Weekday NEWS to Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.
Friday 04.29.2011
Dollar Skids to New Three-Year Lows
By JAVIER DAVID - WSJ.com
NEW YORK - Investors wasted no time in sending the dollar to new three-year lows after the Federal Reserve gave them little reason to support it.
Weak U.S. growth and unemployment data quickened the dollar's fall. Initial employment claims jumped back above the 400,000 level in the latest week. Meanwhile, gross domestic product data showed that economic growth slowed sharply in the first quarter, led by surging food and energy costs that sent a key gauge of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, soaring to its highest level in nearly three years.
16 Amazing Facts on the Middle Class Squeeze
By Michael Snyder - TheAtlantic.com
The figures below measure both the impact of the recession and the aftermath. For example, not only did household wealth decline 25% during the recession, but also foreclosures and bankruptcies have continued to steamroll average families even as the economy has grown for more than a year.
As you read this, millions of parents across the country are trying to explain to their children why their homes are being taken away. Even more are waiting to hear from hundreds of resumes sent into an economy that's barely producing jobs. Many cities are dealing with housing vacancies and unemployment not seen in decades.
We're not Broke. We've been Robbed!
by Richard Kirsch - NewDeal2.0
Blame the thieves who are wrecking our economy and ruining our democracy.
We're not broke. We've been robbed by the super-rich and big corporations who are raking in the cash and running up the deficit. Our economy is still more than twice as large as any other country in the world. With 4% of the world’s population, we generate 24% of its wealth. We spend more on our military than almost all other nations combined and more than twice as much per person on health care as other developed countries. But over the past three decades, the rich have gotten richer while their tax rates have plummeted. While the income of the richest 400 Americans quadrupled - they now have more wealth than the 155 million Americans on the other end - their effective tax rates were cut almost in half.
One thing is for sure: corporate America is not broke. Sitting on some two trillion in cash, fattened every quarter by record profits, corporate taxes are at an historic low in terms of the economy and share of federal revenues. And that includes Wall Street, which was rewarded with bailouts, bonuses and bonanza profits for igniting the deepest recession in three-quarters of a century.
Debt Saturation & Money Illusion
BY GORDON T LONG - FinancialSense.com
Most of the clearly evident financial problems that surround us today stem from one cause - Debt Saturation.
Most, intuitively, sense this to be a correct assessment but few can either prove it or articulate it to the less sophisticated. Let me arm you to be the "Nostradamus" amongst your friends and colleagues in explaining the problem and what the future therefore foretells.
However, let me make it very clear, this will not make you popular. Smart maybe, but highly likely to make you unwanted at the social gatherings of the genteel.
Net Trade Deficits – A Leading Indicator of U.S. Economic Woes!
by Ian R. Campbell - StockresearchPortal.com
Many people think the root cause of the current U.S. economic problems is the sub-mortgage debacle. I certainly think that is a major contributor both to those problems, and to the timing of them. However, I believe (and have believed since 2005 when I first started to seriously study the U.S. and its evolving place in the world economic order) that what is happening now would have happened eventually absent the sub-prime crisis – albeit many years from now. This is because I think an earlier principal driver in America’s economic malaise has to do with U.S. Federal Administrations dating back to 1971 (when President Nixon renounced Bretton Woods), and latterly dating back to 1990 and earlier when those Administrations embraced the concept of globalization – and hence indirectly the resultant movement of U.S. manufacturing jobs to ‘low wage’ countries. In simplistic terms as I see things, globalization has had the effect of eliminating U.S. manufacturing jobs, while at the same time up to 2007 maintaining (or improving in many cases) the U.S. Main Street standard of living while concurrently keeping CPI inflation low. I believe measurements – and I think particularly important ones – of this manufacturing job replacement activity and U.S. dependence on imported oil are the U.S. monthly and cumulative net trade deficits. I have believed for some time that the U.S. net trade deficit is a significantly important monitor of the ongoing standing of the U.S. economy in the world order. I continue to believe that.
Geithner: Nation's Budget Deficits Must Be Reduced
By JEFF BATER and SHARON TERLEP - WSJ.com
DETROIT--U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the nation's budget deficits are too high and must be reduced.
Mr. Geithner also said the U.S. will lose money on its $80 billion bailout of the U.S. auto industry, but that the jobs saved as a result of the rescue justify the expense. He stressed that the Obama administration is eager to exit its stake in General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC.
Mr. Geithner's prepared remarks to the Detroit Economic Club Thursday came as the U.S. heads toward what might be a record budget shortfall this year.
The Obama administration has projected the country will run a $1.65 trillion deficit in 2011. That would be the biggest in U.S. history. The 2010 deficit was $1.29 trillion.
Bernanke's Do-Nothing Plan The Fed chairman's grand scheme not to do anything about unemployment, GDP growth, and gas prices.
By Annie Lowrey - Slate.com
If you are a trader, a bond investor, or a central banker, you probably think that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's first scheduled press conference went great. The professorly Bernanke - seated behind a piano-sized table a comfortable distance from the soft-balling journalists - seemed calm, if not confident. He did not say anything stupid, strange, or newsworthy. The markets, as hoped, said, "Whatever."
Ron Paul on Bernanke's Weak Dollar Policy
On Bernanke and the dollar.... ALL TOGETHER NOW: WE SUPPORT A STRONG DOLLAR
Posted by John Cassidy - NewYorker.com
One of the drawbacks of being Secretary of the Treasury or Chairman of the Federal Reserve is that, from time to time, you are obliged to tell fibs - and pretty big ones at that. This is especially true when it comes to a matter close to the heart of every American citizen and every foreign investor: the value of the dollar.
And so we have the sorry spectacle of Timothy Geithner and Benjamin Bernanke, within a day of each other, each insisting on something that patently isn't true.
Here’s Geithner, speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations, on Tuesday: "Our policy has been and will always be, as long as at least I'm in this job, that a strong dollar is in our interest as a country. We will never embrace a strategy of trying to weaken our currency to try to gain economic advantage."
Dollar Weakens,
Treasuries Gain as U.S. GDP Growth Slows;
Stocks Advance
By Michael P. Regan and Cordell Eddings - Bloomberg.com
The Dollar Index slid to the lowest level since 2008, Treasuries rose and gold rallied to a record after economic growth slowed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed an almost three-year high as rising earnings and takeovers overshadowed the report on gross domestic product.
The Dollar Index tumbled 0.6 percent at 4:10 p.m. New York time after slumping to 72.871, an almost three-year low. It declined for an eighth straight day, its longest slump since 2009. Ten-year Treasury yields lost five basis points to 3.31 percent, gold jumped as much as 1.4 percent to $1,538.80 an ounce and silver rose for a second day. The S&P 500 climbed 0.4 percent to 1,360.48 while the Russell 2000 Index of smaller U.S. stocks rallied to a record for a second straight day.
Debt Limit Fear Mongering
By Ron Ross - The American Spectator.org
"The debt limit is coming! The sky is falling!" Or maybe a more apropos parable is the boy who cried wolf.
Much of what we're being told about having to increase the debt limit doesn't make sense. Here are some rather obvious questions that need to be considered regarding the debt limit:
If you can raise the limit whenever it becomes a limit, what's the point?
If not raising the limit would be catastrophic, is it possible to have a limit? If adhering to the limit creates havoc, is it even an option?
How will not raising the limit result in default? Doesn't it simply mean that from that point on, your current expenditures cannot exceed your current revenue?
Banks Play Shell Game with Taxpayer Dollars
By Senator Bernie Sanders
BURLINGTON, Vt., April 26 - A study requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) found numerous instances during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 when banks took near zero-interest funds from the Federal Reserve and then loaned money back to the federal government on sweetheart terms for the banks.
The banks pocketed interest on government securities that paid rates up to 12 times greater than the Fed's rock bottom interest charges, according to a Congressional Research Serviceanalysis conducted for Sanders.
"This report confirms that ultra-low interest loans provided by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis turned out to be direct corporate welfare to big banks," Sanders said. "Instead of using the Fed loans to reinvest in the economy, some of the largest financial institutions in this country appear to have lent this money back to the federal government at a higher rate of interest by purchasing U.S. government securities."
U.S. gets C credit rating, lower than Mexico
Weiss judgment '‘attention-grabbing,' says president of Egan-Jones
By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - The U.S. got a sovereign credit rating of C on Thursday, in line with ratings for such smaller economies as Mexico, Estonia and Colombia.
Weiss Ratings, based in Jupiter, Fla., has rated the creditworthiness of financial institutions for several years, but the firm launched sovereign- debt ratings of 47 countries on Thursday. The U.S. rating of C (Fair) ranks it 33rd, Weiss noted in a statement.
A C from Weiss is roughly equivalent to a BBB rating from the big rating agencies like Moody’s Investors Service, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch. That’s about two notches above non-investment grade, or junk, status.
Here Comes Inflation!
BY SY HARDING - FinancialSense.com
It’s official. The U.S. economic recovery is stumbling again, as indicated by Thursday's report that GDP growth plunged to only 1.8% in the 1st quarter (from 3.1% growth in the previous quarter). And spiking oil, food, and other commodity prices have inflation on the rise.
Don't lose sight of how we got here.
Exactly a year ago the recovery from 'The Great Recession' of 2007 – 2009 also stalled significantly as the government's stimulus efforts, including rebates to homebuyers and cash-for-clunkers programs, expired. Economic reports from the housing industry, autosales, and consumer spending were the leading indicators that the recovery had stalled, which was then confirmed when the 2nd quarter GDP report was released and showed economic growth had slowed from 3.7% in the 1st quarter to only 1.7% in the 2nd quarter.
Food and Energy Inflation is Not Transitory
National Inflation Association
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday held his first press conference in history. The press conference took place shortly after the Fed announced its decision to leave the Fed Funds Rate at a record low of 0% to 0.25%, where it has been for an unprecedented 28 months. The U.S. economy is flooded with U.S. dollars and is close to overdosing on excess liquidity. The fact that our financial markets are not falling on the possibility of the Fed not unleashing QE3 immediately at the end of QE2, shows that we could be on the verge of hyperinflation with or without QE3.
The Federal Reserve currently has a mandate of both maintaining price stability and facilitating job creation. However, central banks don't have the ability to create real employment. If any jobs happen to be created as a result of a central bank's policies, they are only temporary jobs created due to the errors and distortions of phony asset bubbles. All phony asset bubbles that are fueled by monetary inflation eventually burst, sending unemployment through the roof.
Inflation? Numbers Show Faith in Fed
By MARK GONGLOFF - WSJ.coom
Ben Bernanke held the first postpolicy-meeting news conference by a Federal Reserve chairman in part to bolster confidence that the Fed remained committed to controlling inflation. The words "inflation expectations," or some variation of them, were uttered 21 times in the session.
While investors and the public have concerns about short-term price increases, they appear to have confidence in Mr. Bernanke's ability to control inflation over the long-term. That is crucial to the Fed's success in rebooting the economy, because once higher long-term inflation expectations take root, they can become self-perpetuating, which would mean higher interest rates that could slow growth.
High gas, food costs grind back growth State budget cuts also nick recovery
By Patrice Hill-The Washington Times
Growth in the U.S. economy slowed sharply to a 1.8 percent pace in the winter quarter from 3.1 percent at the end of last year as budget cuts at all levels of government and a surge in oil prices weighed on the economy, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.
The jump in oil prices to more than $100 a barrel, and soaring prices for corn, wheat and other commodities, caused a near doubling of the inflation rate to 3.8 percent from 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010. That meant that consumers had less spending power, causing their contribution to economic growth to decline to 2.7 percent from 4 percent.
The 9 places where inflation is crushing us Meat, gas, even diapers are costing regular folks
By Jeff Reeves
ROCKVILLE, Md. - Inflation is far from under control and it's time that Americans demand our government officials do something about it.
The Federal Reserve would have you believe that everything is fine, focusing on core inflation rates and ignoring broader measures of inflation as they affect food and energy. These commodity-driven prices, as our central banking overlords would have you believe, are naturally more volatile and shouldn't be overstated.
Inflation Inferno I
Mises Daily: by George F. Smith
Throughout history, governments have fought against the use of sound money. In 1912, Ludwig von Mises identified the reason for this:
The sound-money principle has two aspects. It is affirmative in approving the market's choice of a commonly-used medium of exchange. It is negative in obstructing the government's propensity to meddle with the currency system.[1]
Governments can only wring so much money from their citizens through taxation without inciting civil disobedience, so they make friends with bankers, who have a way of making money appear from nowhere. The money they create isn't sound, but almost no one cares. For politicians, it's sound enough; it provides them with claim tickets to market wealth, which is all they want. Sound money would not cooperate in this manner. It does not emerge from central-bank policy decisions.
Bank of America's New Credit Card Penalty Interest Rate Is Nearly 30%
ByDawn Kawamoto - DailyFinance.com
Bank of America credit card holders, beware. If you're late on a monthly payment, that little "oops" might become a big "ouch": Your future balances could be subject to a penalty rate of nearly 30%, notes areport Wednesday inThe Charlotte Observer.The penalty rate will not be applied to previous balances, however.
Nor will the penalty interest rate be applied automatically, the article notes, but rather on a case-by-case basis after other risk factors are considered. And, if the bank does chose to hit an account with the penalty rate hike, it will give the customer a 45-day heads up before the new rate goes into effect, as required under 2009's Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, otherwise known as the CARD Act. Bank of America (BAC) began notifying customers about the penalty rate increase via their bills this month: Those who are affected soonest will see their rate increase coming afterJune 25.
THE CARS ARE COMING OFF THE RAILS
by Michael C. Ruppert - CollapseNet.com
APMEX, the American Precious Metals Exchange, has initiated reverse inquiries to all of its precious metal buyers offering to buy back silver and gold at above spot price. This means one of two things. Either APMEX is desperate to cover short positions or to conceal the fact that it has no physical metal to deliver.
This is a big market move and a signal that APMEX and many others see Fukushima's impact on the global economy, our civilization, and the Old Paradigm. Put another way, they see pm's going absurdly hot very shortly which is exactly what I have written about consistently for over a decade. This fits with my analysis predicting immediate (there is no better term) apocalyptic events. Having left a record of maybe three million words I have never used that word before.
What I have said consistently in many university lectures in seven countries over nine years is that we will certainly see $2,000, $5,000 and maybe even $10,000 gold. And in the same breath I usually shuddered and said, "But when that happens we will not recognize the world we live in anymore."
Bernanke Fuels Gold and Silver Rally
by Danny Furman - SeekingAlpha.com
After ticking upwards toward 74 in early trading of the DXY dollar index, the U.S. dollar tanked down to near 73 Wednesday afternoon as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke touted the benefits of loose monetary policy and discussed future plans. It was the first ever open press conference held by the United States' near-century-old central bank. Journalists asked a variety of questions to Bernanke after he explained the Fed's outlook on past and current actions, as well as future implications depending on efficacy of taken measures and public perception of the economy and currency.
Gold, Gresham's Law & the Dong What happens when people actively shun their official currency...? -- BY BEN TRAYNOR - FinanacialSense.com
GOVERNMENTS are often tempted to live beyond their means. Today, that means national debts and quantitative easing. But a few hundred years ago, it meant debasing coinage.
Silver and gold coins would be 'clipped' – with a tiny quantity of their metal shaved off the edge every time they passed through government hands – or they would be minted with a lower precious metal content than their face value stated. This would enable the monetary authorities to produce more coins for the same amount of bullion, increasing the government's spending power in the marketplace.
Can gold, silver replace dollar as reserve currency?
CommodityOnline.com
Gold has risen to new record nominal highs of $1,534/oz as the dollar continues to be sold in international markets. Gold has eked out smaller gains in other fiat currencies but remains close to record nominal highs in euros, yen and pounds. Silver has risen by more than 1% in all currencies so far today.
The continuation of ultra loose monetary policies by the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and other central banks is leading to concerns that currency debasement will lead to even greater inflation in the coming months.
Precious metals-On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-22-2011-(Part1)
Precious metals-On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-22-2011-(Part2)
Short Sellers Now Screaming About a Buy Side Silver Conspiracy
By Avery Goodman - SeekingAlpha.com
It was only a matter of time. Now the talk of silver price conspiracies has shifted from long buyers to those on the other side of the fence. On April 21st, the historically anti-precious metals editorial staff of the London Financial Times ran an article titled "Silver Surge Prompts Conspiracy Theorists". Meanwhile, order was reestablished among the short side conspirators once the COMEX trading floor opened on Monday morning.
After silver prices had temporarily risen to over $49 per ounce during Asian trading, they were beaten down again to about $47 in a flood of newly opened short positions. From this return to discipline within the bullion bank ranks, we can assume that the Federal Reserve probably will temporarily halt QE-2 at the end of June or before.
The Impact of Higher Gas Prices, Today and Tomorrow
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
With gas prices rising nearly 25 percent in the last three months, The Atlantic published a visual guide to what determines the prices of gas. One conclusion we can make is that the White House has very little say over the final price of gasoline. The Energy Information Administration estimates that the costs of treating, shipping and selling gasoline account for 20 percent of gas prices. State and federal taxes, which are low by global standards, account for another 12 percent. Then you have the price of crude oil barrels -- two-thirds of the price of gasoline -- which is comprised of mostly global demand, global investors and Middle East politics. There's just not very much room for the White House to claw down prices this summer ... unless it tries to start another world-wide recession to reduce demand.
Oil companies are making more money and less fuel Refiners including Exxon Mobil are raking in profits while producing less gasoline and diesel in the U.S. than usual for this time of year. They're also exporting more to foreign countries. With oil prices rising, that makes for sticker shock at the pump
By Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
Gasoline prices are skyrocketing - and so are oil company profits.
Exxon Mobil Corp. earned nearly $11 billion in the first three months of the year, a rollicking 69% increase over its performance for the same period last year. That's on sales of $114 billion.
It's the same story for the other big oil companies. Royal Dutch Shell turned a profit of $6.3 billion in the first quarter, and BP - despite lingering costs from the Gulf Coast oil spill - made $7.1 billion.
IS RAMPANT SPECULATION DRIVING UP THE PRICE OF OIL?
YL - Truthdig.com
It seems everyone’s got their favorite pet theory about why the price of oil has jumped roughly 30 percent since the start of the year. Right wingers blame a conspiracy hatched by President Barack Obama to strangle domestic oil production and push his "radical" green agenda on an unsuspecting America. Donald Trump blames OPEC. Oil companies say high oil prices are a result of "market fundamentals," as in there is too much demand and not enough supply, and the whole situation is outside of their control. Newt Gingrich, who relaunched his 2008 "Drill Here, Drill Now" campaign, backs them up and tries to con people into believing we can fix everything with more offshore drilling.
But the real culprit, it seems, is good old fashioned, Enron-style manipulation of the oil market by speculators and hoarders. It’s gotten so bad that even Goldman Sachsacknowledged that speculators are at least partially responsible for pushing up the price of crude.
Bernanke Begins Public Dialogue
With Pledge to Maintain Record Stimulus
By Craig Torres and Josh Zumbrun - Bloomberg.com
Ben S. Bernanke, at the first press conference by a Federal Reserve Chairman following a policy meeting, said the economy still requires monetary support while the need to contain inflation means further easing is unlikely.
The 57-year-old former Princeton University professor stepped before the television cameras in a top-floor conference room in the Fed’s Washington headquarters yesterday and began a dialogue with the American public about the central bank’s goals and strategies. He explained the tension between reducing an 8.8 percent unemployment rate and keeping a lid on inflation.
Statement on Federal Reserve's Press Conference
by Ron Paul - LewRockwell.com
"Chairman Bernanke's press conference today was unprecedented, and it demonstrates that Federal Reserve officials are very concerned about growing public criticism of Fed policies. Although Mr. Bernanke predictably provided no substantive information, the American people want real answers about Fed bailouts, lending to foreign banks, and most of all inflation. Mr. Bernanke continues to ignore his culpability for the inflation all Americans suffer due to the Fed's relentless monetary expansion. Rising prices are the direct result of Fed devaluation of our dollar. Yet rather than addressing the Fed's loose dollar policy, Mr. Bernanke continues to assure us that inflation is not a problem.
GDP: Economic recovery stumbles
By Chris Isidore
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Economic growth slowed to a crawl in the first three months of the year as a spike in gasoline, higher overall inflation and continued weakness in the housing market all took a toll on the recovery.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic health, rose at an annual rate of 1.8%, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That's a significant slowdown from the 3.1% growth rate in the final quarter of 2010.
Geithner Says 'Unfair and Broken' Tax System
Is Cause of U.S. Deficit Woes
By Rebecca Christie and Ian Katz - Bloomberg.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. needs to overhaul its tax code in order to rein in the national debt and preserve economic growth.
"Americans have to understand that deficits matter, that deficits are not just the result of spending choices, but also of an unfair and broken tax system," Geithner said in a speech inDetroit today.
The Treasury Department chief said the U.S. needs to make its budget more sustainable so that the country will have enough spending room "to do the essential things." Economic growth and national security require the budget to be on a firmer footing, he said.
L.A. Times Multiple Choice: A) Raise Taxes B) Raise Taxes C) Raise Taxes
Tim Cavanaugh - Reason.com
Tired of democracy? Looking for old media experts with six-figure salaries to tell you what the grownups have decided?
Trying to figure out what could possibly be left to cut in a state that is down to the bare bones of $1,000 Fogo de Chão dinners for government employees, 278 state parks, fully staffed boards of chiropractic services and horse racing, a government-operated lottery [pdf], free rides to Dodgers games, and half a trillion dollars in unfunded pension liabilities?
Fear not. The L.A. Times shows the full breadth of opinion – from judiciously pro-taxation to passionately pro-taxation to sneeringly pro-taxation. Today, we learn from the paper’s three weightiest columnists – literally: these aging white males collectively weigh in at north of a quarter-ton shortweight (source: Celebrity Sleuth) – that the state needs to raise taxes, that the people of California want their taxes raised, and that even if the people (who have in fact not voted to approve any tax in nearly 20 years) don't want their taxes raised, this just proves they're ignorant.
If Bill Gross Sees U.S. as Shaky, Check Japan
By William Pesek - Bloomberg.com
Salvador Dali or M.C. Escher?
This question leaps to the mind navigating the ruins of Japanese cities like Tagajo. Skylines now look as if Dali's surrealist brush had a hand in rendering things so out of place. Escher’s mind seems at work, too. Interlocking shapes that shouldn't exist in the three-dimensional world litter cityscapes that before March 11's earthquake and tsunami were pretty run of the mill.
The mess one confronts in the northeast -- flattened buildings, fleets of destroyed Toyotas at ports, ships sitting in the middle of streets, the search for bodies -- graphically demonstrates whyStandard & Poor's is so worried about Japan. Concerned about the magnitude of the reconstruction bill, S&P cut Japan's rating outlook.
Southern storms' death toll rises to near 300
By Joel Achenbach and Michael E. Ruane - WashingtonPost.com
The death toll soared to near 300 Thursday as rescuers dug through rubble from Mississippi to Virginia in the nation’s deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina.
It was what they call a tornado outbreak, something rarely seen on such a scale. Not since April 3, 1974, has the United States witnessed so much destruction from twisters, and tornado experts say Wednesday, April 27, 2011, may go down in history as the most destructive outbreak in eight decades.
Tornadoes Leave a Trail of Devastation Nearly 300 Die in Six Southern States as City Neighborhoods and Farm Towns Are Leveled; FEMA Mobilizes for Cleanup
By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN, THOMAS M. BURTON and STEPHANIE SIMON - WSJ.com
FORT PAYNE, Ala. - Residents of Alabama, Mississippi and four other Southern states picked through their splintered communities Thursday as state and federal authorities mobilized to clean up and rebuild after scores of powerful tornadoes killed nearly 300 people in the most deadly storm cluster to hit the nation in 37 years.
The fast-moving funnel clouds destroyed homes and property across six states over two days. Twisters blew apart churches in the small rural town of Smithville, Miss., flattened homes in the tidy suburbs of Birmingham, Ala., smashed poultry barns, uprooted power poles and flung cars wildly about.
Tornado Slams Jefferson County Contemplating Bankruptcy
By Martin Z. Braun and Tom Gordon - Bloomberg.com
Jefferson County, Alabama, already on the brink of bankruptcy, faces another emergency after a tornado ripped through the state’s most populous county, destroying 1,000 homes and killing at least 30 people.
The county of 660,000 people, which may run out of cash in July, was devastated yesterday when a tornado with winds of more than 100 miles an hour (161 kilometers an hour) tore through the west side and then slammed into Birmingham’s northern neighborhoods. More than 100 people were injured.
In Little Mississippi Town, Nothing Survived Unscathed
By Miguel Bustillo - WSJ.com
SMITHVILLE, Miss. – In this town of about 900 people that was all but flattened by a tornado, 14 were reported dead and another 14 remained missing as the sun fell late Thursday and a curfew set in.
Search and rescue teams were planning to dig into the piles of debris and wade into the swamplands adjoining the town early Friday morning in hopes of finding additional survivors before Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was supposed to arrive for a visit.
"I knew each and every one of them," the town’s mayor, Gregg Kennedy, said grimly of the dead. He had not slept in more than a day.
Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally Cite interstate commerce violation
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.
The product in question: unpasteurized milk.
It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it's also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.
Businesses turn to 'private exchange' health insurance
By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News - USAToday.com
Fed up with the unpredictable cost of health insurance for his small business, Mike Sarafolean last year made a dramatic change: Instead of picking a plan to offer workers, he now sends them to a "private exchange" or marketplace where they compare and choose their own insurance. And the amount his company pays toward coverage is capped.
The move puts his St. Paul-based company on the leading edge of a nascent trend that could shape how more employers offer and pay for health benefits in the coming years.
Why Seniors Are Fearful of GOP Medicare Plan
AP - DailyFinance.com
The Republican plan to privatize Medicare wouldn't touch his benefits, but Walter Dotson still doesn't like the idea. He worries about the consequences long after he's gone, for the grandson he is raising.
"I'd certainly hate to see him without the benefits that I've got," said Dotson, 72, steering a high school sophomore toward adulthood.
The loudest objections to the GOP Medicare plan are coming from seniors, who swung to Republicans in last year's congressional elections, and many have been complaining at town-hall meetings with their representatives during the current congressional recess. Some experts say GOP policymakers may have overlooked a defining trait among older people: concern for the welfare of the next generations.
Three Top Builders Post Bigger Losses Pulte, Meritage and Ryland Report Lower Revenue as Closings,
Prices Remain Weak
By ROBBIE WHELAN And DAWN WOTAPKA - WSJ.com
Three of the nation's largest new-home builders have reported quarterly financial results that were even weaker than the year before, further proof that the housing market has entered a double-dip downturn.
PulteGroup Inc., Meritage Homes Corp. and Ryland Group Inc. all had bigger losses and lower revenue as closings showed continued weakness and prices remained depressed.
Home on the bear market range – the United States will face a 10 to 15 year real estate bear market. Hard to believe but we are already 5 years into this economic trend. The failure of Quantitative Easing in Japan.
MyBudget360.com
Can Americans cope with a 10 to 15 year bear market in real estate? On this front I have good news, and bad news. The bad news is that we are likely to face at least a 10 year bear market in real estate thanks to a lost decade in household income and the continued erosion of the middle class. Home prices can only reflect the underlying income of households paying the mortgage. Clearly with record foreclosures many cannot accomplish this financial Herculean task. The good news is we are already 5 years into this correction (so either we are half way or one third closer to a bottom). For the United States this is a new experience because we have never seen an annual drop in home prices on a nationwide basis outside of the current crisis. People point to the Federal Reserve as the knight in bailout armor for housing but look how far that has gotten us in the four years since the crisis started. It is safe to say that home prices will face a 10 to 15 year bear market so let us examine the details carefully.
Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'
By Parija Kavilanz
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Wal-Mart's core shoppers are running out of money much faster than a year ago due to rising gasoline prices, and the retail giant is worried, CEO Mike Duke said Wednesday.
"We're seeing core consumers under a lot of pressure," Duke said at an event in New York. "There's no doubt that rising fuel prices are having an impact."
Wal-Mart shoppers, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck, typically shop in bulk at the beginning of the month when their paychecks come in.
Is the Fed Going Too Easy on Unemployment?
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Is Ben Bernanke a hawk in dove's clothing? After yesterday's historic press conference, several economic commentators have criticized the Federal Reserve's concern that inflation could soar if it continues to expand monetary stimulus aggressively after June. Those critics point to unemployment, saying that the Fed must continue to pour money into the economy until joblessness drops to a more manageable level. Are they right?
First, let's review the Fed's monetary policy dual mission: to pursue maximum employment and stable prices. To be sure, employment is far from maximized -- the unemployment rate remains near 9%. Inflation is currently subdued, but the problem with increasing money supply is that it can cause inflation if too much is released and can't be swept up before the economy starts heating up. In a situation where the economy is recovering at a moderate clip but unemployment remains high, the Fed has to pick which is more important: trying to push down unemployment or trying to keep inflation tame.
Feds update IT plan following Obama's 'horrible' comment U.S. to consolidate some of its 20,000 websites and improve self-help Web services -- By Patrick Thibodeau
Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- Last week, President Barack Obama described federal IT as "horrible," and on Wednesday, Jeff Zients, the federal chief performance officer, explained why that's the case.
At a gathering of federal IT officials, Zients said the federal government is behind the private sector in realizing productivity gains from its IT investments.
In a presentation illustrated with slides, Zients noted that the private sector has experienced towering productivity gains over a roughly 25-year period, whereas the government has not. The private sector has seen an average 1.5% gain in productivity each year, and "the federal government hasn't kept up," Zients said.
Panasonic to slash 17,000 jobs over the next 2 years
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles - LATimes.com
Japan's largest maker of home appliances said in a news conference in its home nation that the workforce reductions were the result of restructuring costs as well as mounting losses and damage resulting from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disasters, plus the resulting nuclear plant crisis, according to the Associated Press.
The moves should benefit the Osaka-based firm in the long run, however, by streamlining operations and boosting profitability, company President Fumio Ohtsubo told reporters, the AP report said.
The cuts won't be the first to Panasonic's employee base. Over the last year, the consumer electronics giant has cut about 18,000 jobs, the report said.
Rise in Jobless Claims Bears Watching
By Kathleen Madigan - WSJ.com
April is turning out to be the cruelest month for jobless claims.
New filings for jobless benefits unexpectedly jumped 25,000 in the April 23 week. The increase could hint that businesses are cutting labor costs to offset the prolonged surge in raw-material costs. But the strength of the U.S. recovery — which slowed in the first quarter — is highly dependent on stronger job growth.
New filings for jobless benefits were in a steady decline since August. But after falling to as low as 385,000 in the April 2 week, they have taken a turn in the wrong direction. New claims have been above 400,000 for three weeks in a row.
2011-04-24 Arizona
Arizona abuse of process in the House Banking Committee - raw, in-your-face usurpation of the Democratic process on display by Rep. McClain (R-3)
Birtherism Is Dead. Long Live Birtherism. The history of a national embarrassment, and why it's not over yet. -- By David Weigel - Slate.com
President Obama did not end the "birther" movement today. Hours after the president released his long-form birth certificate - years after releasing the short-form one that proved he was a citizen - the issue had already evolved. Republicans who'd been on the hook demanding proof of his citizenship wondered why it took so long. People with too much time on their hands - in other words, the majority of people surfing the Internet for this kind of stuff - were combing the document for proof of forgery.
New Obama Birth Certificate is a Forgery
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
Our investigation of the purported Obama birth certificate released by Hawaiian authorities today reveals the document is a shoddily contrived hoax. Infowars.com computer specialists dismissed the document as a fraud soon after examining it.
Check out the document released by WhiteHouse.gov for yourself.
Upon first inspection, the document appears to be a photocopy taken from state records and printed on official green paper. However, when the government released PDF is taken into the image editing program Adobe Illustrator, we discover a number of separate elements that reveal the document is not a single scan on paper, as one might surmise. Elements are placed in layers or editing boxes over the scan and green textured paper, which is to say the least unusual.
PROOF!!! Obama Birth Certificate Fraud
Philip Berg & Webster Tarpley:
Obama Birth Certificate "Raises As Many Questions As It Answers"
STATES MAKING IT A CRIME TO INVESTIGATE AGRIBUSINESS ABUSES
YL - Truthdig.com
Several states, including Minnesota, Iowa and Florida, are considering legislation that would make it a felony for activists and journalists to carry out undercover investigations of agribusiness operations, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Kansas and Montana already have similar laws in place.
What does it all mean? Well, here’s a bit of perspective: One hundred years ago, Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” a horrifying expose of the meatpacking industry, led to the creation of America’s first food and drug regulations. Today, it would land the author in jail. Now that’s progress! —YL
The New York Times:
—A bill introduced in the Minnesota House in early April punishes not only videographers who pose as workers and record the inhumane treatment of animals, but also those who distribute said videos. The bill seeks to make it a felony to disrupt operations at factory farms, a component intended to punish activists and protesters. One of the sponsors is Rep. Rod Hamilton, a former president of the Minnesota Pork Producers.
Radiation Readings in Fukushima Reactor
Rise to Highest Since Crisis Began
By Tsuyoshi Inajima and Michio Nakayama - Bloomberg.com
Radiation readings at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi station rose to the highest since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems, impeding efforts to contain the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.
Two robots sent into the reactor No. 1 building at the plant yesterday took readings as high as 1,120 millisierverts of radiation per hour, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at Tokyo Electric Power Co., said today. That’s more than four times the annual dose permitted to nuclear workers at the stricken plant.
Lord Monckton:
The Hidden Agenda Behind Man-Made Global Warming - 1/3
Lord Monckton:
The Hidden Agenda Behind Man-Made Global Warming - 2/3
Lord Monckton:
The Hidden Agenda Behind Man-Made Global Warming - 3/3
-------------- a little history ------------
Adrian Salbuchi
WWII U Boats & Byrd's Antarctic Mission part 1/ 4
Adrian Salbuchi
WWII U Boats & Byrd's Antarctic Mission part 2/ 4
Adrian Salbuchi
WWII U Boats & Byrd's Antarctic Mission part 3/ 4
Adrian Salbuchi
WWII U Boats & Byrd's Antarctic Mission part 4/ 4
Ben Bernanke goes on record to warn US deficit 'not sustainable' Obama must address debt quickly, warns Federal Reserve chief, while interest rates will stay low to protect recovery
By Dominic Rushe in New York - The Guardian
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke used his historic first conference to warn that the US deficit is "not sustainable" and tell political leaders they must address it "as quickly and effectively as they can".
Speaking at what was the first ever press conference on interest rate policy to be given by a Fed chairman, Bernanke confirmed that the US will keep interest rates low and continue its huge programme of buying back government bonds in order to keep the fragile economic recovery on track.
Dollar sinks, gold hits new high after Bernanke speaks
By Tom Petruno - LATimes.com
The dollar sank further Wednesday and gold and silver prices surged as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled the Fed was in no hurry to tighten credit.
The DXY index of the dollar's value against six other major currencies (charted below) fell to 73.29 at about 1:05 p.m. PDT, down nearly 0.8% from Tuesday and its lowest level since Aug. 2008. The index now is down 7.3% year to date.
Gold has soared to $1,530 an ounce in electronic trading, a new record nominal high and up $27, or 1.8%, from Tuesday's futures-market close.
Silver was at $48.13 an ounce, up $3.07, or 6.8%, after falling $2.09 on Tuesday.
In his first-ever post-Fed-meeting news conference, Bernanke acknowledged higher inflation pressures but reiterated the Fed's view that those pressures "appear to be transitory."
Fed Wants Even Higher Inflation
BY AXEL G MERK - FinancialSense.com
Today, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced it will continue to purchase government securities as previously announced ("QE2"), including reinvesting principal payments from its holdings.
The FOMC downgraded its economic growth forecast, acknowledged inflationary pressures have moved from commodity inflation to core inflation, yet insists inflation remains too low. The Fed considers inflationary pressures to be transitory, but monitors the evolution of inflation and inflation expectations.
Parsing the Fed: How the Statement Changed
By Phil Izzo - WSJ.com
April statement: Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in March indicates that the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace and overall conditions in the labor market are improving gradually. Household spending and business investment in equipment and software continue to expand. However, investment in nonresidential structures is still weak, and the housing sector continues to be depressed.
Gerald Celente on RT - 27 Apr 2011
Gold hits fresh record on still-accommodative US monetary policy
By Allen Sykora - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) - Signs of continuing accommodative monetary policy from the Federal Reserve, yet apparent concerns about inflation among policy-setters, continue to underpin gold prices.
Prices began rising Wednesday short after the Federal Open Market Committee released its policy statement following a two-day meeting. They later hit a fresh record after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke conducted his first post-FOMC press conference.
Comex Gold ends higher, hits new high
amid bullish reaction to FOMC statement
By Jim Wyckoff - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) - Comex gold and silver futures prices rallied sharply and moved to daily highs in afternoon trading, in the wake of a bullishly construed statement from the Federal Reserve. June gold hit a new all-time record high of $1,524.20 an ounce. The U.S. dollar index weakened and fell to its daily low, hitting a fresh 2.5-year low, in the wake of the FOMC meeting statement, which contained no major surprises but did hint that U.S. interest rates would remain low for some time to come.
That was bullish for metals due to the inflationary implications and because it was also bearish for the U.S. dollar. June gold last traded up $18.30 an ounce at $1,521.80. Spot gold last traded up $14.30 at $1,522.00. May Comex silver last traded up $1.80 an ounce at $46.85.
More Silver Than You Imagined
BY MARK TAYLOR - FinancialSense.com
Having risen from an average price of $5.00 to $46.05 an ounce, it is only reasonable that one question what may be occurring in the silver market. A well read Investor will certainly have considered many explanations as to why the price of silver has increased over the past 7 years. The most common argument for this is an extreme shortage of the metal. Without a doubt, if there is a shortage of silver in the market, one would expect the price to rise. Let's take a look.
Below is a trusted account of supply and demand statistics. I say trusted because everyone from market technicians to the US geological survey (USGS) relies on this data. This data is from the Silver Institute and can be seen at their website.
Jim Rogers: Missing out on Commodities?
American Exceptionalism And Standard & Poor's
By Jeff Harding - The DailyCapitalist.com
America, the world’s greatest country, whose financial strength and dollar were supreme for the past 100 years, has been put on notice by Standard & Poor’s that it is on the road to second rate status. It was disconcerting to read the ho-hum reactions of economists to S&P's shift to a negative outlook for U.S. sovereign debt. As one who sees darker implications of a downgrade in Treasurys, it gave me pause to wonder if I am overreacting to the event. Perhaps they are correct in that it will probably not happen, and that if it does, it's no big deal because the dollar still is the world’s reserve currency. Japan and Great Britain did it and they are fine. And where else would investors go?
My conclusion is that the other 99 guys are out of step. My fellow analysts are mired so deep in the trees that they overlook the forest of reasons why we got into this mess in the first place. The problem with economic analysis and analysts is that there is a tendency of disassembly. By breaking down the problem into its parts one can miss how they all connect. Perhaps if they stepped back and considered where this country is heading they would be less sanguine.
Why the US's "Strong Dollar Policy" is Anything But
By Joel Bowman- DailyReckoning.com
04/26/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina – The colors are turning here in this capital city. Trees lining the Palermo streets, once a vibrant green, are lately tinged with auburn. Their leaves resist the fatal kisses of the cooling night air, before being taken up by the breeze and falling to the ground. The days, too, are shrinking before our very eyes.
We've just returned to Buenos Aires after a couple of weeks in Uruguay and Brazil. It's good to be back. Some things – the weather, for example – have changed. Others – like depressing/entertaining news headlines – remain more or less the same. Let's have a look…
"Fed approaches crossroads as growth slows…" says one paper…
"Euro strikes 16-month high against dollar…" reads another…
And then, "Geithner vows to defend strong US dollar policy…" from the very same wire…
Currency Dead End Paradoxes
BY JIM WILLIE- FinancialSense.com
Several very important currency effects are at work. Most economists are either silent on the factors or wrong footed on the dynamic. That is not surprising since they have been incorrectly analyzing, interpreting, and forecasting the financial crisis as it built up in 2005 and 2006, and as it exploded in 2007 and 2008 to surprise almost all of them, even as it has failed to recover in 2009 and 2010 in contrary fashion to their deceptive rosy positions. The major currencies must be examined for some key paradoxes. As the monetary system crumbles into its final phase, the foundation under which the major currencies stand, trade, and change is breaking down. Refer to the sovereign debt structure, overly burdened by runaway government debt. The focus here is on some important paradoxes that go directly against both common sense and traditional economic logic.
Bogus Threats to US Reserve Currency Status No Country Really Wants It!
BY MICHAEL SHEDLOCK - FinancialSense.com
No Country Really Wants It!
In spite of all the hype regarding the Yuan as a reserve currency I have stated many times recently that discussion of the Yuan as a reserve currency is nothing but ridiculous hype.
My reasons are:
The Yuan does not float, and there is no indication China is prepared to allow the Yuan to float any time soon
China is a command economy
In China, property rights and civil rights are questionable
Chinese banks are insolvent because of malinvestments in infrastructure and an enormous property bubble
Bernanke says ending monetary easing
will have little effect on economy
By Neil Irwin - WashingtonPost.com
For Ben S. Bernanke, the past few weeks have included practicing answers for potential questions from reporters, getting comfortable behind a mahogany desk chosen as a set-piece at the Federal Reserve’s first regular news conference, and, oh yeah, deciding what to do at a big meeting to set the nation’s monetary policy.
Members of the press corps that covers Bernanke spent the same period trying to dream up a killer question, asking readers and experts for ideas of what to ask, sweating whether they would get a question at all. Cable business channels spent the day broadcasting from booths outside the Fed’s headquarters, with countdowns to the chairman’s first news conference ticking on the screen.
Bernanke Says Fed to Keep Stimulus, Further Easing Unlikely
By Scott Lanman and Joshua Zumbrun
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke signaled the Fed will maintain its record monetary stimulus after ending large-scale bond purchases in June, while the need to contain inflation means further easing is unlikely.
"It's not clear that we can get substantial improvements in payrolls without some additional inflation risk," Bernanke said at his first press conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. "Ultimately, if -- if inflation persists or if inflation expectations begin to move, then there’s no substitute for action," Bernanke said. "We would have to respond."
Fed sees mounting debt as biggest challenge Bernanke: 'Incentives' to act now
By Patrice Hill-The Washington Times
Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke on Wednesday called the mounting federal debt the biggest economic challenge facing the country and said the threat that it will tarnish the nation's top credit rating should prompt Congress to address it.
"It's the most important problem, at least in the longer term, that the United States faces," he said in his first news conference following a two-day meeting of the Fed's monetary policy committee.
"We're still a long ways from a solution," he said, but added that he hopes a warning from Standard & Poor's Corp. last week that it may cut the nation's AAA credit rating will act as an "incentive" for Congress and the White House to reach a bipartisan deal to rein in deficits hovering over $1 trillion for years to come.
What Ben Bernanke should've said
By Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
Earlier this afternoon, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave his first news conference. This isn't what he said. But it's what he should've said.
