Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Mon 10.26.2009
U.S. Bank Failures Exceed 100 for Year, First Time Since 1992 U.S. regulators closed more than 100 banks in a single year for the first time since 1992, signaling the financial crisis hasn’t abated for lenders struggling with mounting losses tied to commercial real estate. Seven banks -- three in Florida and one each in Georgia, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois -- were shut yesterday, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., pushing this year’s total to 106. That’s the most since the savings-and-loan crisis led regulators to shutter 179 institutions in 1992.
Bank failures stack up: Now 106 for 2009 Banks in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin, were shuttered, costing the FDIC an estimated $356.6 million The tally of bank failures easily broke past the No. 100 milestone on Friday night, with regulators announcing the year's 106th closure. That's more than four times the number that were closed in 2008, and the highest total since 1992, when 181 banks failed. Earlier on Friday evening the dubious honor of the 100th failure went to Partners Bank, of Naples, Fla., which had $65.5 million in assets, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Bank failures hit 106; many troubled banks remain open It's a big number that only tells part of the story. The number of banks that have failed so far this year topped 100 on Friday -- hitting 106 by the end of the day -- the most in nearly two decades. But the trouble in the banking system from bad loans and the recession goes even deeper. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other banks remain open even though they are as weak as many that have been shuttered. Regulators are seizing banks slowly and selectively -- partly to avoid inciting panic and partly because buyers for bad banks are hard to find. Plus, going slow buys time. An economic recovery could save some banks that would otherwise go under.
'Gold to touch $1,250 per ounce soon' The head of a New Jersey-based brokerage firm has suggested that gold prices could reach as high as $1,250 per ounce by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. Investors have been turning to the yellow metal in recent weeks over fears about the dollar and the prospect of oil price-led inflation, taking it to a record high of $1,070 per ounce. However, Philip Gotthelf, president of Equidex Brokerage Group in Closter, explained that there is no reason why additional gains cannot be made in the final two months of 2009.
High Gold Prices Here To Stay When gold hit $700 people said it would fall. Wrong. And wrong again at $1,000. Two years ago, almost to the day, gold sold for $787.50 an ounce. Many prognosticators and market savants said vehemently that gold's move was too strong and must correct. At the time I wrote: "Gold has risen to new highs this morning. It is the festive Diwali and marriage season in India, and investors there are buying. More important, gold has made new highs in several different currencies, not only dollars." In August 2007 the yellow metal bottomed under $660 per ounce. Since then, approximately two years and two months later, gold has appreciated $400 per ounce--66%. If you have owned the coins, bullion or mining stocks you can realize, in hindsight, the "store of value" utility of gold. Interestingly gold mining companies such as Goldcorp have not responded similarly to gold's gigantic move in the past two years.
Gold poised to make fourth straight week of gains But, investors focused on the pace of the dollar's slide Spot gold held above $1,060 an ounce on Friday and was on track to post its fourth straight week of gains, with investors focusing on the pace of the dollar's slide after it hit a new 14-month low versus the euro. Gold edged up to $1,061.70 an ounce by 0536 GMT, up 0.2% from New York's notional close of $1,060.00. At its current level, it is poised to rise 0.7% on the week. "The mood looks good enough for gold to test $1,070.40 in the near future ... The dollar is down against major European currencies, Asian currencies are strong as well," said Kaname Gokon, deputy general manager at Japanese commodity brokerage Okato Shoji Co's research section.
Pension Funds to Buy Gold as Insurance Pension funds will increase gold holdings to acquire “financial insurance,” pushing prices higher as currencies drop, according to Shayne McGuire, director of global research at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. “I think the largest institutions like our own are realizing that we barely own any,” McGuire said in an interview in Hong Kong. “The same thing applies to most of the pension funds which manage trillions of dollars in world wealth.”
