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Mr. Anonymous and the Not-So-Spontaneous Birth of the Libertarian Movement

An important history lesson in our time of decline... Michael Collins

Originally published in Scoop Independent News

By anaxarchos
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Disclaimer: This is not a conspiracy story, though it has all the elements of one. Anonymous shadowy figures, international "societies", complete political "ideologies" created for convenience alone, social institutions corrupted through the mere distribution of cash (science, politics, universities, governments and even the Nobel Prize), and a global strategy designed to "rule the world" - no doubt about it, this one is better than a novel. But, don't get carried away. There are no secret ceremonies or lizard people in this tale. Nor is it a story about groups named after Italian light fixtures or German beer. It is instead the story of how "everyday conspiracies" work. (Image: DonkeyHotey)

Karl Marx wrote that the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of its ruling class. Looking backward, it is hard to dispute this observation, but how does it actually work? That is what our story is about. It starts with the businessman below and his simple frustration at the success of Marxism as an idea, first among his own workers and then amongst the American establishment whose wide-spread adoption of the appropriately conciliatory "New-Dealism" was entirely in response. In an economic system in which everything is reduced to a commodity, a man of means should be able to simply buy a counter-idea, shouldn't he? So it turns out...

Healthcare Costs to Increase 8.5% in 2012

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PricewaterhouseCoopers has a new report projecting health care costs to rise 8.5% in 2012 and 8% in 2011.

 

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Insurance policies will have higher deductibles and less coverage, what the report calls a cost deflator. Obviously that's not deflator to you.

One of the most damning conclusions of the report is how health care reform is projected to have minimal impact on health care costs for 2012.

Providers are consolidating, providing less competition. Employer plans are using even higher deductibles, dumping the costs onto you. Medical services are now getting less from Medicare, 3.3% increases for 2012, so as usual, to make up the difference, these providers are dumping their losses by jacking up prices for the rest of us.

 

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Even worst, they are projected a dramatic increase in stress related health care costs. Yes, losing your home and job affects your health.

Below is the CPI index annual change for health care costs:

 

 

and hospital related services CPI annual change:

 

 

Will the NY Attorney General Bring Doomsday Charges Against Wall Street? If So, How Long Will He Survive?

Michael Collins
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Gretchen Morgenson of the New York Times just published one of the few feel good stories in months following the 2008 financial crisis. She describes a possible day of reckoning for the perpetrators of the 2008 crisis and much of the pain that has followed.

The newly elected New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman (D), wants information from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley. Among other things, the information concerns mortgage pooling and bundling. This may well include information on collateralized debt obligations (CDO's) and mortgage backed securities (MBS). New York state officials told Morgenson:

"The New York attorney general has requested information and documents in recent weeks from three major Wall Street banks about their mortgage securities operations during the credit boom, indicating the existence of a new investigation into practices that contributed to billions in mortgage losses." New York Investigates Banks’ Role in Financial Crisis New York Times, May 16

Strong Unions - The Worst Nightmare for the Financial Elite

Michael Collins

Man wouldn't pay you unless he had to. Chris Rock

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The antiunion movement in the United States keeps us underpaid and represents a serious impediment to economic growth. Yet antiunion sentiment remains strong among the political establishment and their patrons. Why?

Worker rights and a decent wage represent a toxic brew to the ruling elite. In the past, they expressed their antiunion position in a crude fashion. From the 1870s through the 1920s, industrialists fought union growth with hired thugs and complicit law enforcement officials. Organizers and union members were harassed, maimed, and killed throughout the country for simply acting on the right to organize and participate in a union.

Saturday Reads Around The Internets - All About the Banks

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Welcome to the weekly roundup of great articles, facts and figures. These are the weekly finds that made our eyes pop.

 

Help For Homeowners Is Only Help For Banks

Whistleblowers are now speaking out on the scam HAMP really is. Instead of helping homeowners is pushing them into foreclosure Dylan Ratigan interviewed the Whistleblowers in the below clip.

 

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