another site
Stone, a well-known political operative and Richard Nixon
loyalist, lays out his case in The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case
Against LBJ, written with Mike Colapietro.
“Did LBJ Kill Kennedy? (And Why It Matters): Q/A with Roger
Stone” is the latest from ReasonTV. Watch above or click the link
below for full text, links, downloadable versions and more.
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/13/did-lbj-kill-kennedy-and-why-it-matter
via IFTTT
Virginia has a lot to gain from
joining Colorado and Washington in bringing marijuana out of the
shadows, but doing so will be a long slog. A. Barton Hinkle gives
five good reasons why Virginians should push forward with the
effort, pointing out that prohibition is expensive, unnecessary,
and hurts people.
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/13/a-barton-hinkle-on-legalizing-weed-why-v
via IFTTT
More than a
decade before Edward Snowden was born, a whistleblower calling
himself Winslow Peck gave the New Left magazine Ramparts
an insider’s
account of the National Security Agency, an institution
that at that time was shrouded in even more secrecy than today.
Peck, whose given name was Perry Fellwock, went on to help launch
Counterspy, a magazine devoted to exposing the activities
of America’s intelligence agencies. And then he left activism
behind. Today he is an antiques dealer on Long Island.
Adrian Chen of Gawker tracked Fellwock down, and after
a rather distrustful start (“I believe that you’re honest, but who
knows about the people in your office? Who knows about your boss,
what kind of deals he’s doing?”) the man once known as Winslow Peck
granted Chen an interview. Their conversation covers everything
from Fellwock’s disappointment with the way that original
Ramparts article came out to his guilt over the treatment
of a Counterspy colleague who got accused of being a
police plant. Here’s an excerpt from Chen’s story:
It turns out that constant brooding over
the machinations of the surveillance state is not conducive to a
sound state of mind. Counter-Spy staff worked in a haze of
mistrust. “You’d be sitting with people and you knew that somebody
was wondering about somebody else at that table,” said [magazine
staffer] Harvey Kahn, “were they being controlled by somebody else?
Or unconsciously being manipulated?”It was not a fantasy: The COINTELPRO papers had revealed security
agencies kept close tabs on radical publications. In the late ’60s,
the CIA dedicated a 12-man team to undermining Ramparts,
according to Angus Mackenzie’s book Secrets: The CIA’s War at
Home.“It was intense,” said Fellwock. “Clearly it really upset the
security agencies, what we were doing. They were all over us. I
just generally accepted that the next person in the next booth
would be some security person following me.”“It seems like that is still kind of implanted in your thinking,” I
said.“Yeah, that’s why I got paranoid when you called me, you really
evoked a lot of old memories and feelings that I haven’t had in 30
years.” He sighed. “But if I could live with it back then, I guess
I could live with it now.”
I could pick a few nits with Chen’s account—he
has Counterspy dissolving in 1976, for example,
but it actually continued publishing into the ’80s—but overall it’s
a strong piece. You should
read it.
Bonus 1970s anti-intelligence-agency activism links:
“What
It Would Take To Stop the Spying” and “Agee’s
Revenge.”
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/13/the-snowden-of-the-70s
via IFTTT
More than a
decade before Edward Snowden was born, a whistleblower calling
himself Winslow Peck gave the New Left magazine Ramparts
an insider’s
account of the National Security Agency, an institution
that at that time was shrouded in even more secrecy than today.
Peck, whose given name was Perry Fellwock, went on to help launch
Counterspy, a magazine devoted to exposing the activities
of America’s intelligence agencies. And then he left activism
behind. Today he is an antiques dealer on Long Island.
Adrian Chen of Gawker tracked Fellwock down, and after
a rather distrustful start (“I believe that you’re honest, but who
knows about the people in your office? Who knows about your boss,
what kind of deals he’s doing?”) the man once known as Winslow Peck
granted Chen an interview. Their conversation covers everything
from Fellwock’s disappointment with the way that original
Ramparts article came out to his guilt over the treatment
of a Counterspy colleague who got accused of being a
police plant. Here’s an excerpt from Chen’s story:
the machinations of the surveillance state is not conducive to a
sound state of mind. Counter-Spy staff worked in a haze of
mistrust. “You’d be sitting with people and you knew that somebody
was wondering about somebody else at that table,” said [magazine
staffer] Harvey Kahn, “were they being controlled by somebody else?