Gold gives a precious insight into economy What a strange and fascinating commodity gold is – a store of value that is no one's liability, which cannot be printed or debauched by governments but which, with no income stream, has no objective value. A simultaneous hedge against both deflationary slump and inflationary spiral, it is little wonder gold should be the investment of choice for the Armageddon crowd. Gold attracts conspiracy theories like no other asset. Google "Yamashita's Gold" and enter into a half-plausible thriller of Japanese wartime loot and abandoned bullion in the Philippines. It is the stuff of an airport page-turner but what can it tell us about the real world? Some serious people think that the recent rally in the gold price really is different this time. It's not like the safe-haven spikes that have pushed the yellow metal through $1,000 an ounce on a handful of recent occasions but each time failed to hold the gain. Traders are pointing to the shallowness of recent pull-backs and the volume of bets buying speculators the right to purchase gold at between $1,100 and $1,200 an ounce.
Rising Gold Dances, but Won't Die, with the Dollar With all the 'strong dollar' rhetoric coming from the Fed and broken-record Bernanke, it's a wonder any investors are making money. But one we know and trust is. . .because he's not listening. "The U.S. will continue to take a laissez faire approach to the dollar," says John Doody, Economics Professor for nearly two decades and current author and publisher of Gold Stock Analyst. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, John explains how he measures gold's price performance, why he believes most investors don't have enough gold stocks in their portfolios and which companies he's making money on right now.
Gold mutual funds may be a golden opportunity to run with the bullion bulls It appears that swine flu is not the only sickness going around – gold fever is also in the air. Inflation fears and a weak dollar have persuaded investors to move more money into gold, pushing the price of the precious metal above the $1,000 mark. Feverish investors have helped gold to climb to an all-time high of around $1,066 an ounce this week, and analysts are forecasting higher prices next year. Even luxury department store Harrods has gotten into the "cash for gold" business, last week agreeing to accept its exclusive clientele's cash for actual Swiss gold bars.
Outpaced gold's rally remains 53% below 1980 inflation-adjusted high In 1980, gold hit a then-record of $873 an ounce. In today's dollars, that would be $2 287, according to the US Labor Department's inflation calculator. Record government debt and interest rates close to 0 percent are pushing gold higher for a ninth consecutive year, and options show investors expect the rally to continue. When prices reached all-time highs the contract with the most open interest was the December call to buy the metal at $1 200. The contract to purchase at $1 500 an ounce was the third biggest.
Will Obama's Economic Policies Destroy the US Dollar? One doesn't need to be an economic genius to see that the US dollar is in trouble. That Americans are hopelessly confused about what is happening to their currency is no surprise. However, before we get to the point of whether Obama's economics will do the dollar in I think it is important to provide a brief outline of the history behind the economic thinking that is sometimes used to explain exchange rate movements in the hope that this will give readers a better understanding of the current situation.
China won't sell dollars to buy gold China is on a gold buying spree these days to ensure that the country overtakes the United States in gold reserves. China, which is "underweight" on gold holdings, will increase buying as the economy expands, said Jeffrey Rhodes, chief executive officer of INTL Commodities DMCC. China’s 1,054 tons of gold represents less than two percent of its reserves, Dubai-based Rhodes said in an interview today. That compares with the international average of 10.2 percent held by central banks worldwide which have under 30,000 tons of the metal, equivalent to about $960 billion.
The Big Secret in Gold The little-known state of the gold market as prices close at a new weekly high... YOU WON'T read it in your Sunday paper, nor elsewhere online this weekend. But this autumn's gold rush has, in truth, been no such thing at all. No one's actually buying gold right now. Not the physical metal (and not the exchange-traded trusts either)...not at anything like the rate they were buying a year or six months ago. Instead, this rush differs in kind from the surge of autumn '07 or the panic of late '08. Because it's a rush solely in leverage. Hedge funds and prop desks have been buying gold futures and options with virtually free finance. Hence the surge in stocks, bonds and commodities too, of course. Because anything traded on margin looks a safe bet when finance costs you 1% or less per year. And especially when your major funding currency – the long mighty but now tired and emotional Dollar – is universally condemned to fall further.
Gold Market – Accident Waiting to Happen or Crime Scene? Don’t shoot the messenger My analysis suggests that the data on the volume of gold traded, if put in its proper context, does not tally with my estimate of the amount of gold that is held in the form of bars which conform to “London Good Delivery” standard. In my opinion, one of the following is true: Alternative 1: On average there is more than one ownership claim on each gold bar conforming to London Good Delivery (LGD) standard on the “pool” of gold which acts as liquidity for the massive OTC gold trade based in London. . . . Alternative 2: There is FAR more gold bullion held in private hands than is acknowledged by current industry estimates.
