Link: http://www.rt.com/news/greece-double-suicide-crisis-136/

A 60-year-old Greek musician and his 91-year-old mother jumped to their deaths from their 5th floor apartment, driven to despair by financial woes. This double death is the latest in a rising epidemic of crisis-induced suicides in Greece. Witness accounts vary – some say the mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, jumped first, screaming a prayer as she plummeted to her death. Other neighbors say the mother and her son jumped together, holding hands.

Link: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/11497-the-nato-un-army-perpetual-war-and-bankruptcy-for-us

Pretending to have achieved some kind of victory in Afghanistan, President Obama and the NATO leaders have pushed ahead on the globalist agenda to transform NATO more fully into the global military arm of the United Nations.

Link: http://socialistworker.org/2012/05/23/new-stage-of-resistance-in-greece

New elections have been set for June 17 in Greece, and the far-left SYRIZA alliance is currently favored in opinion polls to take first place. If that happens, it would be a stunning blow to the austerity agenda that the bankers, bosses and political elite of Europe have imposed on Greece, in the form of the so-called “Memorandum.”

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/morg-m23.shtml

The more the crisis from derivatives losses at America’s biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase, expands the more the debacle exposes the criminality of the capitalist financial system and the corruption of its political facilitators. Less than two weeks after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon stated in a hastily assembled conference call that his bank had lost $2 billion in trades on credit default swaps by its London-based Chief Investment Office, financial analysts are warning that the total loss could rise to $7 billion.

Link: http://piazzadcara.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/market-crash-alert-by-mike-whitney/

As you might have noticed, the stock market is falling like a stone. As of 9 AM PST, the Dow Jones has dropped 172 points while all the other indices are down sharply. German 2-year debt (bund) has dipped below 0% this morning at auction, signalling an acceleration in the bank run taking place in southern Europe. Depositors in Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, etc would rather take a loss on their investment, then risk not getting their money back at all. The European Central Bank (ECB) does not guarantee deposits, so people are withdrawing their money en masse and getting out of Dodge pronto. What we’re seeing is a real-time panic.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/23-10

The original debt deal required a bipartisan “supercommittee” to find $4 trillion in deficit savings, or “sequestration” would automatically be triggered — an across-the-board cut of $1.2 trillion in each party’s priority: domestic programs and defense. Even under that self-imposed sword of Damocles, Congress failed to do its job, setting the cuts in motion. But House Republicans argued that the requisite cuts to defense funding would harm national security. Take the money from food stamps and health care for the poor, they cried, as they cradled the defense industry in their arms.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/summ-m21.shtml

An editorial in the British newspaper the Independent called it the most important G8 summit for three decades, as the deepening financial crisis in Europe threatened the entire global economy. The communiqué issued after a day of talks at the US presidential retreat at Camp David, however, revealed there was no plan to meet the crisis, just a decision to put the best face on a worsening situation.

Link: http://truth-out.org/news/item/9277-mortgage-and-securitization-fraud-where-is-the-task-force

It was almost four years ago that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paul Paulson and then New York Fed Bank President Timothy Geithner ran to Congress warning that the end of the world was near. They told members of Congress that the banks were drowning in bad debt and without a massive bailout they would soon be forced into bankruptcy. Congress quickly coughed up the money in the form of $700 billion in TARP loans. The Fed contributed trillions more.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/21-7

The head of Greece's leftist party Syriza traveled to Paris on Monday to consolidate support from political allies for rejecting the radical austerity that is driving Greece to the brink of "collective suicide".

Link: http://www.alternet.org/economy/155519/the_super_%22connected%22_1_ceo%3A_the_incredible_tale_of_billions_of_dollars_of_failure/

Citgroup's outgoing chairman Dick Parsons' career is the perfect example of how 1 percenters reward utter failure at the expense of the rest of us. Last month, shareholders finally rebelled against Citigroup, the worst of the Too Big To Fail bailout disasters, by filing a lawsuit against outgoing chairman Dick Parsons and handful of executives for stuffing their pockets while running the bank into the ground.

Link: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/05/20/recovery-or-callapse-bet-on-collapse/

In the US the police have proven themselves to be a greater threat to public safety than private sector criminals. I just googled “police brutality” and up came 183,000,000 results. (Here are two recent brutal assaults, one deadly, by police on hapless individuals: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/05/kelly-thomas-video-dad-they-are-killing-me-.html and http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article31364.htm )

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/came-m19.shtml

UK Prime Minister David Cameron used a speech to business leaders in Manchester to set out his government’s prescription for the euro zone on the eve of the G8 summit. Warning that the euro was at a “crossroads,” he said the euro zone would either have to “make up” or “break up.”

Link: http://www.alternet.org/story/155424/pharoah_bloomberg%3A_paying_workers_enough_to_live_is_%27communism%27/

New York's billionaire mayor is so opposed to a tiny raise for workers at companies that get public money that he's vowed to sue. What's the deal with living wage laws anyway?