Good afternoon. This is a strange moment for me. As most of you know, I'm the first Federal Reserve chairman in history to give a news conference. I'm not doing it because I want to. I recognize that the likely outcome of this effort is that I'll accidentally say "contraction" when I mean "expansion," Matt Drudge will put up a siren, CNBC will go to Defcon 5, and the Dow will fall by a 1,000 points - all before I’m able to correct myself in the next sentence. Most of you are wolves who would happily crash the economy in return for a Nielsen point - particularly you, Maria - and my predecessors were probably right to ignore you.
But there's something I have to say. Something the Federal Reserve has to say. We've screwed up. We're sorry. But we can't make things right unless you're willing to help.
Fed says $600 billion bond program to end in June
By Jeannine Aversa - AP - - WashingtonTimes.com
WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy and job creation have strengthened enough for the Federal Reserve to end on schedule a program of buying Treasury bonds to help the economy, the Fed said Wednesday.
Ending a two-day meeting, the Fed made no changes to the program. The decision was unanimous. The bond purchases were intended to lower loan rates, encouraging spending and boost stock prices. But critics worried that the purchases would feed inflation.
Bernanke Says Ending Bond Buying Won't Have Major Impact
By Scott Lanman and Joshua Zumbrun
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the end of the Fed's $600 billion bond-buying program in June probably won't have a "significant" effect on financial markets or the economy, and the central bank will likely continue reinvesting maturing debt after June.
"We are going to complete the program at the end of the second quarter," he said at his first press conference following a policy meeting. "The end of the program is unlikely to have a significant effect on financial markets or the economy."
For the first time since the Great Depression, households are receiving more income from the government than they are paying the government in taxes. The combination of more cash from various programs, called transfer payments, and lower taxes has been a double-barreled boost to consumers' buying power, while also blowing a hole in the deficit. The 1930s offer a cautionary tale: The only other time government income support exceeded taxes paid was from 1931 to 1936. That trend reversed in 1936, after a recovery was underway, and the economy fell back into a second leg of recession during 1937 and 1938.
Yes, dear reader…now we will give you a quote:
"Those who count on the feds for their daily bread will soon go hungry."
Who said that?
We did!
Yesterday, we saw that the feds' QE2 program was a failure. Just like QE1. And TALF. And TARP. Worldwide, the authorities committed about $20 trillion to fight the correction. And what has it bought? It bailed out Wall Street. It made more millionaires. It drove up stock prices – to a new post-crisis record yesterday. But it didn't really lead to a genuine recovery or a real increase the nation's wealth.
Case And Shiller On Housing
By Jeff Harding - The DailyCapitalist.com
The video below is a very informative interview with the creators of the Case-Shiller Housing Index–which came out yesterday with more bad, but, inevitable news. All attempts by the government to forestall this decline have failed, and prices continue to slide.
According to the February Case-Shiller report:
U.S. single family residential home prices are lower than a year ago but still slightly above their April 2009 bottom
The 10-City and 20-City Composites fell 2.6% and 3.3% respectively from their February 2010 levels.
Washington D.C. was the only market to post a year-over-year gain (+2.7%). Detroit was the only city to post a positive monthly price change, rising 1.0%, from January to February
Case Shiller's Double Dip Has Come and Gone
BY LEE ADLER - FinancialSense.com
The S&P/Case Shiller Home Price Indices reported Tuesday are, as usual, so far behind the curve that not only did they miss the "double dip" that has come and gone, it will be at least July or August before it reports an apparent upturn in prices in March and April. S&P’s view of the data was dour. "There is very little, if any, good news about housing. Prices continue to weaken, trends in sales and construction are disappointing, " said S&P’s David Blitzer. "The 20-City Composite is within a hair’s breadth of a double dip."
Phoenix Underwater Mortgages Show Housing's Threat to Recovery
By David J. Lynch - Bloomberg.com
Christine Johnson has reduced her spending on clothes, travel and home improvements -- all so she can stay current on the house she bought in Phoenix at the peak of the housing bubble.
Johnson, 44, a professional photographer, owes $330,000 on a ranch home that she says might fetch $270,000 in today's market. She's also about $70,000 underwater on a rental property. "I'm nervous now. How am I going to make enough money to pay everything on time?" the single mother said in an interview. "I used to be able to spend money on clothes. I don't buy anything anymore."
The Housing Bubble Broke the Middle Class
BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH - FinancialSense.com
The bursting of the housing bubble wiped out half of the net worth of the Mortgaged Middle Class.
On the face of it, American households were not that affected by the bursting of the housing bubble. If we look at the Fed Flow of Funds report, the Balance Sheet of Households and Nonprofit Organizations, we find that net worth only declined by about 11% ($7.3 trillion) from 2007 to 2010: a $2.9 trillion decline in financial assets and a $4.9 trillion decline in tangible assets, i.e. real estate and consumer durable goods.
Here are the basic numbers, rounded, in trillions:
Record low gas prices, IMF on China & U.S.
Foreclosure Fraud Operation Uncovered At Detroit Law Firm
With Ties To MI GOP
by Steve Dibert - MFI-Miami Exclusive
Several months ago, the major banks sounded the all clear signal regarding robo-signing in non-judicial foreclosure states, namely Michigan and Massachusetts. It appears those claims of non-exist robo-signing were either greatly exaggerated or were overly optimistic.
MFI-Miami has uncovered evidence of forged documents drafted and signed by attorneys and employees at Orlans Associates at their corporate offices in Troy, Michigan. These fraudulent documents will impact tens of thousands of foreclosures done by Ally Financial, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan-Chase, Fannie Mae and others in Michigan and Massachusetts over the past five years and makes the investigation being done by Ingham County Register of Deeds, Curtis Hertel, Jr. and Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard into the robo-signing of Linda Green at the now defunct DocX look like a kindergarten production of the movie, The Firm.
The Unemployment Effect No One Wants to Talk About
BY VEDRAN VUK - FinancialSense.com
During the recession, there have been two conflicting views on the labor reports. The conservative political analysts always try to make unemployment seem worse, while the liberals have a too sunny perspective. Both sides will often make good points. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data is hardly the most accurate representation of unemployment, so there's a lot of room to make valid arguments.
But there's a big factor often left unmentioned: Without the extended unemployment benefits, unemployment would be considerably lower. Hence, comparing the current level of unemployment to other periods isn't exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Prior to the current recession, a huge body of economic research showed that longer benefits lead to longer periods of unemployment.
States face $1.26 trillion shortfall in funds to pay retiree benefits
By Michael A. Fletcher - WashingtonPost.com
The state funds that pay pension and health-care benefits to retired teachers, corrections officers and millions of other public workers faced a cumulative shortfall of at least $1.26 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009, according to a new report.
The study, to be released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States, found that the pension and health-care funding gap increased by 26 percent over the previous year. Pew officials said the growing shortfall was driven by inadequate state contributions, an aging population and market losses that accompanied the recession.
What if Medicare required a living will?
By Ezra Klein - WashingtonPost.com
Andrew Sullivan has a proposal to lower health-care costs that actually makes some sense. "If everyone aged 40 or over simply made sure we appointed someone to be our power-of-attorney and instructed that person not to prolong our lives by extraordinary measures if we lost consciousness in a long, fatal illness or simply old age," he writes, "then we'd immediately make a dent in some way on future healthcare costs. A remarkable proportion of healthcare costs go to the very last days or hours of our lives."
His idea is voluntary. But I’d make a different suggestion. What if, to be eligible for Medicare, you had to give someone power of attorney and sign a living will? You could tell your attorney, and write in your will, that you want every possible measure employed to keep you alive. You could say cost is no object, and neither is pain or quality of life. You could make whatever choice, and offer whatever instructions, you want. You just have to do it. You have to make the decision.
Supreme Court Allows Obamacare to Metastasize
By David Catron - The American Spectator.org
The Supreme Court's decision to deny Virginia's request for expedited review of its Obamacare lawsuit was disappointing but not surprising. Even the Old Dominion's Attorney General, Kenneth Cuccinelli, has admitted all along that his chances of convincing the high court to grant his "petition for a writ of certiorari before judgment" were quite low. Nonetheless, the White House and its accomplices in the "news" media have greeted the decision with thinly disguised glee. And it is indeed a significant victory for the supporters of Obamacare. Despite the virtual certainty that the Supreme Court will eventually hear one of the myriad constitutional challenges to the unpopular "reform" law, yesterday's decision dooms these cases to another year of wandering aimlessly in the appellate wilderness.
Democrats Focus on Medicare Party Leaders Sense Advantage in
Republicans' Proposed Overhaul of Program
By JANET HOOK And DANNY YADRON - WSJ.com
Congressional Democrats, on the defensive for months on federal spending issues, see an opportunity to seize the political initiative by pushing to the forefront a House Republican plan to overhaul Medicare.
In a sign of the his party's emboldened posture, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) said Wednesday he would soon bring the House measure to a Senate vote.
The point would be to challenge Republicans in the chamber to embrace the proposal to end Medicare's benefit guarantees for people currently younger than 55.
Obama to nominate CIA Director Leon Panetta as defense secretary
By Karen DeYoung - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama will nominate CIA Director Leon Panetta this week as secretary of defense, replacing Robert M. Gates as part of a series of national security shifts that will also place Afghanistan war commander Gen. David H. Petraeus in the top CIA job, U.S. officials said.
In an announcement planned for Thursday, Obama will also name Ryan C. Crocker, a five-time ambassador who retired in 2009 after wartime service in Iraq, to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Kabul.
Completing the changes, Marine Lt. Gen. John R. Allen, currently deputy commander of the U.S. Central Command, will take Petreaus’s job in Afghanistan, according to knowledgeable officials not authorized to speak on the record.
Government to Pull Plug on 137 Data Centers
By DAMIAN PALETTA - WSJ.com
The Obama administration will unveil plans Wednesday to shut 137 of the 2,094 federal data centers by the end of the year, a move that officials see as a breakthrough in their effort to make the government's information-technology infrastructure more efficient and less costly.
The closures would affect 16 federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the State Department, in nearly every corner of the U.S., from Boston to Anchorage, Alaska, according to the White House plan.
Administration officials said that they didn't have an estimate of how many government and contractor jobs might be cut as a result.
Why Obama Will Get Second Term in White House
By Ralph Nader - Bloomberg.com
The stars are aligned for Barack Obama's re-election in November 2012. He won't join Jimmy Carter to be the second Democrat in 120 years to lose a second term.
Five things are playing in Obama’s favor.
First, the Republicans -- driven by their most conservative members in Congress -- will face a primary with many candidates who will advance harsh ideological positions. Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump and others might as well be on the Democratic National Committee payroll. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's reverse Robin Hood plan to cut more than $6 trillion in spending over a decade will provide the outrage, stoked by a sitting president possessed of verbal discipline.
Obama's birth certificate proves Americans are powerless Rebuff of pro-forma query only added to public's disillusionment
By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro-The Washington Times
Many Americans were shocked yesterday when President Obama finally released his long-form birth certificate from the state of Hawaii. The real surprise, however, is that for the past three years, our democratic institutions did not address the matter. The media refused to tackle this issue with the same investigative drive with which they investigated Watergate, President Clinton’s alleged indiscretions and the George W. Bush administration's missteps in Iraq; the courts declined to hear a single case on the issue; and Congress failed to hold any hearings on the matter.
Perhaps the saddest part of this story is its ending.
Mr. Obama did not release the birth certificate because the media pressured him or because the courts actually listened to one of the many cases that were filed. He released it because an obsessed billionaire threatened his electability in 2012, which forces us to ask the question: What good are our democratic institutions if they don't stand up for the people?
Birth certificate isn't Obama's only secret White House aversion to transparency undermines good government -- By THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Barack Hussein Obama II was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. For over two years, the president has resisted pressure to divulge this simple biographical information, which proves he's a natural-born citizen. The belated White House release of the "long form" birth certificate answers one constitutional issue, but a host of other questions remains about the most mysterious president in modern history.
Mr. Obama’s hostility to openness drives the public's curiosity about the most basic facts of his life. For example, he has refused to release his college and law-school transcripts, information recent presidential candidates have openly shown the public despite some embarrassment over decades-old bad grades. What is there for this president to hide? Maybe he flunked government classes or got busted for dope. He has openly discussed his past drug use, but is there more to it? Secrecy breeds speculation.
Trump To Obama -
Now Release Your College Records Obama! (Barry Soetero)
Government closing data centers as part of federal IT overhaul
By Marjorie Censer - WashingtonPost.com
The government is closing 137 of its nearly 2,100 data centers this year as part of an effort to close 800 of the facilities by 2015.
U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said Wednesday that the government has already closed 39 of the 137 data centers. Fifteen of the shuttered centers are based in the Washington area. One-third of the closed facilities belonged to NASA.
"We're cracking down on duplicative, underutilized assets across the federal government," he said at a conference with federal agency and industry officials.
Nokia to cut 7,000 jobs, stop developing Symbian operating system
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles - LATimes.com
Nokia is cutting 7,000 jobs worldwide by 2012 in a move that will also result in development of its Symbian mobile operating system being taken over by the outsourcing firm Accenture.
The Finnish phone maker said Wednesday, in announcing the jobs cuts, that the decisions should reduce its operating expenses by $1.47 billion in 2013 when compared with 2010.
Of the 7,000 jobs that will be slashed from Nokia's workforce, 4,000 will be layoffs and 3,000 workers will become employees of Accenture in the deal that will give that company control of Symbian development.
Apple denies tracking iPhone users, but promises changes Privacy expert takes exception to Apple's flat denial
By Gregg Keizer - Computerworld.com
Computerworld - Apple today denied that it tracks iPhone and iPad users, saying that "users are confused" about the issue.
In a statement posted on its Web site, Apple defended the practice, but admitted that there were bugs in its software that would be fixed "in the next few weeks" with an update to iOS, the mobile operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad.
A privacy expert applauded Apple's acknowledgement of the problem and its promise to make changes, but questioned the company's flat denial that it never tracked users.
Apple Promises Fix for Location-Gathering 'Bug' on iPhone
By Brian X. Chen - Wired.com
Your iPhone isn't stalking you, but some of its intrusive location-gathering techniques are the result of bugs that will be fixed soon, according to Apple.
Apple published a Q&A document on Wednesday to educate customers on how and why Apple is collecting location data, and the company admitted some of its techniques are flawed.
"Users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues to date," Apple said in the statement.
Apple's statement echoes Wired.com's explanation of Apple’s location-gathering published last week, which was based on a letter Apple sent to Congressmen Ed Markey and Joe Barton in 2010 to disclose data-collection methods.
Feds use Facebook to collect crime evidence Details found in murder, drug case
By Jim McElhatton - The Washington Times
Along with wiretaps, undercover drug buys, cooperating witnesses and other evidence typically seen in major conspiracy cases, federal prosecutors are scouring the Facebook pages of defendants for proof in a potential death penalty trial.
In an example of how monitoring social media pages has become part of the law enforcement toolbox, the FBI recently filed a search warrant affidavit to examine the private details from Facebook pages of three men facing trial in U.S. District Court in Washington in a murder and drug case.
FCC should deny AT&T spectrum buy, groups say
By Grant Gross - Computerworld.com
IDG News Service - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission should deny AT&T's plan to buy $1.9 billion worth of wireless spectrum from Qualcomm because of the telecom carrier's proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA, several consumer groups said Wednesday.
The FCC should combine its reviews of the two deals, Free Press, Public Knowledge, Consumers Union and other groups wrote in a letter to the agency.
"The proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile would reshape the entire American wireless industry in a single stroke," the groups wrote. "With possible approval of this transaction lingering on the horizon, the Public Interest Organizations can no longer imagine conditions that could outweigh the risk of competitive harm posed by the further growth of AT&T through acquisition of additional beachfront spectrum licenses from Qualcomm."
BP expects to resume drilling in Gulf of Mexico within months
By Terry Macalister - guardian.co.uk
BP has predicted it will be back drilling in the Gulf of Mexico within a matter of months despite continuing legal threats and rows over pollution from last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster. "We expect to be back and actively drilling during the second half of the year," Byron Grote, the company's chief financial officer, told financial analysts from the City of London on Wednesday.
The comments are likely to infuriate environmentalists who believe BP should be kept away from the Gulf, and could upset a US offshore regulator still considering whether to grant permits to BP.
Libya: It's Not About Oil, It's About Currency and Loans
By John Perkins - InfoWars.com
World Bank President Robert Zoellick Thursday said he hopes the institution will have a role rebuilding Libya as it emerges from current unrest.
Zoellick at a panel discussion noted the bank’s early role in the reconstruction of France, Japan and other nations after World War II.
"Reconstruction now means (Ivory Coast), it means southern Sudan, it means Liberia, it means Sri Lanka, I hope it will mean Libya," Zoellick said.
On Ivory Coast, Zoellick said he hoped that within "a couple weeks" the bank would move forward with "some hundred millions of dollars of emergency support."
Gaddafi arms Libyan 'home guard' – minimum age 17 Regime in Libya trains civilians in use of AK-47s in attempt to build resistance to Nato and eastern rebels
By Harriet Sherwood in Sbia - guardian.co.uk
Muammar Gaddafi is arming Libyan 17-year-olds to build a "home front" against Nato military intervention and the possibility of rebels from the east of the country reaching largely loyalist towns and cities in the west.
As part of the drive towards an unofficial civilian army, the government is releasing thousands of AK-47 assault rifles into communities and is organising classes in the use of weapons.
At a women's training centre in the town of Sbia, 30 miles south of Tripoli, young women crowded round a trestle table as a soldier wearing camouflage fatigues and thick red lipstick demonstrated how to field-strip and reassemble the guns.
China's Easter offensive against the churches
By Wesley Pruden - The Washington Times
The International Monetary Fund says the "Age of America" will end in the ash heap of history in 2016, give or take a year or so, to be replaced by the "Age of China."
That's when the value of the Chinese economy will reach $19 trillion annually, shading ours by a few billion in petty cash. A decade ago, the Chinese economy was only a fraction of the size of America's. That was before we shipped our factories to China and the Democrats and Republicans in Washington discovered they could borrow money with abandon from the Chinese to finance FDR's famous formula of "spend and spend, elect and elect."
Carter Says North Korea Wants Guarantee in Nuclear Talks
By Eunkyung Seo - Bloomberg.com
North Korea will not give up its nuclear program without some kind of security guarantee from the U.S., former President Jimmy Carter said.
Carter, 86, is on his second trip to the country in less than a year to help push forward stalled multinational talks on curbing the regime's development of atomic weapons.
"The North wants to improve relations with America and is prepared to talk without preconditions to both the U.S. and South Korea on any subject," Carter said in a blog on the website of "The Elders," a group of former world leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela. "The sticking point -- and it’s a big one -- is that they won't give up their nuclear program without some kind of security guarantee from the U.S."
Currency Wars and the International Monetary System
Written by Diplomatic Courier - OilPrice.com
The overall lack of international cooperation in the field of foreign exchange rates is best illustrated by the Bank of Japan when between September and December 2010 it intervened to counter the appreciation of the yen. In the wake of the Tsunami and the meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, however, the Japanese currency is now continuing its steady decline against other major currencies. Yet, in the fall of 2010, the unilateral decision on the part of the Japanese Central Bank blatantly contradicted the statements of world political and international organization leaders according to which international cooperation and coordination at the highest level for maintaining the stability of major currencies was well established and working properly.
5 tough questions for Ben Bernanke No central bank has been more reckless
By Richard Band
LONDONDERRY, N.H. (MarketWatch) - The clock is ticking on "Bubbles" Bernanke. Come June 30, his latest quantitative easing program (QE2) is scheduled to end. The big question on everyone’s mind is: what happens after June 30? Will government bond yields explode?
A number of respected commentators, including bond king Bill Gross of PIMCO, are bracing for the worst - and it’s not hard to see why. Certainly, the Federal Reserve’s behavior in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has exceeded, in sheer recklessness, anything attempted by any senior central bank in history.
Bernanke's Code: a Guide to Fed Chairman's First Q&A
By MICHAEL S. DERBY - WSJ.com
When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke makes his debut press conference Wednesday, his every word will be parsed for signs of where he hopes to take U.S. monetary policy.
Specifically, many people want to know when the central bank will begin raising interest rates, and when it will begin off-loading some assets, including Treasurys and its multitrillion-dollar cache of mortgages.
As Mr. Bernanke touches on topics familiar to Fed-watchers, he will use seemingly ordinary words or phrases that are freighted with important economic messages in the world of the Fed. A few examples:
Post-QE2 plans the focus of Bernanke conference
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — For good reason, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has been studying videotapes of foreign central bankers and having staffers pepper him with questions ahead of his first-ever press conference Wednesday to discuss an interest rate decision.
Not that the central bank is sweating whether to veer from its current policy of targeting a Fed funds rate between 0% and 0.25% and its plan to purchase $600 billion worth of government debt by the end of June. The Federal Open Market Committee will announce its decision in a statement on 12:30 p.m., followed by a Bernanke press conference due to start at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
Geithner Presses GOP on Debt Vote
By DAMIAN PALETTA And JANET HOOK - WSJ.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the idea of the U.S. government defaulting on its debt was "ridiculous," dismissing Republican lawmakers' threats to block an increase in the federal borrowing limit.
The White House and Congress, however, remained far apart on how to find a common path to lifting the debt ceiling.
Obama administration officials are trying to broker a bipartisan deal that would establish broad deficit-reduction targets, with a set of triggers that would force automatic spending cuts and tax increases if substantial progress isn't made by 2014.
Geithner talks tough on U.S. dollar
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner talked tough on the U.S. dollar Tuesday, saying that the United States will never attempt to lower the value of the greenback to gain an advantage in global trade.
"We will never embrace a strategy of trying to weaken our currency to try to gain economic advantage," Geithner said, going further than his usual comment that a strong dollar is in America’s interest.
The Treasury secretary made the comment during an appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. Geithner has been in New York for two days for a series of mostly private meetings.
