Iceland decides to stop negotiations, They don’t want to join the EU!

BRUSSELS – Iceland’s bid to join the EU is over, the country’s foreign minister told the European Commission on Thursday (13 June).

“This is how democracy works,” said Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson, on his first overseas trip, three weeks after being appointed to the recently elected Icelandic government.

He pointed out that both parties in the new government had campaigned against EU accession.

http://euobserver.com/political/120501

Philipp Hildebrand: The sheriff has spoken – and the Swiss must submit

from FT:

I have vivid memories of watching western movies with my father. For a boy, seeing John Wayne get his way brought certainty: it was clear that, with enough firepower, might would prevail. Switzerland and its banks were slow to recognise this simple truth. The price to pay is now uncomfortably high.

In recent years, US authorities have taken an aggressive stand against Swiss bank secrecy on the grounds that US clients are using [...]

Anonymous Operation Egypt

Egypt’s National Salvation Front (NSF) opposition coalition announced Saturday their full support for the anti-Morsi Rebel campaign, saying there is no longer room for negotiation with President Mohamed Morsi.

“No dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood or the regime, our date is 30 June, no going back on early presidential elections and the Egyptian people will decide on the next president,” said former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi in a press statement.

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/73553/Egypt/Politics-/Egypt%E2%80%99s-NSF-No-negotiations-with-Morsi;-will-join-.aspx

Muslim Brotherhood [...]

SF Bacon Restaurant Shut Down for Smelling Like Too Much Bacon

 

Few food items have enjoyed a more surprising recent resurgence than the savory strips of pig fat known as bacon. It is being wrapped around entrees, used to swizzle cocktails, and even serves as a flavor of ice cream.

But now a popular pork-focused restaurant in the Upper Haight must close its doors Friday following months of failed negotiations with neighbors over neighborhood concerns about porcine aroma and grease disposal.

Department of [...]

Ron Paul: Congress is hiding a terrifying fact about its “Immigration Reform Bill”

From The Independent Voter Network:

While his son, Senator Rand Paul, has taken most of the national spotlight away from his father, Ron Paul has not stopped advancing his “Campaign for Liberty.” Ron Paul and his supporters have built up a massive database of “liberty loving” supporters since the organization launched in 2008, following his second campaign for the Presidency. And today, he is calling his supporters to sign a petition against the [...]

Greece starts firing civil servants for first time in a century

Pushed by its European creditors amid its crippling economic crisis, Greece began this week to do something it hasn’t done in more than 100 years: fire public-sector workers en masse.

Following weeks of tough negotiations with its lenders – the “troika” of the International Monetary Fund, theEuropean Union, and the European Central Bank – the Greek government started laying off public-sector workers in an effort to implement the austerity that the troika has demanded. The first [...]

SEQUESTER FESTER: CONGRESS MOVES ON FLIGHT DELAYS

The White House and Democrats in Congress argued for months against a piecemeal fix to the budget problems caused by the sequester.

But on Thursday, Democrats caved in and agreed to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to keep air traffic control towers running at close to full capacity.

All it took was a few thousand people standing in line at the airport.

The Senate approved a deal late Thursday to ease the [...]

Police standoff in Lakewood NJ – No fly zone over the area

“The man is apparently armed with a switchblade, machete and Molotov cocktail, according to the page.

A command post is being set up in the parking lot of the Family Pharmacy on Brighton Avenue and an abandoned gas station. Area roads have been closed down, according to the Breaking News Network.

According to the network, police are setting up a no-fly zone over the city at this time. Negotiations are ongoing.”

http://www.app.com/article/20130422/NJNEWS14/304220083/Long-Branch-standoff?odyssey=mod%7Cbreaking%7Ctext%7CFrontpage&nclick_check=1

1,500 Page Immigration Bill to Drop One Day Before Only Hearing?

According to an ABC News report, senators from the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” pushing immigration reform are expected to drop their bill, estimated at around1,500 pages, on Tuesday, mere hours before the only scheduled Senate hearing on the topic.

