Month: October 2013

Citigroup Written Legislation Moves Through U.S. House Of Representatives

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– Citigroup Written Legislation Moves Through the House of Representatives (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Oct 29, 2013):

Five years after the Wall Street coup of 2008, it appears the U.S. House of Representatives is as bought and paid for as ever. We heard about the Citigroup crafted legislation currently being pushed through Congress back in May when Mother Jones reported on it. Fortunately, they included the following image in their article:


Source (Mother Jones)

Unsurprisingly, the main backer of the bill is notorious Wall Street lackey Jim Himes (D-Conn.), a former Goldman Sachs employee who has discovered lobbyist payoffs can be just as lucrative as a career in financial services. The last time Mr. Himes made an appearance on these pages was in March 2013 in my piece: Congress Moves to DEREGULATE Wall Street.

More from the New York Times:

The House is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would undercut new financial regulations and hand Wall Street a victory. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House, even after lawmakers learned that Citigroup lobbyists helped write one of the bills, which would exempt a wide array of derivatives trading from new regulation.

Read moreCitigroup Written Legislation Moves Through U.S. House Of Representatives

The 10 U.S. Cities With Less Than Ten Days Of Cash On Hand

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– The Ten US Cities With Less Than Ten Days Of Cash On Hand (Zerohedge, Oct 29, 2013):

As the Detroit bankruptcy hearing heats up following news that the city’s unsecured creditors, among them pensioners, are set to recover pennies on the dollar, 16 to be precise, the question of which are the next cities to follow in the footsteps of bankrupt Motown, becomes relevant once again. Courtesy of the WSJ, and the second part of its series on “U.S. Cities Grapple With Finances“, here is a list of the US cities that when push comes to shove metaphorically, and when the money runs out literally, will have no choice but to knock on the door of the local regional bankruptcy court and submit that long-prepared bankruptcy petition. Specifically, here are the cities that have 10 days or less in cash on hand available. Because, unless one is the Fed, cash and lack thereof is all that matters.

The list below ranks the top 10 cities in terms of days cash on hand. Needless to say, a city with a low number in this category (such as 0.0) may have trouble paying bills, bribes, lap dances and other core municipal outlays.

Shifting away from the stock, and looking at the flow, as Detroit showed the world the very hard way, cities mired in pension costs will ultimately default and lead to massive haircuts to the retirees. The following 10 cities have the greatest percentage of pension costs as a percentage of the city’s general fund.

Read moreThe 10 U.S. Cities With Less Than Ten Days Of Cash On Hand

Brazil’s One Time Super Billionaire Eike Batista’s OGX Said To File For Bankruptcy Tomorrow

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– Eike Batista’s OGX Said To File For Bankruptcy Tomorrow (ZeroHedge, Oct 29, 2013):

Earlier this afternoon, it was Steve Cohen’s final fall from grace. Now, Bloomberg reports that Brazil’s one time super billionaire, and now negativeworthaire, Eike Batista, whose sprawling petroleum empire was once valued in the tens of billions, is set to file for bankruptcy tomorrow.

  • BRAZIL’S OGX SAID TO PLAN BANKRUPTCY PROTECTION FILING TOMORROW

We are confident that just like in Europe, there is no bank with any exposure to either OGX, Brazil, or whatever potential intercreditor avalanche will tear down many more Brazilian companies once this first insolvent domino finally tips over.

Those who missed the preface to this story, we repost it below.

When on October 1, fallen billionaire Eike Batista’s OGX Petroleo & Gas, missed a $45 million bond coupon payment, some were surprised but most  had seen the writing on the wall. After all, Brazil’s second largest oil company after Petrobras, and the crowning jewel of Batista’s EBX Group, had been under the microscope of investors and certainly creditors (and if it wasn’t it certainly should have been) after oil deposits that Batista had valued at $1 trillion turned out to be commercial failures. And so the countdown to the inevitable bankruptcy filing began. Overnight, Bloomberg reports that the wait should not be long (in fact it may coincide with the default of that other insolvent mega-creditor: the United States), and will mostly certainly take place before the end of the month, following the retention of bankruptcy specialist law firm Quinn Emanuel.

