statism watch

And you thought there was something called the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights in the USA? Not if the present administration and its cronies (essentially, an extension of the former administration) gets its way. You can kiss “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” bye-bye, along with the 2nd, 4th, and 10th amendments which are also under heavy attack. How quickly we adapt to something which would have been unthinkable a few short years ago. An attack on the first amendment represents the real beginning of the end of freedom. What do responsible citizens have recourse to but speech?

Related: Harper government secretly monitoring online chats about politics | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Fox News Caught Aggregating Others Copyrighted Photographs… Something Murdoch Insists Is Illegal | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | Activists Shut Down Australian Government Websites in Internet Filter Protest | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | China Imposes New Internet Control | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | We’re no thieves — despite what Rupert Murdoch claims, says Google | Google allows publishers to limit free content | FOX News owner’s media empire could block Google searches entirely | US Spec Ops operates psychological warfare websites targeted at UK | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal? | Bad news bearers warned to zip it by Kremlin | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal

The Washington Times
June 4, 2010

Journalism can reinvent itself without government ‘help’

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking ways to “reinvent” journalism, and that’s a cause for concern. According to a May 24 draft proposal, the agency thinks government should be at the center of a media overhaul. The bureaucracy sees it as a problem that the Internet has introduced a wealth of information options to consumers, forcing media companies to adapt and experiment to meet changing market needs. FTC’s policy staff fears this new reality.

“There are reasons for concern that experimentation may not produce a robust and sustainable business model for commercial journalism,” the report states. With no faith that the market will work things out for the better, government thinks it must come to the rescue.

The ideas being batted around to save the industry share a common theme: They are designed to empower bureaucrats, not consumers. For instance, one proposal would, “Allow news organizations to agree jointly on a mechanism to require news aggregators and others to pay for the use of online content, perhaps through the use of copyright licenses.”

In other words, government policy would encourage a tax on websites like the Drudge Report, a must-read source for the news links of the day, so that the agency can redistribute the funds collected to various newspapers. Such a tax would hit other news aggregators, such as Digg, Fark and Reddit, which not only gather links, but provide a forum for a lively and entertaining discussion of the issues raised by the stories. Fostering a robust public-policy debate, not saving a particular business model, should be the goal of journalism in the first place.

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As though coordinated (it is), UK and Australian (oh, and Canadian) style anti-camera tyranny comes to the US of A. You may remember it as the country of former reknown as a defender of free speech and civil liberties.

Related: UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | UK: From snapshot to Special Branch: how my camera made me a terror suspect | UK: Photographer questioned under anti-terror laws for taking pictures of Christmas lights | UK: Big fall in police use of stop-and search powers after outcry | Winnipeg police confiscate documentary filmmaker’s camera | Guardian reporter detained for taking picture of sea near Bilderberg conference | Police seizures of cameras prompts B.C. complaint | Police erased cellphone video of fatal shooting, witness alleges | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | UK: Calling the police to account for anti-photography law | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Australian Citizen Journalist Charged for Filming Police under Anti-Terror Law | UK Big Brother police to get ‘war-time’ power to demand ID in the street | Charges laid after Winnipeg street blocked off for hours

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
June 4, 2010

Back in April, we wrote about the case of a motorcyclist in Maryland who was wearing a helmet-mounted camera while riding his motorcycle (admittedly, above the speed limit). As he stopped at a traffic light, an off-duty police-officer in plain clothes and an unmarked car jumped out of his car with his gun drawn. All of this was caught on video. No matter what you think of the cop’s reaction, what happened later is ridiculous: after the biker, Anthony John Graber III, posted the video from his helmet cam to YouTube, he was arrested for illegal wiretapping, based on Maryland’s two-party consent rule for recording. As we explained at the time, wiretapping laws that require all parties to consent were not, at all, designed for this type of situation.

