BIG BANKS PROFITS BOGUS BIG DECEPTION

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast(THE EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADE BLOCKS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise:(10 NATIONS) and another shall rise after them;(#11 SPAIN) and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(BE HEAD OF 3 KINGS OR NATIONS).

REVELATION 17:12-13
12 And the ten horns (NATIONS) which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.(EU PRESIDENT)

REVELATION 13:1
1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.(THE EU AND ITS DICTATOR IS GODLESS)

REVELATION 17:3
3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.(THE VATICAN WILL BE WORKING CLOSELY WITH THE 7 AND THE EU THOUGH)

OH I WAS WRONG ABOUT THE VATICAN BEING PART OF THE 7 HEADS AND 10 HORNS TO CONTROL THE WHOLE WORLDS ECONOMY BY THE EU.THE 6 BANKS AND THE UN ARE THE 7 HEADS AND THIS IS RIGHT FROM THE NEW G-20 WEBSITE HOSTED BY THE LEADER BANK THE IMF.

WHY OH WHY PEOPLE CAN YOU NOT BELIEVE GODS WORDS LITERALLY.GOD SAID THERE WOULD BE 7 HEADS TO GO WITH THE 10 HORNS (EU) WHO WILL TAKE WORLD CONTROL.NEXT THESE 7WILL PUT THE WORLD IN 10 REGIONAL TRADE BLOCS TO MAKE TRADING EASIER WORLDWIDE IS MY NEXT PREDICTION BY GODS WORDS.

Principal Global Indicators (G-20 WEBSITE)
http://financialdatalink.sharepointsite.net/default.aspx

1. This website - Principal Global Indicators - is jointly established by seven international agencies (hereinafter referred as the agencies): the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the European Central Bank (ECB), Eurostat, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN), and the World Bank. The website is hosted by the IMF on behalf of the agencies. The information presented herein is to promote visibility of existing economic and financial statistics to facilitate the monitoring of key economic and financial indicators by the general public through a joint website. These terms and conditions shall be without prejudice to other activities of the participating organisations and to their specific terms and conditions, in particular as regards the use of the data disseminated as a part of those activities.

PASTOR TAZED AND BEATEN BY OFFICER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUzd7G875Hc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu3WVkdZcNY&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCIPLQK_aP8&feature=player_embedded
http://www.stevenandersonfamily.blogspot.com/

Police beat and taze pastor for citing 4th amendment at US checkpoint. Friday, April 17th, 2009 at 8:20 am | By: Radical Russ

A young man - a Baptist preacher - stopped by Border Patrol. Cops demand to search his car. Preacher invokes 4th amendment rights. Cops allege the K-9 unit alerted on drugs or humans secreted in the preacher’s car, though preacher doesn’t see dog react at all. Cops claim dog equals probable cause and invoke hammers to smash preacher’s windows out, tasers used repeatedly on preacher, preacher’s face torn up into bloody mess as cops smash his face into broken glass.Don’t forget these Border Patrol thugs are now conducting operations within 100 miles of the border. This is how our government is going to protect us from the scourge of Mexican trafficking of marijuana that Americans want to smoke and cheap labor that Americans want to hire. Is this how President Obama plans to crack down on drug use in America?

http://stash.norml.org/border-patrol...-broken-glass/

Video log from Pastor day after incident.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUzd7G875Hc

Alan Keyes: Government Will Stage Terror, Declare Martial Law
Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet.com Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes has given perhaps his most dire warning yet, saying that the Obama administration is preparing to stage terror attacks, declare martial law and cancel the 2012 elections, which is why they are demonizing their political enemies as criminals and terrorists.Keyes is best known for his performance during the 2000 Republican presidential debates, when he was accredited by many media outlets as being the clear winner during a series of debates with George W. Bush and John McCain.It’s obvious that they will stop at nothing, Keyes told attendees of a reception in Fort Wayne, adding, We may wake up one day and there’s a series of terrorist attacks, the economy is paralysed….martial law will be declared everywhere in the United States and it won’t end until the crisis ends.Keyes said that Americans should be thankful if they even see another election in 2012, stating,If we don’t wake up and work to see that it happens, we will not see another election.The minute they think they can get away with it, they will end this system of government and that is their intention,added Keyes, noting that everyone acting as if the time we are in was just business as usual reminds him of the attitude of politicians in the Weimar Republic when Hitler was rising to power or eastern Europe when the Communists were taking over after the second world war.Keyes said that because the majority of people are decent-minded, they believe others will play by the rules when this simply isn’t the case, warning that this attitude will allow evil to take over before we can do anything about it.

