Iceland forgives mortgage debt of its population

Talk about a country that really cares...talk about media blackout. The 110% of the value of the real-estate mortgage debt forgiveness will provide some stability.  Although, many are still in other debt, it frees up some expenditures to payback the rest.    Iceland decided to listen to the population and sideline the bankers and politicians after their actions in 2008 destroyed the economy.  The bankers are the accused throughout Europe and the United States.  It is refreshing to see a nation stand up for what is right



Did you read about this in any US news outlet including alternative news?  I hardly think so.

Venezuela: 'Government doesn't want you to see the mess it's in' BBC News

I don't understand why the nations will not allow journalists to tell stores about what is going on in their countries.  The people in Venezuela are suffering, starving and poverty is increasing.  Violence is a reaction.  The BBC makers of this documentary were deported after being caught with a camera.

Occupy Wall Street - Arrests

Susan Brannon
12 October 2011
Occupy Wall Street Arrests

Unfortunately, the organization is not quite organized enough to maintain a list of those arrested during the Occupy Wall Street Protests throughout the country and provide numbers. I tried my best to get the "numbers" here is what I have found.

New York - Sept 20th 7
New York - Sept 24th 80
New York - Sept 25th "dozens" at least 50
New York - Oct 1, More than 700
New York - Oct 6, 28

There are some great images out there:

The Movement:  Occupy Wall St.
Resources:
Occupy Together
Twitter: @occupywallst

Related Articles:
Making Sense of the Bank of America Mortgage Fraud
Making Sense of the Failing Economy and U.S. Downgrade
Debt Plan Fact Sheet
Our Tax Dollars at Work
Satellite View of Foreclosures
American Struggling Middle Class (Video)
Global Confidence in Economy Collapses 
Crime Against Humanity
Examples of US Financial Corruption
Presidential Candidates Response to Occupy Wall Street
One Example of Wall Street Corruption
Occupy Wall Street - Proposed/Unproposed List of Demands
What is Wall Street?

One Example of Wall Street Corruption

Susan Brannon
8 October 2011

Despite hundreds of billions in taxpayers' bailouts and trillions in losses for investors, 2008 ended with a huge bonuses for wall street. The firms paid $18 billion in bonuses and the largest firms reached to $265,000. In 2010 the average bonus for the firms was $128,000 in addition to the salaries, options and perks. Warren Buffet said, "If an institution had to go to society and say, "save me because if you don't I'm going to topple society, I would have it so that that person, the CEO and his spouse at least come away broke."

There has not been any negative consequence for the people who toppled the global economy. Their wealth was protected and they continued with their games with the knowledge that their firms were to big to fail.

When the protesters for "Occupy Wall Street" marched on wall street in New York, they held signs that said, "We are the 99 percent." Firm employees watched the protest from their office balconies drinking champagne and held signs that said, "We are the 1 percent." Now if that is not a punch in the face with arrogance, I don't know what is.

Some of the countries in Europe initiated huge tax rates for large bonuses and increased the tax rates for those who make over 90,000 Euros for the next two years. Here in the U.S. there are no penalties for failures, or shall I say, the penalties trickle down to the tax payers, the middle and lower class taking away from what little they have. We pay the price for others' incompetence and the mistakes that they made and we are continuing to pay that price.

The one percent would say, "that is capitalism, if don't work hard enough then you don't get the bonuses, it is their problem...not mine." I have also heard, "Well, we all know that life is not fair, who ever said that it was?" Okay, I agree that life is not fair, but who gave the right for bankers and Wall Street to steal and get away with it? Our problem is, that if I made a mistake with my business, I know that I cannot go to the government and ask for free money to help me stay open.

We all know that our financial system is corrupt and I am glad that some Americans are marching in the streets...I only wish that their were more of them to make a difference. This is important and we must make the time to be heard as a large group. The American dream is being stolen, the financial players will just about do anything if they feel that they can get away with it while contributing to the destruction of our economic machine.

Here is a small example of gold manipulation and corruption I have read about:

- They are manipulating with the price of gold and silver and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, who are supposed to be regulating the firms have been sitting back, doing nothing while watching it all happen. A whistle blower exposed the manipulation of the world gold and silver. Here is how it goes: "Back in November 2009, Andrew Maguire, a former Goldman Sachs silver trader in Goldman's London office, contacted the CFTC's Enforcement Division and reported the illegal manipulation of the silver market by traders at JPMorgan Chase.