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/spain-crisis-rocks-europe-as-moodys-downgrades-banks-including-santander-7763992.html

The flames of the eurozone crisis leapt higher yesterday, as fears spread about the state of the Continent's most vulnerable banks.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/18-4

“In the past two years, the number of people in the U.S. who are older than 16 (and not in the military or prison) has grown by 5.4 million. The number of people working or looking for work hasn't grown at all.”

Link: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175543/tomgram%3A_barbara_ehrenreich%2C_looting_the_lives_of_the_poor/

Gordon Gekko, the infamously cutthroat capitalist and lead character in Oliver Stone's Wall Street, captured the heady years of the 1980s with a single, indelible line: Greed is good. Today, it is Edward Conard, a friend and former colleague of Mitt Romney's at the private equity firm Bain Capital, who has offered a new mantra for the 1%, a cri de coeur for the Gekkos of the twenty-first century: Inequality is good.

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9270754/IIFs-Charles-Dallara-says-Greek-exit-somewhere-between-catastrophic-and-armageddon.html

The damage to the rest of Europe from Greece leaving the euro would be "somewhere between catastrophic and Armageddon", the chief negotiator for the body representing private sector holders of Greek bonds said on Wednesday.

Link: http://theintelhub.com/2012/05/16/the-truth-about-jp-morgans-2-billion-loss/

Before we can understand what’s really going on with JP Morgan’s loss (which will probably end up being a lot more than $2 billion), we need a little background.

Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47446349?__source=mnd|news|&par=mnd

Housing starts were surprisingly strong this week, while there was improving sentiment from home builders. So should we start to breathe a sigh of relief that the housing market is returning to health? The short answer is no. The headlines say that housing is stabilizing and there are signs of life in the real estate sector. This is true but is only part of the story. Signs of life is far different than a return to healthier times.

Link: http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-65-is-available-Global-systemic-crisis-Second-half-of-2012-Convergence-of-four-explosive-factors-Banks-Stock_a10517.html

Whilst waiting for Euroland to equip itself, by the end of 2012, with a medium to long term common political, economic and social project, especially following the election of the new French president Fran?ois Hollande, anticipated many months ago by LEAP/E2020, players will remain prisoners of the short-term reflexes related to the sudden Greek political tremors, the uncertainties over Euroland governance and to the risks in public debts.

Link: http://theintelhub.com/2012/05/15/approaching-cataclysm-a-conclusion-of-the-underground-bases/

So why all the secrecy and clandestine underground and underwater activity? Is Armageddon coming? Is the Apocalypse right around the corner? Do the clandestine movers and shakers inside the military-industrial-espionage complex know something that the rest of us don’t? Are we like lemmings unwittingly flocking toward a sheer precipice whose existence we do not evenly dimly suspect?

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/155431/don%27t_look_now_--_banks_are_still_ruining_america%3A_6_harsh_lessons_from_the_jp_morgan_fiasco/

JP Morgan Chase is part of an entwined system of too-big-to-fail institutions that are ripping us off.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/155442/wells_fargo_has_blood_on_its_hands%3A_desperate_man_commits_suicide_after_shocking_foreclosure_mistreatment_/

This is the story of what happens when an average couple is up against a giant, wealthy, powerful bank. Norman and Oriane Rousseau were one more couple pushed by a huge, greedy bank to the brink of homelessness. On Sunday, desperate and with nowhere to go, Norman Rousseau shot himself.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/15-13

Consider $2 billion lost on a bad bet, plus billions more as investors dumped the stock, a providential warning. When Jamie Dimon, the imperious head of JPMorgan Chase, revealed that the bank had lost so muchon a derivatives trade gone bad, it was clear warning that, four years after blowing up the economy, the big banks are still playing with bombs.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/05/living-in-banksters-paradise-part-1-of.html

As Coolio said, we spend our lives living in a gangsta’s paradise. What he failed to mention is that throughout history the most sinister and dangerous gangsters are banksters. There is no shortage of historical quotes to prove this point.

Link: http://www.policyshop.net/home/2012/5/14/jpm-chase-chairman-jamie-dimon-the-whale-man-and-glass-steag.html

It was fitting that while President Obama and his Hollywood apostles broke fundraising records at a sumptuous $40,000 per plate dinner at George Clooney’s place, word of JPM Chase’s ‘mistake’ rippled through the news. Not long ago, Dimon’s name was batted about to become Treasury Secretary. But as lines are drawn and pundits take sides in the Jamie Dimon ego deflation saga – or, as I see it - why big banks should be made smaller and then, broken up into commercial vs. speculative components ala Glass Steagall – it’s important to look beyond the size of the $2 billion dollar (and counting) beached whale of a trading loss.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/euro-m14.shtml

The European financial crisis has taken another turn for the worse as doubts grow over the solvency of the Spanish banking system and the prospect of a Greek withdrawal from the eurozone becomes increasingly likely.