From Bloomberg:

Read moreBrazil’s One Time Super Billionaire Eike Batista’s OGX Said To File For Bankruptcy Tomorrow

Biologists Discover Tiny Neural Computers In The Brain

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– Biologists Discover Tiny Neural Computers in the Brain (io9, Oct 28, 2013):

Neuroscientists have learned that dendrites do more than just provide passive wiring in the brain. These nerve cell connectors also process information, essentially functioning as tiny computers. Our brains, it would appear, pack more computing power than we assumed.

Dendrites are those branch-like extensions at the beginning of neurons that increase the surface area of cell bodies, or soma. These tiny outgrowths receive information from other neurons and transmit electrical stimulation to the soma.

Computer interpretation of pyramidal cells, which contain dendrites. (Credit: University College London):

But we’re now learning that this isn’t the full extent of dendritic function. In a new study published in Nature, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill demonstrated that dendrites do more than transfer information — they also actively process information, effectively multiplying the brain’s computing power.

Read moreBiologists Discover Tiny Neural Computers In The Brain

Obama Administration Knew Millions Could Not Keep Their Health Insurance (NBC News)

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– Obama admin. knew millions could not keep their health insurance (NBC News, Oct 28, 2013):

President Obama repeatedly assured Americans that after the Affordable Care Act became law, people who liked their health insurance would be able to keep it. But millions of Americans are getting or are about to get cancellation letters for their health insurance under Obamacare, say experts, and the Obama administration has known that for at least three years.

Four sources deeply involved in the Affordable Care Act tell NBC NEWS that 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million consumers who buy their insurance individually can expect to receive a “cancellation” letter or the equivalent over the next year because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law. One expert predicts that number could reach as high as 80 percent. And all say that many of those forced to buy pricier new policies will experience “sticker shock.”

Read moreObama Administration Knew Millions Could Not Keep Their Health Insurance (NBC News)

I’m Not Remotely Anti-Semitic, Says Ex-British FM Jack Straw (… Who Actually Is Himself Jewish)

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– I’m not remotely anti-Semitic, says ex-British FM Straw (The Times of Israel, Oct 28, 2013):

Veteran politician doesn’t deny account of his comments in debate last week, but tells Times of Israel he voiced legitimate concerns

Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday rejected claims he had made anti-Semitic comments in a debate last week, telling The Times of Israel that he merely voiced concerns over Israeli policies, many of which are shared by Israelis.“I am not remotely anti-Semitic. Quite the reverse. I have all my life strongly supported the state of Israel, and its right to live in peace and security,” Straw wrote in an email.

The veteran Labor politician reportedly said during a debate in the British parliament last week that the greatest obstacles to peace between Israel and the Palestinians and her Arab neighbors are the “unlimited” funds available to Jewish organizations and AIPAC in the US, as well as Germany’s “obsession” with defending Israel.

Read moreI’m Not Remotely Anti-Semitic, Says Ex-British FM Jack Straw (… Who Actually Is Himself Jewish)

Fukushima Update: Focusing On Your Relevant Questions, Concerns (Video)

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YouTube
Description:

Live-Stream von 28.10.2013

Update Japan hacks my comment section on this video ,it seems people saying they are concerned anywhere is now a issue . This show was for you and i took your questions live on you tube and this video is the result . Now i can,t find the comments using different browsers on 3 different computers . So ya i been hacked , whats next i wonder

Federal Reserve Tells US Banks To Be Prepared For 30-Day Crisis

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– US banks are told to be prepared for 30-day crisis (Irish Independent, Oct 25, 2013):

The biggest US banks would be required to hold enough easily sold assets to survive a 30-day credit drought under proposed new Federal Reserve liquidity rules.

The Federal Reserve liquidity coverage ratio proposal, approved unanimously at a meeting in Washington, goes further than the Basel III measure adopted in January and calls for earlier implementation than the EU.

