered witnesses lest they forget who is in charge.
Fast forward and today we are seeing Federal agency after agency pressing forward with new rules on hydraulic fracturing:

Are Republicans Bending On 'Obamacare'?
By SAHIL KAPUR - TalkingPointsMemo.com
As the landmark Supreme Court decision looms next month, Republicans have been privately considering a plan to reinstate some popular provisions of "Obamacare" if it's struck down.
The revelation sent conservative advocates — who have demanded nothing less than total repeal — into a tizzy, which forced House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to reaffirm his commitment to "repealing Obamacare in its entirety," declaring that "[a]nything short of that is unacceptable."

Anarchist Group Allied to CIA's Red Brigades
Plan London Olympics Terror
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
An anarchist group is threatening to disrupt the London Olympics with terrorist attacks. The Informal Anarchist Federation (or FAI, Federazione Anarchica Informale) warns it will engage in "guerrilla activity to hurt the national image and paralyze the economy however we can," according to a post on the anarchist website 325.nostate.
The group claims it will target the Ministry of Defense, defense firms, and banks in Britain. "Finance, judicial, communications, military and transport infrastructure will continue to be targets of the new generation of urban low-intensity warfare."

'Vatileaks' scandal widens
as pope's butler vows to help investigators
Paolo Gabriele says he will co-operate
over confidential documents allegedly found at his home
AP - Guardian.co.uk
One of the Vatican's biggest scandals in decades has widened, with the pope's butler agreeing to co-operate with investigators over confidential documents allegedly found at his home, according to his lawyer.
Paolo Gabriele's pledge to co-operate with Vatican magistrates means high-ranking prelates could soon be named in the investigation into leaks of confidential Vatican correspondence that have shed a light on power struggles and intrigue at the highest levels of the Catholic church.

* * * * *

Ancient Roots of Bilderberg Reveal Prusso-
Teutonic Agenda for World Domination
By Jurriaan Maessen - ExplosiveReports.Com
Just a few days from now, the world's economic, political and scientific elites (not to mention top media kingpins) will gather near Chantilly, Virginia to fine-tune an agenda that's been long in the making. Its roots reach so far down in the soil of history, we'll have to roll up our sleeves before we descend.
An Unholy Alliance
In 1943, while Europe was blindfolded by terror and death, a book was published by Charles Scribner's Sons which carried the title The Thousand Year Conspiracy (part I & part II). In the book, the author Paul Winkler offers a fascinating insight into the people who are in the business of engineering financial crises and wars in Prussia from its very conception way back in the dark ages. In order to acquire at least some understanding about the origin and significance of this "Prusso-Teutonic" establishment, as Winkler calls it, let us follow the author down the ladder into his deep research. You may argue that the hour is late, producing a "review" of a book published well over 65 years ago, but the obscurity in which the book lay hidden all that time and its relevance to our own day, I think justifies an attempt. Pulled from underneath a large stack of wartime literature, cleared from a thick layer of dust, The Thousand Year Conspiracy should raise some eyebrows- not to say make you fall from your chair in sheer amazement. Around the time the book hit the stores in the U.S., few people understood the full implication of this manuscript. At that time all eyes were transfixed on the Fuhrer, who was barking a continuous stream of orders at trembling generals.

UN's 2012 "Earth Summit"
Moves To Disembowel Sovereignty,
Impose Absolute Rule
By Jurriaan Maessen - ExplosiveReports.Com
In the run up to the next Earth Summit to be held in Rio in June of this year, the global leviathan that is the United Nations bares its teeth. A continuing stream of publications is pouring down from every corner of the transnational community, in essence calling for global governance of the environment as well as a stark reduction in the global human population. These two items are very much intertwined, according to the growing pile of UN papers flying from the supranational tree, all basically stating that the first is necessary in order to facilitate the latter.
One of these leaves circles down to us from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) displays a collection of "key messages" written by the usual suspects, such as dedicated man-hater Paul Ehrlich, eco-terrorist James Lovelockand NASA's own mad-as-hell environmentalist James Hansen. Their joint statement titled "Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act" was clearly designed to inspire the UN and its upcoming confab to make haste with global government. In their manifesto the impatient fiends call for a global implementation of population policies and rights being trampled upon in order to address what they call "the population issue":

