Sunday, July 26, 2009

Dr. Michael Hudson: Wall Street and Federal Reserve - Economics 101

Great interview with Dr. Michael Hudson on location over at Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. This is the stuff they didn't teach you in Economics 101. Great job Renegade Economist! Enjoy...

[Youtube] Dr. Michael Hudson visits Wall St. and NY Fed

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Patrick Byrne: Captured Regulators + Corporations 07-15-2009

Dr. Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com, interviews on Glenn Beck and discusses the merger (deep capture) of US government regulators and the corporatocracy/oligarchy.

[Youtube] Dr. Patrick Byrne on Glen Beck Show 07-15-2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

Max Keiser: Congress Grills Hank Paulson 07-24-2009

Max Keiser's On The Edge presents: Highlights of Congress Grilling Hank Paulson. Is Congress finally rendezvoused with a rude awakening?

Hank Paulson threatened mass starvation!

[Youtube] Max Keiser: Congress vs. Hank Paulson 07-24-2009 Part 2/3


[Youtube] Max Keiser: Congress vs. Hank Paulson 07-24-2009 Part 3/3

George4Title: Report on Vacant Corporate Office Campus

George4Title is back!

Here's an amazing report from George4Title (now Inflation.US) on an empty Corporate Office Campus in the Inland Empire!

[Youtube] George4Title / Inflation.USreports on an giant empty Corporate Office Campus

Thievery Corporation: Satyam Shivam Sundaram & The Numbers Game

More great music from Thievery Corporation.

[Youtube] Thievery Corporation: Satyam Shivam Sundaram music video


[Youtube] Thievery Corporation: The Numbers Game music video

Ravi Batra on Thom Hartmann Show 07-24-2009

The Doctor is in! Dr. Ravi Batra says Goldman Sachs is destroying the country. That's quite a statement from a very conservative economist! Look for a crash around the corner.

Dr. Ravi Batra has never seen something like the oil price rising during a recession/depression in his 60 years. Everybody is corrupt and that a revolution will need to clean up the mess. However, it won't happen until the people suffer under a depression.

Dr. Ravi Batra says wages should rise to reflect the increase in producution. Instead, we're using debt to subsidize our income to pay for the excess production.

"The end of the rule of money in society" -- Dr. Ravi Batra desscribing the revolution

[MP3] Dr. Ravi Batra interviews on Thom Hartmann Show 07-24-2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

Idiocracy - President Obama

If you guys haven't seen the movie Idiocracy yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? The movie was made in 2006 (with some of the SNL cast) and a lot of depictions in the movie are coming true, like the dumbing down of America, and electing a black president who's going to fix everything.

The first clip is the original clip from the movie. The second clip is hilarious satire with Obama.

GOD HELP US ALL!!

[Video] Idiocracy: President Camacho / Obama Clip


[Youtube] Idiocracy: The President Camacho dubbed over Obama

Africa: The Corruption by the West

Here's a great blog entry by seeker401 today:

http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Hiding_Africa’s_Looted_Funds:_The_Silence_of_Western_Media

Quite often when you read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television in the West you will are bombarded with how poor and corrupt Africans are. However, you will never watch, read or hear anything in these media outlets on the role play by : Western banking institutions; property development and estate companies; technology corporations; oil and mining cartels; defense and engineering companies; and western political and business elite in promoting corruption in Africa.

When it comes to Africa and the developing world, the Western media pretend to be doing a good job only when there is an embarrassing story or a scandal that undermines their own credibility as the watchdog of the state. It is not uncommon to see poverty stricken Africans being shown in documentaries, movies, and television screens in the West but these same documentaries fail to show the involvement of Western capitalist institutions in fanning the poverty. Although corruption involves a giver and recipient, it is always the taker who is reported in the media. In many instances bribes are offered in order to secure contracts, secure official favour or to induce officials in order to influence the out come of a government decision. In other instances people become corrupt because of the existence of favouring conditions as can be seen in most western countries with their banking secrecy laws.

