Ron Paul

Ron Paul: Happy Independence Day!

Campaign for Liberty:
In his latest C4L video, Congressman Paul sends along his best wishes for a happy Fourth of July.

Green Shoots and Greenbacks

Gary North / LewRockwell.com
Each January, the American Dialect Society meets to vote on the media's most widely used word or phrase during the previous year. Last January, they voted on 2008's most used word: "bailout." (http://tinyurl.com/8roxh4) It is hard to argue against that choice. I submit my candidate for 2009: "green shoots." That was Chairman Ben Bernanke's coined phrase.
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California's Economic Implosion

By William F. Jasper / The New American
California, the "Golden State," is not golden anymore. It has the biggest debt, the biggest budget deficit, the lowest bond rating, and (arguably) the highest taxes of any state in the union. For months, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature have acted like Nero, fiddling while Rome burns. On Wednesday, July 1, Gov. Schwarzenneger declared a fiscal state of emergency, following failure of his office and the legislators to reach an agreement on a state budget before the midnight June 30 fiscal year deadline.
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7 More Banks Fail

The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Six Illinois banks and one bank in Texas were shuttered Thursday as government regulators proposed new rules for private equity firms seeking to take over failed banks. That brought the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 52. That's more than double the 25 which failed in all of 2008 and the three closed in 2007. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of all seven. The total cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund from the seven closings will be $314.3 million, the FDIC said. The assets of most of the failed banks will be turned over to other institutions.
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'Fight Them Over There vs. Over Here' a False Choice

By Ron Paul / The Washington Times
There is no area in which Republicans have further strayed from our traditions than in foreign affairs. Generations of conservatives followed the great advice of our Founding Fathers and pursued a restrained foreign policy that rebuffed entangling alliances and advised America, in the words of John Quincy Adams, not to "go abroad looking for dragons to slay."
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Marshals Seize Madoff's $7 Million Penthouse

MSNBC
NEW YORK - Federal marshals took possession of disgraced financier Bernard Madoff's $7 million Manhattan penthouse in a move that forced his wife to move elsewhere. A federal official informed of Ruth Madoff's departure from her apartment Thursday tells The Associated Press that when marshals said she couldn't take her fur coat, she left carrying just a straw bag. The official wasn't authorized to discuss the details of Ruth Madoff's departure and spoke on condition of anonymity.
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A Bank Run Teaches the 'Plain People' About the Risks of Modernity

WSJ
TOPEKA, Ind. -- Dan Bontrager is a 54-year-old Amish man with flecks of gray in his long beard. He's also treasurer of the Tri-County Land Trust, an Amish lending cooperative created to support the Amish maxim that community enhances faith in God. This past spring, Mr. Bontrager was startled when a number of men he has known most of his life tied their horses to the hitching post outside his office and came inside to withdraw their money from the Land Trust.
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War Eagle Condo Bust

By Doug French / LewRockwell.com
Back in the middle of this decade, building anything seemed like a good idea. With the housing boom in full bloom, developers had the imagination, lenders had the construction money, and buyers had swarms of mortgage lenders panting to lend them the entire purchase price of anything their hearts desired. So imagine the confluence of combining Auburn Tigers football and real estate: a certain touchdown. After all, the much-loved Tigers were undefeated in 2004 under the guidance of revered coach Tommy Tuberville and were ranked second in polls at season end. The 87,451 seats at Jordan-Hare Stadium would never go wanting on game day and what every red-blooded Auburn fan of means couldn’t live without was a game-day condo. Heck people would buy units just to have a parking place on game days when the population of Auburn more than doubles.
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As Economy Drops Jobs, Paychecks Drop

Rising joblessness and falling wages
Americans lucky enough to still have a job are noticing something unpleasant in their paychecks: They're making less money. Employers cut 467,000 jobs in June, far more than expected, and the jobless rate hit a 26-year high of 9.5 percent. Just as worrisome, wages shrank to their lowest in nearly a year. The recession has taken out 6.5 million jobs in about a year and a half. All told, nearly 15 million people were considered unemployed in June. Average weekly earnings fell about $2 in June to $611.49, the lowest in nearly a year and the first month-to-month drop since March.
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China's Renminbi (RMB) Trade Rule Comes Into Effect

