Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

Tuesday 08.31.2010

The Summer the Recovery Went Missing
By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com
08/30/10 Paris, France - Let's see, what happened this summer? Easy question. The recovery went missing.
Ben Bernanke said so last weekÉor almost. He noted that the economy wasn't quite as spiffy as he had hoped and that the Fed stands ready, willing, and able to provide more help.
The stock market liked the news. After falling for many days, it rallied 164 points on Friday. Gold was flat.
The New York Times reports:
THE American economy is once again tilting toward danger. Despite an aggressive regimen of treatments from the conventional to the exotic - more than $800 billion in federal spending, and trillions of dollars worth of credit from the Federal Reserve - fears of a second recession are growing, along with worries that the country may face several more years of lean prospects.

Figuring out the Real Importance of Gold
By Rocky Vega - DailyReckoning.com
08/30/10 Stockholm, Sweden - Gold remains in high demand among individual investors, hedge funds, and central banks all swapping cash for the yellow metal. This past weekend, an FT reportage looked into what the latest money flows into gold can tell us about it's real importance.
Among others, the Financial Times spoke with Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul:

"'We were in a financial crisis and inflation was high,' Paul recalls. 'But the Federal Reserve wasn't interested. I remember Paul Volcker [then president of the Federal Reserve] walking into a room in 1980 - at the height of the financial crisis, when gold went up to more than $800 per ounce - and saying, "What's the price of gold?"' According to Paul, 'Everyone knows a high gold price is a vote of no-confidence in paper. That is why governments will manipulate and try to give you an artificial price for gold.'

Gold Poised for Biggest Monthly Advance Since April on Demand
By Kim Kyoungwha
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Gold is set for the biggest monthly advance since April as signs that the global economic recovery may be faltering prompt investors to boost their holdings to try to preserve their wealth.
Gold for immediate delivery was little changed at $1,236.90 an ounce at 9:15 a.m. in Singapore, having climbed 4.7 percent this month. The metal reached a record $1,265.30 in June. The December contract was also little changed today at $1,237.70.

Gold Bullion Likely to Pull Back Then Rocket Higher
By David Banister - Minyanville.com
Back in late June I forecasted a big top in gold, mostly due to the five wave structures up from the October 2008 lows to June highs, and the five waves up from February lows to June highs converging. We then dropped from $1243 at the time of the forecast to $1155, which was one of my potential "A wave down" rally pivots. I expected a countertrend rally or "B" wave up to $1212-1225. So, all of that worked out pretty well, until we hit $1238. Now, $1238 is a 78% Fibonacci retracement of the drop from $1265 to $1155. Normally, a retracement in a weaker market or sector is capped at 61.8% or 50%.
The strength of that countertrend move caused me to go back and review my patterns a few more times. Most of this is pure instinct and experience, but I think $1155 was the low of the correction. It also looks like that was an ABC correction to $1155, and with the strong rally, it means we're likely beginning a new set of five waves up from $1155.

The Death Of Cash?
All Over The World Governments
Are Banning Large Cash Transactions
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Are we witnessing the slow but certain death of cash in this generation? Is a truly cashless society on the horizon? Legislation currently pending in the Mexican legislature would ban a vast array of large cash transactions, but the truth is that Mexico is far from alone in trying to restrict cash. All over the world, governments are either placing stringent reporting requirements on large cash transactions or they are banning them altogether. We are being told that such measures are needed to battle illegal drug traffic, to catch tax evaders and to fight the war on terror. But are we rapidly getting to the point where we will have no financial privacy left whatsoever? Should we just accept that we have entered a time when the government will watch, track and trace all financial transactions? Is it inevitable that at some point in the near future ALL transactions will go through the banking system in one form or another (check, credit card, debit card, etc.)?

Failed bank's 'White House' for sale
By J. Scott Trubey - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Who says the White House can't be bought?
No, not the real one, nor even the famous Atlanta replica off Briarcliff Road.
This White House is the former home of the failed American United Bank in Lawrenceville. And it's on the market, though a price hasn't been set.
The 13,000-square foot bank building, modeled after the president's residence, lacks the Oval Office and stately Rose Garden, but 1888 Old Norcross Road does have something 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. doesn't: a drive-through window.

