While the United states Armed Forces (private mercenaries) are stationed at 737 bases, in 130 nations around the world, defending “all freedom-loving people everywhere in the world,” the Bernanke Doctrine continues: the privately owned Federal Reserve (central) Bank of New York announces the establishment of the TSLF Options Program, allowing commercial banks to purchase discounted futures contracts to participate in the underused Term Securities Lending Facility.  TSLF was created to help commercial banks improve their financial positions by trading mortgage backed securities with Treasury Bills (Federal debt obligations).

       NOTE: This is the further realization of plank number five of the “Communist Manifesto” by Karl Marx.

       [restored 7/12/2024] Thanks to Jim Lorenz for this entry.

       Christopher Cox, Esq., Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission issues SEC Release Number 58166, ordering that “naked short selling” (the practice of selling a stock that the seller neither owns, nor has borrowed, hoping to find a stockholder to make good on the sale) of 19 listed financial services stocks, among which are,

• BNP Paribas investment bank, of Paris, France;
• commercial Bank of America Corporation, of Charlotte, north carolina;
• Barclays investment Bank, of London, England;
• Citigroup commercial bank, of New York City;
• Credit Suisse investment bank, of Zurich, Switzerland;
• Daiwa Securities America, of Tokyo, Japan;
• Deutsche investment Bank, of Frankfurt, Germany;
• Allianz Insurance, of Munich, Germany;
• the Federal National Mortgage Association (a.k.a. “Fannie Mae”), of the District of Columbia;
• the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (a.k.a. “Freddie Mac”), of Tysons Corner, virginia;
• Goldman Sachs investment bank, of New York City;
• Royal (investment)Bank, of (Edinburgh) Scotland;
• HSBC investment bank, of London, England;
• JP Morgan-Chase commercial bank, of New York City;
• Lehman Brothers investment bank, of New York City;
• Merrill Lynch investment bank, of New York City;
• Mizuho Securities, of Tokyo, Japan;
• Morgan Stanley investment bank, of New York City;
• UBS investment bank, of Zurich, Switzerland.

       NOTES:

• As an attorney (Officer of the Court) Cox was ineligible to serve in two branches of government at the same time, according to Article I, Section 6 [Clause 2].
• Short selling is of great benefit to investors as it allows them to profit on negative information, which allows profits to be made as louses are realized.  It is a common practice in many business sectors, and not much different from the farmer who sells a futures contract for what he has not planted yet.  Furthermore, no amount of short selling can depress the price of a stock over the long term, if the corporation’s underlying health is better than the negative appraisal assessed by speculators; in this case speculators trading on false negative assumptions would lose substantially.

       Postscript: Two weeks later, Cox extended the ban into the middle of the next month.

       [added 7/12/2024] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry.

       The fourth circuit court of appeals hands down Al-Marri v. Pucciarelli: Any criminal case involving a U.s. subject/enemy/citizen can be moved from Federal court to a military court, at the discretion of the President.

       [added 7/12/2024] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry.

       Seattle, washington statute enforcement officers (acting under-color-of-law) raid the business office of Martin Martinez, knocking down a wall and seizing 10 ounces of legal medicinal marijuana.

       [added 7/12/2024] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry.