Barclays boss under pressure as bank inquiry launched

The first derivatives domino is rocking back and forth.  Can Barclay's "stabilize"(sweep under the rug/publicly ignore) the situation before events get out of hand?  Reuters.  Excerpts:

Pressure grew on Barclays Plc Chief Executive Bob Diamond to quit as Britain launched an inquiry on Monday into a market-rigging scandal, saying a "culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility" among bankers had to end.
Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius resigned on Monday, saying "the buck stops with me" as the scandal over manipulating Libor interest rates claimed its first major scalp.
But his departure did not take the heat off Diamond, who ran Barclays' investment banking arm when the rate rigging took place, drawing a record fine for the lender last week in a scandal likely to involve many more banks.
"The buck in Barclays stops with Bob Diamond, and it is Bob Diamond who must accept responsibility," said John Mann, an opposition Labor member of a parliamentary committee that later this week will question Agius and Diamond.

"He must resign. He's got to go," Mann told Sky News.



Anger with the culture of bankers in London, a world financial capital and major part of the British economy, crossed the political divide with Conservative finance minister George Osborne outlining the parliamentary inquiry.


"The behavior of some in the financial services has damaged the reputation of an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people and is vital to the economic prosperity of the country," Osborne told parliament. "It's time to deal with the culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility and hold those who allowed it to do so to account."


Barclays has admitted that some of its traders tried to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used worldwide as a benchmark for prices on about $350 trillion of derivatives and other financial products across a range of currencies and loan durations.

Well, gosh!  I ain't never heard of no derivatives!  They really couldn't kill the global economy, could they?  Yes.  Yes they could..

Iceland Forgives Mortgage Debt for the Population. Putting Bankers and Politicians on "Bench of Accused"

Short, Spanish language video(subtitled) courtesy Sherrie Questioning All.  At least one coutry in the entire world seems to have pulled its head out of its collective ass.  Power to the Icelandic People!  Boo-Yaa!  Bring it-Bring it!  Boo-Yaa!


Ladies and gentlemen:  Bjork.

December, 2011 Browser Clean Up

Two from Zero Hedge:

It's Official: US Debt-To-GDP Passes 100%  Excerpts:

With precisely one year left for the world and all of its inhabitants, at least according to the Mayans, not to mention on the day of the Winter Solstice, it is only fitting that US debt, net of all settlements for all already completed bond auctions, is now at precisely $15,182,756,264,288.80. Why is this relevant? Because the latest annualized US GDP, according to the BEA, was $15,180,900,000.00. Which means that, as of today, total US debt to GDP is 100.012%. Congratulations America: you are now in the triple digit "debt to GDP" club!

Mark Faber: "I Am Convinced The Whole Derivatives Market Will Cease To Exist And Will Go To Zero"  Excerpts:

"I am convinced the whole derivatives market will cease to exit. Will become zero. And when it happens I don't know: you can postpone the problems with monetary measures for a long time but you can't solve them... Greece should have defaulted - it would have sent a message that not all derivatives are equal because it depends on the counterparty." And on the long-term future: "I am ultra bearish. I think most people will be lucky if they still have 50% of their money in 5 years time.."

Bárðarbunga: more seismic unrest at another one of Iceland’s large volcanoes  The Extinction Protocol.  Excerpts:

During the night there was an small earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was ML 3.04 in magnitude. It had the depth of 8.5 km. This might have been a dike intrusion. But it is hard to know that for sure at the moment. This earthquake swarm only lasted for an about 2 to 3 hours before it stopped.

..There are signs that magma is rising at great depth underneath the Bardarbunga volcanic centre.

Historic! HIV Vaccine Approved for Human Clinical Trials  Unicorn Booty.  Excerpts:

The vaccine, developed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start being tested in humans in January.



It is the first preventive HIV vaccine approved for clinical trials to use a whole HIV-1 virus, which has been both killed and genetically engineered, to activate immunity. In this way, the new vaccine is much like the killed whole virus vaccines that are successful against polio, rabies and influenza.

Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with  What a wonderful "democratic thinker!"  Idiot.  The Raw Story.  Excerpts:

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down from Thursday’s Fox News debate on his vow to abolish federal courts if he disagreed with their decision.



According to The Hill, in a conference call with reporters, Gingrich indicated that it was in the president’s power as commander-in-chief to deem any Supreme Court ruling irrelevant if he or she in the White House disagreed.


The former House Speaker used the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bush administration exceeding its constitutional authority in handling suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2008 as a basis for his extreme view.
 
“They just ignored it,” he said. “A commander-in-chief could simply issue instructions to ignore it, and say it’s null and void and I do not accept it because it infringes on my duties as commander-in-chief to protect the country.”
 
I love that Romney and Ron Paul are beating the shit out of this douchebag with negative, but all too true attack ads.  I've been waiting a loooong time to see Herr Gingrich(pronounced "Gin-greck") drown in the political cesspool of his own creation!  Merry Christmas to all!
 
“The FBI Estimates That 80 Percent Of All Mortgage Fraud Involves Collaboration Or Collusion By Industry Insiders”  Washington's Blog.  Excerpts:
 
Fraud By The Big Banks – More Than Anything Done By The Little Guy – Caused The Financial Crisis



The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision noted last year (page 7):


The FBI estimates that 80 percent of all mortgage fraud involves collaboration
or collusion by industry insiders.


This confirms what one of the country’s top fraud experts has said for years: that it was fraud by the big banks – more than anything done by the little guy – which caused the financial crisis:

Breaking News: Programmer of Fukushima confesses “Fukushima had a cyber attack”  Under-reported, huh?  Fukushima Diary.  Excerpts:

A computer engineer found out operating system of Fukushima plants have been attacked and those attacks were mostly from / via Russia.　This engineer is counted as one of the members of Fukushima 50.
..
Because the system was shut down after black out they could not operate the systems to control the pressure, water injecting, radiation shield etc. and that had to be done by him.



He managed to reboot the system and restart it in manual mode but he encountered series of troubles such as password entry screen did not come out or his password entering was disturbed by compute bug. He sorted it out by formatting the system but it was obvious that someone sent virus to the system.


He tried to send virus backward and it reached to Russia. Someone sent virus from or via Russia.

Every crazy CIA plot you’ve heard of originated with one man  IO9.  Excerpts:

There are stories that have come to light, over the years, that make the Central Intelligence Agency look like a collection of Looney Tunes shorts. The violence, the slapstick, and the over-the-top ridiculousness of the experiments that have been conducted over the years boggle the mind. They came from the (slightly-boggled) mind of one man: Sidney Gottlieb.

Medical Marijuana Laws Shown to Reduce Traffic Fatalities  Popular Science.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  Marijuana;  Is there anything it can't do?  Excerpts:

..A new study out of University of Colorado Denver and Montana State University shows that legalizing medical marijuana sales in various states over the past two decades has led to a nearly 10 percent drop in traffic fatalities. What the study really shows--by way of causal chain--is a five percent drop in beer sales, and that has in turn led to fewer fatalities on the road. Put that in your pipe and smoke it (couldn’t resist just one).

Happy holidays, and enjoy this randomly sampled information!

Whoopsie!

Occupy Wall Street: Canadian Special Forces provocateur leaves wallet behind  Censored News.  Excerpts:

Canadian Special Forces Agent Dylan Spoelstra, 24, of Toronto, left his wallet behind exposing his identity, after he was arrested at Occupy Wall Street scaling a sculpture on Saturday morning. The police said that after his arrest, he was brought to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after surrendering just after 9 a.m.



Occupy Wall Street media coordinator Thorin Caristo said when Spoelstra began climbing the reddish-colored Joie de Vivre sculpture in Zuccotti Park, on Saturday at 5:30 am, Caristo said he knew it was staged.

