Getting at the truth

The US Department of Labor lower figures

It is incredible, but the US government reports two conflicting monthly employment numbers. These numbers are not even close. According to the US Department of Labor, the unemployment figure for June 2009 is 417,000.  In another report the US Department of Labor reports that the June 2009 job loss is 615,250 - a huge difference of 198,250. Who can we trust?

Naturally, the media reports the smaller number to paint a rosier picture. As this is being written, President Obama, himself is reporting the 417,000 figure.

The higher figure of 618,000 is not difficult to find - if you know where to look. It is in the US Department of Labor’s ETA Press Release (click).

Here is a  direct quote from the ETA press release.

In the week ending June 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 614,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 630,000. The 4-week moving average was 615,250, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 618,000.

The ETA press release also reports some other telling unemployment figures, which show that even the Federal government is laying off people (contrary to public opinion and media reporting.

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Geithner opens the vault to “qualified investors.” Are you a qualified investor? Not unless you can use a time warp to send in your application by April 24, 2009. Huh? Didn’t anybody tell you?

Tax Cheat Geithner

TALF (Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility)

Imagine if you were not really in the market for a house but the government came along and said that it would finance 94% of a home’s purchase price with a mortgage rate of less than 3%. Still not interested? Wait, Uncle Sam has some additional sweeteners: if you do the deal and buy the house for only 6% down, you also get the equivalent of rental income every month to the tune of at least an annualized yield of 10% of the purchase price.

But wait there’s still more: if, say, after two years, you decide you don’t want the house any longer, you can just walk away from it. No need to pay the balance of the mortgage (it won’t affect your credit rating), and you can keep the rental income received to date.

That’s essentially the deal that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has offered qualified professional investors who participate in the so-called TALF.

Geithner and the Federal Reserve announced the launch of the TALF in March. The TALF is a $200 billion (on its way to $1 trillion) non-recourse lending program to private investors as a way to encourage them to buy newly underwritten securities backed by auto loans, credit-card receivables and student loans, among other asset classes. (The TALF program is set to extend, in June, to the issue of new commercial real-estate mortgage-backed securities.)

The Reason for TALF

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Is the ADP unemployment report wrong?

Often the Automatic Data Processing (ADP) unemployment figures are publicized by the media. This has been the case recently, where ADP has been quoted:

Non-farm private employment decreased 532,000 from April to May 2009 on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the ADP National Employment Report®. The estimated change of employment from March to April was revised by 54,000, from a decline of 491,000 to a decline of 545,000.

Monthly employment losses in April and May averaged 539,000. This is a notable improvement over the first three months of the year, when monthly losses averaged 691,000.

According to the June 18, 2009 press release from the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the U.S. Department of Labor, the picture is not so rosy.

The US Department of Labor states:

Nevertheless, despite some recent indications that economic activity is stabilizing, employment in the week ending June 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 608,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 605,000. The 4-week moving average was 615,750, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 622,750.

Even the US federal government, which has been expected to offer more jobs, is laying off people at a greater rate, according to the US Department of Labor, “Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,972 in the week ending June 6, an increase of 206 from the prior week. There were 1,874 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 419 from the preceding week.”

This demonstrates that the unemployment picture is not showing any signs of improvement, and raises the question of why the US Department of Labor and ADP statistics are so divergent.

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Federer

Maybe, just maybe, the other players are on to Nadal. Maybe they have cracked the code and hacked into his game to find a weakness. If this happened, it is not unusual as it happens to many players. The only unusual thing is that in Nadal’s case it has taken so long – assuming it has happened.

In the Madrid Open, Nadal barely edged by Djokovic, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6, in the semifinals. Then, for the first time in a long time, Nadal lost to Federer 6-4, 6-4 in the finals.

In this key match Federer finally changed his strategy against Nadal. Federer stopped hitting slice backhands, hit his second serve a lot harder, and mixed up his game by using drop shots. Federer also came to the net occasionally on his second serve – and also faked coming to net on his second serve. These elements took Nadal out of his comfort zone.

