In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look at HSBC being fined rather than criminally charged in order to avoid destabilizing the system, while JP Morgan and others are being sued for about a trillion in bad mortgages investors were duped into buying. They also look at “1001” under which bankers who lied to the federal housing authorities could be criminally tried for lying to a federal official. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to Kyra Maya Phillips of MisfitEconomy.com about democracy aboard pirate ships of the 18th century on which No Plunder, No Pay was the name of the game and innovation happened on the fringe. Max proposes banksters walk the plank in a specially built platform in Trafalgar Square.
Monthly Archives: December 2012
3MIN News December 15, 2012: Huge Sunspot Region Cometh
SuspiciousObservers:
Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke | Matt Taibbi
If you’ve ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you’ve ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or “drug paraphernalia” in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.
Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who’s ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a “record” financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.
Continued:
via Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke | | Rolling Stone.
QE 4: Folks, This Ain’t Normal – What You Need To Know About The Fed’s Latest Move | ZeroHedge
Submitted by Chris Martenson of Peak Prosperity
QE 4: Folks, This Ain’t Normal
What you need to know about the Fed’s latest move
via QE 4: Folks, This Ain’t Normal – What You Need To Know About The Fed’s Latest Move | ZeroHedge.
Nobel Peace Prize: Archbishop Desmond Tutu and two other laureates say European Union is not worthy of being given the award | Mail Online
Desmond Tutu has contested the decision to award the prize to the European Union in an open letter to the Nobel Committee
Fellow Peace Prize laureates Mairead Maguire and Adolfo Perez Esquivel also signed the letter, which insisted the EU was not a ‘champion of peace’
The trio said the $1.2million prize money should not be paid out to the bloc, which they claim contradicts the values associated with the prize
The decision to award the prize to the EU in a year marked by rioting amid the ongoing Eurozone crisis has already been widely derided
More:
As Admin Preps “Enduring Presence” in Afghanistan, Peace Activists Build Ties to War Victims – YouTube
Published on Dec 14, 2012
DemocracyNow.org – While the U.S. military is preparing to extend what is already the nation’s longest war, new ties are emerging between the peace movement here and in Afghanistan. The group “Afghan Peace Volunteers” recently invited international peace activists to help launch a campaign called “2 Million Friends for Peace in Afghanistan,” a nod to the number of Afghans killed in the last four decades of war and occupation. We’re joined by two U.S. peace activists recently back from Afghanistan: Ann Wright, a retired Army colonel and former U.S. diplomat who helped oversee the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan in 2001; and John Dear, a Catholic priest and longtime peace activist who was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Ben Saunders: Why bother leaving the house? – YouTube
Published on Dec 14, 2012
Explorer Ben Saunders wants you to go outside! Not because it’s always pleasant and happy, but because that’s where the meat of life is, “the juice that we can suck out of our hours and days.” Saunders’ next outdoor excursion? To try to be the first in the world to walk from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back again.
Keiser Report: Whammies of Wall St. Witches (E378) – YouTube
Published on Dec 11, 2012
In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert look at the latest BIS warning of a global credit bubble caused by zero percent interest rate policies meant to appease the angry hidden people in the shadow banking system. In the second half, Max Keiser talks to David Smith of GenevaBusinessInsider.blogspot.com about the Swiss currency peg, the global game of honesty limbo in the financial sector and hoping that midnight never comes for Alice in Switzer-land.
Matt Taibbi: After Laundering $800 Million in Drug Money, How Did HSBC Execs Avoid Jail?
Published on Dec 13, 2012
DemocracyNow.org – The banking giant HSBC has escaped indictment for laundering billions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and groups linked to al-Qaeda. Despite evidence of wrongdoing, the U.S. Department of Justice has allowed the bank to avoid prosecution and pay a $1.9 billion fine. No top HSBC officials will face charges, either. We’re joined by Rolling Stone Contributing Editor Matt Taibbi, author of “Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History.” “You can do real time in jail in America for all kinds of ridiculous offenses,” Taibbi says. “Here we have a bank that laundered $800 million dollars of drug money and they can’t find a way to put anybody in jail for that? That sends an incredible message, not just to the financial sector, but to everybody. It’s an obvious, clear double standard where one set of people gets to break the rules as much as they want and another set of people can’t break any rules at all without going to jail.”
via Matt Taibbi: After Laundering $800 Million in Drug Money, How Did HSBC Execs Avoid Jail? – YouTube.
Matt Taibbi on the Unfolding Libor Scandal & What Sen. DeMint’s Exit Means for Fractured GOP
Published on Dec 13, 2012
DemocracyNow.org – News of HSBC’s $1.9 billion fine comes as three low-level traders were arrested in London as part of an international investigation into 16 international banks accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars. The London Interbank Offered Rate, known as Libor, is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other. We’re joined by Matt Taibbi, Contributing Editor for Rolling Stone magazine and author of “Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History.” Taibbi also comments on the departure of Republican senator and Tea Party-favorite Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
What's happening? 