It is so clear hat we have now put a faction in place - they are not playing by the rules and they don’t intend to play by the rules - if they were playing by the rules they wouldn’t have tried to identify their opposition as criminals,added Keyes, making reference to the recent controversy surrounding the release of the MIAC and Homeland Security reports, which implied that Americans who exercise and are knowledgeable about their constitutional rights are a threat to law enforcement and potential domestic terrorists.Keyes said that the only solution was from the bottom up because our leaders are so gutless that they won’t even ask that the Constitution be enforced for clear, plain, absolutely unequivocal requirements,and respond meekly with their lips shut and their hearts terrorized.Keyes also warned of Obama’s agenda to create a civilian security force and said it was part of the ultimate agenda to disarm American citizens and create a police state.Keyes has been a vocal critic of Obama, warning that he is a radical Communist who is determined to destroy America, and that if his agenda is not stopped then the country as we know it will cease to exist.Watch the clip below - please forgive the poor sound and video quality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUE2ApL-Fpo&feature=player_embedded
http://www.infowars.com/alan-keys-government-will-stage-terror-declare-martial-law/
OBAMA DECEPTION
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAaQNACwaLw&feature=player_embedded

AMERICAN INTELLEGENCE REVEALED
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/04/snooper-show-name-americas-truth-forum.html#links
PEARL HARBOUR PICTURES
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/04/pearl-harbor-t-hese-photos-are.html#links
THOMAS WOODS - GREAT DREPRESSION WHAT WE CAN LEARN TODAY
http://mises.org/multimedia/video/misescircle-colorado09/05_Woods.wmv
BASEL ACCORDS 1&2
http://britanniaradio.blogspot.com/2009/04/tower-of-basel-secretive-plans-for.html#links

Israel eyes US missile defense system Apr. 21, 2009
Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST

A Phalanx weapon system.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak hopes to buy a US missile defense system to protect Israeli towns from short-range rockets and mortar fire, defense officials said Tuesday.Barak plans to ask US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to sell Israel the Vulcan-Phalanx cannon and radar system when he visits Washington in June, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the request has not yet formally been made.The Vulcan-Phalanx - manufactured by US company Raytheon Co.- is to be integrated into a multilayer defense umbrella that will include Israel's Iron Dome and two other missile systems being developed with the United States, the officials said.During Israel's recent military offensive into the Gaza Strip, Palestinians there fired rockets more than 45 kilometers into Israel. They continue to lob mortar shells and Kassam rockets across the border.The defense ministry has been looking at anti-rocket systems since 2003 but put the search into high gear after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, when nearly 4,000 Katyusha rockets slammed into northern Israel.Iron Dome, under development by state-owned weapons maker Rafael, is meant to counter Hizbullah's Katyushas and the Kassam rockets fired from Gaza.

The laser-based system is expected to be ready for deployment next year.Rafael is also working with Raytheon to develop a system named Magic Wand against medium-range missiles.To meet long-range threats, such as an Iranian attack, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. and Chicago-based Boeing Co. are producing the Arrow missile, which has been successfully tested and partially deployed.The most advanced version, the Arrow II, was specifically designed to counter Iran's Shihab ballistic missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.The Shahab-3 has a range of up to 2,000 kilometers, putting Israel well within striking distance.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710746752&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(FALSE POPE) causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(CHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM

WORLD MARKET RESULTS
http://money.cnn.com/data/world_markets/

HALF HOUR DOW RESULTS WED APR 22,2009

09:30 AM -4.78
10:00 AM -32.34
10:30 AM +67.46
11:00 AM +34.33
11:30 AM +48.59
12:00 PM +62.92
12:30 PM +18.96
01:00 PM -18.08
01:30 PM +2.95
02:00 PM -11.39
02:30 PM +26.20
03:00 PM +37.36
03:30 PM +35.21
04:00 PM -82.99 7886.57

S&P 500 843.55 -6.53

NASDAQ 1646.12 +2.27

GOLD 892.50 +8.90

OIL 48.67 +0.12

TSE 300 9279.15 +31.98

CDNX 979.12 +4.74

S&P/TSX/60 562.77 +0.87

MORNING,NEWS,STATS

YEAR TO DATE PERFORMANCE
Dow -9.19%
S&P -5.89%
Nasdaq +4.24%
TSX Advances 860,declines 633,unchanged 288,Volume 2,424,372,284.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 327,Declines 349,Unchanged 377,Volume 210,591,953.

Dow -53 points at 4 minutes of trading today.
Dow -72 points at low today.
Dow +80 points at high today so far.
GOLD opens at $887.30.OIL opens at $48.34 today.

AFTERNOON,NEWS,STATS
Dow -72 points at low today so far.
Dow +80 points at high today so far.

DAY TODAY PERFORMANCE - 12:30PM STATS
NYSE Advances 2,455,declines 1,026,unchanged 106,New Highs 9,New Lows 43.
Volume 3,442,082,211.
NASDAQ Advances 1,633,declines 895,unchanged 122,New highs 17,New Lows 15.
Volume 990,335,791.
TSX Advances 753,declines 463,unchanged 258,Volume 909,011,336.
TSX Venture Exchange Advances 255,Declines 229,Unchanged 259,Volume 104,825,544.

WRAPUP,NEWS,STATS
Dow -96 points at low today.
Dow +80 points at high today.
Dow -1.04% today Volume 387,027,069.
Nasdaq +0.14% today Volume 2,147,483,648.
S&P 500 -0.77% today Volume N/A

RECORD LOWS DOW
-Sept 30,1996 5,882.17
-Oct 30,1996 5,993.23
-Nov 6,1996 6,177.71
-Dec 16,1996 6,268.35
-Apr 15,1997 6,587.16
-Apr 21,1997 6,660.21
-Apr 28,1997 6,783.02
-May 1,1997 6,976.48
-May 7,1997 7,085.65

RECORD LOWS S&P 500
-Sept 5,1996 649.44
-Sept 6,1996 655.68
-Sept 11,1996 667.28
-Sept 12,1996 671.13
-Oct 1,1996 689.08
-Oct 28,1996 697.26
-Nov 4,1996 706.73
-Nov 5,1996 714.14
-Dec 17,1996 726.04

CRAMER STOMPS OFF
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streettalk/cramer_rant_cnbc/2009/04/21/205371.html?s=al&promo_code=7E53-1

Big bank profits are bogus! Massive public deception!
by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. 04-20-09

A big bank CEO on a mission to deceive the public doesn’t have to tell outright lies. He can con people just as easily by using perfectly legal tricks, shams, and accounting ruses.First, I’ll give you the big-picture facts. Then, I’ll show you how big U.S. banks are painting lipstick on some of the fattest pigs ever raised.

Six of America’s Largest Banks at Risk of Failure

As we have written here so often … as we documented in our recent white paper … as we showed in our presentation to the National Press Club … and as we explained again with new data in our follow-up press conference, the nation’s banking troubles are many times more severe than the authorities are admitting.First, look at the megabanks: The authorities SAY that all of the 14 largest banks have earned a passing grade in their just-completed stress tests.But just six months ago, the authorities swore that, without a massive injection of taxpayer funds, those same banks would suffer a fatal meltdown.Was the bad-debt disease magically cured? Did the economy miraculously turn around? Not quite. In fact, we have overwhelming evidence that the condition of the nation’s banks has deteriorated massively since then.How can our trusted authorities be so blatantly deceptive and still keep their jobs? Perhaps you should ask Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Not long ago, for example, he declared that the total losses from the debt crisis would not exceed $100 billion, while conveying the hope that most of those losses could be soon written off. Also around that time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the losses would be $1 trillion, with only a small percentage written off.The IMF’s latest estimate: $4 trillion in losses, with only one-third of those written off so far. Bernanke’s error factor: He was 4,000 percent off the mark, in a world where 50 percent errors can be lethal.Meanwhile, based on fourth quarter Fed data, we find that, among the nation’s megabanks, six are at risk of failure in our opinion (seven if you count Wachovia and Wells Fargo as separate institutions).