In the French Open, there was an even bigger shock to Nadal’s game when he lost to Soderling, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6.  Soderling’s strategy?  He risked big on his serve and overpowered Nadal in the rallies, which put Nadal on the run.

Soderling hit nearly twice as many winners as Nadal (61 to 33) and frequently followed his fast, flat drives to net where he won 27 of 35 points. This is a marked contrast from Soderling’s loss to Federer, several weeks prior, by 6-1, 6-0 – nearly a double bagel.

After defeating Nadal, Soderling appeared to be the biggest threat to Federer in the French Open. However, let us remember that Soderling has never beaten Federer, and lost to him by the easy score of 6-1, 7-5 in the second round of the Madrid Open.

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Fugitive Lap Wai Chan

How is it that a hedge fund, MatlinPatterson, is eligible to receive US bailout (TARP) funds?  Surely Tim Geither knows that Lap Wai Chan, a key figure at MatlinPatterson is a fugitive from Brazil.

How is it that The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) is opening a door the Federal Reserve has closed, allowing leveraged buyout firms to take control of banks amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?

The Fed has told private-equity companies (a polite term for hedge funds) it won’t permit a firm that isn’t regulated as a bank to own a majority stake in a lender. The OTS explains that it has an interest in keeping remaining thrifts alive with fresh capital, and private equity is one of the only options available. So now, hedge funds can purchase banks with US bailout funds.

MatlinPatterson, a hedge fund, has used TARP (US bailout) money to purchase Flagstar Bancorp Inc.  It did so with the full knowledge and consent of Tim Geithner, US Treasury Secretary.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a noted columnist with The Telegraph wrote about MatlinPatterson’s purchase of Flagstar with TARP money, several days ago. Shortly after the article was published, it was pulled off the Internet by The Telegraph - the reason cited being a letter from MatlinPatterson challenging the facts of the article.

After some investigation, according to a source familiar with The Telegraph’s thinking, the story by Ambrose Evans Pritchard on MatlinPatterson will return, as it is verifiable.

This means that MatlinPatterson’s letter to The Telegraph, which killed the story, is not truthful. It also raises the question of Geithner’s putting pressure on The Telegraph to kill the story. Certainly Geithner does not want people to know that he is doling out money to friendly hedge funds - especially a hedge fund employing Lap Wai Chan, a fugitive, as we mentioned in our last post.

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News flash - Related article removed from the Internet

Noted financial columnist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s article on the same subject, printed in England by the The Daily Telegraph and published on their website on May 14th has been removed. Our article on the topic goes well beyond that of Mr. Evans-Pritchard, as he does not mention Lap Wai Chan, a fugitive from Brazil.

Mark Patterson of MatlinPatterson maintains that he was misquoted in by Mr. Evans Pritchard. Even if Mr. Patterson was misquoted, which we doubt, the facts in our post below are evem more damning. This censorship is an example that the media is not in favor of Getting at The Truth. To protect ourselves from the guilty, you will find several “allegedlys”  inserted below.

US bailout money for a hedge fund?

Tim Geithner

MatlinPatterson is not really what one would consider to be a bank. It defines itself as a “globally distressed private equity fund.” In other words, MatlinPatterson is a hedge fund.

Still, even as a hedge fund, it received a huge amount of US bailout TARP money from Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary.

To make things worse, MatlinPatterson employs alleged fugitive Lap Wai Chan, said to be a Chinese national, with Brazilian and US passports.

Geithner’s TARP gift enabled Lap Wai Chan’s hedge fund to purchase Flagstar Bancorp in Michigan, which has assets in excess of $16 billion, approximately 180 banking centers, and 100 loan offices in 27 states.

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Singapore's George Yeo honored by Hillary

Singapore will be added to the OECD’s list of non-cooperative tax centers (money haven) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD estimates that Singapore has 370 billion dollars in money haven deposits.

Singapore is not just a haven for money launderers and tax cheats; it is an extradition-free country for crooks from nearby countries.

Singapore avoids extradition treaties with its neighboring countries, so that regional crooks can flee to Singapore - bringing their money.