Maguire told the CFTC how silver traders at JPMorgan Chase openly bragged about their exploits - including how they sent a signal to the market in advance so that other traders could make a profit during price suppression episodes."

"Traders would recognize these signals and would make money shorting precious metals alongside JPMorgan Chase. Maguire explained to the CFTC how there would routinely be market manipulations at the time of option expiries, during non-farm payroll data releases, during commodities exchange contract rollovers, as well as at other times if it was deemed necessary.

On February 3rd, Maguire gave the CFTC a two day warning of a market manipulation event by email to Eliud Ramirez, who is a senior investigator for the CFTC’s Enforcement Division.

Maguire warned Ramirez that the price of precious metals would be suppressed upon the release of non-farm payroll data on February 5th. As the manipulation of the precious metals markets was unfolding on February 5th, Maguire sent additional emails to Ramirez explaining exactly what was going on.

And it wasn't just that Maguire predicted that the price would be forced down. It was the level of precision that he was able to communicate to the CFTC that was the most stunning. He warned the CFTC that the price of silver was to be taken down regardless of what happened to the employment numbers and that the price of silver would end up below $15 per ounce. Over the next couple of days, the price of silver was indeed taken down from $16.17 per ounce down to a low of $14.62 per ounce.

Because of Maguire’s warning, the CFTC was able to watch a crime unfold, right in front of their eyes, in real time." (The Economic Collapse Blog)

What did the CFTC do? Nothing, nada, not a thing. A trial was held later, that was recorded on video and the testimony had only 5 minutes to give his voice and Maguire was not invited to testify. *Please See the Bill Murphy of GATA reveals whistle-blower" Video on this blog.

The Movement:  Occupy Wall St.
Resources:
Occupy Together
Twitter: @occupywallst

Related Articles:
Making Sense of the Bank of America Mortgage Fraud
Making Sense of the Failing Economy and U.S. Downgrade
Debt Plan Fact Sheet
Our Tax Dollars at Work
Satellite View of Foreclosures
American Struggling Middle Class (Video)
Global Confidence in Economy Collapses 
Crime Against Humanity

Israel Protests-News Analysis-08-01-2011

What are the Israeli protests about and how is the regime going to deal with this crisis?

Clashes with Police Israel Protests

In Israel, angry protesters have clashed with police in Tel Aviv after authorities moved to dismantle a tent city. he camp was part of a nationwide protest against the high cost of living and social inequality. Jews & Arabs marching together to protest social inequality.

American Job Act Summary

Susan Brannon
10 September 2011

President Obama put on the table before congress the American Jobs Act.  The act has won the approval of both Republicans and Democrats, but has not passed for voting yet.  Below is a quick summary of the administration says that the Act will provide to the American people.  

 * First, it provides a tax cut for small businesses, not big corporations, to help them hire and expand now and provides an additional tax cut to any business that increases wages.
    * Second, it puts people back to work, including teachers, first responders and veterans coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and construction workers repairing crumbling bridges, roads and more than 35,000 public schools, with projects chosen by need and impact, not earmarks and politics.
    * Third, it helps out-of-work Americans by extending unemployment benefits to help them support their families while looking for work and reforming the system with training programs that build real skills, connect to real jobs and help the long-term unemployed.
    * Fourth, it puts more money in the pockets of working and middle class Americans by cutting in half the payroll tax that comes out of every worker's paycheck, saving families an average of $1,500 a year. And it removes the barriers that exist in the current federal refinancing program (HARP) to help more Americans refinance their mortgages at historically low rates, save money and stay in their homes.