Why does the media in the West ignore the role of western institutions in corrupt deals? The media in the west tend to ignore the role of western institutions for many reasons. They would rather show the poverty level in Africa but refuse to show the role play by western institutions for fear of loosing revenue through adverts. Most media outlets survive through advertisements from mega businesses and the multinational corporations so for fear of loosing revenues the media turn a blind eye to their activities such bribing politicians, public officials and polluting the environment. Again the editors, programme directors and the other big wigs in the media are thelselves shareholders in the companies in question so why would they want to jeopardise the source of their own wealth?

The enthusiasm with which CNN, BBC, ABC, CBS, ITN, SKYNEWS, television producers portray Africa as poor, backward, least developed and corrupt is not displayed when they report on the role play by Western institutions in perpetuating the aforementioned. They fail to tell the world that the looted funds that make Africans poor are sitting in Europe, America, Australia, New Zealand and other offshore Islands controlled by the West. They fail to tell the world that Africa would be a different place if all the stolen monies are returned from Switzerland, Britain, America, France, Luxembourg, Austria and Liechtenstein. After years of foot draggings Swiss authorities decided to repatriate monies stolen by the Abacha regime. So I asked myself where was the western media when Swiss and British Banks were receiving the looted funds? The fact still remains that until recently and with the exception of the BBC none of the western media establishment had permanent reporters based in Africa with reason only best known to themselves. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3577032.stm

Corruption is rife in Africa because banking institutions in Europe especially Switzerland, France, Jersey Island, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria and US among others accept money from African leaders without questioning its source. According to the UN and the AU around $148 billion is stolen from the continent annually by political leaders, multinational corporations, the business elite and civil servants with complicity of banking and property industries in Europe and North America.

Even though western banks act as safe havens for looted funds, very little attention is received from the western media to expose them. No effort has been made by the political elite in Europe and America to force the banks to return these stolen monies because they are often the shareholders and beneficiaries of profits made by these banks. They have no agenda to combact corruption as that would mean no fat dividends for them and no cheap credits for their citizens.

Within five years of his reign (1993-98) Sani Abacha of Nigeria according to official sources was able to stash four billion dollars and between 12 and 16 billion dollars according to unofficial sources. After his death in 1998, investigators in Nigeria, Europe and America stumbled on over 130 bank accounts in Australia, New Zealand, London, New York, France and Switzerland among other countries where some of the money stolen was kept.

According to France24, a French police investigation has established that Bongo and his family own at least 33 luxury properties in France, including a villa located at Rue de la Baume, near the Elysée Palace, in Paris bought in 2007 for 18.8 million Euros. The French President Nicolas Sarkozy was spotted greeting Bongo in this villa bought with funds looted from Gabon. http://www.france24.com/en/20090226-french-court-seizes-gabonese-presidents-accounts-omar-bongo-bank. Other investigations have uncovered that he and his family have at least 59 properties, several bonds and stocks in France alone.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner was embarrassed when it was revealed that Bongo’s government paid his consultancy firm a staggering 2.64 million Euros for advice on health policy drawn up by Kouchner before he took office. Source: Timesonline February 5, 2009. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5661746.ece.Kouchener is not the only person in France, Europe and America to have benfited from the shady and corrupt dealing of Africa’s political and business establishments. It has recently come to light that Omar Bongo secretly financed Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterand election campaigns using money he had stolen from his country.The question is who assisted him to steal and hide his ill-gotten wealth in France I mean the 70 banks accounts stashed with hundreds of millions of euros and the 33 luxury mansions that he bought? Is it not those he helped to become presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers? The fact is that Bongo was able to steal, mismanage and poorly run his country because of the support he received from those he helped win elections in France.

