tagged w/ Regulators
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By David Edwards
Sunday, April 22, 2012 14:23 EDT
Liberal commentator Keith Olbermann on Sunday suggested that the price of gas had been artificially manipulated since President Barack Obama took office to hurt his chances at re-election.
In an appearance on ABC, Olbermann noted he had become suspicious after gas prices increased from $1.61 a gallon when Obama took the oath of Office in January 2009 to nearly $4 a gallon earlier this month.
“The lowest gas prices in the last six years, the nadir of gas prices at the pump, was the day of this president’s inauguration in 2009,” Olbermann explained. “There has to be some connection between that being the least-busy political moment of a president’s career — when you’re not going to hurt him and you’re not going to harm him that way — and the price of gas.”
“There has to be an almost deliberate or at least a side-effect quality to that. There must be.”
Last week, the president proposed measures that would give regulators more power to limit manipulation of the oil markets.
“We can’t afford a situation where some speculators can reap millions while millions of American families get the short end of the stick,” he told reporters.
But Republicans like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) quickly dismissed the proposal.
During a recent interview with the blog Shark Tank, Bachmann insisted that new legislation wasn’t necessary because Obama “already has the tools and he knows it.”
“This is just about waving a tar baby in the air and saying that something else is the problem. I have never seen a more irresponsible president who is infantile in the way that he continually blames everybody else for his failure to, first, diagnose the problem and, second, to address the problem. It’s always everyone else’s fault.”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/22/olbermann-almost-deliberate-gas-price-hikes-are-to-hurt-obama/
Watch this video from ABC’s This Week, broadcast April 22, 2012.
"Hmmm, this was interesting and brought many different things to light..."By David Edwards
Sunday, April 22, 2012 14:23 EDT
Liberal commentator Keith... more
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The EOS report showed industry has known that glyphosate causes birth defects since the 1980s and EU regulators have known since the 1990s. But instead of informing the public, industry and regulators have repeatedly claimed that glyphosate and Roundup do not cause birth defects.
Earth Open Source's response to Monsanto is also below (item 1).
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1. Earth Open Source response to Monsanto
June 14, 2011
http://on.fb.me/machCY
Monsanto responded to our report, "Roundup and birth defects: Is the public being kept in the dark?" in a statement on its website.
Monsanto said, "Regulatory authorities and independent experts around the world agree that glyphosate does not cause adverse reproductive effects in adult animals or birth defects in offspring of these adults exposed to glyphosate, even at doses far higher than relevant environmental or occupational exposures."
However, one of the main points of our report is that regulatory authorities have indeed agreed that glyphosate does not cause birth defects – but that conclusion is directly contradicted by the evidence in industry's own studies. These industry studies, submitted by companies including Monsanto in support of glyphosate's approval in the EU, showed that glyphosate causes birth defects in experimental animals. These effects were found not only at high doses, but also at mid and lower doses.
In addition, studies from the independent scientific literature, also detailed in our report and hitherto ignored or dismissed by the EU Commission and the EFSA, show that glyphosate and Roundup cause birth defects in experimental animals, as well as cancer, genetic damage, endocrine disruption and other serious health effects. Many of these effects are found at very low, physiologically relevant doses.
Monsanto said that Earth Open Source created "an account of glyphosate toxicity from a selected set of scientific studies, while they ignored much of the comprehensive data establishing the safety of the product". This is false, since our data analysis included industry-funded research studies, some commissioned by Monsanto, which were submitted to the European Commission in support of glyphosate's approval. We found that both these studies and studies by independent scientists contained clear evidence indicating that glyphosate and Roundup cause birth defects.
Monsanto said, "glyphosate inhibits an enzyme that is essential to plant growth; this enzyme is not found in humans or other animals, contributing to the low risk to human health from the use of glyphosate according to label directions."
However, numerous studies by industry and independent scientists detailed in our report show that glyphosate and Roundup are toxic to mammals and to human cells tested in vitro. Thus, Roundup must have other modes of action in addition to the enzyme inhibitory effect described by Monsanto. This is not surprising, as it can take decades to establish the precise mode of action of a toxin. Often, it remains unclear.
