Daily Digest 12/30 - A Thinly Veiled Bail, Photos Of Japan's Exclusion Zone, War Imminent In Straits Of Hormuz?

• Repo Men
• What if the SEC investigated Banks the way it is investigating Mutual Funds?
• How Banks Cheat Taxpayers
• A Thinly Veiled Bail
• Is It Too Late To Buy Gold And Silver? - Mike Maloney
• Venezuela to Open up Massive Natural Gas Field with European Investment
• Oil Prices Predicted to Stay Above $100 a Barrel Through Next Year
• War Imminent in Straits of Hormuz? $200 a Barrel Oil?
• An Entrepreneurial Solution To The Problem Of Getting Local Food To Local Tables: Trust,?Convenience, And Perceived Value
• Japan's Nuclear Exclusion Zone

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Economy

Repo Men (Phil H.)

That?s a pretty fantastic lineup, from Wall Street?s point of view, but the real bonus turned out to be Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, who came up through the ranks as part of the bipartisan Robert Rubin?Hank Paulson?Citigroup?Goldman Sachs cabal. Geithner, a government-and-academe man from way back, never really worked on Wall Street, though he once was offered a gig as CEO of Citigroup, which apparently thought he did an outstanding job as chairman of the New York Fed, where one of his main tasks was regulating Citigroup ? until it collapsed into the yawning suckhole of its own cavernous ineptitude, at which point Geithner?s main job became shoveling tens of billions of federal dollars into Citigroup, in an ingeniously structured investment that allowed the government to buy a 27 percent share in the bank, for which it paid more than the entire market value of the bank.

What if the SEC investigated Banks the way it is investigating Mutual Funds? (June C.)

The actual story makes it clear that the criminals that the SEC was identifying were not ?rogues.? They were the CEOs of seemingly legitimate firms. The SEC is identifying ?accounting control frauds? ? the frauds that cause greater financial losses than all other forms of property crime combined. The SEC is not identifying a few rotten apples, but roughly 100 hedge funds likely to have engaged in accounting fraud.

How Banks Cheat Taxpayers (June C.)

There is absolutely no good reason why all debt issues are not put up to competitive bids. This is not like defense contracting, where in some situations it is at least theoretically possible that X or Y company is the world?s only competent manufacturer, say, of armor-plated Humvee doors, or some such thing. It?s still wrong and perverse when companies like Halliburton or Blackwater get sole-source defense contracts, but at least there?s some kind of theoretical justification there.

A Thinly Veiled Bail (Ilene)

In exchange for Euros as collateral, the ECB gets non-technically loaned Dollars which it then lends to European banks. The additional Dollars flowing to the EU banks enable the ECB not to release more Euros to the EU banks and into circulation. According to O'Driscoll, this "Byzantine financial arrangement" was designed perfectly to confuse people.

Is It Too Late To Buy Gold And Silver? - Mike Maloney (adam)

With the recent price drop around the precious metals over the past month, many people are wondering if the precious metals bull market is coming to an end... If they should sell now at a loss before the price dives even more...

So... Are they right? Should you sell your metals, or buy more? Is the price going to increase or decrease from here?

Energy

Venezuela to Open up Massive Natural Gas Field with European Investment (James S.)

ENI issued a statement noting, ?Following the execution of the gas sales agreement, Cardon IV will proceed to the final investment decision for Phase I, which includes the utilization of the wells already drilled and the installation of light offshore platforms linked through a gas pipeline to a central processing facility located onshore. Phase I has an estimated cost of $1.4 billion, incorporating some of the investment necessary for subsequent phases (mainly for pipeline and platforms). Phase II and III will require additional drilling from the platforms installed in Phase I, and the expansion of the CPF processing capacity.?

Oil Prices Predicted to Stay Above $100 a Barrel Through Next Year

Now, though, the focus has turned to Iran. On Wednesday, Iran and the United States sharpened their tone over Iran?s vow to close the Strait of Hormuz if Western powers tried to stifle Iran?s petroleum exports.

War Imminent in Straits of Hormuz? $200 a Barrel Oil? (James S.)

The participating Iranian forces have been divided into two groups, blue and orange, with the blue group representing Iranian forces and orange the enemy. Velayat 90 is involving the full panoply of Iranian naval force, with destroyers, missile boats, logistical support ships, hovercraft, aircraft, drones and advanced coastal missiles and torpedoes all being deployed. Tactics include mine-laying exercises and preparations for chemical attack. Iranian naval commandos, marines and divers are also participating.

Environment

An Entrepreneurial Solution To The Problem Of Getting Local Food To Local Tables: Trust, Convenience, And Perceived Value (jdargis)

Hudson Valley Harvest is the brain-child of Paul Alward, who happens to be both a farmer himself and, in the spirit of full disclosure, a good friend. The company has pulled together a line of locally grown and processed frozen vegetables and naturally-raised beef and pork now available in 21 grocery stores and 10 restaurants in the NYC Metro area. They plan many more. The vegetables (this year?s crop: corn, greens, summer squash, tomatoes, broccoli, and edamame) all come from a network of independent small-scale farms. Produce is harvested at peak freshness, quickly brought to a processing plant in Kingston, and flash-frozen. Individual packages come from single farms and are labelled so as to be completely traceable from ground to package (see picture and caption).

Japan's Nuclear Exclusion Zone (jdargis)

What does a sudden evacuation look like? After everyone is gone, what happens to the places they've abandoned? National Geographic Magazine sent Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder to the nuclear exclusion zone around Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant to find out. Evacuated shortly after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to a nuclear radiation crisis, the area has been largely untouched, with food rotting on store shelves and children's backpacks waiting in classrooms. The area may face the same fate as the town of Pripyat, Ukraine after the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago.

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