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Election Season 2014

And it has brought us to this trainwreck called ObamaCare and we have bankrupted our kids and grandkids!

We are now headed into the 2014 Election Season and common sense and conservatism are on the rise. Please stand-up and be counted!

Reading Collusion: How the Media Stole the 2012 Election is a great place to start!

The Founding Father's Real Reason for the Second Amendment

And remember the words of Thomas Jefferson "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." See Video of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp’s Congressional Testimony: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For, below (u-tube HERE).

The Leaders Are Here... Palin, Cruz, Lee, Paul, Chaffetz....

T'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Can You Really Still Believe That None of These People Would Have Done a Better Job???

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Showing posts with label money. Show all posts
Showing posts with label money. Show all posts

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Seems Bomber Jihadists' Money Traces Back to Saudi Arabia and Osama

Saudi Money for Boston Marathon Bombing

North Caucasus jihadists’ money traces back to Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden

The seed money of major North Caucasus or Chechen terrorist groups such as the Caucasus Emirate, the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB), the Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) and the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs (RSRSBCM) can all be traced back to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Although we don’t yet know to which groups the two Russian-born brothers of Chechen descent who were identified as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings may belong, it’s important to take a look back at the origins of the money behind the North Caucasus jihadist network overall.

Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade

The Council on Foreign Relations says that, “According to the U.S. State Department, the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade is the primary channel for Islamic funding of the Chechen guerillas, in part through links to al-Qaeda-related financiers on the Arabian Peninsula.”

The Middle East Forum has more on IIPB:

In October 1999, emissaries of [IIPB founder Shamil Basayev] and [mujahideen leader] Ibn al-Khattab traveled to Kandahar where bin Laden agreed to provide fighters, equipment, and money to conduct terrorism and aid the fight against Russia. Later that year, bin Laden reportedly sent substantial sums of money to Basayev, Ibn al-Khattab, and Chechen commander Arbi Barayev to train gunmen, recruit mercenaries, and buy ammunition.

The United Nations says that, “With Al‑Qaida’s financial support, Al-Khattab also mobilized fighters from Ingushetia, Ossetia, Georgia and Azerbaijan to fight in Chechnya and Dagestan.”

History Commons offers further details similarities between Ibn Khattab and Osama Bin Laden, and the U.S. and U.K.-based imams who have funded Chechen rebels:

They share fundraising and recruiting networks. For example, a Florida cell of radical Sunnis that is monitored by the FBI starting in 1993 is involved with both organizations (see (October 1993-November 2001). Radical London imam Abu Qatada raises money for jihad in Chechnya (see 1995-February 2001 and February 2001) and is a key figure in al-Qaeda-related terrorism who is in communication with al-Qaeda logistics manager Abu Zubaida. [BBC, 3/23/2004; Nasiri, 2006, pp. 273] The Finsbury Park mosque of fellow London imam Abu Hamza al-Masri is used as a conduit for funds for both jihad in Chechnya and bin Laden’s Darunta camp in Afghanistan (see March 1999 and March 2000-February 2001)…

Khattab repaid Bin Laden in kind: “In October 2001, Khattab sent additional fighters to Afghanistan and promised to pay the volunteers’ families a substantial monthly stipend or a large lump-sum payment in the event of their death.”

Special Purpose Islamic Regiment

In a 2003 study, the CDI found that, “Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network provided much ideological and financial support to the SPIR after the mid-1990′s. The group has been known to engage in kidnapping, extortion, and contract killings as well to generate money.”

Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs

RSRSBCM, like the other North Caucasus terrorist groups, is financially connected to Al Qaeda, as documented in a UN sanctions summary:

In October 1999, emissaries of [RSRSBCM leader Shamil Basayev] and Al-Khattab, who was a leader of IIB, traveled to Usama bin Laden’s home base in the Afghan province of Kandahar, where Bin Laden agreed to provide substantial military assistance and financial aid, including by making arrangements to send to Chechnya several hundred fighters to fight against Russian troops and perpetrate acts of terrorism. Later that year, Bin Laden sent substantial amounts of money to Basayev, Barayev and Al-Khattab, which were to be used exclusively for training gunmen, recruiting mercenaries and buying ammunition.

The RSRSBCM, IIB and SPIR were jointly responsible for the hostage-taking crisis at a Moscow theater in 2002.

Caucasus Emirate

The Caucasus Emirate is a confederation of different Chechen terrorist groups. The International Institute for Strategic Studies notes that in the 1990s, “Al-Qaeda also established a presence in the North Caucasus, where it organized training camps and provided weapons, financing and other logistical support to Chechen rebels.” Previous Money Jihad coverage of the use of zakat to fund jihad in the North Caucuses can be found here and here.

Last year, Caucasus Emirate began demanding “tribute for jihad” by imposing taxes on wealthy residents and businessmen in Dagestan, similar to the forced zakat of the Taliban, taxes levied by Al Shabaab in Somalia, and the revolutionary taxation of Basque separatists and the PKK.

Conclusion

The wealthy Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia, men like bin Laden and Khattab, fanned out in the 1980s and 1990s to wage jihad along the fringes of the Islamic world—places like Afghanistan, Bosnia, and the North Caucasus. They took their own money and the sadaqa donations of rich fellow Arabs to finance their cause. The disease could not be quarantined, and the infection spreads to this day.

Most recently, Chechen jihadists have made the news for joining forces with Syrian rebels, and declaring upon arrival that “Jihad needs very many things. Firstly it needs money.”

So what are the connections between this event?  The money? The Obama’s meeting with the ‘so-called person of interest’ they let get away??  So many questions… again.  So few answers!

Glenn Beck said: “After what I have learned this week I’m a changed person.”  And he has given the the U.S. government until Monday to come clean, or he will be blowing the whistle. 

