One week of bullshit in a nutshell

It is simply just not possible for me to wrap the news articles I'll be discussing now in a pretty bow wrapped storyboard with a beginning middle and end. I don't even want to do this right now, it's my first fathers day being recognized as a father (don't ask) but this here is the only hour I'm going to get where I feel motivated to blog so here it is.

Banking

Former Bank of America workers allege it lied to home owners
Traders Said to Rig Currency Rates to Profit Off Clients

It is all fucking rigged and corrupt folks. All of it. With a structural foundation like this you simply can not trust anything coming out of banks in regards to economic health.

The real reason interest rates are rising

Investors are confused, or simply overreacting, as many try to figure out what the Federal Reserve will do next, says Dean Baker, economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. For several years now, the central bank has kept interest rates super-low by buying up billions of dollars worth of bonds. Ideally this would help the economy grow by encouraging businesses and consumers to borrow and spend more, but Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on May 22 hinted the Fed could scale back buying soon.

But before the Fed even makes any big bold moves, many investors are acting as if the central bank will stop the money spigot entirely. They've been reducing their exposure to bonds, which has helped push up rates. "I feel like investors are jumping the gun on this," says Baker, adding that it's unlikely the central bank would slow the pace of its bond purchases. Inflation isn't rising, and the job market, while doing better, is creating just enough jobs to keep up with population growth.

At a meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, Fed officials will weigh what it may do next. Even if members of the Federal Open Market Committee promise to continue with its $85 billion in monthly asset purchases, that may not stop interest rates from continuing to rise.

Either investors think the Fed is bluffing, or they're starting to think the economy is doing far worse than many of us think. Whatever the confusion, if it continues, new home buyers and other borrowers may have to pay for it.

Fugitive money launderer with ties to Stephen Harper agrees to surrender to U.S. authorities and serve his sentence

Economy

The super-spin being put on the U.S.'s continued downward spiral looks something like this:

In U.S. demand, Canadian manufacturers see light at end of tunnel

The showing by the manufacturers suggests overall economic growth will be weak this quarter.

Economist Dina Ignjatovic said the longer-term outlook is better, projecting that stronger growth in the United States in the second half of this year and into next will boost fortunes.

“The manufacturing sector will likely take a breather in the near term, given the declines seen in the forward-looking indicators and the fact the American economy – where a large chunk of Canada’s manufactured products are destined – is expected to have ratcheted down in the second quarter,” she said.

Haha, sorry folks, the "recovery" has been delayed until next year (again). But keep your faith, keep your confidence, all is well.

Canada’s lucky to come late to the housing-crash party

See? We're fucking lucky our "strong stable banking system" based on the same bullshit as in the U.S. is crashing much later. This is good, seriously.

Politics

Training manuals for Parliament guides boost Senate, praise two-party system

Fuck politics.

Infrastructure

River bridge collapse north of Fort McMurray strands backcountry users
Margaret Ave. bridge closed indefinitely over structural concerns

Shit's falling apart.

Police State

The Private-Intelligence Boom, by the Numbers
RCMP won’t disclose policing costs for shale gas protests

source

Obama does not feel Americans' privacy violated: chief of staff
GCHQ intercepted foreign politicians' communications at G20 summits

HEY PEOPLE SAYING THIS WHOLE 'NSA' THING IS PERFECTLY FINE AND 'LEGAL', THAT THERE IS NO POLICE STATE: THERE IS A FUCKING POLICE STATE FFS.
Germany Demands Obama Explain "American-Style Stasi Methods"

Seriously, grow the fuck up, take a look around.

Arizona man arrives in Toronto to face G20 vandalism charges

Yup, that's right. Bill Blair and the Toronto Department of Political Repression can't figure out the identities of their own fucking officers without a badge number (which the G20 officers conveniently removed) but they can figure out the identities of foreign people with masks on. Brilliant.

Cheney says NSA monitoring could have prevented 9/11

Yawn. Fuck Cheney.

Unrest

Turkish police end Istanbul park occupation
Brazilian cities rocked by violent clashes

So when do we start debating the arming of the 'Turkish rebels'?

And that's been one week of bullshit in a nutshell.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for CenturyLink

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.