Link: http://wsws.org/articles/2012/may2012/jobs-m12.shtml

This weekend, more than 200,000 unemployed workers in eight US states will be abruptly cut off from extended federal unemployment benefits, the result of an agreement between President Barack Obama and the Republican Party earlier this year. Many of these workers will be thrown directly into poverty, without even minimal cash assistance.

Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/47377555

JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, said it suffered a trading loss of at least $2 billion from a failed hedging strategy, a shock disclosure that hit financial stocks and the reputation of the bank and its CEO, Jamie Dimon.

Link: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/05/is-us-government-deliberately.html

A recent video is going viral showing an American man describing his European vacation experience in a rental Volkswagon Passat while in the UK. He was shocked to see the vehicle was getting 50+ miles-per-gallon carrying four adults and hefty luggage. He discovered that without the typical vacation load, the UK's VW Passat could run a whopping 65+ miles per gallon. Back in the States, he contacted a Volkswagon dealer about the diesel model, but the best mileage available was 44 miles-per-gallon from the TDI Passat model. When pressed, the dealer finally admitted, "The US Government won't allow it." Why exactly would fuel efficiency be suppressed, and how widespread is this inequality?

Link: http://www.thenation.com/blog/167840/scott-walker-promised-500k-donor-he-would-divide-and-conquer-unions

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has long denied that he has a secret strategy to destroy public-sector unions as part of a long-term plan to make Wisconsin a “right-to-work” state where unions are dramatically weakened.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/11/richard-branson-says-spain-can-solve-its-economic-problems-by-legalizing-marijuana/

Sir Richard Branson believes that the ideal way for Spain to get out of its current morass of national debt, savage austerity cuts, and social turmoil would be to legalize and tax marijuana. The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group suggested at the opening of the world’s largest cannabis museum in Barcelona on Wednesday that this policy “would help get the country back on its feet.”

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/11-8

I have not been employed since 2004 and have the two dependents . . . . I don’t dispute that I owed them the $3500.00 but am wondering why they let it build up to somewhere around $17,000/20,000 before they attempted to collect.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/05/11-0

Wall Street titan JPMorgan Chase on Thursday admitted that poorly positioned trades cost the bank $2 billion in losses. The news sent stocks of other big banks tumbling and raised the alarm once again over the tenuous nature of the financial system and the role of 'too big to fail' banks in the world economy.

Link: http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=504102&CategoryId=10718

A pact that Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol inked with the Sinochem conglomerate and the China Development Bank invites the energy-hungry Asian country to participate in a pipeline project linking central Colombia to the Pacific coast

Link: http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/05/10/federal-reserve-approves-chinas-first-takeover-of-u-s-bank/

The U.S. Federal Reserve has given the go-ahead for state-owned Chinese banks to enter the U.S. banking market. The U.S. central bank on Wednesday approved an application by China's biggest bank – the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – to buy an 80 percent stake in the U.S. branch of the Bank of East Asia. It is the first time a Chinese state-controlled company has been approved to acquire a U.S. bank.

Link: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/10-4

The Senate is currently deadlocked on taking action to prevent the interest on new Stafford guaranteed student loans from rising on July 1 from 3.4% to 6.8%, with Democrats saying they want to “pay for” keeping the current “lower” 3.4% rate by closing a loophole that allows some wealthy people to avoid paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, while Republicans want to “pay for” keeping the lower rate by eliminating a fund for preventative health care in the 2010 health care reform law.

Link: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/05/10/does-the-west-have-a-future/

By: Paul Craig Roberts| May 10, 2012 | Categories: Articles & Columns | Tags: Clinton, Disinformation, Feinstein, Israel:, Osama, Qaeda, Terrorism, Living in America is becoming very difficult for anyone with a moral conscience, a sense of justice, or a lick of intelligence. Consider: We have had a second fake underwear bomb plot, a much more fantastic one than the first hoax. The second underwear bomber was a CIA operative or informant allegedly recruited by al-Qaeda, an organization that US authorities have recently claimed to be defeated, in disarray, and no longer significant.

Link: http://www.alternet.org/news/155379/how_the_corporate_right_hijacked_america%27s_courts_to_enrich_the_top_1_percent/

America's political-economy is caught in a vicious cycle, with concentrated wealth at the top leading to outsized political power. For a generation, America's political-economy has been gripped in a vicious cycle. Those at the top of the economic pile have taken an ever-growing share of the nation's income, and then leveraged that haul into ever-greater political power, which they have in turn used to rewrite the rules of “the market” in their favor. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/226703-house-votes-to-replace-pentagon-cuts-mandated-by-debt-deal

The House voted Thursday to override steep cuts to the Pentagon’s budget mandated by last summer's debt deal and replace them with spending reductions to food stamps and other mandatory social programs.