Weekend Economists on the Trail of Tears November 19-21, 2010

[Demeter]

As promised, WEE considers the fate and fortunes of those people who first came to this land, the native Americans, also known as American Indians, or by their various tribes:



Crow





Piegan-Blackfoot



Huron



For an exhaustive list of tribes and languages, see the following link:

http://www.native-languages.org/languages.htm

Yaqui

The Trail of Tears was the forced relocation and movement of Native Americans, including many members of the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, and Choctaw nations among others in the United States, from their homelands to Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) in the Western United States. The phrase originated from a description of the removal of the Choctaw Nation in 1831. Many Native Americans suffered from exposure, disease, and starvation while on route to their destinations, and many died, including 4,000 of the 15,000 relocated Cherokee.

In 1831, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Seminole (sometimes collectively referred to as the Five Civilized Tribes) were living as autonomous nations in what would be called the American Deep South. The process of cultural transformation (proposed by George Washington and Henry Knox) was gaining momentum, especially among the Cherokee and Choctaw. Andrew Jackson continued the removal of the Native Americans with the passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. In 1831 the Choctaw were the first to be removed, and they became the model for all other removals. After the Choctaw, the Seminole were removed in 1832, the Creek in 1834, then the Chickasaw in 1837, and finally the Cherokee in 1838. After removal, some Native Americans remained in their ancient homelands - the Choctaw are found in Mississippi, the Seminole in Florida, the Creek in Alabama, and the Cherokee in North Carolina. A limited number of Europeans and Africans (usually as slaves) also accompanied the Native American nations on the trek westward. By 1837, 46,000 Native Americans from these southeastern states had been removed from their homelands thereby opening 25 million acres (100,000 km2) for settlement.

If we the People do not quickly bestir ourselves, I fear our banksters--would-be masters have put this nation on course for another tear-soaked dispossession of home and future and life itself.

Post them if you've got them.

[Demeter]

1. 3 BANKS DOWN AT 7 PM EST

Gulf State Community Bank, Carrabelle, Florida, was closed today by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Centennial Bank, Conway, Arkansas, to assume all of the deposits of Gulf State Community Bank.

The five branches of Gulf State Community Bank will reopen during normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of Centennial Bank...As of September 30, 2010, Gulf State Community Bank had approximately $112.1 million in total assets and $112.2 million in total deposits. Centennial Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium to assume all of the deposits of Gulf State Community Bank. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, Centennial Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and Centennial Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $84.4 million of Gulf State Community Bank's assets....The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $42.7 million. Compared to other alternatives, Centennial Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Gulf State Community Bank is the 147th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the 28th in Florida. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, on October 22, 2010.


Allegiance Bank of North America, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, was closed today by the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Banking, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with VIST Bank, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, to assume all of the deposits of Allegiance Bank of North America.

The five branches of Allegiance Bank of North America will reopen on Monday as branches of VIST Bank...As of September 30, 2010, Allegiance Bank of North America had approximately $106.6 million in total assets and $92.0 million in total deposits. VIST Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.50 percent to assume all of the deposits of Allegiance Bank of North America. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the Allegiance Bank of North America, VIST Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the assets.

The FDIC and VIST Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $86.2 million of Allegiance Bank of North America's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $14.2 million. Compared to other alternatives, VIST Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. Allegiance bank of North America is the 148th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the first in Pennsylvania. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, Pittsburgh, on August 14, 2009.


First Banking Center, Burlington, Wisconsin, was closed today by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with First Michigan Bank, Troy, Michigan, to assume all of the deposits of First Banking Center.

The 17 branches of First Banking Center will reopen during normal business hours beginning Saturday as branches of First Michigan Bank...As of September 30, 2010, First Banking Center had approximately $750.7 million in total assets and $664.8 million in total deposits. First Michigan Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.50 percent to assume all of the deposits of First Banking Center. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, First Michigan Bank agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets.

The FDIC and First Michigan Bank entered into a loss-share transaction on $515.6 million of First Banking Center's assets...The FDIC estimates that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be $142.6 million. Compared to other alternatives, First Michigan Bank's acquisition was the least costly resolution for the FDIC's DIF. First Banking Center is the 149th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the second in Wisconsin. The last FDIC-insured institution closed in the state was Maritime Savings Bank, West Allis, on September 17, 2010.

[Demeter]

25. ONLY $199.5 M TONIGHT

and likely nothing next weekend....

[Demeter]

41. Endgame for Bair Is No Less Audacious

http://www.onwallstreet.com/news/bair-fdic-2669855-1.html

By this time next year, Sheila Bair hopes to be writing a book. Working titles include "Skunk at the Picnic" and "The Audacity of That Woman."

OK, that's only partly true. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. chairman is planning to write a book after she leaves the agency next June, but the working titles are merely references to some choice comments made about her tenure...Bair has just over seven months left in her five-year term — June 26 is to be her last day — and she has made it clear she has no intention of staying longer...

"My biggest priority is to get the resolution rules in place," she said. This includes both the FDIC's rule on how resolutions of large financial institutions will be handled and claims processed and a rule the agency is writing with the Federal Reserve Board on living wills. This joint rule is to ask large institutions to detail how regulators could unwind them should the company fail.

"Not having the appropriate tools to deal with the larger institutions once they became troubled was a real problem during this crisis. It was a key driver for bailouts, with all the moral hazard that created and the adverse political fallout," Bair said. "So doing what I can while I am still here to make sure we have an infrastructure so that, if and when the next cycle hits and these tools need to be used, we are ready to use them. That is very important."

The Dodd-Frank Act gave the FDIC the authority to seize and resolve any systemically important financial company that gets into trouble; the agency also can examine institutions supervised by the Fed or the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Bair does not apologize for this redundancy and makes it clear the agency will focus on resolution planning...Bair is perhaps at her most blunt when it comes to the largest financial companies. She thinks they are too big, too complicated and too powerful. "I think living wills can be the lever to" force banks to shrink and simplify, she said...In a speech Wednesday in New York, Bair warned that regulators are serious about large companies' taking steps to become more resolvable. Dodd-Frank gave the FDIC and Fed authority, when companies submit subpar living wills, to force divestitures..."Let us be clear: We will require these institutions to make substantial changes to their structure and activities if necessary to ensure orderly resolution," she said...

"There is just so much to do," she said, repeating the thought several times. "We need to fix the trading book rules. We need to put floors under the advanced approach along the lines of the Collins amendment. We need to get the ratios up. We need better quality of capital. … And we need a new framework for the smaller banks."...

Bair finally got around to mentioning consumer protection when she said her third priority is to complete some organizational changes. She created a "consumer and depositor protection" unit in August and in October hired Mark Pearce, a state regulator from North Carolina, to run it. Bair said the unit will merely enforce the rules to be issued by the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (Dodd-Frank created the bureau but said banking regulators would still enforce consumer protections at banks with less than $10 billion of assets.) Bair said Pearce's group will "help facilitate coordination to ensure that we are all working to the same end and we aren't sending conflicting signals....

The number and cost of bank failures will be lower in 2011, she predicted. (The number will peak this year, and costs peaked in 2009.) Bair said she expects the agency will start to downsize next year.

She hopes the Obama administration will start looking for her successor early next year, Bair said. "This agency needs a strong hand. It needs a person who can speak to the public, be a reassuring voice for the public and be a conservative supervisor because, at the end of the day, we have more exposure than anybody....If you are wondering whether she would take the CFPB job, the answer is a simple "no."

Bair says a couple of publishers have approached her and that she does not think the only book by an insider so far — "On the Brink," by former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — told the full story of the 2008 financial crisis...The budget deficit tops Bair's list of concerns.

"I am worried about our fiscal situation and the impact that could ultimately have on the banking system," she said. "The next banking crisis may be on interest rate risk because at some point these chickens are going to come home to roost. The system is just awash with liquidity, and if and when foreign investors start losing confidence, … interest rates are going to shoot up in a way that is not going to be controlled by the Fed or anybody else."

[Demeter]

2. HOME ECONOMICS

Mohegan Succotash


* 3-4 ears of fresh sweet corn
* 1 packet frozen lima beans
* 1 and 1/2 cups water
* 2 tbsp vegetable oil
* 1 bunch spring onions, sliced
* 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
* 1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
* salt and pepper, to taste

1. Clean the corn of its husk, silk and fibers. Cut the cobs into pieces that are about 1-2 inches in length. You will need a very sharp knife to do this or you culd end up hurting yourself!
2. In a large saucepan, add oil, lima beans, water, salt and pepper. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for another 10 minutes
4. Add the green onions and peppers. Simmer while covered for another 6-10 minutes until the beans are tender. The peppers should be tender yet crisp.
5. Remove lid and cook over high heat for 3-4 minutes until the liquid is reduced to about 1/2 cup.


I prefer to skip the buttery flavor (1/4 cup butter) and use just a little bit of vegetable oil instead. The original Mohegan recipe calls for bear grease instead of butter, so I am just taking it one step further in substituting it with vegetable oil. In fact, the oil is something I could skip completely. Vegetable stock or chicken broth could also be used.

Succotash is unbelievably satisfying. For this versatile recipe, use your favorite vegetables when you want to be seduced by their inherent flavors. It is something I relish when my body calls for a systemic cleansing of spice overload. It is almost detoxifying in its effects.



http://www.indianfoodrocks.com/2007/11/ancient-cuisines-mohegan-succotash.html

[Demeter]

3. Taibbi: How Can We Expect Wall St. Thieves to Stop Stealing Unless We Throw Them in Prison?

http://www.alternet.org/story/148916/taibbi%3A_how_can_we_expect_wall_st._thieves_to_stop_stealing_unless_we_throw_them_in_prison

With financial fraud now so sophisticated and pervasive, we clearly need zero-tolerance solutions to change Wall Street's culture...Taibbi and I pondered the financial Masters of the Universe and their maddening infallibility. I asked him why they never fear facing legal consequences. Do they believe they're untouchable? Or do they know law enforcement won't pursue them?

"They're not afraid because other than Bernie Madoff, when was the last time someone on Wall Street faced any real punishment?" he responded. "Sure, a few go to jail once in a while, but they're usually out in a few months and then on the speaking circuit. That's not exactly a deterrent against bad behavior that's making you millions."

... things haven't worked out that way because the toughest "tough on crime" policies are most focused on crimes of passion, derangement and destitution -- crimes that are often not calculated and therefore not deterrable. This is probably one of the reasons why the murder rate has been higher in death penalty states than in non-death penalty states, leading most criminologists to conclude that capital punishment does not hinder conventional homicide.

But what about crimes of economic homicide? These are the opposite of crimes of passion. When, say, a speculator securitizes bad mortgages and peddles them to pension funds as safe investments, that fraud involves exactly the kind of calculation that might be deterred via the prospect of harsh punishment.

"What if a bank CEO was given life without parole?" I asked Taibbi. "What if instead of country club jail, one of these guys was shown experiencing prison like a regular convict? That would have to stop some of the worst stuff, right?"

"Right, and go a step further," Taibbi countered. "How about putting a few of them in the electric chair? Are you telling me Goldman Sachs execs aren't then going to change?"

We both busted out laughing -- and hard. Not at the truth behind the theorizing, but at the idea that any of it would actually happen today. In 2005, Washington couldn't even pass a post-Enron proposal to hold CEOs legally liable for their companies' corporate tax fraud. So the notion that the same money-dominated capital will now subject CEOs to anything remotely "tough on crime" is, well, far-fetched...

[Demeter]

4. Replacing Our Failed Economy Is Long Overdue and We Have the Power to Change It

http://www.alternet.org/story/148917/replacing_our_failed_economy_is_long_overdue_and_we_have_the_power_to_change_it?page=entire

The following is an excerpt from the introduction of the 2nd edition of David Korten's Agenda for a New Economy (Berrett-Koehler, 2010):

I wrote the first edition of Agenda for a New Economy in late 2008 when Wall Street was in the throes of collapse. The phantom wealth machine had been exposed and its devastating effects on the real economy were apparent everywhere.

The book was published just as a new president and new Congress were taking power, and I had hopes they would begin to rein in the Wall Street financial institutions that were causing such pain and set us on the path to a much more sensible economy. I included a chapter with the speech I wanted our youthful, idealistic, articulate new president to give -- one that would recognize the transformation needed in our money system, our economic institutions and the rules that determine their behavior.

I knew the speech was a fantasy. Mostly it was designed to help readers see as clearly as possible the ideas that must redirect our policy making. But in my heart I guess I still hoped that perhaps the new president would in fact put forward some of the ideas in a speech of his own and we would begin the journey to an economy that treats people fairly and is in line with the limits of the planet.

In the 18 months since the first edition came out, we have seen with increasing clarity the extent of Wall Street's hold on Washington. I have abandoned my brief flirtation with the fantasy that Obama might be the exception and that contrary to what I have believed and taught for more than 20 years change might come from the top.

If change comes, the leadership will come from below through citizen action that originates from outside of the institutions that are failing us on so many fronts. Change from below can succeed only when a large number of people have a shared understanding of the roots of the problem and share a vision of the path to its resolution...

[Demeter]

5. Shock Doctrine Attack on Middle Class Intensifies

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/340026/shock_doctrine_attack_on_middle_class_intensifies/

Just as the Tax Policy Center releases its analysis showing how heavily tilted the tax changes in the Simpson-Bowles plan are:

Income Quintile Tax Shift
Lowest 47.0
Second 19.1
Middle 6.7
Fourth 0.5
Top -1.9
All 0.8

a second such plan is released, about which Dan Froomkin says:

This latest group hails from the Bipartisan Policy Center, and its signature proposal may end up being a whopping 6.5 percent national "Deficit Reduction Sales Tax" -- just the sort of thing that is devastating to people who live on a budget while not really mattering so much to the rich.

In its quest to control health care costs, the group also recommends significant increases in Medicare premiums in the short term. And after 2018, Medicare beneficiaries would either be forced to pay out of pocket for any and all cost increases more than one percent greater than the growth rate of the economy -- or they would be invited to leave the government program entirely and find private insurance instead. That would no longer be Medicare as we know it -- or as future retirees expect it.

Once again, it bears repeating that the current deficit really is all Bush's fault. Clinton left office with a surplus--and trillions of dollars of surplus as far as the eye could see. Bush destroyed all that in record time:

[Demeter]

6. House GOP blocks extension of jobless benefits

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-congress-20101119,0,3000845.story


House Republicans voted Thursday to deny an extension of unemployment benefits for jobless Americans and tried to cut off public funding for National Public Radio, moves that reinforced the GOP's direction following its midterm election gains.

