ABCNEWS/

Confronting an economic crisis that threatens them all, President Barack Obama and leaders of other world powers on Saturday declared that their governments must both spark growth and cut the debt that has crippled the European continent and put investors worldwide on edge.

“There’s now an emerging consensus that more must be done to promote growth and job creation right now,” Obama proclaimed after hosting unprecedented economic talks at Camp David, his secluded and highly secure mountaintop retreat. Seeking a second term amid hard economic times, Obama hailed a debate heading in the direction he likes, with nations now talking of ways to spark their economies instead of just slashing spending.

Yet there were no bold prescriptions at hand. Instead, leaders seemed intent on trying to inspire confidence by agreeing on a broad strategy no matter their differences. With all of them facing their own difficult political realities, they built some sovereign wiggle room into their pledge to take all necessary steps, saying

“the right measures are not the same for each of us.”

<a href="http://www.cn

bc.com/id/47474909″ target=”_blank”>CNBC/

It is increasingly conceivable that Greece may leave the euro zone, not just because of its own political dysfunction but also because the consequences of such an exit for the

rest of the Europe and the global economy no longer seem quite so scary.

The foot-dragging and brinkmanship of the last few years have won the other members of the currency union valuable time to prepare for life without Greece. Banks [.SX7P 121.87 --- UNCH ] have recorded losses on Greek investments, companies are making contingency plans and Europe has bolstered rescue funds for other vulnerable nations likePortugal, Ireland and Spain .

Those measures also have reduced the risks for the United States, making it less likely that a ‘Lehman moment’ will spread panic through global financial markets. American investment funds and banks [.DJBNK 183.28 -1.98 (-1.07%) ] have also sharply reduced their investments in Europe.

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TROLL BLOG/

Liberals and centrists need to figure out* that a significant conservative block WANTS pain and WANTS inequality and thinks that they are intrinsically good, godly, natural things and that without them the world is a worse place.

And that they are willing to harm the economy and even reduce their own absolute wealth in order to get the pain and inequality they want. (Though they plan to increase their relative wealth). After 1900 some Southern leaders knew that the steps they were taking to protect white supremacy came at the cost of continued underdevelopment, and they supported white supremacy anyway.

Beyond that, liberals and moderates need to know that some conservatives are long shot gamblers, not utility maximizers, and that they are willing to take big, rationally unjustifiable chances. Dick Cheney is a recent example. The Hunt Brothers trying to corner the precious metals market is a historic example.

*Figure of speech here. They won’t figure it out.

Link

Mauryk2.com

Ron Paul, by his own admission, has been heavily influenced by the late Ayn Rand. But, as we shall see, he appropriated her worst idea, the Gold Standard. But first, let’s take another peak at Miss Rand.

To get at her essence, we have to see the origins of her famous nom de plume Ayn Rand. She was born Alissa Rosenbaum in 1905. She adopted her new name when she arrived in the USA in the 1920s. Biographers, including two recent ones, have been consistently wrong as to where the ‘ayn’ and the ‘rand’ come from. ‘Ayn’ was not appropriated from a Finnish writer nor did ‘Rand’ come from the Remington Rand typewriter. Rather, Jeff Walker makes a convincing case in his 1999 book, THE AYN RAND CULT, that ‘Ayn’ was a common Jewish term of affection while ‘Rand’ was from the a

ssociation with South Africa gold which was mined by the Oppenheimers and the like.

Furthermore, Walker writes this:

“The word ‘gold’ and the imagery of gold saturate ATLAS SHRUGGED, and the gold standard plays a prominent role in her ideology. Even ‘Galt’ is ‘gold,’ pronounced with a Yiddish inflection.”

Rand also heavily promoted the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, whose one trick pony was the Gold Standard. Von Mises, of course, was sponsored by the Rothschilds and the Warburgs. These folks aren’t in the game for love.

Ron Paul, in turn, inherited this von Mises obsession. In fact, Ron Paul’s REAL campaign amounts to one long gold commercial, all the rest being crap. And you thought the drug-addled Glenn Beck was the only one whoring for gold?

To start with, the Gold Standard would be an impossibility. There is simply not enough gold in the entire world to monetize it in such a way as to meet the needs of the modern economy. Moreover, private bankers, who we need not name, have cornered the greater chunk of the gold available in the world.

Gaming with gold is a loaded proposition.

Boy, do I feel like an idiot. I've been out there on radio and TV in the last few months saying that I thought there was a chance Barack Obama was listening to the popular anger against Wall Street that drove the Occupy movement, that decisions like putting a for-real law enforcement guy like New York AG Eric Schneiderman in charge of a mortgage fraud task force meant he was at least willing to pay lip service to public outrage against the banks.

Then the JOBS Act happened.