The Great Silver Heist In an attempt to continue to purvey the "big picture" in the silver market, here are some interesting facts for your consideration. Silver is as important a strategic commodity as oil. The need for a supply of silver in times of war is so essential, that a shortage of the metal could pose dire and direct consequences to the continued well being of our country. With the evolution of technology, silver has become so intrinsically important, that a lack of it will adversely affect America's national security. Meanwhile, as a result of the collusion between industrial users, central bankers, the Commodity Futures Trade Commission, (CFTC), the Chicago Board of Trade, (CBOT), and government regulators, spanning the past fifty years, inventories have all but disappeared.
The War Over the Dollar Versus Gold A fierce war of words has erupted in recent weeks between the two major camps in monetary circles. The first camp - the gold bulls/dollar bears - have been loudly voicing their twin belief that the gold price is poised to skyrocket while the dollar price is perched for a collapse. The other side - the gold bears/dollar bulls - are making the counter claim the gold price is setting up for a crash.
Dollar Forced to Abdicate By: Peter Schiff For the most part, the value of the dollar is given cursory attention by the financial media. Typically, its movements are assigned an importance on par with much less determinative metrics such as natural gas futures and construction permits. It's only when major milestones are reached that anyone really takes notice of the dollar. We are living through one of those times. The great dollar rally of 2008-2009 has come full circle. When the financial crisis exploded in its full ugliness in mid-2008, the dollar, which had steadily declined over the previous four to five years, put in a rally for the record books. By March 2009, as investors across the world sought safety from the financial storm, the index had surged more than 25%. Since then, the dollar has steadily declined to the point where nearly all those gains have vanished. In short, the panic rally has given way to the long term trend.
The Dollar is now collapsing - Peter Schiff | Part 1
The Dollar is now collapsing - Peter Schiff | Part 2
CNBC Tells Peter Schiff Falling Dollar Is A Good Thing
Dollar Trades Near One-Month High Versus Yen on Rate Outlook The dollar traded near a one-month high against the yen on speculation the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates sooner than economists forecast. The dollar may gain versus higher-yielding currencies such as Australia’s dollar after Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser told Bloomberg Radio last week his “instinct is the time for raising rates will be before many of my colleagues” think it is. Fed officials are likely to discuss next month how and when to signal the possibility of higher U.S. interest rates, the Wall Street Journal reported without citing anyone.
Dollar hegemony for another century By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Let me stick my neck out. The dollar will still be the world’s dominant reserve currency in 2030, sharing a degree of leadership in uneasy condominium with the Chinese yuan. It will then regain much of its hegemonic status as the 21st century unfolds. It may indeed end the century even stronger than it was at the start. The aging crisis in Asia — and indeed the outright demographic implosion in Japan and China, not to mention China’s water crisis — will soon be obvious to everybody. Talk of Oriental supremacy will start to sound overblown at first, and then preposterous.
George Soros Sees Renminbi Link Saving the US Dollar So long as the Chinese renminbi is linked to the US dollar billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros says he does not see how the decline in the US dollar can go too far. It is this sort of simple logic from the man who broke the Bank of England for a $1 billion profit in 1992 that makes currency traders sit up and pay attention. Mr. Soros has also made some bad calls but his $7 billion fortune stands as testimony that he is right more often than he is wrong.
Soros: China Must Be Part Of The New World Order In a recent interview Soros spills the beans, talks about the new world order and describes the current and future managed and well plot out destruction of the American dollar, all though he warns it might spin out of control.
When Will Inflation Really Hit Us? Most of us are gathered at the station, watching for the Inflation Express to come rumbling in. But we've been waiting for a while now. Just when should we expect the big locomotive to arrive and start pushing the prices of most things uphill? We’d all like to know the exact date, of course, but no one can know for sure. Not even a careful reading of the Mayan calendar will help. What we can do is estimate a time range for price inflation to show up, and that alone should have some important implications for investment decisions.