The votes were not necessarily new tactics, as Republicans have generally opposed extending unemployment insurance unless it is paid for with federal spending cuts elsewhere, and have pledged to take weekly votes to cut federal spending. But the two House votes, within hours of each other as lawmakers prepared to recess for a Thanksgiving break, provided an example of the agenda to come when the GOP takes control of the chamber in January.

"This couldn't come at a worse time," said Rep. Chellie Pingree (D- Maine) in making the case to extend unemployment benefits. "Although our economy has shown some signs of improving, far, far too many people are still unable to find a job."

Unemployment insurance runs out on Nov. 30 for 2 million jobless Americans. Democrats sought to extend coverage during the holiday season through February, when another 2 million would be without benefits.

But Republicans opposed using emergency funds for the $12.5-billion cost of the jobless aid. Instead, they wanted the benefits paid by shifting federal funds from economic stimulus accounts or from other programs.

Lawmakers voted 258-154 to extend the jobless benefits, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the fast-track measure. Eleven Democrats and 143 Republicans were among those voting no.

Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) argued that Democrats, by bringing the bill to the floor without providing a way to pay for its costs, failed to heed the anti-spending message of the election.

"Are you even listening to the American people?" Boustany said.

[Demeter]

16. U.S. 30th in global infant mortality

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5A30PM20091104

The United States ranks 30th in terms of infant mortality, an important measure of the quality of healthcare, according to a report released on Tuesday.

Most of the deaths are among pre-term infants and the United States has a very high rate of pre-term births, according to the report from the National Center for Health Statistics..."One in 8 births in the United States were born preterm, compared with 1 in 18 births in Ireland and Finland...If the United States had Sweden's distribution of births by gestational age, nearly 8,000 infant deaths would be averted each year and the U.S. infant mortality rate would be one-third lower."

The March of Dimes, a charity specializing in birth defects and problems, estimates that more than 540,000 U.S. babies are born early -- before 37 weeks' gestation -- each year...the NCHS report said..."The percentage of preterm births in the United States has risen 36 percent since 1984."

Smoking and alcohol abuse can lead to pre-term birth but so can fertility treatments resulting in multiple births.

[Demeter]

17. California to Sell 24 Government Buildings for $2.3 Billion

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39626607

The state announced LAST MONTH it is selling 24 government office buildings — including the Ronald Reagan State Building in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Civic Center — to a group of private investors for $2.3 billion.
Ron Diedrich, acting director of the California Department of General Services, announced it selected the offer from California First LLC, a partnership led by a Texas real estate firm and an Orange County private equity firm.

About $1 billion of the sale will be used to pay off bonds on the buildings, leaving more than $1.2 billion to go into the state's general fund.

"After an extensive review of more than 300 bids that were received, I have determined that this offer presents the best value for the state," Diedrich said in a statement.

"This sale will allow us to bring in desperately needed revenues and free the state from the ongoing costs and risks of owning real estate." Gov.Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers included the sale as part of the state budget last week.

The Republican governor said California had received solid offers to sell the 24 buildings on 11 parcels and then rent that space back for 20 years at market rates.

It's unclear how the current deal will work out for taxpayers over the long run, but there have been concerns....

[Demeter]

18. US Cities Face Half a Trillion Dollars of Pension Deficits

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39626759

[Demeter]

19. Antonia Oprita, “US Is ‘Practically Owned’ by China

http://faircurrency.org/blog/?p=753

The US supremacy as the top world economy will end sooner than many people believe, so gold is a better investment than the dollar despite it hitting a new record, Tom Winnifrith, CEO at financial services firm Rivington Street Holdings, told CNBC.com Monday.

Gold hit a new record high IN SEPTEMBER and silver rose to another 30-year peak as investors were worried about the dollar weakening further after the Federal Reserve hinted at more quantitative easing last week.

The US trade deficit and debt continue to grow and the authorities are reluctant to address the problem, preferring to print money, Winnifrith said.

“America is practically owned by China,” he said.

He reminded of the fact that in 1900, sterling was the world’s reserve currency but by 1948, that was no longer the case as the British Empire collapsed.

“America is doing what Britain did,” Winnifrith said. “America spends much more than it can afford and it’s not addressing the issue.”

In 1832, China and India were the world’s two largest economies and by 2032, they will regain that status, he predicted.

“The 200 years when Britain and the US were the top two economies were an aberration and that will change,” Winnifrith said.

“The decline of empires has happened much faster than folks think. I believe that gold will be a far better bet in 20 years than the dollar,” he added.

[Demeter]

20. Bank Sues Bernanke, Fed Over Limits On Fees

THIS IS THE BANK THAT BOUGHT MINE...AND I'M NOT SURPRISED!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/tcf-national-bernanke-fed-lawsuit-card-fees_n_760117.html

TCF National Bank sued Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and the Fed's board of governors on Tuesday, saying regulations limiting the fees a bank can charge retailers for debit card transactions are unconstitutional.

Minnesota-based TCF National, a subsidiary of TCF Financial Corp., filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in South Dakota. The bank said an amendment to Congress' recent financial regulatory overhaul directs the Fed to adopt debit fee regulations based only on the processing costs of authorizing, clearing and settling transactions.

William A. Cooper, TCF Financial's chairman and chief executive, said those costs amount to a fraction of the total amount of money required to manage the debit card system, and the law makes no more sense than regulating the price of a fast-food hamburger based solely on the costs of the meat and the bun.

"It is unprecedented for Congress, or any regulatory agency, to mandate a fee charged in the free market that not only denies a reasonable rate of return on investment, but actually requires the rate to be lower than the incremental cost of providing the service," Cooper said in a statement.

A Federal Reserve spokeswoman didn't immediately return a call seeking comment on the lawsuit.

Last year, $1.21 trillion in purchases were paid with debit cards processed through the Visa and MasterCard networks, generating $19.7 billion in fees paid by merchants, according to data from The Nilson Report, a trade publication. Most of the fees went to banks that issue debit cards.

Merchants maintain that the fee charged for debit cards, also called an interchange fee, is too high. Banks and Visa and MasterCard say the fee takes into account the cost of setting up and maintaining a secure and sophisticated debit payment system.

Cooper said the Durbin Amendment to the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 affects 1 percent of the nation's banks, giving thousands of unaffected banks an unfair advantage.

[AnneD]

29. A little bit off the top please......

The history of scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body, or a living person.
Scalping is applied to provide a portable proof or trophy of prowess in war. Scalping is also associated with frontier warfare in North America, and was practiced by Native Americans, colonists, and frontiersmen over centuries of violent conflict. William Brandon and Keith Rosenberg, Native American specialists, state that some Mexican (e.g., Sonora and Chihuahua) and American territories (e.g., Arizona) paid bounties for enemy Native American scalps.<1> Contrary to popular belief, scalping was far from universal amongst Native Americans.

<snip>
During "Dummer's War" (c. 1721–1725), British colonial authorities offered £100 per Indian scalp – which adjusted for inflation would be about US $20,000 (£14,000) in present-day money; explorer John Lovewell is known to have conducted scalp-hunting expeditions to gain this generous bounty. Other examples of the payment for scalps are those issued by the government of Massachusetts in 1744 for the scalps of Indian men, women, and children; Governor Edward Cornwallis' proclamation of 1749 to settlers of Halifax of payment for Indian scalps; and French colonists in 1749 offering payments to Indians for the scalps of British soldiers. In Canada, a 1756 British proclamation issued by Governor Charles Lawrence offering a reward for scalps has yet to be officially repealed, although it is not in effect anymore.<6>
In the American Revolutionary War, Henry Hamilton, the British lieutenant-governor of Province of Quebec (1763-1791), was known by American Patriots as the "hair-buyer general" because they believed he encouraged and paid his Native American allies to scalp American settlers. When Hamilton was captured in the war by the colonists, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war because of this. However, American historians have conceded that there was no positive proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps.<7> It is now assumed that during the American Revolution, no British officer paid for scalps.<8>
Supposedly, General Custer (who was known for his hair) was not scalped after the Battle of Little Big Horn because he was deemed filthy in the eyes of the Sioux – to lay hands on him would sully the hands of the warrior<9>.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalping

Of course, these days I guess you could say Indians still engage in scalping-especially if you have ever gambeled at a casino. But at least you know what will happen when you walk in there.

However, leave it to Wall Street to perfect the craft......

What Does Scalping Mean?
A trading strategy that attempts to make many profits on small price changes. Traders who implement this strategy will place anywhere from 10 to a couple hundred trades in a single day in the belief that small moves in stock price are easier to catch than large ones.
Investopedia explains Scalping
Traders who implement this strategy are known as scalpers. The main goal is to buy (or sell) a number of shares at the bid (or ask) price and then quickly sell them a few cents higher (or lower) for a profit. Many small profits can easily compound into large gains if a strict exit strategy is used to prevent large losses.

www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scalping.asp

Sounds like a fair description of what the Credit card companies are doing, but they scalp both way for a good double dutch action. They hit the merchant then they hit you.

My suggestion: Offer the merchant cash for a discounted price, stay away from the casinoes, and never play the ponies cause they will break your heart.

[Demeter]

30. Nice Tie Into the Markets!

One could almost call it diabolical.

there is a lot of the modern language that echoes the early days of Indian/immigrant interactions...

[InkAddict]

67. Meanwhile, Democratic leaders "count coup"

American indians sometimes merely touched the enemy, a little "love" tap with a feather and/or scalp-decorated spear or hatchet. Such "hits" earned one points; neither side was mortally wounded, and the NA had a great story to tell about bravery in combat. Of course, the village remained under attack and the natural resources surrounding the village continued to be exploited to extinction.

[AnneD]

103. I think it was called...

the Battle of Mayberry. And this involved the Cheokee. I liked the results. This is really how the Cherokee fought (even if Mayberry is fiction). :rofl:


www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHU4b15ZMM0&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWZSJloaFDM&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMVeBtXUJMo



This is what makes the Trail of Tears so sad. It was so uncalled for. It was a result of a land grab (how dare those brown people occupy our land).

[AnneD]

116. Cherokee war dance....

not too fierce...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEl-yJQvXaE&feature=related

actually pretty lame I admit.

Now this is how it is done....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eGCsEQ15L4&feature=related

[Demeter]

21. Wall Street Pay: A Record $144 Billion

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518104575546542463746562.html

Pay on Wall Street is on pace to break a record high for a second consecutive year, according to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal.

About three dozen of the top publicly held securities and investment-services firms—which include banks, investment banks, hedge funds, money-management firms and securities exchanges—are set to pay $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year, a 4% increase from the $139 billion paid out in 2009, according to the survey. Compensation was expected to rise at 26 of the 35 firms.

The data showed that revenue was expected to rise at 29 of the 35 firms surveyed, but at a slower pace than pay. Wall Street revenue is expected to rise 3%, to $448 billion from $433 billion, despite a slowdown in some high-profile activities like stock and bond trading.

Overall, Wall Street is expected to pay 32.1% of its revenue to employees, the same as last year, but below the 36% in 2007. Profits, which were depressed by losses in the past two years, have bounced back from the 2008 crisis. But the estimated 2010 profit of $61.3 billion for the firms surveyed still falls about 20% short from the record $82 billion in 2006. Over that same period, compensation across the firms in the survey increased 23%.

"Until focus of these institutions changes from revenue generation to long-term shareholder value, we will see these outrageous pay packages and compensation levels," said Charles Elson, director of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance...

[Demeter]

23. Slashing the Dollar - The Future is Ugly By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26582.htm


The Fed has has hinted that it will launch a second round of quantitative easing (QE) sometime after its November 2 meeting. The anticipated intervention has been widely criticized, but for all the wrong reasons. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke knows that adding another $1 to $1.5 trillion to bulging bank reserves will likely have little effect on aggregate demand. Nor will it lower unemployment now hovering at 9.7%. It will, however, send a message to trading partners (re: China) that the Fed is serious about reducing destabilizing trade imbalances that siphon-off domestic stimulus, increase unemployment and keep the dollar perilously overvalued. In other words, the Fed's action is the first volley in what is likely to be a protracted currency war that leads to the final demise of Bretton Woods 2...It means the US is determined to stave off deflation by forcing China to let its currency appreciate. It also means that the Obama administration finally realizes that its attempts to reduce unemployment or spark a recovery will continue to fail as long as stimulus is effectively negated by the surge in imports...

So, the stimulus--that would have been generating jobs and demand within the US--is being exported to countries that want to keep the dollar propped up to maintain the present arrangement, that is, they want to continue to expand their manufacturing base and keep unemployment low while the US languishes in a permanent recession.

Bretton Woods 2, by the way, is the arrangement under which the US willingly runs large current account deficits with the assurance that trade partners would recycle the proceeds into US Treasuries, Agencies and equities. Naturally, this turned out to be a real boon for Wall Street as surplus capital has helped to fuel massive bubbles in all manner of garbage bonds that enriched the principles at the big brokerage houses.

So, what is Bernanke's strategy?

...Bernanke's zero-rate policy and the prospect of ongoing rounds of quantitative easing have put finance ministers everywhere in a frenzy. Some countries--notably South Korea and Brazil--have already taken steps to slow capital flows. As yet, the effectiveness of these measures remains unknown.

Naturally, capital seeks the best rate of return, which is why it is exiting the US (which is in the throes of a long-term slowdown) for greener pastures in China and emerging markets. That movement drives up the value of local currencies and creates lethal asset-price bubbles. The Fed is intensifying this process (via QE) to break the back of Bretton Woods 2 and force the dollar down. Eventually, the flood of liquidity will force foreign trade partners to accept a cheaper dollar thus restoring US export competitiveness and a way out of recession without raising workers wages. (The Fed's approach is grounded in class warfare.)

[Demeter]

24. Why U.S. Launched a New Financial World War & How Rest of the World Will Fight Back MICHAEL HUDSON

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26570.htm

LENGTHY AND WORTHY

[Demeter]

36. Washington at Work--for the Wealthy

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26577.htm

Scroll through the right-wing blogosphere, or listen in at a tea party rally, and you'll find angry people ranting about an out-of-control federal government that's redistributing the nation's wealth to the undeserving poor.

