Lodestar
Lodestar's JournalEx-Goldman Sachs Fraudster Fabrice Tourre to Teach Economics at University of Chicago
Source: International Business Times
The former Goldman Sachs vice-president Fabrice Tourre, who was convicted on six counts of securities fraud six months ago, has landed a new job as an economics teacher at a prestigious university in the US.
Tourre, also known as "Fabulous Fab," will teach a class called 'Elements of Economic Analysis' on Thursday afternoons, followed by a discussion on Monday.
His teaching stint will be part of his pursuit of a doctorate at the university.
Last month, Tourre failed to persuade US District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan to dismiss the case or go for a new trial, as part of his appeal against charges that he defrauded investors in a sub-prime mortgage investment deal five years ago.
He claimed that his conduct did not amount to fraud and there was not enough evidence to support defrauding charges. He also argued that Forrest had instructed jurors incorrectly on the law.
"None of these arguments has merit," the judge said.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ex-goldman-sachs-fraudster-fabrice-tourre-teach-economics-university-chicago-1438212
Teach your children well.
Rome on the Brink as Detroit-Style Bankruptcy Meltdown Looms
Source: International Business Times
Italy's historic capital is on the brink of bankruptcy as its mayor plans to plead for a bailout from the national government.
Mayor Ignazio Marino told the Wall Street Journal that he is in daily discussions with Italy's national government.
But he stressed the parties "just needed to identify the right amount of money the government should give to Rome".
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/rome-brink-detroit-style-bankruptcy-meltdown-looms-1438218
The Fall of Rome II
Drones Strikes: European Parliament Condemns Murder of Civilians
Source: International Business Times
The European Parliament condemned the US covert drone strikes that have killed thousands of civilians in countries such as Pakistan and Yemen, legal charity Reprieve reported.
534 out of 583 MEPs voted in favour of a resolution which demands that EU Member States "do not perpetrate unlawful targeted killings or facilitate such killings by other states", and calling on them to "oppose and ban practices of extra judicial targeted killings."
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/drones-strikes-european-parliament-condemns-murder-civilians-1438196
Inside Democrats’ plan to turn Texas blue
Encouraged by a rapidly rising Hispanic population, Democrats are pouring millions of dollars into an all-out, grass roots bid to take Texas blue - if not in this year’s governor’s race, then maybe by 2020
http://www.reuters.com/video/2014/02/26/inside-democrats-plan-to-turn-texas-blue?videoId=283830709&videoChannel=1003
Insurance companies will no longer cover radiation sickness
They are getting out in front of the bad news:
Insurance Companies in the United States have begun notifying customers they will no longer have ANY coverage whatsoever for anything relating to nuclear energy claims. Fallout, radiation sickness, property damage from radiation – all EXCLUDED. This begs the question: If the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima power plant in Japan is as harmless to Americans as the government and “scientists” are telling us, why are Insurance companies specifically EXCLUDING coverage for nuclear energy related claims? (Hint: The government is lying about the danger.)
Read more at http://investmentwatchblog.com/fukushima-radiation-causing-u-s-insurance-companies-to-exclude-all-coverage-for-radiation-claims/#56dV065uW7BWikDR.99
http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/news/251-mjt
Venezuela: War for oil fuels economic crisis
This is an article from last year but explains the historic and current situation unfolding in Venezuela:
(excerpts)
Having secured control over oil money (and imposed strict currency controls to stop capital flight), the Chavez government began re-directing wealth towards meeting peoples’ basic needs.
In real terms, per capita social spending jumped 314% between 1998 and 2006. This fuelled important gains in poverty reduction, wage rises and higher consumption levels among the poor.
Wealth re-distribution was combined with measures beginning to give Chavismo a clear anti-capitalist character.
Rather than relying on the inherited bureaucratic state apparatus, the government circumvented these corrupted institutions by creating “social missions”. These are programs funded by oil wealth that rely on networks of community groups to facilitate access to healthcare, education and subsidised food, among other things.
The social economy was increasingly viewed less as a complement and more as an alternative to the capitalist sector. Policy initiatives in this direction such as promoting worker-run factories and cooperatives relied on a reinvigorated working class.
//
In 2009, the government took a further step by promoting communes, made up of elected representatives of various communal councils to tackle larger-scale problems.
These bodies are also encouraged to create community-owned and -run enterprises, with profits raised going to social projects.
These groups were viewed as the building blocks of a new power built from below.
In sum, Chavismo represented an attempt by Venezuela’s popular class to win control of the state and use this position of power to bring strategic sectors of the economy under its control (in particular oil), and re-socialise the wealth towards meeting their needs.
Central to achieving this has been direct peoples’ participation in the political, social and economic sphere.