Araminta Wordsworth of Nationalpost.com says:”The French media are operating under no constraints in commenting on Africa’s longest-ruling despot, a man successive French presidents played a huge role in keeping in power and vice-versa. Bongo contributed to the election campaigns of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac; Nicolas Sarkozy’s first act as president-elect was to call the Gabonese president and thank him for his advice. Bongo also worked for the French secret service. But oil was key to his power, as Laurent d’Ersu notes in La Croix”. Source: National Post, June 9, 2009

The disgraced Elf-Aquataine executives said they paid Bongo between 30 to 50 million dollars through secrete bank accounts in Switzerland but no attempt has been made to expose and prosecute these banks.

On February 26, 2009 a French court had Omar Bongo’s nine bank accounts containing several millions of Euros frozen. In confirming the court’s decision, lawyer Jean-Philippe Le Bail said, “This concerns Crédit Lyonnais, in which the president of Gabon has two current accounts, two savings accounts and a share account, and BNP, in which he has two checking accounts, a savings account and a share account”. These are the banks whose shady deals with the political and business elite impoverish African countries but which for profits sake the media refuse to tell the world about. The banks know these corrupt leaders have stolen the money yet they pretend not to know until there is a scandal before they begin to act as if they are responsible institutions. How and why Bongo was able to open so many bank accounts in France is only known to the banks and the political establishment in France but it is an undisputable fact that the media in France did notdo enougth to expose the rot in involving Bongo and the institutions in that country.

Most foreign banks have been implicated for receiving billions of dollars of looted funds from the late Mobutu of Zaire; Lansana Conte of Guinea; Eyadema of Togo; and a number of tyrants such as Omar Bongo of Gabon; Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea; Dos Santos of Angola; Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo; Paul Biya of Cameroon; Arap Moi of Kenya; Jerry Rawlings of Ghana; Ibrahim Babadjinda of Nigeria and a number of sitting and ex-presidents in Africa yet western media is silent about where the funds are being kept.

The banks in Europe and America that aided, abetted and provided sanctuary for Abacha´s $4 billion stolen funds are: Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, ANZ, London Branch; Bank Len, Zurich; Bankers Trust Company, London; Bankers Trust Company, Frankfurt; Bankers Trust Company, New York; Banque Barring Brothers, Geneva; Bank in Liechtenstein A. G. Vaduz; Barclays Bank, New York; Barclays Bank, London; Banque Edouard Constant, General; Banque Nationale De Paris, Geneva; Banque Nationale De Paris, London; Banque Nationale De Paris, Basle; Citibank N. A. London; Citibank N. A. New York; Citibank N. A. Luxembourg; Citibank Zurich; Credit Lyonnais , New York; Credit Suisse , New York; Credit Suisse, General; Credit Suisse, Zurich; Deutche Morgan Grenfell, Jersey; FIBI Bank (Schweiz) A. G. Zurich; First Bank of Boston , London; Goldman Sachs and Company, Zurich; Gothard Bank, Geneva; LGT Liechtenstein Bank, Vaduz; Liechtenstein Landesbank, Vaduz; M. M. Warburg and Company, Luxembourg; M. M. Warburg and Company,Zurich; M. M. Warburg and Company, Hamburg; Merrill Lynch Bank, New York; Merrill Lynch Bank, Geneva; Midland Bank, London; National Westminister Bank, London; Paribus, London; Paribus, Geneva; Royal Bank of Scotland , Leeds; Standard Bank London Limited, London; UBS AG, Zurich; UBS AG, Geneva; Union Bancaire Privee, Geneva; Union Bancaire Privee, London; London Branch; Verwaltungs Und Private Bank A. G., Vaduz; and ANZ, New York; ANZ, Frankfurt. Source: Tell Magazine, October 7, 2002. Only heaven knows how much of Abacha´s loot still remain in these banks. We did not hear anything about these banks in the Western media and how they were helping Abacha to loot Nigeria’s resources until his death in the until his death in 1998.