Global Money In a conclusion that smacks of problem, reaction, solution Garten adds "In terms of US and international politics, a Global Monetary Authority is probably an idea whose time has not yet come. That may change as today’s crisis evolves." What he describes is nothing less than a global financial dictatorship, operating across borders and forcing nations and corporations to register and adhere to strict monitoring and obey the same regulations. The implementation of such a system would represent total interventionism and the absolute final nail in the coffin of the free market.
Soros calls Wall St profits ‘gifts’ from state The big profits made by some of Wall Street’s leading banks are “hidden gifts” from the state, and taxpayer resentment of such companies is “justified”, George Soros, the fund manager, said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Those earnings are not the achievement of risk-takers,” Mr Soros said. “These are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think that those monies should be used to pay bonuses. There’s a resentment which I think is justified.”
Unexpected Market Moves Should Not Be Ignored In the last two weeks, in Reflation Supported By Stocks, Commodities, and Oil, and Gold, Recessions, Bonds, and 1987, we hypothesized that recent bullish moves in gold, oil, and the CRB Index were evidence of successful "reflation" of asset prices via monetary and fiscal policy. This week, we can add copper and emerging markets to the bullish evidence list. From a fundamental perspective, the desire to hold copper is based on economic need (you want to make a product), and inflation protection (you want to own hard assets rather than paper currencies).
How long before a G7 central bank raises rates? Hardly a day goes by without mention of the phrase “exit strategies”, which is the jargon that economists use for central banks raising interest rates from their current exceptionally low levels (and, where applicable, unwinding their policies of so-called quantitative easing). So far, two central banks have embarked on the route to monetary policy normalisation: the Bank of Israel raised rates from 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent at the end of August, followed this month by the Reserve Bank of Australia, which upped its official rate from 3 per cent to 3.25 per cent — the first G20 central bank to do so. The Norwegian central bank meets this week and is widely expected to raise interest rates by 0.25 per cent to 1.5 per cent. But how long will it be until G7 central banks, such as the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve and the European, Central Bank follow suit? Warren Told To Quit Now Because the Banks Always Win - Consumer Financial Protection Agency October 22, 2009 - The House Financial Services Committee votes 39 to 29 in support of the agency, which would have the power to impose new rules on subprime mortgages, payday loans and other financial products.
Treasuries Fall for Third Week on Fed Speculation; Supply Looms Treasury 10-year notes fell for a third week as investors speculated the Federal Reserve may begin to signal an increase in interest rates from historic lows and as the U.S. prepared to auction a record $123 billion of notes. The yield on the two-year security, most sensitive to monetary policy, yesterday rose above 1 percent for the first time this month as Fed Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser on Oct. 22 told Bloomberg Radio his “instinct is the time for raising rates will be before many of my colleagues” think it is. The U.S. economy expanded in the third quarter for the first time since June 2008, a Commerce Department report will show next week as the Fed is scheduled to end its $300 billion Treasury purchase program.
Here Comes the Monetary Expansion Bubble The best looking economy that debt money can buy. We have included some graphs to put this in perspective. But the bottom line is that the economy may be growing nominally based on an explosion in Federal Debt. We are almost certain that the debt is being applied in ways that will do no good, provide no sustained benefit, to anyone except a few narrow sectors and especially the FIRE sector. Too bad the chain deflator is broken, but it may catch up on adjustments. These positive numbers, especially if there is an upside surprise, are due to an unprecedented monetary inflation, not seen since the early 1930's, and a bringing forward of future sales in automobiles through government programs.
Recovery doubts, asset bubbles and hopes for a slower recovery Why a more gradual recovery would be better for everyone but could be boring for commodities On Tuesday, the MSCI All-Country World Index hit its highest level since September 2008. Up as much as 75% from their pre-crisis lows, stocks, including all manner of miners, have been buoyed not only by a firming belief that the worst of this crisis is over but, also by a rash of economic and corporate earnings data. And, on Wednesday, expectations were that the UK would put out numbers Friday showing it was on the mend. But that was not to be. On Thursday, markets took a little bit of a hit after China announced slightly worse than expected GDP numbers - the Asian superpower grew at 8.9% in the third quarter as opposed to the 9.1% some analysts were expecting.