Those rants do have one point right: The federal government is shoveling hundreds of billions of dollars into programs that redistribute wealth. But these "wealth-building" programs aren't redistributing wealth from the top to the bottom. They're actually shifting more wealth to the top.

"We cannot avoid the sad irony," as one new report has just concluded, "that government policy aimed at building wealth is largely helping the rich get richer."

This new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Corporation for Enterprise Development--Upside Down: The $400 Billion Federal Asset-Building Budget--dives deep into the programs that aim to help Americans "buy homes, start businesses, put their children through college, and retire comfortably."

Upside Down's authors added up all the money the U.S. government devoted to these programs last year, and then tracked who exactly reaped the benefits. In nearly every instance, the answer came back the same. Federal dollars, as Upside Down details, routinely "subsidize wealth building for the wealthiest among us, rewarding them for (the) size of their homes and investment portfolios."

How could this be? Most federal asset-building programs, the study explains, deliver their benefits through the tax code, an approach that almost guarantees that the wealthy will score, by far, the biggest benefits...

[Demeter]

45. Poison vote looms for tea party freshmen: Raise the national debt limit?

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/1118/Poison-vote-looms-for-tea-party-freshmen-Raise-the-national-debt-limit

Even though a vote to raise the national debt limit – now just under $14.3 trillion – is months away, House Republican leaders are already preparing their caucus for what could be the toughest vote for a bumper freshman class.

About half of the 85-member Republican House freshman class ran with backing from tea party groups – all of them on a platform to curb or cap government spending. Many of these candidates slammed Democrats they defeated for previous votes to increase the debt limit – votes, they said, that enabled big government spending.

Now, they face the other side of the issue: A vote against raising the debt limit means the government could run out of money. Will fiscal responsibility look so appealing if the government essentially shuts down?


I THINK I'VE SEEN THIS FILM BEFORE....EXCEPT BOEHNER WANTS THE LIMIT RAISED...

[Demeter]

48. Debt Wall Crumbles by $393 Billion as Fed Eases Junk Alarm

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-18/debt-wall-shrinks-393-billion-as-fed-eases-financing-fear-credit-markets.html

The wall of bonds and loans maturing in the next four years has been slashed by 34 percent to $756 billion as the threat eases that a wave of junk-rated debt coming due will cause a surge in defaults...

[Demeter]

58. Senate approves about $4.6 billion to settle longstanding American Indian, black farmer claims

http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/congress/109201814.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3iUMEaPc:E7_ec7PaP3iUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUoD3aPc:_2yc:a_ncyD_MDCiU

Black farmers and American Indians who say the United States discriminated against them and took their money for decades are a step closer to winning long-awaited government settlements.

Under legislation passed by the Senate on Friday, black farmers who claim discrimination at the hands of the Agriculture Department would receive almost $1.2 billion. American Indians who say they were swindled out of royalties by the Interior Department would split $3.4 billion. Both cases have languished for more than a decade, and plaintiffs say beneficiaries are dying off.

"The Senate finally did the right thing," said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association. "They stepped up and told the world civil rights still matter in America."

The legislation was approved in the Senate by voice vote Friday and sent to the House. The money had been held up for months in the chamber as Democrats and Republicans squabbled over how to pay for it.

President Barack Obama praised the Senate for finally passing the bill and urged the House to move forward on it. He said his administration is also working to resolve separate lawsuits filed against the department by Hispanic and female farmers.

"While these legislative achievements reflect important progress, they also serve to remind us that much work remains to be done," he said.

Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe from Browning, Mont. and the lead plaintiff in the Indian case, said two people who would have been beneficiaries had died on her reservation this week. "It's 17 below and the Blackfeet nation is feeling warm," she said. "I don't know if people understand or believe the agony you go through when one of the beneficiaries passes away without justice."

Lawmakers from both parties have said they support resolving the claims of discrimination and mistreatment by federal agencies. But the money has been caught up in a fight over spending and deficits. Republicans repeatedly objected to the settlements when they were added on to larger pieces of legislation. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., satisfied conservative complaints by finding spending offsets to cover the cost.

The legislation also includes a one-year extension of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which gives grants to states to provide cash and other assistance to the poor, and several American Indian water rights settlements in Arizona, Montana and New Mexico sought by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

In the Indian case, which has been in the courts for almost 15 years, at least 300,000 Native Americans claim they were swindled out of royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887 for things like oil, gas, grazing and timber. The plaintiffs would share the settlement.

Cobell was confident about passage in the House, where the two settlements already have passed twice as part of larger pieces of legislation.

For the black farmers, it is the second round of funding from a class-action lawsuit originally settled in 1999 over allegations of widespread discrimination by local Agriculture Department offices in awarding loans and other aid. It is known as the Pigford case, named after Timothy Pigford, a black farmer from North Carolina who was an original plaintiff.

The government already has paid out more than $1 billion to about 16,000 black farmers, with most getting about $50,000. The new money is intended for people — some estimates say 70,000 or 80,000 — who were denied earlier payments because they missed deadlines for filing. The individual amounts depend on how many claims are successfully filed.

The bill passed Friday would be partially paid for by diverting dollars from a surplus in nutrition programs for women and children and by extending customs user fees.

The Obama administration has moved aggressively to resolve the discrimination cases after most of them spent a decade or longer in the courts. Last month, the Agriculture Department offered American Indian farmers who say they were denied farm loans a $680 million settlement.

[Demeter]

89. A record 30% of unemployed out of work at least a year

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-10-08-unemployment08_ST_N.htm

AND THAT WAS LAST AUGUST'S REPORT....

[Demeter]

7. IRELAND GETS ITS OWN COLUMN TONIGHT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI6RLXQyGIw

Irish Republican army & American Indian Movement

Floyd Westerman speaks about the common struggles of the Irish & the American Indian.

[Demeter]

8. Ireland overestimating bank credit losses -Goldman

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6AI1IY20101119

Ireland's National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) may have overestimated the scale of the country's banking problem and the government may end up overcapitalising the sector, investment bank Goldman Sachs said.

Goldman's baseline case for estimated gross credit losses over the entire loan portfolio of domestic banks stands at 34.7 billion euros over the five-year cycle, or 21.7 percent of Ireland's gross domestic product.

Ireland's price tag for cleaning up its banks, based on NAMA estimates and announced in September, is 46.3 billion euros. The worst case scenario points to a cost above 50 billion euros, equating to over 11,000 euros per head.

NAMA -- the country's 'bad bank' -- is paying 30 billion euros for 73 billion euros of high-risk loans from Irish lenders, at a discount of around 58 percent...

AMAZING READ...

[Demeter]

9. Real IRA says it will target UK bankers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/14/real-ira-targets-banks-bankers

Banks and bankers are now potential targets for the Real IRA, leaders of the dissident republican terror group have warned in an exclusive interview with the Guardian. Despite having only 100 activists they also said that targets in England remained a high priority.

In an attempt to tap into the intense hostility towards the banks on both sides of the Irish border they branded bankers as "criminals" and said: "We have a track record of attacking high-profile economic targets and financial institutions such as the City of London. The role of bankers and the institutions they serve in financing Britain's colonial and capitalist system has not gone unnoticed.

"Let's not forget that the bankers are the next-door neighbours of the politicians. Most people can see the picture: the bankers grease the politicians' palms, the politicians bail out the bankers with public funds, the bankers pay themselves fat bonuses and loan the money back to the public with interest. It's essentially a crime spree that benefits a social elite at the expense of many millions of victims."

But security sources in Northern Ireland point out say the Real IRA lacks the logistical resources of the Provisional IRA to prosecute a bombing campaign similar to the ones that devastated the City of London in the early 1990s or the Canary Wharf bomb in 1996. Although the Real IRA has access to explosives it has yet to carry out large-scale bombings.

The terror group stressed in a series of written answers to the Guardian's questions that future attacks would alternate between the "military, political and economic targets". It is the first time the Real IRA has engaged in such open anti-capitalist rhetoric or focused on the role of the banking system...

[Demeter]

10. Allied Irish says it's lost 17 percent of deposits

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9JJ9E601.htm

Allied Irish Banks says it has lost a staggering euro13 billion ($18 billion), or 17 percent, of its total deposit base since June in the latest evidence of cash flight from Ireland's debt-crippled banking sector.

The Dublin bank said in a trading statement Friday that institutions and businesses accounted for most of the lost deposit business. It said the European Central Bank and Irish Central Bank had provided short-term loans to cover the shortfall in cash but provided no figures.

Underscoring its deteriorating position, Allied Irish says it plans to sell euro6.6 billion ($9.05 billion) next month in new shares -- an offer likely to have only one buyer, the government. The expected sale would take the government's stake from 18 percent to more than 90 percent.

[Demeter]

11. Ireland: The Bank That Ate A Country

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26872.htm

James Connolly, the Irish socialist and trade union leader shot by the British in May 1916 for his part in the Easter Rising, was convinced, early in the last century, that capitalism simply could not develop fully in Ireland.

From that assessment he argued that only a Workers’ Republic could really free Ireland from foreign domination. In any case, he didn’t want capitalism to develop — didn’t want the Irish bourgeoisie to climb on the backs of the working people of Ireland.

He was wrong in thinking that capitalism could not develop fully in Ireland. The way Ireland’s financial crisis is going now suggests he was entirely right that only a Workers’ Republic could honestly serve the people of Ireland.

The bullying by the international capitalist money markets of this small country of 4.5 million people is scandalous. The European Union governments are trying to force the Irish Republic to accept their proffered big loan to help in its economic difficulties. The Dublin government is resisting because with the bail-out will go handing over key areas of state independence to the money-lords of Europe — for instance, giving them the right to dictate higher taxes to Dublin....

[ozymandius]

12. And the Cherokee sent the Irish food aid during The Famine.

Meanwhile the rest of the United States was silent to the cause.

[Demeter]

14. Hey Ozy! Glad You Could Make It

I am finding the most amazing confluence of things for this topic.

[ozymandius]

28. Thanks!

The history of this subject branches into many different areas: music, law, American history... quite a bit.

[Ghost Dog]

69. Yes indeed.

Eg. Via the wikipedia article on "Black Irish" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Irish

I now find myself listening to and looking at this (illustrated) Berber/Irish (it seems to me) music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAxVIWHX4Wo

,,, Ah, and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-5Lxi2utGQ

... Or, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czo2RHlNkrM

...

[Ghost Dog]

76. (Celtiberian-Berber band plays "Tuareg"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWWoFRH3ihA

(The above wikipedia article provides a good handle on where people(s) end up coming from, and going to).

[Demeter]

22. Ireland's Debt Crisis Could Kill the European Union Stone Dead, EU President Warns

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26835.htm

The debt crisis facing Ireland, Greece and Portugal could threaten the future of the whole European Union, EU President Herman Van Rompuy warned today.

'We must all work together in order to survive with the eurozone, because if we do not survive with the eurozone, we will not survive with the European Union,' said Mr Van Rompuy.

He spoke out as finance ministers tried to keep Ireland's market turmoil from triggering a domino effect that could topple other vulnerable nations and rock the region's currency union.

Only months after saving Greece from bankruptcy in May, the 16-country eurozone has been shaken by concerns that Ireland will be unable to sustain the cost of its banks' failure.

European nations are worried the tension is making borrowing more expensive for countries like Portugal and Spain, threatening to push them to the brink of default.

Stifling the contagion - a market panic that jumps from one weak country to the next - is the priority...

[Demeter]

46. 12.5% corporation tax rate is non-negotiable, says Tánaiste

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1119/1224283710891.html

[Demeter]

47. Irish Mourn Loss of Sovereignty as Cowen Scorned Before `German Bailout'

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-19/irish-mourn-loss-of-sovereignty-as-cowen-scorned-before-german-bailout-.html

[DemReadingDU]

73. TEEU Union backs civil unrest campaign

11/20/10 TEEU Union backs civil unrest campaign

One of the country’s largest trade unions has passed a motion calling for a campaign of civil disobedience if the Government does not hold a general election.

An overwhelming majority of the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) voted in favour of the motion at the union's biennial conference in Galway today.

The emergency motion, which was put forward by the union’s executive, “condemns the Government for its criminal negligence in the management of the economy and for colluding with the banks in misleading the Irish people as to the seriousness of the crisis we face”.

It says that “this policy of economic sabotage has led to the betrayal of our country and to the loss of the last shreds of our economic sovereignty.

“We now call on the Government to resign, hold a general election and face the verdict of the electorate.

“If the Government persists in clinging to power we call on the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and other civil society organisations to launch a campaign of civil disobedience to force an election on a regime that has no principles and no objective beyond staying in office for as long as possible”.

more...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1120/breaking5.html

[Demeter]

83. (IRISH) Banks accused of deceiving Nama

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/1119/1224283711522.html

THE BANKS may have tried to cheat the exchequer out of billions of euro in their dealings last year with the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), it was suggested yesterday.

Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath said there was a need to investigate the fact that “false, misleading information” was provided to the agency in a systematic way. This could have led to a “huge overpayment by the taxpayer” to the banks. He knew this was a serious charge, but “the evidence is overwhelming”.

Mr McGrath made his comments during a hearing of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, which was hearing evidence from senior figures from the agency. Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh said he did not disagree with the points being made by Mr McGrath.

When Michael D’Arcy of Fine Gael asked Nama chairman Frank Daly if he believed the banks had attempted fraud, Mr Daly replied: “The figures were certainly misleading. You can speculate as to what was behind it.”

PEOPLE OF THE WORLD UNITE AND PUT ALL THE BANKSTERS IN EVERY LAND OUT OF OUR MISERY!

[Demeter]

111. Banks in Ireland 'on brink of collapse'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331690/Ireland-bailout-Banks-brink-collapse.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Ireland's biggest banks are facing collapse this week unless an immediate international bail-out package can be agreed, senior insiders have revealed.

Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland have each suffered a multibillion-euro ‘run’ as foreign investors withdraw their cash amid fears that both institutions are effectively bust.

It was this secret ‘run’ that brought the IMF and EU bail-out teams to Ireland in an effort to prevent the banks collapsing entirely. If they do, it would trigger Ireland’s €440bn blanket bank guarantee – potentially leaving the State unable to pay the debt.

One option available to the IMF would be to ‘lock down’ the Irish banks until a deal is agreed to recapitalise them. In an IMF-led bail-out in Argentina in 2002, banks were shut for 10 days to halt the flight of deposits...