According to a 110 page report prepared by international risk consultancy firm Kroll, Arap Moi and his family have banked £1 billion in 28 countries including Britain but the media in the west will not expose the banks involved.The Guardian, Friday 31 August 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/31/kenya.topstories3

Apart from the banking sector, the property sector in Europe, America and Australia have also connived with the political and business elite in Africa to impoverish the people. Several African leaders have bought properties in Europe and America using monies stolen from their poor countries. It is on record that Mobutu of DRC (Zaire) bought several villas in France, Switzerland, Belgium and many European Countries. Yet again the companies selling the villas have been kept secret by the media. Why?

It has recently come to light that Arap Moi of Kenya and his family bought several multimillion pound properties in London, New York, South Africa including 10,000-hectare ranch in Australia and bank accounts containing hundreds of millions of pounds. While majority of Kenyans live in slums and in rural areas, with little roofing on their heads and lacking water and other basic necessities of life, Moi’s family live in a £4m home in Surrey and £2m flat in Knightsbridge yet the media will not expose the estate companies involved. The Guardian, Friday 31 August 200, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/31/kenya.topstories3

It is common for western companies looking for lucrative contracts to pay bribes and kickbacks to induce officials into awarding them contracts. For example on 17th September 2002, a Canadian firm called Acres International was convicted by a High Court in Lesotho for paying $260,000 bribe to secure an $8 billion dam contract. Source: Probe International.http://www.eprf.ca/pi/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=5484

In 2002, Halliburton, a company once controlled by Dick Cheney (former US Vice President) was accused of establishing $180m fund and used it to bribe Nigerian officials in order to secure a $10 billion Liquefied Gas Plant contract in Nigeria. Source: Royal Dutch Shell plc .com http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2008/09/04/halliburton-paid-180-million-in-bribes-to-senior-nigerian-government-officials/

Achair Partners (a Swiss company) and Progresso (an Italian company) have been accused of bribing Somalia’s Transition Government officials in order to secure contracts to deposit highly toxic industrial waste in the waters of Somalia. Such corrupt practices by western companies seeking contracts in Africa are one of the reasons why poverty and diseases are rife in the continent.

The catastrophic environmental damage being caused by Oil, mining and timber companies such as Shell, BP, Total, Elf, Texaco, Mittal, Anglo-America Corporation in Nigeria, Ghana, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, DR. Congo, South Africa, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal do not make the news in the West. How often do we hear about the huge environmental price Africans are paying to satisfy the west’s insatiable appetite for energy and technology? Apart from the huge profits being made by these conglomerates which we often hear in the news, do we hear also their complete disregard for environmental rules; the pollution of rivers, lakes, streams, wells, and the environment? On June 30, 2009 a report by Amnesty International entitled “OIL INDUSTRY HAS BROUGHT POVERTY AND POLLUTION TO NIGER DELTA” catalogues list of environmental destruction and damage that the Oil Cartel is causing in the region. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/oil-industry-has-brought-poverty-and-pollution-to-niger-delta-20090630, http://www.democracynow.org/features/shell_on_trial.

In October 2002, after a three year investigation a UN Panel of Experts implicated Cabot Corporation (Boston), Eagle Wings Resources International, and George Forrest’s OM Group (Ohio) for arming rebel groups and collaborating with them to traffic from DR. Congo gold, diamond, timber and most importantly coltan (columbo-tantalite)-a precious ore essential to Sony playstations, laptop computers, and cell phones. Coltan is often spirited out of DRC to U.S., Swiss, Belgian, and German clients by Uganda and Rwanda army officers, rebel groups and through a network of criminal syndicates. In all 85 companies were implicated by the report.http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4999, http://globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/181/33592.html

Except the wars and the stranded faces of hungry refugees, do these illegal activities by the corporations make the news in the Western media? Definitely not. Even when local journalists and writers document this for broadcast in the west, it is not published as it does not serve their interests. The media only publish stories after NGOs and civil society organisations have fought to expose corruption and shady deals involving western corporations, business and political leaders.