How do they plan to do this?:

• Cutting the payroll tax cut in half for 98 percent of businesses: The President’s plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold.
• A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President’s plan will
completely eliminate payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or
increasing the wages of their current worker (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in
payroll increases).
• Extending 100% expensing into 2012: This continues an effective incentive for new investment.
• Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital.
2. PUTTING WORKERS BACK ON THE JOB WHILE REBUILDING AND MODERNIZING AMERICA
• A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans: This provides tax credits from $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans.
• Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, while keeping cops and firefighters on the job.
• Modernizing at least 35,000 public schools across the country, supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas.
• Immediate investments in infrastructure and a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank,
modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers
back on the job.
• A New “Project Rebuild”, which will put people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and
communities, leveraging private capital and scaling land banks and other public-private
collaborations.
• Expanding access to high-speed wireless as part of a plan for freeing up the nation’s spectrum.
3. PATHWAYS BACK TO WORK FOR AMERICANS LOOKING FOR JOBS
• The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years: As part of an extension of unemployment insurance to prevent 5 million Americans looking for work from losing their benefits, the President’s plan includes innovative work-based reforms to prevent layoffs and give states greater flexibility to use UI funds to best support job-seekers, including:
› Work-Sharing: UI for workers whose employers choose work-sharing over layoffs.
› A new “Bridge to Work” program: The plan builds on and improves innovative state programs where those displaced take temporary, voluntary work or pursue on-the-job training.
› Inno
vative entrepreneurship and wage insurance programs: States will also be empowered to implement wage insurance to help reemploy older workers and programs that make it easier for unemployed workers to start their own businesses.
• A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring long-term unemployed workers.
• Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring.
• Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults through a fund for successful approaches for subsidized employment, innovative training programs and summer/year-round jobs
for youth.
4. TAX RELIEF FOR EVERY AMERICAN WORKER AND FAMILY
• Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last year to cut workers payroll taxes in half in 2012 – providing a $1,500 tax cut to the typical American family, without negatively impacting the Social Security Trust Fund.
• Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages at today’s near 4 percent interest rates, which can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket.
5. FULLY PAID FOR AS PART OF THE PRESIDENT’S LONG-TERM DEFICIT REDUCTION PLAN.
To ensure that the American Jobs Act is fully paid for, the President will call on the Joint Committee to come up with additional deficit reduction necessary to pay for the Act and still meet its deficit target. The President will, in the coming days, release a detailed plan that will show how we can do that while achieving the additional deficit reduction necessary to meet the President’s broader goal of stabilizing our debt as a share of the economy.

The White House is inviting American citizens to become involved in the process and is willing to answer any questions that you may have.  The only way to keep in touch with new bills and acts is to become involved and make your voice heard.  If you like something, let them know, if you do not like something let them know or start a petition or boycott.  They can really work!

Here are some ways that you can be involved:

    * Today at 4:30 p.m. EDT: Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council will be answering your questions on Twitter during White House Office Hours using the hashtag #WHChat.
    * Monday September 12 at 4:30 p.m. EDT: White House Office Hours on Twitter with Stephanie Cutter, Assistant to the President and Deputy Senior Advisor.
    * Tuesday, September 13 at 5:30 p.m. EDT: I’ll be answering your questions on Twitter during White House Office Hours using the hashtag #WHChat.
    * Wednesday, September 14th at 4:00 p.m. EDT: White House Office Hours with Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic council. White House
Related Articles/Videos
Thank You Mr. Boehner
Debt Plan Fact Sheet
Our Tax Dollars at Work
Satellite View of Foreclosures
American Struggling Middle Class (Video)
Global Confidence in Economy Collapses 
Which Countries Have the Most Days Off?
Making Sense of the Bank of America Mortgage Fraud
Making Sense of the Failing Economy and U.S. Downgrade
Crime Against Humanity
Examples of US Financial Corruption
Presidential Candidates Response to Occupy Wall Street
One Example of Wall Street Corruption
Occupy Wall Street - Proposed/Unproposed List of Demands
What is Wall Street?
 

Italy in Crisis

Susan Brannon
13 August 2011

Florence - Italy has been under duress with it's economy for quite a while now.  However, most Italians take a month long holiday in August and Berlusconi did not want to discourage the Parliament members to stay in Rome.  After everyone jotted off to the local beaches and private boats, the  European Union and European Central Bank started to put pressure on Berlusconi that now was not the time for a sunny holiday.  Italy is in a crisis.