JPMorgan Chase is the nation’s largest, with $1.7 trillion in assets in its primary banking unit. It’s massively exposed to defaults by its trading partners in derivatives — to the tune of 382 percent (almost four times) its risk-based capital. Plus, since it holds HALF of ALL the derivatives in the U.S. banking industry, JPMorgan is at ground zero in the debt crisis.Citibank is the nation’s third largest, with assets of $1.2 trillion in its main banking unit. Its total credit exposure to derivatives is a bit lower than Morgan’s, at 278 percent, but still extremely high. Plus, it has other troubles, especially the surging default rates in its sprawling global portfolio of credit cards and other consumer loans. (More on these in a moment.)Wells Fargo and Wachovia now make up the nation’s fourth largest bank with combined assets of $1.17 trillion. But in the fourth quarter, they still reported separately, which is illuminating: Even without Wachovia’s troubled assets, TheStreet.com Ratings has downgraded Wells Fargo to a D+. Wachovia, meanwhile, got a D. This tells you that Wells Fargo wasn’t exactly the best merger partner, unless you believe in some bizarre math wherein adding two negatives somehow gives you a positive result.SunTrust, with $185 billion in assets, is getting hit hard by the collapse in the commercial real estate. Its Financial Strength Rating is D+.HSBC Bank USA has massive credit exposure to derivatives that’s even greater than Morgan’s: 550 percent of risk-based capital. We’re not looking at its larger foreign operations. But the U.S. numbers are ugly enough, meriting a rating of D+.

Goldman Sachs, which reported for the first time as a commercial bank in the fourth quarter, seems to be taking the biggest risks of all in derivatives. Its total credit exposure is 1,056 percent of capital. Bottom line: It debuts as a bank with a rating of D, on par with Wachovia.Regional banks: Banking regulators have been largely mute regarding major regional banks. But several are also at risk of failure, including Compass Bank (Alabama), Fifth Third (Michigan), Huntington (Ohio), and E Trade Bank (Virginia). Primary reason: Massive losses in commercial real estate loans.Smaller banks: On its Problem List, the FDIC reports only 252 institutions with assets of $159 billion. In contrast, our list of at-risk institutions includes 1,816 banks and thrifts with $4.67 trillion in assets. That’s seven times the number of institutions and 29 times more assets at risk than the FDIC admits.

What Explains the Huge Gap Between Official Declarations and Our Analysis?

We all use essentially the same data. And conceptually, the analytical approach is also similar.The primary difference is that the regulators have an agenda: Instead of protecting the people from bank failures, they’re trying harder than ever to protect failed banks from the people. Specifically They have forever hidden the names of the banks on the FDIC’s Problem List, making it almost impossible for average consumers to get prior warnings of troubles.They have never disclosed their own official ratings of the banks — the CAMELS ratings — making it difficult for the public to find safe institutions they can trust.They have religiously underestimated — or understated — the depth and breadth of the debt crisis.And as I explained a moment ago, they have rigged their recent stress tests to give passing grades to all of the nation’s 14 largest banks, sending the false signal that even the most dangerous among them are somehow safe.Legal Cover-Ups, Flim-Flam and Sham In the Big Bank’s Glowing First-Quarter Earnings Reports

