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POPSCharitable Organization Funds To Preserve Journalism? The report is asking “philanthropic organizations to support local reporting.” That’s where the tax comes in " or fees " to be gathered in some fashion from telecom or internet providers.” I might not object if a clear definition of “journalism,” and adherence to that definition, must be met to get the nonprofit status. Of course, it all depends on the definition of the trade " like defining what “is” is. Next will be White House ordered legislation assuring that FOX News is excluded from “nonprofit status.” I cannot credit this report by linking to it, because the “original source” says I cannot (but never mind, they want me to donate to keep their less-than-honest endeavors alive) but go to Breitbart.com type in some keywords and you’ll find it.
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POPSTo Put Billions $$$ in a Context David McCandless, an information designer based in London, was flummoxed by all the talk being bandied about, over government programs running into the billions. So he created a chart of the entire mess. As he writes over at Information is Beautiful: This image arose out of a frustration with the reporting of billion dollar amounts in the media. That is, they’re reported as self-evident facts, when, in fact, they’re mind-boggling and near incomprehensible without context. But they can start to be understood visually and relatively, IMHO. via Fast Company Picture credit: David McCandless
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POPSTime for Congress to Start Issuing Subpoenas
Pulling the TARP over taxpayers' eyes By: Michael Barone Last fall, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told shocked Americans that the $700 billion TARP had to be passed immediately but not to worry because taxpayers would eventually make money on the investments as banks and other institutions getting bailout money paid it back. To the contrary, Barofsky said, not only are banks hoarding TARP funds, it is "very unlikely" that most of the TARP money will ever be repaid, let alone turn a profit. The hastily passed bill included minimal reporting requirements, so a third of all TARP recipients admit they used the money to repay loans, merge with other banks, and even purchase more mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - the two institutions at the heart of the housing market collapse. Some companies are even using TARP to pay off other government loans in what auditors call "bailout arbitrage." And it's all perfectly legal.
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POPSBank of America signals more tough times ahead Though overall bank earnings were surprisingly strong - leading to a huge rally on wall street the past few weeks - it seems that those may be great reflections looking in the rear view mirror but a much higer provision for loan losses may signal further tough times ahead.
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POPSXBRL Risk Reporting Initiative Moving Forward The goal is to create a common language that financial firms can use to disclose market, credit and operational risk, and thus make it easier for regulators to evaluate toxic assets and to reduce the potential for risk and fraud.
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POPS Nov.05, 2008 Historical Perspective on Obama's Victory Obama does have a mandate to lead. He won the popular vote, the Electoral College, and he brought out significant turnout. But it’s a stretch to count the high turnout as a credit to Obama since his margin of victory was so slim. This means that almost as many of the votes that Obama got out were coming out to vote against him. Similarly, the Electoral College results may like slanted heavily to Obama’s favor, but historically speaking they are not even up to the average margin of victory. And the popular vote is the same story – Obama won. But that’s about all you can say about it. There’s one final detail to consider. Obama’s victory is historic because he’s black and this is America. Many of those who came out to support him were motivated by this sense of history rather than by support of his policies. On the other hand, many of those who voted against him were motivated by a fear for his policies.
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POPSWelcome to Bad Credit Unsecured Loans Bad credit unsecured personal loans are provided to the borrowers without the requirement of collateral. So a perfect credit reporting scores is not needed in this case and interest rates are quite high by any means.Bad credit unsecured personal loans are designed to cover the damages which accrue due to the creation of a bad credit. Since the default in payments is the main reason behind the borrowers not being able to procurer the loan amount, it becomes imperative on his part to be as regular as possible with the repayments. This becomes all the more important due to the piling up of the amount later on because of a recurrent application of interest and surely, no lends would like to leave the principal amount like this.
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POPSFinancial Crisis Part II: U.S. Automakers Next "Some 18% of sales volume" from bad credit buyers. Watch the banks and credit companies like Capital One here flee the industry to strengthen their own positions. High gas prices have hurt car sales no doubt.
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POPSChina Determines American Banks Are Unsafe Investment Thanks to America's unethical corporate practices, inattentive regulators and distracted politicians whose favors are being bought by corporate lobbyists, it only took Bush/Cheney and their gang less than eight years to destroy foreign relations so completely that countries are beginning to back away from the U.S. banking system.
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POPSABC, FBI Punk'd by Terror 'Fan Video' "The intel community appears to have (once again) fallen victim to poorly researched open source news reporting," writes Evan Kohlmann over at the Counterterrorism Blog. Look, reporters get stories wrong all the time. And ABC, to its credit, has revised its original report... but only slightly. There's a caveat from Venzke buried in the piece. The headline now reads: "Al Qaeda Supporters' Tape to Call for Use of WMDs." The quote from FBI spokesman Kolko remains the same. Video is here: http://worldanalysis.net/postnuke/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1016 Read more at source...
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POPSClinton, Obama, McCain, Fail Energy Independence Test “US risks trade dispute with Canada on fuel." Feb. 15 Financial Times Waxman and Davis apparently expect the military to expend the Herculean effort of tracing the source of the fuel it purchases and then to refuse North American oil from unconventional sources apparently in favor of oil from OPEC sources like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela . How’s that for energy independence and security? It gets worse if you’re one of those who believe that biofuels are the path to energy independence. The plain language of section 526 would also seem to ban the federal government from purchasing biofuels like ethanol, since their lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions are greater than that of conventional petroleum. “Turning native ecosystems into “farms” for biofuel crops causes major carbon emissions that worsen the global warming that biofuels are meant to mitigate,” researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy reported in Science (Feb. 7).
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POPS The Real McCain Record Mark Levin NRO His supporters point to essentially one policy strength, McCain’s early support for a surge and counterinsurgency. It has now evolved into McCain taking credit for forcing the president to adopt General David Petreaus’s strategy. Where’s the evidence to support such a claim? McCain has repeatedly called for the immediate closing of Guantanamo Bay and the introduction of al-Qaeda terrorists into our own prisons — despite the legal rights they would immediately gain and the burdens of managing such a dangerous population. While McCain proudly and repeatedly points to his battles with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who had to rebuild the U.S. military and fight a complex war, where was McCain in the lead-up to the war — when the military was being dangerously downsized by the Clinton administration. Where was McCain when the CIA was in desperate need of attention? McCain was apparently in the dark about al-Qaeda like most of Washington, despite a decade of warnings.
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