“A bipartisan group of senators plans to introduce its long-awaited immigration bill on Tuesday, Senate sources confirmed to ABC News,” Jim Avila and Jordan Fabian wrote on Friday. “Four Democrats and four Republicans, [...]

OBAMA’S BUDGET: RAISE TAXES AGAIN

WASHINGTON — President Obama next week will take the political risk of formally proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare in his annual budget in an effort to demonstrate his willingness to compromise with Republicans and revive prospects for a long-term deficit-reduction deal, administration officials say.

In a significant shift in fiscal strategy, Mr. Obama on Wednesday will send a budget plan to Capitol Hill that departs from the usual presidential wish list that Republicans [...]

BREAKING: Cyprus, Troika Agree On 40% Haircut On Wealthy Depositors!!! BANK RUN IMMINENT!! Russian Leader Warns, “Get All Money Out Of Western Banks Now!”

Cyprus told: take bank levy or leave euro

President, eurozone finance ministers and bailout troika hold emergency meeting as €100 limit imposed on ATM withdrawals

Wealthy Russians stand to lose billions of euros in Cypriot banks under draconian terms being hammered out on Sunday night in Brussels to prevent the Mediterranean tax haven becoming the first country forced out of the single currency.

Negotiations got underway [...]

Cyprus banks remain closed for another 5 days & will provide controls over withdrawal of money

The ministry of finance issued a decree declaring Thursday and Friday as bank holidays. As Monday is also an established holiday, banks will re-open on March 26.

The government hopes that by that time it will be able to work out a way of raising 5.8 billion euros (7.5 billion US dollars) demanded by international lenders before they consent to a bailout for Cyprus worth 10 billion euros.

The Cypriot parliament on [...]

Cyprus “Tax” On Savers Above €500,000 to Raise to 15%

CNBC
March 18, 2013

Cyprus will put forward a new proposal on Monday under which a tax-free threshold or a lower tax rate for smaller depositors could be introduced, media reports said on Monday, in a move aimed at easing the pain of a bailout agreement which will impose an unprecedented tax on savers.

Reuters cited a government source in Cyprus as saying that the country is mulling a tax-free threshold on the [...]

Sequester Cuts Are Here To Stay

The sequester is here to stay — at least for a while. Lawmakers and aides say they do not expect Congress to turn off budget sequestration before April and that negotiations to freeze the automatic spending cuts could drag into May or beyond.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com …

Ahmed Rashid: The US needs a mediator for Afghanistan

from FT:

 

The US and Nato are more earnestly than ever trying to speed up peace talks between them, the Afghan and Pakistani governments and the Taliban. But they will falter again, just as they have done in the past until the US is prepared to make a radical break with the past format of negotiations and understand the importance of mediation.

But what we have seen in the on and off [...]

Former Obama spokesman: Menendez scandal now a ‘withered boob’

A former campaign spokesman for President Barack Obama said Thursday that there has been too much news coverage of several scandals surrounding New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez.

“There’s a point at which you’ve milked a story so much you look like withered boob. Move on,” Hari Sevugan tweeted Thursday morning, reacting to news that Menendez is still welcome at White House negotiations regarding immigration reform.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/14/former-obama-spokesman-menendez-scandal-now-a-withered-boob-move-on/#ixzz2Ku2N5RPH

Instead of directly financing the ruling elite in Washington, the Fed does it through Goldman Sachs and friends.

TRILLION DOLLAR BABIES

“Million dollar baby, Billion dollar baby, Zillion dollar baby, Trillion dollar baby.” — Alice Cooper, 1973

With the US Congress once again chomping at the bit to raise the limit on government borrowing, it has become exceedingly comical to watch as what was once the world’s leading economic power print, borrow, and spend its way down the path of failed states. For all their talk of scaling back Leviathan, Republicans in the House [...]

