James Rosen, defense reporter for Fox News was tracked by the Department of Justice in 2009. His private emails were read, his comings and goings around Washington DC were monitored.

Bizarrely Rosen is the author of The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate. 

The universe can be an oddly poetic place at times.

(From The Washington Post)

When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.

They used security badge access records to track the reporter’s comings and goings from the State Department, according to a newly obtained court affidavit. They traced the timing of his calls with a State Department security adviser suspected of sharing the classified report. They obtained a search warrant for the reporter’s personal e-mails.

Click here for the article.

That is the question EU regulators are trying to answer.

At the center of the controversy is whether oil companies and banks gamed the price of oil on the Platts Global Petrochemical Index in a way similar to how banks manipulated the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR.

The Platts Index, it is alleged, can be moved to benefit suppliers and players in oil derivative markets. This manipulation is reflected in the retail price you and I pay for gasoline.

Potentially a very important story.

(From CNN Money)

Aside from the big oil companies, Wall Street banks are also big players in the energy markets who could conceivably benefit from price movements, said David Frenk, director of research at the financial reform group Better Markets and a former commodities analyst at a hedge fund. If Platts’ data was indeed manipulated, Frenk said, consumers as well as other traders took a hit.

Click here for the article.

It’s good that the New Hampshire Republican made at least a brief stop at Goldman Sachs. How embarrassing would it be if the head of the most important banking trade group wasn’t a Goldman alum?

(From The Chicago Tribune)

The appointment of the veteran politician, who also was governor of New Hampshire and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, continues a growing trend of legislators, financial regulators, bank executives and lobbyists moving back and forth among the channels.

Click here  for the article.

Everyone wants a piece of the taxpayer funded pie. The inventor of “The Whisper,” an inflatable car is no different. When billions were handed out from the Obama administration for “green” vehicles in the Whisper project (now updated as an SUV)  was not picked up for funding. Now the inventor is miffed.

He’s suing because he believes he was denied funding due to a lack of  the right political connections. He might be right, but it still doesn’t mean his idea should be funded by the taxpayer.

This is the sort of thing that happens when the government starts playing venture crony capitalist.

(From Gizmodo)

Still, what makes Redmond’s lawsuit interesting is his claim that he was turned down because his company lacked ties to the Obama administration and several Democratic elected officials. He claims that theAdvanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program was compromised by political bias at the top, and that the car was turned down because they weren’t connected to the right Democrats like people involved with Tesla and Fisker were.

Click here for the article.

Not bad. The economy must be just killing it! No? Well…Then why is the market ripping and roaring? You say they’re handing out free chips at the Fed window and the cards are stacked for the players? Oh excellent. That seems like a good way to run an economy. Pass me a martini.

Click here for the article.

Vive le France? Well, one of the reasons there is less “vive” in France these days is because of asinine policies such as the one imposed by France’s current Socialist government which is highlighted below.

Eat the rich? See how many of the rich stick around to be eaten.

How on earth would a country ever turn itself around with this sort of economic mentality? The French are basically saying that they don’t want capital creation within their borders.

(From Reuters)

“…the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government imposed the tax surcharge last year, shortly after taking office, to offset the impact of a rebate scheme created by its conservative predecessor to cap an individual’s overall taxation at 50 percent of income.”

Click here for the article.

I like Bitcoin because it decentralizes money. I like it because it is a great experiment in free banking, in free market money.  I like it because it directly challenges the central banks.

That last reason is why the government is doing all that it can to kill Bitcoin in the crib.

Would I put my life’s savings into Bitcoin? Nope. But some money, enough to make it interesting? Sure. Many other people feel the same as I do. And the Feds do not like that one bit.

Click here for the article.

Money flowing makes people forget. The fear of “missing out” makes people forget. Banks with cheap money buying up real estate assets left and right makes people forget. The housing bubble created by too much cheap money and the ugly bust afterward just a few years ago? Ancient history. And it is ancient history for the banks which were recapitalized by the taxpayer and are now feeling pretty good about themselves as they buy up entire neighborhoods. (The houses formerly owned by taxpayers.)

Click here for the article.

Click here for the article.

It is good to see that the K Street guys are so concerned about getting tax reform to benefit their clie…er… I mean, the American people.

(From The Hill)

Pro-business lobbyists are also worried that the IRS-Tea Party issue could hold up tax treaties pending in the Senate.

The treaties are supposed to end double taxation while facilitating information-sharing between governments. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has objected to this increased information-gathering as a violation of privacy.

“The IRS scandal could prove his point that the IRS isn’t to be trusted and can abuse their power,” one lobbyist said.

Click here for the article.