Beck: “Let me send this message very clear: We know who this Saudi national is. It is in your best interest of the integrity of the people of United States of America. It’s best coming from you, not from a news organization. It’s best coming from you. You have until Monday. We have information on who this man is. And listen to me carefully. In your little “event” world, we know he is a very bad, bad, bad man. I know that doesn’t make any sense to you right now. But on Monday it will…

It makes sense to somebody in Washington.

I don’t bluff. I make promises. The truth matters.

On Monday I reveal everything we know. So let me just say this to those at the highest echelons of government. No the tagging system. They know about events. Not files, events.” 

Read More Here

Please pray for Glenn and his family and pray that other patriots stand-up with him.

Ask Marion - h/t  themuslimissue and George King

The question for the day is… Will the American people stand-up and demand answers… the truth… and consequences for misdeeds or will we let this all go again, like we did Fast and Furious, Benghazi(gate) and so many other questionable actions by this administration (and others) that are covered-up or aided by the Progressive media who support them?!?  It is time to follow our common sense and to dig deep for all the strength we can muster!  For it is beyond time for all freedom-loving Americans to stand-up for the truth!  Time to rebuild!!

Updates: WaPo: Police Released Boston Suspects’ Photos to ‘Limit the Damage’ Being Done by Reddit, Media

Israeli Doctors Are Treating Boston Bombing Suspect: New Details on His Condition

Somewhere along the way we lost our common sense and ability (or interest) to connect the dots!

Related:

Did Big Sis lie when she testified before Congress, last week?

Saudi News Site: Michelle Obama Visited Saudi National in Hospital on Thursday

Tamerlan Tsarnaev mother told FBI 2 years ago son was involved in Jihad

Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, Bombing ‘Person Of Interest’ Has 6 Saudi ‘Terrorists’ In Family,5 More Are In Gitmo

The Saudi Saga: Key Information Still Being Revealed in Case of former ‘Person of Interest’ Gov’t Considered Deporting

Video: Glenn Beck Gives Government Until Monday to Come Clean About Boston Bombing Cover-Up

Bombing used to slam patriots as 'hate' group

The Media Want Arabs Exonerated

Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Identified: Video, Photo Images of ‘Dark-Skinned’ Suspect Found – Fox News Confirms That an Arrest Has Been Made… Or Not??

FBI Denies CNN Bombing Arrest Report, Chastises Media

REPORT: Saudi Student -- 'Person of Interest' in Boston Bombings -- To Be Deported...

Obama meets with Saudi foreign minister; not on public schedule...

Obama Invokes Christian Scripture and God During Interfaith Service — and Pledges Boston Terrorists ‘Will Face Justice’

Let’s hope the Boston Marathon bomber is a white American

Limbaugh: Democrats Crave Violent ‘Chaos’ To Justify New Restrictive Gun Laws

MANHUNT: Boston Terror Suspect Dead, the Other on the Loose in Watertown (Check Back for Updates)

Michael Savage Interviews Walid Shoebat on Boston Marathon Bombing Incident – Updated (Great Photos)

This Is What Martial Law Looks Like

Who are the brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing?

Boston bombers followers of Iran’s Ayatollah

Chechen insurgents deny any link to marathon bombing

More background on Boston Jihad Bomber: "When we consider prophet Muhammad (s.a.a.w) [may Allah pray for him] as our role model, that's when we achieve true success and a path to Paradise"

Who Is White House visitor Hisham Altalib?  -  Reminder: Who is White House visitor Hisham al Talib?; plus: 2 must-watch Benghazi videos

Sacrificing Freedoms is never the answer!! - “He who choses security over freedom (or liberty) rarely gets either!” …Benjamin Franklin

Friday, December 7, 2012

The Council Has Spoken!! This Week’s Watcher’s Council Results - 12.07.12

The Watcher’s Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

This week , we were treated to an interesting spectacle.

Every EU country except the Czech Republic either voted for or abstained from voting against the recognition of ‘Palestine’ as a a state, something that essentially gutted the international treaties of Oslo Accords and the Road Map. A day or so later, these same countries were calling Israel’s ambassadors on the carpet and accusing them of ‘jeopardizing the two state solution’ because they decided to build some badly needed housing on a vacant hillsisde!

As this week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s ‘Palestine’ – A Celebration At The Funeral points out, the celebration over the recognition of ‘Palestine’ is not a new beginning but a wake. Here’s a slice :

The UN has finally taken the step of openly endorsing ‘Palestine’. In response to the PLO’s request, the General Assembly issued Resolution 67/19, giving ‘Palestine’ observer status, which means it is a non-voting member who can join other international bodies like UNICEF or the International Criminal Court.

Prior to the vote, Mahmoud Abbas made a typical speech in which he accused Israel of racism numerous times. Coming from the lips of a man whose thesis at Moscow University denied that the Holocaust occurred, this added yet another touch of comedy to the proceedings.

There was never any doubt about the outcome. Given the 51 nation OIC Muslim bloc, those nations like France, Sweden and others with a restive Muslim population and those they were able to influence, Abbas was certain to get what he asked for. The UN General Assembly could probably be relied on to pass a resolution saying Jews had horns on their heads with a decent majority.

What the UN did, essentially, was to flush two international treaties, the Oslo Accords and The Road Map down the toilet, as if they never existed. The resolution unilaterally grants Abbas and the PLO statehood status and ‘the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and to independence in their State of Palestine on the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967′ ( never mind that there was no ‘Palestinian territory’ at that time) ‘including East Jerusalem’ without any pretense of negotiating anything whatsoever. No surprises there, since that’s been the PLO’s real position all along.

Even more farcically, the resolution calls for ‘the urgent need for the resumption and acceleration of negotiations within the Middle East peace process.’