Wall Street is aglow with the latest better-than-expected” earnings reports by major banks. But take one look below the surface, and you’ll see three of the most egregious accounting gimmicks in recent history.Gimmick #1. Toxic asset cover-up. In their infinite wisdom, global banking regulators have now agreed to let banks cover up their toxic assets by booking them at fluffy-high values, bearing little resemblance to actual market prices. Like magic, the bad assets are suddenly worth more, as hundreds of billions in losses are defined away.Gimmick #2. Reserve flim-flam. Every quarter, banks are required to estimate their losses and decide how much to set aside in loss reserves. If they deliberately guess too much in one quarter and too little in the next, they can shove all their bad earnings into earlier P&Ls and make future P&Ls look rosy by comparison.Gimmick #3. The great debt sham. Consider this scenario: A financially distressed real estate developer owes the bank $4 million. His revenues have plunged. He’s lost a fortune in his properties. And he’s on the brink of bankruptcy.

Therefore, in the secondary market, traders recognize that loans like his are worth, say, only half their face value, or about $2 million. So far, a very common situation, right? But now imagine this: He walks into the bank one morning and claims that he really owes only $2 million. Why? Because, in theory, he says, he could buy back his own loan for that price, thereby reducing his debt in half.In practice, of course, that’s a pipedream. If he actually had the cash to buy back his own loans on the market, then he wouldn’t be financially distressed in the first place. And if he weren’t financially distressed, his loans wouldn’t be selling on the market for half price.The reality is that he can’t buy back his own debt and never will. And even if he could someday, he will still be on the hook for the full $4 million unless and until he files for bankruptcy and the bankruptcy judge decides otherwise.That’s why the government would never let real estate developers — or hardly anyone else, for that matter — mark down the debts on their books and still stay in business. But guess what? The government lets banks do precisely that!It’s the ultimate double standard: The banks get away with inflating their toxic assets. But at the same time, they’re allowed to mark to market their own debts, which happen to be trading at huge discounts on the open market precisely because of their toxic assets.

Accountants call it a credit value adjustment. I call it cheating.Finding all of this hard to believe? Then consider …How Citigroup Mobilized ALL THREE of These Gimmicks to Create One of the Greatest Accounting Shams of All Time in Its First-Quarter Earnings Report.I’m outraged. But I’m glad to see that someone besides us is speaking out:Meredith Whitney, one of the few no-nonsense analysts in the industry, says that the banks’ latest reports are, in essence, a great whitewash.Jack T. Ciesielski, publisher of an accounting advisory service, calls it junk income.And Saturday’s New York Times, picking up from their research, lays out precisely how Citigroup has transformed a massive loss into what appears to be a fat profit …First, Citigroup deployed the Toxic Asset Cover-Up. By inflating the value of the bad assets on its books, it was able to beef up its after-tax profits by $413 million.Second, Citigroup used the Reserve Flim-Flam gimmick: By (a) shoving most of its bad-debt losses into last year’s fourth quarter and (b) greatly understating its likely losses in the first quarter, the bank legally rigged its books to look like it had made major improvements. Even assuming no further deterioration in its loan portfolio, I estimate this gimmick alone bloated profits by at least another $1 billion.Third, Citigroup went all out with the Great Debt Sham, marking down its own debt and creating an additional $2.7 billion in purely bogus profits from this maneuver alone.

So here’s Citigroup’s true math for the first quarter:

So-called profit $1.6 billion
Gimmick #1 $0.4 billion
Gimmick #2 $1.0 billion
Gimmick #3 $2.7 billion
Total gimmicks $4.1 billion

Actual result: $2.5 billion LOSS!

And all this despite the fact that Citigroup’s loan portfolios actually deteriorated further in the first quarter. Based on its Q1 2009 Quarterly Financial Data Supplement, we find that:Net credit losses in Citi’s global credit card business surged from $1.67 billion at year-end 2008 to $1.94 billion by March 31. And compared to March 2008, they surged by a whopping 56 percent! (Page 9 of its data supplement.)