Why Bernanke's attempts to fix the economy are only a façade
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
08/30/10 Laguna Beach, California - America has an economy that produces about $13 trillion of activity each year. America also has a Federal Reserve Chairman that produces about 13 trillion raised eyebrows each year.
Last week, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Bernanke raised a few more eyebrows by asserting that the Federal Reserve remains in control - more or less - of economic conditions here in the United States.

Is Ben Lost?
by Andrew Butter - LewRockwell.com
The much awaited speech by Ben Bernanke, on Friday, was a bit of a non-event. It was interesting, however, to see the 30-year bounce, from 3.55% to 3.7%, the moment that Ben explained his cunning plan to push long-term interest rates down. But at least we learned that $140 billion of the $1.25 billion the Fed advanced to buy agency debt and MBS, got repaid.
One question Ben: "How much did you pay for the $140 billion that got repaid? Did you make a profit, or are you going to wait until Ron Paul's audit before you let us know how that went?."

***** Timely interview *****

Interesting take on the American economic situation from the Asian point of view by Canadian, Benjamin Fulford, in Japan. The whole financial system needs 'rebooting' and it will happen. Decisions are being made now, and this financial expert has some excellent ideas about how to deal with America's 204 trillion dollar debt through restructuring and issuing new currency (not the Amero) - listen to the 3rd segment, if nothing else. . .

Benjamin Fulford on Rense - August 25 2010 Part 1/3

Benjamin Fulford on Rense - August 25 2010 Part 2/3

Benjamin Fulford on Rense - August 25 2010 Part 3/3

Backlash over China curb on metal exports
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
China's draconian export curbs on rare earth minerals needed by the rest of the world for frontier technologies is escalating into a serious diplomatic and trade clash with the United States and other leading powers.
Japan's foreign minister Katsuya Okada issued what amounted to a formal protest at top-level meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing over the weekend, saying the sudden cut-off was "affecting the global production chain".
It is the latest sign of rising pressure after angry complaints by companies outside China that rely on this family of 17 metals for hybrid cars, mobile phones, superconductors, navigation, and a host of high-tech industries.

Lehman Derivatives Records a 'Mess,' Barclays Executive Says
By Linda Sandler
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc had no idea how big Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s futures-and-options trading business was when it considered taking over the defunct bank's derivatives trades at exchanges in 2008, a Barclays executive said.
"Lehman's books were in such a mess that I don't think they knew where they were," Elizabeth James, a director of Barclays's futures business, testified today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. James worked on Barclays's purchase of Lehman's brokerage during the 2008 financial crisis.

Treasuries Set for Longest Monthly Winning Streak Since 2008
By Candice Zachariahs and Wes Goodman
Aug. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Treasuries headed for a fifth monthly gain, the longest winning streak since March 2008, before reports this week forecast to show employers cut jobs for a third month and manufacturing growth slowed.
Two-year note yields were within five basis points of a record low before the Institute for Supply Management is predicted to say tomorrow that factories in the U.S. expanded at the weakest pace in close to a year. The unemployment rate rose in August, the Labor Department will likely say Sept. 3.

Financial Crises Linked to Central Bank Stupidity
By The Mogambo Guru - DailyReckoning.com
08/30/10 Tampa, Florida - It was an interesting psychological phenomenon when I read where Michael Kosares of USAGold.com wrote, "Private citizen, Alan Greenspan, could afford to be blunt," but I interpreted it in my Mysterious Mogambo Mind (MMM) to mean, "Private citizen, Alan Greenspan, should be afforded a blunt instrument applied with extreme prejudice to his stupid head, over and over, as he is the moron that, as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987-2006, created all the money and credit to finance the now-busting booms in stocks, booms in bonds, booms in houses, booms in derivatives, and booms in the size and cost of governments, and if there is one sorry, worthless bastard who can be singled out as guilty, guilty, guilty, it is Alan Greenspan."

China: Rumors of the Central Bank Chief's Defection
Stratfor Global Intelligence
Rumors have circulated in China that People's Bank of China (PBC) Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan may have left the country. The rumors appear to have started following reports on Aug. 28 which cited Ming Pao, a Hong Kong-based news agency, saying that because of an approximately $430 billion loss on U.S. Treasury bonds, the Chinese government may punish some individuals within the PBC, including Zhou. Although Ming Pao on Aug. 30 published a report on its website indicating that the prior report was fabricated by a mainland news site that had attributed the false information to Ming Pao, rumors of Zhou's defection have spread around China intensively, and Zhou's name has been blocked from Internet search engines in China.

