Infinite Unknown

- Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners (NPR, Jan. 30, 2012):

Freddie Mac, a taxpayer-owned mortgage company, is supposed to make homeownership easier. One thing that makes owning a home more affordable is getting a cheaper mortgage.

But Freddie Mac has invested billions of dollars betting that U.S. homeowners won’t be able to refinance their mortgages at today’s lower rates, according to an investigation by NPR and ProPublica, an independent, nonprofit newsroom.

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Tags: Economy, Freddie Mac, Global News, Mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Taxpayers, U.S.

Tags: Banking, Economy, Global News, RBS, Stephen Hester, Taxpayers, U.K.

- On Mitt Romney’s Millions In Cayman Island Offshore Tax Havens (ZeroHedge, Jan. 19, 2012):

While the news that Mitt Romney has joined Warren Buffet in the “my secretary makes more than me” 15% tax club has come and gone, even as America appears largely confused or dismissive that Romney, at least on paper appears to be precisely the puppet that Wall Street wants put in charge, we are not so sure how it will react to discovering that in addition to all of the above, Romney also holds a substantial of his assets deep offshore, in the much maligned recently Cayman Islands. As a reminder, it has long been Obama’s “tax-policy” to force repatriation of virtually all individual tax holdings held abroad, both legally and illegally, much to the detrimental collapse in the UBS business model. Yet apparently when it comes to potential future presidents, loopholes are quite welcome. Especially when as ABC reports, “the offshore accounts have provided him — and Bain — with other potential financial benefits, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest, all at the expense of the U.S. Treasury.” As a reminder: “Rebecca J. Wilkins, a tax policy expert with Citizens for Tax Justice, said the federal government loses an estimated $100 billion a year because of tax havens.” But who needs taxes when America can just print all the money it will need to fund its deficit in perpetuity. Just ask the Neo-Keynesians. Perhaps all these are questions that the candidate that so hard is trying to channel Ronald Reagan and so far failing, can finally address once and for all, before he moves into one of his patented Obama bashing subject changing routing.

More from ABC:

Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.

“His personal finances are a poster child of what’s wrong with the American tax system,” said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who is an authority on tax enforcement and offshore banking.

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Tags: Economy, Global News, Government, Mitt Romney, Politics, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

- EU PLAN TO SLAP VAT ON FOOD (EXPRESS, Jan. 3, 2012):

EU plans for a radical tax shake-up could cost struggling families and pensioners £800 a year.

The European Commission wants VAT exemptions on food, children’s clothes and other essentials abandoned in an effort to harmonise the sales tax across Europe.

Its plans come after the Coalition raised the VAT rate to 20 per cent last year but kept an exemption for food, children’s clothes, passenger travel, books, newspapers and other products.

Last night the proposals sparked outrage among politicians and public-spending campaigners who attacked the Eurocrats for trying to interfere in ­Britain’s tax affairs. Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “In their desperation to raise cash, the EU is prepared to do anything and hurt the most vulnerable.

“These plans would add up to 20 per cent costs on food and children’s clothes. To put an extra tax on books and newspapers would be a strike for ignorance over education.

“Everyone would suffer, but the most vulnerable would suffer the most.”

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Tags: Economy, EU, Europe, Food, Global News, Government, Politics, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers

Posted this video before:

- European Stability Mechanism (ESM) Exposed (Video)

YouTube Added: 17.12.2011

Description:

When the hell do we the so called common people wake the hell up?
Unlimited money supply is not enough for these people. They want all of our souls!!

Tags: Dictatorship, Economy, EU, Europe, Global News, Government, New World Order, Politics, Society, Taxpayers

YouTube Added: 09.11.2011

Tags: Bailout, Banking, Barack Obama, Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Fannie Mae, Fed, Federal Reserve, Freddie Mac, Global News, Government, Healthcare, Inflation, Mortgage crisis, Mortgages, Obama administration, Politics, Ron Paul, tax, Taxpayers, U.S.

- Senate Investigates Counterfeit Parts in Military Equipment (C-Span, Nov. 8, 2011):

A Senate Armed Services Committee investigation found over a million suspect parts in the Pentagon’s supply chain, mostly from China. Committee leaders say the counterfeit parts are a danger to U.S. troops and cost taxpayers.

Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) and ranking Republican John McCain (R-AZ) gave several examples where the Defense Department had to replace faulty electronics at taxpayer expense. One was counterfeit transistors in a helicopter night vision system. In another instance a cockpit video display on an Air Force C-27J transport plane had bogus memory chips that could cause it to display the wrong information.

Testifying at a hearing today on the matter was the head of the Missile Defense Agency, as well as officials from defense contracting companies Raytheon, L-3 Communications, and Boeing. Additional testimonies included a government investigator and representatives of companies that distribute the potentially faulty components.

Tags: China, Global News, Government, Military, Politics, Taxpayers, Technology, U.S.