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331690/Ireland-bailout-Banks-brink-collapse.html#ixzz15vwULDVL

AND SO IT BEGINS IN IRELAND--SINCE GREECE WAS SUCH A DISAPPOINTMENT

[Demeter]

13. THE ORIENT EXPRESS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaQW5jWMu8Y&feature=related


A Comparison of Chinese and American Indian (Chumash) Medicine

http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nem188

Chinese and Chumash traditional medical approaches are similar in terms of disease causation, use of acupuncture or healing touch, plants, spiritual and philosophical approaches. This article provides a brief comparison and discussion of Chinese and Chumash traditional medical practices. A table of 66 plants is presented along with Chinese and Chumash uses of each plant. These uses are compared and contrasted.

[Demeter]

15. China Has Tied Bernanke's Hands. The Least We Can Do Is Be Grateful By Mike Whitney

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26875.htm

Say what you will about Alan Greenspan, he was never a whiner. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about present Fed chairman Ben Bernanke. Bernanke's speech on Friday at a conference for the European Central Bank (ECB) was so full of crybaby blabber that attendees must have thought they'd ducked into a Frankfort daycare center by mistake. What an embarrassment! For nearly an hour, Bernanke went on and on about how mean China is and how they manipulate their currency to gain competitive advantage. It was surreal; like listening to a serial arsonist complain about his wife smoking in bed.

“Currency undervaluation by surplus countries is inhibiting needed international adjustment and creating spillover effects that would not exist if exchange rates better reflected market fundamentals,” Bernanke moaned.

Let's get this straight, when China's dollar peg was helping to recycle hundreds of billions of dollars into dodgy mortgage-backed securities and inflating a monstrous asset bubble that enriched Bernanke's crony friends on Wall Street, everything was hunky dory. But now that the Fed can't pump up another credit bubble by lowering interest rates, out come the handkerchiefs and everyone is supposed to feel sorry for poor little Bennie.

"Market fundamentals" be-damned. China is doing what is right for China. What's wrong with that? American citizens wish that the Fed and the Treasury would operate the same way and implement policies that supported the interests of US workers instead of lining the pockets of multinational capitalists and bankers.

Here's more from Bernanke:

"The exchange rate adjustment is incomplete, in part, because the authorities in some emerging market economies have intervened in foreign exchange markets to prevent or slow the appreciation of their currencies. ... why have officials in many emerging markets leaned against appreciation of their currencies toward levels more consistent with market fundamentals? The principal answer is that currency undervaluation on the part of some countries has been part of a long-term export-led strategy for growth and development. This strategy, which allows a country's producers to operate at a greater scale and to produce a more diverse set of products than domestic demand alone might sustain, has been viewed as promoting economic growth and, more broadly, as making an important contribution to the development of a number of countries."

That's right; China's export-led model is the root of its success, and it owes a debt of gratitude to greedy US corporations and the fine folks at the US Treasury who have supported labor-crushing "free trade" policies at every turn. If China has transformed itself into the world's second largest economy in a matter of a years, it has Washington to thank. So, why Bernanke complaining? Has his creation suddenly turned into Frankenstein?

Bernanke again: "However, increasingly over time, the strategy of currency undervaluation has demonstrated important drawbacks, both for the world system and for the countries using that strategy."

In other words, it's all a matter of whose ox is getting gored. None of this mattered when homeowners were getting swindled in the biggest home equity ripoff of all time ($8 trillion in lost equity) or when Bernanke was bailing out his oily bankster buddies by handing them $1.75 trillion in reserves for their garbage mortgage paper that no one else would buy. Even in the depths of the slump when millions of unemployed workers faced the end of their benefits, and food stamp use had skyrocketed to 10% of the population, and the lines at the homeless shelters could be seen winding from sea to shining sea, Bernanke still refused to help. He still opposed a second round of fiscal stimulus aligning himself instead with the GOP deficit hawks.

But, all that has changed now, because the Fed can no longer move an interest rate lever at the central bank and affect the smooth transfer of wealth from one class to another--from debt peon to fatcat speculator. China is blocking Bernanke's ability to implement policy. Too bad.

Bernanke again: "On its current economic trajectory the United States runs the risk of seeing millions of workers unemployed or underemployed for many years. As a society, we should find that outcome unacceptable. Monetary policy is working in support of both economic recovery and price stability, but there are limits to what can be achieved by the central bank alone. The Federal Reserve is nonpartisan and does not make recommendations regarding specific tax and spending programs. However, in general terms, a fiscal program that combines near-term measures to enhance growth with strong, confidence-inducing steps to reduce longer-term structural deficits would be an important complement to the policies of the Federal Reserve."

Hallelujah. So Bernanke has finally seen the Keynesian light and now supports more fiscal stimulus. Will wonders never cease? But doesn't that prove that Bernanke was wrong from the get go? Doesn't that prove that Milton Friedman, Anna Schwartz and all the nutcase "quantity of money" people were wrong and that the "aggregate demand" Keynesians were right?

As steward of the world's reserve currency, the Federal Reserve is not used to other countries dictating monetary policy, but that is precisely what is happening. China is in the drivers seat now. The Fed can buy up two-thirds of next years issuance of US Treasuries (which Bernanke plans to do) in order to push a wall of capital into emerging markets, but if China continues to recycle its dollars into US debt and maintain its dollar peg, then the Fed will not succeed. And, it's a good thing, too. If the last 10 years have taught us anything, it's that the unipolar world--where one country dominates politically, economically and militarily--is not good for anyone. It's time for a change. "Let a thousand flowers bloom," as Mao would say.

China has tied Bernanke's hands. The least we can do is be grateful.

[Demeter]

49. NOT THE ONLY ONE: Backlash to bond-buying plan hampers Fed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/15/AR2010111506325.html

HOME=GROWN RESISTANCE

[Demeter]

50. Bond interest rates jump as Fed plan faces criticism

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bonds-20101116,0,6331468.story

The rebound in yields is the opposite of what many investors were expecting in the wake of the Fed's new program to underpin economic growth...

[Demeter]

42. New rules target insider trading

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2010-11/19/content_11574175.htm

BEIJING - The State Council, China's Cabinet, on Thursday ordered further measures in its crackdown on stock market insider trading.

The measures include ensuring confidentiality of non-public information about listed companies and regulating government officials who have access to such information, according to a statement posted on the State Council website.

The move involves the collaboration of multiple government agencies, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Supervision and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

The State Council also called for registration of people who have privileged market-moving information and improvement of disclosure requirements for listed companies as well as rules concerning suspension and stock trading.

"The effort to crack down on insider trading in the country's capital market is faced with a serious situation as it has become more hidden and complex since the trading launch of stock index futures," the statement said.

China's stock market has been plagued by insider trading scandals over the past several years. Analysts said that illegal activities have often contributed to sharp market volatility, leaving millions of retail investors unprotected from fluctuations...

[Demeter]

78. What happens if Chinese growth slows? MUST READ ANALYSIS

http://mpettis.com/2010/11/what-happens-if-chinese-growth-slows/

Last week I suggested that slowly the consensus is shifting towards a recognition that Chinese growth may slow sharply in the next few years. When I discuss this prospect with analysts and investors, however, they almost always worry about two things. First, since China represents the largest component of global growth, it seems reasonable to expect that a sharp slowdown in China will also mean a sharp slowdown in global growth. Slowing Chinese growth, in other words, should be terrible for the world. Secondly, if growth does slow sharply, this should cause an equally sharp rise in social instability and, with it, rising political instability.

I disagree with both claims — not that they are necessarily wrong but rather that they are not obviously true, and depend heavily on the way China rebalances. To see why it is worth considering what happened to Japan in the past two decades.

In 1990, Japan was 17 percent of the global economy and was easily the second largest economy in the world. It also accounted for the largest share by far of global growth, having completed two ferocious decades during which time its economy had grown annually by eight to ten percent. Only the most skeptical doubted that within a decade or two Japan would overtake the US as the world’s largest economy.

Imagine at the time that you had been smart enough, and foolhardy enough, to predict that over the next two decades Japan’s growth rate would collapse to substantially less than one percent annually, and that by 2010 it would be less than one-third the size of the US. Had anyone believed you (and of course no one would have believed you), they would have almost certainly made two very obvious predictions.

First, a collapse of that magnitude in the Japanese growth rate would create an enormous drag for the rest of the world. Without Japan to power it, global growth would be anemic at best.

Second, the Japanese people would have been unwilling to accept with equanimity such a disaster. At the very least there would be a surge in social instability and Japanese voters would have revolted against their leaders.

Although the first prediction, about a dramatic slowdown in Japanese growth, would have turned out to be completely accurate, the two subsequent predictions would have been completely wrong. First, in spite of the virtual collapse of the Japanese growth machine, the world experienced robust growth in the 1990s. Second, the Japanese people turned out to be remarkably docile about the terrible turn the Japanese economy took....

[bhikkhu]

123. Perhaps the "growth is good" paradigm is ending

Looking at global population, growth rates are slowing, and I doubt that any sane person wishes us to peak out at over the 9 billion the UN projects. Economic growth is largely fueled by the expansion of industrialization, and I personally think there is enough of that already.

[kickysnana]

26. A g...uncle left on the Trail of Tears with his wife, children and inlaws...

family McEntire out of South Carolina. The family were Scottish Masons. Later another g...uncle got his fathers Civil War land in Oklahoma and my great grandparents moved there in about 1910. Grandpa said "a Spaniard" there told him how to throw a knife, he was about 6 years old. His parents buried three babies there, probably RH disease, grandpa Hughes was AB negative and then they split up and grandpa's Mom took him and his older brother and younger sister and went back to Middle Tennessee, rural Nashville. Grandpa's Dad stayed a while and was working for Pinkerton catching train robbers and we have a postcard of him with someone he captured. He came back and enlisted in WWI from Tennessee and lived out his life as the Constable of Lebanon, TN. Grandpa's great grandmother Rebecca Bell was said to be Native American she was a cousin to the Bell Witch family in the the next county over. She was the second of three wives of Thomas Hughes, the family was descended from two different Hughes families in TN, one Welsh, one Irish. In all there were 29 step siblings in the family of Thomas Hughes and wives.

Everyone should know their roots. Especially in the South.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

27. I've just started tracking down my Southern side...

It's been a fascinating journey so far.. I've got dates and names back to the 1700's, but very few real details. I've just started combing thru the obits and newspapers. And I'm hooked. :)

[DemReadingDU]

63. genealogy is fascinating

One of my sisters has been working on our roots for years. She has managed to track our mom's side of the family to Hungary and Romania, and our dad's side to Germany. My spouse has roots from Newfoundland.

Unfortunately, we've only been able to go back appx 100 years. So we have lots more work to do.

[AnneD]

31. Growing up a real Indian in America.....

What it means...

Knowing that you Ancestors extended a helping hand- and in return got small pox infected blankets and rotten meat, when they got anything at all.

Regard Columbus Day not as a holiday but as a day of mourning/

Being proud of your parents-but knowing that they grew up and were taught to be ashamed of theirs.

Learning to avoid poisons that your body just can't handel and that rob your dignity-like alcohol, high fructose sugars, and white mans tobacco.

The secretly guilt of rooting for the Indians when you watched the westerns on tv when you were a kid.

Playing cowboys and Indians when you were a kid and making your annoying kid sister be the captured cowboy.

Being shocked when you pick up a bow and arrow and hit a bulls eye the first time.

Never getting a bow and arrow set for Christmas, just a cap gun if you were lucky.

Thinking that Jay Silverheel was smarter, but still loving Clayton anyway.

Knowing that the stories your elders told were far better than any tv program.

Government cheese, 101 was to use it. Government peanut butter, 101 was to use it.

Being very careful of who you broke bread with, but knowing that there is always enough room for another plate at the table.

Swimming in the cold water creeks on a hot summer day butt nekid with all your cousins.

Learning that your family went through their own Auschwitz. They didn't get a tattoo but they got a Dawes roll number.

Only being able to trace your roots so far, but knowing that it goes back to infinity.

Knowing you came from survivors, but knowing it came at a great loss.

Having special feelings for your dead ancestors and saddened to see them on display in museums.

Looking at bead work and seeing the love and pride that went into it..

Know that a great spirit's voice is louder outside the church than inside.

Listening to trees talk and keeping it to yourself.

Having an extended conversation, literally, with a parliament of owls while you are out walking your dog.

Keeping your window open in the fall just to hear the geese honking while they fly over at night, and smiling when their noise wakes you..

Listening to snow, reading sand, smelling wind, and feeling water,

Not needing a watch to know what time it is. Also not needing an alarm clock to get up. No need for a calendar either.


So Thanksgiving will soon be upon us. It has been said that this is a uniquely American holiday. Two different cultures extending the hand of friendship and mutual aid. So when you sit down with family and friends, remember the sacrifices your ancestors made for you and remember to thank the animal gave up his life so that you could grow strong, Now to do that and understanding that is to grow up a real Indian in America.

[Ghost Dog]

70. Thanks AnneD.

"Only being able to trace your roots so far, but knowing that it goes back to infinity."

... Roots in a prticular land, I guess you mostly mean there. And knowledge that I think most people on this planet share, except those few in some parts of this 'modern' world who don't seem to know (nor want to know) nothin'.

[AnneD]

74. I have Dawes Roll Numbers....

so I know they survived the Trail of Tears, but where did they come from...Tennesee, Georgia, the Carolinas. Which one of the clans: deer, wild potato, long hair, wolf. red paint, bird or blue holly. If I were a betting person, I would say wild potato due to the green thumbs or the paint clan due to the knowledge of herbs and drifting into medicine.

[Tansy_Gold]

124. And then there are those who have nothing

I guess I would say I'm fortunate that I can trace my family back several generations, but I have a lot of friends who can't.

That doesn't make them any less. . . . anything.



TG

[AnneD]

32. Trail of Tears

I have a copy of this documentary, I love it because parts are in the Cherokee language. I recognized it the first time I heard it and now actually know some of the words.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np-TYoZE5NM

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCnVDr5iXoc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpdwaX9vPMc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=InyQBXrj-J0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuDuk7bG2Tc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkKPNyWAe_Y


By the way, the Cherokee Phoenix is still publishing and is available in both English and Cherokee and online. It is a good source of what is going on today,

[Demeter]

40. Thanks, Anne D!

Hope you are liking the thread.