Monsanto called the studies that show problems with glyphosate "flawed". But we repeat – among the studies that we review in our report are industry studies, including some commissioned by Monsanto, which show that glyphosate causes birth defects in experimental animals. It follows that Monsanto is condemning the industry studies – including its own studies – as flawed. Since the current EU approval of glyphosate is based on these industry studies, Monsanto's apparent judgment that they are flawed gives us all the more reason to question the current approval of glyphosate.
Monsanto's less than convincing attempt to rebut the conclusions presented in our paper raises additional questions regarding the logic supporting the approval of glyphosate as safe for use in the EU. It provides additional justification for our appeal that the European Commission appoint independent scientists to carry out an immediate, objective review of glyphosate and Roundup, considering the full range of industry and independent studies.The EOS report showed industry has known that glyphosate causes birth defects since... more
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The federal bank regulator overseeing the nation's largest lenders is pushing for a quick and modest settlement to the months-long federal and state probes into abusive mortgage practices, frustrating other federal agencies and state regulators and raising questions over President Barack Obama's delay in naming a pro-consumer chief to head the agency.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which oversees lenders like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, plays a key role in the ongoing investigations launched last September into improper foreclosure practices. The federal review involves the OCC and other bank regulators, as well as the Departments of Justice, Housing and Urban Development and the newly formed Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The 50-state probe involves state attorneys general and state bank regulators.
But the OCC, known for its light-touch approach, is trying to come to a quick settlement with the banks it supervises, according to officials from multiple agencies involved in the investigations. The agency is negotiating an agreement that would cost the industry less than $5 billion in fines and mortgage modifications for troubled homeowners, including principal reductions, the officials said. Other agencies are pushing for something bigger.
THERE IS MORE GO READ!The federal bank regulator overseeing the nation's largest lenders is pushing for... more
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Conservatives and their tea partying faction are yelling, “Hell no! We won’t grow!” in their quest for government with a microscopic “G”. The solution? Shed all regulations and regulators because big corporations obviously do a bang up job regulating themselves.Conservatives and their tea partying faction are yelling, “Hell no! We... more
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Conservatives want almost no regulation and liberals want a regulation for every possible contingency – the more punitive the better. Spring-loading the nation’s governance to one or the other is a recipe for disaster. Speaking of disasters, how about that spew pit at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico? It’s the perfect example of what's wrong.Conservatives want almost no regulation and liberals want a regulation for every... more
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With thousands of scientists across the globe searching for ways to use adult stem cells to fight disease, there's a growing emphasis on finding the "master regulators" that guide the differentiation of stem cells. :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100506172733.htmWith thousands of scientists across the globe searching for ways to use adult stem... more
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Debt keeps the rich elite rich.
Excessive lending is the only way to maintain the living standards of the vast bulk of the population at a time when wealth is being concentrated in the hands of an elite.
The amount by which the elite has benefited is startling, and illustrates the problem with lightly regulated free markets: the rich get much richer while the rest do not get richer at all.
Remember, Jesus said it's harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Don't sell your soul for money or riches. Riches fly away with the wind.Debt keeps the rich elite rich.
Excessive lending is the only way to maintain the... more
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Federal regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the eighth bank failure of the year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named the receiver of the failed bank, entered into an agreement with Atlanta-based SunTrust Bank (STI, Fortune 500) to assume the insured deposits of First Priority.
All six branches of the Bradenton, Fla.-based bank will reopen on Monday as branches of SunTrust. First Priority depositors will automatically become depositors of SunTrust, the FDIC said.
First Priority had assets of $259 million and total deposits of $227 million, according to the FDIC. That includes $13 million in uninsured deposits held in approximately 840 accounts that potentially exceeded the federal insurance limits.
Account holders with more than the $100,000 insured limit will essentially "become a creditor" of the failed bank, said FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray.
Those accounts will be credited as the FDIC sells more of the failed bank's assets, Gray said.
SunTrust Bank will purchase approximately $42 million of the failed First Priority's assets, which are made up of mainly cash, cash equivalents and securities.
And LNV Corp. of Plano, Texas, a subsidiary of Beal Bank Nevada, will purchase $14 million in First Priority's assets.
The remaining $171 million in assets will be sold by the FDIC. Proceeds of these sales will be used to pay creditors including bank clients whose accounts exceed the $100,000 limit. Federal regulators closed Florida's First Priority Bank on Friday, marking the... more
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