Category Archives: Corruption & Finance

Corruption concentrates wealth in the hands of a few at the expense of the 99% below, and this trend has accelerated the past decades. Corrupt leaders and industries are less likely to ration food and oil as it declines, accelerating collapse. I predict that the higher the level of corruption (see corruption perceptions index at transparency.org) will make collapse faster and harsher than in less corrupt nations.  I hope future historians look at this as a factor in how nations fell during the energy crisis. Though I expect that smaller towns everywhere will do better than large cities, and where local governments are uncorrupted

Credit Cards

Usurious Returns on Phantom Money: The Credit Card Gravy Train  February 14, 2014 by Ellen Brown The credit card business is now the banking industry’s biggest cash cow, and it’s largely due to lucrative hidden fees.  You pay off your credit … Continue reading

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Bill Moyers & Bill Black on Ponzi schemes, Fraud, & Liar’s loans

Bill Moyers talks to Bill Black about the fraud that pervades the financial industry and the Obama government April 3, 2009  pbs.org William Kurt Blackis an American lawyer, academic, author, and a former bank regulator. His expertise is white-collar crime, … Continue reading

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Joe Bageant : We’ve Let Corporations and Media Rob Our Souls–It’s Time to do something Meaningful

[One of the best books that explains why poor people go against their own interests by voting for Trump and Republicans in general is Joe’s highly entertaining “Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America’s Class War“. Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author … Continue reading

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Stock Market Bubbles and Rallies

I have a theory that the rich milk the middle class like cows by deliberately driving up the prices of stocks and skimming the cream off by selling before the market goes down, as described in Matt Taibbi’s The Great … Continue reading

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Goldman Sachs has manipulated markets since the Great Depression and still is

The Great American Bubble Machine From tech stocks to high gas prices, Goldman Sachs has engineered every major market manipulation since the Great Depression — and they’re about to do it again   9 July 2009  Matt Taibbi The first … Continue reading

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Pensions of millions of Americans Threatened

Thought Secure, Pooled Pensions Teeter and Fall 12 April 2014  Mary Williams Walsh  New York Times The pensions of millions of Americans are being threatened because of trouble in a part of the retirement world long considered so safe that … Continue reading

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The most greedy, fraudulent banks continue to loot

Too Big to Fail banks continue to behave like they did before 2008 and are making the most money because they’re perceived as safer. The Looting of America’s Coffers March 10, 2009 David Leonhardt. New York Times Sixteen years ago, … Continue reading

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Debt relief scams

Aug 20 2013 CFPB Files Suit Against Morgan Drexen for Charging Illegal Fees and Deceiving Consumers Company Made Misleading Claims about its Debt-Relief Services to Consumers May 30 2013 CFPB Takes Action to Stop Florida Company From Engaging in Illegal … Continue reading

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Mortgage Scams: Kickbacks, Modification, etc

Nov 7 2013 CFPB Takes Action Against Castle & Cooke For Steering Consumers Into Costlier Mortgages. Company to Pay $9 Million in Restitution and $4 Million in Civil Penalties Oct 24 2013 CFPB Files Suit Against Borders & Borders, PLC … Continue reading

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Discriminatory Mortgages $35 million fines

Dec 23 2013 CFPB and DOJ Take Action Against National City Bank for Discriminatory Mortgage Pricing Harmed African-American and Hispanic Borrowers Will Receive $35 Million in Restitution WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Department … Continue reading

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