After what the UN General Assembly claims it granted to the PLO in this resolution, why would they suppose there’s anything left to negotiate? Who makes the best felafel? And why would the Israelis even bother, seeing how the PLO and the so-called international community regards treaties and agreements when it concerns Jews and Israel?

burning hanoukia

Speaking of which, to those of you whom celebrate it, Hanukkah begins this Saturday night, right after the Jewish Sabbath…take time to celebrate and remember that Israel and the Jewish people have triumphed over much greater odds in the past before. Ma’ale Adumim, after all, is not so far from Modi’in, where a group of Jewish farmers decided that enough was enough and their G-d and their freedom weren’t negotiable anymore…Chag Hanukkah Sameach

In our non-Council category, the winner was Victor Davis Hanson with Waiting for the GOP’s Populist Turn submitted by Joshuapundit. In it VDH examines the next direction for the GOP to go to reclaim its popularity. Unfortunately , given the Republican establishment’s current war on conservatives and anyone associated with the Tea Party, it’s beginning to look more an dmore like that new direction of conservative populism might end up coming from a third party.

OK, here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners
Non-Council Winners

Honorable Mentions

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Friday, August 24, 2012

Customer Deposits Are Property of the Bank: Close Your Account NOW

By Susanne Posel - heintelhub.com - August 24, 2012 – h/t to MJ

In June of 2012, Eric Bloom, former chief executive, and Charles Mosely, head trader of Sentinel Management Group (SMG) were indicted for stealing $500 million in customer secured funds.

Both Mosely and Bloom were accused of “exposing” customer segregated funds “to a portfolio of highly risky derivatives.”

These customer funds were used to “back up personal investments” which were part of “collateral for a loan from Bank of New York Mellon” (BNYM).

This loan derived from stolen customer monies was “used to purchase millions of dollars worth of high-risk, illiquid securities, including collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, for a trading portfolio that benefited Sentinel’s officers, including Mosley, Bloom and certain Bloom family members.”

Fast forward to August 9th of 2012, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals (CCA) rules that BNYM can be moved to first in line of creditors over the customers that had their funds stolen by SMG.

When a banking customer deposits their money into their bank account, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SPIC) are in place to protect the customer from fraud or theft.

The ruling from the CCA means that these regulatory systems will not insure customer funds, investments, depositors and retirees who hold accounts in banks.

In fact, the banking institution is now legally allowed to use those customer funds deposited as collateral, payment on debts for loans made, or free use on the stock market to purchase investments as the bank sees fit.

Fred Grede, SMG trustee, explained that brokers are no longer required to keep customer money separate from their own. “It does not bode well for the protection of customer funds.”

Since the ruling gives banks the right to co-mingle customer funds with their own, no crime can be committed for the use of customer deposited monies.

According to Walker Todd , former lawyer for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Cleveland:

“Basically, there is a new 7th Circuit opinion saying that there is no reason to impose a constructive trust on a lender’s takings of customers’ funds from client commodity firms that were used (inappropriately) to secure the firms’ borrowings, as long as the lender can say that it did not know WITH CERTAINTY that customers’ funds were being repledged. Negligence and misappropriation (vs. knowing criminal intent) are now a sufficient excuse for letting the lender keep the money and go to the head of the line for distributions in bankruptcies of the client commodity firms.”

When a customer deposits money into a bank, the bank essentially issues a promise to have those funds available when the customer returns to withdraw the deposited amount.

When the same customer withdraws funds from their account (whether checking or savings) the customer assumes that the bank has enough funds to cover their withdrawal; including the presumption that their monies are separate from the bank’s assets.

Now, those funds are up for grabs by the bank at their discretion without explanation to the customer – nor is the bank obligated to recoup the customer should they “lose” those funds due to bad loans, bankruptcy or stock market loss.

In Texas, Pamela Cobb, manager of Bank of America (BoA), stole an estimated $2 million from customer funds for personal use. Cobb had been taking customer segregated funds since 2002.

Customers have complained of fraudulent charges placed on their accounts that BoA cannot explain. When the customer brings these charges to the in-house fraud department, they are given the run-around until they acquiesce.

Other customers have had their private possessions stolen right out of their safety deposit box held at BoA. The safety deposit box was drilled into and the contents shipped to the BoA corporate holding center in South Carolina.

In 1992 to 2003, Citibank called their theft of customer funds “account sweeping” wherein they stole more than $14 million from customers nationally.

Using computerized credit card processes to remove positive and negative balances from customers, the scheme included double payments or funds paid out on returned purchases that were then attributed back to the customer.

At Chase bank, an anonymous employee opened an account under a customer name (targeting an Alzheimer’s sufferer), complete with a personal debit card.

An estimated $300 per day was withdrawn on the fraudulent account. When family representing the victim alerted Chase, they brushed them off with an internal investigation claim – even as the family sought legal action.

Banking fraud against the elderly has risen of late, since banks realize they can steal massive amounts of cash from their aging customers with little to no repercussions.

The recent ruling on SMG has given the banking industry the legal backing they have been lacking when stealing from their customers.

Our financial institutions have been planning for a financial collapse wherein the US government will not offer assistance.

The resolution plans required by the Federal Reserve Bank, described schemes to have the major domestic banks remain afloat by selling off assets, finding alternative sources of funding, reducing risky measures that make a quick buck. These strategies were to be perfected with “no assumption of extraordinary support from the public sector.”

The mega-banks, through Wall Street, are also acquiring firearms, ammunition and control over private mercenary corporations like DynCorp and ‘Blackwater” as authorized by the Department of Defense (DoD) directive 3025.18 .

DynCorp is a military-based private mercenary contractor that provides (among other services) intelligence training and support, international security, contingency plans and operations. Ninety-six percent of their funding is based on annual revenues from the US federal government.