Eisenbeis: What's A Central Bank To Do Besides Printing Money, Pursue A Hidden Agenda?
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
I thought this was a fairly nice thumbnail sketch of the problem facing the world's central banks vis à vis the US dollar as reserve currency and globalization. I have to add that this current impasse was not unforeseen.
I suggest you take a look at a very brief description of Triffin's Dilemma.
The Triffin dilemma is a theory that when a national currency also serves as an international reserve currency, there could be conflicts of interest between short-term domestic and long-term international economic objectives. This dilemma was first identified by Belgian-American economist Robert Triffin in the 1960s, who pointed out that the country whose currency foreign nations wish to hold (i.e. the global reserve currency) must be willing to supply the world with an extra supply of its currency to fulfil world demand for this 'reserve' currency (foreign exchange reserves) and thus cause a trade deficit.
Wall Street dealers warn over debt ceiling
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Wall Street dealers of Treasury securities on Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure on Congress to lift the debt ceiling, warning of the potential disruptions to financial markets and the broader economy from not acting.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner but squarely aimed at Congress, the dealers identified six possible negative consequences from not raising the ceiling. Geithner, speaking in New York on Tuesday, separately called on Congress to raise the ceiling and expressed confidence that the Republican leadership understands the implications of not doing so. Republicans are in control of the House of Representatives and have demanded unspecified spending concessions in return for increasing the debt limit.
Weak Greenback Could Make Firms See Red
By Kelly Evans - WSJ.com
A weaker dollar is supposed to give U.S. companies an edge. Lately, it threatens to push them over one.
That is one interpretation of consumer giantKimberly-Clark Corp.'s first-quarter earnings report Monday. Any benefit from a weaker dollar, which raises the value of foreign earnings, was drowned out by surging commodity costs stemming in part from the weaker currency. The company said it will have to raise prices and cut expenses further as the increase in the cost of making Huggies diapers and other products will now be double what was originally expected for 2011.
Dollar's Decline Speeds Up, With Risks for U.S.
By TOM LAURICELLA - WSJ.com
The U.S. dollar's downward slide is accelerating as low interest rates, inflation concerns and the massive federal budget deficit undermine the currency.
With no relief in sight for the dollar on any of those fronts, the downward pressure on the dollar is widely expected to continue.
The dollar fell nearly 1% against a broad basket of currencies this week, following a drop of similar size last week. The ICE U.S. Dollar Index closed at its lowest level since August 2008, before the financial crisis intensified.
Alternative inflation gauge goes dark briefly Billion Prices Project shows hot inflation
By Lee Adler
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The U.S. country index of the Billion Prices Project, a real-time inflation index published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is back after mysteriously disappearing last week.
The BPP tracked online prices of over a half million products sold online in seven nations. OK, so it wasn’t a billion prices, but it was certainly large enough to be a representative sample of a broad spectrum of products and services.
Lee Warns of Further Inflation for U.S.
By PATRICK BARTA And ROBERT THOMSON - WSJ.com
SINGAPORE - Former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said a stronger local currency could help ease inflation in the fast-growing Asian city-state, even as he warned of a continued weak U.S. dollar—and potentially more inflation - in the U.S.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with The Wall Street Journal, the 87-year-old founder of modern Singapore said he also thought his country could become a "secondary center" for trading the Chinese yuan, after Hong Kong, as it continues to expand its role as one of Asia's primary financial centers. He said he believes Singapore will continue to benefit from rapid growth in China and India in the years ahead, despite risks of overheating and higher inflation regionwide.
Inflationary pressures bullish for gold and silver
CommodityOnline.clom
Silver and gold are lower today after the record nominal highs seen yesterday (gold marginally and silver significantly). Gold reached $1,518.30 per troy ounce, a nominal record, while silver climbed to $49.79 per ounce, its highest nominal level since the short term parabolic spike in 1980.
A period of correction and consolidation has been expected for some time and it may ensue as gold and particularly silver are overbought in the short term. However, absolutely nothing has changed with regard the primary fundamentals driving the gold and silver markets.
Buy gold When the apocalypse comes, we'll have all the gold
By David Weidner, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Buy gold.
There’s no risk. It never loses value. Except in 1915-20, 1941, 1947, 1951-66, 1974-76 1981, 1983-85 1987-2000 and 2008. In inflation-adjusted dollars, gold cost $4,000 an ounce 30 years ago. Inflation is for dollars.
Buy gold.
The world is a mess. We’ve never seen a time like this: the Middle East and North Africa are in upheaval. Japan has been battered by atomic energy. The U.S. economy is sluggish. The Book of Revelation was a picnic compared to modern times.
Why Investors Are Buying Silver As If There Is No Tomorrow
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
The price of silver has been absolutely exploding lately. It has reached heights not seen since the Hunt Brothers attempted to corner the silver market over three decades ago. But this time there are no Hunt Brothers to blame for the stunning rise in the price of silver. So exactly why are investors buying silver as if there is no tomorrow right now? Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons. Investors have been flocking to precious metals such as gold and silver as the value of paper currencies has declined. The euro is incredibly weak right now and the U.S. dollar appears to be on the verge of a major collapse. In fact, the entire financial system is highly unstable right now. In such an environment, investors seek some place safe to park their money, and right now gold and silver are seen as safe harbors. But gold and silver have not been going up in price at the same pace. So why is silver outperforming gold so significantly?
Silver Rush Spreads to Stock Market
By TOM LAURICELLA And CAROLYN CUI - WSJ.com
The mania for silver has spread to the stock market as day traders pile into the buying.
Trading got so heated during the past two days that shares traded in the iShares Silver Trust, the biggest exchange-traded fund tracking the price of silver, topped that of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, usually one of the most actively traded securities in the world.
Day traders "are going crazy," says Joseph Saluzzi, co-head of trading at brokerage firm Themis Trading. "It's typical of the bubbly speculation that's been going on in silver."
Investors stampede into a modern-day silver rush
Worries about inflation, the slumping dollar and the U.S. government's finances have sent the price of silver soaring. But the precious metal is notoriously volatile, and experts wonder whether its rally can last.
By Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times
Kristen Hammond didn't have to think too long about a suitable investment to give her three young children to mark their birthdays this year.
Bypassing such traditional ideas as a U.S. Savings Bond or a share of blue-chip stock, she decided to give each child a 1-ounce coin of pure silver.
Whether they know it or not, the Hammond offspring are participants in a modern-day silver rush. Stoked in part by voracious demand from small investors, the gray metal has rocketed 46% since the end of December, the biggest gain of any major commodity.
Berlusconi and Sarkozy to seek tightening
of EU border controls in wake of Arab protests
By HONOR MAHONY - EUObserver.com
The leaders of France and Italy are meeting in Rome today (26 April) to discuss measures to tighten EU border controls amid rising tensions over how to deal with the thousands of migrants fleeing revolutions in north Africa.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi are expected to use this 29th bilateral summit to call for a partial reintroduction of border controls, a move that would undermine one of the most significant integration steps of the European Union.
NATO LOSES CONFIDENCE IN LIBYAN REBELS
Truthdig.com - KDG
Having accepted that the rebels can't defeat Moammar Gadhafi themselves, NATO is aggressively expanding its list of targets in Libya. The scope of NATO’s mission had initially been limited to providing aerial support for rebel troops on the ground. However, Gadhafi has regained momentum and control of a significant part of the country.
NATO and its allies will now continually attack major government institutions including palaces, offices and communications centers in an effort to thwart Gadhafi's command over his soldiers in the field. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the new strategy is too destructive and violates the mandate given by the U.N. to "protect civilians."
UK has third biggest budget deficit in Europe The UK has the third biggest budget deficit in Europe, the EU’s official league table showed, placing it alongside the struggling nations engulfed in the eurozone's debt crisis.
By Emma Rowley - Telegraph.co.uk
Britain’s shortfall in its finances amounted to 10.4pc of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, according to data for each of the EU’s 27 member states from the statistics agency Eurostat.
That meant the UK had a bigger deficit, or annual shortfall, than the recently bailed-out Portugal and also Spain, which is viewed as the next euro-using nation to potentially need international aid.
The largest deficit in proportion to the size of the country’s economy was seen in Ireland, where the extra borrowing needed to shore up the banks left its deficit at 32.4pc of GDP.
Greece and Portugal debts worse than expected Greece's annual deficit was 10.5% of national output last year and Portugal's was 9.1% – both more than assumed by the European commission
By Phillip Inman - guardian.co.uk
Greece and Portugal are deeper in debt than previously estimated, according to official figures that show attempts to contain their financial woes have so far failed.
The statistics agency Eurostat said Greece's deficit hit 10.5% of economic output in 2010, well above the 9.6% the European commissionexpected last autumn. Portugal, which is negotiating a bailout similar to those for Greece and Ireland, saw its debts reach 9.1%, far ahead of the 7.3% the commission used as a benchmark until only a few months ago.
Hole in Greek finances bigger than thought as bond flight continues Fears that struggling eurozone nations will not be able to pay their debts intensified as official data showed the hole in Greece's finances was bigger than thought.
By Emma Rowley - Telegraph.co.uk
The deficit in the Greek government's budget amounted to 10.5pc of GDP in 2010, EU statistics agency Eurostat reported on Tuesday, putting it significantly above February's 9.6pc estimate from Brussels.
The continued flight from Greek sovereign debt pushed the yield, or return, on the 10-year government bonds to new highs of 15.5pc.
The European Central Bank, the only major potential buyer, "won't buy whilst [some eurozone countries such as Germany] continue to speak and put pressure on Greece to restructure", said one trader.
EU poised for Greece crisis talks A delegation of leading European and international monetary officials are planning a crisis summit in Athens in May amid growing fears that Greece may default on its sovereign debt.
By Paul Anastasi in Athens, and Louise Armitstead - Telegraph.co.uk
Senior officials from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are expected to make a "lightning visit" for two days to ensure Greece can meet plans to cut its deficit by €24bn (£21bn). The trip is being planned for May 9, although insiders said this could be brought forward to May 5.
George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, and other Greek officials have this weekend strongly denied rumours that Greece may be forced to restructure its debt imminently – possibly as early as this weekend.
Turkey is on the Menu
Written by Mad Hedge Fund Trader - OilPrice.com
I am building lists of merging market ETF to snap up during any summer sell off, and turkey popped up on the menu. The country is only one of two Islamic countries that I consider investment grade, (Indonesia is the other one), the 82 million people of Turkey ranks 15th in the world in population, and 16th with a GDP of $960 billion GDP. Some 25% of the population are under the age of 15, giving it one of the planet’s most attractive demographic profile.
The real driver for Turkey is a rapidly rising middle class generating consumer spending that is growing by leaps and bounds. Its low waged labor force is also a major exporter to the European Community next door.
Rights group: EU must end 'faustian pact' with Syria
By ANDREW RETTMAN - EUObserver.com
EUOBSERVER / BEIRUT - With the death count in Syria jumping up drastically, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said the EU should impose sanctions on the al-Assad regime or risk missing a historic opportunity to shape events in the Middle East.
Syrian rights activists inside the country report that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's forces killed at least 70 more people during protests on Friday (22 April), bringing the number of deaths since violence began six weeks ago to some 270.
HRW no longer has staff in Syria, but its sources speak of systematic use of live ammunition against unarmed crowds, night-time snatch squads and torture of detainees.
S&P cuts Japan rating outlook to negative Move reflects higher risks due to disaster
By Lisa Twaronite, MarketWatch
TOKYO (MarketWatch) - Standard & Poo'’s cut its outlook on Japan's sovereign rating to negative from stable on Wednesday to reflect the potential for a downgrade if the country's fiscal situation deteriorates more than expected in the wake of last month's disaster.
S&P said it expects costs related to the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis to increase Japan’s fiscal deficits above prior estimates by a cumulative 3.7% of gross domestic product through 2013.
New search for bodies in Japan
Thousands of military personnel from the Japanese Self-Defense Force conduct a third massive search for the bodies of victims of the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Big Oil's $4 billion tax break in doubt
By Steve Hargreaves
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- President Obama repeated his call Tuesday for an end to $4 billion in oil industry tax breaks as gas prices approach $4 a gallon and after a top lawmaker indicated a possible shift in Republican policy.
In a letter to congressional leaders, the president said the oil industry is profitable enough without the tax incentives and that the money should be spent on alternative energy sources and conservation.
Double dip looms larger... U.S. home prices fall 1.1% in February Housing sector comes dangerously close to double-dip downturn
By Greg Robb, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - U.S. home prices fell in February for the seventh straight month, according to a closely followed index released Tuesday, with the beleaguered housing market approaching a double-dip recession.
Home prices in 20 major U.S. cities declined 1.1% in February, according to the Case-Shiller home-price index released by Standard & Poor’s.
Prices rose in one of 20 cities — hard-hit Detroit — in February on a monthly basis. Over the past year, only Washington, D.C., has seen prices advance.
Bill calls for $20,000 fee for each california foreclosure
TheTruthAboutMortgage.com
A new bill written up by California Assemblymember Bob Blumenfield (D-San Fernando Valley) calls for a $20,000 fee to be charged to banks for every foreclosure they carry out in the state.
Aimed at reducing foreclosures in the hard-hit region, Assembly Bill (AB) 935 would finemortgage lenders or loan servicers $20,000 per foreclosure in the form of a “foreclosure mitigation charge,” creating incentives to offer loan modifications or refinance alternatives.
American Hellholes
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The U.S. economy is dying and we are heading for the next Great Depression. The talking heads in the mainstream media love to spin the economic numbers around and around and they love to make it sound like the economy is improving, but the truth is that it doesn't take a genius to see what is happening to the U.S. economic system. All over the nation many of our greatest cities are being slowly but surely transformed into post-apocalyptic wastelands. All over the mid-Atlantic, all along the Gulf coast, all throughout the "rust belt" and all over the entire state of California cities that once had incredibly vibrant economies are being turned into rotting, post-industrial hellholes. In many U.S. cities, the "real" rate of unemployment is over 30 percent. There are some communities that will start depressing you almost the moment that you drive into them. It is almost as if all of the hope has been sucked right out of those communities. If you live in one of those American hellholes you know what I am talking about. Sadly, it is not just a few cities that are becoming hellholes. This is happening in the east, in the west, in the north and in the south. America is literally being transformed right in front of our eyes.
Home Prices Near Recession Low
By CONOR DOUGHERTY And NICK TIMIRAOS - WSJ.com
A closely watched gauge of home prices fell in February for the eighth month in a row, as the real-estate market continued to sink toward a low hit during the recession.
The S&P/Case-Shiller 10-city and 20-city indexes both fell 1.1% in February from a month earlier, not adjusted for seasonality. Prices in the index following 10 major metropolitan areas were down 2.6% from a year ago, while the 20-city index was 3.3% below the level recorded in February 2010.
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times
By Richard Reeves - Truthdig.com
LOS ANGELES - As far as news is concerned, these are the best of times, these are the worst of times. It hurts your head to open a newspaper like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal or flip through your favorite websites. Television, I admit, is giving us a bit of a break because all those folks care about is the royal wedding.
But it seems to me there are only two stories (or questions) that are worth as much time as we have to think about them:
What, post-Cold War, is the United States’ role in the world?
What, postindustrial age, is the role of the United States government at home?
The first question is very Chinese, in the sense of being careful of what you wish for, and in the sense of China - and, next, the Middle East and North Africa - becoming part of the modern world. This is what we wanted isn't it? The "backward" countries moving toward democracy and market capitalism?
Out of Touch, Again
By Eugene Robinson - Truthdig.com
WASHINGTON - What is it about the word jobs that our nation’s leaders fail to understand? How has the most painful economic crisis in decades somehow escaped their notice? Why do they ignore the issues that Americans care most desperately about?
Listening to the debate in Washington, you’d think the nation was absorbed by the compelling saga of deficit reduction. You’d get the impression that in households across America, parents put their children to bed and then stay up half the night sifting through piles of think-tank reports on the kitchen table, trying to calculate whether there will be enough in the Social Security trust fund to pay benefits beyond 2037.
Watching the health insurers A bill would let state regulators block rate hikes they consider unreasonable, just as they can do for most other types of insurance. -- LATimes Editorial
Over the past year, two major health insurers in California have proposed eye-popping rate increases, only to settle for smaller hikes after a public outcry. Now lawmakers are considering aproposal to let state regulators block rate hikes they consider unreasonable, just as they can do for most other types of insurance. Industry lobbyists argue that premiums are rising not because they're profiteering, but because healthcare costs are climbing. That's certainly part of the explanation. But lawmakers should still approve the bill, because it would plug a troubling gap in the healthcare reform effort.
U.S. Clears Merger of Southwest, AirTran
By TIMOTHY W. MARTIN And BRENT KENDALL - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Tuesday gave antitrust clearance to Southwest Airlines Co.'s $1.4 billion takeover of AirTran Holdings Inc., setting the stage for the two budget carriers to close the acquisition next week.
The department said the merger, which was announced in September, "is not likely to substantially lessen competition."
While there is some overlap between the airlines on certain nonstop routes, the combined carrier would offer service on routes that neither AirTran nor Southwest currently serve, the department said.
On the 25th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster Old Nuclear Fears are Awakened
Written by RFE/RL staff - OilPrice.com
When reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded 25 years ago, it seemed nuclear power might die with it.
Around the world, people recoiled in horror as radioactivity from Ukraine spread with the wind. As it settled hundreds and even thousands of kilometers away, scientists monitored the concentrations to see if the areas would become too dangerous to inhabit.
Even today, the health concerns continue in unexpected ways. Britain still restricts the sale of meat from sheep that graze in certain parts of Wales. And Germany bans the sale of meat from boars in the south of the country, as well as the mushrooms they consume.
Obama faces critical decision on Afghan troop withdrawal President Obama's pledge to start pulling troops from Afghanistan in July was imprudent. It will be downright dangerous if the conditions on the ground he pays attention to are political ones at home. -- Op-Ed By John R. Bolton - LATimes.com
President Obama must soon make a critical decision: how many and what type of U.S. forces to begin withdrawing fromAfghanistan this summer. The July withdrawal date is an artificial deadline, one the president created not because it would help us reach our goals in this strategically critical country but for his own domestic political purposes. When Obama made the promise in 2009, at the same time he announced the surge in U.S. troops in Afghanistan, it was imprudent. The way he keeps it now could be downright dangerous.
Gold Standard Would Require Minimum of $3,675 Per Ounce
BY FRANK HOLMES - FinanciaSense.com
The S&P credit agency sent shockwaves through the global financial system on Monday when it issued a warning on U.S. debt and changed its outlook on the U.S. sovereign credit rating from "stable" to "negative." This sent markets lower and the prices of commoditiessuch as oil rocketing back above $110 per barrel and both gold and silver to new highs.
It should be clear the S&P announcement was just a warning, not a lowering of the U.S. debt rating, which was affirmed at AAA (the highest level possible). The fears quickly subsided and U.S. markets hit fresh three-year highs. Essentially there’s only a one-third chance of a downgrade and anyone who’s ever listened to the weather man knows that a 33 percent chance of rain means you probably don't need your umbrella.
Paul Craig Roberts: Further Collapse of America's Empire May Lead to Global Nuclear War - 1/2
Paul Craig Roberts: Further Collapse of America's Empire May Lead to Global Nuclear War - 2/2
Gold and silver prices jump to new record highs
BBC.co.uk
The prices of gold and silver have hit new record highs, driven by a weaker US dollar and continuing tensions in the Middle East and North Africa.
Gold rose as high as $1,518.30 (£918.70) an ounce during morning trading in Europe, before falling back.
Silver briefly reached an all-time high of $49.79 an ounce before retreating to $46.91.
Investors have been buying precious metals as a haven against inflation and recent geopolitical turmoil.
Analysts say gold could even trade even higher.
Silver, Gold Rise to Records on Bets China's Demand Will Climb
By Pham-Duy Nguyen - Bloomberg.com
Silver and gold surged to records in London on speculation that China will buy precious metals to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves.
China, with more than $3 trillion in reserves, plans set up new funds to invest in energy and precious metals, Century Weekly magazine reported, citing unidentified people. Silver for immediate delivery surged to a record $49.79 an ounce, and gold reached $1,518.32 an ounce.
"People are expecting China to be a major buyer of precious metals," said Adam Klopfenstein, a senior strategist at Lind-Waldock in Chicago. "Gold is piggybacking on silver. You're seeing a blowoff rally in silver, but we don’t know when the bubble gets popped."
Silver: $50 milestone coming 'any day now'
By Hibah Yousuf Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Silver prices have doubled during the past six months, and are now within spitting distance of $50 an ounce, a key level for the precious metal.
Early Monday morning, silver prices surged 8% to $49.82 an ounce. That was just shy of the $50.35-an-ounce intraday record hit in January 1980, but higher than the all-time high closing price of $48.70 per ounce set 31 years ago.
Silver Surges to Record, But Inflation-Adjusted High Still Far Away
By Dave Kansas - WSJ.com
With the dollar getting wacked, precious metals are surging again this morning, led by silver, which has gained more than 5% to levels not seen since January 1980.
Silver, poor man’s gold, has risen above $49/oz this morning, besting the price record of $48.70 reached in 1980 during a failed silver squeeze. It has since pulled back a bit. Gold is up at $1511.10/oz.
But how close are these metals to their highs on an inflation-adjusted basis? Good question.
Peter Schiff on CNBC Fast Money 4_25_11
Why the Silver Market Has Gone Nuts
SmartMoney.com
The madness overwhelming the silver market has to be seen to be believed. Prices have skyrocketed in the past few days. The U.S. Mint has sold out of Silver Eagles, and is quoting several weeks' delivery.
Everyone is getting in on this. While I was in a local coin and precious metal dealership this week, two well-dressed men came in, eager to snap up some silver bullion bars.