Who Really Runs the World? Forget Brussels: Now we are ruled by the giants of Geneva

Much of the regulation issuing from the EU is being passed down from even bigger, global bodies

by Christopher Booker, The Telegraph:

As predicted, that speech on “Europe” delivered by David Cameron at eight o’clock on Wednesday morning put one in mind of the White Queen’s boast that she could “believe six impossible things before breakfast”.

He wanted us to believe that he could persuade the EU to change its nature and the purposes [...]

Reid to Senate Republicans: Filibuster deal in 36 hours or face nuclear option

Reid to Senate Republicans: Filibuster deal in 36 hours or face nuclear option By Alexander Bolton – 01/22/13 03:29 PM ET

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is giving Republican colleagues 36 hours to agree to a deal on filibuster reform or he will move forward with the nuclear option.

“I hope in the next 24, 36 hours we can get something we agree on. If not, we’re going to move forward [...]

American Hostages Still Held by Militants in Algeria, US Confirms

Chris McGreal
Guardian.co.uk
January 18, 2013

The US state department says Americans are still being held hostage by Islamist militants who seized an Algerian gas facility, but that there will be no negotiations with the captors over demands for the release of two convicted terrorists held in US prisons.

The American hostages include a 57-year-old industrial engineer from Houston, Texas, whose brother told the Houston Chronicle that the FBI said the man was still [...]

BREAKING ALERT: NYS Wants To Confine The “Mentally ill” To Reduce Gun Violence!

People familiar with closed-door negotiations told The Associated Press a tentative deal was struck over the weekend.

The tentative agreement would further restrict New York’s ban on assault weapons, limit the size of magazines to seven bullets, down from the current 10, and enact more stringent background checks for sales. Other elements, pushed by Republicans, would refine a mental health law to make it easier to confine people determined to be [...]

Bank of America foreclosure settlement enough for homeowners?

from RTAmerica:

Bank of America has agreed to pay $10 billion to Fannie Mae to settle claims for residential mortgages loans. In addition to BOA, ten other financial institutions came to an agreement on Monday after months of negotiations with federal regulators for mishandling foreclosures cases. Debby Goldberg with the National Fair Housing Alliance brings us more on whether or not the settlement is fair.

BREAKING INTEL: US Administration Decides to Abandon Syria ‘Free Army’

The French intellectual, Thierry Meyssan said the US administration has decided to abandon the armed terrorist groups in Syria who call themselves ”The Free Army” as the US is set to start negotiations with Russia for solving the crisis there according to Geneva statement.

In an article published on Voltaire Network, Meyssan said that the US administration has clearly decided to turn the page on the so-called ‘Free Army’, reminding that [...]

Obama INSISTS on $76 Billion in tax credits for the 1% in fiscal cliff agreement

Didn’t the Republicans get blamed for the need for Zucotti Park? Wan’t Obama on the side of the 99% before he insisted that these tax credits for uber rich companies be a part of the law? Apparently Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, GE and Hollywood are NOT part of the 1%. I did not know that.

“The “fiscal cliff” legislation passed this week included $76 billion in special-interest tax credits for the [...]

Boehner tells GOP he’ll no longer negotiate with Obama

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is signaling that at least one thing will change about his leadership during the 113th Congress: he’s telling Republicans he is done with private, one-on-one negotiations with President Obama.

During both 2011 and 2012, the Speaker spent weeks shuttling between the Capitol and the White House for meetings with the president in the hopes of striking a grand bargain on the deficit.

Those efforts ended in failure, leaving [...]

Kirchner demands: UK must return Falklands to Argentina

David Cameron must return the Falkland Islands to Argentina, 180 years after the territories were “forcibly stripped” from the South American country, the country’s president has claimed in newspaper adverts.

In an emotional open letter to the British prime minister, Cristina Kirchner, Argentina’s president, has called on him to honour a United Nations resolution dating from 1965 and start negotiations about handing over the islands.

The letter, which was due to be [...]

