[font size=4]Report: Chamber of Commerce Hacked By Chinese Group[/font]

[font color=red]TPM[/font]IdeaLab| Carl Franzen | December 21, 2011, 2:45 PM 991 36


U.S. Chamber of Commerce building in Washington, DC.U.S. Chamber of Commerce
building in Washington, DC.


The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying group in the world, was hacked and all of the information stored on its computer systems was accessible to the hackers, who are suspected to have operated out of China and may have had Chinese government ties. This, according to a stunning report published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal.

A Chamber spokesperson told TPM in a statement that the Chamber could “confirm that the quotes and background information provided by the Chamber to the Journal are accurate.”

Even more worrisome, the brazen hack might have remained undetected for up to a year, according to The Journal’s report, which notes that the Chamber only became aware of the intrusion when it was alerted by the FBI.

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Every week Max Keiser looks at all the scandal behind the financial news headlines. This week Max Keiser and co-host Stacy Herbert discuss the Maxinator, downgrade rampages and food fights between Sarkozy and Cameron. In the second half of the show, Max and Stacy look at the victims of banking fraud, from the Alabama poor cut off from water supplies to the small ranchers who lost it all when MF Global was run into the ground by former Goldman Sachs banker and ex-New Jersey governor, Jon Corzine.

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Experts for the Chinese regime predict a slowdown for the country's economic growth next year, dropping to the lowest levels since 2001. As economic concerns grow, so too does social unrest.

The global economic recession is taking its toll on China's economy.

New research released on Thursday by senior researchers for the Chinese regime shows a slowdown in its exports, although it could still achieve seven to eight percent of economic growth in 2012.

{Yu Bin, Development Research Center of the State Council}: "Unless the global economy doesn't see a deep recession, we predict next year China's exports will grow around 10 percent. I don't think there is much chance of a reduction in exports next year overall, but it is possible that over a particular month, or several months, there may be negative growth."

Experts say China's economic growth will drop in 2012.

{Yu Bin, Development Research Center of the State Council}: "We think there is a high possibility that China's potential growth could drop by 20 or 30 percent next year."

Growth in Chinese exports and imports slowed in November.

Strikes and protests have rocked the nation in recent months as factories close down or relocate.

China's economic growth has slowed for three straight quarters and many forecasts see it dipping in 2012 to below 9 percent for the first time since 2001.

The Chinese regime has instituted several policies in recent weeks aimed at boosting growth.

But the biggest question the Chinese regime faces is how the Chinese people will react, and whether strikes and protests will increase.

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Despite the US's declared withdrawal of its military personnel and contractors out of Iraq, Washington has prepared to control the country's rich oil reserves in any case, shared Ranjit Singh Kalha, former India's ambassador to Iraq in the 1990s. ­Having spent $3 trillion in Iraq, a country with harsh weather conditions (+50 C most of the time) and absolutely nothing valuable but oil reserves, the Americans simply cannot give up the plentiful and very high quality oil they went there for.

"It takes $1.50 to take out this oil that's just below the surface. Anybody who has access to this oil can be a game changer -- as far as the politics of oil is concerned," Ranjit Singh Kalha concluded. The problem Americans encountered in Iraq is that once given "some symbols" of democracy, the Iraqi voted for a Shia-led government. The headache is that the Shia traditionally have close links with Iran, the core territory of this affiliation. "That is the present dilemma. If you withdraw from Iraq completely, you leave this vast oil wealth of Iraq in the hands of Shia (Iran-oriented) government. And therefore it upsets the political balance in the Middle East," Ranjit Singh Kalha explained.

He said that to counter such adverse developments the US will have almost 20,000-strong embassy in Baghdad (the largest US embassy in the world) and consulates in Basra, Kerkuk and in northern Kurd-inhabited territory, each consulate 1,000-strong. "Americans cannot afford to be completely absent from Iraq," the former ambassador argued, adding he does not see any lessening of American influence in Iraq. Iraq is a multi-confessional country and to curb religious extremism all previous country's rulers had to be very tough with the population, the diplomat stressed. In Saddam's Iraq most of the military and law enforcement was Sunni and the rule of law was first of all a rule of military power preventing sectarian violence.

Today's Iraq is ruled by Shia government which does not have the necessary experience of ruling with an iron fist, so the country risks a full fledged civil war to start at any time given. American troops will not go far from Iraq -- they will be re-deployed to next door Kuwait.

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Peru, one of the world's leading producers and exporters of cocaine, has seen the illicit trade boom in recent years.

The industry's growth has prompted the country's government to plan an anti-drug campaign.

Some experts blame the authorities for not taking enough action to stop the drug trade, while poor coca farmers say the government's failure to help them economically has forced them to continue in the business.

Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman reports from Peru's southern Vrae Valley, the world's densest coca producing region, in the first of a two part special.

''Rome’s ruling class was unable to restrain its rapacity, even in its own ultimate interest. Adams saw what liberals are rarely willing to admit—namely, that a system based on corrupt practice cannot be saved merely by tinkering with it.''

'The Economics of Human Energy' in Brooks Adams, Ezra Pound, and Robert Theobald - by John Whiting, London University - http://www.whitings-writings.com/diatribes/ehe03.htm

[font size=4]MF Global And The Great Wall Street Re-hypothecation Scandal[/font]

Thomson Reuters - News & Insight
12/7/2011
By Christopher Elias (UK)

(Business Law Currents) A legal loophole in international brokerage regulations means that few, if any, clients of MF Global are likely to get their money back. Although details of the drama are still unfolding, it appears that MF Global and some of its Wall Street counterparts have been actively and aggressively circumventing U.S. securities rules at the expense (quite literally) of their clients.

MF Global's bankruptcy revelations concerning missing client money suggest that funds were not inadvertently misplaced or gobbled up in MF’s dying hours, but were instead appropriated as part of a mass Wall St manipulation of brokerage rules that allowed for the wholesale acquisition and sale of client funds through re-hypothecation. A loophole appears to have allowed MF Global, and many others, to use its own clients’ funds to finance an enormous $6.2 billion Eurozone repo bet.

If anyone thought that you couldn’t have your cake and eat it too in the world of finance, MF Global shows how you can have your cake, eat it, eat someone else’s cake and then let your clients pick up the bill. Hard cheese for many as their dough goes missing.

*snip*

RE-HYPOTHECATION

By way of background, hypothecation is when a borrower pledges collateral to secure a debt. The borrower retains ownership of the collateral but is “hypothetically” controlled by the creditor, who has a right to seize possession if the borrower defaults.

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[font size=4]LifeWay's Pink Bibles Scrapped[/font]

The Tennessean | Bob Smietana | 2:01 AM, Dec. 15, 2011



To promote breast cancer awareness, supporters buy pink shirts, pink shoes, pink mouse pads and a host of other pink products. Until Wednesday, there was even a pink version of the Holman Christian Standard Bible on store shelves. That’s no longer the case.

Southern Baptist-owned LifeWay Christian Resources is recalling its pink Bible because it benefited a charity with ties to Planned Parenthood. The “Here’s Hope Breast Cancer Bible” was sold at Walmart stores and other major retailers, with a dollar per copy going to the Dallas-based Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

LifeWay decided to recall the Bible after receiving complaints that some of the breast cancer charity’s local affiliates donated funds to Planned Parenthood. Thomas Rainer, president of LifeWay, called the project a mistake.

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