Hhhhmmmm, wonder whats going on here?
From the BBC: What do you get when you mix two Japanese nationals with some fake US government bonds, a slow train to Switzerland and members of the Italian financial guard?
The answer is a $134bn (£82bn; 97bn euros) conspiracy theory which has fired up a whole realm of financial bloggers on the internet. See story HERE
From The Globe and Mail: Anyone who has ridden an escalator and bothered to pay attention has seen – and likely ignored – little signs suggesting riders hold the grimy handrail.
In Montreal’s subway system, the friendly advice seems to have taken on the force of law, backed by a $100 fine.
Bela Kosoian, a 38-year-old mother of two, says when she didn’t hold the handrail Wednesday she was cuffed, dragged into a small holding cell and fined.
“It was horrible, disgusting behaviour [by police],” said Ms. Kosoian, a 38-year-old student of international law. “I did nothing wrong. They should go find the guys who stole my tires off the balcony.” See story HERE
It could be the ultimate in political control — but it won’t be patented in Germany. German media outlets reported last week that a Saudi inventor’s application to patent a “killer chip,” as the Swiss tabloids put it, had been denied.
The basic model would consist of a tiny GPS transceiver placed in a capsule and inserted under a person’s skin, so that authorities could track him easily.
Model B would have an extra function — a dose of cyanide to remotely kill the wearer without muss or fuss if authorities deemed he’d become a public threat.
The inventor said the chip could be used to track terrorists, criminals, fugitives, illegal immigrants, political dissidents, domestic servants and foreigners overstaying their visas. See full story HERE
Imported plain cotton pillow cases from France that cost more than $900 apiece and new bulldozers exported to Venezuela that cost $387 each. Such prices seem highly suspect — and could be examples of someone using international trade to launder money.
Despite strict enforcement of federal anti-money-laundering laws, criminals are constantly finding ways to transform dirty money — the proceeds of illegal activities — into clean cash, and one of their most important routes is laundering money via international trade.
Money launderers are moving enormous sums through ports in Florida and other parts of the country by overvaluing or undervaluing exports and imports, said John Zdanowicz, a professor of finance at Florida International University.
Using a statistical program he developed to track money laundering, Zdanowicz analyzes U.S. government trade figures, calculates average prices for commodities and merchandise and searches the data for abnormally priced products.
The pillow cases and bulldozers are among the products he has turned up that seem to indicate trade may have been used to disguise the movement of money. But since the names of importers and exporters don’t appear with government trade figures, Zdanowicz doesn’t know who is moving the merchandise — or the money.
”The front door of money laundering is the banking system,” Zdanowicz said. “The government has done a pretty good job of closing the front door, but the back door — international trade — is wide open.” See full story from The Miami Herald HERE
San Francisco police Tuesday asked for the public’s help in finding a bank robbery suspect who reportedly told a bank manager he was angry about corporate bailouts.
The robbery took place at about 12:50 p.m. on April 15, at a Bank of America branch at 50 California St., according to police.
Police said the man initially asked to speak with a manager because he wanted to make “a large withdrawal.”
When he met with the manager, the suspect, who was carrying a black laptop case, explained he worked for an organization concerned about government bailouts of corporations, according to police.
The man then allegedly threatened to detonate a bomb he was carrying with him if the manager didn’t hand over cash.
The suspect smiled throughout the encounter, and told the manager the money “would go to people who deserve it,” police said. See full story HERE
More “Crisis” bloodshed? Reminds of the old song with the lyrics “don’t push me because I’m close the edge”….
“Five people were killed and several others hurt in the Netherlands after a car rammed into a crowd of spectators in what police are calling a premeditated attack on the royal family.”
“The motive for the attack was unclear. Dutch media, citing neighbors, said the assailant recently was fired from his job and was to be evicted from his home. Police identified him as a 38-year-old Dutch man with no history of mental illness or police record, but they would not release his name.” More of the story HERE
How is the crisis affecting certain criminal activity’s?
The Mafia in Italy (and I am sure everywhere else) is finding lots to exploit:
“While businesses around the world are hunkering down for survival, the Italian mob is living a golden moment.
Italy’s various organized crime syndicates — often lumped together colloquially as Mafia Inc. — are gobbling up gas stations, muscling in on supermarket franchises, making loans to cash-starved businesses, taking over trattorias and acquiring buildings in swank neighborhoods in Rome and Milan, investigators say.
