Well, just when it looked like things might be smoothing out a little bit we find out that two of the large “Bank-sters” are in big-g-g-g trouble again.

From Reuters:

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has hired Reid Weingarten, a high-profile Washington defense attorney whose past clients include a former Enron accounting officer, according to a government source familiar with the matter.

Blankfein, 56, is in his sixth year at the helm of the largest U.S. investment bank, which has spent two years dodging accusations of conflicts of interest and fraud.

The move to retain Weingarten comes as investigations of Goldman and its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis continue.

“Why do you bring in someone like that?” said the source, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “It says one thing: that they’re taking it seriously.”

Blankfein has not been charged in any civil or criminal case, and it was not immediately clear why he hired Weingarten.

David Wells, a spokesman for Goldman, declined to comment.

Weingarten did not respond to requests for comment.

As a result their stock is tanking big time and looks to keep falling.

Next up Bank of America, with their stock crumbling, it has plunged below $7.00 and will most likely be below $6.00 in a day or two. Investors just don’t believe their assets are worth what they are being told as they are inflated from their last bailout.

The solution everyone is talking about is the same one the US used with General Motors.

It’s too big to be seized and sold off so…

From Business Insider:

* Seize the bank
* Issue a statement saying that the bank’s senior debt obligations and contracts and deposits will be honored and all of the banks businesses will continue to operate as usual during a temporary “workout period” (this will reassure senior bondholders, depositors, and customers, so they don’t freak out and yank their money.)
* Suspend trading of Bank of America’s stock, which will be rendered worthless. (If you feel the need to throw shareholders a bone even though they’d have lost everything eventually anyway, promise them warrants in the new capital structure)
* Fire senior management
* Hire a team of conservative, independent analysts to quickly assess the value of Bank of America’s assets. Tell them to err on the conservative side.
* Write down the value of Bank of America’s assets by whatever it takes to make the balance sheet bombproof—focusing on second mortgages, commercial real-estate, European obligations, goodwill, and other “assets” that the market is skeptical about
* “Haircut” the unsecured creditors by whatever amount is necessary to close the gap between the asset writedown and the equity (BOFA currently has $222 billion of equity, so there’s a lot to work with).
* Inject $300 billion (or some multiple of the asset write-off) of fresh capital into the bank in the form of preferred and common stock—enough to make the bank extremely well-capitalized
* Hire new senior management
* Issue new common stock with the Treasury initially owning 100% of it
* Sell 20% of this common stock on the public market
* Eventually, when things have calmed down, sell the rest

They have not been able to solve their problems voluntarily and this is the next logical step, according to sources in Timmy’s office. The have been desperately trying to sell their stake in China Construction bank to raise capital. Too little too late is my guess.

If Bank of America is “systemically important,” as everyone agrees it is, then the “system” has every right—legally and morally—to protect itself from Bank of America’s recklessness and incompetence.

From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Pakistan gave <a title="Full coverage of China access to the previously unknown U.S. "stealth" helicopter that crashed during the commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May despite explicit requests from the CIA not to, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The disclosure, if confirmed, is likely to further shake the U.S.- relationship, which has been improving slightly after hitting its lowest point in decades following the killing of bin Laden.

Full Story Here >>

For Pakistan to let China see one of our military’s best kept secrets simply puts the rest of our troops in harms way. I say let them go, continue to go after the Taliban IN Pakistan and tell them it was the Chinese that must have rocketed those targets, using our stolen technology.

Many of you that know me and know that I have been here for a very long time may be surprised to hear something like this, I’ve been sort of a tempering voice at times. This is way over the top and makes Pakistan no better than those lying communists they have gotten in bed with.

The biggest holder of US Debt if the Federal Reserve. Ron Paul has it right when he says, “Have the Federal Reserve simply cancel or forgive the 1.6 Trillion in Treasury Bonds it holds.” The Fed holds the bonds, the Treasury pays the Fed interest and the Fed refunds the interest back to the Treasury anyway!

The Fed is a privately owned bank and it’s owned by the Government. For all practical purposes the government owns the debt holdings so in other words it’s borrowing from itself and has a huge amount of interest payments it must pay – TO ITSELF!

