113th Congress Stocking Stuffer Merry X-Mas

Bills, bills, bills kinda like ringing Christmas bells, what a festive way to end the year but the hour glass is not only running out of time but money to cover a spread.  You can see why the U.S. 113th Congress is so divided for when it comes time to pass one of these layered cake bills the slice has nothing to do with the cake.  Slick way to get crappy legislation passed and bring on even more drama that if not passed, will have to consider government shutdown.

First a look (from the horse's mouth) at how any of this hits the floor of U.S. government. 

Laws begin as ideas. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended. If the bill passes by a simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill. (end first a look)

That's our process and works well when an individuals oath to the Republic for which it stands is followed.  Outside of the this is the big picture, influence through large corporations teamed up by an Army of lobbyist.  

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) talks about provisions tucked into the 2015 federal spending bill that would roll back some of the regulations for big banks under the five-year-old Dodd-Frank law. The spending bill was passed by the House December 11 and cleared by the Senate on December 13.

Senator Elizabeth Warren



The Citi-drafted legislation will benefit five of the largest banks in the country—Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo. These financial institutions control more than 90 percent of the $700 trillion derivatives market. Most of the concern is associated with OTC derivatives and swaps, which can be used for avoidance of taxation, the outflanking prudential regulation of financial markets and the manipulation of accounting rules, credit ratings and financial reports. 

Fr financialpolicy.org (excellent article, short not even a page and to the point written in 2002) 

Another public interest concern involves transparency. Some derivatives are traded on formal futures and options exchanges which are closely regulated. Other derivatives are traded over-the-counter (OTC) in markets that are almost entirely unregulated. In these non-transparent markets, there is very little information provided by either the private market participants or collected by government regulators. Prices and other trading information in these markets, is not readily available as is the case with futures and options exchanges. Instead, that information is hoarded by each of the market participants. While standard theories of financial markets agree that more transparent markets are more efficient, it requires a public entity to require information be reported and disseminated to the market. (end financialpolicy.org) 

OK, timing is everything and when it comes time for some of these contracts to expire who will be left holding the bag?  One bag for sure is the price of oil ($55 today) and the natives of this over leverage derivative are scrambling.  In a Keiser Report on Dec 13 episode 692 @ 11:44 timestamp Max mentions that for every dollar tied to a barrel of oil, $60,000 in directives are tied to that same barrel and that's just London!  This piece of legislation is yet another warning shot across the bow and even with the backing of the FDIC on the backs of American taxpayers this still won't be enough money.

OCC’s Quarterly Report on Bank Trading and Derivatives Activities First Quarter 2014 (table 2 below is from the pdf on page 27) 

OTC Derivatives Data Sources (this is a huge market)

    

Fri Dec 13, 2013 with the 113th- Reactions for the Right Reason

What ya say that date was Duke?

Wow, that looks like a troubled date Fri Dec.13th, 2013, with the 113th Congress. Wonder if back in the day if someone thought about that date and what the newsreels would read? Like two stage coach divers laughing about that date thinking of the future while on the dusty trail, "Son, I wouldn't  want to be there."

Interesting day, reactions for the right reasons.

In Syria's contested northern city of Aleppo, soldiers and rebels took a break from fighting as a thick layer of snow blanketed deserted streets, cars and buildings and temperatures hovered around zero.  Jerusalem made the weather history books today, cold temperatures and heavy snow date back to 1954 and this day slowed the war, nature rules the day.  These warriors have something very much in common now, their cold.  Funny how we're the same, the war must not be too important if you stop just because of some weather.  

The European Parliament has put forward a new mechanism to deal with bank failures in which major depositors in collapsing banks are tapped first in an effort to support the lender.  Deposits below 100,000 euros ($137,700) will be exempt from any losses, and bigger deposits from individuals and small businesses will receive preferential treatment, a haircut just like Cyprus, wonder if there will be a run on the banks?  Ireland is readying itself to exit the IMF/EU bailout program on Sunday, making it the first country to do so.  It ends three years of relying on the financial ‘safety net’ of the European rescue program.  "Wonder if Ireland becomes a safe haven till this blows over, you know like Sweden."


This is the biggest penalty for a financial scandal in Iceland's history.  Four bosses of Iceland's failed Kaupthing Bank face prison terms (this is a first) of between three and five years and must pay millions of pounds in legal costs. They were convicted of fraud ahead of the collapse of the country's biggest bank in October 2008.  Yeah, Max, you got a handle on this?