However, apparently this sort of thing is becoming all too common — and stunningly, many courts are siding with the cops. Gizmodo recently had a good article highlighting how police in states that require all parties to consent to recordings have been using this law against being videotaped in public, and the courts are siding with them. What’s really scary is that most of those laws even have clearly written exceptions for recording in public places “where no expectation of privacy” exists.

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We would that our Dear Leader shared with the plebes an accounting of the use of their tax dollars. Particularly in light of the fact that the courtesans and gentlemen of the crown have graciously acquiesced to consider the request of our Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, to conduct just such an exercise. (What are the chances?)

Related: Canada’s new information czar vows to take on delays in access system | Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

The Ottawa Citizen
June 4, 2010

OTTAWA – The Prime Minister’s Office has told Conservative MPs not to answer questions from two newspaper reporters about homes that the MPs own in Ottawa.

The Citizen and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald are collaborating on a story on expense claims and contacted several MPs over the past week.

But when word filtered back to the PMO on Friday, Conservative staff sent out an e-mail gag order. It was obtained by CTV’s Power Play with Tom Clark, a daily politics program.

While the PMO is often suspected of controlling the communications of MPs, the e-mail gives a rare peek at how it’s done.

“PMO has advised that Glen McGregor (Ottawa Citizen) and Stephen Maher (Chronicle Herald) are contacting some MPs’ offices regarding MPs who own residences in Ottawa for a story,” says the e-mail from a Conservative staffer.

“PMO is asking MPs to hold on responding to this media request until further notice,” the e-mail says, referring any questions to Drew Campbell, who works on the PMO’s Atlantic desk.

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Related: Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | Israel to reject UN call for flotilla raid probe, MV Rachel Corrie under steam | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Protests in Middle East, Europe, follow deadly Israeli attack on flotilla as UN convenes emergency session | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | George Galloway, on aid mission to Gaza, is deported from Egypt | Cynthia McKinney Demands Immediate Release After Her Gaza-Bound Boat is Seized by Israeli Navy | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference

Robert Booth, The Guardian
June 4, 2010

Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times, autopsy results reveal

Israel was tonight under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into its assault on the Gaza aid flotilla after autopsy results on the bodies of those killed, obtained by the Guardian, revealed they were peppered with 9mm bullets, many fired at close range.

Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.

The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.

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It’s the end of the weekly news cycle. Do you know where your government stands on this? We’ll be in this quagmire for another twenty years, albeit in a somewhat attenuated role.

Related: NATO to begin handing control to Afghans | Taliban support strong in Kandahar: poll | UN in secret peace talks with Taliban | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | US pours millions into anti-Taliban militias in Afghanistan | Taliban: Blackwater to blame for Pakistan attacks | UK ‘backs Taliban reintegration’ | How the US Funds the Taliban | Ex-diplomat says Afghanistan in ‘civil war,’ calls for US withdrawal | Ethnic hostility is a big, maybe the biggest, part of the Afghan war | Pakistani Army working with ‘Good Taliban’ | French troops were killed after Italy hushed up ‘bribes’ to Taleban | Britain and US prepared to open talks with the Taliban | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | US arms sent to Afghan forces ‘in Taliban hands’ | Canada, allies will never defeat Taliban, PM says | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | The Lies that Led to War | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Sayed Salahuddin and Hamid Shalizi, Reuters
June 4, 2010

KABUL — Afghan tribal elders and religious leaders agreed on Friday to make peace with the Taliban, handing President Hamid Karzai a mandate to open negotiations with the insurgents who are fighting foreign forces and his government.

Mr. Karzai had called the “peace jirga” to win national support for his plan to offer an amnesty, cash and job incentives to Taliban foot soldiers while arranging asylum for top figures in a second country and getting their names struck off a U.N. and U.S. blacklist.

“Now the path is clear, the path that has been shown and chosen by you, we will go on that step-by-step and this path will Inshallah, take us to our destination,” he told the delegates gathered in a tent under heavy security.