The international branch of DynCorp has operated as a “police force” even assisting local law enforcement during Hurricane Katrina.

Named as investors for the amassing of gun and ammunition manufacturers are Citibank, BoA, Barclays and Deutsche Bank who are pouring money into Cerebus and Veritas Equity who have taken over private corporations involved in the controlling riot situations.

The Federal Reserve Bank, one of the heads of banking cartels, has their own police force which operates as a protective security for the Fed against the American public.

As part of the Federal Reserve Act signed in 1913, the designation of a Federal Law Enforcement – special police officers that are exclusively regulated by authority of the Fed (whether in uniform or plain clothes.

These specialized police officers (who train with Special Response Teams) can work in tandem with local law enforcement or US federal agencies. These officers are heavily armed with semi-automatic pistols, sub machine guns and assault rifles as well as body armor.

Of recent, when withdrawing cash from an ATM, the daily allotted amount has decreased with some banks, thereby forcing the customer to go into the branch and extract the difference with a teller.

At this point, according to anonymous informants, the customer is taken into a backroom to be questioned as to why they want the cash, what they are purchasing with the cash, why they are not choosing to use a debit card or another form of digital trade to make the purchase. These questions are not only intrusive, they are illegal.

Some anonymous sources have said that banking representatives who conduct the integrations are directed to keep a record of customer responses on an online application that will be sent to the FBI in conjunction with Patriot Act mandates on tracking banking activity.

Customer funds are no longer secure, no longer backed by the FDIC or other insurance corporations, and banks are legally allowed to co-mingled customer money with other funds of the bank. The only safe place for your money is with you.

Now is the time to close your bank account.

Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporate-funded mainstream media. You can find us on our Facebook page.

Related:

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

WARREN BUFFETT SUED BY OBAMA’S IRS… EVEN HE ISN’T SAFE - WAIT UNTIL THEY COME AFTER YOU FOR OBAMA’S SECOND-TERM TAXES AND OBAMACARE

WARREN BUFFETT SUED BY OBAMA’S IRS

By AJ

Obama and his rich pals think you are just another useful idiot like the Occupy (OWS) crowd.

While Obama seeks to enact the “Buffett Rule” to place a higher tax burden on families/small businesses who make $250K per year or more, his Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is suing Warren Buffett.

Obama’s pal just doesn’t want to pay his taxes… but he has no problem stumping for Obama and calling for a higher tax burden on families and small businesses.

“Get this: Uncle Sam is suing Warren Buffett's company over taxes. Yes, taxes. The US government, in a little-followed case in Ohio, filed a lawsuit this month against a unit of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, seeking $366 million in taxes and penalties. The Berkshire division at the centre of the suit is NetJets, the private-aircraft company that caters to the nation's wealthiest - the people Buffett says should pay more in taxes.

It is an odd twist that a company controlled by Buffett - perhaps the most outspoken businessman in the country in support of raising taxes on the 'mega-rich' - is now in a dispute with the government over his company's paying too little in taxes.”

But it gets better… Buffett’s NetJets has now filed a lawsuit against the IRS.

“Now, NetJets and its sister division, which have filed their own suit against the IRS, say they "are stuck with a $642 million-plus bill for past taxes the IRS never indicated they were required to collect".

Obama’s rich friends do not want to pay their taxes, but they want to instill envy in the hearts of the uneducated and sing their “tax the rich” song.

Obama’s pal and Jobs Adviser, Jeffrey Immelt, has benefited since Obama took office through the same tax loopholes that Obama criticizes on the campaign trail. General Electric paid no Taxes in 2009, General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010.

“…GE's success at avoiding taxes is nothing short of extraordinary. The company, led by Immelt, earned $14.2 billion in profits in 2010, but it paid not a penny in taxes because the bulk of those profits, some $9 billion, were offshore. In fact, GE got a $3.2 billion tax benefit.”

Before blindly jumping on the “Tax the Rich” bandwagon, people should ask two simple questions:

  1. If Obama makes people pay even more in taxes, will I get some of that money? (Answer = No).
  2. Why are Obama’s millionaire and billionaire friends unwilling to pay more in taxes themselves?

Video:  Patriotic Millionaires Higher Taxes Treasury Department Donation The Daily Caller

Maybe it’s time to rethink the envy that Obama is selling, or at least see it for the BIG LIE that it is.

Video:  Milton Friedman: Why soaking the rich won't work. Reference:

Private jets, Warren Buffett and tax lawsuit

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-03-28/news/31249610_1_ticket-tax-tax-battle-first-tax

General Electric paid no Taxes in 2009

http://www.politisite.com/2010/04/12/general-electric-paid-no-taxes-in-2009/

General Electric Paid No Federal Taxes in 2010

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558

Obama's Second-Term Taxes 

By DICK MORRIS  - Published on TheHill.com on April 10, 2012

If Obama is reelected, the tax increase he and a Democratic Congress would impose on middle- and upper-middle-income Americans would be disastrous. It's easy to lose sight of his tax plans because he has hidden them in a variety of nooks and crannies, including the Simpson-Bowles Commission Report, the Pelosi budget of 2009 and the various tax proposals advanced by his party. But, should he win, they will all come out of hiding, and together, they will be the principal legislative thrust of his efforts in 2013.

For a couple making $250,000, these tax hikes would add another $3,000 to $4,000 a month in taxes (depending on whether they were self-employed).

For a couple making $150,000, they would add another $1,200 to $1,400 per month.
Let's all realize that Obama let a massive deficit accumulate precisely because he realized that doing so gave him the leverage he would need to raise taxes and increase, permanently, the size of government in America. Reagan let the deficit pile up so liberals couldn't spend more money. Obama did so in order to make conservatives vote for higher taxes.