Berlusconi cut his holiday short under the pressure and met with the Minister of Economy Robert Calderoni and Maurizio Sacconi.  After many long nights and busy days, they announced the proposed plan that will be set before the Senate on August 22 and before the aula on the 5 and 6 of September.  The process is not like the American process with not really deciding anything but passing along the responsibility to the new

The cabinet of ministers passed the new budget on Saturday 13 August.  The Minister of Finance said, "It is vital that we balance our budget"  Berlusconi said, "Our hearts are dripping with blood, we never put our hands in the pockets of the Italians, but the crisis is global, look at the U.S."  He also thanked Tremoniti, "They worked day and night."  Twenty billion in 2012 to 25.5 in 2013.  Knight responded that "It is a balanced decision"

The committee's decision will affect just about everyone in Italy, from the retirement holders, to the rich. Here is the latest rundown:

Taxes

    * Increase of payroll tax: by 5% to those that make 90,000 Euros to 150,000 Euros and 10% to those that make 150,000 Euros or more for the next two years.

    * Increase in personal income tax from the current 41% for income above 55,000 Euros

    * Robin Hood tax - A tax on the energy sector, details are not given as of yet.

Government

    * Parliament contributions:  10% for incomes above 90,000 and 20% for those who make over 150,000.  Reducing the Parliament members privileges (not including economy class airline tickets)  The removal of around 54,000 parliament seats.

    * Public workers: Must meet the goals to reduce costs otherwise they can loose the 13th month of payment

    * TFR payment with a 2 year delay for the severance pay of public workers.

    * Ministers - Are expected to cut 6 billion euros in 2012 and 2.5 in 2013

    * Localities:  Money transfers will be cut to 6 billion in 2012 and 3,5 in 2013. The health budget will not be touched.  The Regions will have to cut 1 billion less than the Localities.

    * Providences:  Suspend provenience with populations under 300,000 (total of 38) to be imposed after the next census.  and merge with the municipalities for under 1,000 population.  This will reduce the amount of state workers by 50,000.

    * No Cuts to salaries of civil servants.

    * Public Services:  Privatization and liberalization of public services will be encouraged.

    * FAS Fund - One year reduction of Fas, for underdeveloped areas.

    * Welfare reform:  For 1012 attend to achieve a savings of 4 billion is possible.

Social

    * Raise retirement age for women: From 2015 raise the age of retirement to 65 to those who work in the private sector

    * Retirement age:  by 2027 slowly raise the retirement age to 65.

    * Midweek Holidays - Will be moved to Monday as in the rest of Europe.

Business:

    * Receipts:  The receipts need to be traceable, for those issued over 2,500 euro, if they failure to issue receipts, the business with be threatened to close.

    * Reduce the amount of Looses to a maximum of 62.5 %

    * Self Employed - Increase personal income tax from 41% for incomes over 55,000 euros.  It is scheduled for 2-3 years, but may remain permanent.

    * Games and Tobacco - A new excise tax on games and tobacco, to what extent has not been decided.

    * Investment income:  Increase to 20% of all taxes on investment income, excluding interest of bonds that remain at 12.5%.

    * No taxes on real estate assets


The Italian response to this proposal is not a positive one it seems that everyone from every sector is complaining; from the ministers, the mayors, companies and public employees.  The public employees plan a union strike on September 9 for two hours. Minister Calderoli does not agree with abolishing the provinces.  Nicola Zingaretti, the president of the province of Rome says, "The move will affect the economy well beyond the Roman planned cuts to transfers to local authorities.  All the measures provided for the public service which are added to those already made in recent months in particular it will weigh on our economy as less liquidity available for many families"  Bonelli, of the Green Party feels that the maneuver will be a social disaster "that will take over the poverty line to more than a million Italian households."

For two to three years the white and blue collar workers have lost their jobs, with factories closing and outsourcing, many small businesses close their doors on every city street and more and more shops are empty.  Tourism is way down this year and the shop owners that were depending on tourism to make it through the year are watching over their empty shops.  University students cannot find work after graduation and have held many protests throughout Italy and are worried that this bill does not help them  with their plight.

Some Italians feel a bit patriotic with the removal of provinces' they are historical and they are territorial, in fact the Province of Benevento is a year older than the unity of Italy.  The province of Siena is under threat because they have close to 300,000 inhabitants, but it is not quite enough.

In the months to come, I expect turmoil and conflict between the government, the cities leaders, the general public and the public workers.  It is not easy cutting down from flying first class to economy.

ECB Spanish & Italian bond move calms market

Another Bailout. Italy

China, America & the economic crisis

This video was posted a year ago, but it explains why China is upset with
the current downturn in the U.S. credit ratings. China is upset with the U.S.
debt that cannot be sustainable.