JPMorgan’s Alabama Debacle Set to Cost Bank $1.6 Billion

J.P. Morgan might lose $1.6 billion to cover up a derivatives’ scandal? What about the remaining $1.2 quadrillion in derivatives that are still being covered-up?

David DeGerolamo

Jefferson County, Alabama

JPMorgan Chase & Co. may see as much as $1.6 billion go down an Alabama sewer.

The biggest U.S. bank by assets agreed to forgive $842 million of debt owed to it by Jefferson County, Alabama, where it took the lead in arranging risky securities deals that pushed the county into the largest U.S. municipal bankruptcy, in November 2011.

That agreement follows a $722 million settlement in 2009 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to the Jefferson County financing. JPMorgan’s total costs amount to a quarter of the $6.2 billion trading loss in 2012 from corporate-credit bets by a trader known as the London Whale.

Elizabeth C. Seymour, a bank spokeswoman, had no comment on the accord announced yesterday. If accepted by the court, it would cap almost a decade-long disaster in Alabama’s largest county, where JPMorgan initially reaped substantial fees arranging interest-rate swaps that subsequently proved tainted by municipal corruption and devastating to taxpayers during the 2008 credit crisis.

“Everybody thought there was a free lunch and they could all take advantage of it at the same time,” said Christopher Taylor, the former executive director of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. “It burned them all.”

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Nashville Father of 22 Children by 14 Women Gives Amazing Interview

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHa-SLfclMg

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Turkey On Verge of Military Coup?

With protests now running for over a week, and gaining momentum, there are growing concerns in international circles about the stability of the Turkish government.  Last fall I wrote an article which warned of the risks a full Islamic takeover would bring, and the growing likelihood of such an event occurring.

At that time, some 360 high-ranking Turkish military officials had been tried for TREASON by the administration of PM Erdogan, and 330 of those were convicted.  This constitutes a massive purge of the Turkish military leadership.  Amazingly, none of those convicted were sentenced to death (although information regarding their welfare since the convictions were announced is not available).  But the fact remains that the autonomy of the Turkish military has been decimated by an administration with a growing appetite for power, and a clearly demonstrated preference for Islamic sharia law over western civil administration.

turkey-union-protesters-060513

Unions join Turkish protests at Taksim Park, as streets of Istanbul fill with flags and marchers against the Erdogan regime.

With this anti-coup last year came a massive shift in the political power structures of the Turkish government.  Turkey’s military has always represented the non-religious power base of the Turkish people, having previously removed  three civil governments (1971, 1980, and 1997) which had become theocratic and oppressive.

Having remove his ‘enemies’ last fall and sentenced much of the top-tier military leadership to 15+ year jail sentences, Prime Minister Ergodan’s confidence that he possesses absolute control of the country has grown rapidly.  The consequences of this purge of the Turkish military are now becoming plainly visible –

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Tea Party Witness on IRS: Not Govt’s Responsibility to ‘Monitor My Speech’

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Hourly Compensation Crashes Most Ever, Labor Costs Drops By Most In 4 Years, Manufacturing Compensation Plummets By 7%

So much for the thesis of declining labor slack and rising labor leverage. Moments ago the BLS reported its Q1 labor costs which poured cold water over all recent hypotheses that the US worker’s plight is improving. It isn’t: productivity increased by 0.5% in Q1 in ling with expectations of 0.6% (on what is not exactly clear – everyone on their iPhones?) but it was labor costs which plunged -4.3% on expectations of a +0.5% increase driven by a 3.8% collapse in hourly compensation that was the stunner. This was the biggest labor cost drop in four years and the biggest collapse in hourly compensation in wellever and confirms our observations from the last NFP report that quantity gains in jobs continue to be offset by quality declines in actual worker pay. As a reminder we were scratching our heads following the soaring Q4 labor cost and declining productivity data which made no sense in the general context of deteriorating labor conditions. Following this print, it all falls back into place and confirms the Q4 data was nothing but an outlier. Also,this may be the end of the core thesis behind David Rosenberg’s recently developed reflationary argument.

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ADP Misses Expectations, Second Worst Print In Last 8 Months; Sequester Blamed

By now it is futile to point out the woeful inability of the ADP report to predict the NFP’s ARIMA X 12 output of pure noise so we’ll leave it at that. Here is the headline: May private payrolls created 135K with consensus looking for 165K – only two analysts were looking for a weaker number. This was the second lowest print since September excluding only the April 113K print. What’s worse is that the prior number which usually is revised to match the NFP was revised lower from 119K to 113K, confirming that the quality of NFP reporting in the past month is suspect to quite suspect. Don’t expect the imminent arrival of a manufacturing renaissance: mfg jobs were down 6,000. But fear not – Mark Zandi blames it on the sequester: “Manufacturers are reducing payrolls. The softer job market this spring is largely due to significant fiscal drag from tax increases and government spending cuts.” At least it wasn’t the May weather or tornadoes…

The report breakdown:

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Now We Know Why Obama Did Not Act in Benghazi

See additional comments on Tea Party Nation.