If the Fed were to sell the bonds it would turn a phony liability the government owes itself into one where the government owes REAL people. It’s all a shell game and the sooner the American public wakes up to the reality of this, the sooner this phony crisis would end.

What would it hurt? No jobs lost, no one would get fired and we’d just shed ourselves of 1.6 Trillion of phony debt.

Will it happen? I can absolutely tell you it won’t. It’s too politically damaging, because it would show the unknowing public what a house of cards our monetary system is and there are those that would scream that “It’ll shrink the country’s monetary base.” So what!

I’m just sayin….

I’ve been a member here for almost 5 years and haven’t posted in some time…but this debt thing has really got me riled.

Back in January of 2009 I wrote a short blog on a rising star in New Jersey that can still be read here.

As I said then he was the right man and many here at RS soon took up the call to arms and supported his position.

The 46-year-old Republican with a reputation as a corruption-busting prosecutor has been flirting with a gubernatorial bid since resigning as U.S. Attorney Dec. 1.

The Newark Star Ledger article on him at the time is still available. It’ll perhaps provide some insight on the man before he became Governor of New Jersey.

Lately there have been some comparisons of Chirsite and Palin and the fact that there seems to be a confrontation brewing between the two.

A Quinnipiac University poll on Monday revealed that Christie scored higher than any other potential 2012 candidate on its “hotness index,” which measures the intensity of warmth voters feel about a figure. Christie has said he won’t be a presidential candidate next year.

Palin, on the other hand, scored lower than 13 other potential 2012 Republican candidates. And, when broken down by party, even among Republicans — where her support is strongest — Palin managed only sixth place, while Christie led all 13 challengers.

Over the weekend, Palin fired her harshest shot yet at Christie. Her words weren’t just inflammatory; the whole context was kerosene.

I assume that there is a great deal of “assumption” in this article which can be read here, and even though Christie says he won’t run next year I urge you to help him change his mind.

In an excerpt from that 2009 Newark Star Ledger article the following quote was made by Tom Wilson:

“It’s a positive development in the minds of Republican, a late Christmas or Hanukkah present,” state Republican Chairman Tom Wilson said. “For somebody who has never won a statewide campaign before, he has some qualities he’s bringing to the race we have not seen.”

I am going to write a long letter to the Governor this afternoon. I think Chris Christie is the right man for 2012. I love Gov. Palin, but as I said when she was announced as John McCain’s running mate and to the dismay of many of my fellow RedStater’s back then, I don’t think she is the right person for the job.

With
the crisis in the Middle East growing on a daily basis, Saudi Arabia recently
announced that they would pick up the slack. But, they can’t. They are at max
output now and all they can do is speed up the pumping rate for a short time.
They can’t sustain a faster pumping rate as they will run the well dry and suck
sand. They must slow the pumps back down to allow the well hole to fill up again.
There are reports from our government and famously leaked by Wiki-Leaks, that
the Saudis may have over estimated their reserves by as much as 40%!

Recently
they announced a huge move into alternative energy sources to the tune of $130B
dollars and a huge part of that is solar energy. That is a huge move!

There is no better place to be than
in silver to take advantage of that move. Solar panels rely heavily on silver
in their construction and will certainly cause the prices to rise in the coming
years. With silver hovering around $35.00 an ounce and oil prices soaring it
portends a bright future for silver and it makes those predictions of $100.00
per ounce more believable.

But, the question begs to be asked
as to why this big move into alternative energies? The Saudi’s recently announced
that they are moving ahead with plans to build nuclear power plants and natural
gas infrastructure within the next four years. And now the addition of solar
energy farms.

According to this
article at Fastcompany.com the solar farm industry in the middle east is
in it’s infancy and Saudi Arabia is on the forefront of that technology moving
to the middle east.

Before
we answer the question about "why" let’s look at a few more statistics
from Saudi Arabia. Their stock market has dropped nearly 22% since mid-January.
Essentially it’s in a shambles.

From Bespoke Investments we see this
quote:

Back in late January, the TASI
saw a one-day decline of over 6% on 1/29 when tensions began to escalate in
Egypt. When things settled down in Cairo, the TASI rebounded back above its
50-day moving average, but it then began to roll over again when tensions
moved to Libya.

