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Government Trolls Are Using “Psychology-Based Influence Techniques” On YouTube, Facebook And Twitter

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Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/02/2015 21:15 -0400

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

Have you ever come across someone on the Internet that you suspected was a paid government troll?  Well, there is a very good chance that you were not imagining things. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we now have solid proof that paid government trolls are using “psychology-based influence techniques” on social media websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  Documents leaked by Snowden also reveal that government agents have been conducting denial-of-service attacks, flooding social media websites with thinly veiled propaganda and have been purposely attempting to warp public discourse online.  If we do not stand up and object to this kind of Orwellian behavior, it is only going to get worse and worse.

In the UK, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) is a specialized unit within the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).  If it wasn’t for Edward Snowden, we probably still would never have heard of them.  This particular specialized unit is engaged in some very “questionable” online activities.  The following is an excerpt from a recent piece by Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman…

Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealedthat the unit had engaged in “dirty tricks” like deploying sexual “honey traps” designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online.

We are told that JTRIG only uses these techniques to go after the “bad guys”.

But precisely who are the “bad guys”?

It turns out that their definition of who the “bad guys” are is quite broad.  Here is more from Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Fishman…

JTRIG’s domestic and law enforcement operations are made clear. The report states that the controversial unit “currently collaborates with other agencies” including the Metropolitan police, Security Service (MI5), Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), Border Agency, Revenue and Customs (HMRC), and National Public Order and Intelligence Unit (NPOIU). The document highlights that key JTRIG objectives include “providing intelligence for judicial outcomes”; monitoring “domestic extremist groups such as the English Defence League by conducting online HUMINT”; “denying, deterring or dissuading” criminals and “hacktivists”; and “deterring, disrupting or degrading online consumerism of stolen data or child porn.”

Particularly disturbing to me is the phrase “domestic extremist groups”.  What does someone have to say or do to be considered an “extremist”?  For example, the English Defence League is a non-violent street protest movement in the UK that is strongly against the spread of radical Islam and sharia law in the UK.  So if they are “extremists”, how many millions upon millions of ordinary citizens in the United States would fit that definition?

When conducting operations against “extremists”, psychology-based influence techniques are among the tools that JTRIG uses to combat them online.  The following comes from one of the documents that was posted by Greenwald and Fishman…

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-02/government-trolls-are-using-psychology-based-influence-techniques-youtube-facebook-a

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Strains on mass transit will get even worse as population in metro area grows, experts say

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BY NOLAN HICKS , DAN RIVOLI

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Sunday, June 28, 2015, 2:23 AM

All aboard for more mass transit misery.

New projections show the New York region’s population should reach 20.5 million people by 2020, further taxing the region’s already overcrowded and cash-strapped subway, bus and train systems.

The projections — calculated by the mapping service ESRI for The Associated Press — estimate the region is growing at a clip of almost 100,000 people annually. Long Island, Westchester County and much of northern New Jersey are included in the metro area.

The importance of these systems can’t be overstated: 31% of metro area commuters use transit to get to work, the U.S. Census estimates.

As the region’s population booms, the strains on mass transit are increasingly evident.

Overcrowding was the single biggest cause of delays on the New York subway system during the last year, MTA stats show. Ridership has also grown on NJ Transit and the PATH trains.

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/growing-population-transit-worse-experts-article-1.2273743

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No Time to Be Nice at Work

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By CHRISTINE PORATHJUNE 19, 2015

MEAN bosses could have killed my father. I vividly recall walking into a hospital room outside of Cleveland to see my strong, athletic dad lying with electrodes strapped to his bare chest. What put him there? I believe it was work-related stress. For years he endured two uncivil bosses.

Rudeness and bad behavior have all grown over the last decades, particularly at work. For nearly 20 years I’ve been studying, consulting and collaborating with organizations around the world to learn more about thecosts of this incivility. How we treat one another at work matters. Insensitive interactions have a way of whittling away at people’s health, performance and souls.

Robert M. Sapolsky, a Stanford professor and the author of “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers,” argues that when people experience intermittent stressors like incivility for too long or too often, their immune systems pay the price. We also may experience major health problems, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and ulcers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/is-your-boss-mean.html?_r=0

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N.J. Supreme Court to release pension decision Tuesday

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Will Tax Payers get Hammered again ?