Russia’s Central Bank (CBR) has revoked the licenses of three mid-sized banks on Friday, which brings the total to 30 lenders that have been closed down under the CBR crusade against dubious lenders since the start of the year.

The disgraced uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un - Jang Song-thaek - has been executed, the country’s state media reports. This comes after the second most powerful man in North Korea was dismissed for committing "criminal acts."

Official KCNA news agency said on Friday that Jang Song-thaek was guilty of “attempting to overthrow the state.” His death sentence by a military tribunal on December 12 was carried out immediately, it added.  (Wow, now that's some history)

Senior National Security Agency officials in the United States say they considered making a deal with former contractor Edward Snowden that would give amnesty to the leaker charged with espionage if he stops disclosing secret documents.

Following 3 years of negotiations, five US regulators have approved the Volcker rule, which seeks to protect American taxpayers from the losses of ‘too big to fail’ banks.  The rule was approved Tuesday by five financial institutions despite dissent from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Times reports.

Once again, the ACA dominated PolitiFact’s fact-checking efforts. This is the fourth time in the past five years that a quote related to the law has won Lie of the Year, and the website’s Reader’s Poll results were no exception. Fifty-nine percent agreed that Obama’s statement took the top prize, but the next three runner-ups were from the law's opponents.

Wow, that just happened, for the right reasons and this will sum up some other days.  

Happy Fri Dec. 13th of 2013, 113th Congress.

rightwiththeship

Dan Adams

To NASA from Russia with Love

Pirate Party of Russia

NASA was supposed to be marking its 55th birthday this week, but the US space agency gave furlough notices, not birthday invitations, to nearly all of its 18,000 employees, and began fretting about future missions as funding dried up with the US government shutdown. When a parent dies, when disaster strikes, that's when you know who truly cares. So in a time when its government is shut down, the American people need to know who its friends are. Thankfully, the Russians are yet again standing firm at America's side. Not wanting to see NASA's Web site languishing without the gravity of hosting, some fine Russians have stepped forward and offered their services.

To NASA, USA from Pirate Party of Russia
Dear Madame/Sir,

 "We do care about the situation around your website and the budget crisis in the USA. Thereby we would like to offer you bulletproof collocation or dedicated servers on our hosting platform until the end of the crisis. We stand for Internet privacy, and as the result, you would not have to worry about programs such as PRISM and other illegal activities of secret services of different countries. Your traffic, your activity and the activity of your users will be in safety.
We love Mars!"

Launch The 113th Congress!

You know something this is the worst Congress this county has ever had.  That would be the 113th Congress and high time for NASA and 'We The People" take back our SPACE and fire the 113th Congress.  We're mad as hell and the next possible launch I suggest load them up, both Democrats and Republicans and send them into deep space!

Happy 55th Birthday NASA!
and Thanks Russia, we fly the ISS together.
rightwiththeship

Common Man in 2013

Common man - a person who holds no title, a human being; "there was too much for one person to do".

A member of the middle class, a person of no influence the ordinary person, man in the street, Joe Blow a hypothetical average man - someone who is not a clergyman or a professional person, one of the common people.

A member of the working class (not necessarily employed) "workers of the world--unite!" - an unsophisticated country person.

It will always be this way in life, the planet is like an ant hill, some own it others manage it and the rest work it.  Now for the common man, work is 6 days a week if not 7, busting your butt to stay afloat while others (who take an oath) get away with the worst criminal activity imagined. You find yourself around friends talking of such matters, but after you depart from such conversations the fire of the conversation grows cold and hardly anything ever gets done to prevent such matters. Simply you do not have the tools to put in place to correct this mechanical failure, for it is mechanical, anything that is designed is to run.

Well, the truth of the matter is everything runs on money and with that in mind where do you spend your money?  I'm at your fire, and we're tired of ideas going cold that we feel will not work and we walk away because enough of us will not get involved.  Now that sucks because we're all here right now experiencing the same thing.  The Jack Wagons' leave a breadcrumb trail through the woods where ever they go, this is not hard to follow. The G.C.C.U. makes this easy for you so the idea does not grow cold, making any entity do a better job and if not, send them to tent city.  Your money counts and that ain't no kidding, just ask the ones who profit from it.  You can pull it like a plug, Bye, bye now!          

MB Productions