This is the hypocrisy and double standard of the western media. They want the world to know how poor Africans are but fail to tell the world that Africans are poor because Western banking institutions, property development companies, defence companies and defence contractors, oil and mining corporations are major stakeholders in promoting Africa’s poverty and underdevelopment. Corruption and bribery in Africa and indeed the developing world could be reduced tremendously if the media for once put aside the pick and choose journalism and attached the same importance to show the degree of involvement by western capitalist institutions Europe, America and Japan and their role in keeping Africans poor.

———-


thanks to dviper785_nooch for the link..africa isnt poor..its just been looted beyond imagination and what is left will be looted as well..and the worlds media sits on its hands and says nothing

Friday, July 17, 2009

Democracy Now!: Honduras Coup 07-15-2009

Ah ha! The multinationals like Hanes and Fruit of the Loom are supporting the coup in Honduras. The elites and upper class in Honduras are in favor of the new president. This is about the garment industry and keeping the profits high there.

Supporters of the coup in Honduras have begun hiring advisers and lobbyists with close ties to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an attempt to strengthen support in Washington for the coup. A Honduran business group has hired lobbyist Lanny Davis, who served as White House counsel for President Bill Clinton. The coup government has also hired Bennet Ratcliff, a public relations specialist with ties to former President Bill Clinton.

[Transscript] Democracy Now - Honduras Coup 07-15-2009

[Youtube] Democracy Now! Honduras Coup 07-15-2009

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!!!

You know? I can't find the video with the cupcake cameo anywhere on the net. Not even in flash format! That was the funniest one too! Anyways here's the original and some other dancing banana clips:

It's Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
Peanut Butter Jelly Time!
Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

Where he at?
There he go.
Peanut Butter Jelly!
Do the peanut butter jelly,
peanut butter jelly,
Peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat

Now, break it down and freeze!

Now tic tac toe (uh-huh)
Tic tac toe (let's go)
Tic tac toe (you got it)
Tic tac toe (let's ride)

Now, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle, freestyle, your style

Where he at?
There he go?


[Youtube] Original Peanut Butter Jelly Time (PBJdance)


[Youtube] Banana at Florida Panthers game


[Youtube] Violent yet funny Peanut Butter Jelly Time cartoon someone made.

Max Keiser: Duel on France24 07-16-2009

Max Keiser strikes gold as he duels a French Professor who keeps saying we couldn't let the system go and that blackmail and looting by Wall Street is A OK, and we have to roll with the status quo.

And the winner is......

[Youtube] Max Keiser goes against French Professor 07-16-2009 Part 1/2


[Youtube] Max Keiser goes against French Professor 07-16-2009 Part 2/2

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Matt Taibbi: Interview with Sam Seder on Air America's BreakRoomLive

One more really good interview by Matt Taibbi!!!

Sam Seder interviews Rolling Stone Journalist Matt Taibbi, who wrote the article on how Goldman Sachs profited on both sides of the housing bubble and cheated its way through the financial crisis.

BreakRoomLive Marc Maron & Sam Seder is a production of http://airamerica.com.

[Youtube] Matt Taibbi: Interview with Sam Seder on Air America Part 1/4


[Youtube] Rest of the interview HERE

Monday, July 13, 2009

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Indian vs. American/Outside brands

Rememeber to decentralize!! The bigger those multinational corporations get, the bigger their monopoly power to set prices. Please be careful not to make the Indian corporations too big either! Try to buy small and high quality.

Here we go with the Indian and American/Outside brands commonly found in your local urban store in India.