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Leave Hedge Fund Tax Loophole Unscathed

Wynton Hall
breitbart.com
January 2, 2012

Common ground is hard to come by in Washington these days, but everyone, it seems, hates tax “loopholes.” Democrats claim they rob the government of revenue and benefit the rich. Republicans say tax loopholes distort free markets by letting the government pick winners and losers, thereby potentially introducing artificial and undesirable incentives.

Indeed, during the 2012 presidential race, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan attacked tax loopholes for [...]

MONEY’S NO OBJECT: Obama heads back to Hawaii — at taxpayer cost of $7 million

In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to taxpayers.

The price tag is in addition to more than $4 million that is already being spent on the Obamas’ Hawaii idyll, bringing [...]

BREAKING LIVE NOW : FEED WHITE HOUSE – President Obama Delivers Remarks on the Fiscal Cliff.

LIVE IN 5 MINUTES FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.

According to reports, Obama is NOT expected to be announcing a deal.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obamas-130-pm-announcement-on-the-fiscal-cliff-negotiations-2012-12#ixzz2GeisGXnX

 

House ‘Tea Party’ Members Appear to Hold Key Votes

The Tea Party has had an up-and-down political ride since the movement helped Republicans take control of the House in 2010, but those elected in the midterm elections still appear to wield considerable power in the fiscal negotiations.

The roughly 50 members elected to the House two years ago have been a challenge for the more moderate House Speaker John Boehner since they took office. Perhaps most memorably, many of them [...]

Barrasso: Obama has ‘addiction’ to spending

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) accused President Obama of not adequately addressing federal spending in negotiations to avoid January’s “fiscal cliff.”

Barrasso’s comments Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” comes as legislators rush to beat the end-year deadline to prevent automatic spending cuts and tax increases from taking effect in 2013.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/274879-sen-barasso-obama-ignoring-addiction-to-spending

Sen. Reid To GOP: “At This Stage We’re Not Able To Make A Counteroffer”

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KENTUCKY): My office submitted our latest offer to the Majority Leader last night at 7:10 p.m. and offered to work through the night to find common ground. The Majority Leader’s staff informed us they would be getting back to us this morning at 10:00 a.m., despite the obvious time crunch we all have. It’s now 2:00 p.m., and we have yet to receive a response to our [...]

‘Major setback’ in fiscal cliff talks

Negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have suffered a “major setback” after Republicans demanded the inclusion of new method for calculating entitlement benefits as part of the fiscal cliff package, according to Democratic sources.

The provision, known as “chained CPI,” is opposed by many progressives because it would result in lower payments for Social Security beneficiaries.

Democrats did not want to include this as part of the current, [...]

WARNING!!! Markets Set to Collapse Next Week: Almost Everyone Is All In On Nearly Record Amounts of Leverage, Ron Paul On The Fiscal Cliff: “We Have Passed The Point Of No Return”… Negotiations Are Going Very Badly!!! Middle Class Tax Rates Might Have To Be Hiked Too!!!

breaking

It could be fairly normal to have the markets down over the new year though generally this type of futures signal would end up being a 500 point drop…

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks/futures/

Check out what happened with the DOW futures since Dec 21st 2012:

http://s9.postimage.org/uzksnc9jj/dow_2012_2.jpg

 

Margin Debt Soars To 2008 Levels As Everyone Is “All In”, Levered, And Selling Vol

There were some readers who took offense at our “bloodbath” recap of yesterday’s market action (modestly different [...]

RED ALERT: According To Two Reporters, The Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Are Going Very Badly

Two of the top reporters covering the Fiscal Cliff, John Harwood of CNBC and Ben White Of Politico, have ominous tweets on this weekend’s negotiations so far.

John Harwood

?

@JohnJHarwood

Uh-oh…asked how deal negotiations are coming along today, Senate Dem aide says: “Not”

29 Dec 12

Ben White

?

@morningmoneyben

McConnell-Reid staff talks going great if by great you mean really terrible/non-existent

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-harwood-ben-white-fiscal-cliff-negotiations-going-badly-2012-12#ixzz2GTBmSfSj