Current problems
The current problems have more to do with the successes rather than the failures of Chavismo. The government, nonetheless, still presides over a capitalist economy that is oil-dependent, even if it has been able to reassert a level of economic sovereignty and plant the seeds of a socialist transformation.
Shortages in basic goods, which have contributed to higher inflation, are due less to a “crumbling” economy (which grew 5.6% last year) than to a 10-year long explosion in consumption by the poor due to oil wealth redistribution.
Agricultural production levels have generally risen, but they have not been able to keep pace with demand. This led to a surge in imports.
Nonetheless, Venezuela has maintained a constant trade surplus, which last year totaled US$38 billion.
Venezuela’s economic elites have sought to take advantage of the problems to fuel discontent against the government. They seek to force it to wind back its controls over the flow of oil money or bring it down.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54466
Frontline: Generation 'Like' - the interaction of social media & commerce
http://video.pbs.org/video/2365159545/So completely depressing (I say as I post a 'liked' video to a social media site).
Moose dying at alarming rate in Minnesota. Perhaps just 100 left...climate change?
EAU, Mont. — Across North America — in places as far-flung as Montana and British Columbia, New Hampshire and Minnesota — moose populations are in steep decline. And no one is sure why.
Science Times
New research tries to break through cancer’s protective shield and women with breast cancer in Uganda face terrible challenges; the weather turns on North America’s forest giant.
Twenty years ago, Minnesota had two geographically separate moose populations. One of them has virtually disappeared since the 1990s, declining to fewer than 100 from 4,000.
The other population, in northeastern Minnesota, is dropping 25 percent a year and is now fewer than 3,000, down from 8,000. (The moose mortality rate used to be 8 percent to 12 percent a year.) As a result, wildlife officials have suspended all moose hunting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/science/earth/something-is-killing-off-the-moose.html?_r=0
(this story was on the news tonight, but this NYT piece is from last October...nothing changed)
Part Two of The Cuban Missile Crisis unfolding -
Washington plays Russian roulette with missile defense in Europe
U.S. over-reaching power play?
Washington plays Russian roulette with missile defense
In his recent annual meeting with the media, Russian President Vladimir Putin replied to a question about the rumored placement of Russian Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad on Poland’s doorstep.
He stated that US missile defense remains a threat to Russian national security and that Russia has the right to place Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad, but claimed that that step had not yet been taken. Putin added however that putting Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad would be a logical response to American plans to build a missile defense system in Europe. What few in the West, outside a handful of military experts grasp, however, is that the US project to install so-called Ballistic Missile Defense missiles and special radar in Poland, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Bulgaria is the highly provocative act by Washington against Russia and risks putting the world on a hair-trigger to a nuclear war.
Putin’s remarks followed a report in the ardently-pro US German daily, Bild Zeitung. Several days before Putin’s remarks, Bild newspaper reported that secret satellite imagery showed Iskander-M missiles stationed near the Polish border. Both Bild and mainstream US and European media portrayed the Kaliningrad report as a confirmation of Russian aggression, and a return to the Cold War.
In point of fact, for Washington and the US military, the Cold War never ended. Washington’s Missile Defense is the most extreme provocation imaginable in a nuclear era. It is an atomic version of Russian Roulette that makes the likelihood of a preemptive reaction by Moscow against Polish missiles or Czech AMD radar highly logical. A bit of background is useful.
read more:
http://rt.com/op-edge/washington-russian-roulette-missile-defense-831/
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11 Feb. 2014
First of four US Navy ships to support NATO Ballistic Missile Defense arrives in Spain
The first of four US Navy destroyers, which will form a centerpiece of NATO’s Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) arrived in its new home port at the Spanish Naval Base of Rota, on Tuesday (11 February 2014).
The USS Donald Cook, a multi-mission Missile Defence-capable Aegis Destroyer, equipped with the high-tech Aegis combat system, will be permanently based in Rota. The destroyer will carry out missile defence, among many other tasks, including maritime security operations, bi-lateral, and multi-lateral training exercises, and NATO operations and deployments, including participation in the Standing NATO Maritime Groups.
“For the first time, a ship of the United States Navy equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile-defence system is permanently based in Europe” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. “The arrival of the USS Donald Cook marks a step forward for NATO, for European security, and for transatlantic cooperation.”
Three additional ships of the same class will join the USS Donald Cook over the next two years. The USS Donald Cook and her sister ships have advanced sensor capabilities and interceptor missiles which can detect and shoot down ballistic missiles.
By hosting these ships, Spain is making a vital contribution to NATO Missile Defence, enhancing the security of Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic Ocean, while shortening the response time for U.S. ships. In November 2010, at the Lisbon NATO Summit, Heads of State and Government, decided that NATO will develop a missile defence capability to protect all NATO European populations and territory. Interim capability of the system was declared at the NATO Summit in Chicago in 2012. Full capability is foreseen for the first half of the next decade.
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