COLD DRINKS:
Indian: LEMON JUICE, FRESH FRUIT JUICES, CHILLED LASSI (SWEET OR SOUR), BUTTER MILK, COCONUT WATER, JALJEERA, ENERJEE, and MASALA MILK...
NonIndian: COCA COLA, PEPSI, LIMCA, MIRINDA, SPRITE

BATHING SOAP:
Indian: CINTHOL & OTHER GODREJ BRANDS, SANTOOR, WIPRO SHIKAKAI, MYSORE SANDAL, MARGO, NEEM, EVITA, MEDIMIX, GANGA , NIRMA BATH & CHANDRIKA
NonIndian: LUX, LIFEBOY, REXONA, LIRIL, DOVE, PEARS, HAMAM, LESANCY, CAMAY, PALMOLIVE

TOOTH PASTE:
Indian: NEEM, BABOOL, PROMISE, VICO VAJRADANTI, PRUDENT, DABUR PRODUCTS, MISWAK
NonIndian: COLGATE, CLOSE UP, PEPSODENT, CIBACA, FORHANS, MENTADENT.

TOOTH BRUSH:
Indian: PRUDENT, AJANTA , PROMISE
NonIndian: COLGATE, CLOSE UP, PEPSODENT, FORHANS, ORAL-B

SHAVING CREAM:
Indian: GODREJ, EMANI
NonIndian: PALMOLIVE, OLD SPICE, GILLETE

BLADE:
Indian: SUPERMAX, TOPAZ, LAZER, ASHOKA
NonIndian: SEVEN-O -CLOCK, 365, GILLETTE

TALCUM POWDER:
Indian: SANTOOR, GOKUL, CINTHOL, WIPRO BABY POWDER, BOROPLUS
NonIndian: PONDS, OLD SPICE, JOHNSON BABY POWDER, SHOWER TO SHOWER

MILK POWDER:
Indian: INDIANA, AMUL, AMULYA
NonIndian: ANIKSPRAY, MILKANA, EVERYDAY MILK, MILKMAID.

SHAMPOO:
Indian: LAKME, NIRMA, VELVET
NonIndian: HALO, ALL CLEAR, NYLE, SUNSILK, HEAD AND SHOULDERS, PANTENE

MOBILE CONNECTIONS:
Indian: BSNL, AIRTEL
NonIndian: HUTCH

JRD Tata and the Street Artist's Painting

Here's the email I received recently:

This is back in the day before the internet or computers...

Location: Tata Museum , Jamshedpur

This painting was a gift to JRD Tata for his birthday created by a street artist. Nobody was able to decipher the art. The artist had promised to reveal the secret shortly, however, JRD was no more when the secret was actually revealed.


Here's the secret revealed. When you place a steel rod at the circle in the first pic you saw, you will see the image of the JRD Tata as a reflection on the steel rod as seen in the second pic below. Isn't it incredible!!

Max Keiser: Radio Show 07-11-2009

Good stuff! This one of Max Keiser's best radio shows in terms of explaining the world.

Max Keiser explains how the rich countries systematically uses financial warfare to keep world's poor poor, and how careless he consumers are. Also covered: Goldman Sachs market maker manipulation, bankers rob the system and then hand out some money to charity, tinsel brain money making machines, 2000 dead taliban, Robert McNamera, centralized bank sellouts, 2/9 Americans on food stamps, California IOUs level 3, savers vs. speculators, and AAA CDO securities once again and the second wave of retirement investment raids!

[MP3] Max Keiser Radio Show 07-11-2009

Daniel Ellsberg: Arrest for closing down intersection 03-19-2009

Anger Weekend

Daniel Ellsberg talks about his arrest for closing down the Market Street intersection in San Francisco. He says the police were grateful for his speaking out and consider him a hero.

Daniel Ellsberg: Arrest for closing down San Fran intersection 03-19-2009

Gerald Celente: Integrity Crises - Interview on Jeff Rense 07-09-2009

Anger Weekend

I've always said this is an integrity crises, not a financial crises. Here is Gerald Celente on the Jeff Renses show, and he's mad as hell! This is his best interview so far as he explains how we got to the various crises.

