4 Major Central Banks Could Make Big Moves This Week

Weak global economic data and declining oil prices are likely to push central banks to act this coming week, according to Societe Generale's Michala Marcussen and her team.
The coming week will see key manufacturing reports from some of the largest global economies. China and the major euro area countries are expected to report declining PMI numbers, which reflected slowing manufacturing sectors.
Moreover, the U.S. June jobs report, which will be released on Friday, is expected to be mediocre at best.
In this environment here's what SocGen analysts expect out of four central banks next week:
Reserve Bank of Australia (July 3): 'RBA has done enough for now'
Monetary policy is likely to be eased further in Australia. After cuts in May and June, there is a 20 percent chance of 25 basis points (bps) cut in July. It's more likely that the next rate cut will be at the August meeting when the RBA has its new forecasts for the economy.
Given the 1.3 percent quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) growth in GDP driven by domestic demand, there is more of an upside risk to the RBA's 3 percent GDP forecast for 2012. "In short, we remain of the view that the market is too aggressive in pricing-in rate cuts in Australia."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/global-central-banks-monetary-policy-2012-6#ixzz1zMb63Aor

Have We Reached the New Tipping Point?

To paraphrase Larry the Cable Guy, I don't care who you are -- you have to admit that Thomas Jefferson certainly had a way with words.  In this one short section from the Declaration of Independence, he not only describes the duty of citizens to oust an oppressive, despotic government, but identifies the major reason why it hasn't happened already.  Take another look at what is arguably the key phrase in the paragraph cited above:

... accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Under George III, the accumulation of abuses hit a tipping point that moved Americans from the "suffer [evil], while evils are sufferable" to viewing those abuses as intolerable.
Under Barack Obama, and those of a similar mind in subordinate positions, such as Eric Holder, Michael Bloomberg, and others, the abuses which we have suffered have accumulated to the same point we were at in 1776.  They can no longer be tolerated.  We can not afford, as a nation, a continuance of such violations of the underpinning of our democratic republic, the Constitution.
Progressives ignore history in many cases because they feel that they are so much smarter and more intellectual than people were in the past, and that whatever mistakes were made back then (whenever then was) will not be repeated since they are so much smarter that they couldn't possible make those mistakes again.
But any examination of history tells us that it is not the huge screw-ups by the elites that trigger revolutions.  It is invariably something that looks minor (to the elites) and yet causes a reaction that catches those self-same elites totally by surprise.  The difference is that it is most often the small things that affect people personally.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/07/have_we_reached_the_new_tipping_point.html#ixzz1zMarZJv0

Fast & Furious: Paths leading to the White House Timeline

George Walker Bush administration

2005: To help combat firearms trafficking into Mexico, ATF began Project Gunrunner as a pilot project in Laredo, Texas, in 2005 (See OIG Report dated November 2010)i
2006: April: Project Gunrunner official launch date.ii
2007: June: ATF published a strategy document, Southwest Border Initiative: Project Gunrunner, outlining four key components to Project Gunrunner: the expansion of gun tracing in Mexico, international coordination, domestic activities, and intelligence. In implementing Project Gunrunner, ATF has focused resources in its four Southwest border field divisions.
2008
January: Project Gunrunner expanded by adding 58 staff to the Southwest border field divisions, 3 additional staff to EPIC, and deploying eTrace to all U.S. consulates in Mexico.
June: Merida Initiative signed into law, allocated $2 million to expand Spanish eTrace throughout Mexico and Central America.

Barack Hussein Obama administration

2009
February: The Recovery Act signed into law, allocated $10 million to ATF for Project Gunrunner.
February 25: DHS Secretary Napolitano testified in the House Homeland Security Committee, stressing that stopping the flow of guns to Mexico was a top priority of the Obama administration and key focus of her work.
*March 24, 2009: A 30-minute press conferenceiii was held at the White House by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs that included Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, newly appointed Deputy Attorney General David Ogden, and Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg. Ogden, who had been on the job for a mere 12 days, referred to Project Gunrunner and other ancillary ATF programs by name, and stated that he was working directly with the Attorney General on the implementation of these programs that included Project Gunrunner.
(See May 3, 2011)
June: Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2009 allocated an additional $6 million to ATF for Project Gunrunner.
December: Spanish eTrace piloted in Mexico; ATF Agent John DODSON, who later came forward about the tactics used by the ATF & DOJ, arrives in Phoenix.

Read more: http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/47749

The Half-Life Of The New Euro Bailout Will Be Measured In Weeks

Holy smokes! The EU technocrats have finally pulled out the big guns! The agreement on Friday was to take the incredibly bold step of avoiding subordination in the Spanish bond market. The money needed for the busted Spanish banks will now be made available directly from Brussels with few strings attached. Wow! What a breakthrough!

Global markets have taken a quick look at what has been offered up by the deep thinkers in Euroland and said, “WE LOVE IT!”

Me? I think it’s a spit in the bucket. The half-life of this bailout will be measured in weeks.

We have seen this play out time and again the past four years. The capital markets are forcing policy decisions. 