Obama Calls for Congress to Pass Small-Business Bill
As Soon As Possible
By DANNY KING - DailyFinance.com
In an attempt to help spur hiring and cut the unemployment rate, President Barack Obama on Monday pushed Congress to make the small-business bill a priority when it returns from summer break next month, the Associated Press reported.
The package of tax cuts and incentives intended to help small businesses is "fully paid for," said Obama, who referred to Senate Republicans' opposition to it as "partisan politics," according to the wire-service story.

Credit is finally available, but no one wants it
by Nin-Hai Tseng - CNNMoney.com
FORTUNE -- Finally, nearly two years after they were bailed out by Congress, big banks are beginning to ease lending standards for individuals and small businesses. But it's not exactly having the reception many believed it would. Just when credit becomes more available, there's little evidence of a surge in demand for it.
Since the financial crisis, banks have been blamed for slowing the pace of economic recovery because of their reluctance to lend. Unlike larger companies that can borrow from bond markets, small businesses and consumers mostly depend on loans from banks. Federal officials have said tight credit has kept households from spending more and small businesses from hiring more.

A year ago, cash-for-clunkers spurred sales, but did it work?
By Sharon Silke Carty, USA TODAY
DETROIT - When August auto sales come out Wednesday, it isn't going to be pretty.
The year-over-year sales decline for the month will look terrible - down an estimated 30% - because the comparison will be with the buying frenzy fueled last August by the government's cash-for-clunkers program.
The program gave as much as $4,500 to buyers who traded an older car or truck for a new car with higher fuel economy. Its aim was a shot in the arm for auto sales at a time when consumers were not buying because of growing job losses, bank failures, automaker bankruptcies and tight credit. Without that government boost, supporters say, the auto industry - and the U.S. jobs dependent on both domestic and foreign makers - would have imploded and dug the economy into an even deeper hole.
Did it work?

5 reasons why falling home prices will be good for the economy
Higher homes values does not mean higher home equity, financial sector profits back up to 30 percent of all corporate profits, the mortgage debt equation.
DoctorHousingBubble.com
A recent report shows that 11 million homeowners with a mortgage are underwater with a deep red line item on their household budget. Add into the mix those with less than 5 percent equity and we realize that 28 percent of all "homeowners" are either in a negative equity position or teetering close to it. States like California have negative equity rates of 33 percent thanks to the growth of highly questionable mortgage products. Yet California looks like a saint when compared to Nevada with an underwater rate of 68 percent! If we want to examine the core premise of the debate surrounding the bailouts, it is that higher home values by default are good for the economy. I would argue that having high home values as a mission is misguided if that is the only goal we are seeking (and that is basically what we have been doing for the last few years). In fact, the majority of Americans would benefit from lower home prices. A market with higher home values is only beneficial if incomes and the economy move along in synchronization. Popping the last few balloons of the housing bubble is a good thing for most. Let us examine five reasons why falling home prices will be a good thing for the economy moving forward.

Obama Administration Plans Mortgage Aid, HUD's Donovan Says
By Holly Rosenkrantz
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- The Obama administration plans to set up an emergency loan program for the unemployed and a government mortgage refinancing effort in the next few weeks to help homeowners after home sales dropped in July, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.
"The July numbers were worse than we expected, worse than the general market expected, and we are concerned," Donovan said on CNN's "State of the Union" program yesterday. "That's why we are taking additional steps to move forward."

Mortgage closing costs 37% higher
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
A new federal rule this year requiring mortgage lenders to give borrowers reliable estimates of closing costs appears to be working - whether it's also costing borrowers more money is uncertain.
A recent survey by Bankrate.com found that, on average, origination and third-party fees on a $200,000 purchase mortgage added up to $3,741 - a 37% jump over last year's average of $2,739.
The fees can include appraisals, credit reports, a closing or settlement attorney and surveys.

One in Six Americans Is Now on Medicaid
By MELLY ALAZRAKI - DailyFinance.com
A record one in six Americans is on Medicaid, the government's health program for the poor, according to USA Today. And Medicaid is just one of several government anti-poverty programs that have seen large increases in caseloads and in costs.
Millions of Americans lost their jobs during the recession, and large numbers of those have lost their employee-sponsored health insurance, too. COBRA subsidies notwithstanding, those job losses have cost most the ability to pay for private health insurance as well.

