Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Bank of America earns $6.2 billion on accounting gains
Bank of America earns $6.2 billion on accounting gains, sale of stake in Chinese bank
Republican players look to tap tea party activism
Ron Paul Media Blackout Confirmed
Cain’s Social Security Model Risks Deeper U.S. Debt
Police cite privacy concerns over their own DNA
RIM CEO Considers Operator Compensation
Ron Paul to propose $1T in specific budget cuts

Bank of America earns $6.2 billion on accounting gains

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:32 AM PDT

By Associated Press, The Washington Post

NEW YORK — Bank of America earned $6.2 billion in the third quarter on accounting gains and the sale of a stake in a Chinese bank, which offset lower revenue and income in its credit card, real estate and investment banking businesses.

Bank of America is also no longer the largest bank in the nation by assets, which fell to $2.21 trillion in the quarter. The Charlotte, N.C. bank ceded the bragging rights to rival JPMorgan Chase & Co. which reported total assets of $2.28 trillion.

The slimming down reflects Bank of America's strategy of cutting costs and selling off businesses that don't fit into its simpler banking model. CEO Brian Moynihan said in a conference call with analysts Tuesday he had begun the process of a "strategic transformation of the company."

Bank of America earned 56 cents per share, following a loss of $7.3 billion, or 77 cents a share in the same quarter last year. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast the bank would earn 28 cents per share.

Bank of America Corp.'s stock rose 3 percent to $6.21 at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Bank of America earns $6.2 billion on accounting gains, sale of stake in Chinese bank

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:31 AM PDT

By Associated Press, Washingtonpost.com

Bank of America Corp.'s stock rose 3 percent to $6.21 at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The income included accounting gains of $4.5 billion and $1.7 billion, both related to drops in the value of its debt. When the price of the bank's debt falls, the bank could theoretically buy it back at a lower cost. Accounting rules require that an income gain be recorded when that happens.

Bank of America gained $3.6 billion from selling its stake in China Construction Bank and recorded a loss in its private equity business of $2.2 billion as the value of its investments fell.

Republican players look to tap tea party activism

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:24 AM PDT

By Rick Pearson and Bob Secter, The Chicago Tribune

When state Rep. Jim Durkin answered an invitation to speak to the Homer/Lockport Tea Party, he saw a chance to meet some Republican-leaning allies in his newly redrawn southwest suburban district. He promptly ran into a buzz saw.

Instead of focusing on the state’s budget crisis, an area where Durkin and many tea party members share common ground, he was berated for 45 minutes by gun-rights advocates who flooded the meeting to protest his vote against allowing people to carry concealed weapons.

Meeting organizer Stephen Balich tried unsuccessfully to quiet the Illinois State Rifle Association members who hijacked his agenda, saying that “nothing else matters if you don’t have a country anymore.” He said Durkin “is a fiscal conservative. That’s one of the more important things right now.”

Durkin’s trip highlighted the confluence of interests that are tugging and pulling at tea party groups. There is no shortage of players in Illinois looking to combat apathy among conservative voters by tapping the energy generated by the loose-knit federation of activists, among them narrow interest groups like the gun lobby. But Republican politicians clearly top the list.

Ron Paul Media Blackout Confirmed

Posted: 18 Oct 2011 07:22 AM PDT

By John Hudson, The Atlantic

Ron Paul loyalists have been vindicated. After months of observations that the mainstream media was ignoring the libertarian standard-bearer, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows just that: the Texas Congressman, who has consistently polled in the high single digits — Real Clear Politics’s aggregate poll currently has him at 8 percent — has received the least overall coverage of any candidate. From May 2 to October 9, Paul appeared as the “primary newsmaker in only 2% of all election stories.”

The study measured mainstream exposure by compiling a list of 52 mainstream news outlets across “newspapers, cable news, broadcast television, the 12 most popular news websites in the country, and radio news.” To register as a story about the candidate, he/she had to be the focus of at least 50 percent of the story. Interestingly, while Paul gained short shrift from the mainstream press, the blogosphere was an entirely different story, where the tone of his coverage was more favorable than for any other candidate:

Paul generated a good deal of attention on blogs, registering as the fifth most-discussed candidate with more than 89,000 opinions tracked about him.

Cain’s Social Security Model Risks Deeper U.S. Debt

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 02:21 PM PDT

By Sebastian Boyd, Bloomberg.com

Herman Cain, the former pizza executive surging in polls for the Republican presidential nomination, wants to replace Social Security with what he called the "Chilean model" of private pension funds. Full adoption of that model may push the U.S. deeper into deficit than Greece.

Chile's system, introduced under the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, diverted workers' contributions into privately run funds, slashing government revenue over the next few decades in exchange for a reduction in state pension payments 30 years down the line.

The military regime prepared for the new system in 1981 by cutting spending, building up a fiscal surplus and clamping down on all forms of dissent. The U.S. by contrast, had a deficit equal to 8.9 percent of gross domestic product last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates, and no political consensus on how to eliminate that shortfall.