China Daily
China's central bank yesterday released a rule permitting companies in select cities to settle cross-border trades using the yuan, as part of efforts to reduce reliance on the US dollar for international trade. Banks will be able to offer yuan settlement services from now on, PBOC said in a statement on its website. It said tax authorities were working on the specific regulations for rebates. The move, it claimed in the statement, would likely reduce companies' exposure to foreign exchange risks, increase liquidity in foreign trade and cut transaction costs. "Companies in China and neighboring countries are facing relatively huge risks of exchange-rate fluctuations because of big swings in the US dollar, the euro and other major settlement currencies in the wake of the global financial crisis," the central bank said.
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China Challenges Greenbacks Role As International Currency

BEIJING -- People's Bank of China (PBOC) is taking more moves to challenge the greenback's role as the international currency and to promote RMB's real international trade. China and Brazil are working on a currency arrangement to allow exporters and importers to settle deals in their local currencies, bypassing the U.S. dollar, the countries' central banks said last Sunday. China's Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Brazil's Central Bank President Henrique Meirelles discussed the bilateral deal in a meeting at the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) on Saturday.
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Congress's Spending on Taxpayer-Funded Trips Abroad Rises

WSJ
WASHINGTON -- Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands. The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.
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Ron Paul on Freedom Watch

Campaign for Liberty:
On Wednesday, Dr. Paul joined Judge Napolitano's Freedom Watch to discuss hate crimes legislation, individualism vs. collectivism, auditing the Federal Reserve, and how all of us can get involved in the fight for liberty.

Cap and Trade Equals Fraud and Tax

By Glenn Jacobs / Campaign for Liberty
H.R. 2454: American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 will result in a totalitarian centralization of the American economy in the administrative agencies of the federal government, especially the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This 1,300 page horror is a prime example of congressional modus operandi -- no one in Congress actually had the opportunity to read the bill which was, incidentally, being amended as it was debated on the floor. As H.R. 2454 shows, this axiom still holds true: the more benign the title of a congressional bill, the more draconian its contents. After all, who could be against clean energy or security? The real goal of H.R. 2454 has nothing to do with either of these; it is a power grab, pure and simple.
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Buchanan: California, Here We Come!

By Patrick J. Buchanan / Buchanan.org
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. -- In just a few weeks time, California hits the wall. And Americans should take a good, long look at the fiscal and social wreck of the Golden Land, because California is at a place to which all of America is heading. In May, when five fund-raising proposals were put on the ballot, Gov. Schwarzenegger pleaded with the overtaxed Californians not to make their state “the poster child for dysfunction.” As The Economist writes, “On May 18th, they did exactly that.”
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Obama Under-reports Interest on National Debt

Thomas R. Eddlem / The New American
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) informed Rep. Paul Ryan, ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee, that President Obama’s budget under-reported (and the CBO itself) the national debt in Obama’s budget by trillions of dollars by predicting unrealistically low interest rates on the national debt in a June 30 letter. Obama’s budget planned to increase the deficit from the current $11 trillion to more than $23 trillion. The CBO letter admits that those estimates may be optimistic by as much as $5.6 trillion.
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473,000 Jobs Lost in June

The New American
The ADP National Employment Report estimated that the national economy shed some 473,000 jobs in June, which may be enough to bring the national unemployment rate to the 10-percent threshold once official figures are tallied later in the month. This private study of job loss is the first estimate to be released about June job loss figures, and will be followed in several weeks with more official estimates from the U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Citi Raises Rates on Millions of Credit Cards: Report

Reuters
Citigroup Inc has increased interest rates on up to 15 million U.S. credit card accounts just months before curbs on such rises come into effect, the Financial Times reported citing people close to the situation. Citigroup had upped rates on 13 million to 15 million credit cards it co-brands with retailers such as Sears, the paper said.
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Hawaii Sen. Gets His Bank Federal Aid