It's getting ridiculous. Here are six good reasons this is a mania. 1. The price spike
Look at the chart. Does that look like a spike to you? It looks like a spike to me. Can you find anyone who doesn't think it looks like a spike?
At $44, silver is now at the highest levels since the tycoon Hunt brothers tried to corner the market, illegally, back in 1981. That's when it skyrocketed – very briefly. Then it collapsed.
Russell endorses gold manipulation thesis Octogenarian is long-time gold bug, for inflationary reasons
By Peter Brimelow, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Dow Theory Letters’ octogenarian Richard Russell has endorsed the radical gold-bug thesis: The gold market is manipulated. He says it won’t work - but the ride will be rough.
Russell is a much-respected veteran, with a remarkable record of calling some (not all) major market junctures.
Russell is a long-time gold bug, but for traditional inflationary reasons. He resisted the new argument, developed by writers associated with Bill Murphy’s Le Metropole Cafe website, that the gold price is manipulated by a Washington-Wall Street alliance.
Ron Paul on The View 04/25/11
Congressman Ron Paul sits in on The View to discuss his new book, 'Liberty Defined', while explaining how ideas of freedom would work in practice.
Fed chief Ben Bernanke faces decision on inflation Bernanke and the Fed must decide whether it's time to being putting on the financial brakes to avoid a potentially dangerous surge in inflation or instead keep stimulus policies in place to help keep the still-vulnerable recovery moving ahead.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington- With the well-being of millions of Americans and the U.S. economy at a pivotal point, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke faces a crucial decision - and he faces it almost alone on a world stage.
At issue is whether it's time to begin putting on the financial brakes to avoid a potentially dangerous surge in inflation or instead keep stimulus policies in place to help keep the still-vulnerable recovery moving ahead.
If the Fed gets the decision wrong, the consequences could be grave and far-reaching.
Why Inflation Won’t Fix the Debt Problem
BY MICHAEL SHEDLOCK - FinanciaSense.com
Inquiring minds are reading The "Miracle" of Compound Inflation by John Mauldin. Here are a few paragraphs worthy of a closer look.
Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world." And compounding is indeed the topic of this week's shorter than usual letter, but compounding not of interest but of inflation.
First, let’s look at nominal GDP over the last 11 years, from the beginning of 2000. The data only goes through the third quarter of last year, so sometime this year it is quite likely that GDP will top $15 trillion.
The "Miracle" of Compound Inflation
BY JOHN MAULDIN- FinanciaSense.com
Albert Einstein is famously quoted as saying, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world." And compounding is indeed the topic of this week’s shorter than usual letter, but compounding not of interest but of inflation. As you might expect, I am giving a great deal of thought as to how we get out of our current financial dilemma of too much debt and deficits that are far too high. While I will use US data for our illustration, the principles are the same for any country.
Let's start with a few graphs from the St. Louis Fed database (a true treasure trove of numbers). First, let's look at nominal GDP over the last 11 years, from the beginning of 2000. The data only goes through the third quarter of last year, so sometime this year it is quite likely that GDP will top $15 trillion.
Crude Oil out of control; Silver in parabolic state
By Dian L. Chu - CommodityOnline.com
If you think the crude oil market has gone totally out of control in the past month or so, observe the Silver market, which has basically gone parabolic in the week of April 17, going from $41.75 on April 15th to $46.69 on April 21st--a 12% move in 5 trading days, topping off the move with a 5% move on Thursday.
As Silver is a thinly traded market, one thing the CME could do is to raise margin requirements for Silver speculators; otherwise risk is setting up the silver market for an record-setting crash, which could impact many other markets in the process of correcting, especially other commodities like Gold and Crude Oil.
Give Me Life, Liberty and a Tank of Cheap Gas
By Caroline Baum - Bloomberg.com
When President Barack Obama took his deficit-reduction show on the road last week, he found audiences had more on their minds than spending cuts and tax increases.
"What are you doing about gas prices?" someone at a town- hall-style meeting at North Virginia Community College in Annandale wanted to know.
The reaction of town-hall attendees to soaring gas prices, which hit a nation-wide average of $3.84 last week, probably isn't much different than that of ordinary Americans, who are devoting a bigger chunk of the household budget to filling the tank.
Fuel prices causing financial hardship High gas prices cut into driving habits - and Obama’s approval rating
By Steven Mufson and and Jon Cohen - WashingtonPost.com
Soaring gasoline prices are biting into household incomes and nibbling at Americans’ fuel consumption — and support for President Obama, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
About six in 10 respondents said they had cut back on driving because of rising fuel prices, and seven in 10 said that high pump prices are causing financial hardship.
Obama, like previous presidents in times of high oil prices, is taking a hit. Only 39 percent of those who call gas prices a "serious financial hardship" approve of the way he is doing his job, and 33 percent of them say he’s doing a good job on the economy.
Anatomy of a Crisis: 2011
BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH - FinanciaSense.com
What's behind the disturbance in the financial Force? QE, ZIRP, the dollar peg and inflation, to name a few factors.
There is a great disturbance in the world's financial Force. Many sense it as a storm on the horizon, something not yet visible but telegraphed by a rising, swirling wind and a new electric scent in the air.
I don't claim to have a complete narrative that accounts for all the points of friction wearing down the moving parts, nor do I claim a "solution." But a few observations might help inform our awareness of the disturbance.
Gerald Celente: Prepare, Survive and Prevail - Alex Jones Tv 1/2
Gerald Celente: Prepare, Survive and Prevail - Alex Jones Tv 2/2
A U.S. debt downgrade isn't the real problem
by Allan Sloan - Fortune.com
Standard & Poor's has a lot of people worried about the implications of a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating. The real worry is what our debt levels will do to the value of the dollar.
FORTUNE -- There's been a lot of hand-wringing and posturing over Standard & Poor's announcement that it has changed its outlook for the U.S. Treasury's long-term debt to "negative" for the first time since it began rating Uncle Sam's securities 70 years ago. To many people, it feels like a judgment from on high about our government for spending so much more than it takes in.
The politics and economics of a falling dollar
By Steven Pearlstein WashingtonPost.com
I realize that these kinds of discussions about currencies and macroeconomic imbalances can make your head hurt if you dwell on them for very long. But it turns out they are at the heart of most of the economic issues we’re dealing with, from budget battles to the euro crisis to the rising price of gasoline.
"All these discrete national problems are really manifestations of a global financial crisis and the failure to manage the global economy," former British prime minister Gordon Brown said in a brilliant speech this month in Bretton Woods, N.H.
The Politics of the Debt Ceiling
By Gerald F. Seib - WSJ.com
Iowa has two Senators, one a Republican (Charles Grassley), the other a Democrat (Tom Harkin).
Each has voted seven times since 2002 on a bill to raise the nation's debt ceiling. Look back at those votes, and an interesting pattern emerges: Every time a Republican president has needed the debt ceiling raised to keep government functioning, Sen. Grassley, the Republican, has voted to raise it, while the Democrat, Sen. Harkin, has voted against it. But when a Democratic president has asked for an increase, their votes reverse: Sen. Harkin has voted in favor, and Sen. Grassley has voted against it.
That, in a nutshell, shows why it's so absurd that Washington is headed toward a showdown over debt and the deficit tied to the question of whether to raise the national debt ceiling. Few exercises produce as much cynical and overtly partisan behavior by elected officials as do votes on the debt ceiling.
Big Banks Still Aren't Lending Stingy megabanks swimming in cash
Posted by Colin Barr - Fortune.CNN.com
If the megabanks are so big on lending, why do their loan books keep shrinking?
The biggest U.S. banks tell us they have spent the past quarter writing loans, renewing credit lines and generally being upstanding economic citizens. Bank of America (BAC) says it provided consumers and businesses with $144 billion in credit in the first quarter, Wells Fargo (WFC) ponied up $151 billion and JPMorgan Chase (JPM), swinging for the PR fences, claims to have lent out an improbable-looking $450 billion.
IMF bombshell: Age of America nears end Commentary: China’s economy will surpass the U.S. in 2016
By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
This column has been updated to include a reaction from the IMF.
BOSTON (MarketWatch) - The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.
For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the "Age of America" will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.
And it's a lot closer than you may think.
According to the latest IMF official forecasts published two weeks ago, China's economy will surpass that of America in real terms in 2016 - just five years from now.
Why the IMF’s Projection about China Can't be Trusted COLUMN: The economic projection of the IMF on China overtaking the US economy in 2016 can’t be trusted because they're simply extrapolations of current conditions that perhaps ignores reality.
ibtimes.com
The IMF recently projected that China’s economy will overtake the US economy by 2016, according to Brett Arends of MarketWatch*.
The World Bank’s chief economist, meanwhile, thinks China will overtake the US by 2030 in US dollar terms. In real terms, it may be twice the size of the US economy in 2030, he said.
The IMF and World Bank’s projections, however, shouldn’t be trusted at all.
Economists at institutions like the IMF and World Bank have little imagination and assume that current conditions will continue indefinitely. Their "projections" should be more aptly named "adjusted extrapolations."
What's a Central Bank to Do?
BY BOB EISENBEIS - FinanciaSense.com
Faced with largely the same set of facts when it comes to their inflation outlook, some of the world’s major central banks have come to markedly different conclusions about the appropriate policy.
The ECB began to exit from its accommodative policy by increasing its policy rate by 25 basis points to 1.25% on April 7. The ECB noted that growth was improving moderately, but inflation had increased to 2.6% and was up from 2.45% the previous month. The rise was largely due to increases in energy, food, and commodity prices. The concern was the potential second round effects and that these increases could become embedded in inflation expectations.
Kleptocracy and Corporate Taxes
BY RUSS WINTER - FinanciaSense.com
Kleptocracy is a word from Ancient Greek that means "thief" and "rule" or rule by thieves. Kleptocrats seek to create systemic schemes that take advantage of governmental corruption to extend the personal wealth and political power of government officials and the ruling class. They may do it through either the real or de facto looting of state funds at the expense of the public and often without even the pretense of honest service for the public good. For a look at kleptocratic agents in action, watch the documentary film "Inside Job." I believe we elected not one but two kleptocratic administrations and legislatures back to back, first Bush then Obama.
Syria: army uses tanks against the people in day of bloodshed The Syrian army used tanks against its own people for the first time on Monday as President Bashar al-Assad resorted to overwhelming force in an attempt to crush the last vestiges of unrest against his rule.
By Adrian Blomfield - Telegraph.co.uk
Dozens of people were reportedly killed after troops and armour flooded into the southern city of Dera'a and opened fire on residential areas, apparently at random.
Amid growing international condemnation at the mounting death toll in Syria, where more than 100 protesters were killed on Good Friday alone, members of the UN Security Council are considering a statement being circulated by a British-led group of European countries, which condemned the killing of hundreds of Syrian protesters.
Syria sanctions planned by US after Deraa assault US condemns Syrian government's 'brutal violence' and considers freezing assets of senior officials accused of rights abuses
By Ewen MacAskill in Washington - guardian.co.uk
The White House is preparing to introduce new sanctions against the Syrian regime in response to a military crackdown that saw tanks and armoured cars deployed against protesters on Monday.
The Obama administration condemned "the brutal violence used by the government of Syria", describing it as deplorable, and adding: "TheUnited States is pursuing a range of possible policy options, including targeted sanctions, to respond to the crackdown and make clear that this behaviour is unacceptable.
S&P sticks with 'negative' outlook for California
By Shane Goldmacher - LATimes.com
One of the nation’s leading credit-rating agencies continues to hold a "negative" outlook for California, citing the state’s sizable deficit and its leaders' persistent inability to close that gap.
With budget talks between Gov. Jerry Brown and Republicans still at a standstill, Standard & Poor's said in a report Monday that "the path forward is unclear" for California, leaving the state at risk of issuing IOUs if the stalemate lasts into the summer.
Americans depend more on federal aid than ever
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Americans depended more on government assistance in 2010 than at any other time in the nation’s history, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data finds. The trend shows few signs of easing, even though the economic recovery is nearly 2 years old.
A record 18.3% of the nation’s total personal income was a payment from the government for Social Security, Medicare, food stamps, unemployment benefits and other programs in 2010. Wages accounted for the lowest share of income - 51.0% - since the government began keeping track in 1929.
10 Million Foreclosures Matter
By Michael Hudson
U.S. Home Prices May Decrease 6% to 11% This Year,
Morgan Stanley Says
By John Gittelsohn - Bloomberg.com
U.S. home prices will fall 6 percent to 11 percent this year, more than previously forecast, as mortgages become harder to obtain and distressed sales drive down values, according to Morgan Stanley.
Prices will have lost as much as 39 percent from their 2006 peak through the first half of 2012, according to measures such as the S&P/Case-Shiller index, analysts Oliver Chang in San Francisco and Vishwanath Tirupattur and James Egan in New York said today in a report. Morgan Stanley previously estimated values would drop 35 percent from the peak.
Underwater homeowners who walk are more credit savvy
By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
People who default on mortgages they can afford to pay are savvy about credit and tend to have better credit histories than other defaulters, new research shows.
FICO, the firm that created the widely used FICO credit score, studied credit bureau data to develop what it says is a more accurate portrait of strategic defaulters. FICO defines them as people who are underwater on their mortgage - owing more than their home is worth - and more than 90 days delinquent on payments but current on other credit lines.
Affordable rental housing scarce in U.S., study finds
By Dina ElBoghdady - WashingtonPost.com
The share of renters who spend more than half their income on housing is at its highest level in half a century and it’s no longer just low-income tenants who are feeling the pain, according to a Harvard University study scheduled for release Tuesday.
About 26 percent of renters - or 10.1 million people - spent more than half their pre-tax household income on rent and utilities in 2009. That’s because incomes slipped dramatically from their peak at the start of the decade even as rents kept rising.
Supreme Court won't expedite health care ruling
By Paige Winfield Cunningham-The Washington Times
Virginia Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II said he is disappointed but not surprised the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his request to fast-track the state’s lawsuit challenging federal health care law.
Although the case likely will end up before the Supreme Court eventually, Mr. Cuccinelli asked the justices in February to redirect it out of federal appeals court and resolve questions about its constitutionality more quickly. With the court's denial of his request, the case will remain on its current schedule to be heard May 10 inthe 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.
Job Descrimination Against The Jobless
By Jonathan Berr - 24/7 WallStreet
In February, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a public hearing to investigate whether employers are unfairly denying jobs to unemployed applicants. Though the issue was widely covered in the press and resulted in a law being enacted in New Jersey, the practice continues largely uninterrupted to this day, according to the National Employment Law Project.
The extent of the problem is not clear. James Urban, a partner with Jones Day who represents major employers, tells 24/7 Wall St. that his clients do not believe it’s widespread. He reiterated that they welcome resumes from the job less. NELP is in the process of gathering data and the EEOC did not respond to a request for comment.The EEOC is concerned that companies that prevent the jobless from applying will harm minority and older workers who have been disproportionately affected by the economic slowdown. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) today signed a law that made it illegal for an employer to explicitly state in a job posting that the unemployed need not apply, the first of its kind in the country.
Customers Sue Apple Over iPhone Location-Data Collection
By Brian X. Chen - Wired.com
Two Apple customers have filed a lawsuit accusing the Cupertino, California, company of committing violations of computer-fraud laws by recording location data of iPhone and iPad customers.
Vikram Ajjampur, an iPhone customer in Florida, and William Devito, a New York iPad customer, filed the suit in federal court April 22 in Tampa, Florida.
"The accessibility of the unencrypted information collected by Apple places users at serious risk of privacy invasions, including stalking" (pdf), the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit revolves around a discovery publicized last week that a file stored on Apple’s mobile devices contains a log recording geographical data that dates as far back as 10 months ago.
Apple: We 'must have' comprehensive user location data on you
ibtimes.com
Security researchers unveiled this week that Apple's iPhone was actively logging the whereabouts of users, storing location data into an easily assessible file on the device.
But it's not just iPhones that are keeping track of their users.
Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4, and iPad models are also keeping track of consumers whereabouts. Mac computers running Snow Leopard and even Windows computers running Safari 5 are being watched.
The question is why?
The company has remained silent after researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden revealed this Wednesday that the iPhone was storing logs of users' geographic coordinates in a hidden file.
Japan's Terrifying Day Saw Unprecedented Exposed Fuel Rods
By Bloomberg News
Makoto Nagai was sitting in his third-floor office at 2:46 p.m. on March 11 when the earthquake alarm buzzed. An orange LCD screen flashed 100 and 4, telling him the number of seconds before a category 4 quake would hit the city of Sendai on Japan’s northeast coast.
The intensity warning quickly jumped to 6, said Nagai, 55, head of the emergency response team in Sendai, located 129 kilometers (80 miles) west of the epicenter of what became the strongest quake in Japan’s recorded history.
America appears to be sleepwalking towards disaster –
does no one care? So let me get this straight. The Standard and Poor's rating agency last week took the historic step of putting the US government's AAA credit rating on "negative watch".
By Liam Halligan - Telegraph.co.uk
There is now, according to S&P, "at least a one in three chance" that American debt will be downgraded from its top-notch status over the next two years – which would be a first in modern times.
A New York Times/CBS News opinion poll has also suggested the US public is now more economically pessimistic than at any time since President Barack Obama's first two months in office in early 2009 – when the country was still caught in the "Great Recession".
Deflation or Hyperinflation? Chapter 84 – Bond salesmen's propaganda that "a dollar is a dollar" should be rewritten to say "a dollar is 3¢"
Since most ordinary people, bankers, and company presidents have never studied currency theory, they swallow it hook, line, and sinker when the bond salesmen tell them, "a dollar is a dollar." That piece of propaganda should be rewritten to say "a dollar is 3¢." The nominal dollar is officially worth no more than 14¢ of its 1940 value, unofficially only 3¢.
If computed in 1940 constant dollars, not more than $1,380 exists of the US $46,000 per capita gross public and private debt. More than $44,628 has been destroyed by inflation. But sadly, the owners of this debt do not want to hear about it. They do not wish to know that bonds are issued by governments with the sole purpose of debasement.
China Should Import Deflation
Yang Yao - ProjectSyndicate.com
BEIJING – With China’s inflation – and inflation expectations – rising, how can price stability be maintained without threatening the country’s booming growth? Reconciling growth and fighting inflation is not impossible, but it does require that the government overcome its deep-seated suspicion of opening China’s markets to imports.
The World Bank predicts 3.5% growth for the world economy this year, and most analysts predict that the United States will grow at a similar pace. As a result, external demand for China’s exports will be strong, while the interest-rate differential between China and the world’s advanced economies is resulting in massive capital inflows. Thus, China will continue to accumulate large foreign-exchange reserves this year.
Precious metals to continue to gain strength
By Jeb Handwerger
Silver (iShares Silver Trust (SLV)) hit the ball out of the park yesterday as it hit a record high exceeding my late January target of $40. Silver has doubled in the past seven months alone. Poor man’s gold is making some poor men rich as the US dollar (PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish (UUP)) and long term US debt (iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treas Bond (TLT)) remain under pressure. Think safe haven, particularly for the middle class citizens who sense that they are being caught between the rock of an out of control budget and the hard place of ineffective legislators posturing for the media. Silver (Proshares Ultra Silver (AGQ)) and gold (Proshares Ultra Gold (UGL)) are taking the reigns as the supreme safe haven asset.
Why Investors Are Buying Silver As If There Is No Tomorrow
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
The price of silver has been absolutely exploding lately. It has reached heights not seen since the Hunt Brothers attempted to corner the silver market over three decades ago. But this time there are no Hunt Brothers to blame for the stunning rise in the price of silver. So exactly why are investors buying silver as if there is no tomorrow right now? Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons. Investors have been flocking to precious metals such as gold and silver as the value of paper currencies has declined. The euro is incredibly weak right now and the U.S. dollar appears to be on the verge of a major collapse. In fact, the entire financial system is highly unstable right now. In such an environment, investors seek some place safe to park their money, and right now gold and silver are seen as safe harbors. But gold and silver have not been going up in price at the same pace. So why is silver outperforming gold so significantly?
Debunking Anti-Gold Propaganda
By Doug Casey - GoldSeek.com
A meme is now circulating that gold is in a bubble and that it's time for the wise investor to sell. To me, that's a ridiculous notion. Certainly a premature one.
It pays to remain as objective as you can be when analyzing any investment. People have a tendency to fall in love with an asset class, usually because it’s treated them so well. We saw that happen, most recently, with Internet stocks in the late '90s and houses up to 2007. Investment bubbles are driven primarily by emotion, although there's always some rationale for the emotion to latch on to. Perversely, when it comes to investing, reason is recruited mainly to provide cover for passion and preconception.
So What's Different About $1500 Gold...? The golden constant stands out amidst the US Dollar's latest plunge... -- By: Adrian Ash, BullionVault - GoldSeek.com
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. There's no more or less of it in the world today than there was a day or a week ago, and very little more than a month ago. There's barely 15% more today, in fact, than there was a decade ago at $270.
Gold still has very few industrial uses – only 11% of 2010 global demand – and the stuff remains indestructible. It never changes or does anything. Hell, it won't even rust.
Crude out of control, Silver parabolic and Gold balancing
By Dian L. Chu
If you think the crude oil market has gone totally out of control in the past month or so, observe the Silver. The Silver market has basically gone parabolic the week of April 17, going from $41.75 on April 15th to $46.69 on April 21st--a 12% move in 5 trading days, topping off the move with a 5% move on Thursday (See Chart).
As Silver is a thinly traded market, one thing the CME could do is to raise margin requirements for Silver speculators; otherwise risk is setting up the silver market for an record-setting crash, which could impact many other markets in the process of correcting, especially other commodities like Gold and Crude Oil.