Read moreFederal Reserve Tells US Banks To Be Prepared For 30-Day Crisis

China Signals ‘Unprecedented’ Policy Changes On Agenda At Plenum

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– China Signals ‘Unprecedented’ Policy Changes on Agenda at Plenum (Bloomberg, Oct 27, 2013):

Chinese Politburo member Yu Zhengsheng said reforms to be discussed at a Communist Party meeting next month will be unprecedented, adding to signs that leaders are resolved to spur far-reaching policy changes.

Yu’s comments, made in a speech at a forum to promote relations with Taiwan, were reported by the official Xinhua News Agency on Oct. 26. Yu is ranked fourth in the seven-strong Politburo Standing Committee headed by party chief and President Xi Jinping.

Read moreChina Signals ‘Unprecedented’ Policy Changes On Agenda At Plenum

FALSE ALARM: Obama Will Continue Spying On ‘Allies’ After All

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– False Alarm: Obama Will Continue Spying On “Allies” After All (ZeroHedge, Oct 28, 2013):

In a dramatic change of events that is a) sure to not win the administration any goodwill point with the citizens of the free, or enslaved, world or their insolvent leaders so desperately reliant on the US for day to day funding, and b) will confirm the state of complete policy chaos that is at the core of the Obama administration’s handling of the ObamaPhone spygate (where for some reason the fact that the US spied on foreigners, as it should, has taken far more precedence over the NSA intercepting and recording each and every domestic communication, with neither checks nor balances), the earlier reported news originating from the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Dianne Feinstein, who said that “the White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support” was a fabrication.

Instead, as The Hill reported shortly thereafter,  “A senior administration official on Monday rejected Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Diane Feinstein’s claim that the U.S. has halted intelligence collection against its allies. In a statement released earlier Monday, the California Democrat said that the White House “has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue.”  But the administration official called that statement “not accurate.” In other words, the situation surrounding Obama’s global Watergate hotel, has devolved to a state where the executive and the Chair of the Legislative’s intelligence committee are not even able to communicate in order to get their story straight about lying what the US will and won’t do in the future. Because, needless to say, any promise that the US won’t do what it obviously will continue doing as there is absolutely no downside to doing so, is merely the latest lie in long and illustrious chain of seasonally adjusted truths.

From The Hill:

“While we have made some individual changes, which I cannot detail, we have not made across the board changes in policy like, for example, terminating intelligence collection that might be aimed at all allies,” the administration official said.

And then the confusion and backtracking began:

Read moreFALSE ALARM: Obama Will Continue Spying On ‘Allies’ After All

Traitor, War Criminal, Freemason And Bilderberg Tony Blair: How I became Prime Minister Of The World

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Traitor and war criminal Tony Blair (Links are down below.)

– Tony Blair: How I became Prime Minister of the world (Independent, Oct 28, 2013):

The former Prime Minister is now advising the governments of now fewer than 20 countries, he revealed in a Q&A chaired by The Independent’s John Rentoul. So which successes – and failures – of his years in office can they learn from?

JOHN RENTOUL: Jack Straw said that he thought that the Prime Minister had too much power in the British constitutional system, and I was hoping you would respond to that.

TONY BLAIR: I learnt a lot in government, and I’ve learnt a lot since leaving government.  The kind of journey of being in government is that you start at your most popular and least capable, and you end at your most capable and least popular.  And that transition is really all about the education: about what government today is about. And since leaving office – I mean, by the end of this year there will probably be 20 different governments in different parts of the world that myself and my team will cooperate with.  And with most political leaders the challenge they face today is not so much one of ideology, not so much to do with issues of honesty or transparency, although that is an issue in many countries, and the media tends to focus on that, the challenge is the challenge of efficacy: how do you get things done?

Read moreTraitor, War Criminal, Freemason And Bilderberg Tony Blair: How I became Prime Minister Of The World

IDIOT Nobel Prize Winner Eugene Fama: Bubbles Don’t Exist

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– Nobel Prize Winner: Bubbles Don’t Exist (Casey Research, Oct, 28, 2013):

No wonder investors don’t take economists seriously. Or if they do, they shouldn’t. Since Richard Nixon interrupted Hoss and Little Joe on a Sunday night in August 1971, it’s been one boom and bust after another. But don’t tell that to the latest Nobel Prize co-winner, Eugene Fama, the founder of the efficient-market hypothesis.