Judicial Watch
A failing Hawaiian bank that didn't qualify for a federal bailout still got a $135 million government infusion thanks to the intervention of an eight-term United States Senator who has the bulk of his personal wealth invested in the folding institution he also founded. The bank (Central Pacific Financial) did not meet the criteria for a Treasury Department bailout designed to help healthier financial institutions because its losses were depleting its capital reserves and it was already in the hands of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). But a powerful veteran Democratic lawmaker, who happens to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, has a huge financial stake in the bank and he used his influence to assure it didn’t go under. Senator Daniel Inouye, who brags about being the senate’s third most-senior member and a World War II combat veteran, pressured federal regulators into bailing out his precious bank.
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Fannie, Freddie to Refinance Larger Underwater Loans

Bloomberg
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will begin refinancing mortgages with loan-to-value ratios of as much as 125 percent as the Obama administration seeks to boost participation in its anti-foreclosure programs. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan made the announcement in a statement today. Currently Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, through President Barack Obama’s Home Affordable program, can refinance mortgages they own or guarantee when the loan is worth as much as 105 percent of the home’s market value.
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Bank Fees Rise as Lenders Try to Offset Losses

NY Times
Bounced check: $32. Stop-payment: $30. A.T.M. charge: as high as $3. Even now, after all those bailouts, banks never seem to tire of dipping a little deeper into your wallet. Despite the tough economic times and increased scrutiny from Washington, they are keeping most fees at record highs, and are eking out slight increases on others like overdraft charges — a step they rarely took during past recessions. The result? Americans are paying more to save and spend their money.
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Fuel Tax Could Be Replaced With By The Mile Tax

McClatchy
The year is 2020 and the gasoline tax is history. In its place you get a monthly tax bill based on each mile you drove — tracked by a Global Positioning System device in your car and uploaded to a billing center. What once was science fiction is being field-tested by the University of Iowa to iron out the wrinkles should a by-the-mile road tax ever be enacted. Besides the technological advances making such a tax possible, the idea is getting a hard push from a growing number of transportation experts and officials. That is because the traditional by-the-gallon fuel tax, struggling to keep up with road building and maintenance demands, could fall even farther behind as vehicles' gas mileage rises and more alternative-fuel vehicles come on line.
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Social Security Audit Finds Dead People Getting Checks

McClatchy
The Social Security Administration has continued to pay millions of dollars in benefits to dead Americans, and other elderly U.S. residents are at risk of losing badly needed aid because they're improperly recorded as deceased, federal investigators warn in a new report. The consequences of either bureaucratic error can be severe. "The addition of erroneous death entries can lead to benefit termination, cause severe financial hardship and distress to affected individuals," investigators with the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General noted in the report, which was quietly released on Sunday.
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Ron Paul on Cap and Trade

Campaign for Liberty:
In his latest C4L video, Dr. Paul discusses the House vote on Cap and Trade and reminds his colleagues that opposition to big government intervention should carry through to all acts against the Constitution.

Shredding Your Safety Nets

By Gary North / LewRockwell.com
Modern man believes in government-funded safety nets. He thinks that other taxpayers can and should be taxed to bail out those taxpayers who make bad economic decisions, so long as those taxpayers being bailed out are people like themselves. They don't want bailouts for bankers, and they don't want bailouts for people who got into no-money-down mortgages to buy in neighborhoods "above their station."
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Wall Street and FDR

By Antony C. Sutton
This book1 portrays Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a Wall Street financier who, during his first term as President of the United States, reflected the objectives of financial elements concentrated in the New York business establishment. Given the long historical association—since the late 18th century—of the Roosevelt and Delano families with New York finance and FDR's own career from 1921 to 1928 as banker and speculator at 120 Broadway and 55 Liberty Street, such a theme should not come as a surprise to the reader.
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EU to Warn Germany, Other Euro Nations On Deficits

Forbes
UXEMBOURG -- The European Commission said Monday that it will formally warn eight euro zone nations - including Germany, a champion of fiscal prudence_ about ballooning budget gaps that will break EU rules. Germany's budget deficit is expected to reach 3.9 percent of the country's gross domestic product in 2009. The EU expects it to go to 5.9 percent in 2010 - almost double the 3 percent ceiling of the EU's sound budget rules that underpin the stability of the euro.
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Report to the Secretary of the Treasury from the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee

US Treasury
February 4, 2009 - Dear Mr. Secretary: Since the Committee last convened in early November, the contraction in economic activity has deepened and broadened, while financial markets have remained under duress. The unprecedented volatility present in capital markets when the Committee last met has diminished somewhat but conditions still are exceptionally challenging. Policy efforts have begun to unlock credit for select high-quality borrowers. But the magnitude of wealth destruction, the still heightened cost of economy-wide capital and the impaired system of financial intermediation continue to cast a dark cloud over the economic outlook.
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California Misses Budget Deadline, Readies `IOUs'

Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO -- California's lawmakers failed to agree on a balanced budget by the start of its new fiscal year on Wednesday morning, clearing the way to suspend payments owed to the state's vendors and local agencies, who instead will get "IOU" notes promising payment. The notes will mark the first time in 17 years the most populous U.S. state's government will have to resort to the unusual and dramatic measure. Democrats who control the legislature could not convince Republicans late on Tuesday night to back their plans to tackle a $24.3 billion budget shortfall or a stopgap effort to ward off the IOUs. The two sides agree on the need for spending cuts but are split over whether to raise taxes.
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Next Segment of Housing Market to Crash: $1+ Million McMansions

The Business Insider
Even after a 30% fall from the peak, house prices are still too high. Meanwhile, millions of homeowners are losing their jobs, consumers are still saddled with truckloads of debt, banks are still tightening credit, foreclosures and delinquencies are still soaring, mortgage-mods are a failure, there are still too many houses on the market, wages are declining, taxes are likely to go up, and the economy is likely to struggle for years. In short, it's likely that house prices will now crash below fair value and remain below it for years. So McMansion owners sniffing at current prices and planning to "wait until the market comes back" will likely be waiting a lot longer than they think.
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The Great Bank Robbery: How the Federal Reserve is destroying America

Russia Today
As global leaders struggle to rescue their nations from economic breakdown, the legitimacy of the dollar as the world’s reserve currency is under attack. Perhaps the problem lies with the Fed. A large part of the “super” in the American superpower is based on the modern creed of liberal democracy, which serves as the motor of free-market capitalism. And the lubricant that keeps this colossal machine humming at full speed 24/7 is the US dollar. So before we risk any conjectures on the future prospects of America’s versatile banknote, which presently serves as the ‘world’s reserve currency,’ perhaps we should know more about who controls it.
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Pope Signs Encyclical for 'One World' Economy

Abominations:
Pope Benedict XVI signed his latest encyclical Monday, a text on ways to make globalization more attentive to meeting the needs of the poor amid the worldwide financial crisis. Benedict has frequently spoken out on the financial crisis, urging leaders to ensure the world's poor don't end up bearing the brunt of the downturn even though they are not responsible for it. He has said the downturn shows the need to rethink the whole global financial system.
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Related:
Italian Newspaper Reveals Key Paragraphs
from Pope's Upcoming Social Encyclical
Rome, Italy -- “In the midst of the new international economic, commercial and financial context,” the Pope will suggest an international agreement to lead the process of globalization: “an authority that should be regulated by law, should stick coherently to the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, should be aimed at achieving the common good and committed to fostering an authentic integral human development, inspired in the values of charity and truth.”

Ford Takes $5.9 Billion Government Loan

The New American
Ford Motor Company was supposed to be the only major U.S. automaker not in need of a bailout, but this week Ford accepted a $5.9 billion loan subsidy under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA). The EISA loan is designed to help the auto industry by supporting “capital investments in facilities designed to produce vehicles with greater fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.” It’s not a “bailout,” Ford executives would likely argue, on the basis that the money is a loan. But would Ford have been able to obtain the same amount of money and the same interest rate in the free market? To what extent is the loan (the difference between the government-provided loan and what the free market would offer) a subsidy? Undoubtedly, a $5.4 billion infusion of cash from already tapped-out taxpayers for doing what Ford was presumably already doing with their business model won't hurt their cash flow.
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Ford Gets $5.9 Billion In U.S. Aid