He urged the Taliban, who have virtually fought tens of thousands of U.S.-led NATO forces and the Afghan army to a bloody stalemate, to stop fighting.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the decisions of the three-day jirga, saying it was a significant step toward reaching out to all Afghans to promote peace and stability.

“The United Nations supports these national efforts to end conflict in Afghanistan, and remains fully committed to working with the Afghan authorities as they strive for a peaceful life,” he said in a statement.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Obama administration believed the jirga had accomplished its objectives.

“It has provided a national consensus to pursue a political strategy to reduce the danger posed by the insurgency and we will continue to support Afghanistan as it goes forward,” Mr. Crowley said in Washington, without commenting further.

Washington, however, has been wary of overtures to senior Taliban leaders, including supreme leader Mullah Omar and others on the U.S. blacklist, until there is more momentum on the battlefield.

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Related: Bilderberg 2010: The security lockdown begins | Secretive Bilderberg Club ready for protests | Dublin Trilateral attendees let slip need for world govt, war with Iran, Bilderberg oversight | Tucker: Bilderberg To Meet in Spain, Prolong Global Financial Recession For Another Year

Charlie Skelton, London Guardian
June 4, 2010

The people who are being detained, searched and questioned are not playing some game. They are deadly serious, and they are worried to death

Ivan was alone on the roundabout. He had been left in charge of the banners while everyone else ate breakfast.

He slipped an empty bottle of red wine into a binliner and stretched. At his feet was a chalk-drawn pyramid showing the structure of society, the word “pueblo” at the bottom, and the tip pointing up the hill towards Bilderberg. It’s a short pyramid today, maybe half a heavily-armed mile from Rockefeller down to Ivan.

Ivan’s bed last night — is it had been the night before — was the scrub by the roadside. “It’s not so cold in my bag,” he said. “A lot of times I travel in the mountains — in the mountains, you can sleep anywhere.”

A lone Catalonian in green trousers, he clutched a leaflet and stood in the Sitges sun as, up the hill, billionaires and finance ministers ate kiwifruit patisseries.

The shame, the awful poignancy of Bilderberg, is that, for much of the time, there are more delegates up the hill than there are protesters at the foot of it.

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Confirmed: the billion that Canada’s spending on security for the June G20 meetup will be to sponsor a party (photo-op) now, since the real negotiations aren’t until November.

More info on this ‘Basel committee ‘ is required. Who elected them to set economic policy for the globe? The Star writes, “The Basel Committee of global regulators and central bankers is finalizing the new rules for endorsement at the G20 summit in Seoul in November.” It’s interesting that the Bilderberg conference and the G20 Basel meeting are on at the same time as well.

Related: Geithner speaketh on the globalization of risk as G20 meets in Seoul | Eurozone plan for common bond issue to head off debt crisis | European Powerbrokers Present Proposal For New Economic And Political Order | Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | World Bank gets $3.5-billion boost, revamps voting structure to make China number 3 | Global bank tax urged by IMF | Tucker: Bilderberg To Meet in Spain, Prolong Global Financial Recession For Another Year | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | IMF chief proposes new reserve currency | Sarkozy says world currency disorder unacceptable | Current And Former IMF Heads Call For New Global Currency | George Soros Calls for World Currency and “New World Architecture” | Fisk: Nations to hasten demise of dollar in new world order | US dollar set to be eclipsed, World Bank president predicts | Bilderberg Wants Global Currency Now | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | G20 agrees to continue economic stimulus measures; Geithner shops international reserve accord | China Set to Buy $50 Billion in IMF Notes | Medvedev Unveils “World Currency” Coin At G8 | China calls anew for super-sovereign currency | China explores buying $50bn in IMF bonds | Chinese economists deem huge holding of US bonds “risky” as Geithner visits | Report from the 2009 Bilderberg Conference | A Bigger, Bolder Role Is Imagined For the IMF | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | UN & IMF Back Agenda For Global Financial Dictatorship | U.N. panel says world should ditch dollar | IMF poised to print billions of dollars in ‘global quantitative easing’ | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | IMF may need to “print money”, act as “world’s central bank” as crisis spreads | Globalists Exploit Financial Meltdown In Move Towards One World Currency | World needs new Bretton Woods, says Brown | IMF prescribes state regulation of ‘global financial order’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda | Banks face “new world order,” consolidation: report