The revelation concerning the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens by lethal injection will become the catalyst for the future of our country. The source of this information is Bill Gertz: his reputation and sources are credible.

Amb. Stevens was overseeing the transfer of weapons to Syria through Turkey which the media and Congress are still ignoring. The scheme to “kidnap” him and then exchange him for the blind sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman could only have come from Obama. This plan was hidden in plain site. From the Wall Street Journal on September 24th, 2012:

Will Obama Free the Blind Sheik?

Are senior Obama administration officials considering transferring to Egypt a poisonously influential Islamist cleric serving a life term in federal prison for trying to unleash a war of urban terrorism in the United States? That’s the impression several officials have given over the past three months, apparently out of fear that if the cleric dies in U.S. custody, American outposts in the Middle East could be overrun by vengeful mobs.

This shows the level of arrogance of this administration. A plan to hand over the mastermind of the 911 attacks to the new Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt would have been quite a coup for Obama’s standing in the Muslim world. We would get back Amb. Stevens and the media would extol the president’s actions for being able to make the hard choices.

So the military was ordered to stand down as our military “leaders” impotently watched the attack in real time. But Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were not aware of the “plan”. And the efforts of these former Navy Seals changed the outcome of the attack and sealed the fate of the ambassador, Sean Smith and their own.

Where does that leave the president now? The IRS scandal smokescreen will not provide cover for this egregious act of treason. There will be no support for Obama from Congress but the military is culpable. They may have been under orders to stand down but their actions have left them complicit. Obama should be not be concerned about “We the People”, he should be concerned about retribution from the military to regain their honor.

David DeGerolamo

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Locks cut to Boston water supply aqueduct, ‘drinking water does not appear to have been tampered with’

Every water droplet may translate in money as Maryland is instituting a "rain tax" photo D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA

The padlocks to hatches of an aqueduct outside of Boston that supplies drinking water to the metropolitan area were found cut Monday, leading to local concerns after there was a trespassing incident.
Officials say the drinking water does not appear to have been tampered with.
Water has not been altered says Boston authorities after finding several locks to the aqueducts cut open photo D. Sharon Pruitt from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, USA.
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The United States of America Is A Republic

h/t Matt Bracken

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Possible Poisoning- Al Qaeda weapons expert says U.S. ambassador to Libya killed by lethal injection

by Bill Gertz

Benghazi consulate / AP

An al Qaeda terrorist stated in a recent online posting that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens was killed by lethal injection after plans to kidnap him during the Sept. 11, 2012 terror attack in Benghazi went bad.

The veracity of the claim made by Abdallah Dhu-al-Bajadin, who was identified by U.S. officials as a known weapons experts for al Qaeda, could not be determined. However, U.S. officials have not dismissed the terrorist’s assertion.

An FBI spokeswoman indicated the bureau was aware of the claim but declined to comment because of the bureau’s ongoing investigation into the Benghazi attack.

“While there is a great deal of information in the media and on the Internet about the attack in Benghazi, the FBI is not in a position at this time to comment on anything specific with regard to the investigation,” Kathy Wright, the FBI spokeswoman, said.

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Global Risk Off: Nikkei Plunges 700 Points From Intraday Highs, Whisper Away From 20% Bear Market Correction

That deep red premarket color on your terminal means it must be a non-Tuesday. Just kidding.

Anyone expecting Abe to announce definitive, material growth reform instead of vague promises to slay a “deflation monster” last night was sorely disappointed. The country’s PM, who may once again be reaching for the Immodium more and more frequently, said the government aims for 3% average growth over the next decade and 2% real growth, raising per capita income by JPY 1.5 million. The market laughed outright in the face of this IMF-type silly vagueness (as well as the amusing assumption that Abe will be still around in 7 years), which left untouched the most critical aspect of Abenomics: energy, and nuclear energy to be specific, and sent the USDJPY plummeting well below the 100 support line, printing 99.55 at last check. But more importantly, after surging briefly at the opening of the second half of trading to mask a feeble attempt at telegraphing the “all is well”, it rolled over with a savage ferocity plunging 700 points from an intraday high of 13,711 to just above 13,000 at the lows: yet another 5% intraday swing in a market which is now flatly laughing at the BOJ’s “price stability” mandate. Tonight’s drop has extended the plunge from May 23 to 18.4% meaning just 1.6% lower and Japan officially enters a bear market.