Not really too revealing just yet.
But, let’s take a look at this snip-it from Bloomberg:

Saudi
Arabia is "perfectly unstable," like Egypt, where 10-day protests
are threatening the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak, Nassim Taleb,
author of "Black Swan," said today…

…The
86-year-old ruler of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah, has backed the Egyptian
government and condemned the protesters, while trying to address imbalances
in the largest Arab economy. The government announced in August a $385 billion,
five-year spending plan as the kingdom tries to reduce a jobless rate of as
high as 43 percent for Saudis between the ages of 20 and 24.

Almost
40 percent of the population in Saudi Arabia, which is the world’s largest
oil exporter, is under 15. The country is ruled by the Al Saud family, which
relies on support from the Sunni Muslim clerical establishment under a 1744
pact.

Perhaps now you can begin to see
a change in the underpinnings of things in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi’s are attempting
to kill two birds with one stone, move from oil dependence and create jobs
in hopes of closing the inequalities that exist between the ruling class and
it’s citizens.

This all means huge profits for
those that tap into the technology that is about to explode in the middle
east. Saudi Arabia is just the tip of the iceberg as the region begins this
shift to alternative energy and they have the money to be first on the block
to acquire oil independence.

Let’s face it, they are in the
perfect geographical location to make a lot of energy from the sun and that
means huge consumption’s of silver. Silver prices will continue to soar as
it is consumed for solar panels and other technologies that depend on it.
Warren Buffet has increased his position to nearly 200 million ounces while
establishment investment advisers on Wall Street continue to tell their clients
that silver isn’t a good investment, it’s merely an industrial metal and subject
to the whims of the manufacturing industry.

Keep telling them that Jim Kramer
and others, while we and our friends reap the rewards of investing in this
"Industrial Metal".

There is a plan to use the IMF (AKA US Treasury and Wall Street) to be the front man for the new world order and one currency.We also got disturbing news yesterday from an impeccable source that when gold touches $2,000 it’s confiscated in the USAfor about $200. Then it’s to be reissued by the Treasury for $10,000 per ounce to back the new IMF world currency using SDRS in 2011.  Large physical gold is being moved to Canada. (Editor’s note: There are strong indications that Warren Buffet has already begun to move his PM’s to Canada, where he owns two gold mines and obviously has the secure storage available)

So, will it happen again? I’d have to say overtly, probably not. Never say never, but I believe that covertly it has already begun …

…there’s the matter of gold and silver Exchange Traded Funds. Many of these funds, including the largest, are thought by many informed individuals, not to hold the metal they are purported to. At some point, if they don’t have the metal, they will default on their obligations to shareholders. Those shareholders who thought they owned gold will not…They will have had their gold taken from them. Confiscated.

The final implementation of confiscation will probably be in the form of confiscatory taxes. If taxes rise to 90% on any profit I must report, then it will be discouraging and not worth the effort to hold the metal.

Qualifying all of this is of course necessary and I must say that it may not happen at all UNLESS the US decides to go back to a gold backed currency standard. That is exactly when FDR in 1933 moved to confiscate and ban gold ownership until 1973 when we transitioned to fiat currency.

One last bit of paranoia is this fact:

My conclusion is to advise you to keep an eye on what is happening in Washington via sources like this one, make your buys in small quantities (under 600 per transaction) and above all find a place to store those physical metals you are holding in a place that can’t be found if someone comes looking!

Cross Posted at The Silver Advisor

It’s hard to believe that I have been a member here for more then 5 years. RedState has inspired me in ways you can not imagine and it has lead me to many new places in life.

It’s still the best place for conservatives to be and I look forward to another great 5 years here at RS.

As always Eric and the gang do a great job with moving our cause forward, vetting those that need it and keeping a sensible balance to politics.

Thanks for a great 5 years guys and many more to come!