Curtain call for Inflationary run The collapse of 2008 occurred because the US was clearly on an unsustainable path of excessive consumption and speculation, financed by credit. Debts are IOU’s with repayment terms, which means debtors must pay interest to creditors; borrowers therefore are on the hook for the principle as well as the interest, and the whole system falls apart when debtors are unable to pay because they 1) don’t produce anything, or 2) are denied new credit that becomes scarce when booms turn to bust. Borrowing to consume is debt that is of the non self-liquidating type, an issue we have regularly written about. As it turns out, this type of borrowing was not limited to the know-nothing consumer and his get-rich-quick schemes this past decade, but government and corporations as well, who, one might think, should know better. The US economy is largely dependent on debt and smooth running credit markets. In the years leading-up to the collapse of 2008, large US corporations -- many not in the ‘finance’ business but rather industrial type companies -- greedily created finance arms to get a cut of the huge profits being generated by shuffling paper within the ballooning debt bubble.
The Snowball of Derivatives: The Specter of a Second Black Swan Banking sector consolidation (via acquisition of failed banks) and the generalized bailout of bondholders, actions both promoted by governments, have aggravated the problems of “too big to fail” and “moral hazard”. Hence incentives for reckless behavior have actually heightened. So far there has been lots of talk within the G-20 and other forums but little action to tackle the problem at national and especially at transnational levels. As Nouriel Roubini and others have pointed out, one could argue that systemic risks have in fact increased relative to the pre-crisis period. A follow-up financial meltdown would be devastating. Governments should not only hope for the best but act swiftly to forestall the worst .The arrival of a Taleb’s second black swan on stage would mean complete chaos.
Fed Weighs Shift to Market Signals As the Federal Reserve's next meeting approaches in early November, an internal debate is brewing about how and when to signal the possibility of interest-rate increases. The Fed has said since March that it will keep rates very low for an "extended period." Long before it raises rates, however, it will need to change that public signal to financial markets. Because the recovery is so young and is expected to be so weak, many central bank officials are comfortable, for now, keeping rates very low. But they are beginning to strategize about how to walk away from the "extended period" language.
Will Capitalism Save Or Destroy Your Retirement? Capitalism is one of the most powerful economic forces in the history of mankind, and in theory forms the base for traditional retirement investing. But is that how it's really going to work? Author and financial expert Daniel R. Amerman, CFA, challenges a key aspect of conventional retirement investing, and shows why capitalism may destroy more retirement wealth than it creates.
As Microsoft Goes, So Goes Nation? Although the Wall Street Journal’s classy copy desk deserves praise for adapting so quickly to the paper’s tabloid transformation under Rupert Murdoch, the headline writers appear to be struggling to find a balance between truth, sensationalism and, in this case, wishful thinking. Here’s the headline -- and see if you can spot the dereliction of syntax: “Microsoft Feeds Hopes for a Recovery”. Did you infer that the hoped-for recovery supposedly being fed by Microsoft encompassed the broad U.S. economy? We did too, since it was logical to think that’s what the headline meant. After all, who among us knows a single person who even remotely cares whether Microsoft itself recovers from its Vista-induced kamikaze dive?
Cellphone Makers Dumping Windows Mobile For Google Android Since 1996, Microsoft has been writing operating systems for little computers to carry in your pocket. It was a lonely business until the company’s perennial rival, Apple, introduced the Web-browsing, music-playing iPhone. But now that smartphones are popular, Microsoft’s operating system, Windows Mobile, is foundering. More cellphone makers are turning to the free Android operating system made by Microsoft’s latest nemesis, Google.
Banks Piling Cash At Fed New data show excess reserves topped $1 trillion this week, a record. What's up? Do banks know something the rest of us don't? Despite pressure from politicians to take federal bailout money and lend it to companies and consumers to kick the economy out of its doldrums, banks continue to horde cash in dizzying amounts. Weekly data released Thursday by the Federal Reserve show excess reserves held at the Fed--the equivalent of banks stuffing bills into shoe boxes for storage--topped $1 trillion this week, a record, after climbing steadily since the markets froze up last October.
Obama tells bailed-out banks to pay up Big banks that got big bailout bucks should return the favor by lending more to qualified small businesses, President Obama says. In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Mr. Obama said too many small-business owners remain unable to get credit despite administration moves to jump-start lending, which was virtually frozen when the financial crisis took hold last year. "These are the very taxpayers who stood by America's banks in a crisis, and now it's time for our banks to stand by creditworthy small businesses and make the loans they need to open their doors, grow their operations and create new jobs," Mr. Obama said.