"For the U.S. right now it would be impossible," said Alejandro Micco, who was the chief economist at Chile's Finance Ministry until last year. To change to a private pension system "you either need to have a very big fiscal surplus to pay retirees without income from workers, or go into debt."

An NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll taken Oct. 6-10 found that Cain led the Republican field with 27 percent, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney with 23 percent and Texas Governor Rick Perry with 16 percent. The poll interviewed 336 people who said they would vote in the Republican primary and had a margin of error of 5.35 percentage points. Cain had 5 percent in an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll taken in August.

'Chilean Model'

Cain, speaking to the New Hampshire House of Representatives on Oct. 12, mentioned his proposal to adopt the "Chilean model, offering younger workers an optional personal retirement account" as an alternative to the Social Security system.

U.S. Social Security is mostly financed through a payroll tax that last year brought in $545 billion, 3.6 percent of gross domestic product, topped up by income from investment earnings, according to the Social Security Administration.

Police cite privacy concerns over their own DNA

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 02:17 PM PDT

By DAVE COLLINS, Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — When police in southern Louisiana were investigating the deaths of eight women in 2009, the sophistication of the crimes set off rumors that the serial killer was a police officer – speculation that became so pervasive that officials ordered DNA testing of law enforcement personnel to rule it out.

All local officers agreed to the testing and were eliminated as suspects, but the killer remains at large, said Jefferson Davis Parish Sheriff Ricky Edwards.

Having officers’ DNA samples on file is important for saving time in investigations and fending off doubt about evidence at trials because it allows authorities to identify unknown genetic material found at crime scenes, Edwards and other police and crime lab officials say.

Police in other parts of the country, however, are not as willing to hand over their DNA. Rank-and-file police from Connecticut to Chicago to Los Angeles have opposed what some experts say is a slowly emerging trend in the U.S. to collect officers’ DNA.

“From a civil liberties standpoint, there are a lot of red flags,” said Connecticut Trooper Steven Rief, former president of the state police union.

“It’s not that the law enforcement officers are opposed to giving up their DNA,” he said. “You need to have safeguards in place. Something that can tell you … something intimate about someone needs to be treated with the utmost care.”

RIM CEO Considers Operator Compensation

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 02:11 PM PDT

By Jonathan Browning, Bloomberg.com

Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) will this week consider offering compensation to network operators following one of its worst BlackBerry service disruptions, co- Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said today.

RIM will focus on compensation alongside the offer of one month of free technical support to companies and free online applications, Balsillie said in a telephone interview.

"We're very focused on these carriers and making sure they're satisfied with the service operation and making sure we comply with all of our agreements with them and making sure we have their trust for the service going forward," Balsillie said.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, may face claims following the disruption after some wireless carriers including Vodafone Group Plc (VOD), the world's biggest mobile-phone operator, offered refunds to some BlackBerry users. Subscribers across most parts of the world, including U.S. and Canada, last week lost data services after a network failure in the U.K. halted messaging and Web browsing.

RIM will give subscribers free access to online applications in games, radio and translation with a face value of up to $100, the company said in an e-mailed statement today.

"This is our offer and we worked systemically over the last three days to make that," Balsillie said. "That was a pretty comprehensive set of efforts."

Ron Paul to propose $1T in specific budget cuts

Posted: 17 Oct 2011 02:06 PM PDT

By DAN HIRSCHHORN, Politico.com

Ron Paul's opinions about cutting the budget are well-known, but on Monday, he got specific: the Texas congressman laid out a budget blueprint for deep and far-reaching cuts to federal spending, including the elimination of five cabinet-level departments and the drawdown of American troops fighting overseas.

There's even a symbolic readjustment of the president's own salary to put it in line with the average American salary.

Paul will elaborate on the plan during an afternoon speech in Las Vegas ahead of Tuesday's debate. He'll say that his plan for $1 trillion in cuts will create a balanced federal budget by the third year of his presidency.

"It's the only plan offered by a presidential candidate that actually balances the budget and begins to pay down the debt," top Paul adviser Jesse Benton said in a statement ahead of the speech. "And it's the only plan being offered that tries to reign in the Federal Reserve and get inflation under control."

Many of the ideas in Paul's 11-page "Plan to Restore America" are familiar from Paul's staunch libertarianism, as well as tea party favorites like eliminating the departments of education and energy. But Paul goes further: he'll propose immediately freezing spending by numerous government agencies at 2006 levels, the last time Republicans had complete control of the federal budget, and drastically reducing spending elsewhere. The EPA would see a 30 percent cut, the Food and Drug Administration would see one of 40 percent and foreign aid would be zeroed out immediately. He'd also take an ax to Pentagon funding for wars.

Medicaid, the children's health insurance program, food stamps, family support programs and the children's nutrition program would all be block-granted to the states and removed from the mandatory spending column of the federal budget. Some functions of eliminated departments, such as Pell Grants, would be continued elsewhere in the federal bureaucracy.

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

Rick Santelli's Chicago Tea Party

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