In addition to seizing the Orinoco oilfields from the corporations that developed them,

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday threatened to nationalize the country's banks and largest steel producer.... 'All of those who voted for me backed Socialism, and that is where we are heading.' " -- Associated Press

The proles may think they are heading for the worker's paradise, but it's not where they will wind up. The "leader of progressive humanity" and the central committee have a somewhat different destination in mind. Is Venezuela's bureaucracy really more efficient or its politicians less corrupt than all the others in latino land? Buena suerte!

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), a quasi-government corporation which is the largest backer of U.S. home mortgage loans, is being sued by auditing firm KPMG for "fraudulent deception" involving billions of dollars. During the period in question, Victor Ashe, the former Yale roommate and Skull and Bones fraternity brother of George W. Bush, was on the FNMA Board of Directors.

See: Bloomberg News article (2007-04)

"And where are those hedge funds? ... 8,282 out of the total of 9,800 hedge funds operating at the end of the third quarter 2006 worldwide were registered in the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, run like a dictatorship by a Royal Governor appointed by Queen Elizabeth II, with a total population of 57,000 people... The Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) is supposed to "regulate" the hedge funds, but instead runs a protection racket for their derivatives trading and tax sheltering...

For the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy, closely intertwined banks and hedge funds are its foremost instruments of power, to control the financial system, and loot and devastate companies and nations... Taken altogether, the hedge funds, with money borrowed from the world's biggest commercial and investment banks, have pushed the world's derivatives bubble well past $600 trillion in nominal value, and put the world on the path of the biggest financial disintegration in modern history."

See: Richard Freeman article (2007-03)

"The parallels between our present situation and the period preceding the Great Depression are striking. Just as massive debt was accumulating in the market from the purchase of stocks 'on margin', so too, mortgage debt between 2000 and 2006 soared from $4.8 trillion to $9.5 trillion. In both cases the 'wealth effect' spawned a spending spree which looked like growth but was really the steady, insidious expansion of debt which generated economic activity."

See: Mike Whitney article (2007-02)

"Up to 80% of all option ARM [home loan] borrowers make only the minimum payment each month, according to Fitch Ratings. The rest of the money [owed] gets added to the balance of the mortgage, a situation known as negative amortization. And once balances grow to a certain amount, the loans automatically reset at far higher payments. Most of these borrowers aren't paying down their loans; they're underpaying them up."

In other words, the so-called "minimum payment" is not enough even to cover the interest. What a great deal!

See: Business Week article (2006-09)

"Swiss bank UBS is cutting ties with all of its customers in Iran because of 'high compliance costs', a spokesman said on Sunday, adding that the decision was not driven by political motives. "We started to exit customer relationships with counterparties in Iran in autumn last year," UBS spokesman Serge Steiner said. "This holds true for all our business units and for all UBS's regions around the world."

See: Reuters article (2006-01)

"Nervous Russians rushed to withdraw their savings yesterday as fears grew that leading banks were about to go under."

Today, Russia; tomorrow, America?

See: Bank runs in Russia