Bernanke: Biggest banks will face more rules 'Capital surcharge' laid out as one option open to the Fed The nation's biggest banks will be subject to more rules and regulations in coming months in order to protect the financial system, Federal Reserve Board chief Ben Bernanke said Friday. "With the financial turmoil abating, now is the time for policymakers to take action to reduce the probability and severity of any future crisis," said Bernanke at a Cape Cod conference put on the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Prosperity and the Roots of American Order In the first chapter of Russell Kirk's The Roots of American Order we read the following statement: "Our own society, like that of any other people, is held together by what is called an 'order.'" Without order, society doesn't cohere. Instead, it flies apart, breaks up, and disintegrates. And, I would argue, a process of disintegration has been underway in the United States for many years. The breakup of the American order has been masked by American prosperity, which has continued throughout the process of social disintegration. To a very great extent, the financial crisis we are experiencing today is no ordinary economic downturn. It is also the result of spiritual and moral degeneration together with the total collapse of paternal authority.
Neil Cavuto on the Democrat "Closed Door" Policy
Real estate lender Capmark files for bankruptcy Company is one of largest handling commercial properties in the U.S. Capmark Financial Group, one of the nation's largest commercial real estate lenders, has filed for bankruptcy protection amid mounting bad debt. Capmark has been hurt by rising losses on mortgage loans. In its Chapter 11 filing Sunday in Delaware bankruptcy court, the company listed total debt of $21 billion and assets of $20.1 billion. It seeks to reorganize under court protection, reducing its debt while continuing to operate its businesses. Many U.S. banks have been hurt by rising losses on commercial real estate loans. With millions of jobs lost and office space remaining empty during the recession, developers have been forced to default on loans. Analysts predict that commercial real estate defaults will rise rapidly.
Household Debt Can Hasten Recovery, When It Goes Unpaid The pain of millions of people across America losing their homes hardly inspires confidence in the future. But in a brutal way, it could be restoring the financial health of the U.S. consumer faster than many recognize. One of the biggest clouds on the economic horizon is the vast amount of debt U.S. households took on during the boom years. The Federal Reserve puts total household debt, including mortgage debt, at about $13.7 trillion, or 125% of annual after-tax income, a burden that many economists believe will take several years to pare down to what they see as a more sustainable level of 100%. During that "deleveraging" process, the logic goes, U.S. consumers -- whose spending makes up more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy and about one-fifth of the global economy -- won't be able to play a leading role in any recovery.
Should the U.S. ban real estate lending? Lending money to people to build and buy real estate is a risky business that periodically costs taxpayers huge amounts of money. Not only do taxpayers lose as a result of all the tax incentives associated with real estate, but they also pay when the banks that make bad real estate loans go bankrupt. While there are clear benefits to owning real estate, the business of real estate lending costs America so much that I think we ought to let real estate prices drop to a level at which people can afford it without borrowing.
Largest Pension Fund in U.S. Faces Iffy Future Russell Read, the former chief investment officer of Calpers, the largest pension fund in the United States, knows his trees. Read owned a 500-acre Maine forest landscaped with the same mix of maples and oaks the colonists would have seen when they first arrived on the shores of America. Bob Carlson, who was a board member at the California Public Employees' Retirement System for nearly half its history, recalls asking about commodities like timber during Read's interview for the position at Calpers.
In Detroit, a housing auction of last resort Hours of ‘no bid’ broken up by speculators outbidding locals on foreclosures In a crowded ballroom next to a bankrupt casino, what remains of the Detroit property market was being picked over by speculators and mostly discarded. After five hours of calling out a drumbeat of "no bid" for properties listed in an auction book as thick as a city phone directory, the energy of the county auctioneer began to flag. "OK," he said. "We only have 300 more pages to go."
Jobless rates stubborn Economists warn of low employment in near future Even with an economic revival, many U.S. jobs lost during the recession may be gone forever, and a weak employment market could linger for years. That could add up to a "new normal" of higher joblessness and lower standards of living for many Americans, some economists are suggesting. The words "it's different this time" are always suspect. But economists and policymakers say the job-creating dynamics of previous recoveries can't be counted on now.
