DISSECTOR CRITIQUE OF FINANCIAL COVERAGE PUBLISHED ON EDITORANDPUBLISHER.COM
Scroll down to read about my media rant at the Bear Stearns Protest. It was shot by, but, natch, not aired on CNBC. You can see it on You Tube.

HAS “NORMALCY” RETURNED TO IRAQ?
THE UNSPOKEN QUESTION IS NOW OUT: DID DICK CHENEY TARGET ELIOT SPITZER?
OBAMA AND HILLARY LASH OUT AT MCCAIN AND ECONOMIC DECLINE
APPEALS COURT RULES: NO NEW TRIAL FOR MUMIA:
WILL HE BE SENTENCED TO DIE?

Has President Bush been reading The Onion or just imitating it?

As the Republicans prepare for what seems the certainty of defeat in November, with Iraq unraveling despite Presidential claims that “normalcy” is returning–maybe the normalcy of sectarian conflict is what he alludes to at another military rally where slogans substitute as a speech—the new Attorney General is on the rampage cracking down on corruption.

AP reports:

SAN FRANCISCO - Attorney General Michael Mukasey vowed anew Thursday to crack down on crooked politicians and public officials, dismissing critics who accuse the Justice Department of letting partisan loyalties interfere with corruption cases.

Mukasey’s comments came hours after prosecutors charged Puerto Rico’s Democratic-leaning governor in a campaign finance probe that began more than two years…

“It’s often in the interest of someone to charge politicization whenever a prominent public figure is investigated or prosecuted,” Mukasey said during a noontime speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “I find it notable that they make these accusations in the media, rather than before a court.”

Earlier, during an interview with The Associated Press, Mukasey said corruption has “a cost beyond dollars and cents — it undermines the whole idea of government.”.

But not every political persecution works…..

Siegelman To Be Released From Prison Pending Appeal

ATLANTA, Ga. — The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has granted former Gov. Don Siegelman’s request to be released from prison pending the outcome of his appeal.

Siegelman is currently serving a 7 year sentence in the Oakdale Federal Correctional Complex in Louisiana following his 2006 public corruption conviction.

Acting U.S. Attorney Louis Franklin confirms the 11th Circuit granted Siegelman’s release in a four page order which states Siegelman had raised a “significant question” about his conviction.

Siegelman was convicted of accepting $500,000 in campaign contributions from HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy in exchange for giving Scrushy a seat on a state hospital board.

Scrushy is serving a similar sentence at a federal prison in Texas…

Of course the current focus is not on corruption on Wall Street..that is something he says he is just now looking into.

OBAMA SPEAKS OUT ON ECONOMY IN NY

From NBC/NJ’s Aswini Anburajan
NEW YORK — Obama called for an overhaul of the nation’s regulatory system today, arguing that “what was bad for Main Street was bad for Wall Street,” and that a “loss of the sense of shared prosperity” had caused the current economic crisis.

“Pain trickled up,” Obama said of how the increased rate of home foreclosures among individual homeowners had caused a downturn in the market as a whole.
Providing a historical rationale for increased government oversight of financial markets, Obama argued that the American economy had prospered and sustained itself because government had “guided the market’s invisible hand with a higher principle.”

NY’s Mayor Bloomberg introduced him sparking speculation about his own political aspirations. How about a Barack/Mike combo?

NYT: “Both candidates seized on and elevated the economy as a major new sparring point today, reflecting the mounting concerns among Americans, not to mention Democratic primary voters, about employment, mortgage foreclosures, and rising oil, gas, and energy bills as the winter approaches. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, along with former Senator John Edwards, are bunched closely together in public opinion polls of likely Iowa caucus-goers, with each of the three searching for issues and a message to break ahead of the Democratic pack.

Mrs. Clinton has outlined her major economic proposals in past speeches, including ideas to create 5 million new jobs through energy research and aid Americans facing mortgage foreclosures. Her thrust today was that the American economy has been damaged with deficits, tax cuts for wealthy Americans, and other choices by the Bush administration, and that the nation needed an experienced fiscal steward in its next president.”

JIM HIGHTOWER: $600 CHECKS WON”T FIX THE ECONOMY

MORE ON THE FED’S ROLE IN THE CRISIS

WASHINGTON POST: In the past two weeks, the Federal Reserve, long the guardian of the nation’s banks, has redefined its role to also become protector and overseer of Wall Street.

Just spoke with Michael Hudson, the economist who advised Dennis Kucinich. He says that the Fed can’t reform the banks because THEY ARE THE BANKS. The Fed is set up as an extension of the banking industry. He says that it was JP MORGAN CHASE that was really bailed out because it was so entangled with Bear Stearns that if the Bear went down, they would follow. If true, this is another story mangled by the media.

David Sirota writes: — “The Federal Reserve Bank’s decision last week to address the housing crisis by extending $200 billion of taxpayer-financed credit to Wall Street banks was met with a stunned reaction typical of surprising events. But really, the move was the expression of longstanding isms that routinely package corruption as sound public policy.

Some background: During the housing boom, banks doled out home loans to financially strapped borrowers, often on predatory terms. On the creditor side, these same banks packaged many of the loans as complex securities and sold them off to unwitting investors, generating a handsome profit on the paper transactions. At the same time, Wall Street used campaign contributions to coerce Congress into blocking anti-predatory-lending bills and repealing a landmark law regulating how banks could buy and sell securities.

Predictably, many borrowers are now defaulting on their loans, meaning losses for financial institutions that hold mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. The Fed responded with what author Naomi Klein calls disaster capitalism - the age-old practice of using a crisis to enrich corporate interests. In this case, the Fed is using the housing emergency to justify giving taxpayer cash to Wall Street in exchange for its worthless mortgages.