Foretelling future credit card losses, the delinquency rate (90+ days past due) on those credit cards jumped from 2.62 percent at year-end to 3.16 percent on March 31 (page 10).Credit losses on consumer banking operations jumped from $3.442 billion on December 31 to $3.786 billion on March 31. And compared to the year-earlier period, they surged 66 percent (page 12).By almost every measure, Citigroup’s first-quarter numbers are worse than they were just three months earlier and far worse than they were 12 months before.My forecast: Citigroup’s effort last week to twist this into an improvement will go down in history as one of the greatest banking deceptions of all time.But Citigroup is not the only one. Nearly all other major banks are suffering similar surges in their credit losses and delinquency rates. Nearly all are using at least one of the same gimmicks to bloat their first-quarter profits. And every single one is destined to see massive new losses, driving their shares to new lows and the banking system as a whole into a far more severe crisis.Bottom line: Rather than the private-public partnership the government has called for to address the nation’s banking woes, we see little more than private-public collusion to hide the truth from the public, paper over the problems and, ultimately, sink the banks into an even deeper hole.

My Recommendations

In my book, The Ultimate Depression Survival Guide, I give you very detailed, step-by-step instructions on what to do immediately. Here’s a quick summary:Step 1. Get away from risky stocks. Use the recent stock market rally as a selling opportunity — your second chance to get out of danger before it’s too late.Step 2. Get out of sinking real estate. If there’s a temporary improvement in the market, grab it to sell the properties you’ve been wanting to sell all along.Step 3. Raise as much cash as you possibly can — not only by selling stocks and real estate, but also by cutting expenses and selling other things you own.Step 4. Make sure you keep your cash in one of the safe banks on the list we provide on the book’s resource page. Or better yet, follow my instructions on how to buy Treasury bills. They’re safer than any bank, with no limit on the Treasury’s direct guarantee.Step 5. For assets you cannot sell, buy protection using exchange-traded funds that are designed to go UP when stocks fall. The more the market goes down, the more you make; and those profits can offset any losses you suffer in the stocks or real estate that you cannot sell.Step 6. Later, get ready for the big bottom in nearly all markets. That’s when you should be able to lock in relatively safe interest rates of 10 percent or more for years to come … buy shares in our country’s best companies for pennies on the dollar … buy a dream home in a great location that’s practically being given away.

The book is now a Wall Street Journal bestseller. You can effectively get as many copies as you want for free, because you earn a $29.95 Weiss Research credit for each one you buy for yourself or others — either for a new service or a renewal. And I am donating 100 percent of my royalties to a national charity — the Campaign to End Child Homelessness.Good luck and God bless!

FINANCIAL TIMES 21.4.09 EU draft rules for hedge funds attacked
By Nikki Tait in Brussels

The European Commission's plans to regulate hedge funds and private equity for the first time threaten to become a central issue in the European parliamentary election campaign.Some key parliamentarians criticised draft proposals on Monday as being almost worthless.In a letter to José Manuel Barroso, the Commission president, leaders of the Socialist group, the second-largest bloc in the parliament,said the proposal was so filled with loopholes that it would be highly ineffective in regulatory terms.Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European Socialists
and a former Danish prime minister, accused Mr Barroso of failing to live up to personal commitments given last year, and of falling short of the demands of this month's G20 summit in London.

He thought it was a scandal that the European parliament had had to wait six months for the legislation, only to find it so inadequate, and said the hedge fund issue would be central to campaigning for June's poll.The proposed legislation has not yet been formally published by the Commission. On Monday, officials would say only that it was still being worked on.The official launch date was recently delayed until a week tomorrow. However, copies of the draft leaked out before Easter. These have
been roundly attacked.The private-equity industry, in particular, is unhappy because it would not be distinguished from the hedge fund sector - despite the fact that the former is generally accepted to pose no systemic risk. By contrast, the hedge fund industry has kept a low profile, and seems privately relieved that the proposals are not more onerous.The leaked draft suggests that the Commission plans to regulate
managers of alternative funds, rather than the funds directly. This is one of the main objections of the Socialist MEPs and the private-equity industry, who say it would mean that non-EU managers could still operate in the EU, and market their funds, without any effective oversight.The Socialist group letter said: We consider it would be a major political mistake were the Commission to adopt such a proposal.