[Youtube] Gerald Celente interviews with Jeff Rense 07-09-2009 part 1/6


[Youtube] Parts 2 thru 6 available here

Rosanne Barr: Slap Pelosi

It's anger weekend. I laughed when I saw this video.

[Youtube] Rosanne Barr to slap Pelosi in the face

Friday, July 10, 2009

Sunday, July 05, 2009

TARP

Hey look! The TARP program is working its magic! Here we see a town flourishing.





Saturday, July 04, 2009

Matt Taibbi: Interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 06-2009

Matt Taibbi gives a general interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of Air America's Ring of Fire. As an outsider with little knowledge of the financial world, Matt extropolates on what he's learned about he current political and financial systems.

[Youtube] Matt Taibbi interviews with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 06-2009 Part1


[Youtube] Matt Taibbi interviews with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 06-2009 Part2

Douglas Rushkoff: Interview on KMO's C-Realm 06-10-2009

Ever look around and notice how we're losing mom and pops? When was the last time you had a fruit grown by a mom n pop family farmer? Douglas Rushkoff talks about how regulations tilt business in favor of corporations.

Tilted Field of Giants

"KMO welcomes Douglas Rushkoff back to the C-Realm to discuss the effect that corporations have on our lives, where corporations came from, and how they enjoy a playing field tilted in their favor by government regulation which insulates them from competition from more local and human-scaled alternatives. Douglas addresses these topics in his new book, Life, Inc. Later in the program, Douglas talks about how messages from Quetzalcoatl really aren't from Quetzalcoatl once they pass human lips and how the ayahuasca crowd really needs to get over 2012."


[MP3] Douglas Rushkoff: Corporations and the unfair playing field 06-10-2009

Matt Taibbi: Goldman Sachs bubble videos

Matt Taibbi from the Rolling Stones reporting on Goldman Sachs fraud, manipulation, absolute power, and the new bubble, Cap and Trade.

[Video] Matt Taibbi Breaks Down Goldman Sachs’ Big Scam
[Video] BNN interviews Matt Taibbi on The Close 07-02-2009: The Great American Bubble Machine [07-02-09 4:05PM]

CAP AND TRADE - The Bubble

Here's why Goldman Sachs would love a Cap and Trade system with heavy emphasis on the TRADE part.

"The five bubbles the article says Goldman was central to creating are the Wall Street stock bubble in the 1920s, which led to the Great Depression; the tech-stock bubble of the late 1990s, which ended in the 2001 recession; the housing bubble of the past decade, which resulted in the current economic crisis; the oil price run-up last summer, when oil shot up to $140 a barrel, likely helping tilt the entire world into recession; and what Taibbi describes as "rigging the bailout," when Goldman Sachs' well-placed alumni inside the U.S. government engineered last fall's bank bailout in such a way that the company profited massively.

Taibbi writes that Goldman Sachs has traditionally been a late arrival to market bubbles, getting in once others have started the trend, but, once in, the company quickly ramps up the bubble, predicts its bursting, and then hedges its bets so as to make money from the bubble crash.

The article, which is not yet officially available online, adds one more bubble to the list: the "global warming bubble," or specifically, the proposed cap-and-trade legislation that would allow companies to trade pollution credits on an open market.

Taibbi's argument suggests the Wall Street bank may well want to turn climate change policy into yet another Wall Street casino game.

Because emissions caps will continually be reduced, Taibbi argues, pollution credits will constantly be growing in value, and Goldman Sachs wants in on the ground floor.

Taibbi writes: "The plan is (1) to get in on the ground floor of paradigm-shifting legislation, (2) make sure that they're the profit-making slice of that paradigm and (3) make sure the slice is -- a big slice. Goldman started pushing hard for cap-and-trade long ago, but things really ramped up last year when the firm spent $3.5 million to lobby climate issues."


[Article] Cap and Trade Bubble
[Article] Direct link to the Rolling Stones article