The efficient-market hypothesis asserts that financial markets are “informationally efficient,” claiming one cannot consistently achieve returns in excess of average market returns on a risk-adjusted basis.

“Fama’s research at the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s showed how incredibly difficult it is to beat the market, and how incredibly difficult it is to predict how share prices will develop in a day’s or a week’s time,” said Peter Englund, secretary of the committee that awards the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. “That shows that there is no point for the common person to get involved in share analysis. It’s much better to invest in a broadly composed portfolio of shares.”

Read moreIDIOT Nobel Prize Winner Eugene Fama: Bubbles Don’t Exist

Obama Asks Google CEO Eric Schmidt If ‘Bitcoin Is Anything He Has To Worry About’

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– Obama asks Eric Schmidt if “Bitcoin is Anything He Has to Worry About” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, Oct 28, 2013):

Here’s a story recently related to me by a guest at a White House dinner, which included Google’s Eric Schmidt: The president, whose most important job is surely to protect the integrity of the monetary system, smugly asked Schmidt if Bitcoin, one of many growing challenges to currency hegemony, was anything he had to worry about.– From a USA Today article titled: How CEOs are Clueless About Technology

If the above is accurate (and I have no reason to suspect it isn’t), it is priceless information on so many levels. First of all, rather than ask about Bitcoin in an inquisitive manner free of prejudice as a enlightened leader surely would, Obama is merely primatively wondering if he needs to “worry about it.”

Actually Barry, if you had any sense and foresight whatsoever you would be looking at it as a great opportunity. An opportunity for the nation to lead the way in growing the Bitcoin economy and shed the archaic, feudalistic monetary system we are currently enslaved under. However, since you work directly for the oligarch money manipulators themselevs, you are clearly and disastrously unable to see things in a more productive and beneficial way.

Read moreObama Asks Google CEO Eric Schmidt If ‘Bitcoin Is Anything He Has To Worry About’

29 Incredible Facts Which Prove That Poverty In America Is Absolutely Exploding

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– 29 Incredible Facts Which Prove That Poverty In America Is Absolutely Exploding (Economic Collapse, Oct 27, 2013):

Did you know that the number of Americans on welfare is higher than the number of Americans that have full-time jobs?  Did you know that 1.2 million public school students in the U.S. are currently homeless?  Anyone that uses the term “economic recovery” to describe what is happening in the United States today is being deeply insulting to the nearly 150 million Americans that are considered to be either “poor” or “low income” at this point.  Yes, things are great in New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco, but almost everywhere else economic conditions continue to steadily get worse.  The gap between the wealthy and the poor is at a level that America has never seen before, and this is beginning to create a “Robin Hood mentality” that could cause a tremendous amount of social chaos in the years ahead.  Anger at the “haves” in America continues to rise at a very alarming pace, and the “have nots” are becoming increasingly desperate.  At some point all of this anger is going to boil over, and you won’t want to be anywhere around major population centers when that happens.  Despite unprecedented borrowing by the federal government in recent years, and despite unprecedented money printing by the Federal Reserve, poverty in the United States keeps getting worse with each passing year.

The following are 29 incredible facts which prove that poverty in America is absolutely exploding:

Read more29 Incredible Facts Which Prove That Poverty In America Is Absolutely Exploding

RATE SHOCK: Obamacare Causing 539% Increase In Health Insurance Costs For Texans (See Proof)

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– RATE SHOCK: Obamacare causing 539% increase in health insurance costs for Texans (see proof) (Natural News, Oct 29, 2013):

It is crucial for the White House that the Healthcare.gov website continue to fail, because once the site actually starts functioning, Americans are going to be hit with such devastating rate shock that the Obama administration may never recover.

Obamacare is named the “Affordable Care Act,” after all, and the President promised the rates would be “as low as a phone bill.” But I just received a confirmed letter from a friend in Texas showing a 539% rate increase on an existing policy that’s been in good standing for years.