A Deadly Secret Plot Has Been Uncovered
The plot is fulfilling a great Bible prophecy. It's all about the European Union superpower being hijacked!
BY GERALD FLURRY - TheTrumpet.com
We have been prophesying for over 70 years that a strong dictator is about to rule over Europe. We proclaimed that he would not be voted in by the public. We have also said for many years Britain would not be a part of the final European Union.
A recently revealed secret plot shows that all of these prophecies are being fulfilled now!
The British Express printed an article on May 4 titled, "EU Plot to Scrap Britain." "Senior Eurocrats are secretly plotting to create a super-powerful EU president to realize their dream of abolishing Britain, we can reveal," it began.
....This resurrected Holy Roman Empire is going to be the most destructive force ever on Earth. It is time for this world to understand what is happening in Europe!

FBI Secretly Creates Internet Police
Russia Today - LewRockwell.com
The FBI was rather public with its recent demands for backdoor access to websites and Internet services across the board, but as the agency awaits those secret surveillance powers, they're working on their own end to have those e-spy capabilities.
Not much has been revealed about one of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's newest projects, the Domestic Communications Assistance Center, and the FBI will probably try to keep it that way. Despite attempting to keep the DCAC largely under wraps, an investigation spearheaded by CNET's Declan McCullagh is quickly collecting details about the agency's latest endeavor.

Computer worm that hit Iran oil terminals 'is most complex yet'
Experts warn W32.Flamer may have been developed by a nation state as part of cyberwarfare activities
By Nick Hopkins - Guardian.co.uk
A cyber-attack that targeted Iran's oil ministry and main export terminal was caused by the most sophisticated computer worm yet developed, experts have warned.
The virus appears to have been directed primarily at a small number of organisations and individuals in Iran, the West Bank, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. This will inevitably raise suspicions that Israel or the US were involved in some way.

Meet 'Flame', The Massive Spy Malware
Infiltrating Iranian Computers
By Kim Zetter - Wired.com
A massive, highly sophisticated piece of malware has been newly found infecting systems in Iran and elsewhere and is believed to be part of a well-coordinated, ongoing, state-run cyberespionage operation.
The malware, discovered by Russia-based anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, is an espionage toolkit that has been infecting targeted systems in Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, the Israeli Occupied Territories and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa for at least two years.
Dubbed "Flame" by Kaspersky, the malicious code dwarfs Stuxnet in size – the groundbreaking infrastructure-sabotaging malware that is believed to have wreaked havoc on Iran's nuclear program in 2009 and 2010. Although Flame has both a different purpose and composition than Stuxnet, and appears to have been written by different programmers, its complexity, the geographic scope of its infections and its behavior indicate strongly that a nation-state is behind Flame, rather than common cyber-criminals — marking it as yet another tool in the growing arsenal of cyberweaponry.

Underground Pipe has been Leaking Jet Fuel
for 40 Years at US Air Force Base
By Charles Kennedy - OilPrice.com
Jet fuel from the Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque has been leaking from 40 years. The leak was first discovered in 1999, and so far 400,000 gallons of fuel have been removed from the area, and efforts to aggressively clean up the problem will continue.
State geologist William Moats initially calculated the spill at about 8 million gallons, but after reviewing new data from Air Force monitoring wells he has upped his estimate to 24 million gallons, but has also said that the true extent of the spill can be verified until it has been remediated.

Illegal kidney trade booms as new organ is 'sold every hour'
World Health Organisation estimates 10,000 black market operations involving human organs take place each year
By Denis Campbell and Nicola Davison in Shanghai - Guardian.co.uk
The illegal trade in kidneys has risen to such a level that an estimated 10,000 black market operations involving purchased human organs now take place annually, or more than one an hour, World Health Organisationexperts have revealed.
Evidence collected by a worldwide network of doctors shows that traffickers are defying laws intended to curtail their activities and are cashing in on rising international demand for replacement kidneys driven by the increase in diabetes and other diseases.

