News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

[Cain]

Which begs the question - Who's responsible for going after serious white-collar crime?

The FBI, SEC or Treasury, depending on the particulars of the crime.  Sometimes a big DA's office, like New York City or Chicago could instigate an investigation using the above agencies.  Interpol as well, though they can only provide assistance, not take lead.

[Junkenstein]

What interests me is that the latest banking scam demonstrated just how easy it would be to destroy economy completely, like not our economy or their economy but the whole thing.

It also moved the world a step closer to the edge. I'm personally dying to see it actually happen, just for the inevitable lulzfest. Unfortunately I have no idea of how to pull it off 

Purchase one house.
Use said house as collateral for purchasing 2nd house.
Repeat until all houses owned by p3nt.
Refuse to service debt
????
Worldwide economic collapse.

Which begs the question - Who's responsible for going after serious white-collar crime?

The FBI, SEC or Treasury, depending on the particulars of the crime.  Sometimes a big DA's office, like New York City or Chicago could instigate an investigation using the above agencies.  Interpol as well, though they can only provide assistance, not take lead.

So only motivated parties then? From what I've seen DA's seem to mainly go after things that are easy to show the public as you being "Tough on crime".

I had assumed the SEC had a similar level of effectiveness to the FSA but from looking though here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_major_SEC_enforcement_actions_(2009%E2%80%9312)#2012
I may have been judging them a little harshly. That said, There appears to be no 2013 list which is unusual for Wikipedia. And those noted in the 09-12 list frequently have no comment on the results of the action and punishments levied which I assume means they're being appealed.

[P3nT4gR4m]

What interests me is that the latest banking scam demonstrated just how easy it would be to destroy economy completely, like not our economy or their economy but the whole thing.

It also moved the world a step closer to the edge. I'm personally dying to see it actually happen, just for the inevitable lulzfest. Unfortunately I have no idea of how to pull it off 

Purchase one house.
Use said house as collateral for purchasing 2nd house.
Repeat until all houses owned by p3nt.
Refuse to service debt
????
Worldwide economic collapse.

Have you any idea how long that would take? It's not something that's so important to me I'm prepared to devote more than one lunch-hour to it, ffs! 

[Telarus]

Most of what the FBI does nowadays comes under "counter-terrorism" anyway, to the point it's degraded the agency's capabilities to deal with organized or white collar crime (not that it had much of an interest in pursuing how those relate to terrorism and national security anyway...like how a banking collape could, you know, wreck the global economy, or even the relationship between big banks and money laundering).

Speaking of the FBI's "original purpose"....
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/07/260302289/the-secret-burglary-that-exposed-j-edgar-hoovers-fbi?ft=1

[Junkenstein]

Bit of an aside, but I went for the "listen to this article" link and is it just me or do all the voices sound quite odd? Constant strange pauses makes it sound like it's been edited to fuck. Or shoved through some iffy text to speech program.

[Cain]

Most of what the FBI does nowadays comes under "counter-terrorism" anyway, to the point it's degraded the agency's capabilities to deal with organized or white collar crime (not that it had much of an interest in pursuing how those relate to terrorism and national security anyway...like how a banking collape could, you know, wreck the global economy, or even the relationship between big banks and money laundering).

Speaking of the FBI's "original purpose"....
http://www.npr.org/2014/01/07/260302289/the-secret-burglary-that-exposed-j-edgar-hoovers-fbi?ft=1

Yup, that's exactly it.  I didn't see COINTELPRO mentioned in the article by name, but that's a good place to start.  And the earlier Red Squads too.

And let's not forget that while the Iraq War was raging, the FBI decided the top counterterrorism priority in the USA was environmental terrorist groups, which it targeted in Operation Backfire and included...surveillance, infiltration, agent provocateurs and handed out life sentences for property damage.

[inode_buddha]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579316584090630274?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303819704579316584090630274.html

Bank regulators soften up on fractional reserve limits in Basel.... say, didn't we have this financial thing a while back? Anyways, banks are saying that the new, higher limits are cramping their style and limiting their ability to lend... here we go again!

