Sheila Bair: 'I Can't Believe Bernake, Geithner & Paulson Bailed Out Bear Stearns' (LINKS)

BREAKING - Eight banks fail Europe’s stress tests; 16 more almost fail

Noose is Tightening - S&P Threatens U.S. AAA Downgrade Within 90 Days

DON'T RAISE THE CEILING - Why the U.S. could benefit from a strategic debt default

IMF Issues Warning On EURO Banks

Euro plunges deeper into crisis as Greece's credit rating slashed to 'junk'

Return of the Gold Standard as world order unravels - Ambrose Evans Pritchard

Sheila Bair: 'I Can't Believe Bernake & Paulson Bailed Out Bear Stearns'

Credit Suisse a target of U.S. banking probe

Susie Castillo, Miss USA '03 Discusses TSA Groping with Lou Dobbs

Ireland's Brian Cowen - Another Very Awkward Moment - Hilarious

CHART - The Real National Debt Is $202 Trillion

Learn To Love A U.S. Debt Default: It Could Be The BEST Thing That Ever Happened To This Country (Chris Whalen Saw It Happening Back In 1992)

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What Happened To The $2.6T Social Security Trust Fund?, China Gets Nervous About U.S. AAA, Deficit Hits $1T For 2011, Issa Bought Goldman Bonds Then Pressured SEC To Stop Prosecution, Moody's Hints At Muni Downgrade (Links)

What Happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund? - Forbes

China Getting Very Nervous About U.S. Losing AAA Rating - MSNBC

Obscure Provision In New Patents Bill Suggests Wall Street Does Own Congress

Wall Street Pimp Darrell Issa ‘Very Concerned’ Elizabeth Warren Will ‘Bully Banks’

Bank Delays Push 1 Million Foreclosures Into 2012 in ‘Ominous Shadow’ - Bloomberg

U.S. runs $43 billion deficit in June - Year-to-date deficit nears $1 trillion mark

Recession Fallout - Becoming The Family Prostitute - LA Weekly

Moody’s Will Cut 7,000 Top-Rated Munis If U.S. AAA Downgraded - Bloomberg

PHOTO - Time Magazine Cover Wonders If The Constitution Still Matters?

Dial-a-Crowd Confronts Spanish Banks by Thwarting Foreclosures - Bloomberg

Foreclosure fraud investigators forced out at attorney general's office

Rewrite of Tax Code Falters as Lawmakers Bicker Over the Basics - Bloomberg

New COLD WAR Over Arctic Oil Resources - Part 1

New COLD WAR Over Arctic Oil Resources - Part 2

Brokers Face More Disclosures Under Dodd-Frank: One Year Later - Bloomberg

SHOCK - America's biggest teacher & principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta

15 Examples That Show Many Americans Have Become So Desperate That They Will Do Just About Anything For Money - Must Read

Investigation - While Fighting To Block SEC Investigation Of Goldman Sachs, Rep. Darrell Issa Bought Goldman Sachs Bonds

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Jon Stewart: NBC News Was Too Busy Explaining 'LOL' And 'Muffin Top' To Report On GE's Zero Tax Bill

Stewart questions whether Obama tapped GE head Jeff Immelt to be his Chairperson of the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness as a corporate demonstration on how to layoff American workers and escape paying taxes.

• "I know the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people.  But what they didn't realize is that those people are a**holes."

Video inside.

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Bloomberg's Jonathan Weil Rips Sheila Bair Over Bailout Lies: 'No Such Thing As Too Big To Fail'

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PHOTO - Donald Rumsfeld Groped By The TSA

Details inside.

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Apple's Steve Wozniak Prints And Spends His Own $2 Bills, And Swears That The Secret Service Has Approved Them

Video - Woz's $2 Bill Note Pads - The Engadget Show

Woz discusses his bit of creative currency manipulation, and swears that his custom $2 bills can get you "arrested, but not convicted, and that they have been approved by the Secret Service on 3 different occasions."  

Anyone have any idea how this is possible and not considered counterfeiting?  He claims he has been spending them for 20 years in his hometown of Los Gatos, California.

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CHART: Big Corporate Jobs 1964 Vs. 2011

Fifty years ago, the four most valuable U.S. companies employed an average of 430,000 people with an average market cap of $180 billion. This year, the four largest U.S. companies employ an average 120,000 people with an average market cap of $334 billion. The titans of 2011 have twice the the value of their 1964 counterparts with a quarter of the employees.

Chart is inside.

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Matt Taibbi, Josh Rosner With Eliot Spitzer On Goldman Sachs Criminal Utopia: "A White Elephant, Flying Pigs And A Unicorn All At Once"

Just watch the last 3 minutes.  

Unless you work for Goldman, you'll be pleased by what you hear.

• Read more on this conversation at Taibbi's blog...

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Mainstream Media Gets Arrested: Newark Cop's Violent Reaction Caught On Tape When His 'Authority' Questioned

Cop:  "I can do whatever the hell I want."