Cash-Poor Governments Ditching Public Hospitals
By SUZANNE SATALINE - WSJ.com (free)
Faced with mounting debt and looming costs from the new federal health-care law, many local governments are leaving the hospital business, shedding public facilities that can be the caregiver of last resort.
Officials in Lauderdale County, Ala., this spring opted to transfer their 91-year-old Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital and other properties to a for-profit company after struggling to satisfy an angry bond insurer.
"We were next to knocking on bankruptcy's door,'' said Rhea Fulmer, a Lauderdale County commissioner who approved the deal with RegionalCare Hospital Partners, of Brentwood, Tenn, but with trepidation. She said the county had no guarantee the company would improve care in the decades to come. "Time will tell.''

Huge verdict shakes up nursing home industry
By PAUL ELIAS - AP -
$677 million decision has advocates of tort reform taking notice
SAN FRANCISCO - During Cindy Cool's almost daily visits to the nursing home, she would routinely find her Alzheimer's-suffering father wearing urine-soaked clothes.
The Blue Lake, Calif. resident said it would take upwards of 20 minutes for the apparently short-handed staff of Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation to respond and help Cool clean her father. Other patients fared worse, she said.
"A lot of times I walked out of there crying because of the things I saw," Cool said an interview.
She provided key testimony before a Humboldt County jury last month slammed the owners of her father's nursing home with a $677 million verdict, sending shock waves through the industry and rekindling calls for tort reform.

Savings rate inches lower in July, U.S. data show
Consumers' spending outpaces growth in personal incomes
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The savings rate for U.S. households fell in July to the lowest level in three months as spending outpaced income, the Commerce Department estimated Monday.
Consumer spending rose 0.4% in July while personal income increased 0.2%.
The report was mixed in terms of market expectations. Incomes rose less than the 0.3% expected, while spending was stronger than the 0.3% gain expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.
U.S. stocks opened moderately lower after the report. See Market Snapshot.

Thinking about raiding your 401(k) plan? Don't do it
By Sandra Block
It's no secret that millions of Americans haven't saved enough to finance a comfortable retirement. Now comes even more worrisome news: Thousands of workers are raiding their retirement-savings plans to pay their bills.
In the second quarter, a record 2.2% of participants in 401(k) plans managed by Fidelity Investments took hardship withdrawals from their savings, up from 2% a year earlier. In addition, 45% of participants who took a hardship withdrawal a year ago took another one in the second quarter.

Made in USA - For now
Despite the odds, these businesses have managed to stay truly all-American. But for how long?
Aegis Bicycles
Headquarters: Camden, Maine
Products: High-end bicycles
"Made in USA still matters." That is, and will remain Aegis' motto, even if it ultimately becomes the death knell for the company, promised owner Pete Orne.
Orne bought the business in 2004 and like so many domestic businesses, it's hanging on by a thread.
Three years ago, Aegis was selling about 800 frames a year for between $3,000 to $4,000 each, making as much as $3 million a year. Then the recession hit.

California students get tracking devices
by Alex - TheIntelHub.com
RICHMOND, Calif. - California officials are outfitting preschoolers in Contra Costa County with tracking devices they say will save staff time and money.
The system was introduced Tuesday. When at the school, students will wear a jersey that has a small radio frequency tag. The tag will send signals to sensors that help track children's whereabouts, attendance and even whether they've eaten or not.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
a key part of the global surveillance society
a technological advancement over Nazi tattooing of prisoners
Radio Frequency ID chips will soon be in cash, credit cards, your drivers license, cheap crap at grocery stores, cars, car tires, possibly under your skin.
Wal-Mart is mandating its adoption by its suppliers, which will force all of corporate "america" to switch from bar codes, which merely track what kind of product something is, with RFID, which uses an 18 digit number to track which specific product it is. Bar codes track an model of car tire, RFID would track the specific tire -- which could then be cross-referenced in the great Homeland Insecurity Totalitarian Information Awareness uber-database. Simple RFID readers will probably be set up just about everywhere that will then read all RFID chips in the vicinity for plugging into the system. This is far, far more intrusive than the nightmarish vision of George Orwell's 1984.

