03 Economy – Page 174 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/06/06

Open Source Anonymous Banking….Here Now!

03 Economy, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Budgets & Funding, Civil Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Government, InfoOps (IO), IO Technologies, Methods & Process, Money, Banks & Concentrated Wealth, Reform, Tools

What Happens When Anonymous Gets a Bank?

Dominic Basulto on May 18, 2011

bigthink

The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they've created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system. Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that's right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that's untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous.

And that's where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he's ever seen. TIME suggested that Bitcoin might be able to bring national governments and global financial institutions to their knees. You see, Bitcoin is as much a political statement as it is a virtual currency. If you think there's a shadow banking system now, wait a few more months. The political part is that, unlike other virtual currencies like Facebook Credits (used to buy virtual sock puppets for your friends), Bitcoins are globally transferrable across borders, making them the perfect instrument to finance any cause or any activity — even if it's banned by a sovereign government.

You don't need a banking or trading account to buy and trade Bitcoins – all you need is a laptop. They're like bearer bonds combined with the uber-privacy of a Swiss bank account, mixed together with a hacker secret sauce that stores them as 1's and 0's on your computer. They're “regulated” (to use the term lightly) by distributed computers around the world. Most significantly, Bitcoins can not be frozen or blocked or taxed or seized.

Read full article….

See Also:

Open Money

2011/06/042011/06/04

Financial Rape of Libya — Assassination vs Invasion

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government, Military, Peace Intelligence

Gaddafi's Stolen Billions: Max Keiser Explains ‘Financial Terrorism' RT – 18 hours ago Watch video

Phi Beta Iota: China and Russia both appear to have explained to Goldman Sachs executives that they will be assassinated if they do not make good on their financial rapes against those two countries. Libya appears to have adopted the same response. Tony Blair appears to have been the key political proponent of the financial rape of Libya. Russian Television offers a useful glimpse into the reality behind the “get Guaddafi” invasion now occurring at our expense–an invasion that is illegal by both US Constitutional law and international law. Meanwhile, Wall Street seeks to force a rise is the US debt limit. Assassination of bankers is now on the table.

2011/06/04

Mother Jones: Employment Picture Sucks

03 Economy

Employment Picture Even Grimmer Than You Think

— By Kevin Drum

| Fri Jun. 3, 2011 8:49 AM PDT

Every month Steve Benen publishes a handy chart showing job gains and losses since January 2008. Looking at the latest dismal numbers for May, he concludes, “Any sane person should look at these numbers and conclude that the economy desperately needs a boost.”

But it's worse than that. As I mentioned yesterday, the U.S. economy needs to add about 150,000 jobs per month just to stay even with population growth. This means that you really need to look at how many jobs we gained above (or below) 150,000, not above or below zero. So here's Steve's chart, modified to show just that. As you can see, the last eight months, when the economy has supposedly been starting to recover, has actually been virtually flat. Relative to population growth, we've been generating no new jobs at all.

So yes: “Any sane person should look at these numbers and conclude that the economy desperately needs a boost.” Even the not especially sane ought to have figured that out by now.

Tip of the Hat to Mother Jones at Twitter.

2011/06/04

Republicans & Democrats Both Screwing the Public

03 Economy, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, IO Impotency

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Recommends...

My only complaint about the analytical and moral content of this speech is that Sanders is not tough enough on the Pentagon (really the MICC).

Chuck Spinney

La Ciotat, France

——————–

Published on Thursday, June 2, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

Sen. Sanders Calls Out GOP and Dems on Corporate Tax Rates, Breaks for Wealthiest

Statement and Senate Floor Remarks by Sen. Bernie Sanders

WASHINGTON – Congress and the White House are now focused on how we deal with our huge deficit — a crisis brought about over the last 10 years by two wars, tax breaks for the rich, the Wall Street bailout and a prescription drug program — all unpaid for. The deficit also increased as a result of the declining tax revenues during a current recession, caused by the greed and illegal behavior of Wall Street.

The debate over deficit reduction comes at an unusual moment in American economic history. While the middle class is in rapid decline and poverty is increasing, the wealthiest people in our country and largest corporations are doing phenomenally well. Over the last several decades almost all new income created in this country has gone to the top 1 percent, who now earn more income than the bottom 50 percent. Further, the United States now has the most unequal distribution of wealth of any major country with the top 400 individuals owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million.

Given the reality of record-breaking corporate profits and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, it should be a surprise to no one that every recently published poll suggests that the overwhelming majority of the American people want the deficit to be addressed through shared sacrifice. They do not believe that the deficit should be reduced solely on the backs of working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor — many of whom are already suffering as a result of the recession. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the Republicans have proposed.

Rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: The hypocrisy of the Democratic Administration is exceeded only by the hypocrisy of the Republican Party–one bird, two wings, same shit, just different colors. We await a knight speaking truth.

2011/06/03

The Big Uneasy: Corps of Engineers Exposed

03 Economy, 03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Other Atrocities, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Military

Phi Beta Iota: This is public intelligence at its best. A methodical, deep, documented look at the corruption inherent in the Corps of Engineers that the politicians at all levels that enable that corruption with their own lack of integrity. Below from the producer:

Filmmaker's Statement

Upcoming Screenings

Research Reports

Reference: Maps of the Post Flood Future Geography

2011/06/03

Budget Reduction: $50M for Each Dead Taliban. Duh.

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Budgets & Funding, Corruption, Government, Military

Simple math, the cost of one dead Taliban, $50 Million…….

Cost of war in Afghanistan will be major factor in troop-reduction talks

Rajiv Chandrasekaran,

Washington Post, May 30

EXTRACT:

The U.S. military is on track to spend $113 billion on its operations in Afghanistan this fiscal year, and it is seeking $107 billion for the next. To many of the president’s civilian advisers, that price is too high, given a wide federal budget gap that will require further cuts to domestic programs and increased deficit spending.

Rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: The President and Congress do not control the government. They have lost control in part because they lost their integrity. Washington operates on 2% of the relevant information and substitutes ideology for intelligence and corruption for integrity. Absent a compelling narrative rooted in the transparent truth, we expect no change between now and 2016.

2011/06/022011/06/02

Bill Moyers Interviews Andrew Bacevich

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence

The comments expressed in this interview exactly reflect my views–recommended!

Bill Moyers Interviews Andrew Bacevich

Thursday 2 June 2011

by: Bill Moyers, The New Press

Our finest warriors are often our most reluctant warmongers. They have seen firsthand the toll war exacts. They know better than anyone that force can be like a lobster trap that closes with each stage of descent, making escape impossible. So it was when the liberal consensus lured America into Vietnam during the ’60s, and again after 9/11, when neoconservatives clamored for the invasion of Iraq. With the notorious ferocity of the noncombatant, the neocons banged their tin drums and brayed for blood, as long as it was not their own that would be spilled.

One old warrior looked on sadly, his understanding of combat’s reality tempered by twenty-three years in uniform, including service in Vietnam. A graduate of West Point, Andrew Bacevich retired from the military to become a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, a public thinker who has been able to find an audience across the political spectrum, from The Nation to The American Conservative magazines. In several acclaimed books, including The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War, and his bestselling The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Bacevich speaks truth to power, no matter who’s in power, which may be why he reaches both the left and the right.

Read rest of interview as published today by truthout.

Phi Beta Iota: The interview was done in 2008 and published today in truthout because of its high relevance to the decline and fall of America today.