Silver Shorts Feel the Burn
BY CLIF DROKE - FinanacialSense.com
Silver has stolen the spotlight among investors in recent days after surging nearly $50/oz. Lost in all the commotion, however, are the wildly disparate rumors accompanying silver's rally. It's hard to believe that it has been only a week since a widely circulated story concerning a large hedge fund which supposedly made a "gargantuan" bet against silver. This story, which smacked of being planted by speculative interests, was circulated by some otherwise reputable financial publications.
As we've talked about in past commentaries, whenever extremely bearish news stories are circulated in the financial press it carries a contrarian implication in most cases. In an established bull market like the one for silver, it's dangerous to sell short based on a rumor since the major trend is up and a large buildup in short interest can create explosive rallies when everyone decides to short the market at the same time. This is what apparently happened last week.
Silver Set to Soar as Paper Folds?
BY JOHN BROWNE - FinancialSense.com
As a result of active "demonetization" efforts by the IMF and its member central banks, gold and silver have experienced the type of volatility that has given conservative investors reasons not to perceive the metals as dependable cash alternatives. Instead gold and silver have become known as the asset class to hold as a hedge against inflation.
However, during the 1990's, when inflation was in general much higher than it has been since the turn of the millennium, gold and silver prices drifted lower and stagnated. However, since 2000, gold and silver have risen by over 400 and 700 percent respectively. Remarkably, this has occurred over a time frame during which, by most accounts, low inflation has prevailed. How can this be explained?
Fed QE and SPX
By: Adam Hamilton, Zeal Intelligence - GoldSeek.com
In just a couple months, the US Federal Reserve’s second quantitative-easing campaign will wind down. This program has been highly controversial since its birth, so the Fed is under tremendous pressure not to launch a third round of QE. And if QE2 indeed ends on schedule this quarter, it has major implications for the US stock markets.
Central banks around the globe are notorious for trying to cloak their actions. One of many ways they obscure their activities is by coining new phrases to name them rather than using classic historical terms. Quantitative easing is a pleasant-sounding euphemism for the dangerous practice of debt monetization. The Fed is creating massive amounts of new money out of thin air to buy bonds.
Treasuries Advance Before Fed Meets on Bets Growth Will Suffer
By Susanne Walker - Bloomberg.com
Treasuries rose for a second week as investors speculated that efforts to cut the Federal budget deficit may damp economic growth and awaited a policy statement next week from theFederal Reserve.
Ten-year note yields fell to the lowest level in a month even asStandard & Poor’s put the U.S. government on notice that it risks losing its AAA credit rating. Gains were tempered by advances in stocks. The U.S. will sell $99 billion in notes in the coming week, and the Federal Open Market Committee opens its two-day meeting on April 26.
ECONOMISTS FROWN ON FED STRATEGY
TruthDig.com
A range of economists are frowning on the Federal Reserve’s most recent attempt to spur the economy, saying that the strategy of buying federal debt has helped the stock market but has had little positive effect on the general population. - JCL The New York Times:
The Federal Reserve’s experimental effort to spur a recovery by purchasing vast quantities of federal debt has pumped up the stock market, reduced the cost of American exports and allowed companies to borrow money at lower interest rates.
Obama, Geithner Optimistic on Budget Deal Confident Messages Flow in Interviews, Appearances Following S&P Warning on Downgrading Government-Debt Rating
By DAMIAN PALETTA And CAROL E. LEE - WSJ.com
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressed confidence that Washington would solve its budget problems, seeking to tamp down concern over a credit-rating report that questioned the country's long-term fiscal health.
Their efforts came after Standard & Poor's for the first time lowered its outlook on U.S. government debt from "stable" to "negative." The firm shook Wall Street and Washington Monday when it warned it could downgrade the government's top-notch AAA debt rating if the White House and Congress can't reach a credible plan to rein in federal budget deficits by 2013.
Bernanke's QEx Box
By Gordon T Long - GoldSeek.com
Chairman Bernanke has placed himself in a box. It is not a box of his choosing, but rather the result of his misguided economic beliefs, use of flawed statistical data, geo-political events occurring during his watch, poor decisions and a penchant for political pandering. Some of these may be requirements for academia success but not for leading global financial markets during turbulent times.
It is time for Professor Bernanke to return to the collegial setting of Princeton University while the world still has time to correct the path he has mistakenly set us on.
US debt becomes scary, treasury ownership on the wane
By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com
As if there weren't already ample reasons not to purchase US Treasury securities, the ratings agency Standard and Poors' has provided investors with another reason: it may soon be downgraded.
The perfect storm is building. Ratings agencies are taking a stance to downgrade US debt from its triple-A rating, which would send Treasuries plummeting and the cost of US debt service skyrocketing. Standard and Poors’ fired what is best understood as a warning shot to investors in dropping its current outlook from "neutral" to "negative." The difference, though slight, implies a 33% chance that the United States will lose its triple-A rating within the next two years.
Will the FDIC's New Liquidation Authority Trigger Non-Bank Panics?
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
If you heard the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation -- the grim reaper of banks -- was establishing a presence in your bank because it feared its collapse, what would you do? That's easy: you would withdraw all of your funds as quickly as possible. So would everybody else. That's called a bank run.
A similar problem may be looming for the FDIC's new authority as the liquidator of giant non-banks financial firms. It recently released a narrative (.pdf) of how the resolution could have worked with Lehman Brothers. But would it simply have triggered an earlier bank-run like scenario instead?
Libya: western leaders call for Nato to target Gaddafi
Senior western leaders called for Nato to adopt an assassination policy against Col Muammar Gaddafi to salvage the bombing campaign in Libya from a descent into stalemate.
By Toby Harnden - Telegraph.co.uk
The calls came as Col Gaddafi was reported to have strengthened his grip on power by repatriating billions of dollars in overseas assets that should have been frozen by UN sanctions.
On Sunday, there was growing pressure on Coalition forces to directly target Col Gaddafi with military strikes.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services committee, said that the quickest way to end the emerging stalemate was to "cut the head of the snake off". He said: "The people around Gaddafi need to wake up every day wondering, 'Will this be my last?'
Russia calls for immediate ceasefire, civilian protection in Libya
MOSCOW, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for the implementation of relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and an immediate cease-fire in Libya, the ministry said Sunday.
Lavrov called for a cease-fire during a telephone conversation with Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi on Saturday, the ministry said in a statement.
Lavrov said the most important thing now was to stop the suffering of civilians, so "it is necessary to unconditionally comply with the relevant resolutions made by the U.N. Security Council and ensure an immediate cease-fire," the ministry said.
Obama faces new pressure from GOP over Libya, Middle East
By Russell Berman - TheHill.com
President Obama’s foreign policy is facing increased pressure from Republicans amid an ongoing military stalemate in Libya and a poll showing a drop in support for his actions.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) traveled to Libya on Friday and stepped up his call for the U.S. to increase support for the rebels and to officially recognize their government in Benghazi. The visit from the president’s former campaign rival put the Obama administration in an awkward position, as the White House said it was aware of the trip but that McCain was not carrying a diplomatic message from the U.S. government.
SYRIA: Demonstrators losing their fear in face of rising violence
By Roula Hajjar in Beirut - LATimes.com
More than 60 Syrian protesters were killed Friday in the bloodiest demonstrations of the last couple of months.
In response, demonstrators have grown increasingly defiant and dissatisfied with reforms promised by President Bashar Assad.
In the video above, gunshots are heard in the city of Homs amid calls of, "The people want the toppling of regime."
In the video below, hundreds of protesters flood the streets of the southwestern city of Dara with banners that read, "We want the murderers of our martyrs to be tried publicly."
Barack Obama faces new headache as the US economy stumbles The scale of the slowdown in US growth this year will be starkly underlined by new figures this week raising questions about whether the world's biggest economy can regain momentum.
By Richard Blackden - Telegraph.co.uk
Expansion in gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to have slowed to 1.8pc in the first quarter of the year from the 3.1pc seen in the final three months of 2010, according to Wall Street economists.
Most point out that a combination of higher oil prices, a particularly harsh winter in the US and the earthquake in Japan all proved unexpected constraints on a quarter that in December was forecast to provide further evidence of a strengthening recovery.
Gas prices set new records, $6 possible
Dayton Business Journal - by DBJ Staff
Gas prices across the country continue to set new records, with stations in some states starting to charge $5 per gallon. But some oil analysts say $6 gas could happen this summer, sparking an energy crisis that would be bad for the economy.
In an interview with CNBC this week Richard Hastings, strategist at Global Hunter Securities in Charlotte, N.C., said a weak U.S. dollar is contributing to rising gas prices and that damage to refineries from a bad hurricane could force prices to more than $6 per gallon this year.
Orlando gas station charges $5.69 a gallon
By Ben Rooney - CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Gas prices are on the rise nationwide, but one filling station in Florida has earned the dubious distinction of having the highest prices in the country.
Suncoast Energys, located near the Orlando International Airport, was charging $5.69 a gallon for regular gasoline on Friday. That's the highest of any gas retailer in the nation, according to price tracker gasbuddy.com.
The Shale Oil Boom No One's Talking About (Until Now)
Written by Keith Schaefer - OilPrice.com
Shale oil & gas is the talk of many a newsletter writer right now.
But very few are talking about the region of Atlantic Canada.
You see, as the global shale revolution continues in the energy patch, prospective shale targets – once written off as a waste of time and money – are being dusted off and re-tested everywhere – including Atlantic Canada.
And it's reflecting in the share prices of the junior oil and gas companies.
Americans agree: The rich should pay higher taxes
By Charles Riley
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Hey, rich folks! The American people are putting you on notice. They want you to pay higher taxes.
Two new polls suggest there is broad support for raising taxes on households making more than $250,000 a year, and all in the name of deficit reduction.
Heck, even a majority of Republicans want the rich to pay more.
Mortgage Rates: High-Risk Event Ahead
BY MATTHEW GRAHAM - MortgageNewsDaily.com
Mortgage rates are unchanged today as bond markets are closed for Good Friday.
Yesterday, wewrote that loan pricing was in a holding pattern until next week when the market faces a high-risk event, a Federal Reserve meeting. We expect this event to better dictate the direction of mortgage rates in the short-term.
"Holding pattern" doesn't necessarily provide an accurate bias regarding locking or floating as it would tend to suggest some sort of 50/50 scenario with equal chances of rates moving higher or lower. But in all actuality, it will be tougher for mortgage rates to move lower than it would for mortgage rates to move higher. We've talked about why that is the case many times over the past four months. This is the technical explanation we've offered:
Jumbo Mortgage Loan Squeeze: Will it Affect Home Prices?
By Mike Shedlock
Starting October 1, the maximum loan amount from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will drop from $729,750 to $625,500.
The correct amount is zero because government should not be in the mortgage business at all. However, this is a small step in the right direction and it will increase costs of mortgages that exceed the maximum.
Reuters reports Home buyers try to beat "jumbo" loans squeeze
It was only in recent years that the loan limits went so high. Mortgages that are too big to be sold to Fannie and Freddie are termed jumbo loans and are backed privately. Until 2008, all home loans over $418,000 were considered jumbo loans. In that year, a stimulus-focused Congress twice raised the limit on loans the government would back in high cost areas, first to $625,500 permanently, and then to $729,750, temporarily.
Home prices fall in February
By Vicki Needham - TheHill.com
Home prices fell 5.7 percent since last year as foreclosures flooded the housing market and dragged down prices, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said on Thursday.
States with a large number of distressed homes on the market pushed the numbers down. The mountain region, which includes Colorado and Nevada, suffered an 11.8 percent year-over-year drop, while prices fell 8.7 percent in California and Oregon, according to the FHFA, which calculates mortgages backed by government-controlled Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
Bulldozing Vacant Homes Is A Dumb Idea
HousingDoom.com
Yesterday CNBC decided to seriously discuss an idea we’ve joked about for the past few years– bulldozing excess supply. Erin discusses this with Rick Santelli and Joe LaVorgna, chief economist with Deutsche Bank.
I find it interesting that LaVorgna says that he’d have liked the idea a couple of years ago, but doesn’t really think it’s necessary now that housing has bottomed and things are turning around. Here’s what he actually said in 2009:
The momentum in the economy is moving forward. We are much closer to a housing bottom than many believe.
Government programs are available to help you stay in your home
By Kerry Suess - LodiNews.com
You may recall that last week we talked about how it might be in everyone’s best interest if the banks would work with homeowners to modify their existing loans.
As we discussed, modifications would allow people to stay in their home with adjusted payments that would alleviate some of the stress of their current financial hardship. This would lead to fewer homes being placed on the market in a distressed situation. Fewer distressed homes, often vacant and run down, would help to stabilize the values of properties and benefit all homeowners and communities.
National recall of cucumbers over salmonella
Dayton Business Journal - by DBJ Staff
L&M Companies Inc. has issued a national recall of whole cucumbers because of the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.
Raleigh, N.C.-based L&M said in a press release issued on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site that no illnesses have been reported in association with this recall, and no other products are involved other than this one lot of cucumbers.
The recalled product was directly distributed by L&M Companies between March 30 and April 7 to wholesalers in New York (200 cartons), Florida (591 cartons), Illinois (139 cartons), Indiana (30 cartons) and Tennessee (15 cartons), and one retailer with distribution centers in Mississippi (420 cartons), Nebraska (92 cartons), Texas (2 cartons) and Wyoming (101 cartons).
F-35 operating costs to top $1 trillion
Dayton Business Journal
As the Department of Defense seeks to cut billions from its budget in the next several years, new estimates indicate operating costs for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could be as much as $1 trillion over 30 years, according to a report.
That operating cost amount exceeds original estimates by 9 percent, according to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Marietta, Ga., handles the F-35 Lightning II center wing production. Final assembly of the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter takes place at the Lockheed Martin Corp. facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
Dollar keeps sinking while gold tops $1,500
By Tom Petruno - LATimes.com
The dollar is getting trashed again, driving a key index of the U.S. currency’s value to its lowest level in more than two years.
And as the greenback slumps further, gold and silver -- the hard-money alternatives to paper currencies -- are hitting new highs. Gold closed above $1,500 an ounce for the first time.
The DXY index, which measures the dollar’s value against six other major currencies (including the euro, the yen and the Swiss franc), slid to 74.10 on Thursday, down 0.4% from Wednesday and the lowest since August 2008.
Analysts polish crystal balls, see $1,520 Gold soon, even higher later
By Debbie Carlson and Allen Sykora
(Kitco News) -The $1,500 area was a target for many market watchers and now that it has been breached they are reviewing where the yellow metal’s price may go from here. Below are comments from several gold market participants:
Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS Finance
"For the time being, it looks like $1,505-$1,506 is small resistance. There seems to be some profit-taking around there this morning. Once we break $1,505-06, then it looks like we may be possible to see a rally up toward the 20-ish area. It looks like it is going to go higher. For me, $1,500 is support right now.
Gold rally continues on mounting supportive factors
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): Gold rally continued in Asian trade Thursday on mounting supportive factors including a weak dollar and inflation worries.
Spot gold was seen trading at $1506.01 an ounce at 1.30 p.m Singapore time while bullion for June delivery in New York rose as much as 0.7 percent to $1,504.90 an ounce.
Earlier in the day, Spot gold rose to a record high of $1,508 an ounce while U.S. gold futures also hit a lifetime high at $1,508.9 an ounce.
Don't Wait for GDP, $1,500 Gold IS the Recession
by John Tamny - RealClearMarkets.com
Back around 2005 when housing was booming, far from a sign of economic vitality, the proverbial "rush to the real" signaled a growing economic downturn. Thanks to a dollar in freefall as evidenced by a spike in the price of gold, always limited capital was migrating toward the hard, unproductive assets least vulnerable to currency devaluation.
To put it simply, the real recession was the housing boom.
Since the dollar's lurches in either direction tend to set the tone for global currencies, our monetary error was something shared by everyone as a run on paper currencies around the world fostered a global misallocation of capital into land, rare stamps, art, gold and other unproductive assets. The alleged worldwide boom characterized by a rush to the tangible was a classic "money illusion" that flashed economic hardship due to the world's innovators suffering capital deficits in concert with sinks of hard wealth receiving capital in abundance.
Bill Still - Gold, Silver, Mines and Peter Schiff - April 2011
Gold & Silver – What’s Driving Their Prices?
By Ian Campbell - StockResearchPortalBlog.com
Gold and Silver continued making headline news yesterday and this morning, with everyone reading this likely being well aware that both breached, and so far have held above U.S.$1,500 and U.S.$45 respectively. At 11:30 a.m. ET this morning they trading at U.S.$1,504.14 and U.S.$46.02. To put these two prices in context, on January 1, only 80 calendar days ago:
• physical gold closed at U.S.$1,338.30 (or thereabouts depending on which exchange one looks at). This morning’s gold price is 12.4% higher only 80 calendar days later. This is an annualized price increase of 56.6%; and
• physical silver closed at U.S.$28.02 (or thereabouts depending on which exchange one looks at). This morning’s silver price is 64.2% higher only 80 calendar days later. This is an annualized price increase of 292.9%.
So what are today’s gold and silver prices telling us?
Jim Rogers Says All Parabolic Moves End Badly, Gold and Silver Not Yet in a Bubble
LewRockwell.com - BI-ME.com
Legendary global investor and chairman of Singapore-based Rogers Holdings, Jim Rogers warned that if silver continues to go up like it has been over the past 2 or 3 weeks and reaches triple digits in 2011, he will probably start to think about selling because then 'you've got a bubble'.
Speaking to Financial Survival Radio, Rogers said: " My hope is, silver and gold and all commodities will continue to go up in an orderly way for another ten years or so, and eventually the prices will be very, very high".
Geithner Downgrades His Credibility to Junk
By Jonathan Weil - Bloomberg.com
Fox Business reporter Peter Barnes began his televised interview with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner two days ago with this question: "Is there a risk that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating? Yes or no?"
Geithner’s response: "No risk of that."
"No risk?" Barnes asked.
"No risk," Geithner said.
It's enough to make you wonder: How could Geithner know this to be true? The short answer is he couldn't.
All you have to do is read the research report Standard & Poor’spublished on April 18 about its sovereign-credit rating for the U.S., and you will see it estimated the risk of a downgrade quite succinctly. "We believe there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the U.S. within two years," said S&P, which reduced its outlook on the government's debt to "negative" from "stable."
U.S. taxpayers guarantee $2.1b loan to German firms
By: Timothy P. Carney - WashingtonExaminer.com
A federal subsidy program with consistently poor marks on transparency and accountability has just announced its largest ever award: a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to a German-owned solar power company. The Solar Trust of America, the U.S.-based joint venture of two German companies, says the subsidized project will create 1,000 construction jobs and 220 permanent jobs in the desert where the new solar power plant will be built. Maybe so, but there are plenty of reasons to question the efficacy of this government job creation project -- including the fact that the key components of the plant will be built by robots.
Uncle Sam: Busted
Mises Daily: by Robert P. Murphy
On Monday, Standard and Poor's (S&P) announcedthat although the US government would retain its AAA debt rating, the outlook for the United States' future was being downgraded from "stable" to "negative." The move is a welcome if tepid acknowledgement of the fiscal train wreck of which Austrians have been warning for years.
The S&P Announcement
The formal announcement of the downgraded outlook cited the federal government's growing debt burden:
Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded the outlook for the United States to negative, saying it believes there's a risk U.S. policymakers may not reach agreement on how to address the country's long-term fiscal pressures.
Bernanke Bond Market Signals No Change
With Obama-Congress Cutting Deficit
By Rich Miller - Bloomberg.com
The Federal Reserve can be counted on to keep its balance sheet big and interest rates low if President Barack Obama and Republican lawmakers agree on a multi-year deal to slash the $1.4 trillion budget deficit.
That’s the message from the Treasury bond market, where yields on 10-year securities sank to their lowest level in almost a month this week on speculation that government budget cuts will slow the economy and encourage the Fed to hold off from raising borrowing costs, said Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co.
A conservative populist leaves the Fed
By George F. Will - WashingtonPost.com
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
The morning Tom Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve’s regional bank here,announced that he would retire Oct. 1, newspapers nationwide reported that henceforth the Fed’s chairmen will hold quarterly news conferences. This is probably both regrettable and inevitable.
The Fed is called "independent" because it was created to insulate monetary policy from political pressures. But it was created by Congress, which can do what it wants with the Fed. Also, for more than three decades the Fed has had a "dual mandate" - to protect the currency as a store of value (restraining inflation) and to promote "maximum employment." The latter inserts the Fed into inherently political calculations and decisions.
Stagflation Watch: Philly Fed Misses By a Mile
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
I try not to react to a single month's number, and instead keep an eye on the trend.
Still, the Philly Fed came in at 18.5 versus a consensus expectation 33, and that is enough of a miss to make me spill my coffee.
The taxes on the real economy from the unreformed financial sector and the gasoline spike are taking their toll. There were also supply chain disruptions associated with the Japan earthquake that may have played a part. The price paid section of the report showed rising prices.
What's Really Worrisome About Treasury Debt: Not Its Rating - Its Interest
By Gonzalo Lira
So on Monday, Standard & Poor’s cut its ratings outlook for U.S. sovereign debt—and the markets had what can only be described as a tizzy.
Stocks fell - commodities rose - I noticed things were off when my gold ticker shot up a full percentage point in under sixty seconds. Yikes! (Well, actually, as far as my own portfolio goes, it was more like, Yeay!)
Tons of people started scratching their heads, stroking their chins, and pompously wondering What It All Means.
The Infinite Insanity of the Debt Ceiling Everything about the debt limit vote is an utter disgrace. Everything.
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
The debt ceiling is a yes-or-yes question, which is to say it's a pretty dumb question. Should we vote to affirm borrowing needs we already have? Yes. Should we vote to avoid an unnecessary crisis among our creditors? Of course. Should we vote to avoid a mandatory and immediate shutdown of 40% of the government? Sounds reasonable.