Los Angeles Times
Ford Motor Co., the only U.S. automaker not receiving emergency federal loans, will get $5.9 billion in government financing to accelerate production of fuel-efficient cars. Ford will be among the first recipients of the loans in a $25 billion Energy Department program to promote production of the vehicles with improved fuel economy, the agency said today in a statement. Nissan Motor Co. will get $1.6 billion, and San Carlos-based Tesla Motors Inc., maker of the all-electric Roadster, received approval for $465 million.
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Ford Receives $5.9 Billion Government Aid To Retool Plants, Save Jobs

Journal Newspapers
Ford Motor Co. just got a little more help in the plan to retool the Michigan Truck Plant. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu made it official on Tuesday morning: the automaker is one of several companies to receive low-interest loans from the federal government to transform plants into modern facilities that will churn out more fuel efficient vehicles. Ford will receive about $5.9 billion in loans that will help them refurbish 11 plants in five states, including the Michigan Assembly Plant in the City of Wayne.
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Cap & Trade Rape Passed - What Must Be Done Next

By Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com
While the news media in this country saturated the air waves over Michael Jackson's death last Friday, a real battle was going on in the House of Outlaws in Washington, DC. Comrade Pelosi was absent most of the day breaking arms to get the required number of votes to save the planet! Those of us who have actually taken the time to do the research fully understand global warming is a monstrous hoax against the world.
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Ron Paul's `Audit the Fed' Bill Gathers Steam

Emily Cadei / Congressional Quarterly
He may have faded from the national political scene a year ago, after his dark-horse presidential run came to naught, but Rep. Ron Paul's influence is still being felt in campaigns and policy debates across the country. Indeed, the latest legislative priority of the libertarian Texas Republican — auditing the Federal Reserve — has gained support in unlikely quarters.
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World Globalization Of The Banking & Regulatory Structure Part 2

By Joan Veon / NewsWithViews.com
Concentrating Total Financial Power at the Bank For International Settlements and the Financial Stability Board.
BASEL, SWITZERLAND -- There are those who have been predicting a time when there would appear a world government structure. That time is here. Many, however, have predicted that it would be political in power. That is not necessarily so. Although the United Nations has been an organizing power worldwide to harmonize national law with international law, they do not issue or print money—for that is the role of central banks. With the new and vast empowerments being given to the central banks of the world and with the restructuring of the Financial Stability Board, it appears that world government is financial and economic. The old adage is true, “He who owns the gold makes the rules.”
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Loophole Benefits GE In Bank Bailout

The Washington Post
General Electric, the world's largest industrial company, has quietly become the biggest beneficiary of one of the government's key rescue programs for banks. At the same time, GE has avoided many of the restrictions facing other financial giants getting help from the government. The company did not initially qualify for the program, under which the government sought to unfreeze credit markets by guaranteeing debt sold by banking firms. But regulators soon loosened the eligibility requirements, in part because of behind-the-scenes appeals from GE. ... GE's finance arm is not classified as a bank. Rather, it worked its way into the rescue program by owning two relatively small Utah banking institutions, illustrating how the loopholes in the U.S. regulatory system are manifest in the government's historic intervention in the financial crisis.
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hip hop song: `I WANT MY BAILOUT MONEY'

I Want My Bailout Money is a hip hop satire song by Michael Adams (the Health Ranger), editor of NaturalNews.com. It's a strong commentary on the failed fiscal policies of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury which have plunged the U.S. into seemingly irreversible debt.

Bailout of U.S. Banks Gives British Rum a $2.7 Billion Benefit

Bloomberg
In June 2008, U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh Jr. agreed to give London-based Diageo Plc billions of dollars in tax incentives to move its production of Captain Morgan rum from one U.S. island -- Puerto Rico -- to another, namely St. Croix. DeJongh says he had no idea his deal would help make the world's largest liquor distiller the most unlikely beneficiary of the emergency Troubled Asset Relief Program approved by Congress just four months later. ... The hurried legislation adopted by a Congress voting under the threat of sudden global economic collapse led to hidden tax breaks for firms in dozens of industries. They included builders of Nascar auto-racing tracks, restaurant chains such as Burger King Holdings Inc., movie and television producers -- and London’s Diageo.
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Attorneys General Must Go to Court to Probe National Banks