JUNE 8, 2015, 10:06 AM    LAST UPDATED: MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2015, 2:28 PM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

The state Supreme Court will hand down its ruling Tuesday in a major legal battle between Governor Christie and public-sector unions who say his move to cut $1.57 billion from pension funding violated workers’ rights.

The high court’s decision will be released at 10 a.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from state judiciary officials.

The ruling is expected to have a far-reaching impact on New Jersey’s state finances and workers’ rights. At stake is a pension-reform law Christie signed in his first term, which pledged large payments to the strapped pension system for seven years until the funds regained their health. Christie is asking the court to strike down his law during difficult economic times.

Christie’s pension reform was once his signature legislative achievement, a bipartisan agreement that raised worker costs but also pledged more tax dollars to rescue the pension system from collapse. The Republican governor said it was government at its best, protecting 770,000 pension beneficiaries. To this day, Christie boasts about his “pension reform” efforts on frequent trips out of state as he explores a presidential run.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-supreme-court-to-release-pension-decision-tuesday-1.1351420

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Reader says Common Core brutally dumbing the content down to the lowest common denominator

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The real damage stems from the fact that, subject by subject, the ideologues who designed the Common Core curricula changed what we had by brutally dumbing the content down to the lowest common denominator. They were bent on denuding K-12 instruction of educational content, re populating it with politically-correct claptrap, and refocusing the ‘learning experience’ on process, process, process… This is why you see shining examples of classic literature unaccountably being tossed from high school reading lists and replaced with mundane how-to manuals. Reform math, so reviled locally, is also comfortably piggybacking its way back into the Ridgewood schools by way of the broader push in favor of adoption of Common Core. How the ugly truth of all this can escape the attention or grasp of so many parents of affected students and their well-meaning teachers is itself a mystery. We simply cannot allow re-branded versions of the same curricula to replace the worthless original Common Core versions we are jettisonning. There are simply too many highly-educated and worldly-wise parents, taxpayers and citizens in New Jersey to justify this kind of bureaucratic snow job on our children’s future being pulled off twice in close succession. Wake up, Jersey!!

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No money left in this year’s budget to restore pension cut, N.J. officials say

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file photo by Boyd Loving

MAY 19, 2015, 12:48 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2015, 10:33 PM
BY SALVADOR RIZZO
STATE HOUSE BUREAU |
THE RECORD

In a rare moment of agreement, analysts for Governor Christie and the Legislature’s independent budget office said Tuesday that no matter how the state Supreme Court rules in a dispute over funding New Jersey’s pension system, there is no more money left this year to restore more than $1 billion that Christie cut from a payment to the retirement plans.

Using his veto powers at the start of the fiscal year, Christie  reduced a $2.25 billion payment to $681 million, defying pension-reform laws he signed in his first term requiring the higher payment for the strapped retirement system. Public-worker unions promptly sued, arguing that a 2011 law Christie signed gave them a constitutionally protected right to the full amount.

As the case made its way through the courts, the state kept making payments to schools, hospitals, universities and hundreds of other programs. Now with only weeks left before the end of the fiscal year, almost all of the  $33.1 billion in the state budget has been paid out, said David Rosen, the budget chief at the independent Office of Legislative Services.

“If the Supreme Court were to direct the state to make the full pension payment before June 30, I’m not sure that that’s fiscally or physically possible,” Rosen testified before the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, citing “the constraints that we have on how we could come up with that money.”

 

https://www.northjersey.com/news/no-money-left-in-this-year-s-budget-to-restore-pension-cut-n-j-officials-say-1.1337744

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The Baltimore Riots: A Case for School Choice?

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Public schools fail the inner city youth

Robby Soave|Apr. 29, 2015 2:25 pm

Would school choice reforms prevent or reduce future unrest in cities like Baltimore by improving the plight of poor minority teenagers? Some are making that case. Here was Charles Krauthammer on Fox News last night, according to National Review:

“There are essentially two problems. . . . One is single parenthood, and the other is the worst schools on earth,” said Krauthammer on Tuesday’s Special Report. “Of the first, we have no idea how to solve that. Of the second, we do. If you can’t improve the schools, give the kids a choice to go to better schools. The parents begged to have that opportunity, but the teachers’ unions won’t allow it and thus the Democrats won’t. If you want to do something, let them choose their schools.”

