Berto Jongman: Shadow Banking & Tax Loopholes – With Comment by Robert Steele on Integrity & Automated Transaction Payment Tax

Beyond Regulators’ Grasp How Shadow Banks Rule the World By Martin Hesse and Anne Seith Spiegel, 11/14/2012 Beyond the banking world, a parallel universe of shadow banks has grown in the form of hedge funds and money market funds. They’re outside the reach of conventional financial regulation, prompting authorities to plan introducing new rules to …

Marcus Aurelius: Thomas Ricks on Generals “Casual Arrogance”

Combine this with the reporting on toxic leadership (e.g. by LTG(R) Walter Ulmer) and you have the whole picture.  Emphasis added below. Questioning The Brass By Thomas E. Ricks New York Times, November 12, 2012 Pg. 29 Washington–OVER the last 11 years, as we fought an unnecessary war in Iraq and an unnecessarily long one …

Mini-Me: CIA Bimbo Eruption or Hit Job with Vickers Replacing Patreaus? Photos Updated 14 Nov

Huh? “The harassing e-mails Broadwell sent to the woman [evidently from Patreus’s personal email account and computer] said things such as “I know what you did,” “back off” and “stay away from my guy,” a government official said.” “This is about something else entirely, and the truth will come out,” Broadwell’s dad, Paul Krantz, told …

Yoda: Research Fraud Has Exploded in Past Decade — Pattern of Fraud in Education, Intelligence, & Research

Sad, this is. Research fraud exploded over the last decade And retractions don’t always mention when data’s fraudulent (43% of the time, in fact). A number of studies have spotted a worrisome trend: although the number of scientific journals and articles published is increasing each year, the rate of papers being retracted as invalid is …

Tom Atlee: Political Dichotomies are Illusory

Dear friends, In anticipation of challenges to my assertion that our political dichotomies – especially the liberal/conservative, blue-red divide – are illusions, I offer the following references: 1.  The “Purple USA” map – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_America 2.  My writeup of my first transpartisan experience – “A Personally Transformational Encounter of Left and Right” http://co-intelligence.org/polarization-Fetzer.html 3.  The story …

Tom Atlee: The Shift NOT Made by Obama – From Two to Many

Post-election: A collective shift from divided to wise Dear friends, President Obama said in his 2012 victory speech that “we are not as divided as our politics suggests”.  He also argued that we are more united than our politics makes us think we are.  Finally, he hinted that we are more diverse than our politics …