YOU make the call ....

Today's press release says it all: "This month’s report is marked by the confirmation of a double-dip in home prices across much of the nation. The National Index hit a new recession low with the first quarter’s data and posted an annual decline of 5.1% versus the first quarter of 2010. Nationally, home prices are back to their mid-2002 levels."

Housing is no longer a big part of the market says Jim Cramer.

"Jim Cramer is a charlatan. He turns the serious issue of personal financial security into a complete joke. There is nothing that comes out of James Cramer's mouth that allows people to make intelligent investment decisions."  A quote from David Swenson in the December/January 2009 issue of Worth magazine. Mr. Swenson is the chief investment officer of Yale University.

Cigarette Dealers..........

"That's the beaver pelt of the modern era," quipped Robert Odawi Porter, president of the Seneca Nation.

Reckless Endangerment

In Reckless Endangerment, the latest book about the financial crisis, co-authors Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner do what many of their high-profile counterparts failed to do: Name names for those responsible for the crisis.  "Instead of it seeming like it was an 'act of god' that couldn't have been prevented, we try to single out some of the people who were crucial at the center in the years leading up the crisis, not just when it struck," says Morgenson, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist with The NY Times.

Congratulations to Gretchen and Josh on such a fine work.     Gretchen should run the SEC, become a Senator or run FINRA.    She would scare the living daylights out of Wall Street for sure.   For sure a shining light in the quagmire of half-truths and outright lies coming from everyone in that space.

This Memorial Day............

Stop and ponder the lives of so many who have given so much for this great nation.  I thank all of the great veterans of the wars this nation fought to defend our way of life.   When you think of the sacrifices made and offer your prayers of thanksgiving please include my Dad, Douglas Parisian.  He served proudly during WWII as a pilot being trained in the Army Air Corps.  I salute you Dad, you have always been a hero!

Roudup, Montana flooding, 2011

The whitetail fawn crop will be thinned out some with does fawning in the hills instead of the Mussellshell River bottoms.    No doubt some rattlers moving around too.   This devastation in Roundup is hard to imagine.  Notice you don't see all the looters stealing high-end tennis shoes, cases of beer and televisions?
Where are the government vouchers and FEMA trailers?  The government debit cards?  Why aren't there any Hollywood types like Sean Penn, Bono and the Dixie Chicks singing for Roundup, Montana?  Why isn't Michael Moore trying to help Roundup?  Where is the 24/7 media coverage complete with shootings at rescuers, rapes and murders?   Roundup will get along just fine by itself.  Some of the toughest people on the planet for sure.  My prayers are with you all.

Talk about full of air! He could run for president, either party.

When he became a lorry driver, Steven McCormack probably felt he could handle the stresses of the job.


But the 48-year-old New Zealander couldn't have anticipated quite what sort of pressure he would have to endure.  Mr McCormack was blown up like a balloon after falling on to a compressed air tube in a freak accident.  The end of the tube pierced the flesh of his left buttock, forcing compressed air at the rate of 100 pounds per square inch into his body, swelling it to bursting point.

North Carolina Senator, Kay R. Hagan

This Senator should have lunch with Ron Paul instead of lobbyists to get up to speed on the Fed.  Just another reason why this country is in such dire shape with loons like this.  North Carolina deserves better but hey, they voted her in.   The real insiders (like the shareholders of the Federal Reserve) are above the law. They fleeced America for trillions.  How many sides of her mouth can she talk out of is the real question.

Dear Friend,


Thank you for contacting me regarding an audit of the Federal Reserve. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this important issue. I apologize for my delayed response.

The Federal Reserve does currently undergo what would be considered a standard audit -- an examination of accounts and records. Furthermore, Congress already reviews semi-annual reports on monetary policy submitted by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, as required under the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act (PL 95-523). Under the Federal Banking Agency Audit Act (PL 95-320), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has the authority to conduct financial and performance audits of the Board of Governors and the Federal Reserve banks and branches. However, such audits are limited, as the law stipulates that monetary policy operations, foreign transactions, and Federal Open Market Committee operations are excluded from the scope of the GAO audits.

An audit of the Federal Reserve System is an issue that has been debated several times since I began serving in the United States Senate, most recently during the 111th Congress when the U.S. Senate addressed financial regulatory reform. All Federal Reserve audit legislation proposed in the 111th Congress called for increased oversight by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) into business conducted by the Federal Reserve.

On January 26, 2011, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 (S. 202/H.R. 459) was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. The bill instructs the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct an audit of the Federal Reserve System's Board of Governors and also the Federal Reserve banks before 2013.

The formulation of monetary policy is a decision-making process that involves information gathering from a host of foreign governments and central banks. The information provided from those exchanges is critical and extremely sensitive. The immediate and broad disclosure that the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 requires could disrupt financial markets and jeopardize our country's international finance relationships. Ultimately, it would be taxpayers who would bear the brunt of any losses resulting from policies caused by untimely disclosure of sensitive information. Because of this, I do not believe the benefits of legislation like the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 outweigh the costs.

When Congress passed the Federal Banking Agency Audit Act in 1978, the legislation attempted to balance the need for public accountability of the Federal Reserve with the need to insulate the Fed's monetary policy function from political pressures. I believe this balance must be maintained going forward. For that reason, I twice supported amendments during the 111th Congress that would have required one-time audits of the Federal Reserve System's actions in response to the financial crisis. Both amendments struck a balance between accountability to the American taxpayer and the denial of political pressure and influence on the Federal Reserve System. The result would have been increased insight and reassurance for the American people that the Federal Reserve is working in the best interest of taxpayers to strengthen and protect our financial system.

Again, thank you for contacting my office. It is truly an honor to represent North Carolina in the United States Senate, and I hope you will not hesitate to contact me in the future should you have any further questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Kay R. Hagan

from ZeroHedge.com, the best web site on the planet

The Fed does it again. Following consistent allegations that the Federal Reserve operates in an opaque world, whose each and every action has only had a purpose of serving its Wall Street masters, led to repeated lawsuits which went so far as to get the Chairsatan to promise he would be more transparent, Bloomberg's Bob Ivry breaks news that between March and December 2008 the Fed operated a previously undisclosed lending program, whose terms were nothing short of a subsidy to banks. Says Ivry: "The $80 billion initiative, called single-tranche open- market operations, or ST OMO, made 28-day loans from March through December 2008, a period in which confidence in global credit markets collapsed after the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Units of 20 banks were required to bid at auctions for the cash. They paid interest rates as low as 0.01 percent that December, when the Fed’s main lending facility charged 0.5 percent." 0.01% interest is also known by one other name: "outright subsidy." It doesn't get any freer than that: 0.01% interest on one month cash. Just how close to a complete implosion was the financial system if 0.5% interest seemed too high? Not surprisingly, this program was widely used: "Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc each borrowed at least $30 billion in 2008 from a Federal Reserve emergency lending program whose details weren’t revealed to shareholders, members of Congress or the public...Goldman Sachs, led by Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, tapped the program most in December 2008, when data on the New York Fed website show the loans were least expensive. The lowest winning bid at an ST OMO auction declined to 0.01 percent on Dec. 30, 2008, New York Fed data show. At the time, the rate charged at the discount window was 0.5 percent." Yes, that Goldman Sachs. The same one that perjured itself when it said before the FCIC that it only used de minimis emergency borrowings. Just how many more top secret taxpayer subsidies will emerge were being used by the Fed to keep the kleptocratic status quo in charge?