But in Washington, where nothing is easy, sometimes dumb begets dumb. The debt ceiling vote, which should not exist, exists. And so the debate to raise the debt ceiling, which should not exist, also exists.
Brace For an Interest Rate Hike
By Selena Maranjian - DailyFinance.com
No one can predict the financial or economic future correctly and consistently. Still, there seems to be a reasonable chance that interest rates may rise soon. Inflation's on the rise, and rate hikes can help keep its effects in check. Unfortunately, they could also knock your portfolio for a loop.
A recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that inflation, as defined by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), advanced half a percent in March over February (which also saw a half-percent jump).
Keiser Report: Murderers & Martyrs (E139)
Obama OKs use of armed drones in Libya
By Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns - AP - WashingtonTimes.com
WASHINGTON | President Obama has approved the use of armeddrones in Libya, authorizing U.S. airstrikes on ground forces for the first time since America turned over control of the operation to NATO on April 4.
It also is the first time that drones will be used for airstrikes since the conflict began on March 19, although they have routinely been flying surveillance missions, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at a Pentagon briefing Thursday.
He said the U.S. will provide up to two 24-hour combat air patrols each day by the unmanned Predators.
Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the drones can help counteract the pro-Gadhafi forces' tactic of traveling in civilian vehicles that make it difficult to distinguish them from rebel forces.
President Obama's unfolding disaster in Libya
By Matthew Continetti - Washington Post opinion
Tim Hetherington, the director of "Restrepo," and photographer Chris Hondros were killed by a grenade in the rebel-held city of Misrata on April 20. Hetherington’s last tweet reads: "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscrimate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."
What on earth is going on in Libya? President Obama committed U.S. forces to prevent the massacre of civilians in Benghazi. He says his goal is a Libya where Moammar Gaddafi does not rule. Yet here we have a humanitarian and military crisis unfolding in Misrata - and NATO seems to be feckless. New York Times war correspondent C.J. Chivers has a jaw-dropping report in today’s paper on the pathetic weaponry Libyan rebels are using to fight. Arming the rebels is an obvious way to assist them in achieving the president’s stated goal. Yet the government has been ducking behind the nearest chair whenever the subject of arms comes up. We haven't even recognized the provisional government in Benghazi.
Lukashenko: Globalists Are Preparing To Strangle Belarus
By Paul Joseph Watson - InfoWars.com
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko warned today that the globalists were preparing to strangle his country because of its refusal to join the new world order, with Belarus set to become the latest target of the contrived "Arab Spring" riots as the NATO powers further encircle Russia and China.
"Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday Western countries are preparing direct interference in his country’s affairs and are trying “to strangle the country with a slipknot," reports RIA Novosti.
"First there were political threats, disavowal of [presidential] elections, [European] entry bans and economic sanctions. Then there was an instigation of turmoil on our foreign currency market and dances on the bones after the blast at the Oktyabrskaya metro station," Lukashenko said addressing the parliament and his people.
Lord Monckton: End of Magna Carta! - Alex Jones Tv 1/3
Lord Monckton: End of Magna Carta! - Alex Jones Tv 2/3
Lord Monckton: End of Magna Carta! - Alex Jones Tv 3/3
U.S. Pressed at United Nations
to Retake Lead on Middle East Peace Talks
By Bill Varner - Bloomberg.com
European powers joined Arab countries at the United Nations today in pressing the Obama administration to retake the lead in driving negotiations to produce an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement by September.
"Strong U.S. leadership is required," Peter Wittig, Germany's ambassador to the UN, said at a meeting in New York of the Security Council. "We are looking forward to the speech President Obama will deliver on the region. With little more than four months to go until September, this sense of urgency is growing."
What Are BRICS and Why Should I Care?
PracticalDad.com
If you hear the financial and economic news, you'll periodically hear the termBRICS. It doesn't pertain to a building material - although they are trying to build something - and it isn't something with which to hit - although we're likely to get whacked. BRICS is an acronym for a five nation consortium, each of which has significantly growing economies as well as a wealth of natural resources, such as people, oil, and gold. These five are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and while each is a regional power in its own right, they are now cooperating to further their own interests and create a new monetary system that removes the dollar as the global reserve currency - the linchpin. While the most recent meeting in Hainan, China on April 13 didn't gain huge press, there are distinct consequences that people should understand and these revolve around the dollar.
California Descends Deeper Into Self-Destruction
By Ron Ross - Spectator.org
California -- it's the best place to live and it's the worst place to live. The physical climate is almost ideal and the political climate, if you're a conservative, is surreal. Through their politicians and bureaucrats Californians seem hell bent on destroying the state's vast potential. It's a painful sight to witness.
The latest, all too typical, example is a law signed by Governor Jerry Brown last week mandating new renewable energy requirements for electric utilities in the state. The new law requires that 33 percent of electricity generated be done with "renewable" sources, essentially wind mills and solar panels, by the end of the year 2020. What's the objective of this "ambitious" new regulation?
FICO Can Read Underwater Homeowners' Minds
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Thinking about walking away from your underwater mortgage? Beware: FICO is on to you. The credit analytics firm has developed a new methodology to catch potential strategic defaulters -- home owners who have the capacity to continue to make mortgage payments, but default because the home is now worth less than they owe -- before they quit paying. From what the company claims, the new capability sounds pretty impressive.
FICO doesn't need a creepy "precog" like those from the film Minority Report to figure out which underwater homeowners might strategically default. Instead, it uses statisticians. They have discovered key characteristics that predict which homeowners are more likely to willingly walking away from their home.
Report says Vermont housing remains unaffordable
Written by Matt Sutkoski, Burlington Free Press
Obtaining housing in Vermont remains an uphill financial climb for a large proportion of the state’s residents, according to an updated report from the VErmont Housing and Finance Agency.
The report is called "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Housing and Wages in Vermont," was released today. Among the findings:
• A two-bedroom apartment in Vermont costs an average of $990 a month, which is a 7 percent increase from last year and a 58 percent increase since 2000. The VHFA says an apartment is affordable on a annual income of $39,595. A bit more than half of all of Vermont’s occupations have median wages below that threshold.
Factory, jobless data suggest economy is still struggling The Philadelphia Fed's index of business activity drops sharply in April, while the number of people claiming first-time unemployment benefits falls less than expected.
Reuters - LATimes.com
Factory activity in Middle Atlantic States braked sharply in April and the number of Americans claiming new jobless benefits fell less than expected, implying the economy was struggling to regain momentum.
The reports came a week before government data is expected to show growth slowed significantly in the first quarter. The economy grew at a 2.0% annualized rate, according to a Reuters survey, after a 3.1% pace in the last three months of 2010.
GOP establishment targets Trump Real-estate mogul would end globalist policies
that have weakened America
By Jeffrey T. Kuhner-The Washington Times
Donald Trump is giving the Republican establishment cardiac arrest. It is trying to destroy his credibility as a viable presidential candidate in 2012. It is easy to see why: Mr. Trump is soaring in the polls. Over the past month, the billionaire real estate mogul has catapulted to the top of the prospective GOP field, closely trailing former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Mr. Trump has many positive assets. He is articulate, forceful and - should he decide to run - would have an almost unlimited war chest. Yet his greatest weapon is that he is not afraid to hit President Obama hard on almost every major issue - taxes, trade, deficits, government spending, Obamacare, jobs and Libya. He is willing to go where other GOP candidates fear to tread. He is politically incorrect, discussing taboos such as the president’s birth certificate, which is considered beyond the pale by our establishment media. In short, Mr. Trump is the consummate outsider.
iPhone and iPad can track a user's location history Security researchers find a hidden data file in the Apple devices that can contain detailed records of user whereabouts.
By David Sarno, Los Angeles Times
Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad are keeping very close track of where you've been.
Security researchers said they found a file hidden in the operating software of Apple's devices that can contain tens of thousands of records of a user's precise geographical location, each marked with a timestamp.
Those records create a highly detailed history of a user's whereabouts over months or even years.
The data are in an unprotected file embedded in the phone and tablet computer, the researchers said Wednesday, allowing hackers who pick up a lost iPhone or iPad access to the location history with relative ease.
DHS Launches New Alert System Designed to Terrorize Public
By Kurt Nimmo & Alex Jones - Infowars.com
In order to keep the phony war on manufactured terrorism in your face 24-7, the government has trashed its old and absurd color-coded system in favor of a new and more obnoxious system.
"The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly over the past ten years," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, regardless of the fact that there has not been a staged terror attack since cave Muslims did or didn't slam airliners into skyscrapers and presumably the most defended building on earth.
New System Replaces Color Coded Terror Alerts
Are You Scared Yet? Big Sis To Beam Terror Warnings To Your iPhone
Government will tell you when to stay indoors
By Steve Watson - Infowars
The Department of Homeland Security is beefing up it's terror alert warning system in a move that will see terror alerts, whether real or phony, issued via the mainstream media and directly to your phone or computer over social networking sites, and even via Emergency Alert broadcasts.
The government’s much ridiculed colour coded chart is being scrapped, primarily because it is always set at "elevated" and is roundly ignored by almost everyone in America. The DHS assures us that the new system will be virtually impossible to avoid.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who has been dubbed 'Big Sis' in reference to George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, told reporters this week that The primary-color alerts have "faded in utility, except for late-night comics."
ACLU concerned over Michigan State Police
extracting data from cellphones
By Nathan Olivarez-Giles - LATimes.com
Michigan State Police officers, equipped with forensic cellphone analyzers, have extracted data from cellphones during their police work, and the American Civil Liberties Union wants to know more about it.
The ACLU has raised concerns over the legality of the cellphone scanners (which can scan both regular cellphones and smartphones) and whether the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, is being violated by the state police.
In a letter to the Col. Kriste Etue, the director of the Michigan State Police, the ACLU alleged that the agency has used such cellphone analyzers, called the Cellebrite UFED, in the field and has taken data from phones.
More reason why you need to do your own thinking and voting, without knuckling to pressure at work from either the right or the left. This article is the progressive left's reaction to the right's biased information imposed on employees:
Big Brothers: Thought Control at Koch
By Mark Ames and Mike Elk - TheNation.com
On the eve of the November midterm elections, Koch Industries sent an urgent letter to most of its 50,000 employees advising them on whom to vote for and warning them about the dire consequences to their families, their jobs and their country should they choose to vote otherwise.
The Nation obtained the Koch Industries election packet for Washington State - which included a cover letter from its president and COO, David Robertson; a list of Koch-endorsed state and federal candidates; and an issue of the company newsletter, Discovery, full of alarmist right-wing propaganda.
Taking stock of the Koch Machine, Part I
By sandlapper - DailyKos.com [THU AUG 17, 2006 AT 11:40 PM EDT]
To see the scope of Charles and David Koch's invisible reach into modern American life, and their influence in modern - and future - American political life especially, requires a wide lens. And you have to stand pretty far back to get it all in the picture.
In a post called "Meet Howard Rich's old friends, Charles and David Koch", I offered a basic introduction to Charles, the CEO of Koch Industries, and David, the former vice presidential nominee of the National Libertarian Party, and I identified the ties that bind Rich to the Koch brothers through their work to command the Libertarian Party of the late 1970s, and their subsequent split from the party. Now, I'll set Howard Rich temporarily aside. To add some flesh to our barebones introduction of the Kochs, I've found a handful of profiles that remind us of the brothers' various interests, their support for conservative causes from free-market university research to summer camps for judges, their support for mainly Republican candidates, on-and-off investigations of their companies' environmental records, and their reach into the Bush Administration through revolving-door employees.
Meet Howard Rich's old friends, Charles and David Koch
By sandlapper - DailyKos.com [TUE AUG 15, 2006 AT 11:35 PM EDT]
Couple of weeks ago I posted a note called "Who is Howard Rich? He's buying your government:" In it, I mentioned Rich's involvement with the National Libertarian Party, based at the time in San Francisco. Rich fell out with the party leadership in the early 1980s. In that post, I noted that I'd perused Libertarian Party newsletters which have been catalogued online at the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama.
Since then, as I've Googled `til I'm dizzy to find out who might be helping Rich bankroll his long march through the Midwestern and Western states, pushing his initiatives for TABOR and regulatory takings, I've been pulled back to those Libertarian newsletters at the Mises Institute. In them is documented a relationship that I believe is key to Rich's long-term agenda. So tonight, let's let various sources of information introduce you to Charles and David Koch.
Loving, Gentle Liberal Vitriol On Display
By Bob Ellis on February 3rd, 2011 - DakotaVoice.com
Don’t you just feel that Left-wing love oozing from these liberals?
Some of the most peaceful, loving Leftists in America recently got together for an event they called "Uncloaking the Koches," referencing the wealthy David and Charles Koch.
The Koch brothers are supposedly the big money behind the Tea Party movement because, of course, grassroots Americans wouldn’t really embrace the Tea Party principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility. No, what Americans really want is more government and less freedom, they want elitists to think for them and tell them what to do. Who could possibly believe real Americans would embrace a movement about Constitutional government and personal freedom?
Wisconsin State Employees Should Have Some Koch and Smile
By Christian Schneider - NationalReview.com
When the history books record l’affaire Wisconsin, public-employee unions will have plenty of villains. They will remember Republican governor Scott Walker, who proposed scaling back their ability to collectively bargain. They will revile Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, who cut off debate and “rushed” the bill to a vote after 61 hours of debate on the Assembly floor. But for the Left, the most enduring villain might be the billionaire Koch brothers.
When frequently vile Buffalobeast.com blogger Ian Murphy prank-called Walker, he pretended to be David Koch - thinking that would be the most embarrassing call Walker could take. (Or perhaps Murphy simply hadn’t perfected a Kim Jong-il impersonation yet. "Hey Scott, it’s your boy Kim!")
Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions
By Rick Ungar - Forbes.com
As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is
coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.
Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers.
What's more, the plan to kill the unions is right out of the Koch Brothers play book.
Koch brothers wade into Wisconsin union fight
By Jeremy Borden - PublicIntegrity.org
Updated: 3/10/2011, 7:58 pm | Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit funded in part by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, has launched a 30-second television advertisement in Wisconsin that asks, "Who decides Wisconsin's future: Voters or government unions?"
Charles G. and David H. Koch are primary financial supporters of the Virginia-based political organization. The ad goes on, "…Government workers fight to keep benefits far better than the private sector. Governor Walker has the courage to do what’s right for Wisconsin."
Did Scott Walker and the Kochs overplay their hand in Wisconsin?
By DOUG THOMPSON - CapitolHillBlue.com
With 100,000 protesters rallying in Madison, Wisconsin this past Saturday to protest the union-busting tactics of Republican Gov. Scott Walker, the cracks may already be showing in the great tea party takeover of government.
Public opinion polls show a majority of Americansdidn’t like Walker’s tactics in Wisconsin. Sarah Palin's popularity is dropping while nutcases from the rabid right like Michelle Bachmann makes voters who fell for their "we're gonna change things in Washington" line regret their decision last November.
Fleeing the Dollar Flood
The world tries to protect itself from U.S. monetary policy.
Opinion - WSJ.com
Members of the International Monetary Fund emerged from their huddle in Washington last weekend resolved to keep every option open to slow the flood of dollars pouring into their countries, including capital controls. That's a dangerous game, given the need for investment to drive economic development. But it's also increasingly typical of the world's reaction to America's mismanagement of the dollar and its eroding financial leadership.
The dollar is the world's reserve currency, and as such the Federal Reserve is the closest thing we have to a global central bank. Yet for at least a decade, and especially since late 2008, the Fed has operated as if its only concern is the U.S. domestic economy.
Dollar Declines to 15-Month Low on Global Growth Optimism
By Candice Zachariahs and Yoshiaki Nohara - Bloomberg.com
The dollar fell to a 15-month low against the euro as signs of global growth supported demand for higher-yielding assets.
The greenback dropped against 14 of its 16 major counterparts before a report forecast to show U.S. house prices fell for a fourth month, underscoring prospects the Federal Reserve will maintain monetary stimulus even as central banks in Europe and Asia increase interest rates. The Australian dollar rose to a record high as data showed producer prices increased more than economists had forecast.
"The U.S. dollar is in a new trend lower," said Kurt Magnus, executive director of currency sales in Sydney at Nomura Holdings Inc., Japan's biggest brokerage. "Fund managers are actively shifting toward liquid, growth currencies like the euro and Aussie."
Warning Signs of a Coming Currency Crisis
By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
Gold hit an all-time high this week - again. The yellow metal briefly topped $1,500 an ounce before falling back down a few dollars. The world has become increasing nervous about the size of the growing U.S. debt. Just this week, America’s debt topped $14.3 trillion (also an all-time high) which is close to the limit Congress can legally borrow. A recent CNSNews.com report shows why the $38 billion, that was just cut, is a drop in the budgetary bucket. The report said, "Friday’s $34.54-billion jump in the national debt almost equaled the $38.5 billion the Republican House leadership said would be cut from spending for the remainder of this fiscal year by the continuing resolution that the Congress passed on Thursday and President Obama signed Friday. The federal government is now perilously close to hitting its legal limit on debt." Odds are the debt ceiling will be raised by more than $1 trillion. Meanwhile, the Fed is printing more than $75 billion a month to finance 70% of the U.S. budget. The math of this screams currency crisis 2011!
Gold breaks $1,500 as investors seek security
By Jan Harvey
(Reuters) - Gold rose above $1,500 an ounce on Wednesday for the first time ever as the dollar wilted, oil rose, worries over the U.S. economic outlook boosted demand for the metal as a haven and rising inflation lifted Asian demand.
The Reuters-Jeffries CRB index was on track for its biggest one-day gain in a fortnight as commodity prices rallied.
Spot gold hit a high of $1,505.40 an ounce and was bid at $1,501.10 an ounce at 1403 GMT, against $1,493.90 late in New York on Tuesday. U.S. gold futures for June delivery rose $6.70 an ounce to $1,501.80.
Prices Surge as Investors Rush to Safety of Gold
By MATTHEW SALTMARSH - NYTimes.com
The price of gold rose above $1,500 an ounce on Wednesday for the first time, pushed higher by investor concerns about global inflation, government debt and turmoil in the Arab world.
The prices of other precious metals, like silver and platinum, have also surged recently on what analysts call a flight to quality, when uncertainty about the economic and political outlook sends investors into assets that are perceived to be safest.
"We're seeing a perfect storm for gold and silver prices," said Robin Bhar, a senior metals analyst in London for the French bank Crédit Agricole.
Three Reasons to Still Own Gold (or Finally Buy Some)
By Steven P. Orlowsk - DailyFinance.com
I recently watched the classic man-eating fish movieJawsand the latest action in the precious metals space reminded me of the tagline for the film, "Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water..."
Is it safe to swim in the water? Or is Jaws still lurking out there, the physical embodiment of a financial world gone lethal? Can gold still protect us?
Gold has had a magnificent run during the past 10 years, doubling in value since 2008 alone. Gold has set and broke several new price records, most recently reaching $1,500 per ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange in Tuesday's trading.
50 Factors Launching Gold
BY JIM WILLIE - FinancialSense.com
Edification is not the word that comes to mind when observing an interview with Larry Fink ofBlackstone this morning on network financial news. It was inspirational if not humorous, and somewhat pathetic. Of course the interviewer treated him like royalty, when just a syndicate captain, a Made Man. As a cog within the US financial hierarchy, he was asked why Gold is approaching record price levels near $1500 per ounce. He gave his best 10-second answer, showing no depth of comprehension but an excellent grip of propaganda laced with simplistic distortion. He said, "GOLD IS RISING FROM ALL THE GLOBAL INSTABILITY, AND NOT FROM INFLATION AT ALL." Sounds good, but it lacks much reflection of the world of reality burdened by complexity and interconnectivity that the enlightened perceive. At least he did not babble about Gold being in an asset bubble. It cannot, since Gold is money.
Jim Rogers on chances of $100+ Silver in 2011
Interview: Jim Sinclair on Gold and the World Financial System
BY RON HERA - FinancialSense.com Hera Research Newsletter (HRN): Thank you for speaking with us today. You are one of very few people who have tried to warn investors about OTC derivatives. Why are OTC derivatives a problem in your opinion? Jim Sinclair: Over the counter (OTC) derivatives are the reason we are going through what we are going through now. An OTC derivative is a kind of wager on what something will do. Up until 2009, most of these wagers had very little, if any, money behind them and, if the direction you bet on didn’t come to fruition, the amount of leverage resulted in extraordinary losses. There was a major rollover in derivatives tied to real estate in 2008, as well as in other types, such as those tied to sub-prime auto loans. HRN: Did OTC derivatives destabilize the financial system in 2008? Jim Sinclair: Absolutely.
Investors Play Precious Metals as Market Insurance Policy
BY KERRI SHANNON, Associate Editor, Money Morning
Investors have been flocking to precious metals to protect from looming inflation and a weak outlook for the U.S. dollar. The trend has turned investments related to gold, silver and other precious metals into some of the hottest plays of the past year.
The demand for "safe-haven" metals investments continues pushing prices to new highs:
Gold is up 7.5% so far this year after a 30% rise in 2010, and hit a record high of $1,476.21 an ounce Monday.
Silver has climbed about 40% this year, after an 83% surge in 2010, and hit a 31-year high this week.
And Platinum is up 1.4% this year following a 20% jump last year.
While gold was the popular topic of 2010, silver has been the star this year, getting more investor interest as a cheaper alternative to the yellow metal.