Or unconsciously being manipulated?”It was not a fantasy: The COINTELPRO papers had revealed security
agencies kept close tabs on radical publications. In the late ’60s,
the CIA dedicated a 12-man team to undermining Ramparts,
according to Angus Mackenzie’s book Secrets: The CIA’s War at
Home.“It was intense,” said Fellwock. “Clearly it really upset the
security agencies, what we were doing. They were all over us. I
just generally accepted that the next person in the next booth
would be some security person following me.”“It seems like that is still kind of implanted in your thinking,” I
said.“Yeah, that’s why I got paranoid when you called me, you really
evoked a lot of old memories and feelings that I haven’t had in 30
years.” He sighed. “But if I could live with it back then, I guess
I could live with it now.”
I could pick a few nits with Chen’s account—he
has Counterspy dissolving in 1976, for example,
but it actually continued publishing into the ’80s—but overall it’s
a strong piece. You should
read it.
Bonus 1970s anti-intelligence-agency activism links:
“What
It Would Take To Stop the Spying” and “Agee’s
Revenge.”
from Hit & Run http://reason.com/blog/2013/11/13/the-snowden-of-the-70s
via IFTTT
Here they are. WilliamBanzai7’s Special Holiday Puke Fine Art Print Editions just in time for the Christmas Holidays…
.
.
.
.
Dear Friends,
Here before you is a truly historic series of images that I have painstakingly adapted to the current state of sordidly odiferous political/financial affairs.
Years from now, there will be little doubt over what the artist was seeing and thinking contemporaneously in the year 2013.
I am not going to oversell these pictures. They speak for themselves.
They also demonstrate how history truly rhymes on Wall Street.
I have all of these in very large high resolution files. So every print will match the highest standards of fine art print production.
As you can see, I have departed from normal practice by offering these prints in an assortment of sizes. I have done this solely to maximize your
participation by spreading price points. Bear in mind that the amount of personal time and effort involved is the same irrespective of print size.
Each print will be signed, numbered and dated December 25, 2013.
I know that many of you are suffering various levels of economic hardship in these trying times. As is always the case, you are free to print these off for your own personal use.
I truly appreciate all the the moral and financial support that I receive from all of you.
As you know, the primary reason that I am doing these prints is to signify my gratitude in return for your generous support for my endeavors.
It is my sincerest wish that the situation will turn sooner than later so that each and everyone of us can return to personal prosperity.
Best wishes to you all,
And Fuck You Ben Bernanke!
WB7
     |
via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/S_6BWqOwH_A/story01.htm williambanzai7
Here they are. WilliamBanzai7’s Special Holiday Puke Fine Art Print Editions just in time for the Christmas Holidays…
.
.
.
.
Dear Friends,
Here before you is a truly historic series of images that I have painstakingly adapted to the current state of sordidly odiferous political/financial affairs.
Years from now, there will be little doubt over what the artist was seeing and thinking contemporaneously in the year 2013.
I am not going to oversell these pictures. They speak for themselves.
They also demonstrate how history truly rhymes on Wall Street.
I have all of these in very large high resolution files. So every print will match the highest standards of fine art print production.
As you can see, I have departed from normal practice by offering these prints in an assortment of sizes. I have done this solely to maximize your
participation by spreading price points. Bear in mind that the amount of personal time and effort involved is the same irrespective of print size.
Each print will be signed, numbered and dated December 25, 2013.
I know that many of you are suffering various levels of economic hardship in these trying times. As is always the case, you are free to print these off for your own personal use.
I truly appreciate all the the moral and financial support that I receive from all of you.
As you know, the primary reason that I am doing these prints is to signify my gratitude in return for your generous support for my endeavors.
It is my sincerest wish that the situation will turn sooner than later so that each and everyone of us can return to personal prosperity.
Best wishes to you all,
And Fuck You Ben Bernanke!
WB7
| |
via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/S_6BWqOwH_A/story01.htm williambanzai7
Submitted by F.F.Wiley of Cyniconomics blog,
Hunting season is off to a good start this week, and I’m not just talking about deer hunting. It seems that former Fed officials declared open season on their ex-colleagues.