USA TODAY
NEW YORK -- In what was viewed as a victory for consumer and civil rights groups, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that state attorneys general have a right to investigate national banks for lending discrimination. In the ruling, Justice Antonin Scalia said federal banking regulations didn't prevent states from enforcing their own fair-lending laws. It was a win for the New York attorney general's office, which had tried in 2005 to investigate national banks to see if they were racially discriminating in their residential real estate lending practices.
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US Initial Jobless Claims Jump for Second Month

AFP
WASHINGTON -- New claims for US unemployment benefits climbed for the second consecutive week last week, the Labor Department said Thursday as employers cut payrolls to cope with a brutal recession. Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 627,000 in the week ended June 20 from an upwardly revised 612,000 claims in the prior week. Most analysts had expected new claims of 600,000. The four-week moving average was 617,250, an increase of 500 from the previous week's revised average of 616,750, the department said.
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Bernard Madoff Sentenced to 150 Years

The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Bernard Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison for his multibillion-dollar fraud scheme. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin handed down the sentenced in New York on Monday. The 71-year-old former Nasdaq chairman was arrested late last year after confessing to his sons that his secretive investment advisory business was a "big lie." He pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges in March and has been jailed since.
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World Globalization of The Banking & Regulatory Structure

By Joan Veon / NewsWithViews.com
BASEL, SWITZERLAND -- The power base of the world has shifted…it is no longer in London, New York City, Washington D. C., or Tokyo. Neither is it in Beijing or Moscow. It is Basel, Switzerland. In 1930, the Bank for International Settlements-BIS was set up as a result of the Young Plan which was named after the man who presided over the Allied Reparation Committee, Owen D Young. Basel was chosen as its location because everyone could get on a train from anywhere in Europe to attend its meetings. When you walk out of the main train station, the BIS is within easy walking distance of one block.
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Die Hard Illusions

By Bill Bonner / The Daily Reckoning
This just in...Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner have rushed to Los Angeles. If they can revive an entire world economy...why not the `King of Pop?' Fans are hopeful…but here at The Daily Reckoning we take a discouraging view of these revival efforts. We admire the achievements of science and technology; as for the works of economists and central bankers, well…we’ll wait to see how things turn out. Yesterday, we took up the biggest illusion of the Bubble Era. We held it up to the light…and noticed: So deeply rooted is this illusion that it will take more than a strong wind to uproot it.
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Mounting Jobless Claims Force States to Borrow Funds

CNBC
The government checks keeping Candy Czernicki afloat are fast running out. The reason? U.S. states obligated to pay benefits to the swelling ranks of jobless Americans are piling debt onto strained budgets. Fifteen states have depleted their unemployment insurance funds so far, forcing them to borrow from the U.S. Treasury. A record 30 of the country's 50 states are expected to have to borrow up to $17 billion by next year, said Rick McHugh of the National Employment Law Project, a nonpartisan advocacy group.
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Madoff Faces Sentencing Over Massive Ponzi Scheme

MarketWatch
Bernard Madoff will arrive at a Manhattan courthouse Monday to face sentencing for running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. Madoff, whose former clients lost billions of dollars in a fraud lasting more than two decades, could be sentenced to a maximum of 150 years in prison at the hearing, which is due to begin at 10 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time. His lawyers, however, have reportedly sought a sentence of just 12 years, arguing that 71-year-old Madoff is expected to live only another 13 years.
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Five Banks Are Seized, Raising U.S. Failures This Year to 45

Bloomberg
Five U.S. banks with total assets of about $1.04 billion were seized by regulators, pushing this year’s tally of failures to 45 as a recession drives up unemployment and home foreclosures. Community Bank of West Georgia, in Villa Rica, Georgia; Neighborhood Community Bank of Newnan, Georgia; Horizon Bank of Pine City, Minnesota; MetroPacific Bank of Irvine, California; and Mirae Bank of Los Angeles were closed yesterday by state regulators, according to statements from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC was named receiver of the four banks.
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Dollar Climbs as China Rules Out Currency Change; European Stocks Rebound