The “Jumpstart Our Business Startu

ps Act” (in addition to everything else, the Act has an annoying, redundant title) will very nearly legalize fraud in the stock market.

In fact, one could say this law is not just a sweeping piece of deregulation that will have an increase in securities fraud as an accidental, ancillary consequence. No, this law actually appears to have been specifically written to encourage fraud in the stock markets.

Ostensibly, the law makes it easier for startup companies (particularly tech companies, whose lobbyists were a driving force behind its passage) to attract capital by, among other things, exempting them from independent accounting requirements for up to five years after they first begin selling shares in the stock market.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A major donor to President Barack Obama has been accused of defrauding a businessman and impersonating a bank official, creating new headaches for Obama’s re-election campaign as it deals with the questionable history of another top supporter.

The New York donor, Abake Assongba, and her husband contributed more than $50,000 to Obama’s re-election effort this year, federal records show. But Assongba is also fending off a civil court case in Florida, where she’s accused of thieving more than $650,000 to help build a multimillion-dollar home in the state — a charge her husband denies.

Obama is the only presidential contender this year who released his list of “bundlers,” the financiers who raise campaign money by soliciting high-dollar contributions from friends and associates. But that disclosure has not come without snags; his campaign returned $200,000 last month to Carlos and Alberto Cardona, the brothers of a Mexican fugitive wanted on federal drug charges. READ

Finally after five months of investigations comes the Jon Corzine MF Global bombshell Friday [Bloomberg: Corzine Ordered Funds Moved to JP Morgan].  The Bloomberg article references an e-mail written by Edith O’Brien,  the assistant Treasurer at MF Global and a memo written by congressional staffers. A few aspects are of note:  first that Corzine “gave direct instructions” to transfer $200 million in segregated consumer funds to JP Morgan for payment on an overdraft and used a lower level functionary O’Brien to carry it out.   Then in a clear violation of fiduciary responsibility JP  Morgan’s risk officer asked MF Global for a letter stating these funds were not customer segregated accounts, but then took the money anyway. The chief counsel for MF Global nixed the letter JPM sent over as “too strong”.

O”Brien is to testify before Congress on Wednesday, but will plead the Fifth. This suggests she has not been offered a deal, or immunity.

READ MORE HERE

Jon S. Corzine, MF Global Holding Ltd. (MFGLQ)’s chief executive officer, gave “direct instructions” to transfer $200 million from a customer fund account to meet an overdraft in a brokerage account with JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), according to a memo written by congressional investigators.

Edith O’Brien, a treasurer for the firm, said in an e-mail quoted in the memo that the transfer was “Per JC’s direct instructions,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Bloomberg News yesterday. The e-mail, dated Oct. 28, was sent three days before the company collapsed, the memo says. The memo does not indicate whether that phrase was the full text of the e-mail or an excerpt.

The account could have contained both client and company funds, the memo notes. Whether the transferred funds were those of the company, its clients or both is not known.

Comex gold futures prices closed the U.S. day session moderately lower but up from the daily low Thursday. Gold and silver prices early on hit a fresh nine-week low and fresh near-term chart damage was inflicted. Some fresh, weak economic data from China and the European Union had the market place in a “risk off” mode Thursday, which was bearish for the precious metals. The key “outside markets” were also bearish for gold and silver Thursday, as the U.S. dollar index was slightly higher and crude oil prices were solidly lower. April gold last traded down $9.00 at $1,641.30 an ounce. Spot gold was last quoted down $8.50 an ounce at $1,642.00.  May Comex silver last traded down $.852 at $31.375 an ounce.

Traders took on a more risk-averse posture Thursday in the wake of fresh, weak manufacturing news coming out of China, which was followed by a weak economic report coming from the European Union Thursday. There has been a string of weaker data coming out of commodity-consuming juggernaut China, and that had the commodity market bulls worried Thursday. The weak economic data from the EU raised fears that bloc could slip into recession. Thus, the world stock and commodity markets, including gold and silver, saw selling pressure Thursday. Once again, gold market bulls were frustrated their safe-haven asset acted more like a risk asset Thursday.

The London P.M. gold fixing was $1,635.00 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,649.25.

Bankers, targeted by critics for their hand in the financial crisis, are being urged to stage events in Australia’s capitals to draw attention to the good they have done the world.

Clifford Bennett, the Sydney-based White Crane group economist best known for correctly predicting the Australian dollar would far surpass parity with the greenback, has organised the first event in Sydney next week, part of a trend he hopes will catch on nationally in order to improve the image of bankers in the eyes of a wary public.

“The Occupy Sydney movement has gained a lot of attention in the media, and yet what they seem to be against, globalisation in general, and bankers in particular, have actually been two very powerful ingredients involved in the lifting of millions people around the world out of poverty,” said Mr Bennett.