Ex-Citigroup VP Charged In $19M Fraud, Soros Says Euro Exit For Weaker Countries Is ‘INEVITABLE’, Sheila Bair Calls For Interest Rate HIKES, Greece Looking Like 'No Deal', Coming Soon - Test Tube Hamburger Meat (15 LINKS)

Ex-Citigroup VP charged in $19 million fraud

S&P Predicts $100 Billion Hit If US AAA Rating Lost - FT

Soros Says Euro Exit For Weaker Countries Is ‘INEVITABLE’

HOLY SHITE! - Chicago Is $108 Billion In The Red - $66,000 Per Family

Basel - Too Big To Fail Banks MUST HOLD More Capital

FDIC’s Bair suggests time right for rate hikes, criticizes European bank capital levels

BIS says Europe must 'finish the job on debt once and for all'

Look Who’s Buying Up Flood Ravaged Farm Land - The Army Corps & George Soros

UPDATE - GREEK PARLIAMENT MAY REJECT EU/IMF AUSTERITY MEASURES

History of The EURO: From Idealistic Birth To Crisis Point (Scroll Down Page)

Waters Surge At Fort Calhoun Nuclear Plant After Floodwall Fails

Global Warming or Little Ice Age: Which Will It Be?

Coming Soon - Test-Tube Hamburger Meat

FLASHBACK - Who's Afraid Of Elizabeth Warren? - Examining Her Opposition

PROSTITUTES, AN ANONYMOUS LETTER, A "SORRY" TEXT AND MORE: New Details About Catching Inside Trader Raj

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How The Fed Was Born

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WATCH LIVE - Obama Debt Ceiling Press Conference

The press conference has concluded.  I will post summary clips later this evening.

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Fed's Fisher On Ron Paul, The Stagflation Nightmare Scenario, Keynes Vs. Hayek, Bernanke's Unpopularity, Unfunded Liabilities, And The 'End The Fed Movement'

Bloomberg Interview - Dalls Fed President Richard Fisher - June 24, 2011

Outstanding interview.

• Scan the headlines in the Richard Fisher archives

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Professor Bernanke Explains Quantitative Easing (Cartoon)

Two QE cartoons.

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Bailout The SEC: Complete Interview of Harry Markopolos On CBS 60 Minutes

Harry Markopolos told the truth about Bernie Madoff.  No one listened.  Harry Markopolos put together a 29 page document proving that Madoff was a fraud and a ponzi.  The SEC didn't understand the vocabulary.

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Bernanke Public Approval Falls To New LOW, Another Layer of the Mortgage Mess: "Zombie Notes", US taxpayers May Pay For EU Bank Losses, PIMCO On Governments As Portfolio Managers, New Derivatives Probe (15 LINKS)

• PHOTO OF The Day - Wall Street Bull Gets Yarned
• Bernanke Public Approval Falls To New LOW - Bloomberg Poll
• Another Layer of the Mortgage Mess: "Zombie Notes" - Yves Smith
• Zuckerman: "Why the Jobs Situation Is Worse Than It Looks" - Forbes
• Retiree comes home to find belongings gone after bank forecloses on WRONG house
• US taxpayers may pay for EU bank losses
• Peter Schiff - The Lies a Fed Chairman Tells - Video
• Why Americans are so unhappy with the economic recovery - WSJ
• On Governments as Portfolio Managers - PIMCO's El-Erian
• Why The Eurozone And The Euro Are Both Doomed
• Bank's firing of top trader sparks derivatives probe - Reuters
• A Secretive Banking Elite Rules Trading In Derivatives - NYT
• FLASHBACK - FBI, DOJ refuse to investigate charges of judicial corruption
• TPM Report: Private Prisons Love Mass Incarceration, Politicians Love It Too
• Prince Charles & Robert Redford: Eco-Hypocrisy On A GRAND Scale

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Daily Show Video: Jon Stewart On The ATF's Mexican Gunapalooza: "Operation Fast And Furious"

Jon Stewart:

• "The ATF plan to prevent American guns from being used in Mexican gun violence is to provide Mexican gangs with American guns."

Complete background on this story from the LA Times and NPR is inside, including coverage of Congressional hearings held this week.

