Central Perk

sâmbătă, 2 noiembrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Guilty Until Proven Innocent; Grabbing Hand of the Law

Posted: 02 Nov 2013 08:56 PM PDT

In criminal court, you are innocent until proven guilty.

It's a different matter altogether in civil forfeiture, where prosecutors can and do seize the assets of anyone on phony charges. Given there is no recourse or fine, the best the innocent victims can do is get their property back, most likely with a huge delay, if at all.

Consider the plight of Terry Dehko and his daughter Sandy Thomas. They run a small grocery store in Fraser, Michigan. Because their insurance only covers a cash limit of $10,000, they frequently make smaller deposits. One day last January, the government seized $35,000 of their assets, not in the store, but in the store account.

Officials said Dehkos had violated federal money-laundering rules, which forbid people to "structure" their bank deposits so as to avoid the $10,000 threshold that triggers banks to report a transaction to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

There was no evidence of guilt. Dehko was not charged with any crimes, and the IRS supported Dehko's claim. Nonetheless, Dehko is offered 20% of the amount taken from him.

Grabbing Hand of the Law

The Economist explains the plight of Dehko in its report The Grabbing Hand of the Law

In criminal cases, the government can confiscate assets only after a conviction. Under "civil forfeiture", however, it can grab first and ask questions later. Property can be seized merely on the suspicion that it has been involved in a crime. Citizens have no right to a swift hearing. For a small business, that can be fatal.

In many civil-forfeiture cases the agencies that seize the assets keep most of the proceeds, and can use them to pad their budgets or buy faster patrol cars. It is hard to know how common this is, but the Institute for Justice (a libertarian law firm that is representing the Dehkos) notes that the federal government shared $450m of seized assets with state and local authorities in 2012.

The grabbers do not always prevail. A motel owner in Massachusetts recently won back his motel after prosecutors tried to seize it because one guest in 13,000 had been arrested for drug offences. In October in California, prosecutors who were trying to seize a building because two of the tenants were marijuana dispensaries (which are legal under Californian law), gave up and let the landlord keep it.

But this is scant comfort for the Dehkos, who are struggling to hold on to the store they have run since 1978. "It's kind of scary that they can do this to you," says Ms Thomas. "In America, you're supposed to be innocent until proven guilty."

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

10 Corporations Control Nearly Everything You Buy, 6 Media Corporations Control Nearly Everything You Read or Watch

Posted: 02 Nov 2013 10:34 AM PDT

PolicyMic has a very interesting chart that shows how 10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy.

click on chart for huge image

The chart was posted on Reddit as illusion of choice. I could not locate the original source.

PolicyMic explains ...

Ten mega corporations control the output of almost everything you buy; from household products to batteries.

These corporations create the chain of supplies that flow from one another. Each chain begins at one of the 10 super companies.

Here's just one example: Yum Brands owns KFC and Taco Bell. The company was a spin-off of Pepsi. All Yum Brands restaurants sell only Pepsi products because of a lifetime deal with the soda-maker.

$84 billion company Proctor & Gamble owns companies that produce everything from detergent to toothpaste. Unilever produces everything from Dove soap to Klondike bars.

It's not just the products you buy and consume, either. In recent decades, the very news and information that you get has bundled together: 90% of the media is now controlled by just six companies, down from 50 in 1983, according to a Frugal Dad infographic from last year.

It gets even more macro, too: 37 banks have merged to become just four — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and CitiGroup in a little over two decades, according to this Federal Reserve map.

The nation's 10 largest financial institutions hold 54% of our total financial assets; in 1990, they held 20%. As MotherJones reports, the number of banks has dropped from more than 12,500 to about 8,000.

Media Consolidation

Everything You Think, Read, or Say

I always try to find a link to the original source, but none of the links to a Frugal Dad article work.

Regardless anything you read, watch, or buy is in the hands of fewer and fewer companies. The same applies to banks.

This is another reason we need an independent news network. One is actually in the works, started by Jeremy Scahill, National Security Correspondent for The Nation magazine, and Glenn Greenwald who broke the NSA spy story.

For details, please see War Against Journalists; "We Hit the Jackpot"

Question of the Day

How long will it be, before everything to think read or say is in the pill you took today?

Link if video does not play: Zager And Evans

Addendum:

A couple of readers said the percentages mentioned above are way overstated. Indeed they are, especially if one takes the words "everything you buy" literally, then produces a grand total by dollar amount.

I took it form the start the infographic did not include cars, boats, houses, jewelry, etc, but rather common junk and foodstuff. I should have made a comment to that effect but didn't.

The same applies to the stats on media giants.

The important point is the idea behind the graphics, even if the percentage estimates stated are on the wild side.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Passing a Budget that Reflects Our Priorities

Featured

Weekly Address: Passing a Budget that Reflects Our Priorities

In this week’s address, President Obama says that in order to keep growing the economy and creating good jobs, Washington must end its cycle of manufactured crises and self-inflicted wounds. It’s time for both parties to work together to pass a budget that reflects our priorities -- making smart cuts in things we don’t need and closing wasteful tax loopholes, while investing in areas that create opportunities for the middle class and our future generations.