It is nearly a year since the frenzy of the November 2008 election. The results did not turn out the way conservatives and Republicans had hoped. With that said it means that the Democrats won the election, or did they? America has made mistakes in choosing a leader in the past and we most certainly will in the future. I had stated repeatedly during the run-up to the primary and general elections that it’s the person that sells best to the public that gets elected, and I used the analogy of Madonna, a little know actor that was package by a group of promoters and business men and turned into a cash generating machine. The same is true of Barack Obama, albeit a cash dispensing machine, dispensing large sums of the green backs to any one that sticks out their hand, no PIN required.

We were quiet simply sold a bill of goods. The World Governments, the American people and especially the Democratic Party were sold a hollow, ineffective leader that has taken the most respected and revered job in the world, President of the United States and turned our country into an embarrassment.

By and large throughout recent history America has commanded respect throughout the world and very few governments would ever say no to a reasonable request from our leader. I am afraid that is no longer true. At every turn one country after another has been saying NO to the United States. While there are always those that have an opposing view of our decisions and have respectively voiced them, there have never been so many countries at one time saying no to our leader or criticizing his decisions.

He has made so many bad decisions regarding our foreign policies that America has become an embarrassment to many Americans that are so proud of this country, among our friends in the global community. He is seen as an ineffective leader and as the image of our leader is often used to represent the image of America, we are seen as an ineffective power that once dominated the balance of power.

While our friends on the other side of the isle may not agree with my assessment of our President, it is my belief that they too are embarrassed by their choice of a Democrat to hold the office in the White House. And therein lays the truth of what I have said. President Obama isn’t using the office as a tool for effective leadership; he is merely a placeholder in that office until the time comes for us to correct our mistake in 2012.

Our friend Rus recently discussed the Conyers mess and our dysfunctional government here in New York.

Great stuff…….

Our friend Rus Thompson was on the Glenn Beck show recently talking about the lawsuit he filed here in New York to stop the pay of our dysfunctional government here.

Glenn also discussed the Conyers mess with Rus. Great stuff….

Moe has posted the video link on the front page, thank you Moe Lane.

And now my 2 cents

While this may have been the most expensive inauguration in history, it was attended by a large group of “low class, no count” thugs. I mean that in every sense of the word. Even the ultra Obama smoozer of all time, Chris Mathews, could be heard saying, “Bad form here, bad form.”

Many may not have agreed with GWB and his policies (even here at RedState) he was STILL the President of the United States, and is a good, honorable and decent man. To be treated like this during such a monumental historical event says just one thing, and it’s some thing many of us have said for a long time. “The majority of Democrats are thugs”, and it couldn’t have been more apparent today.

As the current POTUS was being announced, this crowd of hoodlums on the Mall began to boo President George W. Bush. Hoodlums, thugs, punks, no class low life’s, no counts… I am too mad right now to think of other adjectives to describe this crowd.

To be fair, there were many honorable people in attendance and IMHO none more honorable the the Tuskegee Airman and to tarnish their honor, there service to our country, to belittle George W. Bushes service to us all in a time of crisis is absolutely, positively unforgivable.

This whole affair is getting a bit over done. Thomas Jefferson simply walked from his boarding house, over to Capital Hill, was sworn in and started working. It should be just that simple.

I will remember this day for ever, not as one where the first African American was installed as the President of the United States, but as the most distasteful act of public humility I have ever witnessed, it it will forever taint my view of President Obama.

This is a damning video, and shows how deeply Obama and Rahm Emmanuel were entrenched in this affair with the now impeached Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Good video from the RNC.

We need a call-up for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

From WCBS News:

In an e-mail to supporters, Christie says a formal announcement will come in the first week in February.

The filing allows Christie to start raising money for the 2009 race.

The 46-year-old Republican with a reputation as a corruption-busting prosecutor has been flirting with a gubernatorial bid since resigning as U.S. Attorney Dec. 1.

Christie faces a primary challenge from state Assemblyman Rick Merkt and former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine plans to seek re-election.

In addition, the Newark Star Ledger confirms that report.

Troops, lets get behind this, Christie is a hard working, good man, a corruption fighting prosecutor and an excellent choice for Govenor.

Many had great hopes for this man, that he was going to be a leader; make intelligent informed decisions and lead this country as it should be led. I am not one of those, although there a millions who still think that way.

A statement made today by this leader of the most powerful nation in the world has only confirmed my suspicions about is utter and complete lack of understanding of what is going on in the world.

