Friday Movie Night - The End of Poverty

hot buttered popcorn It's Friday Night! Party Time! Time to relax, put your feet up on the couch, lay back, and watch some detailed videos on economic policy!

Paul Craig Roberts: IMF Says the Age of America is Over

paul craig roberts

Today the Swiss franc made yet another new high against the super dollar, as it has been doing for 120 days. What you are reading in the graphs is less and less of the foreign currency that one dollar can buy. Of course, gold and silver also consistently hit new highs. Swiss franc:

As did the Australian dollar:

Europe Probing Goldman Sachs on Sovereign Credit Default Swaps

YES! Bloomberg is reporting 16 banks, including Goldman Sachs are being probed by the EU for anti-trust for manipulation of the the financial derivative, credit default swaps, market.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 14 other investment banks face European Union antitrust probes into credit-default swaps for companies and sovereign debt.

The EU is investigating whether 16 banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Deutsche Bank AG, colluded by giving market information to Markit Group Ltd., a data provider majority-owned by Wall Street’s largest banks. It will also examine if nine of the firms struck unfair deals with Intercontinental Exchange Inc.’s European derivatives clearinghouse, shutting out rivals.

“Lack of transparency in markets can lead to abusive behavior and facilitate violations of competition rules,” Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said in an e-mailed statement. “I hope our investigation will contribute to a better functioning of financial markets.”

Global regulators have sought to toughen regulation of the $583 trillion credit-default swaps market, saying the trades helped fuel the financial crisis. The EU’s probes add to separate investigations in the U.K. and U.S. into whether banks colluded to manipulate the London interbank offered rate.

Credit default swaps allow anyone, not directly involved in the underlying asset, to place bets on whether that underlying security, asset will default or not. Credit default swaps are used for speculation. In the case of sovereign debt, that causes the cost of financing that debt to increase, dramatically.

The Bipartisan Citizen Beat Down and the End of Democracy

Michael Collins

Both political parties are manifestly hostile to citizens. This hostility reduces electoral participation to just over 50% of the voting age population for presidential elections and less than 40% for off-year congressional elections. The absence of 50% to 60% of those eligible to vote creates minority rule and threatens the legitimacy of any ruling party. Truly, every election ratifies the rejection of both parties.

Low Prices at High Costs: On Wal-Mart's Destruction of the American Economy

Initial weekly unemployment claims for April 23, 2011

Initial weekly unemployment claims increased to 429,000, a 25,000 increase in a week. Last week was revised up to 404,000. The 4 week moving average increased to 408,500. We're going backward, the wrong direction for job growth.

Q1 2011 GDP Advance Estimate - 1.8%

Q1 GDP 2011 came in at 1.8%.. Here is the original BEA GDP report.

Dear Ben, I Have a Question

Today is a historic day. The Federal Reserve gave their first press conference, ever. Below is the actual full press conference so you can watch for yourselves, in full.

Forgetting Foreign Oil: A Real Alternative for Energy Independence

Really now, how much more can we stand?

New Residential Home Sales - March 2011

In March, New Residential Single Family Home Sales increased 11.1% from February's -13.5% revised plunge, or 270,000 homes, with a March annual sale rate of 300,000 new homes. This is a -21.9% drop from a year ago. In March 2010, new home sales were 384,000.

April 2011