[DemReadingDU]

59. and thank you for starting this thread!

There is so much we weren't taught in our history lessons. I'm learning a lot with your weekend posting!

[AnneD]

33. I am Native American....

and I approved this message. A little comedy.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Bp5BAJfk4Q&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teq8-3Xitxc&feature=related

[DemReadingDU]

60. AnneD - Thank you for all your personal anecdotes

Always appreciate reading your postings, and learning a lot about Native Americans with Demeter's weekend posting.

[Demeter]

61. (Me Too)

Google is my friend...

[AnneD]

95. Your Sunday Funnies.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=75138AwbMWo&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZk8djys204&NR=




And here is one hubby and I both enjoy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn5jlrxcpkI&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKioNI8huo4&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOm-15621bs&feature=related

[Demeter]

34. HUMOR

Ay (pronounced as a long "A")
An expression noting a joke has been recognized. Either the receiver of a joke or prank can call Ay, noting they recognize that a joke or con has been played on them. Or the deliverer of a joke or prank can use the term to note that what they said was in jest. I believe Ay is a uniquely Oklahoman expression, which probably proliferated back in the days of BIA boarding schools. In Oklahoma, boarding schools like Riverside, Sequoyah, Chilocco, and Ft. Sill, brought people from different tribes not only from Oklahoma but nationwide. Surely other pan-Indian BIA efforts such as relocation (with urban centers), higher education (Haskell University, IAIA, SIPI). All together helping to drive this expression to across the nation.

http://www.squidoo.com/ndnhumordotcom

COLD WINTER!
The Blackfeet asked their Chief in autumn, if the winter was going to be cold or not. Not really knowing the answer, the chief replies that the winter was going to be cold and that the members of the village were to collect wood to be prepared.
Being a good leader, he then went to the nearest phone booth and called the National Weather Service and asked, "Is this winter to be cold?" The man on the phone responded, "This winter was going to be quite cold indeed."
So the Chief went back to speed up his people to collect even more wood to be prepared. A week later he called the National Weather Service again, "Is it going to be a very cold winter?"
"Yes," the man replied, "its going to be a very cold winter."
So the Chief goes back to his people and orders them to go and find
every scrap of wood they can find. Two weeks later he calls the National Weather Service again and asks "Are you absolutely sure, that the winter is going to be very cold?"
"Absolutely" the man replies, "the Blackfeet are collecting wood like crazy!"

http://www.spottedeagle.com/jokes.htm

[Demeter]

35. DILBERT DUET

[Demeter]

39. AND TWO FROM MARK FIORE

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-midterm-election-democrats-mad-as-hell-republicans-video-mark-fiore-animation

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-midterm-election-democratic-defeat-how-to-survive-post-election-blues-xeth-animated-video-mark-fiore-animation

http://www.markfiore.com/political-cartoons/watch-midterm-election-democratic-defeat-obama-compromise-republicans-video-mark-fiore-animation

[Demeter]

100. More Cartoons

[Ghost Dog]

130. Screencapped that last one

[Demeter]

37. EUROPA

First Americans 'reached Europe five centuries before Columbus voyages'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8138884/First-Americans-reached-Europe-five-centuries-before-Columbus-voyages.html

Scientists tracing the genetic origins of an Icelandic family believe the first American arrived in Europe around the 10th century, a full five hundred years before Columbus set off on his first voyage of discovery in 1492.

Norse sagas suggest the Vikings discovered the Americas centuries before Columbus and the latest data seems to support the hypothesis that they may have brought American Indians back with them to northern Europe.

Research indicates that a woman from the North American continent probably arrived in Iceland some time around 1000AD leaving behind genes that are reflected in about 80 Icelanders today...

"As the island was practically isolated from the 10th century onwards, the most probable hypothesis is that these genes correspond to an Amerindian woman who was taken from America by the Vikings some time around the year 1000," Carles Lalueza-Fox, of the Pompeu Fabra university in Spain, said.

A Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, in the eastern Canadian region of Terranova, is thought to date to the 11th century.

[Demeter]

38. Britain, the jobless capital of Europe where one in eight adults live in house where no one works

As the Government prepares a clampdown on benefits scroungers, a league table revealed that a greater proportion of people in the UK are in jobless households than in any other European country.And separate analysis has found that in the worst ghettos of worklessness, as many as 84 per cent are on welfare.

The devastating reports paint a terrifying picture of the true extent of 'Shameless Britain', in which millions grow up in a culture of dependency where work does not pay. The Government will this week lay out new plans to tackle this welfare dependency, by launching a crackdown on incapacity benefit scroungers.

The shocking report by the right-wing think-tank Centre for Policy Studies revealed that 11.5 per cent of UK adults - almost one in eight - live in workless households. This is the highest rate in the six largest economies in the European Union, and almost twice the level in the Netherlands...The proportion is also higher than our closest economic competitors - Germany (9.2 per cent) and France (10.5 per cent). The report said a ten per cent drop in the number of workless households in the UK, down to the level of France, would increase the country's GDP national output by one per cent. The CPS report found that Britain's workless households contain 5.4million adults and 1.9million children.

The study concluded that while many more paid jobs became available between 1992 and 2007, far more of them went to households where there was already someone working - doing little to attack worklessness.

However, there was some improvement over Labour's time in office - in 1998, the percentage in workless households was 12.5 per cent.
The number of economically inactive working-age adults in the UK - more than 9 million - is at the highest level since 1982 at the height of the first of Margaret Thatcher's two recessions.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1319446/Britain-branded-jobless-capital-Europe.html#ixzz15p0hf4Gk

[Demeter]

51. Greek Deficit Tops EU Ranking, Putting Pressure on Papandreou

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-15/greek-deficit-tops-eu-ranking-putting-pressure-on-papandreou.html

[Demeter]

64. Ring a Ring o’ Roses

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/ring-a-ring-o-roses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29

Some geographical and economic clarifications from politicians, officials and commentators: (TITLES OF RECENT ARTICLES GO TO LINK FOR FURTHER LINKS)

1. Spain is not Greece – Elena Salgado, Spanish Finance Minister, ~February, 2010.

2. Portugal is not Greece – The Economist, 22nd April, 2010.

3. Greece is not Ireland – George Papaconstantinou, Greek Finance Minister, 8th November 2010.

4. Spain is neither Ireland nor Portugal – Elena Salgado, Spanish Finance Minister, 16th November, 2010.

5. Neither Spain nor Portugal is Ireland – Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 18th November, 2010.

6. Ireland is not Greece Vanessa Rossi, senior research fellow in international economics at Chatham House in London, 18th November, 2010.

Glad that’s straightened out. Still to be determined: whether Belgium is Belgium.

[bread_and_roses]

68. LOL

really ... too funny - thanks for that one (and the others too, of course - I won't) get to most of them for a while)

[Ghost Dog]

71. Heh. And Italy is of course nowhere near any of the above

(certainly not under that Mr. Berlusconi getting up to all that, um, lubricating of, um, palms and, um, etc.).

;)

[AnneD]

97. But the frogs are still dead....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKszfxM3rlE&feature=related

[kickysnana]

106. "...Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae..."

Caesar wrote about Ambiorix in his commentary about his battles against the Gauls: "De Bello Gallico". In this text he also wrote the famous line: "Of all the Gauls, the Belgae are the bravest." ("...Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae...").

Some of ancestors were Wijffels. They built and maintained the dikes in one part of Belgium from 1500's. When the Spanish were invading, they destroyed these own dikes to keep them out, and then rebuilt them.
Belgians will probably always be Belgians. We are just too ornery and OC to give in.

[Ghost Dog]

131. Interesting. Gauls of Caesar's day not same tribes as Franks

who arrived later, although all these peoples have been mixing for so long... And that is true material of history.

[Demeter]

43. AFRICA

History of Africans among the Native American Indians

Runaway African slaves often found new homes in American Indian villages. Even though classified as "slaves" in White society, many African Americans became part of an INDIAN family group, and many intermarried with Native Americans - thus many later became classified as Black Indians. This is a unique history between African (black) slaves and Native American Indians which developed in many U. S. communities.

http://black-legacy.webs.com/slaveryindians.htm

http://www.african-nativeamerican.com/

[Demeter]

44. What role does the World Bank have in Africa's future?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/nov/17/world-bank-africa-strategy

The World Bank's draft strategy for Africa appears to be an attempt to shore up its position as a key player in the continent's development, while at the same open itself up to feedback from the public...

The World Bank's new report on Africa, published this week, concluded that the continent "could be on the brink of an economic take-off, much like China was 30 years ago, and India 20 years ago".

In its draft strategy for Africa, published on Monday, the bank said the continent's steady economic growth, progress on the millennium development goals and good rates of returns on investments give Africa "unprecedented opportunity for transformation and growth". Promoting Africa as an exciting and lucrative investment destination will be crucial to fulfilling this potential, it added.

"The emergence of new development partners such as China, the untapped potential of mobilising domestic resources, as well as the rise in private capital flows to Africa, calls for a new approach – Africa as an investment proposition – and points to the need for new partnerships among governments, development partners and the private sector," said the bank.

Based on data from the World Development Indicators, private cash flows (remittances and foreign direct investment) to developing countries totalled more than $650bn in 2009, while official development assistance fell to less than $130bn...

[Ghost Dog]

72. The World Bank is mostly looking after its own interests

and that of its main sponsors and controllers.

So are China and Brazil, sure. Although the case of Brazil in Africa could turn out to be a little different in the near future...

[AnneD]

79. Indians did not have the concept of race.....

Your worth was determined by what you brought to the tribe. Some times they were returned, but most times they found refuge.

As one of the civilized tribes and to our eternal shame, some Cherokee did have slaves. Some of those slaves went with their owners on the Trail of Tears. Unfortunantly, they were not given Dawes numbers. There was much intermingling with the tribe. Today, if they can find at least one family member on the Dawes, they are tribal members and as long as they register their children, they remain members. Even that is a hard hurdle for most.

I have only just recently begun to check out the black Indians and their contributions. It is a worthy and wonderful part of history that should not be lost

[Ghost Dog]

132. Why would any, given such an opportunity, not register?

[Demeter]

52. THE BANKSTERS

http://www.nabna.com/about.shtml

In 2001, twenty Tribal Nations and Alaskan Native Corporations set out with a dream “ to create a national bank to serve all Native people, communities, governments and enterprises across the country” and established Native American Bank, N.A. (NAB).

NAB recognizes that among the many issues facing Native Americans, the absence of access to financial capital and services has been a significant impediment towards the realization of self-sufficiency and financial freedom across Indian Country.


At NAB “ Our primary mission is to assist Native American and Alaskan Native individuals, enterprises and governments to reach their goals by providing affordable and flexible banking and financial services.

To accomplish this we concentrate on pooling Indian economic resources to increase Indian economic independence by fostering a climate of self-determination in investment, job creation and sustainable economic growth.”


Five years later NAB has maintained focus on the dream. Over 85% of our loans are to natives and we have grown from $15 million to $85 million in total assets. NAB reaches more and more people across Indian Country everyday. In 2006 alone, our growth rate was approximately 40%, making NAB one of the fastest growing banks in the nation.

Currently NAB is owned by a collection of 26 Tribal Nations, Tribal Enterprises and Alaskan Native Corporations.


NAB is always looking towards the future, to assist Native American and Alaskan Native individuals, enterprises and governments reach their financial goals. NAB is continuously developing ways to better serve our customers and extend our reach across Indian Country.

Having undergone the growing pains of start-up and undertaking the unprecedented task of providing financial services in Indian Country, NAB is now poised, and is making plans to extend its physical presence into Native Communities across the country.

NOTE: ACCORDING TO BANKTRACKER, NABNA HAS A TROUBLED ASSET RATION OF 42%. IT IS IN SERIOUS DANGER.

[Demeter]

53. Robo-signers may jeopardize 33 million mortgages, securitization

http://www.housingwire.com/2010/11/15/cop-robo-signers-may-jeopardize-33-million-mortgages-securitization

Threat to Secondary Market

According to the COP report, if this documentation problem has spread to the securitization process, banks may not know which mortgages they own.

Securitizing a mortgage loan requires many transfers of title. Any missteps could bring ownership of the loan into question.

The concern, COP says, is that robosigners may prove to be a weak link in the chain of mortgage finance (chart below):



Although some analysts such as Barclays Capital said the problem has not spread to the commercial mortgage-backed securities side, COP, which was designed by Congress to oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the Treasury's response to the financial crisis, said if residential MBS is affected, the results could be catastrophic.

"Clear and uncontested property rights are the foundation of the housing market," the report said. "If these rights fall into question, that foundation could collapse. Borrowers may be unable to determine whether they are sending their monthly payments to the right people. Judges may block any effort to foreclose, even in cases where borrowers have failed to make regular payments."

HAMP Mods in Question

COP even called into question a mortgage servicer's right to grant a modification through the Treasury's Home Affordable Modification Program.

But the Treasury maintains that documentation problems have not plagued HAMP, and has instructed the 10 largest servicers participating in the program to conduct internal reviews.

"We strongly believe that the reported behavior within the mortgage servicer industry is simply unacceptable, and servicers who have failed to follow the law must be held accountable," Treasury spokesman Mark Paustenbach said. "That’s why the Administration has led a coordinated interagency effort to investigate misconduct, protect homeowners and mitigate any long-term effects on the housing market."

Possibly Overblown

The banks, too, are downplaying the potential problems. In the BofA third-quarter earnings conference call, CEO Brian Moynihan told investors that the assessment would only take a "few weeks" to conclude, and in 80% of third quarter 2010 foreclosures, most borrowers hadn't made a mortgage payment for more than a year.

COP admitted that in a best-case scenario documentation problems may "prove overblown." But as the sheer speed of the mortgage market overtook county offices to process the titles, it asked the Treasury to prove how it sees no threat to the system.

"The independent regulatory agencies, the Justice Department and HUD are examining servicers’ behavior, and we will continue to monitor the situation closely," Paustenbach said.

[Demeter]

54. Foreclosures Raise New Concerns About Banks, Panel Says

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/business/economy/16lend.html?src=busln

...In the worst case, the banks will choke on the volume of bad loans they could be forced to reabsorb, leading to another financial crisis, the panel said. But the panel, which was set up after the financial crisis two years ago, also allowed for the possibility that concerns over paperwork irregularities will prove overblown and the crisis will recede.