This idea has merit. The traditional public school system fails inner city youth in two major ways—both of which reinforce the kind of problems on display in Baltimore.

First, inner city schools are just plain awful. As Terry Jeffrey pointed out in Townhall, the most recent information shows that the Baltimore school district spends about $18,000 per student and only achieves a reading proficiency rate of 16 percent for eighth graders. That’s a lot of money wasted in pursuit of terrible result. When public schools can’t even teach the vast majority of Baltimore’s most vulnerable kids to read, the traditional education system is condemning them from a very young age to dim college and career prospects.

Second, the public school system increasingly turns mildly troubled young people into criminals thanks to a depressing trend of overcriminalization. Safety paranoia led administrators down the dark path of zero tolerance; classroom misbehavior that once would have resulted in detention now triggers a call to the cops, arrest, and expulsion. It’s really no wonder black teens and 20-somethings distrust the police—consider the representative case of Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a black 11-year-old in Virginia who incurred disorderly conduct and felony assault charges for causing a bit of mischief. In a sane education system, teachers would work with Kayleb to improve his behavior, not strap him in handcuffs. And inner city streets are filled with teens who were arrested and expelled when they should have been counselled and reformed. This is almost the perfect system for creating a society of displaced, impoverished, lawless young people.

School choice would mitigate these problems by liberating poor minorities trapped in a cycle of failure. Still, there are limits to what any single reform could accomplish. Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, told me that he expects school choice would certainly help, “but there are limits to what schools can fix.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/04/29/the-baltimore-riots-a-case-for-school-ch

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Bergen County Mosquito Control officials unleash larvae-eating Gambusia fish in battle against mosquitoes

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April 28,2015
the staff of the Ridgewood blog ,Bergen County Mosquito Control and County Executive James Tedesco

“This morning, I went with County Public Works and Mosquito Control officials, as well as Freeholder Tom Sullivan, to release Gambusia fish into a marshy area known for mosquito breeding. These fish eat mosquito larvae and help reduce the mosquito population in our county.” County Executive James Tedesco

Ridgewood NJ, Bergen County Mosquito Control Program is based on a system of  “Integrated Pest Management” consisting of surveillance source reduction, water management, and biological and chemical control.

Mosquito Control in Bergen County is an ongoing, year round program.

In early spring, the surveillance and application program begins. Surveillance entails looking for larvae and applying materials to prevent hatching. After the pre-season is completed, a regularly scheduled inspection and control program begins in the eleven districts covering the 70 municipalities.

Nearly 4000 specific breeding sites are routinely inspected and larvae is collected and identified. If mosquito larvae is found, Bacillus Thuringiensis (BTI) is applied. BTI is a selected larvicide which affects mosquito and black fly larvae and causes no harm to :

Animals
Beneficial insects
Birds
Humans
Marine life
Pets
Vegetation
Wildlife

During the warmer months, mosquito breeding habitats are stocked with Gambusia, a small fish with a hearty appetite for mosquito larvae. During this time a variety of traps are installed county-wide to monitor the adult mosquito population.

Adulticiding to control the adult population is only done when necessary, from a truck or hand held unit, not by helicopter, in response to adult mosquito surveillance and identification.

The NJ State Mosquito Control Commission funds a Biological Control Program which uses five species of mosquito-eating fish which are raised at the DEP’s Division of Fish, and Wildlife’s Charles O. Hayford Hatchery in Hackettstown.

These fish are distributed at no charge to county mosquito control agencies. Where practical, these fish control mosquito populations and reduce the need for pesticides.

During the winter months, hand labor and heavy equipment is used to clear and desilt ditches, streams and ponds to allow for free movement of water. Tide-gates and dikes are inspected and repaired to prevent flooding of low-lying areas and water in ditches and brooks are lowered to minimize mosquito breeding.

MOSQUITO PREVENTION TIPS
Bergen County Executive James Tedesco Encourages Residents to Take Simple Precautions

It’s time to take important steps to protect yourself and your family against West Nile Virus (WNV) infection and mosquito annoyance in general.

WNV is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, so it’s important to take steps to prevent getting mosquito bites and to clean or remove items on your property that can serve as mosquito breeding grounds.

