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"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act"
– Orwell
Dear CIGAs,
I am Outraged. This is simply too much. This is too far over the top and too much to bear. These sub humans should be throttled and locked up, not coddled.
You or I go bust and the attitude is the same as if we were Motors. Go belly up you jerks. Let them eat cake!
In fact in today’s market the US Fed and US treasury seem to almost enjoy watching the hedge funds break the law, resulting in the killing pensioners trying to protect themselves against the result of all this.
In today’s world the first rule of success is to donate $1,000,000 to both parties
The damned killer hedge funds blow up and look at who seeks them out to bail them out!
This is madness, preferential treatment and downright rotten to the core. I am outraged.
Why are you not?
Hedge funds gain access to $200bn Fed aid
Krishna Guha in Washington
Published: December 20 2008 05:01
Hedge funds will be allowed to borrow from the Federal Reserve for the first time under a landmark $200bn programme intended to support consumer credit.
The Fed said on Friday it would offer low-cost three-year funding to any US company investing in securitised consumer loans under the Term Asset-backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF). This includes hedge funds, which have never been able to borrow from the US central bank before, although the Fed may not permit hedge funds to use offshore vehicles to conduct the transactions.
The asset-backed securities to be funded under the programme are pools of credit card receivables, automobile loans and student loans.
The idea is to increase the supply of these loans and reduce borrowing rates by ensuring that the companies that make the loans can sell them on to investors who have guaranteed access to low-cost funding from the Fed.
The TALF is a key plank of the unorthodox strategy set out by the Fed last week as it cut interest rates virtually to zero. Washington insiders expect the programme will be dramatically expanded next year with further capital support from Treasury once the Obama administration takes office.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
US Intelligence Advisor James Rickards is a person who demands our respect.
Because of the enormous nature of this financial event, being ignored by most, I have to agree with him.
Four really, really bad scenarios
By EAMON JAVERS | 12/17/08 4:39 AM EST
What’s the worst that could happen?
That’s a question that James Rickards spends a lot of time pondering these days, as he sifts through the national security implications of the financial crisis facing the United States.
Rickards will lay out his worst case scenarios in a lecture sponsored by the Navy and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy tonight. And his forecasts aren’t for the faint of heart.
Rickards calls it the “A to Z” problem: What are the threats that could make the U.S. economy look less like America and more like Zimbabwe? He sees them everywhere – in the Chinese ownership of vast amounts of American debt, in Russia’s increased centralization of its economy, in Al Qaeda’s long-established fascination with damaging the U.S. economy.
In many ways, Rickards is the ultimate bear. He’s not just thinking about whether the stock market will decline, but whether or not the stock market will survive.
All that puts Rickards decidedly outside mainstream economic and political thinking in America. But he does have an influential audience: the United States intelligence and defense communities.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Why not? Everybody else has them.
The highest probability is that Pakistan lights up the whole area. We must not prevent our dear friends, the Saudis from playing the boom game.
The safest place on the planet is sub-Kenya Africa (not Rhodesia). How is that for a turn of events?
Report: Saudis seek nuclear weapons
Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:07:05 GMT
Saudi Arabia has sought Pakistan’s help as part of its long-term plan to attain nuclear weapons for regional dominance, says a report.
"Reports have circulated for years that the Saudis have pursued a secret nuclear program with help from Pakistan, though the Saudis deny this," said a Wall Street Journal article titled ‘A Middle East Arms Race’.
For years now, media outlets have alleged that Saudi officials are interested in nuclear proliferation, citing comments by former Saudi diplomat Mohammed Khilewi — who defected to the US in 1994.
Khilewi reportedly handed over documents to US officials, which revealed that the Saudi government was interested in nuclear proliferation.
According to the diplomat, who now lives undercover in the New York City area, Saudi officials have had a covert nuclear weapons research effort since 1975.
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
This article speaks for itself.
A monster out of control: Pakistan secret agents tell of militant links
Jeremy Page in Muridke
December 22, 2008
The Islamic fundamentalists who run the Markaz-e-Taiba complex near Lahore like to boast that it was inspired by Aitchison College, Pakistan’s poshest private school. It is, as they describe it, the Eton of Wahhabi Islam, complete with polo ponies and a swimming pool.
Yet when it comes to their links to Pakistan’s intelligence service and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for last month’s attacks in Mumbai, they seem to suffer from collective amnesia. “We’ve never had any connection to either,” Mohammed Abbas, the administrator of the complex, told The Times.
But it was here, in April 2001, that Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, LeT’s leader at the time, called a meeting of his supporters in the 75-acre complex of red-brick buildings and neat lawns. Most of the visitors wore the obligatory long beards, but among them was an elderly man with no beard, only a thin, military-style moustache.
He was Hamid Gul, the former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. “Yes, I visited there,” General Gul told The Times. “Retired army officers used to go, too. They used to hold annual fixtures to raise funds and motivate people.”
Jim Sinclair’s Commentary
Today on Pakistan
Deaths in Pakistan ‘US strikes’
A suspected US missile strike has killed at least seven people in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region.
One missile hit a vehicle in the village of Wana killing four people, while another strike killed three in a nearby village, both in South Waziristan on Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
"Tribesmen opened fire on the drones after the attacks," a resident of Wana told Reuters news agency.
India Will Take All Steps Needed to Combat Terrorism (Update2)
By Kartik Goyal and Khalid Qayum
Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — India will take all steps needed to combat terrorism emanating from Pakistan, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said, adding that the government in Islamabad must also act against terrorists on its territory.
The government in New Delhi has blamed “elements” in Pakistan for being behind the Nov. 26-29 attack on Mumbai that killed 164 people. Pakistan, which has pledged to cooperate with the investigation, said it has been given no evidence the attacks were carried out by Pakistanis.
Pakistan militants ‘world threat’
Militant groups in Pakistan are "the greatest danger to peace and security in the entire world", India’s foreign minister has said.
Pranab Mukherjee accused Islamabad of "denial" and "shifting the blame" for last month’s deadly Mumbai attacks.
He said the international community had not done enough to exert pressure on Pakistan, which denies any involvement.