“Despite assurances by banks and Treasury to the contrary, great uncertainty remains as to whether the stability of banks and the housing market might be at risk,” the report by the Congressional Oversight Panel said. It recommended giving banks new stress tests...

[Demeter]

55. Don't underestimate foreclosure crisis, watchdog warns

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/16/AR2010111600022.html

...The report, issued by the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's bailout program, marks the first time a federal watchdog has weighed in on the nationwide foreclosure mess.

The panel echoed concerns raised by consumer advocates and financial analysts who have said that although the consequences of the foreclosure debacle remain unclear, the problems could throw into doubt the ownership not only of foreclosed properties but also the millions of ordinary mortgages that were pooled and traded by investors around the world.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on the matter. Lawmakers are considering several legislative responses to the findings.

The spotlight on the foreclosure process has anxious financial executives mobilizing on Capitol Hill. A financial lobbyist said senior executives have been meeting with lawmakers and their staffers, and industry groups are planning letter campaigns aimed at preventing aggressive new legislation.

"Everyone's very nervous about what's going to happen this week," said another industry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his firm has a stake in the outcome. "We have all hands on deck." ...

[Demeter]

56. Indian-owned bank cracks top 10 in Indian mortgages

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/business/Indian-owned-bank-cracks-top-10-in-Indian-mortgages-105771503.html

WASHINGTON – Home Mortgage Disclosure Act numbers for 2009 show that mortgages to both Native Americans and Native Hawaiians increased, for the first time in several years. And for the first time, an American Indian-owned bank was on the leader board for mortgages to Indian people.

Bank2, owned by the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and based in Oklahoma City, made $123 million in mortgages to Indians last year, coming in ninth in the country. It also made $18 million in mortgages to Native Hawaiians, bringing its Native total to $141 million.

Impressively, that $141 million in mortgages came out of a total loan volume of $161 million, meaning more than 80 percent of its mortgage lending went to Native people last year. And it was a huge increase over 2008, when it loaned $24.6 million in mortgages to Indians, ranking it in the top 50.
...........

Two lenders dominated mortgages to Native people last year. Bank of America, aided by its acquisition of Countrywide Financial (Countrywide was the traditional leader in lending to minorities) was first, and Wells Fargo Bank was second.

B of A was first in lending to Native Hawaiians ($1.8 billion to Wells’ $1.6 billion) and Native Americans ($2.4 billion to Wells’ $1.7 billion). The two made more than one-third of all mortgages to Native people last year.

In addition to Bank2, several other Oklahoma lenders made the top 50 in mortgages to Indians. They include American Southwest Mortgage Co., Oklahoma City, First Mortgage Co., Oklahoma City, Bank of Oklahoma, Mortgage Clearing Corp., Tulsa, Bank of Oklahoma, Tulsa, Gateway Mortgage, Tulsa, and several others.

For Indian people especially, 2009 was a recovery from enormous dropoffs in mortgages in the past couple of years with the end of the mortgage boom. Mortgages to them fell by two-thirds after the record $53 billion year of 2006.

The big volumes minority populations saw during the mortgage boom had to do with a two-edged sword: After years of being ignored by lenders, they were finally targeted for mortgages – but by subprime lenders that were often predators.

Units of Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank totaled the top four lenders to American Indians last year, completely dominating the category. Number five was Chase, at $362 million. Number six, USAA Federal Savings Bank, San Antonio, had less than half of Chase’s volume, at $153 million. A total of 11 lenders made more than $100 million in mortgages to American Indians last year, and a total of 2,865 lenders made at least one mortgage to a Native person last year.

B of A and Wells totaled four of the top six lenders to Native Hawaiians last year. Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and Wells Fargo Finance were second and third, while B of A and Countrywide were first and sixth.

B of A’s lending to American Indians was flat to 2008, while Wells saw a decrease compared to last year, to about $1.3 billion in 2008.

Fourth was Taylor, Bean and Whitaker, Ocala, Fl., a mortgage banker that failed last year. It showed Native Hawaiian volume of more than $500 million. Fifth was Chase, with $469 million. No other lender made more than $200 million in loans to Native Hawaiians last year, according to the HMDA data.

Eleven lenders made more than $100 million in mortgages to Native Hawaiians last year. A total of 2,177 lenders made mortgages to Native Hawaiians last year.

[Demeter]

57. The First American Indian-Owned Bank in California

http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-california/1168433-1.html

http://www.borregospringsbank.com/

Borrego Springs Bank is rated sound, with troubled assets ratio below the median for the nation....

[Demeter]

65. Rep. Brad Miller: “Protecting bank solvency has been a goal of Treasury that I do not share”

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/11/19/rep-brad-miller-protecting-bank-solvency-has-been-a-goal-of-treasury-that-i-do-not-share/#

One of the more amusing moments of yesterday’s House Financial Services Committee hearings on foreclosure fraud was when the representatives for the loan servicers were asked why they were subsidiaries of the large financial institutions. The link between the servicers and the big banks, mainly caused by a series of mergers, leads to all kinds of conflicts of interest, because it inevitably pairs them up with the originator or trustee of the loan. The servicers had no real answer to this question. Finally, the Wells Fargo representative claimed that it was for “customer convenience,” because some customers had their mortgage and their checking accounts at the same bank.

Everyone’s jaw dropped in the hearing room.

Now Miller is out with a letter (I’ve placed it below), signed by all the top leaders of the House Financial Services Committee, that seriously ratchets up the demands on the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Among other things, it asks the FSOC to use its authority under Dodd-Frank to force the large financial institutions to divest from the loan servicers.

There is no apparent advantage in having financial companies that securitized mortgages also act as trustees or servicers, and there is an obvious conflict of interest. The uncertainty about the extent of the risk to our nation’s financial stability posed by the mortgage irregularities is largely the result of the control of critical information by financial companies at risk of insolvency from potential legal liability to mortgage investors and others. The control of critical information by financial companies with a possible motive to conceal systemic risks is incompatible with the intent of the Dodd-Frank Act, and is a grave threat to our nation’s financial stability.

In addition, the letter, signed by 11 members, including House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers, Financial Services Committee chair Barney Frank and top members of the Financial Services Committee Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez and Stephen Lynch, also asks that the stress tests being held by the Federal Reserve include provisions for scenarios where the big banks must take back bad mortgages due to breaches of the pooling and servicing agreements (PSAs). They ask that the FSOC get a random sample of collateral loan files from the major servicers, so they can check it for the note, the deed of trust, and all supporting documents showing proper conveyance and recording. They want the Council to look at the servicing of mortgages where the servicer is affiliated with the firm that holds a second lien. The belief here is that the servicer is intentionally avoiding any modifications on those loans so their parent company doesn’t have to write down the second lien.

[Demeter]

66. The US Federal Reserve is on the brink of insolvency (not!)

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=12414


I recently considered the QE2 decision by the US Federal Reserve in this blog – Religious persecution continues. I thought that I had said enough in that blog about the latest monetary policy choice in the US to ease the concerns of people who read this blog.

But I was wrong. Upon reading this latest Bloomberg Op Ed (November 17, 2010) – In Fed’s Monetary Targeting, Two Tails Are Better Than One – I realised the hysteria from the terrorists is taking further steps into insanity.

Overnight I was asked whether the Federal Reserve might become insolvent. Short answer: No? Relax. But here is the slightly longer answer in relation to this Bloomberg article.

The article was written by two US academics. Prospective students will know I am compiling a list of institutions you should avoid if your desire is to learn how the monetary system actually operates. As a result of this article I have now issued a further warning to anyone studying economics at the Columbia Business School and Oberlin College – don’t and if you are leave!

[Demeter]

84. The Most Cost-Effective, Shadow Bailout of Wall Street: $30M.

http://rortybomb.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/the-most-cost-effective-shadow-bailout-of-wall-street-30m/

There’s currently a shadow bailout of Wall Street coming down the road, a complete steal for the low, low price of $30 million dollars.

(Remember “millions”? In the context of shadow bailing out Wall Street, where you need to ante up “billions” and “trillions” to even sit at the table, it’s been a while since I’ve heard the “m” word.)

But for the low, low price of avoiding allocating a simple $30 million dollars Congress is looking to give Wall Street a massive amount of space to run wild. And the new Republicans might be leading the charge.

What am I talking about? As Dave Dayen has written, the new Dodd-Frank Bill authorized, but did not appropriate, $35 million dollars for legal services for homeowners. And as Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center said, “All of the robo-signing allegations were only discovered, brought to light by aggressive, competent attorneys working very diligently to represent their clients. Homeowners cannot negotiate these kinds of issues without lawyers. Low-income homeowners particularly need the lawyers… we urgently need that funding.”

I’ve heard from people I trust in the field the only thing that can hold Wall Street in check is keeping legal pressure in the courts on them with this foreclosure crisis. And if this $35 million dollar isn’t allocated any number of front line legal aid groups will have to slow down or shut down their operations. The reason you know about robosigners, the reason you know about the complete mockery Wall Street and shady overnight mortgage originators have made of our courts and our property rights, the reason you know about the gaming of the system of the servicers as it plays out in the field, is all because of front line legal aid groups.

Pay careful attention to what the request is. It’s a request to make sure people can represent themselves in court with someone who understands what is going on. This isn’t sort sort of homeowner bailout, a leveling of a playing field, re-organizing the disgusting way we deal with junior liens in the residential mortgage market to make it look like the corporate bond market, or anything else. This just makes sure working people in a terrible economy can be represented in court when they fight to protect their largest financial assets, a fight that if they lose poorly can leave them saddled with crushing debt for years.

Are there non-bailout and/or cover-up reasons we wouldn’t allocate this money?

[Demeter]

86. Bernanke Translated (GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT)

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2010/11/18/bernanke-translated/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wsj/economics/feed+%28WSJ.com:+Real+Time+Economics+Blog%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

In remarks prepared for delivery in Frankfurt Friday morning, and released by the Federal Reserve Thursday night in Washington, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke mounted his most detailed defense against charges that the Fed is deliberately cheapening the dollar by printing $600 billion to buy U.S. Treasurys and tried to point the finger at China’s reluctance to let its currency rise faster. Mr. Bernanke spoke in the language of a Princeton University economist, which he used to be, and avoided quotable phrases like Alan Greenspan’s 1996 warning of “irrational exuberance” or Brazilian finance minister Guido Mantega’s more recent talk of a “currency war.”

Here are excerpts from Mr. Bernanke’s remarks, with translation by David Wessel, economics editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of “In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic.”

ON THE ‘TWO SPEED’ RECOVERY

“Tensions among nations over economic policies have emerged and intensified, potentially threatening our ability to find global solutions to global problems… International policy cooperation is especially difficult now because of the two-speed nature of the economy… Economic growth in emerging markets has far outstripped growth in the advanced economies.”
“The level of output in the advanced economies is currently about 8% below its long-term trend, whereas economic activity in the emerging markets is only about 1.5% below the corresponding (but much steeper) trend line for that group of countries. Indeed, for some emerging markets the crisis appears to have left little lasting imprint on growth. Notably, since the beginning of 2005, real output has risen more than 70% in China and about 55% in India.”

TRANSLATION: “China, India and other emerging markets have resumed their rapid growth with surprising speed, but despite all my efforts the U.S. is mired in painfully slow growth — and Europe and Japan aren’t doing much better. Sigh.”

.....

CAPITAL FLOWS TO EMERGING MARKETS & EXCHANGE RATES
“An important driver of the rapid capital inflows to some emerging markets is incomplete adjustment of exchange rates in those economies, which leads investors to anticipate additional returns arising from expected exchange rate appreciation. The exchange rate adjustment is incomplete, in part, because the authorities in some emerging market economies have intervened in foreign exchange markets to prevent or slow the appreciation of their currencies.”

TRANSLATION: “Global investors are putting money into emerging markets not only because that’s where the growth is, but because investors are betting those currencies have no where to go but up.”

CHINA’S RESERVES
“A key driver of this “uphill” flow of capital is official reserve accumulation in the emerging market economies that exceeds private capital inflows to these economies. The total holdings of foreign exchange reserves by selected major emerging market economies, have risen sharply since the crisis and now surpass $5 trillion –about six times their level a decade ago. China holds about half of the total reserves of these selected economies, slightly more than $2.6 trillion.”

TRANSLATION: “The only reason the Chinese yuan isn’t rising faster is that China is selling it heavily and buying dollars, and you can see this by looking at how huge their hoard of U.S. dollars has grown.”

......

THE DRAWBACKS
“First…, currency undervaluation inhibits necessary macroeconomic adjustments and creates challenges for policymakers in both advanced and emerging market economies. Globally, both growth and trade are unbalanced, as reflected in the two-speed recovery and in persistent current account surpluses and deficits. Neither situation is sustainable. Because a strong expansion in the emerging market economies will ultimately depend on a recovery in the more advanced economies, this pattern of two-speed growth might very well be resolved in favor of slow growth for everyone … ”

TRANSLATION: “The Chinese are going to screw up things for everyone if they don’t let the currency rise faster.”

“Second, the current system leads to uneven burdens of adjustment among countries, with those countries that allow substantial flexibility in their exchange rates bearing the greatest burden … ”

TRANSLATION: “The Chinese are making life miserable for countries like Brazil, South Korea, India, South Africa, Israel, and others that let their currencies move more freely, but are now at a competitive disadvantage because China won’t let its currency rise faster. All this flak should be direct at Beijing, not at Washington.”

“Third, countries that maintain undervalued currencies may themselves face important costs at the national level, including a reduced ability to use independent monetary policies to stabilize their economies and the risks associated with excessive or volatile capital inflows.”

TRANSLATION: “China would have a whole lot easier time managing its inflation problem if it let its currency rise, and that would make it easier for its neighbors to let their currencies rise too — and that would discourage hot money from flooding those countries to bet on further currency appreciation.”

OR TO SUMMARIZE--"DON'T BLAME ME, IT'S ALL CHINA'S FAULT!"

[Demeter]

101. The Entire Fraud Revealed by Matt Taibbi and Cenk Uygur--Soup to Nuts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3e71oxkp74

[Demeter]

62. Have a good Saturday, All

See you later tonight!