You can’t make this stuff up!

- Crony Capitalism, Christmas Trees, and the Stupidest Tax of All Time(US Senator Jim De Mint, Nov. 9, 2011):

Mr. Grinch, Mr. Scrooge, meet Mr. Obama.

No, it’s not a joke. President Obama really is imposing a special new tax on Christmas trees.

And while the policy seems a ludicrous political misstep – and possibly an unconstitutional one at that – in truth, the Obama Christmas Tree Tax is much worse than that.

The $2 million the Obama Administration expects the tax to raise will not reduce the deficit or cover needed government services.  Instead, it will serve as a marketing slush fund for the Christmas tree industry.

The money will set up a brand new government agency called (no, seriously) the Christmas Tree Promotion Board.  The CTPB will use the $2 million to hire a staff – most likely the industry lobbyists who cooked up this scheme –  and then run advertisements to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry of the United States.”

Don’t the Christmas tree growers and retailers already do that?  Yes.  Isn’t marketing something that all companies should do with their profits, to grow their business and attract new customers?  Yes.

And while we’re asking questions, does anyone in America – anyone? – believe that Christmas trees have a bad image that needs taxpayer-subsidized improvement?

So why should the government-funded Christmas Tree Promotion Board tax us to fund a marketing campaign?  So the Christmas tree industry can pocket the $2 million they now won’t have to spend marketing their trees.

That’s it.  That’s the whole purpose of the Obama Christmas Tree Tax: to take money from hard-working families celebrating Christmas and give it to clever lobbyists and businessmen running a crony-capitalist subsidy scam.

And while this policy will, by design, help one group of people, it will hurt others: businesses that sell artificial Christmas trees, people who work at your local stores that sell them, and, don’t forget, the consumers who are out 15 cents a tree.

Business groups using government connections to enrich themselves by hurting everyone else.  Makes you just want to break into “O Holy Night,” doesn’t it?

Hopefully, the Crony Capitalists in the Obama Administration have gone too far this time, and public backlash will force Congress to shut down the Christmas Tree Promotion Board and repeal the single stupidest tax of all time. I will soon offer an amendment on the Senate floor to do just that.

All I want for Christmas is a free market.

- Obama Couldn’t Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax (The Foundry, Nov. 8, 2011):

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board.  The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)).  And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52).  And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

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Tags: Barack Obama, Christmas Tree Promotion Board, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

YouTube Added: 27.10.2011

Tags: Bailout, Economy, EU, Europe, Germany, Global News, Government, Greece, Iceland, IMF, Ireland, Italy, Nigel Farage, Politics, Portugal, Society, Spain, Taxpayers, U.S., UKIP

Insanity just hit RECORD HIGHS!

- HOLY BAILOUT – Federal Reserve Now Backstopping $75 Trillion Of Bank Of America’s Derivatives Trades (The Daily Bail, Oct 18, 2011):

This story from Bloomberg just hit the wires this morning.  Bank of America is shifting derivatives in its Merrill investment banking unit to its depository arm, which has access to the Fed discount window and is protected by the FDIC.

This means that the investment bank’s European derivatives exposure is now backstopped by U.S. taxpayers. Bank of America didn’t get regulatory approval to do this, they just did it at the request of frightened counterparties.  Now the Fed and the FDIC are fighting as to whether this was sound.  The Fed wants to “give relief” to the bank holding company, which is under heavy pressure.

This is a direct transfer of risk to the taxpayer done by the bank without approval by regulators and without public input.  You will also read below that JP Morgan is apparently doing the same thing with $79 trillion of notional derivatives guaranteed by the FDIC and Federal Reserve.

What this means for you is that when Europe finally implodes and banks fail, U.S. taxpayers will hold the bag for trillions in CDS insurance contracts sold by Bank of America and JP Morgan.  Even worse, the total exposure is unknown because Wall Street successfully lobbied during Dodd-Frank passage so that no central exchange would exist keeping track of net derivative exposure.

This is a recipe for Armageddon.  Bernanke is absolutely insane.  No wonder Geithner has been hopping all over Europe begging and cajoling leaders to put together a massive bailout of troubled banks.  His worst nightmare is Eurozone bank defaults leading to the collapse of the large U.S. banks who have been happily selling default insurance on European banks since the crisis began.

- BofA Said to Split Regulators Over Moving Merrill Derivatives to Bank Unit (Bloomberg, Oct 18, 2011):

Bank of America Corp. (BAC), hit by a credit downgrade last month, has moved derivatives from its Merrill Lynch unit to a subsidiary flush with insured deposits, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation.

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Tags: Bailout, Bank of America, Banking, Ben Bernanke, cds, Derivatives, Derivatives market, Dollar, Economy, FDIC, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Merrill Lynch, Taxpayers, Timothy Geithner, U.S.