Is the Wall Street bubble about to burst again due to QEII?

First off, the stock market increase has hardly translated into much of anything for anyone outside of Wall Street. Bernanke's Quantitative Easing II has been a blessing for traders but not much else. They are the privileged class who must be propped up at all costs, after all. As for the enormous gains - nearly 100% from the bottom - some are questioning how much more it can grow before it tumbles. The only other times the market saw such rapid growth was in 1934 and 1937. Since we know the Great Depression didn't end at that time, you can guess that there were a few hard tumbles following the bubble gains.

So how would a market collapse impact most Americans since the upside has not translated? Think about how the employers reacted when the market dropped the last time. It will provide them with a new excuse to either hold steady with hiring or cut back, again. Who will be there for Wall Street in their next hour of need? Probably all of Washington. Technical analysis from Barry Ritholtz. Read the rest of this post...

Homeowner foreclosures on Wells Fargo office

You have to love it when the tables are turned and someone gives the banks a taste of their own tactics. Wells Fargo allegedly overcharged the homeowner for insurance on his house but they overvalued the property, triggering a much higher than expected annual premium. The homeowner fought back and thanks to the lack of response by the bank and some solid research, he has started proceedings against the bank to foreclose on one of their properties. According to the RESPA law, banks must respond to specific requests. Wells Fargo failed to respond.

Wells Fargo finally responded with two checks – $1,078 on Jan. 14 and $95 on Jan. 26 – but he said he still had not received a response to his letters.

So he turned to the Philadelphia sheriff's office to initiate a sale of the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage office in Philadelphia.

On Tuesday the court placed a temporary stay on the sale, and ordered a hearing on Feb. 23 to determine the final status.

Rodgers said he is now awaiting $50 from Wells Fargo for the cost of initiating that sale. He said the sheriff's sale can continue until then, barring an unfavorable judgment from the hearing, which he does not expect.

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House GOP adds tons of hate-pork to federal spending bill

As I predicted, the Republicans are calling the President's bluff and adding all sorts of what I call "hate pork" to the continuing resolution, the legislation needed to keep the government open through the rest of this fiscal year (aka until October 1).  They've already added amendments taking money away from Planned Parenthood, banning implementation of health care reform, and gutting the EPA's ability to regulate dangerous greenhouse gasses.

Note the chutzhpah.  New congress, they don't even wait before they pander to the far right that controls their party.  And note how none of these amendments has anything to do with creating jobs - the thing the Republicans were supposedly elected to do (so they claimed right before the election, now they're less interested in the whole job thing).

And what does this all mean?  It means that either the Senate needs take all of this extraneous garbage out of the spending bill, or the President will be forced to veto the bill and risk sending the government into a shutdown, all because the Republicans decided that their first month on the job had to pander to the Palin/Bachmann/Limbaugh wing of the party, rather than focus on the American people. Read the rest of this post...

Georgia Republican promotes plan for Uterus Police to investigate miscarriages

The American Taliban is at it, again.

It gets worse. Franklin wants to create a Uterus Police to investigate miscarriages, and requires that any time a miscarriage occurs, whether in a hospital or without medical assistance, it must be reported and a fetal death certificate issued. If the cause of death is unknown, it must be investigated. If the woman can't tell how it happened, than those Uterus Police can ask family members and friends how it happened. Hospitals are required to keep records of anyone who has a spontaneous abortion and report it. Yup, we've been waiting for someone to suggest this--and Franklin has.

Needless to say, there are no exceptions allowed. Not for rape victims. Not for incest victims. Not to save the life and health of the mother (the fetus must get equal care).

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Public employee union protests now also in Ohio

The protests in Wisconsin are spreading to Ohio, where the GOP is also trying to shut down unions. The Republicans are obsessed with making the middle class pay the price for the Wall Street economic crisis. It's sickening to watch the attacks against unions, as if that is the problem. Bloomberg:

In what union leaders say is becoming a national fight, protests against legislation to restrict public employees’ collective-bargaining rights spread from Wisconsin to Ohio.

In Madison, Wisconsin, crowds that police estimated at 25,000 engulfed the Capitol and its lawns yesterday during a third-straight day of protests as Democratic senators boycotted the legislative session. In Columbus, Ohio, about 3,800 state workers, teachers and other public employees came to the statehouse for a committee hearing.

Firefighters Dave Hefflinger and Jerry Greer stood near hundreds of workers elbow-to-elbow in the Ohio statehouse atrium and listened to the Senate hearing through speakers. Chants of “Kill the bill” echoed.

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CIA warned about 'Curveball' by German ministers

They lied early and they lied often. It's what they did on every subject, though especially the charge to war. Who really can believe anything that George Tenet has to say? Saddam Hussein's spokesman is more believable so it shouldn't be a surprise that the former German minister is calling out Tenet on "Curveball."

Reprinting an extract from his autobiography, Tenet claimed he only found out in 2005, two years after the Iraq invasion, that the BND had doubts about Curveball's claims to have witnessed first-hand Saddam Hussein's bio-weapons programme.

Asked by the Guardian whether Tenet's claims were plausible, Fischer said: "No. I don't think so."

Fischer said the BND realised some time before the war that Curveball was not a watertight source, and passed on his testimony to the CIA with warnings attached.