As the letter reveals (see below), the cost for this couple’s policy under Humana is increasing from $212.10 per month to $1,356.60 per month. This is for a couple in good health whose combined income is less than $70K — a middle-class family, in other words.

That’s a 539% rate increase!

$1,356.60 per month is not “affordable” health care. It’s monopolistic price gouging mandated by the Obama administration and enforced essentially at gunpoint. This isn’t health care; it’s highway robbery.

Read moreRATE SHOCK: Obamacare Causing 539% Increase In Health Insurance Costs For Texans (See Proof)

7 Most Disgusting Ingredients Used To Make Vaccines

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– 7 Most Disgusting Ingredients Used to Make Vaccines (VacTruth, Oct 28, 2013):

The components used during the manufacturing process may violate your personal, religious, or ethical beliefs.

Parents have the right to understand what is being put into their child’s body. The production of vaccines uses many disgusting ingredients. Additionally, the components used during the manufacturing process may violate your personal, religious, or ethical beliefs.

Lastly, remember that whatever colorful language is used by the scientific community (using such words as purified), using such substances can come with an enormous cost.

As you read this list, understand cell lines and vaccines do become contaminated. This is often hidden under the term “adventitious agents.”

Read more7 Most Disgusting Ingredients Used To Make Vaccines

Confessions Of A Drone Warrior – Since Speaking Out About Drones, Brandon Bryant Has Been A Target

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– Confessions of a Drone Warrior (GQ Magazine, Oct 23, 2013):

He was an experiment, really. One of the first recruits for a new kind of warfare in which men and machines merge. He flew multiple missions, but he never left his computer. He hunted top terrorists, saved lives, but always from afar. He stalked and killed countless people, but could not always tell you precisely what he was hitting. Meet the 21st-century American killing machine. who’s still utterly, terrifyingly human

From the darkness of a box in the Nevada desert, he watched as three men trudged down a dirt road in Afghanistan. The box was kept cold—precisely sixty-eight degrees—and the only light inside came from the glow of monitors. The air smelled spectrally of stale sweat and cigarette smoke. On his console, the image showed the midwinter landscape of eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar Province—a palette of browns and grays, fields cut to stubble, dark forests climbing the rocky foothills of the Hindu Kush. He zoomed the camera in on the suspected insurgents, each dressed in traditional shalwar kameez, long shirts and baggy pants. He knew nothing else about them: not their names, not their thoughts, not the thousand mundane and profound details of their lives.He was told that they were carrying rifles on their shoulders, but for all he knew, they were shepherd’s staffs. Still, the directive from somewhere above, a mysterious chain of command that led straight to his headset, was clear: confirmed weapons. He switched from the visible spectrum—the muted grays and browns of “day-TV”—to the sharp contrast of infrared, and the insurgents’ heat signatures stood out ghostly white against the cool black earth. A safety observer loomed behind him to make sure the “weapon release” was by the book. A long verbal checklist, his targeting laser locked on the two men walking in front. A countdown—three…two…one…—then the flat delivery of the phrase “missile off the rail.” Seventy-five hundred miles away, a Hellfire flared to life, detached from its mount, and reached supersonic speed in seconds.

It was quiet in the dark, cold box in the desert, except for the low hum of machines.

Read moreConfessions Of A Drone Warrior – Since Speaking Out About Drones, Brandon Bryant Has Been A Target

Fukushima Farmer Sees 16 Of 30 Horses Suddenly Die This Year

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Flashback:

– Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky: Over 50 Bq/Kg In Humans Leads To Irreversible Lesions In Vital Organs – CRIMINAL WHO And IAEA EXPOSED (Video)

– Fukushima farmer sees 16 of his 30 horses die suddenly this year, mainly young ones — No disease, no parasitic worms, high cesium levels — “Daughter tried to commit suicide… Do you think it’s really okay with this situation in Japan?” (PHOTOS) (ENENews, Oct 27, 2013):