Nuclear Denial and the Resignation of Gregory Jaczko
Meltdown at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
by KARL GROSSMAN - CounterPunch.org
The resignation last week of the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is another demonstration of the bankrupt basis of the NRC. Gregory Jaczko repeatedly called for the NRC to apply "lessons learned" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan. And, for that, the nuclear industry—quite successfully—went after him fiercely.
The New York Times in an editorial over the weekend said that President Obama's choice to replace Jaczko, Allison McFarlane, "will need to be as independent and aggressive as Dr. Jaczko."
That misses the institutional point.

Obama paving the way for Iran attack?
The National Attack Authorization Act?
By John Aziz, guest - ZeroHedge.com
We all know that the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed by President Obama on New Year's Eve contained a now-struck-down provision to authorise the indefinite detention of American citizens on US soil.
But did you know that the NDAA also paves the way for war with Iran?
From Dennis Kucinich:
Section (6) rejects any United States policy that would rely on efforts to contain a nuclear weapons-capable Iran. Section (7) urges the President to reaffirm the unacceptability of an Iran with nuclear-weapons capability and opposition to any policy that would rely on containment as an option in response to Iranian enrichment.

Ron Paul Dissents on House Bill for Unlimited Military Aid
for Israel, Shows Why He's a True Leader
by Hamdan Azhar - LewRockwell.com
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives quietly passed a bill that critics insist effectively guarantees unlimited military aid to the government of Israel. HR 4133, dubbed the "United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012," makes it "the policy of the United States to help Israel preserve its qualitative military edge" and "to provide Israel the military capabilities necessary to deter and defend itself by itself against any threats."
The bill passed by a vote of 411-2 with 9 members voting "present." The two "No" votes were cast by Texas Congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), former Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the longest currently serving member of Congress.

Signing US strategic pact:
end of peace in Afghanistan: former PM
Afghan lawmakers' approval of US presence in the country is a "tragedy for the whole Afghan nation," as it means that the war-torn country will not find peace at least for another decade, an analyst says.
Interview with former Afghan Prime Minister, Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai

Houla massacre: US military warns Syria
as pressure builds on Obama
Top US general urges increased diplomatic pressure on Bashar al-Assad but warns military is prepared to act if necessary
By Chris McGreal in Washington - Guardian.co.uk
The US's top military officer has warned Syria it could face armed intervention as international outrage grows over the massacre of women and children by tanks and artillery in Houla.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that following the UN security council's condemnation of the slaughter – in which more than 100 people were killed, many of them children – there needed to be increased diplomatic pressure on Damascus. But he added that the US would be prepared to act militarily if it was "asked to do so".

Kofi Annan tells Syria bold steps needed after Houla massacre
'Those responsible for these brutal crimes must be held accountable', Bashar al-Assad's regime told
By Ian Black, Middle East editor,
and Miriam Elder in Moscow - Guardian.co.uk
Kofi Annan faces tough talks in Damascus on Tuesday after condemning the "appalling crime" of the killing of 108 people, including 32 children in the Syrian town of Houla. But there was no sign that President Bashar al-Assad's closest ally, Russia, was preparing to significantly shift position.
Annan, representing the UN and the Arab League, said on arrival in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday that he was "shocked and horrified by the tragic incident".

21.5.2012 - 1/4 - Financial Crisis Special
Coast To Coast - George Noory with several guests
Paul McGuire - Interview Begins at 13:30

21.5.2012 - 2/4 - Financial Crisis Special
Peter Schiff - the real crash is coming

21.5.2012 - 3/4 - Financial Crisis Special
John Truman Wolfe - the local crisis

21.5.2012 - 4/4 - Financial Crisis Special
Lindsey Williams - prophecy

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