Chris Giles, Globe and Mail
June 4, 2010

Officials and ministers from the G20 have acknowledged there are still big differences on the ‘Basel III’ proposals that are due to be finalized by November

Group of 20 finance ministers are set to delay the implementation of tougher regulations for the world’s banks as splits emerge over the scope of the new regulations.

Officials and ministers from the G20 group of industrialized nations, meeting in Busan, South Korea, acknowledged there were still big differences on the “Basel III” proposals that are due to be finalised by November. The disagreements cover the scale, scope and timing of the increases in capital and liquidity banks will be required to hold, as well as the leverage they will be allowed.

In response to the splits, the UK and the US are offering to delay the implementation of the Basel reforms in a bid to ensure that the principles do not get watered down.

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Jim Tucker mentioned Geithner’s possible attendance at the Bilderberg meeting the other day (see successive articles for the 2010 Bilderberg wrapup). Wouldn’t it be horrible if his platform in Seoul became the launchpad for a leadership run, which is what it seemed Tucker was suggesting. Geithner is the guy that’s been talking up bank consolidation since before the wave broke over the American debt/credit industry.

Has Busan heard of the Toronto meeting? Because Toronto certainly had no news of the Busan meeting – makes you think about the scope of this thing.

Related: Eurozone plan for common bond issue to head off debt crisis | EU plans to create watchdog to curb credit rating agencies | Germany bans naked short-selling | European debt fears batter TSX | Greece links U.S. banks to debt crisis | European Council On Foreign Relations: EU Needs To Use Crisis For Greater Power | Sarkozy threatened to quit euro in showdown with Germany: Report | Hedge funds vote threatens EU-US rift | Global markets slide on debt fears | Loonie, TSX slip on euro woes | European Powerbrokers Present Proposal For New Economic And Political Order | Europe and America Morally and Financially Bankrupt | EU wants member countries to co-ordinate budgets | EU deal euphoria fizzles out | Ron Paul: Euro Bailout Will Lead To Currency Collapse | ‘Shock and awe’ euro rescue lifts global markets | Western Central Banks back Trillion Dollar European rescue plan, ECB to manage markets | Euro zone to regulate hedge funds, vows to fend off ‘wolf pack’ traders at all costs | Euro crisis goes global as leaders fail to stop the rot | Debt crisis: Panic on Wall Street, stonewalling in Europe | Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | Greece swallows tough medicine in $150B bailout, more spending cuts announced | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | Greece’s near bankruptcy won’t scuttle Canada-EU trade talks: minister | New austerity measures essential, says Greek PM | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | Greek debt crisis: Europe feels shockwaves as bailout falters | Standard & Poor’s downgrade Greek credit rating to junk status | Greek bailout not limited to €45bn, Flaherty warns | IMF to move quickly on Greek request for loan | Greek PM calls for EU bailout loans | Greek civil servants strike, challenge EU/IMF talks | Soros warns Europe of disintegration | Investors rush to sell Greek bonds | IMF struggles to conceal glee at Greek deal | Greece secures joint IMF/Eurozone bailout program | Greek PM threatens to go to IMF if no EU bailout | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt | Secret report details Nazi plan to create a European Union | Leaked 1955 Bilderberg Docs Outline Plan For Single European Currency | Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression | Bilderberg chairman: ‘Bilderberg helped create the Euro’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

