Author: Biz India

Obama Assertion of Privilege Sparks Questions on What He Knew About Gun-Running Scandal

By Fred Lucas – Cybercast News Service If you look at how executive privilege has been historically interpreted it’s designed to protect the inner workings of the White House “One of the big issues that we’ve been dealing with is who knew about Fast and Furious? When did they know about it? And how high up did it go? And the attorney general has asserted on numerous occasions that he didn’t know about this.” WASHINGTON, DC (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama dived head first into the Operation Fast and Furious scandal Wednesday after spending more than a year keeping his distance from the botched gun sting that allowed nearly 2,000 weapons to flow into Mexico. Obama said he had no knowledge of the scandal before hearing about it in the news. Members of Congress are now questioning that given his claim of executive privilege to withhold certain documents from Congress. Oversight committee member Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) said executive privilege is intended for communications at the highest levels of the White House. Thus, he said this either means Obama knew about this before saying so, or that he is making an unprecedented claim to executive privilege. “If you look at how executive privilege has been historically interpreted it’s designed to protect the inner workings of the White House, the president talking to his advisors,” Farenthold told CNSNews.com. “It’s usually...

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House Speaker Boehner accuses White House of cover-up in gun-running scandal

‘Were White House officials lying?’ By Meenal Vamvurkar – Washington Times Earlier today, President Obama asserted executive privilege, allowing the Justice Department not to release documents requested in the Operation Fast and Furious inquiry (the scandal through which about 2,000 guns from the U.S. were found in Mexico). Following up on the morning’s developments, House Speaker John Boehner accused the White House of a cover-up. Per the statement from Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel: “Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding ‘Fast and Furious’ were confined to the Department of Justice. The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed. The Administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the...

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Fed sounds the alarm on effects of European debt crisis

By Patrice Hill – Washington Times The Federal Reserve on Wednesday signaled strong concern that the deepening European debt crisis could drag down the U.S. economy and moved to prop up growth. After two weeks of reports showing a rapidly weakening economy in April and May, the Fed’s rate-setting committee voted to extend the central bank’s current easing programs and said it would take further dramatic action if the U.S. economy continues to deteriorate. Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Fed, made it clear at a news conference after the committee meeting that he sees the crisis in Europe...

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Faber: ‘Massive Wealth Destruction’ Coming, Well-to-Do ‘May Lose 50%’

Tuesday, 27 Mar 2012 01:12 PM By Newsmax Wires The critical question over the next decade isn’t “where will my returns be highest?” but “where will I lose the least money?” That, according to economist and investor Marc Faber, is the scenario facing investors today. As the author of the Gloom, Boom, and Doom Report, Marc Faber is a well-known contrarian, earning celebrity status because of his ominous predictions. So his pessimism during a recent appearance on CNBC wasn’t surprising for a man whose nickname is “Doctor Doom.” What was surprising was the level of “wealth destruction” he sees in the not-too-distant future. Faber stated, “I think somewhere down the line we will have a massive wealth destruction. That usually happens either through very high inflation or through social unrest or through war or credit-market collapse.” “I would say that well-to-do people may lose up to 50 percent of their total wealth.” Faber points out that this bleak outlook for the United States has been caused by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve’s continuous printing of new money. He says that the bailout and money printing will not create any long-lasting wealth or create healthy growth, and that the collapse will come on Bernanke’s watch. While Faber’s prognostications are worrisome (especially for those who fall into the “well-to-do” category), they are hardly as alarming as the...

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The most popular retirement question I get asked …

by Nilus Mattive Tuesday, June 19, 2012 at 7:30am I often write about more advanced approaches to investing and retirement issues — but the most frequent question I hear is a much simpler one. In fact, a relative just e-mailed me the other day to ask it. The issue? What to do with an old retirement plan after you leave your employer. And quite often, there’s a corollary … which is what specific investments to use for this money going forward. Let’s Start with the Basic Choices … We will assume that the person asking is not retiring or...

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