Caristo recalled the event, first saying to himself, “I can’t believe he’s climbing the sculpture."

Police arrived and began inflating airbags. Earlier, families had gathered on Friday at Occupy Wall Street with their children to camp, so it was a special time. However, police cleared them all out during Spoelstra's stunt.
And:
Then, on Saturday night, Occupy Wall Street security found Spoelstra's wallet, revealing that Spoelstra is a member of Canadian Special Forces.
 
Remember:  From now on out, the really disruptive ones at all peaceful protests will be regarded with suspicion.  I will be totally shocked if this story has legs.  But, mass exposure or not, lots of people seem to have figured this ruse out.  I really hope this movement continues to remain (relatively) peaceful, but the global signs seem to predict otherwise..  How long the peace remains will probably be determined by the public's response to even more provocatuers, staging ever larger provocations..
 
2011.  So far, so intense.

Massive Wave Of Lawsuits To Be Filed By The US Against America's Biggest Banks As Soon As Tomorrow

War were declared.  From Zero Hedge.  Excerpts:

In a move that could either send BAC stock limit down overnight or send it soaring (we are still trying to figure out just what is going on here), the NYT has broken major news that the US is preparing to go nuclear on more than a dozen big banks among which Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, in an attempt for Fannie and Freddie to recoup $30 billion if not much more. The lawsuit is expected to hit the docket in the next few days: "The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks a year ago. If the case is not filed Friday, they said, it will come Tuesday, shortly before a deadline expires for the housing agency to file claims." Now, taken at face value, this would mean that Bank of America can kiss its ass goodbye as unlike the Walnut Place litigation, this will take place in Federal Court where Article 77 is not applicable. Yet there is something that gives us pause: namely logic, captured by the following words: "While I believe that F.H.F.A. is acting responsibly in its role as conservator, I am afraid that we risk pushing these guys off of a cliff and we’re going to have to bail out the banks again,” said Tim Rood, who worked at Fannie Mae until 2006 and is now a partner at the Collingwood Group, which advises banks and servicers on housing-related issues." In other words: if the banks are sued, and if justice prevails, the end of the world is nigh and cue TARP 2 - XXX. Now where have we heard that argument over, and over, and over before.

And:

Bottom line: the gloves are coming off, and while we want to believe that this is the final nail in BAC's coffin (Quinn Emanuel is counsel for the FHFA), we do have a nagging feeling that the US will not purposefully do everything in its power to destroy its banking sector.

This feels like most of the real action here is currently and will continue to be Back-Channel, without fanfare, yet momentous, and then, finally, announced or disclosed, without further comment.

Greece Is Now "On.."

Greece passes steep cuts as riots seize capital  AOL News.  Day One of Everything's Different Now.  Excerpts:

The cuts and tax increases passed 155-138, with five voting "present" and backing neither side. During the vote, stun grenades echoed across a square outside Parliament. Acrid clouds of tear gas and orange and green smoke-bomb mist hung in the air.

Several banks and storefronts were smashed, while a Socialist dissenter who backed the government at the last minute, Alexandros Athanassiadis, was briefly assaulted by protesters after leaving Parliament on foot.
Violence continued throughout the afternoon, and smoke billowed from a post office beneath the finance ministry before a fire was put out. Rioters set up burning barricades along Syntagma Square, where demonstrators have staged a sit-in for the past month. Nearby streets were littered with chunks of smashed marble and ripped-up paving stones that had been thrown at police.
A general strike that began Tuesday paralyzed the country, grounding planes, leaving ferries docked and stranding tourists during the busy summer season.

Greece Implodes and War Declared…over 5,000 Police overwhelmed  This was the day before the Austerity Budget was approved.  The Ante is now Upped.

Violent Scenes In Athens As Bloody Greek Riots Keep On Raging  Video from the 29th courtesy of Russia Today, the most trusted name for American News..