These mobsters have lots of what is in short supply for many businesses these days — liquidity — as well as centuries-honed expertise in preying on the vulnerable, whose ranks are swelling in the current financial crisis.
It all means the mob is free to sink cash into two areas that lie at the heart of the global meltdown: real estate and credit markets.
The crime syndicates are flush with billions of euros from extortion rackets, drug trafficking and booming sales in fake designer clothing made in China expressly for the Italian mob — an increasingly lucrative trade as hard-hit consumers search for bargains, prosecutors and police said in recent interviews.
For the mob bosses, the global economic meltdown “is only an advantage,” said anti-mafia prosecutor Franco Roberti, in his office in Naples, the chaotic port city that is home to the Camorra, one of the Italy’s major crime syndicates.” See full story HERE
And Brothels in Germany (and again, I am sure in other countries) are offering discounts and “extras” : It has not taken long for the global financial crisis to affect the world’s oldest profession in Germany.
In one of the few countries where prostitution is legal, the industry has responded with an economic stimulus package of its own: modern marketing tools, rebates, discounts and gimmicks to boost falling demand.
Some brothels have cut prices or added free promotions, while others have introduced all-inclusive flat-rate fees. Free shuttle buses, discounts for seniors and taxi drivers, as well as “day passes” are among marketing strategies designed to keep business going.
“Times are tough for us too,” said Karin Ahrens, who manages the Yes, Sir brothel in Hanover. Revenue had dropped by 30 per cent at her establishment, she said, while turnover had fallen by as much as 50 per cent at other clubs. “We’re definitely feeling the crisis. Clients are being tight with their money. They’re afraid. You can’t charge for the extras any more and there is pressure to cut prices.” See full story from The Independent HERE
Take the money (and the cars) and run!
Scores of new cars vanished from a western Nebraska car dealership and a prosecutor said Wednesday that some had turned up in other states and warrants had been issued for three missing executives.
The 81 Fords and Toyotas taken from Legacy Auto Sales in Scottsbluff were valued at about $2.5 million.
The Fords were put on transporter trucks and taken away Saturday and the Toyotas were shipped out late Monday, John Childress, Scotts Bluff County’s chief deputy county attorney, said Wednesday.
Childress said arrest warrants had been issued for owner Allen Patch, controller Rachel Fait and general manager Rick Covello, who are wanted on suspicion of theft.
“Employees were expecting these people to be in Tuesday morning, and they were surprised no one was there,” Childress said. “It is not an expected departure.”
See the rest of the story from FOX HERE
After the terrible attacks in Germany and the US, the “anti-gun” mob are out once again to get your guns, that is if your a law abiding citizen. For gun laws are aimed at law abiding citizens. Perhaps its the same law abiding citizens who just saw the banks and politicians just steal their money? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.
From Yahoo.com:
Several European countries have restricted gun laws in the wake of school massacres, gang violence and other gun-related crimes:
_Finland announced plans Wednesday to impose stricter restrictions on firearms, including raising the minimum age for handgun ownership from 15 to 20. The proposal was prompted by two school massacres within a year in which lone gunmen opened fire on classmates and teachers.
_Germany, where a gunman killed at least 11 people Wednesday, raised the legal age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21 following a 2002 shooting in Erfurt that killed 16 people, including 12 teachers.
_Belgian lawmakers passed strict new gun control laws in 2006 in reaction to the racially motivated shooting deaths of a toddler and her black baby sitter in Antwerp.
_Swiss citizens are demanding a referendum aimed at confining army weapons to military compounds and banning private purchases of pump-action rifles and automatic weapons — following a spate of suicides and homicides.
_The Portuguese Parliament is currently discussing a government proposal to tighten gun laws, including denying bail to anyone suspected of a gun crime.
See more HERE
From Bloomberg.com:
German unemployment began to rise last November after almost three years of declines. Deutsche Bank AG Chief Economist Norbert Walter predicts the German economy, Europe’s biggest, may shrink by more than 5 percent this year.
The worst recession since World War II is fueling anger among youths across Europe who “perceive their future as rather precarious,” said Margit Mayer, a politics professor at Berlin’s Free University.
“Whether you look at the Berlin events or these anarchist groups in other European cities and countries, they are all making reference to the deepening economic crisis and how the various governments are dealing with them,” said Mayer, a specialist in urban social and protest movements.