Click here to watch this week's Weekly Address.

Top Stories

Talking Health Care at Boston’s Faneuil Hall: The President traveled to Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall on Wednesday to speak about the Affordable Care Act. Besides just being a beautiful landmark, Faneuil Hall is where Massachusetts’s bipartisan health care law was signed into law, which served as a model for the Affordable Care Act.

The health insurance marketplace, where Americans without insurance or those who buy plans on the individual market can shop for high-quality, affordable health insurance, was also built on the Massachusetts model, President Obama said.

Now, this marketplace is open now. Insurance companies are competing for that business. The deal is good; the prices are low. But, let’s face it, we've had a problem. The website hasn’t worked the way it’s supposed to over these last couple of weeks. And as a consequence, a lot of people haven’t had a chance to see just how good the prices for quality health insurance through these marketplaces really are.

Now, ultimately, this website, healthcare.gov, will be the easiest way to shop for and buy these new plans, because you can see all these plans right next to each other and compare prices and see what kind of coverage it provides. But, look, there’s no denying it, right now, the website is too slow, too many people have gotten stuck. And I am not happy about it. And neither are a lot of Americans who need health care, and they’re trying to figure out how they can sign up as quickly as possible. So there’s no excuse for it. And I take full responsibility for making sure it gets fixed ASAP. We are working overtime to improve it every day.

President Obama said he is confident these marketplaces will work, because Massachusetts – which also had early problems in implementing its law -- shows that the model works.

"It’s hard," President Obama said, “But it's worth it. It is the right thing to do, and we're going to keep moving forward. We are going to keep working to improve the law, just like you did here in Massachusetts.”

Read his full remarks here.

SelectUSA Investment Summit: The President joined Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker at the first SelectUSA Investment Summit on Thursday. Nearly 1,000 business leaders from across the world convened at the event. At the summit, the President spoke on the importance of investing in the United States. “There’s no substitute for those three proud words: ‘Made in America,’” the President said.

Swearing-In New FBI Director: On Monday, President Obama traveled to the FBI Headquarters for the swearing-in of James Comey as the seventh Director of the FBI. The President praised Comey’s commitment to justice and his dedication to the motto of the FBI – fidelity, bravery, and integrity. The President also said he’d fight to restore FBI resources that had been reduced by the sequester. “I’ll keep fighting for those resources because our country asks and expects a lot from you, and we should make sure you’ve got the resources you need to do the job,” he said.

Honoring former House Speaker Tom Foley: President Obama and Vice President Biden went to the Capitol on Tuesday for a memorial in honor of former House Speaker and Ambassador Tom Foley. Elected officials filled Statuary Hall to honor the leader who worked to find common ground with his colleagues across the aisle.

When we're standing outside these magnificent buildings, we have that sense of wonder and that sense of hope. And sometimes, the longer you're here, the harder it is to hang on to that. And yet, Tom Foley never lost it -- never lost that sense of wonder, never lost the sense of gratitude. What a privilege, he felt it was, to serve. And he never forgot why he came here -- on behalf of this nation and his state and the citizens that he loved and respected so much.

Read his remarks here.

Visit to National Domestic Violence Hotline: Vice President Biden visited the National Domestic Violence Hotline in Austin, Texas on Wednesday to commemorate Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In 1994, Vice President Biden helped found the National Domestic Violence Hotline with the Violence Against Women Act. During his visit, the Vice President toured the Hotline, met with advocates, and spoke about the importance of supporting domestic violence services. Visit www.thehotline.org for more information.

Celebrating Halloween: On Halloween, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama handed out treats to local students and children of military families to the White House for the annual White House trick-or-treating celebration. In honor of the holiday, the White House was lit in orange and pumpkins decorated the South Lawn.

White House Fall Garden Viewing: Over the weekend, the White House welcomed visitors from across the country to tour the gardens and grounds. Visitors had the chance to view the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, the Rose Garden, the South Lawn and the Kitchen Garden.

On Sunday, Instagram photo enthusiasts came to the White House for the first White House InstaMeet. After a tour of the grounds – where they got a surprise visit from Bo and Sunny - these Instagramers got to sit down with Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza. Check out some of the best photos from their tour here.

Sesame Street Encourages Fresh Food: On Wednesday, First Lady Michelle Obama joined Sesame Street’s Elmo and Rosita and announce that Sesame Street characters will be helping promote fresh fruits and vegetables to kids. As early as 2014, Sesame Street characters will be seen on produce in stores, which enables companies to use their characters to encourage kids to eat healthier. After the announcement, the First Lady, Elmo, Rosita, and Let’s Move! Executive Director Sam Kass met up with local students for the White House Kitchen Garden Fall Harvest.

