Obama Administration

Citizens in Syria's capital woke up early on Sunday to a series of powerful explosions shaking the outskirts of Damascus, sending massive fireballs into the night sky. Preliminary reports that this was an Israeli attack were subsequently confirmed by NBC citing a senior US official who said Israeli jets had bombed a military research center near of Damascus. This would be the second Israeli attack on Syrian territory in the past week, following US media reports that Israel targeted a weapons shipment to the militant group Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon overnight Thursday to Friday, although the Jewish state has refused to confirm or deny the bombing. As RT further reports, during the attack, one Israeli jet was reportedly shot down by Syria's Air Force, according to Hezbollah's Manar TV channel, citing security sources in Damascus. This has yet to be confirmed through official channels although if accurate one expects Syrian media to promptly confirm with video evidence.

But "We Can’t Afford to Irritate the Saudis" By Actually Looking Into Who Backed 9/11 ...  "Especially with Oil Prices Going Up Now"

It appears, once again, that the government's inept approach to spending 'other people's money' has blown up in their face. As HotAir.com reports, newly obtained documents show the Obama administration was warned as early as 2010 that electric car maker Fisker Automotive Inc. was not meeting milestones set up for a half-billion dollar government loan, nearly a year before U.S. officials froze the loan. Just as with Solyndra, Congress seemed convinced to spend billions of taxpayer money 'investing' in green-tech startups - only to lose everything. Simply put, in our humble opinion, the pattern is explained by the 'monopoly money' perspective we suspect these funds are viewed as in light of Bernanke's inexorable funding of the government's largesse. None other than the great Joe Biden reveled in the news in 2009 that Fisker would re-open a closed GM plant creating jobs, jobs, jobs; it never completed the task and never created one job. When the money isn't yours, 'investing' public funds is oh so easy and it appears, with zero consequence for the decision makers - again. But this story is not over yet, as Fisker heads to Congress looking for the right "financial and stretgic resources" once again.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev charged with conspiring to use weapon of mass destruction against persons and property in U.S. resulting in death

— U.S. Attorney MA (@DMAnews1) April 22, 2013

• Turn to Religion Split Bomb Suspects' Home (WSJ)
• The propaganda is back for the 4th year in a row: Spring Swoon Sequel No Reason for Economic Growth Scare in U.S. (BBG)
• Bernanke Jackson Hole Absence Contrasts With Greenspan Adulation (BBG)
• Large economies promise to boost growth (FT)
• Tata Faces Crisis as $20 Billion Spent on Water (BBG)
• U.S. Eyes Pushback On China Hacking (WSJ)
• Fed's Bernanke sees no U.S. inflation risks: Nowotny (Reuters)
• Austerity on Trial With U.S. Versus Europe Amid New Evidence (BBG)
• Eurozone anti-austerity camp on the rise (FT)
• Spain Aims to Soften Budget Cuts (WSJ)
• Japan's Aso Calls Recovery 'Few Years' Away (WSJ)
• BOJ Said to Consider Price Forecast Upgrade (WSJ)

Let's get down to the facts of the recent banker gold & silver paper price smash and the lies about the banker gold & silver paper price smash being propagated by the mass media and banking shills like Paul Krugman so everyone can understand why this smash will blow up in the face of the very bankers that executed it at some point down the road. Retail individuals AND global institutions all around the world are finally beginning to understand that physical ownership of gold and silver is how to counter banker fraud & intervention into the gold and silver markets and this realization is going to produce massive blowback.

Having been denied the ability to control guns by the democratically-controlled Senate last Wednesday in the biggest slap to the administration's face in a long time, Obama decided promptly to put as many guns as he possibly can in the hands of US soldiers and various non-Americans. First, it was the announcement that Obama would send more troops to Jordan to prepare for "stability operations" which is a euphemism for Syrian rebel support (much of it controlled by the otherwise dreaded Al Qaeda), and now we learn that Obama is set to announce the sale of $10 billion worth of weapons to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It appears that Obama, like a true expert of Sun Tzu, is well aware that the only way forward to a Nobel prize winning global peace, is under the barrel of a gun, or on the receiving end of a hot AGM-65 Maverick missile.