And yeah Riot Dog IS Fucking Awesome.  Riot Dog stands with The People.  Riot Dog is coming for ya..

If Greece Defaults, What Happens to Portugal and Ireland—and Spain?

From Gonzalo Lira.  Yet another Catastrophe befalling mankind in the beginning days of its expansion.  Excerpts:

So if Greece goes down the tubes, Ireland and Portugal would almost immediately need a bailout: They would not be able to borrow on the open markets the money they need in order to continue funding their governments.

That is, if Greece defaults, the Irish and the Portuguese would suddenly find themselves without the money to fund elementary schools, ambulances, sewer systems, power grids, etc.

So! What is the European leadership doing?

Dithering! They are not approving a Greek bailout—and they are not giving a clear signal that Greece will be booted out of the eurozone, but Ireland and Portugal will be protected. In other words, the European finance ministers who are supposed to “stabilize the markets” are creating the conditions of uncertainty in the markets—

—which only hurts Ireland and Portugal.

Now, why is defending (financially speaking) Ireland and Portugla essential?

In a word, Spain.
And:
It’s as simple as that. Spain is too big—roughly half the size of Germany. If Spain goes, it will drag down all of the European continent with it—that is, bank failures (on both sides of the pond), a crash of the eurozone as a currency, massive unemployment, a European economy that would grind to a halt—

—basically, the worst parts of the Great Depression.

It doesn't look like Greece as-it-is-now will remain much longer.  The inevitability of financial "obligations" versus the needs of the populace will continue to escalate towards violence towards whatever outcome eventually occurs.  It's like watching an Impact in slooow motion.  Greece is Happening, and the implications of Greece Happening have already begun, too.

And now they're protesting in Spain, while the crisis continues to deepen.

If You Said "Greece," Congratulations! You Win The Global Economic Dead Pool!

Greek PM warns against 'catastrophic' default  Video and article from Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera's Tim Friend, reporting from the capital, Athens, said: "The anger is deep and (protesters) resent having to pay the price for the mistakes of others as they see it, the mistakes of banks and financiers."

"The problem for the politicians here is they're being dictated to by the International Monetary Fund and events now taking place elsewhere in Europe with the euro zone finance ministers," our correspondent said.


"They are the ones now calling the shots. The Greeks really are having to simply comply and do what they say."

Crisis point for Greece as it gets loan to stave off default  What will the people do when the banks and government openly defy their wishes?  Well, they're Greek, so the logical answer "Take to the streets!."  Will this event devolve into riots, fighting, insurrection, or worse?  At the moment, Greece's situation looks inevitable, and looks like a Worst Case Scenario no matter the direction.

Everything's getting hotter; everywhere.  Greece is just the opening song of the opening act.

Greece is fast approaching the point of no return

From The Guardian UK via Rense.  Excerpts:

An uncontrolled debt default by Athens is suddenly starting to seem a horrible possibility.
..
A unity administration in Athens might allow bailout talks to resume, but by then investors might have zero faith that the next package of loans could succeed where the last one failed. More austerity, even if the Greeks could be coerced into accepting more pay cuts and more state sell-offs, might simply damage the economy further.

Default, then, seems to be looming one way or another. The best policy would be to try control the damage by ensuring the impact of the rest of the eurozone banking system is as soft as possible. That assumes, of course, that damage-control is still an option. The point of no return is fast approaching.

Greenspan Tells Charlie Rose Default by Greece 'Almost Certain'

Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, said a default by Greece is "almost certain" and could help drive the U.S. economy into recession.

"The problem you have is that it's extremely unlikely the political system will work" in a way that solves Greece's crisis, Greenspan, 85, said in an interview today with Charlie Rose in New York. "The chances of Greece not defaulting are very small."

Journalist:"It Is A War In Greece"  Video from Russia Today via Before It's News/  Watch this.
Greece riots: RT film crew get caught in Athens street protests  More from Russia Today via Metro/UK

This is barely The Beginning.  It's going to be a long, hot summer.