The fact that Singapore does not extradite from its neighbors is illustrated by Singapore’s famous bond trader Nick Leeson whose US$1.3 billion loses caused the collapse of Barings Bank. To avoid prosecution, Leeson and his wife decided to flee Singapore.

They left their luxury Singapore apartment on Friday, February 1995, crossed the border into Malaysia and checked into a hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Twelve hours later, the Leesons traveled to Kota Kinabalu, a Malaysian resort 750 miles northeast of Singapore, where they enjoyed themselves until Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning they flew to Brunei. There, they spent the day in the airport’s departure lounge, and that evening boarded Royal Brunei Airlines Flight 535 for Frankfurt.
The Leesons were at large, and tracked by Singapore for five full days in Malaysia and Brunei - neighboring countries. No attempt was made by Singapore to extradite Nick Leeson, until he reached Frankfurt, Germany.

Indonesian Defense Minister Sudarsono accused Singapore this year of not signing an extradition pact with Indonesia for fear it would be obliged to return money stashed away by corrupt fugitives who had fled to Singapore.

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Blind leading the blind

AIG forced Chrysler into bankruptcy by selling Credit Default Swap contracts on Chrysler (and GM) bonds.

This explains why the hedge funds did not want to go along with Obama’s proposal that the bondholders accept pennies on the dollar.

With the Credit Default Swaps, the bondholders had their bonds insured at full value.

Why would they take anything less? Let AIG pay the hedge funds and others with taxpayer’s money), one hundred cents on the dollar.

Who would settle for pennies on the dollar, and maybe nothing, when you are fully insured by AIG?

Obama bailed out AIG - so that AIG-insured bondholders would not lose their money. The U.S, government made it perfectly clear that AIG counterparties can expect their Credit Default Swap contracts to be paid out in full at 100 cents on the dollar.

It is this decision of Obama’s to save AIG that has driven Chrysler into bankruptcy. It may well do the same for General Motors.

There's a FIAT in your future? (don't the lights point backwards?)

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Mexico distributes surgical masks

They call it “swine flu,” but it is the exact same virus as the “Spanish flu,” the influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1, or A/H1N1, which killed 50 million.

This is the exact same virus which caused the  influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world’s population was attacked by this deadly virus. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history.

Some victims died within hours of their first symptoms. Others succumbed after a few days; their lungs filled with fluid and they suffocated to death.

The term “swine flu” is being used to avoid panic among the public. This may not be a good idea, as an informed populace will have a better chance of survival.

Associated press lie

The Associated Press has been spreading the false propaganda that the current outbreak is the H1N1 virus, which is a dangerous lie. The US Center for Disease control confirms that we are being attacked by the A/H1V1 virus, which was the same virus as in the 1918 Pandemic (Wikipedia).

The world population in 1918 was about 1.8 billion. Today it is about 6.5 billion. In 1918 3.6% of the world’s population died from Spanish flu. 3.6% of today’s global population is 234 million.

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Ms. Lim fatal hit and run driver

On April 17th, notoriously corrupt Singapore Justice Choo Han Teck reduced the sentence of a convicted of a fatal hit and run driver to only 1 day in jail.

The hit and run driver was Ms. Lim Hong Eng, the Executive Editor of Singapore’s Shin Ming Daily News. In Singapore, newspaper editors are always part of Singapore’s dreaded ISD, or Internal Security Division. This is how Singapore controls the news.

Ms Lim had already been sentenced to a jail term of 1 1/2 years by a lower court for driving while using her hand phone, then running a red light and striking a motorcyclist and his passenger. The passenger died, while the motorcyclist suffered serious injuries when he crashed into the windshield of Ms. Lim’s car.

Choo Han Teck

In Singapore, when the rules are to be broken for “special” people, the case goes to Justice Choo.  When you get Justice Choo, you know the case has been rigged.

In this instance, corrupt Justice Choo decided to uphold the lower court’s conviction, but to reduce the sentence. Ms. Lim’s lawyer had suggested a “high fine”, instead of jail time. Justice Choo agreed and changed the sentence to 1 day’s jail with two fines totaling S$12,000 (US$8,000).

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