Individuals can take a number of measures around the home to help eliminate mosquito-breeding areas, including:

• Dispose of cans, buckets, plastic containers, ceramic pots or similar containers that hold water on your property.
• Properly dispose of discarded tires that can collect water. Stagnant water is where most mosquitoes breed.
• Drill drainage holes in the bottom of outdoor recycling containers.
• Clean clogged roof gutters every year, particularly if the leaves from surrounding trees tend to plug drains.
• Turn over plastic wading pools when not in use.
• Turn over wheelbarrows and don’t let water stagnate in birdbaths.
• Aerate ornamental pools or stock them with fish.
• Clean and chlorinate swimming pools not in use and remove any water that may collect on pool covers.

For stagnant pools of water, homeowners can buy Bti products at lawn and garden, outdoor supply, home improvement and other stores. This naturally occurring bacteria kills mosquito larva, but is safe for people, pets, aquatic life and plants.

Additionally, these simple precautions can prevent mosquito bites, particularly for people who are most at risk:

• Make sure screens fit tightly over doors and windows to keep mosquitoes out of homes.

• Consider wearing long-sleeved shirts, long pants and socks when outdoors, particularly when mosquitoes are most active at dawn and dusk, or in areas known for having large numbers of mosquitoes.

• When possible, reduce outdoor exposure at dawn and dusk during peak mosquito periods, usually April through October.

• Use insect repellants according to the manufacturer’s instructions. An effective repellant will contain DEET, picaridin or oil of lemon eucalyptus. Consult with a pediatrician or family physician if you have questions about the use of repellent on children, as repellant is not recommended for children under the age of two months.

WNV is an arboviral disease which people can acquire through the bite of a mosquito that has fed on an infected bird. WNV is not directly transmitted from birds to humans. About one in 150 persons, or less than 1 percent of those infected with West Nile virus will develop a more severe form of the disease. Symptoms of more serious illness include severe headache, high fever, neck stiffness, stupor, disorientation, coma, tremors, convulsions, muscle weakness and paralysis.

The elderly are at higher risk of more severe disease. Bergen County’s WNV surveillance, control, and prevention activities involve the coordinated efforts of a number of federal, state and local agencies. These include DHSS, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Mosquito Control Commission, the Rutgers Center for Vector Biology, local and Bergen County Health Departments, and of course our Bergen County Department of Public Works Division of Mosquito Control.

For more information about mosquito control in Bergen County,
call the Health Hotline: 201-225-7000 or visit the website:https://www.co.bergen.nj.us/index.aspx?nid=325

To contact the Bergen County Division of Mosquito Control about a mosquito problem, call 201-634-2880.

https://www.co.bergen.nj.us/index.aspx?NID=497

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No rabies found in second coyote killed in Norwood

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No rabies found in second coyote killed in Norwood

APRIL 28, 2015, 4:19 PM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015, 8:14 PM
BY NICHOLAS PUGLIESE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

NORWOOD — The coyote that was shot by a borough police officer Thursday and was found dead in a trap Sunday has tested negative for rabies, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday.

The coyote was the second to be killed in a scare that gripped Norwood last week after a man was bitten by a coyote while he was walking his dog on April 19.

The day after that incident, a coyote attacked the tires of a police car and was shot dead. That coyote tested positive for rabies, making it only the seventh recorded case of a rabid coyote in New Jersey but the second in Bergen County in less than a month.

While there have been reports of a third coyote in the Norwood area, the state DEP spokesman, Larry Hajna, said that “at this point we don’t have any reports of aggressive coyotes,” adding that the department would continue to respond to reports of aggressive coyotes as necessary.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/no-rabies-found-in-second-coyote-killed-in-norwood-1.1320850

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Coyote sightings spur patrols in North Jersey

Wile_E_Coyote

APRIL 21, 2015, 8:59 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015, 9:59 PM
BY SCOTT FALLON AND STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD

State wildlife staffers armed with guns patrolled a Norwood neighborhood in search of at least one coyote that may be rabid as reported sightings of the animals across Bergen County on Tuesday forced some schools to keep children indoors and animal control officers to set traps.

The heightened attention on coyotes comes as two men in the county were attacked by the animals in separate incidents this month — a rare occurrence that state officials say is likely due to a rabies infection.