How will he tax us? Let us count the ways:

• Most basic, of course, will be an increase in tax rates. Those paying 33 percent will now pay 36 percent. People paying 35 percent will now pay 40 percent. Most people accept and expect that Obama will raise these brackets if he is reelected. But they don't realize what else he will do.

• As he advocated in the 2008 campaign, he will eliminate the ceiling on wages that must be taxed for Social Security. Currently, wages are taxed at 6.2 percent (now, temporarily, at 4.2 percent) up to a ceiling about $100,000 per year in income. The ceiling rises with the cost of living. But Obama will eliminate the ceiling and subject all wages to FICA taxation. (In his campaign, he spoke of a "carve-out" for those making between $100,000 and $200,000, where income would be exempt from FICA, but don't count on it.) For those who are employed, the increase in FICA taxes will mean an effective increase in their tax bracket of 6.2 percentage points. For the self-employed, it will mean a whopping 12.4 percentage point increase, bringing their effective tax rate, if they are in the top bracket, over 52 percent. Obama has refrained from addressing Social Security's financial problems and will do so until after the election. But his solution will be higher taxes, not curtailed benefits.

• All deductions for mortgage interest, charitable giving and state and local tax payments would likely end for those making more than $250,000.

• Even for those making less than $250,000, the Bowles-Simpson recommendations call for replacing the current tax deduction for mortgage interest, charitable giving and state and local taxes with a tax credit. Usually 8 percent is mentioned as the tax credit level.

So add it up:

Case A
Married couple
Income: $250,000
Home: $300,000 (mortgage interest: $20,000)
Property taxes: $15,000
Self-employed
Basic tax rate: +5% +$12,500
FICA on full income: +$18,600 ($9,300 if employed)
No deduction
Mortgage interest +$ 6,500
Prop Taxes +$5,000
State income tax (9%) +$7,500
Total additional tax: +$50,100 ($40,800 if employed)

Case B
Married couple
Income: $150,000
Home: $200,000 (mortgage interest: $10,000)
Property taxes: $10,000
Self-employed
Basic tax rate: +3% +$ 4,500
FICA on full income +$6,200 ($3,100 if employed)
8% credit, no deduction
Mortgage interest +$ 2,500
Property taxes +$ 2,500
State income tax (6%) +$ 1,500
(calculation replaces deduction at 33% bracket with an 8% credit)
Total additional tax: +$17,200 ($14,100 if employed)

Can we afford Barack Obama for four more years? No way! And don't say you weren't warned!

Related:

A Wicked Financial Storm Descends on America

Nothing to Do With Health Care!  It’s All About New Taxes and Tax Collection

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Jobs, Economy, Job Numbers

jobs

A Closer Look at the Jan. Jobless Numbers: Are They ‘Being Made Up?’

You may recall that major media outlets rejoiced and the markets jumped last Friday when the January jobs report was released.

“Labor Department today lowered the U.S. unemployment rate by two-tenths of a point to 8.3 percent, the lowest it’s been since February 2009,” Emily Knapp of Wall St. Cheat reported, “January data showed nonfarm payrolls to have risen a whopping 243,000, wildly exceeding even the most optimistic of economists’ projections.”

However, although the markets did indeed react positively to the good news, many analysts were skeptical of the data in the report.

“A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55 [percent],” editors at Zero Hedge wrote.

“Looks like the good folks at the BLS heard us: it appears that the people not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million. No, that’s not a typo: 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in one month!”

What does this mean?

Zero Hedge explains:

So as the labor force increased from 153.9 million to 154.4 million, the non institutional population increased by 242.3 million meaning, those not in the labor force surged from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. Which means that the civilian labor force tumbled to a fresh 30 year low of 63.7% as the BLS is seriously planning on eliminating nearly half of the available labor pool from the unemployment calculation.

Even conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the report, claiming that the data was “corrupt as it can be” because the Labor Force Participation Rate has been repeatedly adjusted.

Is Limbaugh out of line on this?

“After countless attempts to discredit or defend Friday’s jobs report, we can all agree on one thing: The data is complicated,” Gus Lubin of Business Insider writes. “So complicated that the BLS could make the economy look better than it was and no one would be sure.”

Former Reagan Budget Director on Jan. Jobs Report: These Numbers are Being Made up

David Stockman

That’s more or less what David Stockman, former budget director for President Ronald Reagan, wrote in an email to former hedge fund manager Bruce Krasting.

On his blog “My Take on Financial Events,” Krasting wrote, “Is the current [Labor Force Participation Rate] a temporary phenomenon, or is this the ‘New Normal?’”

Krasting believes that if the current Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is the “new normal,” it could have severe – even dangerous – effects on the economy.

Why?

“Virtually all of the economic models used by CBO, OMB, SSA and private economists are assuming that the long-term LFPR will be in the mid-to upper 60s. The consensus is 2-3 [percent] higher than where it is today,” Krasting writes.

“If you plug in a rate of 63 [percent] versus 67 [precent] over the next ten-years, it makes a huge difference on the size of the deficit and the public debt. It would cause the deficits at Social Security and Medicare to explode. The percentage of GDP attributable to the government would inevitably rise. The economy, and society in general, would be socialized [emphasis added],” Krasting writes.

In response to Krastings’ criticism of the jobs report, Stockman writes: “…if you spend a little time with these numbers you will know that they are being made up.”

Here’s the email (via Wall Street Examiner):

…I’m wondering if this goes much deeper. I don’t particularly believe in tin foil hats, but all of these mainstream economists treat the BLS and BEA data like it’s holy writ—when it’s evident that the reports are so massaged, estimated, deemed, revised, re-bench marked and seasonally adjusted that any month-to-month change has a decent chance of being noise. What deep secret might they be hiding?