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Shilling Says New Recession Begins Next Year, Europe's IMF Game Is Playing Uncle Sam For Sucker, FDR & Quantitative Easing, Elizabeth Warren Update (15 LINKS)

After 80 Failed Inventions, 84-Year-Old Man Creates The Game Of The Year

New recession begins next year, Shilling says

OCC Gives Banks Another Blow Job - Yves Smith

Europe's IMF game - Playing Uncle Sam for sucker

New Capital Rules May Slow Growth in Canadian Banks

Full Text of Obama’s Speech on Afghanistan

After SEC Settlement With JPMorgan, Will Other Banks Pay Too? - ProPublica

"U.S. Growing Its Way Out of Debt" Is Pure Fantasy

PHOTOS - Parts of Nebraska Nuke Plant Under 2 Feet of Water - Washington's Blog

More Than 2/3 Of Cocaine In America Is Contaminated With A Skin Rotting Chemical

FDR Used Every Tool in His Box to Start Depression Recovery - And It Still Failed

CHART: CBO: If Politicians Made No Changes, The Debt Problem Would Go Away

Greece’s euro exit can now only be a matter of time - FT

Who Wants Keep the War on Drugs Going AND Put You in Debtor’s Prison?

GOP Lynch Mob Looking Awfully Hard to Find Rope to Hang Elizabeth Warren

Ron Paul: Spending Cuts Are Meaningless Without Transparency Into The Shadow U.S. Government Run By The Federal Reserve

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Global Warming Song From Al & Tipper Gore (WATCH)

Video - Made during a happier time for the divorcing couple.

Related:

• Al Gore Ambushed On Climategate By New World Order Activists
• Al Gore Gives The Most Depressing Graduation Speech Of All Time

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Press Conference - Watch Bernanke's Economic Babble And Q&A Confusion (FOMC Video & Full Transcript)

Video from Wednesday's dog and pony show masquerading as an FOMC announcement and subsequent Q&A masquerading as actual financial reportage.

Complete transcript inside for those who can no longer stomach the visual Bernanke.

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FINALLY! - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Introduces Balanced Budget Amendment

My reaction is NOT an endorsement of the GOP plan to achieve said balance, rather a guttural a response to a 2-decade wait since the last attempt at fiscal sanity in Washington.

In another move upstaging and likely upsetting Speaker Boehner, Cantor gets serious, or at least pretends to.  This is a first step in a long process that will require passage by both chambers of congress, a presidential signature and ratification by at least 38 states.

Bad for stocks, good for bonds, and outstanding for your children and grandchildren.

Press release inside.

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Fed Balance Sheet Hits New Record, NY Foreclosure Nightmare Chart, Socialized Stocks Outperform U.S. Market, Barney Frank & Ron Paul Introduce Bill To Legalize Marijuana, AFLAC Quacks Big Losses (15 LINKS)

Links from around the web tonight.

• Fed balance sheet grows to RECORD $2.86 trillion in latest week
• Aflac Admits to $610 Million in Losses on European Banks
• 41 Facts About The National Debt
• Bill Gross Just Set The Date For Operation Twist 2 And QE3
• Economic Misery Gets A Hearing On The Hill
• HSBC Seeks Dismissal of $9 Billion Madoff Trustee Lawsuit
• World's wealthiest people now richer than before the credit crunch - UK Guardian
• Trichet Says Risk Signals Are Flashing Red as Crisis Threatens Banks - Bloomberg
• Stocks Of Socialized Countries Have Outperformed U.S. Stocks Since Reagan Era
• Tim Geithner Is Angry: Banks Have Spent Vast Sums To 'Erode' Financial Reform
• Attention Forex Shoppers - Let Them Fail
• TSA Set To Take Legal Action Against Texas - Historic Bill Comes To Vote Friday
• German E. Coli Strain Joined Two Deadly Traits in Outbreak, Study Finds - Bloomberg
• Barney Frank and Ron Paul Introduce Bill to Fully Legalize Marijuana
• In New York, it would take lenders 62 years at their current pace to repossess the 213,000 houses now in severe default or foreclosure - CHART
• And as usual more links are here...

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DEATH OF AMERICA - 'Why I Was Arrested At A Public Commission Meeting In Washington D.C.' (SHOCK VIDEO)

Jefferson, I think we're lost...

All you need to watch is the first 90 seconds of this clip.  Details and more video inside.

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