“They typically would not be approaching people unless they are sick,” said Larry Hajna, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

A coyote that bit a Saddle River man on April 6 has tested positive for rabies, only the sixth coyote identified as rabid in New Jersey in the last 25 years, according to state records. Another coyote that bit a Norwood man Sunday is being tested for rabies. Results are due back today.

State wildlife officials believe that another aggressive and possibly sick coyote is on the loose in the wooded Fox Hill section of Norwood.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/coyote-sightings-spur-patrols-in-north-jersey-1.1313732

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Marauding coyote caught in Norwood; two dens found near school

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Marauding coyote caught in Norwood; two dens found near school

APRIL 20, 2015, 5:05 AM    LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015, 6:31 AM
BY DEENA YELLIN AND STEFANIE DAZIO
STAFF WRITERS |
THE RECORD
Print

NORWOOD — A strangely aggressive — and possibly rabid — coyote that had bitten a resident’s leg Sunday night and later attacked a police cruiser was captured Monday evening and sent to a state laboratory for testing, borough police reported.

Delivering the news on their Facebook page, police also issued an additional caution: They said two coyote dens had been found near the Norwood Public School and that traps would be placed near the dens.

“The aggressive Summit Street coyote was just captured and is [en] route to the State Lab for testing,”  a police statement issued about 8:40 p.m. stated. “Unfortunately, two dens have been found near the school and it is unknown if our Summit Street problem has been solved.”

State wildlife staff members had set traps in the borough’s Fox Hill area to catch — and potentially kill — the coyote.

At one point during the search Monday evening, borough police reported that the coyote had just attacked the tires of a police car on Villa Court and then had escaped capture. “Please be careful,” statement warned.  “This is in the area of the NORWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL!!!”

To resident inquiries after the coyote’s capture, police advised that school children not be allowed outside activities while investigators made sure the dens were clear. But in late evening, other residents reported on the department’s Facebook page that they had seen two other coyotes in the area.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/marauding-coyote-caught-in-norwood-two-dens-found-near-school-1.1312786

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Center for Self-Governance will host training sessions on March 24th and 25th

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Center for Self-Governance will host training sessions on March 24th and 25th
March 23,2015
michele njtpc

LEARN HOW TO CHANGE GOVERNMENT

Time grows short for activity to be involved and join with others to take back our government.

If you are you frustrated by the incredibly high tax rate in NJ, movement of relatives out of the state simply to be able to afford a decent life, hyper regulations on every movement and initiative you take, the lack of educational competency of high school graduates??  Well, what are YOU going to do about it?

The training by the Center for Self-Governance will do for you personally and how people in New Jersey are putting the training into action.   So far there are over 160 individuals trained in these methods and we will all band together to make a difference.  Be part of that brigade – the time is now!

Training will be offered at the American Legion on March 24 (part 1) and 25 (part 2) during the hours of 5:30 pm – 9:30 pm.

To sign up for the classes, email directly to [email protected]  and advise you are registering for the class.  Michele will correspond with you directly to register you for the course and how to pay the fee of $50.  Remember it costs $160 to bring the class to you with the travel arrangements, printing, instructors, etc. so it is a real bargain, supported by donations from others who believe in you.

If you cannot sign up at this time but wish to support the efforts, considering making a donation to this class for someone else who is financially strapped during these difficult times.   Even if you cannot sponsor one entire registration, a half-registration of $25 will definitely help get someone else there. If you are financially constrained, please email Michele and let her know of your interest and how a sponsor can help you.

There is still time!!!   If you signed up as ‘interested’ in the class prior but have not yet OFFICIALLY signed up, please email directly [email protected] and let her know you will join in.

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Walker tests his message in New Hampshire

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Walker tests his message in New Hampshire
By Jesse Byrnes

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely 2016 Republican presidential contender, tested his message of “growth, reform and safety” in New Hampshire on Saturday with a speech at a grassroots workshop in Concord.

In his first trip to the second-in-the-nation presidential nominating state since 2012, Walker donned a sweater he said he bought for a buck from Kohl’s, a big retailer founded in his home state, and cast himself as an executive willing to roll up his sleeves to streamline government and protect the homeland.