No, We Shouldn't Kill Everyone from a Particular Religion

Fresh from his humiliating defeat in the Senate to promote his pacifist gun-control agenda yesterday, in the name of the "90%" of course (who apparently need to pick their senatorial representative just a little more effectively), the Nobel Peace Prize winner has decided that guns just may be the right answer when it comes to promoting peace, or least his agenda abroad. WaPo reports that  the Obama administration has ordered additional U.S. troops to Jordan for possible chemical weapons control, humanitarian response or “stability operations” in Syria. "The new troops, a headquarters element of the 1st Armored Division based at Fort Bliss, Tex., will not greatly increase the number of U.S. forces in Jordan. About 150 troops were sent last year to help train Jordanian military and Syrian opposition forces. Some of those troops will remain, and the new arrivals will increase the total to more than 200."

Following a full court press by the Obama administration, and specifically gun tzar Joe Biden, to legislate "stronger" gun law in the last several months ever since the Sandy Hook massacre, the initiative may have just suffered a terminal defeat following a failure to even pass a bipartisan background check amendment in the democrat-controlled Senate. CBS reports that "In a major setback for gun control advocates, the Senate Wednesday voted down a key amendment to the embattled Democratic gun bill, signaling the increasingly dim prospects of any meaningful legislative action aimed at strengthening America's gun laws. The bipartisan Manchin-Toomey amendment, a background check expansion devised by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and a handful of other lawmakers, earned only 54 votes, falling six votes short of the 60-vote threshold. Vice President Joe Biden, who led the Obama administration's months-long lobbying effort on behalf of stronger gun laws, presided over the vote."

Ever since Moody's head economist Mark Zandi, together with Princeton's Alan Blinder, authored a paper in July 2010 titled "How We Ended The Great Recession" (which incidentally is wrong on two key counts: i) it is a great depression not recession, and ii) it has not ended) it became clear that the Keynesian sycophant would not rest until he somehow found a way to penetrate deep inside one or more of the darkest administrative orifices of the Obama regime. Surely, Zandi must have been heartbroken when it was not him but Jack Lew picked to replace Tim Geithner - a post the Keynesian had a desperate craving for. Yet his recent appointment to head up the ADP "payroll" joint venture, which was nothing more than a test of his propaganda skills, should have given us advance notice something was cooking. Further notice should have emerged when the US Department of Injustice launched its rating agency witch-hunt campaign only against S&P, not Moody's, where the abovementioned Zandi still officially works. Last night all of this finally fell into place, when the WSJ reported that Zandi has emerged as the leading candidate to head the FHFA - the regulator in charge of the two zombiest of zombie US institutions: the still insolvent Fannie and Freddie, in the process kicking out current FHFA head Ed DeMarco who recently emerged as Obama's persona non grata number 1 for his stern refusal to espouse socialist practices and wholesale debt forgiveness and principal reduction.

• Obama to report to his bosses today: Obama Meets With Blankfein, Dimon and Moynihan Today (BBG)
• 2007 is here all over again: Seeking Relief, Banks Shift Risk to Murkier Corners (NYT)
• Kuroda Calls BOJ Inflation Target 'Flexible' (WSJ)
• Lagarde warns over three-speed world (FT)
• N. Korea’s Retro Propaganda Calls U.S. Boiled Pumpkin (BBG)
• Luxembourg To Ease Bank Secrecy Rule, Share Data In 2015 (BBG)
• Bank of Korea Keeps Policy Steady (WSJ)
• BOE Stimulus Dilemma Persists as Inflation Seen Higher (BBG)
• EU Sounds Alarm on Spain (WSJ)
• Qatar gives Egypt $3bn aid package (FT)
• RBNZ Says Deposit Insurance May Increase Risk of Bank Failure (BBG)
• Plosser Calls for Reducing QE Pace Citing Gains in Labor Market (BBG)
• Obama budget aims to kick start deficit-reduction talks (Reuters)

“Mad Dog” Bluff Based on Fear of U.S.-South Korean War Games Turning Into Real Invasion

It's important to draw a line between two very different flavors of banker: "restrained" (Dr. Jekyll) and "unrestrained" (Mr. Hyde). The key feature of a sustainable, non-parasitic banking sector is that banks and bankers have "skin in the game," i.e. they personally suffer losses when their loans and bets go bad. This is the essence of moral hazard: the separation of risk from consequence. Put another way, those who are insulated from risk will have an insatiable appetite for risky bets because any gains will be theirs to keep but any losses will be covered by the central bank or government: this is known as "privatizing profits and socializing losses." The Federal Reserve, the Obama Administration, the housing agencies and the U.S. Treasury are all offering bankers and financiers high-payoff tables that require no skin in the game. No wonder our system is dominated by the unrestrained bankers, sociopathological Mr. Hydes who offer a few coins in compensation for running down the nation.

A sign of "economic and political turmoil"