Under the leaked draft, managers of portfolios worth less than ?250m ($323m, £222m) would enjoy a de minimis exemption from scrutiny - a figure the MEPs think is far too high. They are also critical of proposed moves to improve transparency and address technical issues such as taxation and naked short-selling, saying the draft is far
too lax.Mr Rasmussen said he had seen no signs of the Commission planning to make wholesale changes. This meant the leaked proposals might either be forced through with small adjustments or possibly postponed further if opposition grew.The latest criticism comes as the European parliament prepares to approve two other reforms to financial regulation this week: a compromise deal that will change the way capital requirements are calculated for the insurance industry, and new legislation to cover
credit ratings agencies.

EC Proposes Big Changes for GSA within Galileo Program
April 20, 2009

A proposal now before the European Parliament and Council of the European Union would complete the transformation of the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) from the leading executive agency for the Galileo program into a diminished subsidiary of the European Commission (EC).That pre-eminent role, envisioned under the strategy of a
public-private partnership (PPP) abandoned more than two years ago,would have seen the GSA sign and oversee a contract with a private consortium building and operating the Galileo system and its precursor European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS).Instead, under the terms of EC Communication 139 released March 24,
the GSA would be renamed the GNSS Agency with the EC holding veto power over its administrative board and the agency’s primary mission reduced to market research and promotion of Galileo as well as conducting security audits. On April 1, ownership of the EGNOS infrastructure was transferred to the EC, and a Brussels-based company, the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP SaS), was entrusted with operation of the system.Galileo is now being developed as a fully public procurement with a €3.4 billion budget. The European Space Agency (ESA) is acting as the technical design authority and prime contractor.

The EC characterizes its communication as an effort to remove contradictions and ambiguities between the 2004 regulation establishing the GSA and a 2008 regulation outlining the public procurement for Galileo’s deployment. Although the 2008 regulation implicitly and comprehensively amended the Supervisory Authority’s
responsibilities, it had no impact on its internal organisation, and the Commission’s influence in this area continues to be very limited,says the March 24 communication.

In order to ensure that the Authority acts while respecting the Commission’s role as manager of the programmes and in accordance with guidelines issued by the Commission, as is now provided for by Regulation (EC) No 683/2008, the communication continues, it is necessary to make changes to increase the Commission’s influence within the Authority’s internal organisation.Although the communication says the reorganized GSA would continue as a Community Agency — that is, one under the control of European
member states rather than the EC, the EU’s executive branch — the far-reaching changes that it proposes would profoundly alter its political and legal status.

These changes include giving the EC representative on the GSA/GNSS Agency’s administrative board a vote equal to half of that body’s votes, with the 27 representatives of the member states having the other half.Moreover, the term of the agency’s executive director would be shortened to four years from the current five. Under that provision,the administrative board would have to decide by this July whether to renew the term of Pedro Pedreira, GSA executive director appointed to
the post in July 2005, which might be a very uncertain prospect given the communication’s assertion of is limited influence under the present GSA leadership.

The 2004 regulation gave final authority to the GSA’s executive director, who shall be completely independent in the exercise of his/her duties, without prejudice to the respective competencies of the Commission and the Administrative Board.The proposed new regulation replaces that description with the following: The Agency shall be managed by its Executive Director, who shall carry out his duties under the supervision of the Administrative Board in accordance with the guidelines provided to the Agency by the Commission.The communication calls for abolition of the GSA’s Scientific and Technical Committee, which had charged with delivering opinions on
technical questions or on proposals involving major changes in the design of the European GNSS system and making recommendations on the modernization of the system. Those responsibilities have been moved — along with many of the GSA’ technical staff —to the EC or to the ESA Evolutions project that is investigating the technical design for a next-generation system with €105 million in funding from ESA members over the next two years.The EC’s proposal would also replace the GSA’s System Safety and
Security Committee with a Security Accreditation Committee for European GNSS Systems, chaired by an EC representative and with members from the EU nations. With oversight from this committee, the GNSS Agency would be charged with setting up a Galileo Security Center that would begin operation in 2012.The new regulation has had its first reading in the European Parliament and been referred to committee.