The Guardian, Oct. 27, 2013: For decades, the 62-year-old horse breeder [Tokue Hosokawa] barely registered that his farm was just 40 kilometres north-west of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. […] Like several other farmers in Fukushima, Hosokawa ignored a government order to exterminate all of his horses and cows. […] “Just after the accident one of the horses gave birth. When I saw that foal get to its feet and start feeding from its mother, I knew there was no way I could leave.” […] in January this year, he noticed that several among the 30 that remained, mainly foals, had become unsteady on their feet. […] Within weeks, 16 had died in mysterious circumstances. Autopsies on four of the horses found no evidence of disease and tests revealed caesium levels at 200 becquerels per kilo – four times higher than the government-set safety limit for agricultural produce, but not high enough to immediately threaten their health. […] “I’m worried that we’ll find more dead horses this winter.” […]

Read moreFukushima Farmer Sees 16 Of 30 Horses Suddenly Die This Year

NSA Oversight Dismissed As ‘Illusory’ As Anger Intensifies In Europe And Beyond

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– NSA oversight dismissed as ‘illusory’ as anger intensifies in Europe and beyond (Guardian Oct 28, 2013):

Condemnation by Latin American panel comes as US fields worsening outrage from Spain and Germany over surveillance

The Obama administration’s international surveillance crisis deepened on Monday as representatives from a Latin American human rights panel told US diplomats that oversight of the programs was “illusory”.

Members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the Organization of American States, expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of foreign nationals – something the agency argues is both central to its existence and necessary to prevent terrorism.

Read moreNSA Oversight Dismissed As ‘Illusory’ As Anger Intensifies In Europe And Beyond

Iraq Veteran: Losing Home ‘Worse Than Getting Blown Up’

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Mike Hutmacher | The Wichita Eagle Jerrod Hays of Wellington had nearly one half of his face blown away in Iraq when the armored Humvee he was riding in with three fellow soldiers got hit by explosions in an attack by the enemy, killing one and critically injuring the others in 2009. (Oct. 23, 2013)

– Iraq vet: Losing home ‘worse than getting blown up’ (The Kansas City Star, Oct 27, 2013):

WELLINGTON — In 2007, Staff Sgt. Jerrod Hays lost nearly half of his face to a roadside bomb in Iraq.

Now, the 44-year-old Wellington man could lose his home to foreclosure.

“This,” Hays said of the prospect of losing his home, “is worse than getting blown up.”

In the attack south of Baghdad, he lost much of his lower jawbone, 22 teeth, a third of his tongue and one and a half fingers. He nearly lost his right arm and lost movement in a wrist. He lost the ability to see normally: He has to wear sunglasses outside and he has trouble seeing at night. Shrapnel remains peppered into his body. He suffers chronic pain.

Read moreIraq Veteran: Losing Home ‘Worse Than Getting Blown Up’

Detroit Pensioners Face Miserable 16 Cent On The Dollar Recovery

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– Detroit Pensioners Face Miserable 16 Cent On The Dollar Recovery (ZeroHedge, Oct 27, 2013):

If there is ever a case study about people who built up their reputation and then squandered it for first being right for all the wrong reasons, and then being wrong for the right ones, then Meredith Whitney certainly heads the list of eligible candidates. After “predicting” the great financial crisis back in 2007 by looking at some deteriorating credit trends at Citigroup, a process that many had engaged beforehand and had come to a far more dire -and just as correct – conclusion, Whitney rose to stardom for merely regurgitating a well-known meme, however since her trumpeted call was the one closest to the Lehman-Day event when it all came crashing down, it afforded her a 5 year very lucrative stint as an advisor. Said stint has now been shuttered.

The main reason for the shuttering, of course, is that in 2010 she also called an imminent “muni” cataclysm, staking her reputation once again not only on what is fundamentally obvious, but locking in a time frame: 2011. Alas, this time her “timing” luck ran out and her call was dead wrong, leading people to question her abilities, and ultimately to give up on her “advisory” services altogether. Which in some ways is a shame because Whitney was and is quite correct about the municipal default tidal wave, as Detroit and ever more municipalities have shown, and the only question is the timing.

Read moreDetroit Pensioners Face Miserable 16 Cent On The Dollar Recovery