"Our position was always: [Curveball] might be right, but he might not be right. He could be a liar but he could be telling the truth," said Fischer at a press conference in Berlin to promote his memoir about the Iraq war.

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Report: Tuscon firefighter refused to respond to Gifford's attack because of politics

Thankfully, he quit before he could be fired but this is getting to be too much. It's as bad as the nutty pharmacists who refuse certain customers because of religious differences. What are these people thinking and why do they enter these professions? The initial report mentioned his political disagreements though he later changed that to "distracted" and unable to assist. Uh huh.

A city firefighter refused to respond to the Jan. 8 shooting spree that left six people dead and 13 wounded, the Arizona Daily Star reported, citing city memos.

The firefighter, Mark Ekstrum, quit the force two days later as management was considering possible disciplinary action against him, the Daily Star reported.

Fire Capt. Ben Williams wrote in a memo that when Ekstrum told him he would not go on the call, "he mentioned something about 'political bantering' and he did not want to be part of it," the newspaper reported.

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Palin joins Bachmann in war against breast feeding

Is this a competition to see who can bring on more crazy? Let's just call it a dead heat and admit they're both nuts. Is Sarah Palin honestly suggesting that cow's milk is better for babies than a mothers breast milk? That doesn't seem to match what any doctor has to say but she probably thinks doctors are socialist plots as well. CNN:

"No wonder Michelle Obama is telling people to breast feed their babies, because the price of milk is rising so high."

She then warned the dozens of reporters at her question and answer event, "That better not be the takeaway here."

Note from John: Huh?  Since when do mothers feed their newborns milk from the store?  I thought it was either breast milk or formula.  What does the price of milk from the grocery store have to do with breast feeding your child?

Of course, that would mean you'd accept mothering advice from a woman who went into labor halfway around the country, ignored it, slept the night, then gave a speech, and only THEN flew back on a ten hour (est.) flight to give birth back home to a special needs baby (when she shouldn't have been flying at all).  Oh yeah, and then left the baby behind while she decided to campaign for the vice presidency.  And that doesn't even get into the issues of Palin's first child being born 8 months after she was married, and her daughter having a kid out of wedlock.  It's simply not the kind of track record that usually makes you a family values guru on the right. Read the rest of this post...

GOP budget to defund Net Neutrality, Consumer Financial Protection and Wall Street pay czar

Want to take a guess whose side they're on? Yes, the Democrats are pretty lame on all of these issues but the GOP is now taking these weak positions to the extreme. It's yet another business feeding frenzy government. It's a government for business, by business. Consumers be damned.

Lawmakers also on Thursday defunded the Federal Communications Commission's efforts to enact new so-called "Net neutrality" rules, which give the agency regulatory power over Internet service providers.

Republican lawmakers also agreed to cut funding to eight "czars," or top presidential or federal agency advisers who aren't confirmed by the Senate, including the pay czar charged with watching executive compensation at TARP-funded banks. And they also blocked an effort to blunt some $50 million in cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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Did Wisconsin GOP gov. create crisis to reward friends and attack unions?

That's what it looks like to some. There was a budget surplus when he arrived yet suddenly, he's talking about a financial crisis. Somehow the massive deficit that he references is about the same amount of money as new contracts that he just rewarded to campaign supporters. Hmmmmm.

In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.

To the extent that there is an imbalance -- Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit -- it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes -- or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues -- the “crisis” would not exist.

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Bahrain capital locked down, Libya counts its dead

For the moment, the protests are over in Bahrain. The government actions yesterday moved the protesters out of their camp and they are now banning all activity.

Troops and tanks have locked down Manama, the Bahraini capital, and a ban has been announced on public gatherings as pro-reform supporters bury their dead, a day after a violent security crackdown.

Tanks and armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the streets of Manama on Friday, where checkpoints have been set up by the country's military.

Riot police using clubs and tear gas broke up a crowd of protesters in the city centre in a pre-dawn swoop on Thursday, killing at least four people.

Al Jazeera's correspondent, who cannot be named for security reasons, reported from Manama on Friday that thousands of people observed the funerals of three people killed in the police raid on the protesters' tent in the city's Pearl roundabout area.

In Libya, the protests were also violent. Al Jazeera reported rumors that the government released prisoners and paid them to attack protesters. Read the rest of this post...

Despite pledges to protect jobs by Tories, more job losses in UK

The Conservatives were quite open about removing hundreds of thousands of government jobs in the UK but they did assure people that for the health care system, they would protect the system. That now looks like another empty promise. Imagine how many jobs the US conservatives will eliminate beyond what they're already saying they will cut. This will have a chilling effect on the system as more losses are discovered. Having employment as high as possible and receiving tax income is much more important than any benefits received from chopping programs.

The Tories have been chomping at the bit to chop the NHS and now it looks as though that's what they are doing. What bad surprises are up next, because surely more cuts like this will emerge?

The government's repeated pledges to protect frontline NHS services have been dramatically undermined by the announcement that two hospitals are to axe almost 1,000 jobs, including hundreds of nursing posts.

St George's hospital in south London announced that it was shedding 500 personnel, including nurses and – unusually – consultants, its most senior doctors.

It is also closing three wards, with the loss of about 100 beds, and reducing the number of women allowed to give birth there from 4,200 to 3,000, as part of an attempt to save £55m in 2011-12.

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