James Pomfret and Louise Egan, The Globe and Mail
June 4, 2010

No agreement in sight on global bank levy

‘Mutualization of sovereign debt’ has always been the point of the Eurozone, at least on this journal’s reading of the history. And now Europe is on its way to securitizing its debt with some modern version of the War Bond – tried and true, the suckers fall for it every time. It’s a bit odd, don’t you think, for Western nations that spend so much time watching poker and gaming on television? But maybe the games we love – poker, hockey, soccer, mmorpgs, etc – are too honest (involving chance) for people to pay attention to the way things go down on the grand chessboard of history – via debt and aggression and deception, apparently. It’s becoming easier to believe that nations act like individuals in times of war by observing both the mobilization of the economy and the military against chosen targets (sanctions, then war; sanctions, then war providing a neat duality to the modes of aggression between states). Is there a zeitgeist that moves the spirit of a nation towards an inescapable conclusion (we rule, you suck) as Hegel and various notions of national and religious zeal advocate? Or does the idea of free will, both on the individual and the national levels, not provide reason enough to organize society on a decentralized model. It would, at the very least, prevent megalomaniacal idiots with money from seizing the tiller of the nation and robbing it blind. (Hello, G20 budget.)

Related: EU plans to create watchdog to curb credit rating agencies | Germany bans naked short-selling | European debt fears batter TSX | Greece links U.S. banks to debt crisis | European Council On Foreign Relations: EU Needs To Use Crisis For Greater Power | Sarkozy threatened to quit euro in showdown with Germany: Report | Hedge funds vote threatens EU-US rift | Global markets slide on debt fears | Loonie, TSX slip on euro woes | European Powerbrokers Present Proposal For New Economic And Political Order | Europe and America Morally and Financially Bankrupt | EU wants member countries to co-ordinate budgets | EU deal euphoria fizzles out | Ron Paul: Euro Bailout Will Lead To Currency Collapse | ‘Shock and awe’ euro rescue lifts global markets | Western Central Banks back Trillion Dollar European rescue plan, ECB to manage markets | Euro zone to regulate hedge funds, vows to fend off ‘wolf pack’ traders at all costs | Euro crisis goes global as leaders fail to stop the rot | Debt crisis: Panic on Wall Street, stonewalling in Europe | Greek rescue fears hit global stock markets | Greece swallows tough medicine in $150B bailout, more spending cuts announced | Greece erupts as men from IMF prepare to wield axe | Greece’s near bankruptcy won’t scuttle Canada-EU trade talks: minister | New austerity measures essential, says Greek PM | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy | Greek debt crisis: Europe feels shockwaves as bailout falters | Standard & Poor’s downgrade Greek credit rating to junk status | Greek bailout not limited to €45bn, Flaherty warns | IMF to move quickly on Greek request for loan | Greek PM calls for EU bailout loans | Greek civil servants strike, challenge EU/IMF talks | Soros warns Europe of disintegration | Investors rush to sell Greek bonds | IMF struggles to conceal glee at Greek deal | Greece secures joint IMF/Eurozone bailout program | Greek PM threatens to go to IMF if no EU bailout | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Athen’s coffers to run dry in two weeks, more cracks appear in Eurozone | Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, ‘at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro’ | Goldman role in Greek crisis probed | Greek workers stage general strike | How EU Countries Cooked Books Using Derivatives | Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | Collapse of the euro is ‘inevitable’: Bailing out the Greek economy futile, says French banking chief | Euro currency union shows strains | Stimulating our way into debt crises | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | Will Greece set off ‘global debt bomb’? | EU cautions Greece about its deficit | Could Greece drag down Europe? | ‘Significant chance’ of second financial crisis, warns World Economic Forum | A world awash in debt | Secret report details Nazi plan to create a European Union | Leaked 1955 Bilderberg Docs Outline Plan For Single European Currency | Leaked Agenda: Bilderberg Group Plans Economic Depression | Bilderberg chairman: ‘Bilderberg helped create the Euro’ | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

Ian Traynor, The Guardian
June 4, 2010

Germans fear ‘mutualisation of sovereign debt’ if eurobond plan goes ahead

European governments are considering the issue of common “eurobonds” for the first time as part of their huge exercise in staving off a sovereign debt crisis across the Mediterranean and shoring up the single currency.