First, Andrew Huszar, who once ran the Fed’s mortgage buying operation, let loose in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal. Huszar apologized to all Americans for his role in the toxic QE programs.
And then today, the WSJ struck again, this time with an op-ed by former FOMC Governor Kevin Warsh.
Instead of excerpting the Huszar essay, we’ll only share the apt words of commenter Ernest Moosa, who wrote:
Every reader needs to understand and grasp what is being said here. We have been on the wrong economic path for five years, and without the desired results, our leadership says “FULL SPEED AHEAD”. We have wasted so much time and money that future generations will point to us and say this is how a great country can be destroyed in less than a decade with no shots even being fired. Deplorable.
Moosa hit the nail on the head, and we recommend reading the op-ed in its entirety if you haven’t already done so.
As for Warsh’s editorial, it was tough to read without wondering what he’s thinking. Warsh is a former Morgan Stanley investment banker whose 2006 to 2011 stint on the FOMC spanned the end of the housing boom and the first few years of “unconventional” policy measures. After such a solid grounding in the ways of the Fed and Wall Street, he recently morphed into a critic of the status quo. His criticisms are welcome and we believe accurate, but they’re also oh so carefully expressed. They’re written with the polite wording and between-the-lines meanings that you might expect from such an establishment figure. He seems to be holding back.
So, what does he really want to say?
Here are our guesses, alongside excerpts from the editorial on each of nine topics that Warsh covered:
Quantitative easing
“The purchase of long-term assets from the U.S. Treasury to achieve negative real interest rates is extraordinary, an unprecedented change in practice since the Treasury-Fed Accord of 1951.
The Fed is directly influencing the price of long-term Treasurys—the most important asset in the world, the predicate from which virtually all investment decisions are judged. Earlier this year the notion that the Fed might modestly taper its purchases drove significant upheaval across financial markets. This episode should engender humility on all sides. It should also correct the misimpression that QE is anything other than an untested, incomplete experiment.”
What he really wants to say:
We’d all be better off if the central banking gods (myself included) hadn’t been so damn arrogant to think that we actually understood QE. We don’t, and it never should have been attempted.
The Fed’s focus on inflation
“Low measured inflation and anchored inflationary expectations should only begin the discussion about the wisdom of Fed policy, not least because of the long and variable lags between monetary interventions and their effects on the economy. The most pronounced risk of QE is not an outbreak of hyperinflation. Rather, long periods of free money and subsidized credit are associated with significant capital misallocation and malinvestment—which do not augur well for long-term growth or financial stability.”
What he really wants to say:
The inflation target is stupid. It’s not the CPI that’s killing us, it’s the credit booms and busts. The best way out of this mess is to lose the inflation target and go back to the old-fashioned approach of “taking the punch bowl away when the party gets going.”
Pulling off the exit from extraordinary measures
“[T]he foremost attributes needed by the Fed to end its extraordinary interventions and, ultimately, to raise interest rates, are courage and conviction. The Fed has been roundly criticized for providing candy to spur markets higher. Consider the challenge when a steady diet of spinach is on offer.”
What he really wants to say:
Pundits who praise the courage of our central bankers are clueless. The true story is that we consistently take the easy way out. If the current cast of characters wanted to show courage, they’d man up and replace the short-term sugar highs with long-term thinking.
The Fed’s relationship to the rest of Washington
“The administration and Congress are unwilling or unable to agree on tax and spending priorities, or long-term structural reforms. They avoid making tough choices, confident the Fed’s asset purchases will ride to the rescue. In short, the central bank has become the default provider of aggregate demand. But the more the Fed acts, the more it allows elected representatives to stay on the sidelines. The Fed’s weak tea crowds out stronger policy measures that can only be taken by elected officials. Nobel laureate economist Tom Sargent has it right: ‘Monetary policy cannot be coherent unless fiscal policy is.’”
What he really wants to say:
And if we don’t man up, you can count on Congress to continue with its egregious generational theft and destroy our nation’s finances, just as me, Stan and Geoff have been warning.
Who benefits from QE and who doesn’t?