”What the Fed really did was lend money to banks and accept the counterfeit currency as collateral, treating it just as though it were real money,” says Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

TOM DISPATCH NOW TACKLING THE ECONOMY TOO

Tom Engelhardt: The Little Administration That Couldn’t Rebuilding the American Economy, Bush-style

No one was prepared for the storm when it hit. The levees meant to protect us had long since been breached and key officials had already left town. The well-to-do were assured of rescue, but for everyone else trapped inside the Superdome in a fast-flooding region, there was no evacuation plan in sight. The Bush administration, of course, claimed that it was in control and the President was already assuring his key officials that they were doing a heck of a job.

No, I’m not talking about post-Katrina New Orleans. That was so then. I’m talking about the housing and credit crunches, as well as the Bear Stearns bailout, that have given the term “bear market” new meaning.

Now, don’t get me wrong — when it comes to the arcane science of economics, like most Americans, I’d benefit from an “Economics for Dummies” course. What I do know something about, though, is history, a subject that hasn’t been on the Bush administration’s course curriculum since the President turned out not to be Winston Churchill and conquered Iraq refused to morph into occupied Germany ‘n Japan 1945.

History may not repeat itself, but the administration’s repetitive acts these past seven years make an assessment of our economic situation possible, even if you are an economics dummy.

FROM THE CLICKBROKER BLOG

Treasury Secretary Paulson told us that the government should be reactionary rather than systemic in his speech before the US Chamber of Commerce (3/26/08). He makes it clear that the rate of house price appreciation was unsustainable and a correction was inevitable. The sooner we work through the price declines, the sooner we will reach stability. But, we want to do it in a way that minimizes the disruption to the rest of the economy. All this with no overall plan. Now that’s what I call “free market”.

OTHER FINANCIAL NEWS

Bloomberg: Deutsche Bank, Citigroup Lead Increase in Corporate Credit Risk

The increase in costs to protect bank debt and a widening in global benchmark credit indexes signaled investor optimism may have worn off

HOW CREDIT CRUNCH AFFECTS UK

Clear Channel buyers sue banks over $20 bln deal

ESCALATION:

WP: U.S. Steps Up Unilateral Strikes in Pakistan

The United States has escalated its unilateral strikes against al-Qaeda members and fighters operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas, partly because of anxieties that Pakistan’s new leaders will insist on scaling back military operations in that country, according to U.S. officials.

DEESCALATION

IRAN”S CHEMICAL WEAPONS DISAPPEAR

From ArmsControl wonk

In the Sec. 721 report covering the first half of 2003, released in November 2003, we see the beginnings of a process of declining certainty associated with descriptions of Iranian CW activity and capabilities. The report states that Iran “likely has already stockpiled blister, blood, choking, and probably nerve agents” retreating slightly from the previous bald assertion that Iran “has” a CW stockpile. [17] A further reduction is seen in the Sec. 721 report for the second half of 2003, released in November 2004. This report confines itself to stating that “Iran may have already stockpiled blister, blood, choking, and possibly nerve agents.” [18]

Finally, in the most recent Sec. 721 report, publicly released in May 2006, but covering activities in 2004, all reference to stockpiles and delivery systems was removed. All that remained was the statement that Iran “continued to seek production technology, training, and expertise from foreign entities that could further Tehran’s efforts to achieve an indigenous capability to produce nerve agents.” [19] Although Sec. 721 reports are supposed to be released annually, the DNI has not publicly released an update since May 2006, and it is therefore not possible to determine whether or not DNI has maintained or modified its 2004 position. The changes in the CIA’s public reports alone are insufficient to reach a conclusion about the wider U.S. intelligence community’s contemporary assessment of Iran’s CW program or its capabilities. Fortunately, although there have been no further releases from the CIA, we do have access to the assessments of at least two other U.S. government agencies for the period 2004 to 2007.

GUARDIAN: CHINA IMPOSES NEW DEMAND ON DALAI LAMA

China requires the Dalai Lama to stop sabotaging the Olympics as a condition for talks, Chinese President Hu Jintao told his United States counterpart, George Bush, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Hu’s demand appeared to mark a new addition to a list of actions the exiled Tibetan leader must undertake before China is willing to talk with him.

[Praying for a Free Tibet by davidreid via Flickr] Tibetan monks disrupted an official news briefing at a temple in Lhasa on Thursday, shouting that Chinese authorities were lying about unrest in the Himalayan region, foreign reporters said. The incident was an embarrassment to the Chinese government which brought a select group of foreign reporters to Lhasa for a stage-managed tour of the city, where authorities say stability has been restored since violence on March 14. The government has also been saying security forces acted with restraint, in the face of international controversy over the Tibetan unrest and China’s response ahead of the Olympics in August. The group of young monks at the Jokhang Temple, one of the most sacred in Tibet and a top tourist stop in central Lhasa, stormed into a briefing by a temple administrator. Hong Kong’s TVB aired television footage of the bold outburst in front of the first foreign journalists allowed into Tibet since the violence, showing the monks in crimson robes, some weeping, crowded around cameras. Wang Che-nan, a cameraman for Taiwan’s ETTV, said the incident lasted about 15 minutes, after which unarmed police took the monks elsewhere in the temple, away from the journalists. Police and government officials in charge of the media delegation did not confiscate notes or film from reporters but told them to move on. (Reuters)

OPPS–HAD A BAD LINK ON COUNTERPUNCH MONEY LAUNDERING STORY

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