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Seth's Blog : Tenacity is not the same as persistence

Tenacity is not the same as persistence

Persistence is doing something again and again until it works. It sounds like 'pestering' for a reason.

Tenacity is using new data to make new decisions to find new pathways to find new ways to achieve a goal when the old ways didn't work.

Telemarketers are persistent, Nike is tenacious.

• Email to a friend •

vineri, 1 noiembrie 2013

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

What's the Threat to Our Constitutional Rights?
Maastricht Treaty and the Euro: Failure for Over 20 Years
Daily Show on NSA Spying, on Obamcare, on the Know Nothing President in a "Bubble of Darkness"

What's the Threat to Our Constitutional Rights?

Posted: 01 Nov 2013 07:36 PM PDT

What do you think is the greatest enemy or threat to our constitutional rights?

I ask this question because a five page article in Foreign Policy Magazine says "The Greatest Enemy of Privacy Is Ambiguity"

The main thesis of the article is "If we can't define what it means to be left alone, don't be surprised when the government comes knocking."

Is that all there is to it? It took me only a few minutes to decide there are numerous threats to privacy, and numerous threats to constitutional rights in general.

What about ambivalence, coercion, and ignorance?

The public is force fed lies about why we need all these security measures. Most believe the lies. As a result of believing lies, most are ambivalent about the loss in constitutional rights.

Others are simply too stupid to understand what is happening in the first place.

Still others are ignorant of what history teaches us about freedoms given up, or taken away by the state.

Beware Charismatic Politicians

An American major after the destruction of the Vietnamese Village Ben Tre: "It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."

Vice President Joe Biden: "We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt."

President George W. Bush: "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system."(For a discussion please see The Most Redeeming Feature of Capitalism is Failure)

Nancy Pelosi said "We have to pass the health care bill to see what's in it." (YouTube Video)

Larry Summers says "The central irony of financial crisis is that while it is caused by too much confidence, too much borrowing and lending and too much spending, it can only be resolved with more confidence, more borrowing and lending, and more spending." (Reuters)

Goering at the Nuremberg Trials

Please recall what Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring (in English his name is also spelled as Hermann Goering) Nazi founder of the Gestapo, Head of the Luftwaffe, said at the Nuremberg Trials.

Here is a clip of the interview in Goering's cell in prison, after the war.

Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.

Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.

Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

And now we are told by charismatic politicians that we are under attack. We must give up our constitutional rights to prevent further attacks.

With that in mind, what is the greatest threat to our rights?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Maastricht Treaty and the Euro: Failure for Over 20 Years

Posted: 01 Nov 2013 08:39 AM PDT

The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty on European Union or TEU) was signed on 7 February 1992 by the members of the European Community in Maastricht, Netherlands. It created the European Union and led to the creation of the single European currency, the euro.

Obligations

One of the obligations of the treaty for the members was to keep "sound fiscal policies, with debt limited to 60% of GDP and annual deficits no greater than 3% of GDP."

Over 20 years have passed. Let's see how those "obligations" panned out.

Via translation from Les Echos, please consider Severe Crisis of Adolescence to the Maastricht Treaty and the Euro.

Once in the monetary area, governments shall, subject to penalties, limit their deficit to 3% of GDP and debt to 60% of GDP. The treaty, however, is violated even before the euro was born because of the 11 states that agreed to adopt the treaty in 1999, six were above the required level of debt, including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands Netherlands and Italy.

Pursuing the logic of "every man for himself", a "no bail-out" clause prohibits the central bank and the U.S. to rescue a partner if it has no access to financial markets.

Original Sin

Titles on the following chart from Les Echos are in French, but with the above translation should be easy enough to understand.

Maastricht Disillusionment

Eurointelligence reports on Maastricht Disillusionment.

The world has changed since the Maastricht treaty ten years ago. Les Echos shows public debt then in 1992 and now, showing how drastic public debt has risen in all member countries. Today, only four member states have debt to GDP levels below the 60% limit. Looking back the three original fault lines of the Maastricht treaty have been revealed with the eurocrisis: the lack of solidarity, insufficient mutual surveillance and lack of economic convergence. These fault lines put into question the project as such.

A recent poll showed that today only 36% would still vote for the Maastricht treaty (compared to 51% in 1992) in a referendum, the anti-euro rhetoric has become acceptable in the establishment.

The bureaucrats are holding this mess together, by force. A vote now would not even pass.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com

Daily Show on NSA Spying, on Obamcare, on the Know Nothing President in a "Bubble of Darkness"

Posted: 01 Nov 2013 08:25 AM PDT

In an extremely funny spoof, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show rips Obama for not knowing what is happening in the administration regarding NSA spying, Obamacare, on "NIPF". Obama is the know nothing president in a "bubble of darkness".

Link if video does not play: Daily Show Rips the "Know Nothing" President

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com