[TalkingDog]

75. Report: U.S. to lift lid on 'pervasive insider trading'

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40284176/ns/business/

NEW YORK — U.S. officials are preparing insider trading charges against a host of financial players, including investment bankers and hedge fund managers, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

The charges could surpass any previous investigations on Wall Street, and examine whether certain players garnered tens of millions of dollars in illegal profits, according to the newspaper.

The three-year investigation could expose "a culture of pervasive insider trading in U.S. financial markets", especially in ways private information is transmitted to traders through connected insiders, the newspaper said, citing federal authorities.


we shall see, what we shall see.....

[Demeter]

77. What's a Couple of Millions, Compared to the BILLIONS

squandered on the TBTF?

And the mortgage fraud that is behind the TBTF, that's got to be in the trillions.

Still, gotta start somewhere.

[Demeter]

80. Words to Die By--Fighting Words

"Little force is needed to control a man whose mind has been hoodwinked;
contrariwise, no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is
free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything -- you can't conquer
a free man; the most you can do is kill him".

- Robert A. Heinlein Author

[Demeter]

81. HISTORY

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab05

The first Americans: 30,000 - 5000 years ago

During the most recent of the Ice Ages, lasting from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, an undersea ridge between Siberia and Alaska emerges from the sea. Known as the Bering Land Bridge, it lies partly south of the ice cap. It develops a steppe-like ecology of grasslands, grazed by large animals such as horses, reindeer and even mammoth.

Gradually, in many separate incursions, the hunter-gatherers of the Siberian steppes pursue their prey across the land bridge and into America. When the melting ice submerges the bridge, about 10,000 years ago, these northeast Asians become isolated as the aboriginal Americans.










The Siberian hunter-gatherers probably make their way south along the north coast of Alaska and down through the valley of the Mackenzie river. Archaeological evidence shows that by about 15,000 years ago the central plains of America are widely inhabited. Traces of human activity at this time are preserved in the remarkable La Brea tar pit in Los Angeles. The glacial conditions further north mean that the central plains are at this time cool and moist.

During the next 5000 years, while the glacial period continues, humans penetrate far into South America.








The retreat of the ice caps (see Ice Ages) makes northern regions increasingly habitable both for large animals and for the humans who prey on them. By 8000 years ago hunter-gatherers have moved up the eastern side of the continent into Newfoundland and the prairie provinces of Canada.

From about 7000 years ago human groups adapt to the conditions of the northern coast of Canada, living mainly as hunters of sea mammals. They spread gradually eastwards along the edge of the Arctic Circle, eventually reaching Greenland. These hardiest of all human settlers survive today as the Eskimo (or, in their own name for themselves, inuit - meaning simply 'the people').









Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab05#ixzz15sMv3Avv

[Demeter]

82. What really went on in the first few months after FDR was elected?

http://www.newdeal20.org/2010/11/18/the-story-behind-obamas-remarks-on-fdr-27539/

“We didn’t actually, I think, do what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did, which was basically wait for six months until the thing had gotten so bad that it became an easier sell politically because we thought that was irresponsible. We had to act quickly.” - President Obama

Sometimes a chance remark trains a searchlight on aspects of the historical record that would otherwise be shrouded in Stygian blackness for a generation...Many readers responded in shocked disbelief: The President can’t mean what he said. He must have misspoken — he can’t really be claiming that Roosevelt sat on his hands, deliberately letting the Depression get worse and worse...Perhaps it was just a slip. But in 2010, even slips can be revealing — and this one comes from a definite part of the political spectrum. The President was repeating a canard that goes back to the circle of die hards around President Herbert Hoover as he exited the White House in a cloud of bitterness in 1933. In recent years, as a vast campaign against the memory of the New Deal has gathered steam, such claims have gone mainstream.

I often joke that North America is the true “Dark Continent.” We probably know more about tribes in the Amazon jungle than we do about the real nature of power in the United States. Neither political science, nor history, nor economics do very well on this. If you want to understand what really happened between Hoover and Roosevelt between November 1932, when FDR won the election by a landslide, and March 1933, the old inauguration day before passage of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, you need to comb through the papers of private bankers and the material in more easily available public sources such as the splendid Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York. I have been engaged in this over more decades than I now care to admit. The bottom line is this: Hoover and a substantial bloc of New York bankers wanted Roosevelt to commit to staying on the gold standard and US participation in the upcoming London Economic Conference. These commitments would have meant continued austerity and completely destroyed any chance of fundamental reform — which was why the banks and Hoover were so insistent. In effect, they were hoping to continue with Hoover’s policies, if not Hoover himself.

Roosevelt exchanged some messages with them, but finally refused the whole package. He and his advisers correctly concluded that the idea was to suck them into a foolish set of commitments. FDR was simply not willing to make the kind of arrangements with bankers that President Obama was. That’s the heart of the matter.

...................................................

Thomas Ferguson is Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the author of many books and articles, including Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems.

[Demeter]

87. Columbus Day? True Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery By Eric Kasum

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26564.htm

If Christopher Columbus were alive today, he would be put on trial for crimes against humanity. Columbus' reign of terror, as documented by noted historians, was so bloody, his legacy so unspeakably cruel, that Columbus makes a modern villain like Saddam Hussein look like a pale codfish...Here's the basics:

First of all, Columbus wasn't the first European to discover America. As we all know, the Viking, Leif Ericson probably founded a Norse village on Newfoundland some 500 years earlier. So, hats off to Leif. But if you think about it, the whole concept of discovering America is, well, arrogant. After all, the Native Americans discovered North America about 14,000 years before Columbus was even born! Surprisingly, DNA evidence now suggests that courageous Polynesian adventurers sailed dugout canoes across the Pacific and settled in South America long before the Vikings.

Second, Columbus wasn't a hero. When he set foot on that sandy beach in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, Columbus discovered that the islands were inhabited by friendly, peaceful people called the Lucayans, Taínos and Arawaks. Writing in his diary, Columbus said they were a handsome, smart and kind people. He noted that the gentle Arawaks were remarkable for their hospitality. "They offered to share with anyone and when you ask for something, they never say no," he said. The Arawaks had no weapons; their society had neither criminals, prisons nor prisoners. They were so kind-hearted that Columbus noted in his diary that on the day the Santa Maria was shipwrecked, the Arawaks labored for hours to save his crew and cargo. The native people were so honest that not one thing was missing...Columbus was so impressed with the hard work of these gentle islanders, that he immediately seized their land for Spain and enslaved them to work in his brutal gold mines. Within only two years, 125,000 (half of the population) of the original natives on the island were dead...He forced these peaceful natives work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion. If an "Indian" worker did not deliver his full quota of gold dust by Columbus' deadline, soldiers would cut off the man's hands and tie them around his neck to send a message. Slavery was so intolerable for these sweet, gentle island people that at one point, 100 of them committed mass suicide. Catholic law forbade the enslavement of Christians, but Columbus solved this problem. He simply refused to baptize the native people of Hispaniola.

Shockingly, Columbus supervised the selling of native girls into sexual slavery. Young girls of the ages 9 to 10 were the most desired by his men. In 1500, Columbus casually wrote about it in his log. He said: "A hundred castellanoes are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in demand."

On his second trip to the New World, Columbus brought cannons and attack dogs. If a native resisted slavery, he would cut off a nose or an ear. If slaves tried to escape, Columbus had them burned alive. Other times, he sent attack dogs to hunt them down, and the dogs would tear off the arms and legs of the screaming natives while they were still alive. If the Spaniards ran short of meat to feed the dogs, Arawak babies were killed for dog food.

Columbus' acts of cruelty were so unspeakable and so legendary - even in his own day - that Governor Francisco De Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his two brothers, slapped them into chains, and shipped them off to Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawaks. But the King and Queen of Spain, their treasury filling up with gold, pardoned Columbus and let him go free.

One of Columbus' men, Bartolome De Las Casas, was so mortified by Columbus' brutal atrocities against the native peoples, that he quit working for Columbus and became a Catholic priest. He described how the Spaniards under Columbus' command cut off the legs of children who ran from them, to test the sharpness of their blades. According to De Las Casas, the men made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half. He says that Columbus' men poured people full of boiling soap. In a single day, De Las Casas was an eye witness as the Spanish soldiers dismembered, beheaded, or raped 3000 native people. "Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel," De Las Casas wrote. "My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write."

De Las Casas spent the rest of his life trying to protect the helpless native people. But after a while, there were no more natives to protect. Experts generally agree that before 1492, the population on the island of Hispaniola probably numbered above 3 million. Within 20 years of Spanish arrival, it was reduced to only 60,000. Within 50 years, not a single original native inhabitant could be found...Christopher Columbus derived most of his income from slavery, De Las Casas noted. In fact, Columbus was the first slave trader in the Americas. As the native slaves died off, they were replaced with black slaves. Columbus' son became the first African slave trader in 1505...

Let's come clean. Let's tell the truth about Christopher Columbus. Let's boycott this outrageous holiday because it honors a mass murderer. If we skip the cute song about "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue," I don't think our first graders will miss it much, do you? True, Columbus' brutal treatment of peaceful Native Americans was so horrific... maybe we should hide the truth about Columbus until our kids reach at least High School age. Let's teach it to them about the same time we tell them about the Nazi death camps.

If I were a Native American, I would mark October 12, 1492, as a black day on my calendar.
============================================

Columbus Day, as we know it in the United States, was invented by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization. Back in the 1930s, they were looking for a Catholic hero as a role-model their kids could look up to. In 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt signed Columbus Day into law as a federal holiday to honor this courageous explorer. Or so we thought...The truth about Columbus is going to be a hard pill for some folks to swallow. Please, don't think I'm picking on Catholics. All the Catholics I know are wonderful people. I don't want to take away their holiday or their hero. But if we're looking for a Catholic our kids can admire, the Catholic church has many, many amazing people we could name a holiday after. How about Mother Teresa day? Or St. Francis of Assisi day? Or Betty Williams day (another Catholic Nobel Peace Prize winner). These men and women are truly heroes of peace, not just for Catholics, but for all of us.

Call me crazy, but I think holidays ought to honor people who are worthy of our admiration, true heroes who are positive role models for our children. If we're looking for heroes we can truly admire, I'd like to offer a few candidates....While we're at it, let's rewrite our history books. From now on, instead of glorifying the exploits of mass murderers like Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, and Napoleon Bonaparte, let's teach our kids about true heroes, men and women of courage and kindness who devoted their lives to the good of others. There's a long list, starting with Florence Nightingale, Mahatma Gandhi, Rev. Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy.

Why don't we create a holiday to replace Columbus Day?

Let's call it Heroes of Peace Day.

[AnneD]

98. It was considered sad day in our household...

I remember one episode in Northern Exposure when Joel wanted to march in the Columbus Day parade. Marilyn told him he couldn't. Then he finally got word that the Alaskan government could and would extend his contract and there was no way he could get out of his contract. He was crushed and in such despair.At that point, Marilyn told him he could be in the parade. He had lost all hope, and to be an Indian was to lose hope. It seems the parade was more of a funeral procession than parade

[Demeter]

93. Surprise -- The Very Dark Side of U.S. History

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26550.htm

[DemReadingDU]

105. That was ghastly

Yet, those incidents were always left out of history books.

Does anyone else think that the search and grope tactics by the TSA, are prepping people into submission for future atrocities? Without a search warrant, people are submitting to being virtually naked scanned, groped and fondled, because of security???

What's next? Searching and groping to go to the shopping mall? Without a search warrant?

Then what? The police searching my house, without a search warrant.

Whatever happened to our constitutional rights?

[AnneD]

85. A special treat.....

for the ladies....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uodPpGYXp1o

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYH9U3wlY0k&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnGOWzuhgLg&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_tLflWNGcA&feature=related

I was use to seeing all my brothers, cousins, dad, and uncles with very little body hair and a razor blade lasts forever. Imagine my shock at discovering how hairy caucasian men were. And it seems that every man I really cared for came with a carpet. :spray:



for the guys...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO25Lb8M1IA&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVqef4gTMTg&feature=related

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQFv-ZiN8XQ&feature=related

Sorry the fashion industry is very fickle and there are not as many women.


Real beauty is on the inside and shines outward

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpC9hnWMYbU&feature=related

[Ghost Dog]

133. There are some very strong faces in that last one.

Downloaded.

[Demeter]

88. Currency wars are necessary if all else fails

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26565.htm

The overwhelming fact of the global currency system is that America needs a much weaker dollar to bring its economy back into kilter and avoid slow ruin, yet the rest of the world cannot easily handle the consequences of such a wrenching adjustment. There is not enough demand to go around...

THERE'S PLENTY OF DEMAND, JUST NO INCOME TO PAY FOR IT!


...The atomic bomb, of course, is quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve. America has in effect issued an ultimatum to China and G20: either you stop this predatory behaviour and agree to some formula for global rebalancing, or we will deploy QE2 `a l’outrance’ to flood your economies with excess liquidity. We will cause you to overheat and drive up your wage costs. We will impose a de facto currency revaluation by more brutal and disruptive means, and there is little you can do to stop it. Pick your poison.

This is what QE2 means, though Fed officials prefer to talk of their “mandate” of supporting employment. It is nothing like QE1, which was emergency action to halt the economic free-fall of late 2008 and early 2009. This time the Fed is using QE as a long-term tool to manage America’s chronic ailments....

[Demeter]

90. THE FUTURE

American Indians: People Without a Future
By Ralph Nader
May 10, 1956

http://www.nader.org/index.php?/archives/1272-American-Indians-People-Without-a-Future.html

American Indian Millennium: Renewing Our Ways for Future Generations

Okoyi: To Have A Home

http://www.pieganinstitute.org/renewingways.html


WHAT A DIFFERENCE 50 YEARS MAKES...

...the civil rights movement (of which the American Indian Movement, founded in 1968, is a part), combined with an increased awareness of past injustices, ensures that the plight of the American Indians is now very much on the political agenda. And the Indians themselves are more condident in pressing their case, with a keen awareness of the emotive potential of their past history. The American Indian Movement wins world-wide attention in 1973 when it occupies the village of Wounded Knee and survives a ten-week siege by the authorities.

Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1099&HistoryID=ab05>rack=pthc#ixzz15sfkY7vF

[Demeter]

91. S&P: 60% of Countries Will Be Bankrupt Within 50 Years By Daniel Tencer

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26554.htm

THAT'S ONLY IF OBAMA AND HIS STOOGES INSIST THAT NOTHING SHALL CHANGE IN OUR ECONOMY...WE NEED TO REDEFINE, REDISTRIBUTE, AND REORDER PRIORITIES.

