Fed Delays Volcker Rule, Giving Wall Street Another Holiday Gift

WASHINGTON -- Christmas came early for Wall Street this year. The Federal Reserve on Thursday granted banks an extra year to comply with a key provision of the Volcker Rule, a move that gives financial lobbyists more time to kill the new regulation before it goes into effect.

The Volcker Rule is a key element of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law that bans banks from engaging in proprietary trading -- speculative deals that are designed only to benefit the bank itself, rather than its clients. Thursday's move by the Fed gives banks an additional year to unwind investments in private equity firms, hedge funds and specialty securities projects. The central bank also said it plans to extend the deadline by another 12 months next year, which would give Wall Street a two-year reprieve through the 2016 presidential election.

Blaney Denies IRFAN-Canada Permission To Raise Legal Funds To Fight Terrorist Label

OTTAWA - An organization that was formally branded a terrorist group last spring has been denied permission by Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney to raise money to fight the move.

The Canadian branch of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy is asking the Federal Court of Canada to set aside Blaney's decision as unconstitutional and affirm its right to solicit funds to pay a lawyer.

Steve and Mansbridge, cozy together

Last night, Canada’s most overrated journalist and underrated politician, Peter Mansbridge, performed his Yuletide foot massage on Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

You came away knowing not much more than the fact that both men love their jobs. Good for them.

As usual, Harper had his way with a host referred to inside the grandiose and troubled zones of the CBC — where even Mr. Mansbridge has been quizzed by the brass — as the ‘Chief Correspondent’, or CC. That’s a very funny title.

Climate Change Could Cause 18 Percent Drop In Food Production By 2050, Study Says

ROME, Dec 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Global warming could cause an 18 percent drop in world food production by 2050, but investments in irrigation and infrastructure, and moving food output to different regions, could reduce the loss, a study published on Thursday said.

Globally, irrigation systems should be expanded by more than 25 percent to cope with changing rainfall patterns, the study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters said.

Wildrose To PC Floor Crossing Left Federal Conservatives Gobsmacked

OTTAWA - Federal Conservatives say they're gobsmacked over the political tectonic shifts in Alberta this week, but they don't have to reach too far into their own history to see parallels with the political pragmatism that's at play.

Wildrose Party Leader Danielle Smith crossed the floor this week with eight MLAs to join the majority Progressive Conservative government. Federal members of Parliament — many of whom supported Wildrose — were caught off guard by the move.

Watchdog Asks Prosecutors to Reopen Robocall Investigation

A government watchdog is demanding the Public Prosecution Service of Canada re-open the investigation into the 2011 robocall scandal following the prosecutor's decision to appeal for a stronger sentence against the only person charged in the scheme.

The prosecutor wants to send a message to would-be election tamperers with a stiffer sentence for Michael Sona, who was convicted in November for his involvement in organizing the 2011 scheme.

Apple 'failing to protect Chinese factory workers'

Filming on an iPhone 6 production line showed Apple's promises to protect workers were routinely broken.

It found standards on workers' hours, ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were being breached at the Pegatron factories.

Apple said it strongly disagreed with the programme's conclusions.

Exhausted workers were filmed falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts at the Pegatron factories on the outskirts of Shanghai.

Scott Walker Ready To Call In National Guard To Respond To Dontre Hamilton Protests

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said he is fully ready to bring in the National Guard to deal with protesters if there is unrest after prosecutors decide whether to charge a white Milwaukee police officer in the shooting death of Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year-old unarmed African-American man.

"We proactively worked to make sure the National Guard was reaching out," Walker told reporters Wednesday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "They've been having meetings with law enforcement here within the region just to make sure."

Elizabeth Warren: Obama Trade Deal Could Undermine Wall Street Reform

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday warned that a major trade deal being negotiated by the Obama administration could hamstring Wall Street reform efforts.

Warren raised the issue in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, which was also signed by Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The correspondence highlighted a broadening rift between President Barack Obama and the progressive wing of the Democratic Party over economic policy, less than a week after Warren and Obama squared off over a budget deal that provided government subsidies for risky derivatives trading.

Tea Partiers Are Right: Jeb Is a RINO

So Jeb Bush might be running for president. The rest of the world must be howling with laughter.

Apparently, the American political establishment isn't just afraid of new ideas, it's afraid of new people. It wants things so much the same, it's seeking blood guarantees, like the old Euro aristocracies that sealed military alliances with marriages. It's pathetic, and if Bush-Clinton turns out to be the general election menu, it's going to make kleptocratic paradises like the Soviet Union or the PRC look like vibrant democracies in comparison.