Some groups are “very quick to attack whoever they can make out as responsible for having robbed them of decent life prospects,” according to Mayer. See story HERE
Two videos regarding people protecting themselves and their property, both from the USA. The first one is from Arizona, where a security camera outside a home catches three men armed with guns attempting a home invasion robbery on a home. The homeowner was prepared, and shoots at the assailants, causing them to flee. See video HERE
The second video is a compilation of videos from The LA Rodney King Riots. Its interesting to see, when thinking about how things may go if there are riots caused either directly or indirectly by the worsening economic crisis.
Of special note are the Korean shop owners defending their property with a shoot-out caught live on tape. See HERE
Gerald Celente, of The Trends Research Institute predicts total global economic crisis that will be worse than 1929. See interview HERE
The news that Texas officials are working on contingency plans to deal with a sudden influx of illegal aliens following a collapse of the Mexican government has sparked fears that FEMA detention camps, the expansion of which is the subject of current legislation in Congress, are being readied to detain thousands of illegals as well as American citizens.
According to an Elpaso TImes report, “Texas officials are working on a plan to respond to a potential collapse of the Mexican government and the specter of thousands fleeing north in fear for their lives after recent reports indicated the country could be on the verge of chaos.”
“You hope for the best, plan for the worst,” Katherine Cesinger, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said last week. “At this point, we’ve got a contingency plan that’s in development.”
Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw stated that a “preliminary plan” was in place that dealt only with “law enforcement concerns” and did not address “humanitarian needs”. See full article from Prison Planet HERE
As the economic crisis worsens, there will be increase in inside security attacks.
From The BBC: “The world’s biggest software maker has warned companies to expect an increase in “insider” security attacks by disgruntled, laid-off workers.
Microsoft said so-called “malicious insider” breaches were on the rise and would worsen in the present downturn.
“With 1.5 million predicted job losses in the US alone, there’s an increased risk and exposure to these attacks,” said Microsoft’s Doug Leland.
“This is one of the most significant threats companies face,” he said.” See story HERE
A LOS ANGELES man killed his wife and children due to his being laid off and unpaid taxes to the IRS.
“Investigators found evidence of spiraling financial woes. Lupoe owed the Internal Revenue Service at least $15,000 and a check he wrote the agency for that amount had just bounced. He also was at least one month behind on a mortgage for his home in Wilmington, near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Jobs are scarce in the area and the real-estate market is sinking. Lupoe owed about $2,500 and a late fee, Cortez said. He also owed thousands more on a home equity line of credit.
Police found the bodies of Lupoe, his wife and five children Tuesday morning. It appears the family had been killed the evening before and Lupoe shot himself the next day, Cortez said. Lupoe and his wife Ana had both recently been fired from their jobs at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center West Los Angeles. The two technicians had understated their income on an application for childcare in a bid to get cheaper rates, Cortez said.
Lupoe faxed a bitter, two-page letter to a local TV news station the morning he killed himself, saying a hospital administrator told him he “should not even have bothered to come to work” and “should have blown (his) brains out.”
See story HERE
Big arrest today in Spain…
British authorities have teamed up with Spanish police to arrest six men in connection with an alleged multi-million pound fraud on the London stock market.
The five Spaniards and one Argentinian were detained in Spain as part of a long-running Serious Fraud Office investigation in relation to a company which was formerly listed on the AIM section of the London Stock Exchange.
One of the men is alleged to be a former member of Israel’s Mossad. See more HERE
Some bad US unemployment numbers for December…
North Carolina is at 8.7%
California reached an amazing 9.3%
Georgia and Florida hit 8.1%
Oregon is checking in at 9% with Washington at 7.1%
New York jumped a full percentage point to 7%, while New York City itself reached 7.4%. When you realize that the unemployment numbers for the next few months will be much worse, and that those are “official” stats and that the real numbers are maybe twice as high,…well that spells BIG trouble.
On top of this, corporate earning figures for the last quarter are starting to be released. General Electric profits were released today and they show a loss of 46%. See
HERE
Freight rates for containers shipped from Asia to Europe have fallen to ZERO. That’s right ZERO. And for the first time since records began, underscoring the dramatic collapse in trade since the world economy buckled in October. See HERE
Britain is heading for economic depression for the first time since the 1930s, economists have warned. ” Families must brace themselves for a slump of far greater severity and longevity than the recessions of the 1980s and 1990s, they warned. They said the current crisis will be of a scale to rival the biggest peace-time crisis in modern history — the Great Depression.
The warning was delivered by economists and politicians after the Office for National Statistics revealed that the economy shrank by 1.5 per cent in the final three months of 2008 alone. ” See more HERE
And the British Government has been forced to admit that burglaries, fraud and robberies at knife point have risen steeply, in the first sign that the recession is fueling an increase in crime. See HERE
Anyone who has followed the “Anthrax” attacks closely, and looked beyond what the mainstream media had to report, know that, like the September 11th attacks, there are many “inconsistencies” with the official story. Bruce Ivins was stalked by The F.B.I., smeared by the press, and then committed suicide (or perhaps even “suicided” like Dr. Kelly).
And most of the evidence when looked at closely, makes it seem certain that Bruce Ivins was surely scapegoated. The Seattle Times has new article out looking at the case. For those looking for more information both The New Scientist and Glen Greenwald at Salon.com had informative pieces on the subject, but to get a good idea who the “real anthrax killer” may be look here….
“Things were turning up missing at AMRIID, and Lt. Col. Michael Langford was baffled. He suspected that someone was tampering with records, perhaps in order to conduct unauthorized research. He told a lab technician to “make a list of everything that was missing,” and “it turned out that there was quite a bit of stuff that was unaccounted for,” 27 sets of specimens, including anthrax, hanta virus, simian AIDS virus “and two that were labeled ‘unknown’ – an Army euphemism for classified research whose subject was secret,” as this chilling Hartford Courant story by Jack Dolan and Dave Altimari puts it. One set of specimens has since been found: the rest are still missing….
An investigation was launched that exposed the shockingly lax security measures at the lab, and raised the possibility that some specimens may never have been entered in lab records. Also uncovered was a tape from a surveillance camera showing the entry of an unauthorized person into the lab, at 8:40, on January 23, 1992, let in by Dr. Marian Rippy, lab pathologist. The night visitor was Lt. Col. Philip Zack, a former employee who had left as a result of a dispute with the lab over his alleged harassment of Dr. Assaad. The Courant reports:
“Zack left Fort Detrick in December 1991, after a controversy over allegations of unprofessional behavior by Zack, Rippy, [lab technician Charles] Brown and others who worked in the pathology division. They had formed a clique that was accused of harassing the Egyptian-born Assaad, who later sued the Army, claiming discrimination.”
According to Assaad, in the week before Easter 1991, he found a poem in his mailbox, described in another Courant story:
“The poem, which became a court exhibit, has 235 lines, many of them lewd, mocking Assaad. The poem also refers to another creation of the scientists who wrote it — a rubber camel outfitted with sexually explicit appendages. The poem reads: ‘In (Assaad’s) honor we created this beast; it represents life lower than yeast.’ The camel, it notes, each week will be given ‘to who did the least.’ The poem also doubles as an ode to each of the participants who adorned the camel, who number at least six and referred to themselves as ‘the camel club.’ Two — Dr. Philip Zack and Dr. Marian Rippy — voluntarily left Fort Detrick soon after Assaad brought the poem to the attention of supervisors.”
Read the rest of the article by the wonderful Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com
This coming week could be a very very bleak one. We will begin to see more retail giants bite the dust big time, and more banks fall deeper into the hole. Last week we saw the fall of Circut City in the US as well as Bank of America needing another $20bn bailout while Citigroup was forced to unveil a break-up. And Barclays Bank shares plummeted 25 per cent. …
“Some analysts in the US now believe that Citi and possibly Bank of America may have to be nationalised to draw a line under their woes. Ireland announced the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank late on Thursday to stop a run on its deposits and shares.” See story
HERE
And according to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at The Telegraph, over half of Europe has just entered a DEPRESSION not a Recession as most believe.
“Events are moving fast in Europe. The worst riots since the fall of Communism have swept the Baltics and the south Balkans. An incipient crisis is taking shape in the Club Med bond markets. S&P has cut Greek debt to near junk. Spanish, Portuguese, and Irish bonds are on negative watch.
Dublin has nationalised Anglo Irish Bank with its half-built folly on North Wall Quay and €73bn (£65bn) of liabilities, moving a step nearer the line where markets probe the solvency of the Irish state.