“Wise” people like Paul Krugman have said for years that “Bond Vigilantes” don’t exist. There is no doubt any longer that they exist and are alive, well and hungry. The vigilantes are also armed with highly sophisticated robots that can execute attacks on multiple fronts and across markets in milliseconds. The war going on in the bond markets is not over by a long shot.

My read of the EU summit is that Spanish banks are going to get a “soft” bailout. Existing common shareholders and subordinated bond holders will not get wiped out (as they should). The bankers must love this result. They get to keep their jobs for a few years longer, all the time praying for a miracle.

Read more: http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/2012/06/devalue-euro.html#ixzz1zMZfCuBG

More on Health Care from American Thinker

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July 1, 2012
So when I write a check to the IRS rather than take up residence in federal housing, it's strictly voluntary. I'm just making a choice. More
Krauthammer and Yoo may both be right about Roberts
July 1, 2012
Roberts' decision is indicative of a misplaced concern for the Court's public image, and a desire to undermine the Left's scurrilous slander that the Court majority has become an arm of the Republican Party More
Still Struggling with the Roberts-as-Hero Theory
Daren Jonescu
I've tried -- I really have tried -- to accept the kindest reading of Chief Justice Roberts' decision and opinion on ObamaCare. But, so far at least, I just can't bring myself to see the positive here More
The Logic of Justice Roberts
Arnold Cusmariu
Gratitude is owed to Chief Justice Roberts for creating an opportunity to restore fiscal sanity and limit a power that lies at the very foundation of our republic. More
Obama's Healthcare Conquest
Jeannie DeAngelis
He came, he lied, he conquered. More

The Constitutionality of the ObamaCare Tax
Anthony J.Ciani
The Supreme Court did nothing at all surprising; it upheld our current tax code of social meddling. More
ObamaCare, Social Justice, and Administrative Overhead
Richard Butrick
The risk pool concept has severe challenges when dealing with health care -- challenges not faced with fire, theft, liability and other insurance-risk pool strategies. More
GOP governors stand fast against Obamacare
June 30, 2012
A last line of defense against implementation. More
 

Judicial Watch Statement on Supreme Court Obamacare Decision

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton issued the following statement today regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare:

This Supreme Court majority rewrote Obamacare and then upheld its constitutionality. This decision is monstrous and upends the constitutional limits on federal power. That the Chief Justice would join the Court’s liberal block to legislate from the bench is shocking. Instead of calling the law Obamacare, we can fairly call it “Robertscare.”

Justice Kagan’s controversial decision to participate in this case despite unanswered questions about her role in defending Obamacare while working in the Obama administration also taints the High Court’s decision.

The Court’s decision will contribute to the public’s concern that our government is out of control and acting without constitutional authority. The rule of law suffered a stinging blow today.

On February 13, 2012, Judicial Watch filed an amicus curiae brief with the High Court challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare, specifically the “individual mandate.” In its brief Judicial Watch maintained that the “individual mandate” provision of Obamacare, which requires every American citizen to purchase health care insurance or pay a penalty, is unconstitutional – whether considered under Congress’ commerce power or taxing power:

Petitioners are trying to defend a provision in an act passed by Congress that exceeds its enumerated powers. Though Congress enacted this provision under the Commerce Clause, Congress’ power under the clause is not broad enough to compel Americans to engage in commerce by purchasing a particular product. Though Petitioners try to rescue the provision by arguing that it is valid under Congress’ taxing power even if it is invalid under Congress’ commerce power, a provision of an act that is not a tax may not be construed as a tax merely to save it from being declared unconstitutional.

Judicial Watch further argued that if the Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of the individual mandate, “it must be willing to hold that Congress’ powers under the Commerce clause are plenary and unlimited, for there remains no principled way to limit Congress’ power if it is stretched as far as Petitioners (the Obama administration) ask.”
Judicial Watch also uncovered documents detailing Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s role in Obamacare discussions when she served as President Obama’s Solicitor General.

Read more: http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-statement-on-supreme-court-obamacare-decision/

Nation’s four biggest newspapers downplay Holder contempt vote

While yesterday’s Supreme Court decision on Obamacare was certainly the dominant story of the day, one other important story barely got mentioned on the front pages of the nation’s top-four newspapers by circulation on Friday morning: the first-ever cabinet level contempt of Congress charges brought against Attorney General Eric Holder.
The lone exception to downplaying that story turned out to be The Washington Post, with a below-the-fold article and jump to page A5.
1 – USA Today – Front page tease, story on page 5A

2 – The Wall Street Journal – Front page tease, story on A2

3 – The New York Times – Front page tease, story on A3

4 – Los Angeles Times – Front page tease, story on A8

5 – The Washington Post – Front page story, continues on A5

The story also got very little play on The New York Times digital platforms, entirely missing from the front sheets of its online and iPad editions.
NewYorkTimes.com

New York Times, iPad

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/06/29/nations-four-biggest-newspapers-downplay-holder-contempt-vote/#ixzz1zMWKtm3Y