EU finance ministers are to meet in Luxembourg on Monday to establish the workings of the €750-bn (£650bn) safety net agreed last month following weeks of crisis and dispute.

The ministers, from the 16 of 27 EU countries in the single currency, are to haggle over two options for the operations of the rescue fund — borrowing on the markets to lend to a country in distress, or guaranteeing the borrowing of the cash-strapped country. The first option amounts to eurobonds, senior officials told the Guardian.

The “eurobond” issue is acutely sensitive, especially in Germany which is allergic to any hint that the lending vehicle will enshrine budget transfers from the stronger to the weaker eurozone members. Sceptics fear it would entail mutualisation of public debt, and Germany fears jeopardising its liquidity and low borrowing costs. But in agreeing to supply up to €148bn of €440bn for the eurozone rescue fund, Berlin is already committed.

“The Rubicon has been crossed. In agreeing to the [€440bn] special purposes vehicle, they have already accepted it,” said an EU official.

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The scare tactics coming out of the Ontario Ministry of Revenue are pretty pathetic, considering. (Pay us tax or you’ll have to be capable of choosing a good contractor!) While full-on confrontations with the tax collector are not necessarily the preferred method to resist the HST in this journal’s view, we’re not opposed to targeted resistance, either. You’re encouraged to look into the history of the income tax (a minimal ‘temporary’ tax on the very wealthy to fund WWI, originally), legal tender laws (state monopoly on the currency markets), and the final transition from commodity-backed currencies to those printed (and inflated at whim as a hidden tax) by central banks as a way to get a handle on monetary issues. Monetary issues are really at the root of our declining living standards, after all. If you want to get on track for your master’s degree in the field, watch The Money Masters online. Most of our parents were able to get by on a single income and while we’re not advocating anyone necessarily stay at home to provide child care, it may be worth our while to look into barter economies and similar community loopholes to get your trade off the state’s radar as a way to exert political pressure on the kinds of statesmen that are willing to sell out the people to international taxation schemes like the VAT. Ermn, sorry, the ‘HST’.

Related: B.C. anti-HST petition hits target weeks ahead of schedule | Protesters worked up over HST levy on fitness | Anti-HST petition nears goal in B.C. | HST rage puts B.C. Liberals in a spot | Harmonized tax could cost Ontarians $5.9B a year | HST will cost families, McGuinty finally admits | HST begins taxing Ontario on Saturday | First Nations protest against HST | Canadian taxes fastest-growing expense: Report | BC Govt, Anti-HST Campaigners Dispute Legality of Pro-HST Leaflet | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Up to 50,000 protest Charest’s tax hikes | Paul Volcker: VAT, Carbon taxes may be necessary | Nova Scotia budget hikes HST rate | Thousands protest Quebec budget | HST legislation introduced in B.C. | Facing years of deficits, Ontario freezes wages | Former premier Bill Vander Zalm rallies against the HST in BC | Ontario tax collectors get $45K severance, keep jobs in HST federalization deal | Athens erupts as Greek austerity plan passes | HST ad campaign debuts in Ontario | Ont. deficit could linger for years: McGuinty | HST bill passes, 13% tax starts July 1 | Poll: HST equals Hated Sales Tax | Anti-HST protest at Ontario legislature spills onto Toronto streets | Tories, Liberals, Bloc approve HST for Ontario and B.C.

CBC News
June 4, 2010

Consumers look for cash deals to avoid tax

With less than a month to go before the 13 per cent harmonized sales tax is introduced in Ontario, there are signs that consumers are turning to cash-only transactions to beat the tax.

“We have about 20 estimators out here in the field and we’re getting various reports of contractors whom are offering cash deals and this sort of thing in an effort to drum up business and to offer some sort of appeal to avoid paying the taxes,” roofing contractor Craig Bennett told CBC News.

He said the situation is so serious in his industry that it’s causing a crash in prices.

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