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Sheila Bair Op-Ed Blames Bernanke, Geithner & Paulson, Another Wall Street Tax Loophole, Merrill Warns Of MAJOR Crisis In Italy, Murdoch Paid NO Taxes On $10B In Profits, Libertarians Call For Arrest Of TSA Agents (LINKS)

Bernanke Tells Congress He's 'Ready To Provide More Stimulus'

Sheila Bair Op-Ed blames Geithner, Paulson, Bernanke for crisis - Great Read

Role Reversal: The Government And Banks - Hedge Fund Manager Todd Harrison

An Addition to the List of Tax Loopholes - Futures Traders Pay Just 23%

Advisers to bailed out Irish bank get tens of millions in outrageous fees

Moody's Cuts Irish bonds to JUNK status on bailout worries

Merrill Lynch warns of MAJOR global crisis over Italy

Report: News Corp. Paid No Taxes After Profiting $10B (Yet Rec’d $4.5B In Refunds)

Krauthammer: Obama's Sudden Interest In Cutting Debt A "FARCE"

Federal Reserve faces split if economy fails to accelerate

The Purpose Of The Fed Is To Hide Default - Ron Paul

Libertarians Call For Arrest Of TSA Agents In Florida

"850,000 People Locked Up Last Year For Marijuana In The Land Of the Free"

Why the US won't leave Afghanistan - Surge, bribe and run? Or surge, bribe and stay? How US military bases and the energy war play out in Afghanistan

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Mitt Romney - Net Worth Over $200 Million - Tells Unemployed People ‘I’m Also Unemployed’

Mittens Muttney is lucky he wasn't mugged at his Tampa campaign stop.

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Carl Seel: Lawmaker Responds To $100K Mortgage Principal Reduction By Dropping Legislation

Arizona Rep. Carl Seel was supposed to propose an amendment to hold lenders accountable in foreclosure situations, but at the last minute he didn't.  At the same time the principal on his mortgage was reduced by more than 50 percent.  Coincidence?  You decide.

Get more detail here...

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Links from around the web:

• Morgan Stanley challenges Republicans on debt ceiling
• Georgia Governor signs Arizona-style immigration bill into law
• Mayor Daley Gets To Take $1.1 Million With Him
• Over Two Hundred SEC Officials Have Gone To Private Sector Since 2006
• Bipartisan Group Of Senators Targets Mortgage Servicers
• With Debt Ceiling In Sight, Bernanke, Geithner Warn Of Dire Consequences

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Lawsuit Claims Banks Manipulated Libor Leading To Billions For JPMorgan, AG Deal With Banks Investigated, Moody's Fraud Warning Rocks Chinese Shares, $1.2M Mansion For $10K, Greece Default Now Seen As 'Inevitable' (LINKS)

Stories from around the web today.

New York Attorney General Seeks Data on Bank of America’s Fraud Settlement

Lawsuit Claims Banks Manipulated Libor Leading To Billions For JPMorgan, Others

As AGs Near Deal With Banks, Questions Swirl Over Scope Of Investigation - Must Read

Moody’s warns on reliability of China firms financials, hitting shares

Breakthrough - JP Morgan supercomputer offers risk analysis in near real-time

$1.2 million mansion for $10K? - Check This Out

FLASHBACK - How Hank Paulson Became CEO Of Goldman Sachs

Government Made it Official Policy Not to Prosecute Fraud - Washington's Blog

Rand Paul: Boehner has ‘no plan’ to balance the budget

Shadow Stats - John Williams Interview - US Dollar Selling & Hyperinflation

Eric Holder Lied To Congress - Release Shows He Approved Mexico Weapons Smuggling

Congress Is Corrupt, Here's A Solution - James Altucher

BIG SHIFT - Greece set to default on massive debt burden, European leaders concede

Inevitable That Greece Will Default - Special EU Meeting Announced

Nevada Supreme Court: You Gotta Prove Chain of Mortgage Title - Adam Levitin

Northwest U.S. sees 35% infant mortality SPIKE post-Fukushima: report

MUST READ - Skinheads Hunt Native American Family - Guess Who Gets Arrested?

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Obama: Job Losses Prove That The Stimulus Worked

Video - Obankster on jobs and the failed stimulus from yesterday's press conference

The stimulus was a resounding joke, supporting politically important states at the expense of everyone else, and expanding the deficit.  $800 billion that accomplished nothing outside of burying your children under an even greater debt burden.  Allow me to repeat, we borrow 43 cents of every dollar Washington spends.  43 cents and nothing to show for it.

From the archives:

• Obama Admits Massive Stimulus Was A Failure: "Shovel-Ready Was Not as Shovel-Ready as We Expected"

• Coburn: $500K To Study Shrimp On Treadmills, $300k To Study 'Farmville', Gelatin Wrestling In Antarctica, WTF!?!

• Quickly scan all the headlines from the stimulus archives

Transcript is inside.

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