In the Shadow of Leviathan: Americas' Arising Fear-Based Society "Thought crime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for awhile...but sooner or later they were bound to get you." George Orwell, 1984 "The fact is we are witnessing an all-out drive to impose thought control that seeks to ban the ability---the right---to think or speak for one's self. Thinking is becoming a crime." (Globally Acceptable Truth and the Crime of Thinking, Tom DeWeese, Address to the 10th Annual Freedom 21 Conference, 10/16/09) In an article entitled “Dems Undermine Free Speech in Hate Crimes Ploy,” the Washington Examiner exposes the insidious machinations of House statists in their determination to impose totalitarian hate crime laws upon the American people. Hate crime laws do much more than undermine free speech however, for in that what one says is the result of what first takes place in the mind, hate crime laws are mind-control devices.
The 2010 Census Master Address File: Issues and Concerns 10-21-09: OGR Information Policy, National Archives and Census Subcommittee
Losing their lifeline - 7,000 a day As the Senate debates whether to extend unemployment benefits, more than 200,000 jobless Americans are set to see their checks stop in October. Another day, another 7,000 people run out of unemployment benefits. One month after the House passed a bill extending unemployment benefits, the issue is still being debated in the Senate. Democratic leaders in the Senate introduced a bill two weeks ago to lengthen benefits in all states by 14 weeks. Those that live in states with unemployment greater than 8.5% would receive an additional six weeks. Senate Republicans want to add several amendments, including one that would pay for the extra benefits with stimulus funds rather than by extending a federal unemployment tax.
Gas jumps nearly 18 cents in 2 weeks The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular was $2.655 as of October 23, Lundberg survey reports. Gasoline prices jumped nearly 18 cents over the past two weeks, the first two-week rise since early August, according to a survey published Sunday. The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular was $2.655 as of October 23, said Trilby Lundberg, author of the Lundberg Survey. Since the October 9 survey, the average price per gallon has climbed by 17.82 cents. The current price is 12.3 cents less than the price a year ago. The retail price of diesel fuel jumped a similar amount in the past two weeks -- 16.75 cents. The price of diesel fuel is $2.817, Lundberg said.
28% Plunge In Our Standard Of Living What is the most immediate danger for 300 million Americans from the limitless bailout of the most politically powerful special interest group in America, the bankers of Wall Street? Author and financial expert Daniel R. Amerman, CFA, illustrates the very real danger of a 12% to 28% plunge in the standard of living for the average family, and shows how it could occur in a matter of weeks or months.
Food will never be so cheap again Biofuel refineries in the US have set fresh records for grain use every month since May. Almost a third of the US corn harvest will be diverted into ethanol for motors this year, or 12pc of the global crop. The world's grain stocks have dropped from four to 2.6 months cover since 2000, despite two bumper harvests in North America. China's inventories are at a 30-year low. Asian rice stocks are near danger level. Yet farm commodities have largely missed out on Bernanke's reflation rally in metals, oil, and everything else. Dylan Grice from Société Générale sees "bargain basement" prices.
Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency President Barack Obama declared swine flu a national emergency, the White House announced in a statement yesterday. The declaration is designed to help U.S. medical treatment facilities deal with a surge in H1N1 influenza patients by waiving government rules on a case-by-case basis, the announcement said. That might make it easier for hospitals to set up separate emergency facilities to deal with an influx of flu patients.
Estate Tax Bill Coming Soon A U.S. estate tax bill is in the works and may arrive soon on the floor of the United States' House of Representatives, lower house Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said on Friday. "We would like to bring to the floor in the next few weeks, if not next week, a bill to deal with the estate tax issue," Hoyer said on the floor in discussions about the House's upcoming schedule.
US bookshops urge regulator to investigate online price war Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target are making loss leaders out of bestsellers, say US booksellers Independent bookshops in the US have urged the justice department to investigate a "predatory" online price war between huge retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target that has cut the price of hard-back bestsellers to $9. Works by popular authors including John Grisham, Stephen King and Barbara Kingsolver, typically selling for $25 to $35, have been the subject of deep discounts by powerful US players this month in a battle for online supremacy in book sales.