Bloomberg
The dollar rose against the euro and the yen after China ruled out any “sudden changes” to its foreign-reserves policy. European stocks climbed, rebounding from their first back-to-back weekly declines since March. The dollar gained as much as 0.5 percent versus the euro as of 11:39 a.m. in London, and 0.4 percent against the yen. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index of European shares climbed 1 percent. Deutsche Telekom AG advanced on speculation Vodafone Group Plc will bid for the Germany company’s U.K. mobile telephone unit.
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Swiss Banks Shun American Customers as U.S. Widens Search for Tax Evaders

Bloomberg
Swiss banks are shutting the accounts of Americans as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service accelerates the hunt for tax dodgers. UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, the country’s biggest banks, have told Americans to move their money into specially created units registered in the U.S., or lose their accounts. Smaller private banks such as Geneva-based Mirabaud & Cie. are closing all accounts held by U.S. taxpayers. While the banks declined to say how many people are affected, more than 5 million Americans live abroad, including about 30,000 in Switzerland, according to estimates from American Citizens Abroad in Geneva. Swiss banks must register with the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide services for those customers.
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Ron Paul on `Freedom Watch'

Campaign for Liberty:
On Wednesday's Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano, Congressman Ron Paul and Lew Rockwell discussed the need to free health care from government control.

Ron Paul Storms the Federal Reserve

By Matthew Collins / The Sovereign Society
As far as finance and business goes, at least one rule generally holds true... And this rule makes your job as an investor, entrepreneur or analyst ten times easier. The rule? If you can’t explain a particular investment or innovation to an eleven-year-old, then something shady is going on. Credit Default Swaps, Securitization, GSEs, CDOs…all of these things were considered “financial wizardry” back in the bubble days. Now they’ve been exposed as little more than Wall Street’s version of three-card Monte.
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Get Ready for the Soup Line

By Peter Schiff / LewRockwell.com
Misguided government policies have already dealt vicious body blows to our economy, but that hasn’t stopped politicians this week from launching two new kicks to the groin: a national health insurance plan and a carbon emissions regulation system called “cap and trade.” Even if these plans could achieve their desired ends, which is highly unlikely, I would have hoped Washington would refrain from throwing more monkey wrenches into the economy until it shows some signs of resurgence. The last thing we need right now is to further encumber our economy with higher taxes and additional regulations.
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Global Warming Tax Bill Clears U.S. House, Sent to Senate

Bloomberg
The U.S. House narrowly passed legislation to impose the nation’s first limits on greenhouse- gas emissions linked to global warming, handing President Barack Obama a win on one of his top policy priorities. The 219-212 House vote yesterday signaled the fight that lies ahead in the Senate for the plan, which would create a market for trading pollution permits to curb emissions.
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House Passes 'Global Warming' Bill

The Washington Post
The House narrowly passed an ambitious climate bill yesterday that would establish national limits on greenhouse gases, create a complex trading system for emission permits and provide incentives to alter how individuals and corporations use energy. The bill passed 219 to 212 after a furious lobbying push by the White House and party leaders won over farm-state Democrats who had complained that it was too costly, and liberals who wondered if it was too watered down to work. Even after that effort, 44 Democrats voted against the legislation.
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Squatters Take Over, Large Number Of Foreclosures Contributes To Problem

Atlanta Journal Constitution
The neighbors in Parkview noticed a lot of people coming and going from a house on Eleanor Street in an unincorporated portion of DeKalb County. They assumed they were renters. They were squatters or by-the-room renters paying someone who did not own the house. As in Parkview, near I-20 east of downtown Atlanta, several parts of metro Atlanta are witnessing people moving into foreclosed and empty houses and taking over the properties. "It's not uncommon," said Ron McNew, an agent with Prudential Georgia Realty who specializes in foreclosed properties.
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Madoff Ordered to Forfeit $171 Billion

Associated Press
NEW YORK -- Bernard Madoff would be stripped of all his possessions under a $171 billion forfeiture order handed down only days before prosecutors seek to put the disgraced financier away in prison for the rest of his life. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin entered the preliminary order Friday, ruling that Madoff must give up his interests in all property, including real estate, investments, cars and boats.
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