So on the labor force participation rate they say, “No it didn’t go down in January because the 2012 numbers are re-bench marked for the 2010 census,” but for some reason the BLS didn’t bother to update the 2011 civilian population numbers, including December. Thus, the BLS published apples-to-oranges numbers on this particular variable and the footnote says the December participation rate would have been the same as January, if they had revised it!

Yet on another variable— the establishment survey jobs count—they were also busy re-benchmarking–but here they did update the originally reported numbers for every month of 2011. Even then, it is hard to say what got updated because the originally reported numbers each month are then revised during the next two reporting months—with any excess or shortfall reallocated to earlier months outside the three month window, which are not published on a revised basis, even though they have been revised! This reflects a wacko thing called the concurrent seasonal adjustment method.

… your point is that the longer-term trend of the labor force participation rate is really bad, and this truth is absolutely validated by the January report. Except it would have been equally bad in December had it been reported with the new census data…

But the mainstream narrative never gets to the trend. In this case, the plain fact is that we are warehousing a larger and larger population of adults who are one way or another living off transfer payments, relatives, sub-prime credit, and the black market. My suspicion is that this negative trend and many others like it get buried by the monthly change chatter from mainstream economists and on bubble vision, and that these monthly deltas are so heavily manipulated as to be almost a made-up reality. Call it the economists’ Truman Show.
…
In short, if you spend a little time with these numbers you will know that they are being made up. Funny thing that I remember during the depths of the 1982 recession Reagan read in Human Events one night that the seasonally adjusted numbers were being manipulated and one should look at the unadjusted numbers, instead. The next morning during an economic update briefing Reagan said, he wanted to talk about the “unadjusted” unemployment rate. Marty Feldstein turned white as a ghost, and then talked him out of it. Hmmm!

Read the full email here.

Former Reagan Budget Director on Jan. Jobs Report: These Numbers are Being Made up

People line up at a Workforce Plus job fair, Thursday, March 26, 2009, in Tallahassee, Fla. 75,000 Floridians lost their jobs in February. The state's unemployment rate rose to 9.4 %, the highest since 1976. (Photo: AP)

Gallup: These Are the Most ‘Economically Confident’ States

Gallup has released an intriguing report that ranks the most “economically confident” states in America.

And although the report lists the most “confident” states, don’t be fooled into thinking these areas actually believe that the U.S. economy is improving. On the contrary, the report is careful to point out that, nationally speaking, faith in the U.S. economy is slipping.

In fact, out of all the areas surveyed, the place with the highest confidence rating (the District of Columbia) isn’t even a state!

“Economic confidence dropped in all states . . . in 2011, reflecting the overall decline nationally,” Gallup reports. “The declines range from a low of 3 points in Idaho and West Virginia to a high of 22 points in Delaware.”

Overall, two-thirds of the participants in the Gallup phone survey believe that the economy is getting worse, according to the data.

What does this mean?

“Americans overall and in every state remain more negative than positive about the economy, creating a challenge for President Obama as he seeks re-election this year, given the strong relationship between economic conditions and an incumbent’s re-election success,” Gallup reports.

It continues:

“On a near-term basis, however, economic confidence picked up in January of this year, perhaps foretelling a more positive uptick to come in 2012. Americans are also substantially more confident about the economy now than they were in the year Obama was elected. Thus, it is not clear if voters will reward him for the signs of economic improvement that have come in recent years, or hold him accountable for the fact that the economy is still struggling nearly four years after he took office.”

Perhaps before any conclusions are drawn from the Gallup report, a few things should be pointed out.

First, as mentioned several times on The Blaze, before accepting survey results, one should take into account the possibility of “sampling errors.” That is, one must bear in mind of the likelihood of skewed polling data.

Second, as the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein notes, there are some rather inexplicable results in the Gallup report:

… residents of Washington are more optimistic than, well, anyone else. Our Index is -4. The next-most optimistic state, North Dakota, is at -26. That’s rather odd, given that North Dakota’s unemployment rate is 3.4 percent, while the District of Columbia’s is stuck above 10 percent.

Indeed, that is odd.

“One possibility is that the poll is wrong,” Klein writes, “Another is that the political nature of the economic crisis leaves residents of Washington feeling more in control than residents of other states.”

Echoing the sentiments of Mr. Klein, even Gallup is slightly confused by the results: “There are no clear patterns in the states that rank in the top and bottom 10 in economic confidence. For example, the top 10 states vary by region and political leanings, including the most (Hawaii, along with D.C.) and least (Utah) Democratic states.”

This begs the obvious question: how did Gallup structure its phone survey?

Gallup explains:

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking January 1-December 31, 2011, with a random sample of 174,639 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones…Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400 cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents by region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed telephone numbers. Cell phone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Okay, now that the methodology is understood, what do the results mean? That is, what does it mean when Gallup says that the District of Columbia has a “-4″ economic confidence rating?

The Index is based on the average differences between Americans’ assessments of current conditions (11% excellent or good and 48% poor in 2011) and their views of whether the economy is getting better (29%) or worse (66%). The Index has a theoretical range of -100 to +100, with negative scores indicating respondents are more negative than positive about the economy.