A great ring of EU states stretching from Eastern Europe down across Mare Nostrum to the Celtic fringe are either in a 1930s depression already or soon will be. Greece’s social fabric is unravelling before the pain begins, which bodes ill.
Each is a victim of ill-judged economic policies foisted upon them by elites in thrall to Europe’s monetary project – either in EMU or preparing to join – and each is trapped. “
See story HERE
And yes crime is and will continue to be on the increase. I see it happening where I live in Spain and in parts of Britain there are at least admitting to so …
“Robbery and burglary are on the rise across the country, almost doubling in some areas, according to figures that provide the first evidence that the economic downturn is fuelling crime.
Figures obtained by The Independent from police forces across England and Wales show that cases of burglary or robbery rose in 31 of the 43 forces in the final four months of the year in comparison with the same period in 2007. In those 31 areas an extra 5,572 crimes of burglary and robbery were committed in the final months of 2008, compared with the previous year. ” See The Independent UK story HERE
Its seems that a Florida funds manager who is responsible for millions of dollars of investors money, has gone missing after a worrisome call to his Family. See HERE This on the heals of the man who tried to fake his death last week, and the two other high profile suicides linked to the economy in the last few weeks. The Huff Post has a round up of the lasted economic related suicides and killings HERE
A man who said he robbed a downtown Shreveport bank because he was out of a job and hungry has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for first-degree robbery.
Roy Brown, 54, of Audrey Lane, pleaded guilty in Caddo District Court to robbing the Capital One bank in December 2007.
Brown admitted walking up to a teller with one of his hands under his jacket and telling her it was a “stickup.” The teller handed the man three stacks of bills and he took a single $100 bill, told her he was homeless and left, police said.
Brown surrendered to police the next day, telling them his mother didn’t raise him that way. See full story HERE
Then there is Bernard Madoff, a white man who stole over 50 BILLION dollars is on “house arrest’ in his mansion. See HERE
Lets gets this straight. A black man steals 100 dollars, and then returns it the next day. And he gets 15 years in prison.
A white man steals over 50 BILLION, and while awaiting his trial, has to do “house arrest”. As Stephen A. Weiss, a lawyer for several dozen of Madoff investors said ” “There is a thirst for blood that transcends just those who have been victimized. There is a feeling … that folks like Bernard Madoff get a different brand of justice than the guy in the street,”. And yes, the guy on street definitely gets treated a little different than the rich thief. Much much differently.
More signs of “when people go bad” as an US businessman tries to fake his own death by faking his own death in a plane crash in a Florida swamp. See HERE See an update on this story HERE
Then there is the story that you may have heard about, where a 22 year old virgin is selling her virginity via an auction which has just hit 3.7 million. See HERE
And finally truly disturbing news, that a California man traded his 14 year old daughter for money, beer and meat.
See HERE
This time police in Texas shot an unarmed black man
From TheChron.com” “Robbie Tolan will likely live the rest of his life with a bullet lodged in his liver. It’s a painful reminder of his encounter last Wednesday with a white Bellaire police officer, who fired at least three shots at the unarmed 23-year-old black man in his own driveway.
Bellaire police and city officials have said Sgt. Jeff Cotton mistakenly thought Tolan’s Nissan Xterra had been stolen, but Tolan’s relatives say he was a victim of racial profiling and did nothing to justify being shot as his parents watched outside their home.” More fuel for the fire if the economic crisis worsens and if there happens to a “terror event”? See HERE
Two recent shootings have highlighted the fragility of tensions between police and those that they are sworn to protect. With the economic problems increasing, are things at near boiling point? If things get worse, or if there is some kind of “event” which happens, will that be enough bring what is happening in Greece to the US?
One shooting happened in Oakland and the other in New Orleans
More and more Americans are choosing (or being forced) to use the “5 finger discount ” at shops bringing an 84% increase in amateur theft. “There has been an inverse relationship between this increase in shoplifting and the economy and as the economy has gone down shoplifting has increased.” said Casey Chroust, senior vice president of retail operations for the Retail Leaders Industry Association.Shoppers strapped for cash help themselves
When your goverment does not protect you , then you gotta take the law into your own hands. And thats what several hundred vigilante women of India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Banda area proudly call themselves the “gulabi gang” (pink gang), striking fear in the hearts of wrongdoers and earning the grudging respect of officials. India\'s \'pink\' vigilante women