[Demeter]

92. World Job Crisis is a Threat to Democracy, Says IMF Head

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26555.htm

SINCE WHEN DOES THE IMF GIVE A FIG ABOUT "DEMOCRACY"?

I SUSPECT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT PIRACY AND PROFITEERING, AND DEMOCRACY IS JUST A CODE WORD.

[Demeter]

108. America’s Third World Economy By Paul Craig Roberts

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26544.htm

For a number of years I reported on the monthly nonfarm payroll jobs data. The data did not support the praises economists were singing to the “New Economy.” The “New Economy” consisted, allegedly, of financial services, innovation, and high-tech services. This economy was taking the place of the old “dirty fingernail” economy of industry and manufacturing. Education would retrain the workforce, and we would move on to a higher level of prosperity.

Time after time I reported that there was no sign of the “New Economy” jobs, but that the old economy jobs were disappearing. The only net new jobs were in lowly paid domestic services such as waitresses and bartenders, retail clerks, health care and social assistance (mainly ambulatory health care services), and, before the bubble burst, construction.

The facts, issued monthly by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, had no impact on the ”New Economy” propaganda. Economists continued to wax eloquently about how globalism was a boon for our future.

The millions of unemployed today are blamed on the popped real estate bubble and the subprime derivative financial crisis. However, the US economy has been losing jobs for a decade. As manufacturing, information technology, software engineering, research, development, and tradable professional services have been moved offshore, the American middle class has shriveled. The ladders of upward mobility that made American an “opportunity society” have been dismantled.

The wage and salary cost savings obtained by giving Americans’ jobs to Chinese and Indians have enriched corporate CEOs, shareholders, and Wall Street at the expense of the middle class and America’s consumer economy.

The loss of middle class jobs and incomes was covered up for years by the expansion of consumer debt to substitute for the lack of income growth. Americans refinanced their homes and spent the equity, and they maxed out their credit cards.

Consumer debt expansion has run its course, and there is no possibility of continuing to drive the economy with additions to consumer debt.

Economists and policymakers continue to ignore the fact that all employment in tradable goods and services can be moved offshore (or filled by foreigners brought in on H-1b and L-1 visas). The only replacement jobs are in nontradable domestic services, that is, those jobs that require “hands-on” activity, such as ambulatory health services, barbers, cleaning services, waitresses and bartenders--jobs that describe the labor force of a third world country. Even many of these jobs are now filed with foreigners brought in on R-1 type visas from Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, Romania, and elsewhere...

THERE'S MORE, AND IT GETS WORSE

[Demeter]

109. The Secret Big-Money Takeover of America By Robert Reich

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26549.htm

...Hundreds of millions of secret dollars are pouring into congressional and state races in this election cycle. The Koch brothers (whose personal fortunes grew by $5 billion last year) appear to be behind some of it, Karl Rove has rounded up other multi-millionaires to fund right-wing candidates, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is funneling corporate dollars from around the world into congressional races, and Rupert Murdoch is evidently spending heavily.

No one knows for sure where this flood of money is coming from because it’s all secret.

But you can safely assume its purpose is not to help America’s stranded middle class, working class, and poor. It’s to pad the nests of the rich, stop all reform, and deregulate big corporations and Wall Street – already more powerful than since the late 19th century when the lackeys of robber barons literally deposited sacks of cash on the desks of friendly legislators.

Credit the Supreme Court’s grotesque decision in Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, which opened the floodgates. (Even though 8 of 9 members of the Court also held disclosure laws constitutional, the decision invited the creation of shadowy “nonprofits” that don’t have to reveal anything.)

According to FEC data, only 32 percent of groups paying for election ads are disclosing the names of their donors. By comparison, in the 2006 midterm, 97 percent disclosed; in 2008, almost half disclosed...

[AnneD]

94. Is you is or is you ain't.......

Famous Cherokee you may or may not know about......

Famous Cherokee from the Modern Era

ACTIVISTS / POLITICIANS

Sir Winston Churchill

President Bill Clinton (who claims to be one-sixteenth Cherokee, although no documentation has been found to support this).

John Nance Garner (nicknamed Cactus Jack), 32nd Vice President of the US under Roosevelt

Wilma Mankiller was the first female Cherokee Principal Chief and a well known native american activist.

Rosa Parks, who wouldn't give up her seat on a bus, the incident that started racial reform in the 60s for blacks.

John Leak Springston

ACTORS:

Monte Blue, appeared in 278 television and movie roles.

Walter Brennan

Cher

Victor Daniels (stage name Chief Thundercloud), played Tonto in the early Lone Ranger films.

Johnny Depp, famous for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Charisma Carpenter

David Carradine

Iron Eyes Cody

Kevin Costner, became famous for Dances With Wolves, went on to become superstar

James Garner

Clu Gulager was Deputy, later Sheriff, Ryker on the long-running television series The Virginian.

James Earl Jones

Christopher Judge

Arthur Junaluska, Eastern Cherokee, was an actor, playwright, and theatrical director.

Tom Mix

Chuck Norris

Lou Diamond Philips

Burt Reynolds

Will Rogers was a performer in Wild West shows and on stage, later becoming a film actor, radio personality, and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist.

Liv Tyler

Wes Studi is full-blood Cherokee, and has received critical acclaim for his portrayals of Magua in The Last of the Mohicans (1992), and Geronimo (1994).

Dennis Weaver was known for his Emmy-winning role as Chester on the long-running television series Gunsmoke, and in the McCloud television series.

ATHLETES:

Jack Dempsey, boxing champion

ARTISTS:

Robert Rauschenberg, painter.

MUSICIANS:

Tori Amos also shares Cherokee ancestry.

Anita Bryant, singer, beauty queen, and celebrity spokesperson who became best known for her work in favor of bigotry against gays and lesbians.

Johnny Cash, country-western legend.

Cher, the actress and singer.

Rita Coolidge, country western legend.

Billy Ray Cyrus, country western singer

Miley Cyrus

Crystal Gayle, country western singer.

Jimi Hendrix, rock legend, was of Cherokee heritage through his maternal grandmother, Nora Rose Moore.

Eartha Kitt

Loretta Lynn, country western superstar.

Willie Nelson, country-western legend, folk hero.

John Phillips of the singing group,The Mamas and the Papas, famous in the 1970-80s.

Elvis Presley, singer, musician and actor, maybe the biggest musical legend of the 20th century.

Tiffany, singer.

Steven Tyler, singer in the rock band called Aerosmith.

PREACHERS

Oral Roberts, Television Evangelist

DIRECTORS / PRODUCERS / WRITERS

Gary Robinson, is a writer, producer and director.

Mitch Cullin, writer.

Robert Redford is also on the list and does fund many up and coming Indian film directors.

[AnneD]

96. Now that Thanksgiving is soon to pass...

can Christmas be far behind. Try this version on for size.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcnvuc0nm8

[Demeter]

99. Not Having Cable These Many Years

I knew nothing about this show. Do you think it educational for younger minds? I am trying to find quality videos for the Kid, to increase her general knowledge (and avoid crap like "Charmed" and violent thrillers).

[AnneD]

102. Northern Exposure has to be....

one of the best shows ever written. I own the discs up to the fourth season. It had plots and characters, lots of characters. It talked about some pretty deep subjects like philosophy, physics, the metaphysical. And there was always good music. I don't know how young a mind you need to educate but my daughter watched it and liked it (5th-8th). Our town in New Mexico was so much like Cicely. So if you can deal with May-Dec relationships and the fact that the town was founded by a lesbian couple, you will do just fine (5% of the story line).

It is far better than this vampire crap. Don't get me wrong, I was goth before it was cool, but this is overkill.

[DemReadingDU]

104. I never watched Northern Exposure

Actually, I rarely have ever watched a TV series. There have been some shows that have been on TV for a decade, and I never knew about them, until the hoopla surrounding their demise.

[AnneD]

107. I don't watch much.....

but I do catch some.....Grey's Anatomy first 2 seasons, Desperate Housewife's first three seasons, Lost the first 2 seasons and then I go back to Northern Exposure. Over a 10 year gap. I have seen Undercover Boss and like it, but forget American Idol, Dancing, Survivor. Can't stand them. I give them 15-20 minutes and if they look like a waste of time-I am out of there. I currently like How I Met Your Mother but don't see it much. I don't have that much time.

[DemReadingDU]

110. Here's my list

I watched Sisters, some Cheers and Seinfeld

Then along came Ed, the lawyer owning bowling alley

and Cold Case, but apparently this show was canceled this year. Bummer.

Oh, I do try to still watch 60 Minutes, also Keith, and Rachel on MSNBC.

I really need to be more vigilant with PBS Frontline, There are some good documentaries there.

[Ghost Dog]

129. A 'flute' is played, but I do not see the player?

Beautifully done.

[Demeter]

112. WELL FRIENDS, WE ARE SITTING AT IRELAND'S DEATHBED

Either Ireland, or Ireland's banks, must fail. The predators cannot be stopped, because they have too many friends, bought and paid for, and the People are not yet ready to take up arms.

Greece took to the streets, and stopped the madness. Frenchmen fought bitterly. But the Irish, exhausted by the Irish Troubles, have no stomach for further violence and strife.

And what of Americans? Will we fight the TSA abuses, will we fight the Goldman flunkies, will we fight for our own selves and our children?

It would be November, the grayest, grimmest month of the year, outside of February, when this all comes down....when people want to look to the joyous holidays, but instead face the abyss.

[AnneD]

113. A little mood music......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVGQxAtrb0Y&feature=related

And if it is true about his skull being in the skull and bones club, they will be cursed forever.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eum4xW4c4X8&feature=related

[AnneD]

115. And what thread about the Trail of Tears......

would be complete without the words of the Man In Black, Johnny Cash reading diary excerpts ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW8rIM2lNN8

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RIJ_hFPDFE&feature=related

[bread_and_roses]

114. I don't understand much of the Ireland fiasco - but I think I understand this much

that once again, ordinary people are going to be crushed so the rich can get richer. Do I need to understand anything else?

[Demeter]

117. Nope. That's About It

Instead of dismantling the artificial and faulty construct of their TOO BIG TO FAIL banks, the Irish Government has decided to sacrifice the people to the hungry pirates. They've forgotten all they ever knew about Danegelt. They fear the Banks more than the People. They value the Banks more than the People.

It doesn't get much uglier than that.

[Demeter]

118. I Have To Say This Was a Somber and Sobering Weekend

Thank you all who participated as readers, contributors, commentators, whatever, especially our resident American Indian expert AnneD, who will make an outstanding VP (where's your running mate, Anne? Haven't heard a peep from Tansy)..

The next weekend, I think Islam deserves a similar exploration, as we should be thankful that many more Muslims would rather live in this country than blow it up....although who knows? That balance might be shifting...

Have a good week, all. Stay safe, warm, healthy and solvent as possible. See you at Turkey Day!

[Ghost Dog]

134. Rather than Islam as such, speak of the peoples of Islam.

The many different people.

[Demeter]

135. Good Point

That is what I meant, but it was very late.

[AnneD]

119. So where do we go from here.....

What happened happened and it is what it is.

We have tried to rebuild our traditions. The language is actually growing thanks to the adaption of technology. The Cherokee are known for their ability to adapt and have been blessed with wise leaders. We haven't worn the shirt of victims.

We succeeded because we sought to take the battle to the enemy. We chose a level playing field and didn't give up. We tried to keep our families together along the way. Quite and unnoticed we toiled away to make a better life for our children. If you ever are out traveling, visit our little corner of paradise.

[jotsy]

120. Lakota.

This tribe, also known as the Sioux, are legally engaged with the U.S. in an attempt to reclaim lands as agreed to over a century ago which has since twice been reduced.



<http://www.republicoflakotah.com/>


For something both classic and contemporary on the number crunching.
<http://www.opednews.com/articles/Brave-New-World-by-David-Glenn-Cox-101120-649.html>

Thanx Ms. Demeter, hope the holiday finds you in safe and happy spirits.

I rec'd this thread...Friday night.

[AnneD]

122. I admired the Lakota......

they were drug to the rez kicking and screaming all the way. Down here it was Apache and Comanche. The the horse culture did not last long but it had a mighty influence.

Relocating to a Rez in the wooded foothills via the trail of tears was not as devastating the culture as having your way of life destroyed in one to 3 generations. And the way of re-educating the Indian didn't help. It was like putting an Eagle in a cage and trying to teach it to sing and do tricks. :eyes:

We were lucky that we had a written language. It has stood us well. Good luck and keep up the fight. Remember, we won in the SCOTUS and it still took many years to get them to make good.

[midnight]

121. Traveling through Oklahoma we stopped at a traveler info.

center. The info. person gave us some of the rose rocks formed along the path of this trail of tears.... They are about an inch in diameter, slightly pink and round with groves etched into them from nature...

[AnneD]

125. Official Website....

Of the Cherokee Nation.....

www.cherokee.org/


edited to add-thanks Demeter. I was ambivalent about this thread. It does deal with a difficult subject that I don't talk to outsiders about much. But thinking about it has made me reflect on how far we have come, how far I have come. And yes, I am truly thankful that my grandparents and theirs who never gave up and in the process never lost their humanity. Sometimes Mom says my stubbornness is a curse but to my way of thinking, it was and is a blessing. When I see my baby set her jaw when she hits an obstacle, I know she received the legacy too.

Happy Thanksgiving and Thank you very much Demeter.

[Demeter]

127. And same to you, AnneD. Thanks for all the stuff!

I hope we did your people honor. Or at least, didn't embarrass ourselves too much...

[AnneD]

128. I try to take things ......

in the spirit they were given.

I call my step father Old Fart. On the surface that seems like an insult. I told him the first time I ever called him that, if I were lucky, I too would reach the exalted state of old fart-dom. He laughed so hard and considers his name a badge of honour. It is our long running joke.

It is all in the spirit it was given. And I hope you enjoyed the tidbits.

[Demeter]

126. Eurozone agrees bail-out package for Dublin

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed an aid plan for Ireland. Irish prime minister and finance minister to hold press conference at 2015 local time.

Read more >>
http://link.ft.com/r/VKY5JJ/PR7FI9/WH2F8/S348Z0/18XF2R/T3/t?a1=2010&a2=11&a3=21