IMF hit by 'very major' cyber security attack

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says it has been targeted by a sophisticated cyber attack.

Officials at the fund gave few details but said the attack earlier this year had been "a very major breach" of its systems, the New York Times reports.

Candid.  Must be BIG.

In related news, Anonymous is back, baby..

Gonzalo Lira Provides Background On Europe's Upcoming Euro Crisis..

Europhrenia  Excerpts:

According to the dictionary, schizophrenia is “a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.”

In Europe, they’re having the same thing—only writ large: It’s not that the political/financial leadership of Europe is at odds with the people—it’s that they’re two minds locked in a single body, struggling for control.

In the one hemisphere of this divided brain, the political/financial leadership is convinced the European union is something devoutly to be wished—no matter what the costs, no matter what fortune and the people throw up in opposition.

In the other hemisphere of the europhrenic brain, the people of Europe overwhelmingly do not want integration “at all costs”. In some parts (a lot of parts) of Europe, they don’t want integration at all.
..
No country ever voted for monetary union—ever. European monetary integration only ever happened by either government diktat or the legislature overriding the will of the people.
..
The people of Europe never wanted total European integration, not even in the best of times—whereas the European leadership adamantly insisted upon it.
And:
The basic problem of the current crisis is, countries of the European periphery—Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy—took on too much cheap debt from banks in the core eurozone countries—France, Germany and Holland—and now are unable to pay for it. It’s not more complicated than that.

(One could argue that the reason the European nations overspent was that the leaders were basically bribing the people with a false sense of affluence, bought and paid for via debt, so that they would acquiesce to the European Union and the eurozone. But that’s for another post.)

And remember:  The real crisis has yet to begin!  The unrest so far is in response to the first wave of official responses towards keeping the Euro solvent and restarting the economy.  The real pain hasn't even started yet.  In Greece, they're protesting, and Portugal just threw out their government.  How long will it be before alienation and anger at the new government's inability to correct begins to rise?

The immediate question:  How quickly (and to what scale) will this crisis bloom? 

Oh, By The Way, The Country Of Greece Is On Strike..

Greek strike disrupts flights, cripples services.  Excerpts:

A general strike halted public transportation across Greece on Wednesday and led to the cancellation of more than 100 flights at Athens International Airport, as unions stepped up opposition to the country's austerity measures.


State hospital doctors, ambulance drivers, pharmacists, lawyers and tax collectors also joined school teachers, journalists and thousands of small businesses in the 24-hour strike as more middle-class groups took part in the protest than have in the past. Athens' main shopping district was mostly empty, as many small business owners shuttered their stores.
..
The strike halted trains, ferries and most public transport across the country, and idled many airlines at the international airport.
And:
The IMF has said some of the frequent demonstrations against the Greek government's reforms were being carried out by groups angry at losing their "unfair advantages and privileges."  (Can you believe someone from the IMF said that, without a trace of irony?  C'mon..  The group controlling All The Money calling the "have nots"/everyone else on anger for losing privileges? Wow..  Wow..)

Global Revolution, meet Greece;  Greece?  Global Revolution..  But you have met before, right?

Bank of America website exposes customer accounts, data

High incompetence from America's Bank. Blurg.. From Jalopnik Excerpts:

Bank of America's account websites are experiencing an unprecedented online security breach and isn't rectifying the problem. That's right, your online account data and full account access may be in the hands of someone else.
..

The person I spoke with immediately called Bank of America, and was told that although they knew of the problem, they didn't they yet know what was causing the problem, and despite having known about it for over a half an hour, they had not shut down online access. One hour later, my source tells me she still has access to the other party's account information.

There you have it. If you've got an account with BofA, enjoy your Sunday! Maybe the people who hold your money will get around to fixing a problem that allows others to steal said money: Or not.. The level of indifference BofA has shown towards their clients is astonishing, even for these clowns.