It became exceedingly clear to me that we are NOT heading down a different road, that we are not going to see prosperity anytime soon and we are just going to get more of the same old thing. I never thought for a moment that he would change and make the right decisions regarding our economy and restoring this country to the economic powerhouse it was and still can be.

It became exceedingly clear when I saw this photo posted on the Drudge Report with the caption so eloquently stated, and I present that portrait to you now as a shining example of a “Failed President.” What is unique about this failure, is that this man has yet to assume the role of our leader, yet he has clearly failed as a leader.

Jennifer Loven, White House Correspondent for the Associated Press filed this story, and should have titled it as Matt Drudge did.

Some excerpts from this article:

Since his November election, Obama has deferred to President George W. Bush on foreign policy matters such as the Middle East. But, with the worsening of the economic situation, Obama has waded deeply into domestic issues as he works to generate support for his plan to create jobs and jolt the economy into recovery.

In the speech at George Mason University outside Washington, Obama asked Congress to work with him “day and night, on weekends if necessary” to pass a revival plan within the next few weeks so that it can be ready for his signature shortly after he takes office on Jan. 20.

He wants to be a hero on day 1 of his Presidency and yet he has no idea of the consequences of his idea.

Spend Our Way Out of This

That is his idea of ending the recession that grips this nation, and seemingly deepens daily. How do we pay for all this spending? Print more money, so what little we have now is worth even less?

Spend Our Way Out of This

Faced with a possible $1.2 Trillion Dollar deficit from the current budget year, how can the taxpayers of this country afford his spending spree? He proposes a tax-cut, yet wants to spend more. I am not as educated in finance as many of our esteemed team members here at Red State. I am a rather simple man with a small business and when times are slow, I don’t tell my wife to go out and spend our way back to prosperity.

The president-elect cast blame on “an era of profound irresponsibility that stretched from corporate boardrooms to the halls of power in Washington.” But he added, “The very fact that this crisis is largely of our own making means that it is not beyond our ability to solve.”

Mr. Soon-To-Be President, that “era of profound irresponsibility” is exactly the same tactic you now propose to rescue our economy.

Still, his remarks shed no new light on the details of his plan that could cost as much as $775 billion over two years in tax cuts and spending. And, he said little about the unprecedented red ink and rising debt confronting the government, even after spending days reassuring the public and Congress that he is committed to tackling long-term deficits after the economy rebounds.

Spend Our Way Out of This

Ms. Loven, that last paragraph I just quoted shows that your not paying attention. Rather, the answer is in bold print just above this sentence. He is going to Spend Our Way Out of This,

Why, oh why Mr. Soon-To-Be President, haven’t you learned from the great financial minds of our past and present. The way out of this is so clear to most of us, why is it clouded from your mind. You profess to be a man of change, then change your manta from Spend Our Way Out of This to Let the Free Market Show Us the Way Out of This.

I am all for your tax-cuts, keep them coming. THAT is what will show us the way out of this. Your proposal will only bleed us dry, and your tax-cuts will be meaningless, because they will be followed by a round of very sharp tax increases.

Mr. Soon-To-Be President, you have failed before you have even begun.

AE posted a RedHot today, that leads to this link Back to the Front, an excellent reminder just how wrong the worlds view of this is.

An excerpt from the article:

My job will be to remind journalists that Hamas, not Israel, conquered Gaza and cut it off from the West Bank;

I had completely forgotten this little tid-bit of fact, or rather is was blurred in my aging memory. It is a point not often brought up by anyone in the media, although vauge references are made to the fact that Hamas governs Gaza, while they pity the citizens of that land.

Another great statement in that article:

Last night, while packing my kitbag, I listened as foreign correspondents spoke of Israel’s plan to “divide and conquer” the West Bank and Gaza Arabs, that Israel had “starved” and “strangled” Gazans and forced them to lash out with missiles, and that Gaza is “the world’s most densely populated area.”

Soon, the entire world will be quoting that mis-statement “Gazans are forced to lash out with missiles” that has been made by many correspondents, but we are reminded by Professor Oren that it is the reverse that is the truth.

Oh, those brutal Israelis, how I love them so!