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579316584090630274?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303819704579316584090630274.html

Bank regulators soften up on fractional reserve limits in Basel.... say, didn't we have this financial thing a while back? Anyways, banks are saying that the new, higher limits are cramping their style and limiting their ability to lend... here we go again!

Why do you want to hurt the economy?

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I made in a single year more than my mom made her whole life. I knew that wasn't fair; that wasn't right. Yes, I was sharp, good with numbers. I had marketable talents. But in the end I didn't really do anything. I was a derivatives trader, and it occurred to me the world would hardly change at all if credit derivatives ceased to exist. Not so nurse practitioners. What had seemed normal now seemed deeply distorted.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html?_r=0&referrer

[Left]

There are a few people on FB claiming that this drug kills your liver (overdose regime unspecified).

This, this is COOL.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/01/08/medicine-that-might-turbocharge-learning/

The side effects of valproic acid can include liver damage.  Hence, when the medicine is used clinically to treat seizures or bipolar disorder, liver function tests must be performed regularly, and blood levels of the medication must be monitored to keep its concentration from rising to toxic levels. 

[Reginald Ret]

Whenever any of you takes an economist seriously, just remember how the GDP is calculated.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country in a year, or other given period of time.

That includes services, like a doggrooming service.
It probably includes Import/Export as well.
It also includes anything paid for by taxes, which should be registered as a drain on a nation's productivity and not as an addition.

I'm not sure if this is the right place for this, but my break is over,gtg.

[Junkenstein]

I made in a single year more than my mom made her whole life. I knew that wasn't fair; that wasn't right. Yes, I was sharp, good with numbers. I had marketable talents. But in the end I didn't really do anything. I was a derivatives trader, and it occurred to me the world would hardly change at all if credit derivatives ceased to exist. Not so nurse practitioners. What had seemed normal now seemed deeply distorted.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html?_r=0&referrer

This seems rather related:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/24/news/companies/dimon-pay/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

n a government filing Friday, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) said Dimon would receive $18.5 million worth of restricted stock that will vest over the next three years as his 2013 bonus. That's up from a $10 million bonus for 2012. His $1.5 million base salary remains unchanged.

The bank said its board considered "several key factors." Among them: JPMorgan's "sustained long-term performance" and its efforts to put its legal problems behind it.
Dimon, CEO and chairman, had his total 2012 pay slashed by about half to $11.5 million after JPMorgan suffered estimated trading loss of nearly $6 billion during the year attributed to a London trader known as the London Whale.
During 2013 the bank agreed to pay $1 billion in fines to U.S. and UK regulators for lack of proper oversight of its traders related to that loss.
But that was only a fraction the fines and legal expenses the bank shelled out during the year for a variety of transgressions.
SNL Financial estimates that total payouts by the bank came to $18.6 billion for 2013 alone, as well as more than $1 billion in attorney costs during the year.
Provisions for those payments forced the bank to report a loss in the third quarter, the first of Dimon's tenure as CEO. For the full year, the bank reported net income of $17.9 billion, down 16% from the previous year. But shares increased 33% during the year.

[Telarus]

Andrea Mitchell Had To Interrupt An NSA Discussion With Breaking Bieber News
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/andrea-mitchell-justin-bieber-nsa_n_4657934.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009


Yup, that just happened. And a "mainstream" newspaper called them out on it. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Andrea Mitchell Had To Interrupt An NSA Discussion With Breaking Bieber News
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/24/andrea-mitchell-justin-bieber-nsa_n_4657934.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009


Yup, that just happened. And a "mainstream" newspaper called them out on it. 

That was... wow WTF?

[minuspace]

Skinny Puppy to invoice US for music played to Torture Terrorists
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2014/01/skinny_puppy_we_spent_an_unnec.php

"We heard through a reliable grapevine that our music was being used in Guantanamo Bay prison camps to musically stun or torture people," founder cEvin Key explains by phone from his Los Angeles home. "We heard that our music was used on at least four occasions. So we thought it would be a good idea to make an invoice to the U.S. government for musical services, thus the concept of the record title, Weapons."