So, with that in mind, and despite the possibility of “sampling errors,” these are the most economically confident states (and the District of Columbia), according to Gallup:

The Most "Economically Confident" States

leftright Photo 2 of 11

10. Utah

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -31

10. Utah

leftright Photo 3 of 11

9. Massachusetts

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -31

9. Massachusetts

leftright Photo 4 of 11

8. Iowa

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -30

8. Iowa

leftright Photo 5 of 11

7. South Dakota

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -30

7. South Dakota

leftright Photo 6 of 11

6. Hawaii

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -30

6. Hawaii

leftright Photo 7 of 11

5. Maryland

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -28

5. Maryland

leftright Photo 8 of 11

4. Nebraska

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -27

4. Nebraska

leftright Photo 9 of 11

3. Minnesota

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -27

3. Minnesota

leftright Photo 10 of 11

2. North Dakota

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -26

2. North Dakota

leftright Photo 11 of 11

1. District of Columbia

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -4

1. District of Columbia

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

Here‘s the Chart That Has One Finance Writer Feeling ’Something Is About to Happen’

Joe Weisenthal is the intrepid finance writer over at Business Insider. He’s usually more plugged in than a Chevy Volt. So when he looks at a chart and says he feels “something is about to happen,” it’s not a bad idea to pay attention. And that’s just what he did.

Here‘s the chart from Weisenthal’s Wednesday-morning post:

Volatility Index Chart

I‘ll let Weisenthal explain what he’s seeing;

The above chart is the VIX. Sometimes it’s called the “fear index”. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a quick way of looking at how much investors are willing to pay for downside protection in the market. Right now, complacency is high, and nobody wants to pay much for “insurance.”

Once again, we‘re getting close to what’s been a floor for the index (since the crisis) and so it seems inevitable that something is going to come along and jolt everyone awake. [Emphasis added]

In other words, the lower the line on the chart, the more complacent people are. And when people are complacent, they don’t prepare. And that’s usually when something big happens to wake them up.

So what are the risks out there? Check out his post on Business Insider to see.

h/t to the Blaze

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Hedge Broker Goes Galt: Ann Barnhardt Shuts Down Firm With Chilling Letter

This is an absolute must-read.

If you haven't yet read this letter, due to the recommendation of Rush Limbaugh yesterday, you really need to. This lady, Ann Barnhardt, tells it like it is.

She speaks without fear, holding to the truth, in a manner that would shock most in the business world. Needless to say, she's a Bible-believing Christian. She simply doesn't care about the consequences of telling the truth, and letting the chips fall where they may. This lady rocks!

Here's the story, from The Blaze:

Posted on November 18, 2011 at 8:45am by Jonathon M. Seidl
Ann Barnhardt describes herself as a an “an old-school commercial hedge broker specializing in CATTLE and GRAIN.” And she just shut down her business by delivering a passionate and chilling open letter posted on her website.
“I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not,” she writes. And then she unloads:

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette. [Emphasis added]

The letter caught the attention of Rush Limbaugh on Thursday.

“The letter from the hedge fund guy sounds particularly filled with vitriol, but he’s right about something,” Limbaugh said after reading an excerpt. “Corzine was that firm, and the customers’ money is gone, and it’s like $600 million of it, and it’s gone, and they’re trying to get it back, it’s a miniature Madoff in that sense. And somebody did steal that money. Somebody at that firm, which is now bankrupt and 1,100 people or thereabouts have been laid off, somebody stole the clients’ money. It is a big deal to a lot of people.”
We’ve included the entire letter (originally presented in two parts) below (courtesy of Zero Hedge):

BCM Has Ceased Operations (source)
Posted by Ann Barnhardt – November 17, AD 2011 10:27 AM MST

Dear Clients, Industry Colleagues and Friends of Barnhardt Capital Management,

It is with regret and unflinching moral certainty that I announce that Barnhardt Capital Management has ceased operations. After six years of operating as an independent introducing brokerage, and eight years of employment as a broker before that, I found myself, this morning, for the first time since I was 20 years old, watching the futures and options markets open not as a participant, but as a mere spectator.

The reason for my decision to pull the plug was excruciatingly simple: I could no longer tell my clients that their monies and positions were safe in the futures and options markets – because they are not. And this goes not just for my clients, but for every futures and options account in the United States. The entire system has been utterly destroyed by the MF Global collapse. Given this sad reality, I could not in good conscience take one more step as a commodity broker, soliciting trades that I knew were unsafe or holding funds that I knew to be in jeopardy.

The futures markets are very highly-leveraged and thus require an exceptionally firm base upon which to function. That base was the sacrosanct segregation of customer funds from clearing firm capital, with additional emergency financial backing provided by the exchanges themselves. Up until a few weeks ago, that base existed, and had worked flawlessly. Firms came and went, with some imploding in spectacular fashion. Whenever a firm failure happened, the customer funds were intact and the exchanges would step in to backstop everything and keep customers 100% liquid – even as their clearing firm collapsed and was quickly replaced by another firm within the system.

Everything changed just a few short weeks ago. A firm, led by a crony of the Obama regime, stole all of the non-margined cash held by customers of his firm. Let’s not sugar-coat this or make this crime seem “complex” and “abstract” by drowning ourselves in six-dollar words and uber-technical jargon. Jon Corzine STOLE the customer cash at MF Global. Knowing Jon Corzine, and knowing the abject lawlessness and contempt for humanity of the Marxist Obama regime and its cronies, this is not really a surprise. What was a surprise was the reaction of the exchanges and regulators. Their reaction has been to take a bad situation and make it orders of magnitude worse. Specifically, they froze customers out of their accounts WHILE THE MARKETS CONTINUED TO TRADE, refusing to even allow them to liquidate. This is unfathomable. The risk exposure precedent that has been set is completely intolerable and has destroyed the entire industry paradigm. No informed person can continue to engage these markets, and no moral person can continue to broker or facilitate customer engagement in what is now a massive game of Russian Roulette.

I have learned over the last week that MF Global is almost certainly the mere tip of the iceberg. There is massive industry-wide exposure to European sovereign junk debt. While other firms may not be as heavily leveraged as Corzine had MFG leveraged, and it is now thought that MFG’s leverage may have been in excess of 100:1, they are still suicidally leveraged and will likely stand massive, unmeetable collateral calls in the coming days and weeks as Europe inevitably collapses. I now suspect that the reason the Chicago Mercantile Exchange did not immediately step in to backstop the MFG implosion was because they knew and know that if they backstopped MFG, they would then be expected to backstop all of the other firms in the system when the failures began to cascade – and there simply isn’t that much money in the entire system. In short, the problem is a SYSTEMIC problem, not merely isolated to one firm.