Europe, clearly secondary to yet another night of Japanese fireworks, reported a second estimate of GDP at -0.2%, same as the previous and same as expected: sorry folks, the recession is going on, despite Rajoy’s obvious attempts to put the upward thumb on Spanish economic data, with Spain’s Service PMI coming at a laughable 47.3 from 44.4 previously, the highest in 23 months. Other Service PMI readings were largely weaker than expected (Germany 49.7, Exo. 49.8, Italy 46.5, Exp. 47.5, France 44.3, Exp. 44.3), leading to the broader Eurozone Service PMI number printing at 47.2 vs Exp. 47.5. Most importantly, and proving there is no recovery on the European horizon as long as the lending machinery remains clogged up was Eurozone retail sales, which plunge from a -0.2% change in March to -0.5% in April. However, none of the above will matter once the Japanese carry trade dynamics change as Abenomics begins to be faded much more aggressively in the coming weeks, resulting in a first slow then fast blow out in peripheral yields. Then the real “post-fauxterity” fun begins.

Summarizing the news in bulletin format via Bloomberg:

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Chokwe Lumumba Elected New Mayor Of Jackson, Miss.

Chokwe Lumumba

Chokwe Lumumba

Former Ward 2 Councilman and Chokwe Lumumba, 65, is the new mayor of Jackson, Miss., winning the general election with 87 percent of the vote, reports Fight Back! News.

As previously reported by NewsOne, Lumumba served four years on the Jackson City Council before running for mayor. He spent part of the ’70s and ’80s as vice-president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for “an independent predominantly black government” in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery.

“The provisional government of Republic of New Afrika was always a group that believed in human rights for human beings,” Lumumba told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I think it has been miscast in many ways. It has never been any kind of racist group or ‘hate white’ group in any way…. It was a group which was fighting for human rights for black people in this country and at the same time supporting the human rights around the globe.”

As an attorney, Lumumba has represented legendary activist, poet, actor and Hip-Hop artist Tupac Shakur in several cases, and his godmother, Assata Shakur, whom Lumumba calls a “Black Panther heroine.”

Assata, formerly Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.

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h/t John P

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The Failure of the Libertarian Movement

By Paul Rosenberg, FreemansPerspective.com

Turn on a television after midnight some time and watch the churches that offer prayer for the sick, the depressed, and the overwhelmed. At first you’ll probably be put off by it and angered by hucksters who are selling things that they can’t possibly deliver. But if you stay with it for a few minutes, you may see something important.

Look at the people in the pews. Don’t just classify them as a group of stupid people – look at them – see the individuals. These are people who know they need help. They know that they are in pain, that they have failed to become what they should be, that they have hurt others, that they are lost in the middle of a confusing world, and that they don’t know a way out.

These people are not morons. They know that dipping slips of paper with their names on them into holy oil is silly. But they overlook the stupidity, because they’re desperate for help. And don’t kid yourself, they do get some temporary help from these places. Yes, they are also removed from their money, but if they go to that church, they will be surrounded by people who will try to help them. Humans are clever creatures, and when they try to help each other, they often succeed. (This help will come from the other attendees, not the guy with the holy oil.)

You can complain all you like about the huckster, but he’s only in business because people have nowhere better to turn. They’re sitting in front of the TV at 1 AM because they are depressed, guilty, desperate, and they need something.

SO…?

So, what if there was a group of people who had the answers to these problems, who knew how to eliminate the pressures that caused them? And what if those people didn’t have the sense to recognize it and spread it? How would you describe them?

Well, take a look in the mirror, Mr. and Ms. Libertarian, because that’s you.

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Large US Marine force lands in Aqaba to deploy on Jordanian-Syrian border

US Marines landing in Aqaba

US Marines landing in Aqaba

A large American military force disembarked Tuesday, June 4, at the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba – ready for deployment on the kingdom’s Syrian border, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military sources report. The force made its way north along the Aqaba-Jerash-Ajilon mountain road bisecting Jordan from south to north, under heavy Jordanian military escort.

Our sources disclose that this American force numbers 1,000 troops, the largest to land in Jordan since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2012. They are members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Force carried aboard the USS Kearsage amphibious assault ship, which has been anchored off neighboring Israeli Eilat since mid-May. Upon landing, the marines took to the road in a convoy of armored vehicles including Hummers.

Washington and Amman have imposed a blackout on their arrival. The Pentagon has only let it be known that the annual joint US-Jordanian “Eager Lion 2013” military exercise is due to begin later in June and last two months, with the participation of US F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missile defense systems.

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France says tests prove Syria used nerve gas; U.S. sends Patriots to Jordan

France said on Tuesday it had performed tests that proved President Bashar al-Assad’s forces had used nerve gas in Syria’s civil war, a “red line” that the United States and other countries have repeatedly said would demand a response.

Washington separately said it would deploy Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets to Syria’s neighbor Jordan for a military exercise and perhaps longer. Russia, Assad’s main international backer, criticized the move and accused the West of inflaming the conflict by sending arms to the war zone.

French officials said their tests were the first that complied with international standards and proved that chemical weapons were used in Syria.

Washington, which has said for months it believes Assad’s forces probably used chemical weapons, said it still needed to study the evidence. “We need more information” about claims of such use, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

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