Walker kicked off his speech by touting his close geography growing up near fellow Republican Wisconsin natives Reince Priebus, Republican National Committee chairman, and Rep. Paul Ryan, recalling that he and Ryan “both flipped hamburgers as kids at McDonald’s.”

Walker’s speech relied on familiar themes, touting reforms during his tenure in Wisconsin to argue that success should be measured “by how many people who are no longer dependent on the government.”

He also suggested his two sons could take off a semester of college to campaign with him, should he run.

Fielding a question on whether he would abolish the federal income tax, Walker said the idea “sounds pretty interesting” but stopped short of giving it his endorsement, emphasizing cuts in other areas of the government.

Presented with a blue baseball cap from a pro-gun member of the audience asking about foreign policy, Walker immediately strapped the hat on his head and threw up an air rifle pose, grinning.

Walker said the biggest national security threat facing the U.S. was” radical Islamic terrorism.”

“I am not proposing to engage full-scale boots on the ground, but I’m not taking that off the table,” he said.

https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/235736-walker-tests-his-message-in-new-hampshire

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Top 10 lawsuits that cost N.J. taxpayers most in 2014

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Top 10 lawsuits that cost N.J. taxpayers most in 2014
By Christopher Baxter | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

TRENTON — The state paid out $78.8 million in taxpayer money last year to resolve lawsuits filed against it, an increase of $6.1 million from 2013 and the most since at least 2006, according to records obtained by NJ Advance Media under the Open Public Records Act.

That amount, however, was eclipsed by the more than $346 million the state brought home through litigation, a $42 million increase from 2013, records show. More than half came through a settlement related to the clean-up of the polluted Passaic River.

The state paid out in cases ranging from medical malpractice to train accidents and State Police trooper misconduct. Below is a list of the 10 largest payouts last year, as well as a database of every case in which the state handed over taxpayer money:

$10 million: Angelique Marlene Delaney Baker vs. Jean Dalme and NJ Transit
Angelique Marlene Delaney Baker sued in 2011 in state Superior Court in Essex County alleging her purse got stuck in a door of an NJ Transit bus in East Orange. She freed herself from the strap, the lawsuit said, but fell underneath the bus, which crushed her arm, legs and pelvis. She suffered serious injuries that require ongoing care.

TOTAL PAYOUTS

2006 ………… $72.3 million
2007 ………… $46.6 million
2008 ………… $27.4 million
2009 ………… $39.1 million
2010 ………… $66.4 million
2011 ………… $54 million
2012 ………… $49 million
2013 ………… $72.7 million*
2014 ………… $78.8 million

*The 2013 total was adjusted lower by $5 million after state officials said a settlement was inadvertently included for that year. The settlement now appears under 2014.

Source: NJ Attorney General’s Office

https://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/03/top_10_lawsuits_that_cost_nj_taxpayers_most_in_201.html

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“ghosts of the 1930s”

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“ghosts of the 1930s”

Manoj Pradhan, Morgan Stanley’s global economist, said the world is revisiting the “ghosts of the 1930s” as one country after another tries to steal a march on others by getting in devaluation first. “The lesson from the 1930s is that those who do so early benefit at the expense of those who wait too long,” he said.

Sweden cuts rates below zero as global currency wars spread
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Morgan Stanley warns that the world is revisiting the “ghosts of the 1930s” as one country after another tries to steal a march on others by devaluing first

Sweden has cut interest rates below zero and launched quantitative easing to fight deflation, becoming the latest Scandinavian state to join Europe’s escalating currency wars.

The Riksbank caught markets by surprise, reducing the benchmark lending rate to minus 0.10pc and unveiled its first asset purchases, vowing to take further action at any time to stop the country falling into a deflationary trap. The bank presented the move as precautionary step due to rising risks of a “poorer outcome abroad” and the crisis in Greece.

Janet Henry from HSBC said the measures are clearly a “beggar-thy neighbour” manoeuvre to weaken the krone, the latest such action in a global currency war that does little to tackle the deeper problem of deficient world demand.

The move comes as neighbouring Denmark takes ever more drastic steps to stop a flood of money overwhelming its exchange rate peg to the euro and tightening the deflationary noose.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11408950/Sweden-cuts-rates-below-zero-as-global-currency-wars-spread.html