The amendment mandates that banks essentially could not lend out or invest more than 12 dollars for every dollar they keep in reserve -- It passed by a unanimous voice vote.

Herbal Supplements and Organic Tulsi Teas from Organic India only avaialble at singaporeherbals.com in South East Asia

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel triggered a fresh rift with Washington over settlement building on Tuesday by approving the building of 900 homes for Jews on West Bank land it occupied in a 1967 war and annexed to its Jerusalem municipality. The Israeli decision drew an unusually sharply worded rebuke from the White House, which said it was "dismayed" and accused Israel of undermining Obama's efforts to resume peace talks with Palestinians stalled since December. In his statement, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs also said the United States objected to continued evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.

It's been 10 years since Washington repealed the Glass-Steagall Act, the moment we got royally screwed by the banking system -- and we're still paying the price.

The economic crisis revealed late-capitalism's central offense: Human beings are being transparently treated if they were mere transactions. And they're going postal over it. Anger and discontent are reaching a boil as a lethal combination of economic corruption and political collusion are deleveraged across the United States. From recent rampages in Orlando, Fla., to mortgage-related torture in Los Angeles, certain members of the citizenry seem to have had their fill of being manipulated for the financial gain of others, and they're firing back with force.

Specifically, Dodd's bill takes away the Fed's regulatory power in some key areas. "I really want the Federal Reserve to get back to its core enterprises," Dodd said. "We saw over the last number of years when they took on consumer protection responsibilities and the regulation of bank holding companies, it was an abysmal failure. So the idea that we're going to go back and expand those roles and functions at the expense of the vitality of the core functions that they're designed to perform is going in the wrong way."

Gordon Brown appeared to step back from a G20 declaration to introduce a bank tax after Downing Street insisted that he was merely trying to open a debate on raising new money from the City.Last night it emerged that Downing Street had wanted to reopen a dialogue among G20 countries over taxing the world biggest economies on capital markets transactions to compensate society for the damage that they have caused.However, within hours of the Prime Minister unveiling the proposal, Timothy Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, appeared to dismiss such a proposal and said he was unwilling to commit to the plan.

Obama could have wiped clean every mortgage and credit card debt in 2008 for less than he gifted to the banks

A decision by the Reserve Bank of India to buy 200 tonnes of gold from the IMF for $6.7 billion does not reflect a preference for the How to invest in gold metal over the dollar, the finance minister said Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund kicked off its planned sale of more than 400 tonnes of gold with an announcement Monday that it had sold almost half to India, the world's biggest gold consumer, at near-record prices. The purchase "doesn't mean we don't prefer the dollar any more or like gold any better," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters in New Delhi. Some analysts expect central banks around the world to diversify their holdings and purchase more gold as a shield against a weakening dollar. [Note: It will be real interesting to see what other countries start buying up gold.]

Tensions have flared between both China and India militaries along their disputed 2,175 mile-long border, with both sides alleging more frequent troop incursions in recent weeks. China is upset when the Indian prime minister recently visit the disputed region. China considers an Indian-occupied piece of it’s own Tibetan Autonomous Region, has added flames to the fire. China of course already deeply resents the fact that the top Tibetan leader, and several hundred thousand exiled Tibetans, are allowed to reside in India. India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers. Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers to hunt down the guerrillas.The Maoists, however, do not want to secede or be absorbed. Their goal is to topple the system. India’s rapid economic growth has made it an emerging global power but also deepened stark inequalities in society. Maoists accuse the government of trying to push tribal groups off their land to gain access to raw materials and have sabotaged roads, bridges and even an energy pipeline.

The tally of bank failures easily broke past the No. 100 milestone on Friday night, with regulators announcing the year's 103rd closure.

Regulators took over the California National Bank. The taken over of bank by regulators was the fourth largest in the history of banking of U.S.A.

When the historians finally finish sorting through the appalling decisions that have been made in the past two years, this one will probably be at the top of the heap. Last fall, as AIG began to realize how screwed it was, it started negotiating with the counterparties to all the credit default swaps it had written. One of the AIG's goals was to persuade these counterparties--including Goldman Sachs--to accept buyouts discounts of as much as $0.40 cents on the dollar.

Various attempts to reform the financial system are bouncing around the capitol these days. The reaction of one of Wall Street's biggest players to them may be as good an indicator as any of how serious they are.

As is often the case the truth is far more terrible than the fiction cooked up by political operatives, and activists who truly believe new financial regulations are necessary must use those truths to their advantage. Thus, "bailouts" should be the new "death panels." "Too big to fail" should be the new "government-run healthcare." "Derivatives" should be the new "taxpayer-funded baby killing." This time we must learn from the real failure of the Office of Thrift Supervision, rather than the imaginary failure of Medicare that exists only in a neocon's dream. What's important to remember here is that bailouts, the "too big to fail" doctrine and derivatives are real, while the teabagger lingo was based on absolute falsehoods. While in both the teabaggers' and the bank reformers' cases, the people have numbers on their side, there is a significant difference. Those gathered in Chicago this week have the facts and common sense that the teabaggers lacked. One cannot laugh off bank reform as partisan bickering.

A scheme to flood the market with counterfeit stocks helped kill Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers — and the feds have yet to bust the culprits

Wall Street institutions should only be called 'banks' if they take deposits and offer guarantees, says Sheila Bair. Head of government insurer says legal constraints on using the word 'bank' needed to dispel confusion

Today's protest and accompanying march are part of a three-day event that ends in a rally tomorrow. While the healthcare debate winds down, the attempt to switch popular anger from insurance lobbyists to financial ones may prove difficult. But Fried isn't worried about keeping people engaged, insisting that this is only the beginning of what is becoming for more and more people a very personal fight. "If you're losing your home, or your business closed because a bank wouldn't give it credit, it's not esoteric at all. It's your life," Fried said. "There's nothing more concrete that eating and having a place to live. And that's what this is about."

The Blue Blood front Investment company is at it again as they rob and steal from the hard working American Sucker..Do they the American Sheeple need to be homeless on the streets b4 they take down these scumbags ?

The Bank of North Dakota is the only state-owned bank in America—what Republicans might call an idiosyncratic bastion of socialism. It also earned a record profit last year even as its private-sector corollaries lost billions. To be sure, it owes some of its unusual success to North Dakota’s well-insulated economy, which is heavy on agricultural staples and light on housing speculation. But that hasn’t stopped out-of-state politicos from beating a path to chilly Bismarck in search of advice. Could opening state-owned banks across America get us out of the financial crisis? It certainly might help, says Ellen Brown, author of the book, Web of Debt, who writes that the Bank of North Dakota, with its $4 billion under management, has avoided the credit freeze by “creating its own credit, leading the nation in establishing state economic sovereignty.” Mother Jones spoke with the Bank of North Dakota’s president, Eric Hardmeyer. Mother Jones: How was the bank formed? [Note: Old article! For those that want to know what to do. We can start convincing our local officials to put one of these in our State.]