Daily Digest 2/12 - Bill Black On White Collar Crime, Rock Paper Silver, More Americans Relying On Gov't Benefits

• Bill Black: On Why White Collar Crime is on the Rise, How to "Hotspot" Elite Financial Crimes, and Why Republicans and Democrats are Not Interested
• Why The Global System Is Killing Trust
• Supply of a Cancer Drug May Run Out Within Weeks
• Rock Paper Silver
• Whither Gold
• Greek Leaders Urge Lawmakers to Approve Debt Deal
• More Americans Relying On Government Benefits
• India Defends Oil Purchases From Iran
• Texas's Electrical Power Predicament - Part 3

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Economy

Bill Black: On Why White Collar Crime is on the Rise, How to "Hotspot" Elite Financial Crimes, and Why Republicans and Democrats are Not Interested (Jaime L.)

On how to "hotspot" white collar crime: Going after issuers of "liars' loans" would have been the obvious way to go. You always have insufficient resources so you always look for choke-points. There are only 3 credit rating agencies, for example. If you investigated even one of them for the frauds they were committing - giving AAA ratings to liars' loans - you would have shut down the entire secondary market and the fraudulent loans. There are also only 5 investment banks. If you had gone after one of them... Lehman Brothers, for example. Or Aurora - where they fired the fraud guy because he made a criminal referral. With very few resources you could have prevented the entire crisis.

Why The Global System Is Killing Trust (Chris M.)

So, that leaves us with security as the only way to prevent bad actors from running away with the global system. This leads me to a great presentation I heard yesterday by Dan Geer. He's another philosopher "king" of crypto-security (but for the CIA). Very smart guy. He made a convincing case that security is scaling slower than data, bandwidth, node, and user growth. It is falling behind and will continue to fall behind as the global system grows.

Supply of a Cancer Drug May Run Out Within Weeks (VeganD)

The cancer commonly spreads to the lining of the spine and brain, and oncologists prevent this by injecting large quantities of preservative-free methotrexate directly into the spinal fluid. The preservative can cause paralysis when injected into the spinal column, so cannot be used for this disease. Methotrexate is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Ben Venue Laboratories was one of the nation’s largest suppliers of injectable preservative-free methotrexate, but the company voluntarily suspended operations at its plant in Bedford, Ohio, in November because of “significant manufacturing and quality concerns,” the company announced.

Rock Paper Silver (pinecarr)

"Jesse", in addition to having the best charts and insight keeps track of COMEX silver inventory. Sprott brings to light that paper trades at 891 times the available physical - each day!

Whither Gold (pinecarr)

The prophetic words of Antal Fekete in his now infamous 'essay' on Gold are as relevant now (perhaps more so) as they were when he first wrote them 15 years ago - especially as the Euro-zone migrates from lossening fiat-money to quasi-money (greek pharma bonds for instance). While summarizing this must-read discussion of mainstream economic orthodoxy's mis-teachings is impractical, his initial introduction sets the stage for what is to come: "The year 1971 was a milestone in the history of money and credit. Previously, in the world's most developed countries, money (and hence credit) was tied to a positive value: the value of a well-defined quantity of a good of well-defined quality. In 1971 this tie was cut. Ever since, money has been tied not to positive but to negative values -- the value of debt instruments."

Greek Leaders Urge Lawmakers to Approve Debt Deal (jdargis)

Greece’s so-called troika of foreign lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — has demanded the austerity measures in exchange for about $170 billion in bailout money that Greece needs to avert default. The troika has also made passage of the measures a condition for sealing a deal in which private creditors will take voluntary losses of up to 70 percent of Greek debt.

More Americans Relying On Government Benefits (jdargis)

Government benefits, like Social Security and Medicare, make up nearly a fifth of Americans’ income, and almost half of the country lives in households that receive benefits. The cost of these programs is rapidly rising and consumed nearly 66 cents of every dollar of federal and state revenues in 2010. In a recent poll, Americans’ perceptions about the cost of these programs sometimes conflicted with reality.

India Defends Oil Purchases From Iran (jdargis)

The situation was exacerbated last week by news reports that India had become Iran’s top oil customer, while an Indian official announced plans to send a trade delegation to Tehran. In New Delhi, diplomats and analysts say India’s purchasing of Iranian oil is a matter of economic necessity, given its dependence on imported oil. Some say the purchases also represent diplomatic hedging in a region bracing for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan by 2014, or possibly sooner.

Texas's Electrical Power Predicament - Part 3 (Crash_Watcher)

Having an adequate electricity generation reserve margin is vital to preventing rolling blackout. However, by ERCOT’s own estimate, their reserve margin will be down to 3.6% of total generating capacity by 2015, 0% by 2020, and then go negative thereafter. Even if all the projects presently undergoing study, including some unlikely new coal and nuclear power plants, are added, the reserve margin only stays above 10% until 2018, and then falls thereafter.

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