Perhaps the most ominous dynamic that I have yet heard of in regards to this mess is that of the risk of potential CLAWBACK actions. For those who do not know, “clawback” is the process by which a bankruptcy trustee is legally permitted to re-seize assets that left a bankrupt entity in the time period immediately preceding the entity’s collapse. So, using the MF Global customers as an example, any funds that were withdrawn from MFG accounts in the run-up to the collapse, either because of suspicions the customer may have had about MFG from, say, watching the company’s bond yields rise sharply, or from purely organic day-to-day withdrawls, the bankruptcy trustee COULD initiate action to “clawback” those funds. As a hedge broker, this makes my blood run cold. Generally, as the markets move in favor of a hedge position and equity builds in a client’s account, that excess equity is sent back to the customer who then uses that equity to offset cash market transactions OR to pay down a revolving line of credit. Even the possibility that a customer could be penalized and additionally raped AGAIN via a clawback action after already having their customer funds stolen is simply villainous. While there has been no open indication of clawback actions being initiated by the MF Global trustee, I have been told that it is a possibility.

And so, to the very unpleasant crux of the matter. The futures and options markets are no longer viable. It is my recommendation that ALL customers withdraw from all of the markets as soon as possible so that they have the best chance of protecting themselves and their equity. The system is no longer functioning with integrity and is suicidally risk-laden. The rule of law is non-existent, instead replaced with godless, criminal political cronyism.

Remember, derivatives contracts are NOT NECESSARY in the commodities markets. The cash commodity itself is the underlying reality and is not dependent on the futures or options markets. Many people seem to have gotten that backwards over the past decades. From Abel the animal husbandman up until the year 1964, there were no cattle futures contracts at all, and no options contracts until 1984, and yet the cash cattle markets got along just fine.

Finally, I will not, under any circumstance, consider reforming and re-opening Barnhardt Capital Management, or any other iteration of a brokerage business, until Barack Obama has been removed from office AND the government of the United States has been sufficiently reformed and repopulated so as to engender my total and complete confidence in the government, its adherence to and enforcement of the rule of law, and in its competent and just regulatory oversight of any commodities markets that may reform. So long as the government remains criminal, it would serve no purpose whatsoever to attempt to rebuild the futures industry or my firm, because in a lawless environment, the same thievery and fraud would simply happen again, and the criminals would go unpunished, sheltered by the criminal oligarchy.

To my clients, who literally TO THE MAN agreed with my assessment of the situation, and were relieved to be exiting the markets, and many whom I now suspect stayed in the markets as long as they did only out of personal loyalty to me, I can only say thank you for the honor and pleasure of serving you over these last years, with some of my clients having been with me for over twelve years. I will continue to blog at Barnhardt.biz, which will be subtly re-skinned soon, and will continue my cattle marketing consultation business. I will still be here in the office, answering my phones, with the same phone numbers. Alas, my retirement came a few years earlier than I had anticipated, but there was no possible way to continue given the inevitability of the collapse of the global financial markets, the overthrow of our government, and the resulting collapse in the rule of law.

As for me, I can only echo the words of David:

“This is the Lord’s doing; and it is wonderful in our eyes.”
With Best Regards-  Ann Barnhardt

“I am going to head out of town for a few days, but will be checking email and messages,” Barnhardt wrote, after describing her letter as “going Galt” — a reference to Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”
“Thanks to one and all for the kind support and prayers. Please be assured of mine in return, for all of us.”
Read more about MF Global here and here.
UPDATE:
It turns out Barnhardt has a history of being quite outspoken. She regularly posts videos to a YouTube channel and has a history of making controversial statements about Islam. She’s also come under fire for her thoughts on the bin Laden raid.

Despite some of her baggage, though, she is grabbing headlines. Besides catching the attention of Zero Hedge and Limbaugh, her story was also featured in an article on Bloomberg Business Week’s website today.

Could it be that despite her past, her present story is still compelling?
(H/T: Andrea Shea King)
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And if you think that was bold, just watch her video clip where she dares to criticize Islam, in very candid terms (she's not happy about the pro-Islamic propaganda in the media, and she goes after Islam itself, for being a TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM, not a religion, and she goes after Mohammed's sexual perversions [CONTENT WARNING: Graphic Descriptions of Mohammed's Sexual Perversion]), so don't watch it if you're uncomfortable with harsh criticism, including criticism of sexual perversion.

While I don't agree with every word she says in the video (and elsewhere; I disagree with many, but not all, of her thoughts on the Bin Laden Raid in Pakistan, for example), she is largely correct. And it's definitely worth a watch, unless you're defensive of Islam, or you don't wish to watch criticism of sexual perversion, or you're a Muslim (In the last instance, you'll be quite upset), you'll definitely have your eyes opened if you haven't studied the Qu'ran. This is as politically incorrect as it gets. If you don't want to see hardcore (yet factual) criticism of Islam, DO NOT WATCH THIS. Ann pulls no punches. She simply speaks without fear, questioning with boldness (this is part 1 of 4, so if you liked it, go to her YouTube channel and watch the rest):

Video: Ann Barnhardt "Islamic Sexuality: A Survey of Evil" Part 1 of 4

Don’t know who Galt is?  If not you need to read: Atlas Shrugged or better yet get Ayn Rand’s Box Set including Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead

Also check out Schweizer’s and Abramhoff’s new books:  Throw Them All Out and Capitol Punishment