Wal-Mart Radio Tags to Track Clothing
By MIGUEL BUSTILLO - WSJ.com July 23, 2010 (free)
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to roll out sophisticated electronic ID tags to track individual pairs of jeans and underwear, the first step in a system that advocates say better controls inventory but some critics say raises privacy concerns.
Starting next month, the retailer will place removable "smart tags" on individual garments that can be read by a hand-held scanner. Wal-Mart workers will be able to quickly learn, for instance, which size of Wrangler jeans is missing, with the aim of ensuring shelves are optimally stocked and inventory tightly watched. If successful, the radio-frequency ID tags will be rolled out on other products at Wal-Mart's more than 3,750 U.S. stores.

Deadly denial of 'Core Exit.' Evacuations. Griff's Agenda 21 facts.
Deborah Dupré - Human Rights Examiner
Agenda 21's written goals are the same as the outcome of their actions in the Gulf of Mexico." A.C. Griffith
Deadly Denial of Core Exit
Denial that Americans are under a planned chemical warfare attack by their own own government gassing Gulf coast residents is resulting in a deadly slow-kill, rendering it impossible for most locals to self-relocate. Project Gulf Impact filmmaker has learned from government officials that "forced evacuation will begin within days" as Agenda 21 escalates, impacting not only Gulf Coast residents but also, in a domino effect, the entire nation equally in denial due to the unprecedented petrochemical-military-industrial-complex (PMIC) cover-up of the continuing U.S. crime against humanity for its ultimate "Full Spectrum Dominance."

High Seas Delay BP's Work at Gulf of Mexico Well
By Jim Polson and Mark Chediak
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc's effort to permanently plug the Gulf of Mexico well that caused the largest U.S. offshore oil spill in history probably will be delayed two or three days by rough seas, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said.
Waves up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) make it unsafe to remove and replace heavy valve assemblies a mile below the water's surface, Allen said in a conference call today while aboard a ship at the well site. Storms may persist another three days at the Macondo well, he said.

The Gulf Blue Plague is Evolving - Part II:
Corexit + Bacteria = Mutated Viruses
by Michael Edward - TheWorldVisionPortal.org
Without a doubt, the Gulf Blue Plague is evolving biologically as you will see factually set before you here. In all probability, this is the primary reason the mainstream media (MSM) has been silenced, especially with regards to local media outlets along the Gulf Coast.
The Gulf of Mexico is a biological time bomb that is undoubtedly evolving into a chemically induced breeding ground for mutating viruses. All the aspects exist in the Gulf right now and have been established for over three months. Their ongoing manipulated evolution into a viral plague or viral epidemic is evident, yet has been ignored.
THE CATALYIST: COREXIT DISPERSANT CHEMICALS

Obama Widens North Korea Sanctions on Nuclear Funding
By Flavia Krause-Jackson
Aug. 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama widened U.S. financial sanctions on North Korea today in an effort to cut off sources of income that fund the nuclear weapons program of the regime's leader, Kim Jong Il.
The U.S. will freeze the assets of four North Koreans, three of the country's companies and five government agencies suspected of "illicit and deceptive activities" that support the regime's weapons industry, according to an executive order posted on the Treasury Department's website.
Those blacklisted bought luxury goods on behalf of the regime and are suspected of drug trafficking, money laundering and currency counterfeiting, the U.S. said.

Obama goes out on a limb for Middle East peace talks
By Christi Parsons and Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times
The president personally coaxed the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to agree to talks, even as some advisors questioned the wisdom of him linking so visibly to an intractable conflict.
After 18 months of faltering efforts to launch Middle East peace negotiations, President Obama is dramatically increasing his personal stake and his own political risk by hosting direct talks this week.
Obama personally helped coax Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to come to Washington to meet with him Wednesday and resume talks the next day.

Obama's Department of Justice Puts Out Master Patriot Hit-list
Alex Jones Tv 1/5

Obama's Department of Justice Puts Out Master Patriot Hit-list
Alex Jones Tv 2/5

Obama's Department of Justice Puts Out Master Patriot Hit-list
Alex Jones Tv 3/5

Obama's Department of Justice Puts Out Master Patriot Hit-list
Alex Jones Tv 4/5

Obama's Department of Justice Puts Out Master Patriot Hit-list
Alex Jones Tv 5/5

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Archived Page Link
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -