World faces wave of epic debt defaults, fears central bank veteran“The only question is whether we are able to look reality in the eye and face what is coming in an orderly fashion, or whether it will be disorderly. Debt jubilees have been going on for 5,000 years, as far back as the Sumerians.”
The 21st Century: An Era Of Fraud – Paul Craig RobertsThe 21st Century: An Era Of Fraud Paul Craig Roberts In the last years of the 20th century fraud entered US foreign policy in a new way. On false pretenses Washington dismantled Yugoslavia and Serbia in order to advance an undeclared agenda. In the 21st century this fraud multiplied many times.
Meet the lawyer who’s suing the Bank of Canada to loan out free moneyThe lawyer best known for stopping the Supreme Court appointment of Judge Marc Nadon has turned his sights on the Bank of Canada. Rocco Galati has taken on a case for a group called the Committee for Monetary and Economic Reform, or COMER, which wants the central bank to return to the practice of lending federal and provincial governments interest-free money for infrastructure.
Even Insured Can Face Crushing Medical Debt, Study FindsRandy Farris, 58, a factory worker from Conger, Minn., needed a knee replacement three years ago. His insurance covered 80 percent of the bill, but he needed to cash in an I.R.A. to pay his $4,000 share. “I haven’t been to the doctor since because I don’t want any more doctor bills,” he said.
Study: US is an oligarchy, not a democracy – BBC NewsA review of the best commentary on and around the world… The US is dominated by a rich and powerful elite. So concludes a recent study by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin I Page. This is not news, you say.
‘I helped create ISIS’: Iraq War veteran says US policy caused ‘blowback’ in Middle EastSaying he had “helped create ISIS,” an Iraq War veteran and US Marine is speaking out about the atrocities and criminal activities he and his fellow soldiers engaged in during the Iraq War, claiming he knew it would lead to “blowback” in the Middle East.
Switzerland: Poised for a revolution?Sam Gerrans is an English writer, translator, support counselor and activist. He also has professional backgrounds in media, strategic communications and technology. He is driven by commitment to ultimate meaning, and focused on authentic approaches to revelation and realpolitik.
Lifting the VeilLifting the Veil: The best ever investigative history of of what’s really going on behind the scenes in our world with over 500 links to reliable sources to back up the stunning picture that is painted. Knowledge is power.
The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don’t Let Them! – BillMoyers.comDear Reader, In the fall of 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, as families grieved and the nation mourned, Washington swarmed with locusts of the human kind: wartime opportunists, lobbyists, lawyers, ex-members of Congress, bagmen for big donors: all of them determined to grab what they could for their corporate clients and rich donors while no one was looking.Across the land, the faces of Americans of every stripe were stained with tears.
Police killed over 1,100 people in US in 2015 – reportRelying on grassroots rather than federal data, the Mapping Police Violence project said over 1,100 people were killed by US police in 2015. It also found that 321 African-Americans were killed by police in numbers disproportionate to their populations.
Bush Military Official: US Citizens Must Stand Up to Stop the EmpireFrom ‘ Empire Files ‘: “Abby Martin interviews retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former national security adviser to the Reagan administration, who spent years as an assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell during both Bush administrations.” A few of the points made by Wilkerson: US’s foreign bases are “colonial, imperial” stations over the globe.
oftwominds-Charles Hugh Smith: The Death-Spiral of American EntrepreneurismIf American Entrepreneurism is in a death spiral, then so too is the U.S. economy and the state that lives off the surplus generated by American Entrepreneurism. The self-congratulatory rah-rah about American entrepreneurism rings hollow, as the evidence is conclusive: entrepreneurship, new businesses and the source of new businesses, self-employment, are all declining.
Finland wants to give every adult a basic income of 800 euros a monthThe Finnish government, elected earlier this year, is planning to introduce a tax-free monthly payment of 800 euros ($865) to all adult Finns, regardless of income, wealth or employment status. The payment would replace most other state benefits. The government thinks that the move will actually save money.
Middle class now the minority in US – reportThe American middle class has been shrinking for the last four decades, and middle-income households no longer make up the majority, according to a new study blaming the Great Recession. “The hollowing of the middle has proceeded steadily for the past four decades,” a report by the Pew Research Center noted.
Police shootings should be tracked by public health sector, according to Harvard initiativeThe American public can’t tell for sure how many people die in police shootings each year. Despite the FBI’s new reporting initiative, a group of Harvard researchers now wants to view shootings as a “notifiable condition” – similar to reporting a disease.
What Deflation Quacks LikeAs yet another day of headlines shows, see the links and details in today’s Debt Rattle at the Automatic Earth , deflation is visible everywhere, from a 98% drop in EM debt issuance to junk bonds reporting the first loss since 2008 to corporate bonds downgrades to plummeting cattle prices in Kansas to China’s falling demand for iron ore and a whole list of other commodities.
Tighter Lid on Records Threatens to Weaken Government WatchdogsThe new restrictions grew out of a five-year-old dispute within the Justice Department. After a series of scathing reports by Glenn Fine, then the Justice Department inspector general, on F.B.I. abuses in counterterrorism programs, F.B.I. lawyers began asserting in 2010 that he could no longer have access to certain confidential records because they were legally protected.
Blame the West’s interventions for today’s terrorism – The Boston GlobeOutside powers have been crashing into the Middle East for more than a century. At first we presumed that people there would not mind, or even that they would welcome us. Ultimately we realized that our interventions were provoking hatred and violent turmoil.
The National Security Letter spy tool has been uncloaked, and it’s badThe National Security Letter (NSL) is a potent surveillance tool that allows the government to acquire a wide swath of private information-all without a warrant. Federal investigators issue tens of thousands of them each year to banks, ISPs, car dealers, insurance companies, doctors, and you name it.
EU against Bitcoin payments after Paris attacksA week after the attacks in Paris, home affairs ministers from European Union countries are due to gather in Brussels on Friday 20th November for a crisis meeting to discuss methods of strengthening the region’s response to terrorism. One crucial item on the agenda is a planned crackdown on virtual currencies and anonymous payments made online and through pre-paid cards.