Steven Hayward: The Labor of LIBOR
With the exception of the specialty financial press and one or two general assignment journalists, the media are not making much of the LIBOR scandal. Much easier, and more congruent with The Narrative, I suppose, for the media to continue to chase after the bane of Bain. I mentioned here last week that the real story about LIBOR may well be the massive conflict of interest and collusion between the U.S. Treasury, the Fed, and the big banks to help prop up our massive and ever growing debt.
There’s a huge misdirection taking place. The Obamanauts gave us as their solution to the financial crisis the Dodd-Frank bill, which was supposed to cure “too big to fail.” And what’s one of the first things they do out of the box? Hate on banks for overdraft fees. Yeah—that’s really going to help alleviate financial vulnerability of the system.
So kudos for Charles Gasparino of the NY Post for noting the essence of the story a couple days ago:
But the dirty little secret on Wall Street is that the New York Fed is a horrible regulator: It sees its chief job as keeping the banking system intact. Since it needs its member banks to buy US government debt and to control the money supply, the last thing it wants to do is shed light on the banks’ shady practices.
Which is why the Wall Street power brokers loved Geithner so much: On his New York Fed watch, he basically let them get away with the financial equivalent of murder, letting them take on the astronomical amounts of risk that ultimately blew up the system in 2008.
As Glenn Reynolds likes to say, the country’s in the very best of hands.
FP: The corporate welfare state at its very best. I’ve posted on Matt Taibbi coverage of this story. The fact is that banks have been put in a position where they hold the government and the country by the balls. Because their fall bringd down the system, they are getting away with robbing the country blind.
Via Martin Kramer
FP: And this an Arab educated man. Any wonder they are such utter failures?
Scott Johnson: Annals of government medicine
The Daily Mail delivers the news of another inspirational example of government medicine in England, much of it packed into the headline: “Elderly patients are being ‘deprived of food and drink so they die quicker and free up bed space’, claim doctors.”
The practice in issue goes under the delicate name of a “care pathway.” Like the stairway in the Led Zeppelin song, it’s a pathway to heaven. The Daily Mail explains:
Thousands of terminally ill people are placed on a “care pathway” every year to hasten the ends of their lives.
But in a letter to the Daily Telegraph, six doctors who specialise in elderly care said hospitals across the UK could be using the controversial practice to ease the pressure on resources.
As you might guess, the doctors seem to know what they’re talking about.
FP: But you have to admit it is quite effective in cutting costs.
JoshuaPundit: Mitt Romney's New Ad: 'Obama Lied'
Speaking of outsourcing, anybody mention the jobs in coal or in oil production that have been lost under this administration - while our president gave $2 billion dollars of our tax money to Brazil to be used to develop their oil infrastructure and production, thus directly shipping American jobs overseas? Remember this one?
Oh, and the Brazilian oil we helped them develop? China got it. Well done, Mr. President!
FP: The Chinese probably have Obama’s number by now.
The public is smarter than its reporters
The myth currently being shoved down our throats is that Ehud Olmert was the best head of state since King Solomon.
FP: What did I tell you about the opportunistic shift of Olmert from right to left? The legal system and the media are on the left.
Hamas says Egypt's Mursi will defy Israel, end Gaza blockade
Leader of Gaza-based terror group Ismail Haniyeh says he is confident Egypt's new president will shield Palestinians from Israeli attack, fully open its borders to end trade blockade.
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Caroline Gick: Obama's spectacular failure
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