“Most do not question the Fed’s good intentions, but its policies have winners and losers, which should be acknowledged forthrightly.
The Fed buys mortgage-backed securities, thereby providing a direct boost to balance sheet wealth of existing homeowners to the detriment of renters and prospective future homeowners. The Fed buys long-term Treasurys to suppress yields and push investors into riskier assets, thereby boosting U.S. stocks.
The immediate beneficiaries: well-to-do households and established firms with larger balance sheets, larger risk appetites, and access to low-cost credit. The benefits to workers and retirees with significant fixed obligations are far more attenuated. The plodding improvement in the labor markets offers little solace.”
What he really wants to say:
Unbelievably, my ex-colleagues still don’t acknowledge their policies are killing the middle class to the benefit of the plutocracy. Their silence on this is wholly unacceptable and has to
stop (and so do the policies).
Domestic versus global policy considerations
“[T]he U.S. is the linchpin of an integrated global economy. Fed-induced liquidity spreads to the rest of the world through trade and banking channels, capital and investment flows, and financial-market arbitrage. Aggressive easing by the Fed can be contagious, inclining other central banks to ease as well to stay competitive. The privilege of having the dollar as the world’s reserve currency demands a broad view of global economic and financial-market developments. Otherwise, this privilege could be squandered.”
What he really wants to say:
We really need to climb out of our shell and look at things from a global perspective. The rest of the world knows that we’re selling a bill of goods and won’t continue buying it forever. If we don’t change, you can say goodbye to the dollar.
Forward guidance
“Since QE began, Fed policy makers have tried to explain that asset purchases and interest rates are different. Hence their refrain that tapering is not tightening, and that very low interest rates will continue after QE. Investors do not agree. Once the Fed begins to wind down its asset purchases, these market participants are likely to reassert their views with considerable force.
Recently, the Fed has elevated forward guidance as a means of persuading investors that it will indeed keep interest rates exceptionally low even after QE. Forward guidance is intended to explain how the central bank will react to incoming data. Fed projections for example, may show below-target inflation and a residual output gap justifying very low interest rates several years from now. But words are not equal to concrete policy action. And the Fed hasn’t received many awards for prescience in recent years.”
What he really wants to say:
Forward guidance is a load of crap. First, you won’t convince the market of any of your dumb ideas. Investors can and will think for themselves. Second, talk is cheap. And talk that’s based on the Fed’s ability to foresee the future? C’mon now, that’s ridiculous.
Transparency
“[T]ransparency in communications about future policy is not a virtue unto itself. The highest virtue is getting policy right. Given manifest uncertainties about the state of the economy, oversharing policy deliberations is not useful if markets are led astray, or if public commitments reduce policy makers’ flexibility to call things the way they see them.”
What he really wants to say:
Transparency, shmansparency. I’ve had it up to here with taper, untaper, maybe taper, maybe not taper. I’ll trade a transparent central bank for one that knows what it’s doing any day.
Obama’s nomination of Janet Yellen as the next FOMC chair
“The president has nominated a person with a well-deserved reputation for probity and good judgment. The period ahead will demand these qualities in no small measure.”
What he really wants to say:
The president made a bad choice.
Disclaimer
These are only our guesses, not actual thoughts from Kevin Warsh, who hasn’t told us what he really wants to say. We don’t even know if he hunts. (We’re guessing no.)
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/gGR3bWnhCd4/story01.htm Tyler Durden
Press Secretary Jay Carney is desperate to manage expectations ahead of Secretary Sebelius’ announcement of the Obamacare enrollment data in an hour:
To watch him squirm under a press corps unwilling to take their foot off his throat (for now)… Maybe we can read into this…
…just how bad it is!
And as a reminder:
CMS to announce October #Obamacare enrollment numbers at 3:30 pm EST. #HHS Secretary Sebelius will brief via conf. call.
— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) November 13, 2013
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/r4PspyE_I1U/story01.htm Tyler Durden
Press Secretary Jay Carney is desperate to manage expectations ahead of Secretary Sebelius’ announcement of the Obamacare enrollment data in an hour:
To watch him squirm under a press corps unwilling to take their foot off his throat (for now)… Maybe we can read into this…
…just how bad it is!
