WILLIAM BLACK: THE EURO COULD COME UNDONE IN 3-4 YEARS
by ilene - December 28th, 2010 3:20 pm
Courtesy of CULLEN ROCHE, The Pragmatic Capitalist
William Black of UMKC believes the Euro could unravel in the coming 3-4 years as the political tension continues to increase and ultimately creates a divide between the core and periphery. Black says the economies on the periphery are likely to remain very weak and will lead to civil unrest and political overhaul. In the end the strains will be too much for the region to overcome.
Black also discusses the imbalances in China and why the Chinese are likely to experience their own crisis in the coming years. (Video here.)
Source: Bloomberg
US Said to Ready Special Armed Forces Unit For Domestic Deployment in Case of Disaster or Civil Unrest
by ilene - April 22nd, 2010 12:05 am
US Said to Ready Special Armed Forces Unit For Domestic Deployment in Case of Disaster or Civil Unrest
Courtesy of JESSE’S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
Although the National Guard has been used in the past to deal with protests, they were called by the state governors and were not acting at the direction of the Federal government.
"The Posse Comitatus Act is a United States federal law (18 U.S.C. § 1385) passed on June 18, 1878, after the end of Reconstruction, with the intention (in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807) of substantially limiting the powers of the federal government to use the military for law enforcement. The Act prohibits most members of the federal uniformed services (today the Army, Navy, Air Force, and State National Guard forces when such are called into federal service) from exercising nominally state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain "law and order" on non-federal property (states and their counties and municipal divisions) within the United States.
The statute generally prohibits federal military personnel and units of the National Guard under federal authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within the United States, except where expressly authorized by the Constitution or Congress. The Coast Guard is exempt from the Act during peacetime."
I wonder if this is true, and if the Obama Administration intends to deploy Federal troops, or declare martial law, this summer prior to the elections. I am not familiar with the Newark Examiner.
It does not seem consistent with the law, because this is a regular army regiment. The provisions for their deployment passed during the Bush Administration had been repealed, setting the use of troops back to the conditions of Insurrection as I recall.
I believe that is the premise by which the government directed MacArthur to lead regular army troops to dispel the WWI veterans from the Capitol in the last Great Depression.
Even in the race riots of the 1960′s which were in many cases armed and dangerous, the National Guard was deployed at the direction of the state’s governor. I am not aware of any other legal precedents or rules on this. Perhaps someone else can oblige.
P.S. A reader informs me that this news report is from a ‘conservative’ news source that has a…
National Guard Needed To Protect Alabama County From Fatal Interest Rate Swaps
by ilene - August 4th, 2009 8:05 pm
More on the National Guard story, courtesy of Moe at Clusterstock.
And welcome to Moe Tkacik and Lawrence Delevingne! You may have noticed, we have many excellent PSW contributors from The Business Insider/Clusterstock – Henry Blodget, John Carney, Joe Weisenthal, Dan Colarusso, Jay Yarow, and now Moe Tkacik and Lawrence Delevingne. Their site is great resource for up-to-the minute insight on breaking market news. – Ilene
National Guard Needed To Protect Alabama County From Fatal Interest Rate Swaps
Courtesy of Moe Tkacik at ClusterStock
A few years ago Jefferson County, Alabama bought 17 interest rate swaps from JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America with the intention of hedging interest rate risk.
Today the county said it may need the National Guard to hedge the the "anarchy risk" it now faces as a result of the fiscal disaster its venture into "sophisticated" derivatives turned out to be.
In a sequence of events that played out in state capitals, city halls, and school and public utility boardrooms throughout the country , Jefferson County officials bought into complex interest rate swap contracts they didn’t understand, at much higher prices than the going rate, only to face hundreds of millions of dollars in sudden collateral calls when the subprime mortgage crisis began.
Jefferson County’s collateral calls came when credit rating agencies downgraded the monolines insuring its swaps contracts, Financial Guaranty and XL Capital Assurance, last year, when all the major monolines were beset with downgrades following a fatal foray into the business of "insuring" subprime mortgage-backed CDOs and other asset-backed securities.
Source: Guard troops may be needed in troubled Ala. county, AP
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The sheriff in Alabama’s most populous county may call for the National Guard to help maintain order, a spokesman said Tuesday, after a judge cleared the way for cuts in the sheriff’s budget and hopes dimmed for a quick end to a budget crisis.
Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker ruled that leaders in Jefferson County — now trying to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing of historic proportions — could…