AT&T, Google Battle Over Web Rules There's nothing neutral in the battle between AT&T Inc. and Google Inc. over the future of the Internet. Google, the powerhouse of Silicon Valley, and AT&T, champion for the old-line phone industry, are marshaling political allies, lobbyists and - in AT&T's case - labor unions for a fight over proposed "net neutrality" rules that could affect tens of billions of dollars in investments needed to upgrade the U.S. broadband network, which lags in speed and affordability compared with some countries. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission made good on its promise to push new rules that would require Internet providers such as AT&T to deliver Web traffic without delay.
Act now against Net Neutrality The time is coming that the left is going to begin its drive for Single Payer Internet, and so the time has come for us to fight back. Finland is gradually nationalizing the Internet and declaring use of other people’s Internet hardware a “right,” and the left is cheering. Obama’s “Internet Czar” does not hide the left’s hopes for an end to freedom and markets for Internet service. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, President Barack Obama, and the rest of the radical left want to use the Net Neutrality movement as the crisis that gives cover to sweeping big government action, allowing the FCC to pick winners and losers and dictate to private individuals and firms how their private property must be run, putting government bureaucrats in charge of the Internet.
***** Climate Change | NWO plans *****
EU, U.S., to form energy council A joint European-U.S. energy council to coordinate policy on both sides of the Atlantic is expected to begin work in November, a U.S. official said. The official, speaking on condition his name not be used, told the EU Observer that President Obama and Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, are scheduled to announce the council at a Nov. 3 summit meeting in Washington. The council is to hold its first meeting the next day. "Energy is an important foreign policy priority for the U.S. and a very important component of our bilateral relationship with the E.U.," the official said. "We wanted to have a form of engagement with the Europeans to reflect that and to raise it to the policy level, to the cabinet level."
Obama is dithering on Afghanistan After eight years of government by gut instinct, most Americans welcomed the arrival of a deliberative president. Yes, get the experts in. Reflect, weigh their advice. What a good idea. And so it is if you are attempting, say, to reform the healthcare system. (A shame it was not tried.) There is even more to be said for taking your time if you are contemplating going to war. But when you are already fighting one, it has drawbacks. The US has been at war in Afghanistan for eight years – and it is losing. On this issue, Barack Obama is giving deliberation a bad name. He needs to make his mind up. The White House is touchy about this and is deflecting critics by blaming the previous administration. Mr Obama is asking hard questions his predecessor ignored, goes the line. True enough, Mr Obama inherited a wretched situation – but the recent dithering is all his own.
10-23-09 Iran to reject UN proposals... Harsh sanctions or war to break out? Echoes of Iraq?
What if Israel strikes Iran from the air? By Ed Timperlake With Russia and China slow-rolling any meaningful Iranian sanctions, a fundamental question being left out of the current debate about stopping Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon is this: What could happen after the Israeli Air Force (IAF) takes out Iranian weapon sites? America, working through the United Nations, has been trying to initiate sanctions to stop Iran's nuclear weapon programs. Our efforts have proven to be rather ineffectual but probably delayed imports of some major state-of-the art weapons from Russia, China and North Korea. But to Israel it must appear the world does not take very seriously two famous words - "never again!"
Iran must give up its nuke materials .... otherwise sanctions or possible war looms! Tensions grow and the outcome of these negotiations will determine if war breaks out in the region. I predict the talks will fail and soon a major escalation in tensions and possible attacks on Iran will ensue.
Obama Calls America to Lead World on Climate Change Friday President Barack Obama said he saw consensus building in the U.S. Congress on climate change and energy legislation. Both issues are critical to international talks on a new global warming pact. Obama, who supports a bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, promoted the legislation during a visit to Massachusetts, saying it would transform the U.S. energy system and spur the United States to lead the world on developing technology for "clean" types of fuel.
Senate Climate Measure Would Give Away Most Pollution Permits Lawmakers would give away for free the bulk of all pollution permits under a plan to curb global warming introduced yesterday by Senator Barbara Boxer. The 923-page measure is similar to legislation the House passed in June. The Senate bill gives away free carbon dioxide emission permits to some industries, including 35.5 percent for utilities, 15 percent for manufacturers and 2.25 percent for oil refineries.
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