And as a reminder:
CMS to announce October #Obamacare enrollment numbers at 3:30 pm EST. #HHS Secretary Sebelius will brief via conf. call.
— Major Garrett (@MajorCBS) November 13, 2013
| |
via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/r4PspyE_I1U/story01.htm Tyler Durden
Attracting some attention in Russian media today is proposed legislation by State Duma lawmaker Mikhail Degtyarev of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s controversial Liberal Democratic Party and former candidate for mayor of Moscow (where he got 2.86% of the vote), who seeks to ban dollar deposits and transactions at Russian banks warning that the U.S. dollar is on the brink of collapse. As Moscow Times reports, “Mikhail Degtyaryov said the dollar will collapse in 2017 if U.S. national debt continues to grow at the current rate, and he cautioned that countries with a high dependence on the currency would suffer an economic disaster… In light of this, the fact that confidence in the dollar is growing among Russian citizens is extremely dangerous,” he said in an explanatory note attached to the bill, according to Interfax.
Degtyarev’s proposed anti-USD capital controls would impose the ban within a year of its passage, and the holder of a dollar account would need to spend the money, convert it into another currency, or see the bank convert the account into rubles at the average rate for the previous year.
Russians could still buy and sell dollars while abroad, hold dollar deposits in foreign banks, and engage in e-commerce.
The legislation would not apply to the Central Bank, the government, the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the Foreign Intelligence Service, the Federal Security Service and the Federal Treasury.
It was unclear when the bill might come up for a first hearing and whether it would find enough support in the pro-Kremlin legislature to be passed into law.
But before anyone scrambles to convert all their dollars into crisp rubles, keep in mind this is the same candidate who previously proposed banning gay and bisexual men from donating blood, paid days off for menstruating women, and has said he believes Russia will lead the world in vanquishing the Antichrist.
But that’s just the beginning. FP recently did a full profile on Degtyarev:
Meet the man who not only would like to lead Moscow in battle against Satan, but would also like to give women two days leave from work every month during menstruation.
For Degtyarev, the battle between good and evil is one that plays out in intensely nationalist terms. “I can say as a believer that I believe in the apocalypse from the point of view of faith. And I think we must prepare,” Degtyarev said on Friday. “I believe that we’ll defeat the Antichrist — I’m sure of it — and that Russia will lead the fight against the Antichrist.”
But Degtyarev has no patience for the portended apocalypses of other religions. Late last year, he launched a campaign to stop Russian media from reporting on the possibility that the end of the Mayan calendar foretold the end of the world. “In our compatriots’ interests, we ask you to pay attention to the dissemination of pseudo-scientific information about the end of the world in your media,” he said in addressing the coverage.
Incidentally, Degtyarev serves as the deputy head of the science and technology committee in the Duma.
But Degtyarev isn’t just a kooky crusader for Christ. He’s perhaps best known for his initiative to give women paid leave during menstruation. Last month, he introduced a bill in the Duma that would require employers to provide their female employees two days off every month during what he called their “critical days.”
“In this period, the majority of women experience psychological and physical discomfort,” Degtyarev said at the time. “Often the pain for the fair sex is so intense that they are forced to call an ambulance.”
The language of that legislation reads like something of an homage to male condescension: “Strong pain induces heightened fatigue, reduces memory and work-competence and leads to colorful expressions of emotional discomfort. Therefore scientists and gynecologists look on difficult menstruation not only as a medical, but also a social problem.”
…
Degtyarev’s nationalism was on full display earlier this week during a visit to a traditional Russian bath house, where he made a shirtless appearance before the cameras clad only in a towel and a traditional Russian hat. In an interview, which you can view below, he declared that when the plague struck Europe, Russians were largely immune to the effects of the disease because of the restorative properties of the banya. Such are the powers, Degtyarev claims, of traditional Russian culture.
In other words, it is safe to assume the dollar will be widely used in Russia for a quite a while longer.
More importantly, the erosion of the dollar’s credibility will not take thanks to the efforts of fringe lunatics abroad, but thanks to America’s very own non-fringe lunatics, especially those located in the Marriner Eccles building.
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via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/krai83vOyF8/story01.htm Tyler Durden