Gold – Inflation Hedge?
by Ian R. Campbell - StockResearchPortalBlog.com
An article this morning asks (and I think answers) the question 'Is Gold Really An Inflation Hedge?' – reading time 3 minutes. The article includes charts comparing the price of physical gold with year/year U.S. inflation, with University of Michigan U.S. inflation expectations, and with the U.S. Federal Reserve Balance Sheet. The article concludes that the evidence shows the gold price increase of the past 11 years (gold breached U.S.$1,500 this morning for the first time, trading at just under U.S.$1,505 as I write this at 7:00 a.m. ET) can't be attributed solely to inflation, and says "It is key to understand that the exposure you obtain from buying/selling gold is not exclusively linked to the inflation rate", and that "the fundamental reason gold has value is that it is an alternative to paper currency, and what makes gold attractive to hold vs. a paper currency is what it yields on a real basis". My comments:
first, I agree that inflation and prospective inflation forecasts are but one factor reflected in the price of physical gold at any given point in time – and from my perspective is far from the most important factor. Moreover, to adopt only U.S. inflation rates in an analysis is very 'U.S. centric'. While the physical gold price typically is quoted in U.S.$, physical gold is a world commodity, not a U.S. commodity. Accordingly, the more apt inflation comparison would be world inflation, if such a statistic was available;
Hi Ho Silver and the Sagging Dollar
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
The move in silver is remarkable, not only in its magnitude, but in the relatively small notice of it being taken outside of trading circles.
We understood the big move in silver back in the day, as a result of the Hunt brothers attempt to corner the market. But what exactly is driving it now? Where is this buying coming from, and what does it mean?
I think there is a an untold story here, and I will be spending a little more time trying to get my mind around it, sifting through the rumours and other stories, to try and get to the bottom of it.
Yeah yeah silver is overextended. There will likely be a correction at some point. And every nitwit in the peanut gallery is going to say "I told you so" even though they told us so when silver was $20.
Oil rallies above $124 on U.S. draw, dollar
By Gene Ramos
(Reuters) - Brent oil jumped 2 percent to near $124 a barrel on Wednesday as U.S. crude oil inventories fell for the first time in seven weeks and the dollar weakened sharply, fueling investor appetite for riskier assets.
Oil's rise was part of a broader commodities buying binge sparked by a weaker dollar, with gold setting a record above $1,500 an ounce. Persistent worries about U.S. fiscal health punished the greenback and drove investors to seek assets with potentially richer returns.
Oil also benefited from a rise in U.S. equities as the Dow Jones industrial average . ended at the highest level in almost three years after strong corporate earnings reports.
Gloves Are Off as Big Banks Disagree on Oil Price Outlook
Written by Dian L. Chu - OilPrice.com
Goldman Sachs surprised the market when the investment bank advised its clients on Monday, April 11 to liquidate the "CCCP basket" for a 25% profit. The bear call was partly responsible for a broad sell off in commodities in the following two days, including the seemingly unstoppable crude oil. Crude oil ended the week dropping 2.8%, the first weekly decline in a month.
CCCP is a commodity basket Goldman first recommended to clients in December 2010. The weight of the CCCP basket is allocated as 40% in crude oil, 20% in copper, 10% soybeans, 10% cotton and 20% in platinum.
Dollar hits 15-month low against euro
By Charles Riley
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The dollar took a beating Wednesday, losing ground to a range of currencies, and falling to its lowest level against the euro in 15 months.
And that's pretty much been the trend in recent months. At the start of the year, the euro was trading at $1.33 against the dollar, but has since surged to $1.45 against the beleaguered greenback.
The dollar index, which measures the U.S. dollar against a basket of currencies, has fallen 5% so far this year to around 74, as jittery investors flocked to the dollar for safety. That's down from a high near 87 in June of 2009.
Marc Faber on CNBC - 18 April 2011 - Part 1/3
Tackling America's Budget Deficit
Marc Faber on CNBC - 18 April 2011 - Part 2/3
Tackling America's Budget Deficit
Marc Faber on CNBC - 18 April 2011 - Part 3/3
Tackling America's Budget Deficit
How 'The Donald' could incite a trade war
By Chris Isidore
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Donald Trump's call for a 25% tariff on Chinese goods is winning him a lot of attention as he weighs a presidential run in 2012.
But Trump seems to be overlooking the consequences that his economic policy would likely trigger: a destructive trade war and higher prices, according to some experts.
"In a trade war, everybody loses. Some may lose more than others, but everybody loses," said Nicholas Lardy, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who has been a vocal critic of China's trade and currency policies.
Which debt plan do economists favor? Neither
By Annalyn Censky
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- This month, leaders from both parties introduced two major plans to cut the nation's long-term debt. But economists don't like either one.
In an exclusive CNNMoney survey, eight out of 18 economists polled said they believed neither President Obama's nor Republican Paul Ryan's plans for deficit reduction are in the best interest of the nation's economy.
Another six economists sided with the Republican plan, while four supported President Obama's proposal.
5 reasons why S&P just guaranteed U.S. debt will lose AAA rating
By James Pethokoukis - Reuters.com
By prodding Washington to agree on a debt plan, Standard & Poor’s might achieve just the opposite. Its dour take on Treasuries could inflame the debt-ceiling debate, leaving little energy for a grand budget compromise. And the severe austerity S&P desires would have few takers anyway. Consider the following:
1) Obviously the rating agency hopes its unnerving note will nudge lawmakers into reaching agreement on taxes and expenditures. Inaction until after the 2012 national elections risks an actual downgrade of America’s AAA bond rating.
2) But striking some mega-deal doesn’t have top priority on Capitol Hill. First up is the battle over raising the debt ceiling. Democrats want a clean vote on a bill, while Republicans are trying to tack on various debt reduction measures. The GOP quickly pointed to S&P’s statement as further justification of its bargaining position.
Roubini On US Downgrade: Bond Market Revolt Won't Happen
By Agustino Fontevecchia - Forbes.com
Dr. Doom Nouriel Roubini gave his views on S&P's recent outlook downgrade for U.S. government debt, considering it a "reminder" to Washington to do the right thing on Wednesday. Noting that short- term fiscal balance can be restored fairly easily, while long-term fiscal restructuring will require strong political will and will probably have to wait until after the 2013 elections.
It is not every day that perma-bear Nouriel Roubini sounds relatively optimistic on macroeconomic matters. Yet the renowned NYU economist said that "a bond market revolt is not at all easy to engineer in the United States" as "there is no safer asset destination on the planet than the United States, which has the third-longest-running system of government in the world, despite being a young nation."
U.S. markets to be closed Good Friday
By Tom Petruno - LATimes.com
Thursday will be the final trading day of this week: U.S. financial markets will be closed Friday in observance of Good Friday.
The day has long been a market holiday even though it isn't a banking holiday. Commercial banks will be open and so will federal government offices.
Geithner Should Resign as Treasury Secretary
National Inflation Association
The biggest headline in the news so far this week has been S&P's decision to downgrade their U.S. credit outlook to negative. After S&P made their announcement, almost everybody in the mainstream media proclaimed it to be a "wake up call" for the U.S. government, saying that if they don't make a real effort to cut the budget deficit, a fiscal disaster awaits. Despite lowering the U.S. credit outlook to negative, S&P left the U.S. credit rating at AAA.
The real story in the media this week should be, how is it possible that the U.S. credit rating remains AAA? After all, AAA is the highest rating possible. Shouldn't a AAA credit rating be reserved for countries with budget surpluses, low levels of debt, and low levels of price inflation? Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was quick to say after S&P's announcement that there is "no risk" of the U.S. losing its AAA rating. NIA respectfully asks Mr. Geithner to resign from office for making those comments. How could there be "no risk" of the world's largest debtor nation losing its AAA rating?
Will the U.S. Lose Its AAA Rating?
By Alex Dumortier - DailyFinance.com
On Monday, ratings agency Standard & Poor's announced that it was downgrading its outlook for the U.S.' sovereign credit rating from stable to negative, and put the odds of a ratings downgrade within the next two years at 1 in 3. The news spooked stock investors.
What's the significance of this announcement? I asked two of my Foolish colleagues, Morgan Housel and Matt Koppenheffer, to weigh in on the following question:
Will the U.S. Lose Its AAA Rating?
The EU Crackup
Mises Daily: by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
Political upheaval has hit Finland, and it's merely a foreshadowing of bigger changes ahead. The core issue is whether Finland ought to be paying for bailouts for other EU states. In reaction to establishment support for the bailout, voters ousted the probailout ruling party and gave an upset victory to the bailout-critical conservative party. Against every expectation, the eternal rule of the social democrats is at an end.
But most striking of all are the gains made by a previously invisible party called True Finns. This is the only party to take a hardcore position: no bailouts at all. It also so happens that this party is predictably nationalist on issues of trade and immigration. But that's not the source of the appeal. The bailout is what is on everyone's mind. And you know that the anger must be palpable if it fired up the usually sleepy world of Finnish politics.
Hotspots with Max Keiser - Ireland (1/2)
Hotspots with Max Keiser - Ireland (2/2)
Is the US Going the Way of Venezuela?
By Addison Wiggin - The DailyReckoning.com
04/20/11 Baltimore, Maryland – Do you see that target forming? Oh wait, you probably can't… it's on your back.
An overwhelming majority of the general US populace polled by insists the government "keep its hands off Medicare."
A smaller majority want to keep military spending intact. The only thing that gets majority support is raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 a year.
Awesome.
We're all for it. But only if we enact legislation that completely dissuades people from innovating and starting new businesses while we're at it. Let's nationalize a few more industries too. We've already locked up mortgages and the auto industry… let's shoot for oil and gas next.
NATO's Decline over Libya
Interviewee: Robert E. Hunter, Senior Advisor, The Rand Corporation
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, CFR.org
President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain have in effect called for the ouster of Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi, yet the failure to apply sufficient military force is a blow to NATO and U.S. credibility, saysRobert E. Hunter, an ambassador to NATO in the Clinton administration. Hunter says NATO's enforcement of the no-fly zone has prevented a sweep of pro-Qaddafi forces across Libya, but "using the current methods, it would be most unlikely to succeed" in ousting Qaddafi. The decision by the United States to withdraw the AC-130 and A-10 war planes from the Libyan theater, he says, "is going to be read in Europe as the United States not pulling its weight in NATO. That is something I never thought as a former ambassador that I would live to see happen." Hunter says the Obama administration seems too worried about alienating Middle Eastern nations when it should be doing more to make sure that NATO prevails in Libya.
Muslim Brotherhood Proclaim True Intentions in Egypt
Monday, 18 Apr 2011 03:32 PM
By Frank Gaffney - Newsmax.com
The Muslim Brotherhood's mask is slipping in Egypt. Small "d" democrats there and elsewhere are alarmed by top Brotherhood officials who now aver openly what has been utterly predictable: Once in power they will impose Shariah — the totalitarian, supremacist politico-military-legal program practiced in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and increasingly elsewhere.
The prospect that the most populous Arab nation, one that sits astride the strategic Suez Canal and has a vast American-supplied arsenal, is heading in such an ominous direction is made all the more remarkable since the Obama administration has done nothing to deter the rise of the Ikhwan (as the Muslim Brotherhood is known in Arabic). Consider a few data points:
Gathering Clouds for Syria's Assad
Author: Mohamad Bazzi, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies - CFR.org
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is facing the most serious challenge to the Ba'athist regime since the 1980s. Assad's security forces have been unable to quell a wave of protests that began last month in the southern town of Deraa and have since spread across the country. On April 15, Syria witnessed the largest demonstrations yet, as tens of thousands of protesters marched from several suburbs into central Damascus.
Assad initially responded to the country's protests with a violent crackdown and token concessions--such as appointing a new cabinet--that failed to appease Syrians seeking dramatic change after forty-one years of autocratic rule by the Assad family. On April 16, Assad promised to lift the state of emergency in place since 1963 that grants wide authority to the security forces. But protests erupted again the next day, as thousands took to the streets across Syria chanting: "The people want the overthrow of Bashar!"
China Overnight Rate Climbs Most in Three Months
on Reserve-Ratio Increase
By Bloomberg News
China's overnight money-market rate jumped the most in three months as this year’s fourth increase in lenders’ reserve-requirement ratios took effect today, draining cash from the financial system.
The one-day repurchase rate, which measures interbank funding availability, rose to the highest level since Feb. 9 even as the central bank reined in debt issuance. The People’s Bank of China sold the least amount of three-month bills in seven weeks at an auction today and held off from offering 91- day repurchase agreements for the first time in more than two months.
"Banks are short of money after handing reserve-ratio payments to the central bank," said Jiang Chao, a bond analyst in Shanghai at Guotai Junan Securities Co., the nation’s biggest brokerage by revenue. "The effect may be short-term because it’s not driven by speculation about more tightening measures."
Hardball April 19 2011
Congressman Paul discusses wars and debt with Chris Matthews
Trade pacts to go to Capitol Hill separately Submitting all 3 in package called 'highly unlikely'
By Tim Devaney-The Washington Times
The Obama administration’s top trade official said Wednesday he is optimistic about passage of new free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, but the pacts would be submitted to Congress separately and not as a packaged deal, as many Republicans have been urging.
"It is highly unlikely to zero that they will be in one bill," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said. "… We would run the risk of having all three knocked down."
A spokesman for Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said it is unlikely this technicality will hold up the agreements yet again. The GOP was merely interested in voting on all three. So as long as they are submitted at the same time, they don't care how they are packaged.
Existing-Home Sales Tick Up, but Prices Slip As Surge in Distressed Deals Discourages Owners From Trading Up, Tough Loan Rules Keep First-Time Buyers on Sideline
By S. MITRA KALITA And DAWN WOTAPKA - WSJ.com
Sales of previously owned homes rose slightly in March, but prices continued to fall, underscoring the fragility of the housing market's recovery.
Existing home sales increased 3.7% in March from February, according to data from the National Association of Realtors released Wednesday. That represents a seasonally adjusted pace of 5.1 million - less than the 5.4 million rate in January and 5.2 million in December.
The numbers disappointed an industry that has been hoping for a rebound in the all-important spring sales season. "The economic recovery has bypassed the housing market," Toronto-based Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients.
Retired bus drivers lose everything in Ponzi scheme
By Blake Ellis
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Bobby Bradley, a 70-year-old retired bus driver, was duped out of $215,000 -- his entire life savings.
Now, he's desperate for any work he can get.
"I've been looking for jobs but I'm too old, nobody wants to hire you at this age so it makes it rough -- I drove a bus for 35 years, so what am I supposed to do now?"
Frances Wills, 67 years old and also a former bus operator, has 75 cents to her name and can't pay rent after losing her $156,000 retirement fund.
New Terror-Alert System Unveiled
By KEITH JOHNSON - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security will officially scrap the much-derided color-coded terror-alert system next week and replace it with a tailored, specific alert system designed to give the public better information about "credible" terror threats facing the U.S.
The color-coded system, which debuted in March 2002, "has faded in utility, except for late-night comics," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a conference call Wednesday. She had pledged earlier this year to replace the old system, which came under fire shortly after its inception for its lack of precision and detailed information.
Millions prepare for Midwest earthquake
By: Adrienne Broaddus - WISHTV.com
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - More than two million people in the Midwest, including a half million people in Indiana, took part in what's being called one of the largest earthquake drills ever on Tuesday. It is called the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut.
It is called the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut.
The drill comes just after the third anniversary of a 5.2 magnitude quake shook the Midwest. There was some minor damage then, but no one was hurt.
And just in December, a 3.8 magnitude quake centered in northern Indiana rattled the state.
Indiana's Department of Homeland Security says there is always a threat of a more dangerous quake.
Energy Breakthrough:
One Step Closer to Extracting Hydrogen From Water
Written by Brian Westenhaus - OilPrice.com
A research team at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland has announced they have come upon a new catalyst for electrolysis to split hydrogen out of water. In a serendipitous moment the team led by Xile Hu made this discovery during an electrochemical experiment. Hu said, "It's a perfect illustration of the famous serendipity principle in fundamental research. Thanks to this unexpected result, we've revealed a unique phenomenon." Being alert has rewards when lightning strikes, thanks to Professor Hu and his group the new hydrogen catalyst has been found.
Doctor: Japan Nuke Workers at Their Limit
By AP / ERIC TALMADGE
(FUKUSHIMA, Japan) — Workers battling the crisis at Japan's stricken nuclear plant suffer from insomnia, show signs of dehydration and high blood pressure and are at risk of developing depression or heart trouble, a doctor who met with them said Wednesday.
The crews have been fighting to get the radiation-spewing Fukushima Dai-ichi plant under control since it was crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northeastern Japan.
"The conditions at the plant remain harsh," epidemiologist Takeshi Tanigawa told The Associated Press. "I am afraid that if this continues we will see a growing risk of health problems."
Medical Gestapo Working in Japan
Posted by Mark Sircus
In this case it’s actually NO ZEOLITE FOR THE JAPANESE!! The medical Gestapo was recently spotted working in Japan getting the police to charge two people with the selling of zeolite. The substance, sold as “Premium Zeolite,” was billed as absorbing radioactive substances and allowing the body to excrete them within six hours. The two were charged with selling medicine without a license. A month later we hear that they are using tons of zeolite at the nuclear plant to control radiation. What gives?
The operator of the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima has begun dropping sandbags filled with an absorbent into the Pacific Ocean to try to reduce the danger from radiation. The bags are filled with zeolite, better known as the active material sprinkled in cat litter boxes to absorb odors. In this case, zeolite is meant to take up caesium that has been detected at high levels along the Fukushima coast.
The debasement of world currency: It is inflation, but not as we know it
By Peter Warburton - GATA.org
More than 20 years ago, I was a research officer in a forecasting unit at the London Business School. We called ourselves international monetarists then and we had a model that determined the inflation rate from the growth of money stock per unit of output, with long and variable lags. The value of a currency was determined, in the long run, by its monetary growth per unit of output in relation to that of the rest of the developed world. Being a young man, I was heavily into econometrics -- or economic tricks, as some would have it -- and our research group published papers showing how well this model fitted the data of that time. Basically, we had it sown up. We knew how to predict inflation; we knew the equilibrium value of currencies and the untidy realities of economic life were mopped up in the balance of payments. We felt sure that if the authorities could regulate the growth of the money supply, all would be well. How wrong we were.
Gold to Re-Enter World Monetary System
BY RICHARD RUSSELL - FinancialSense.com Question --
Will the US government call in the gold, as Roosevelt did in 1933? Answer --
My answer is a rather strange and original one. China, India and most of Asia not only allow its people to hold gold, but actually encourages them to buy and accumulate gold. The US authorities must be keenly aware of this. In other words, these other nations allow their people to protect themselves against currency devaluation and inflation with gold.
Holders of gold in the US possess some protection against inflation and dollar devaluation. If the US continues on its current policy of dollar devaluation, the Fed and the administrationwill receive far fewer objections if its people hold gold or silver. I believe that Bernanke intends to devalue the dollar so that the government can better address its outrageous mountain of debt. Thus, it would not surprise me if somewhere ahead the US government comes out and actually encourages its people to buy and own gold. This may sound far-fetched, but if it happens, that could be the start of a panic in the US to buy gold ("Hey, if the government says it's OK to buy gold, then brother, I'm buying!").
$5,000 Gold and $300 Silver are Credible Numbers
BY JAMES WEST - FinancialSense.com Q: What do CNBC, George Soros, Warren Buffet and every other mainstream investment commentator on the price of gold have in common for the last ten years? A: They are all wrong.
All the time, every year, ten out of ten years in a row. If you continue to pay attention to such disinformation, you will lose money. Definitely. No question. Guaranteed.
Each and every year, their vapid comments on the future gold price prove to be complete bollocks, yet year after year, and day after day, millions of readers watchers and listeners tune in for another dose of horribly incorrect information.
Gold May Gain to Record Above $1,500
as Global Debt Concerns Weaken Dollar
By Kim Kyoungwha - Bl.oomberg.com
Gold may gain, extending its rally to record as the dollar weakened on the worsening debt crisis in the U.S. and Europe, prompting investors to seek precious metals as a store of value.
Cash bullion swung between a gain of 0.1 percent and a loss of 0.3 percent before trading at $1,494.90 an ounce at 8:53 a.m. in Singapore. The metal reached a record $1,499.32 yesterday. Gold for June delivery in New York was little changed at $1,495.30 an ounce after touching a record $1,500.50.
Is gold money the safest in the world?
By Aaron Kutchinsky- CommodityOnline.com
The world is facing so many economic problems that its descent is a continuous cycle. The declension of many economic powers has made many people such as investors look for other ways to fight inflation that these economic complications always throw at us.
Many people have turned to gold and silver investments as a means to secure their finances, because of the many benefits and advantage that investing in these precious metals offer to people, and the fact that the value of these metals do not go down to zero.
Precious metals rally and gold hoarding by US universities
By John Bear - CommodityOnline.com
Dallas hedge-fund boss J. Kyle Bass helped guide the University of Texas Investment Management Co. on getting delivery of 6,643 gold bars, worth $987 million on April 15, now kept in a bank storage place in New York.
Bass, who made profits of $500 million with 2006 bets on a U.S. subprime-mortgage marketplace collapse, said managers of the endowment, referred to as UTIMCO, sought board approval to convert its gold investment funds into bullion this year. A board member, Bass, 41, said he was asked to assist with that procedure.
Discovering Gold’s Utility Behind America's Triple-A Façade
By Eric Fry - The DailyReckoning.com
04/19/11 Laguna Beach, California – Yesterday's big news wasn't really news at all. Standard and Poor's finally found the nerve to state openly what the rest of the world already knew: the Emperor is naked.
The esteemed ratings service announced that America risks losing its triple-A credit rating. "We believe," said S&P, "there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the US within two years."
Officially, America remains the world’s preeminent triple-A credit. Unofficially, America's triple-A credit is a financial Potemkin Village. It is all façade. The US lost its triple-A credentials years ago, but the rating keeps hanging around – a function of tradition, decorum, politics and complacency.
Behind America’s triple-A façade, its creditworthiness steadily deteriorates.
Riding the Silver Bull: Worry If It Gets to Triple Digits This Year
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
I had quite a few questions on this topic of when to sell silver this evening, based on a comment I made with the normal gold and silver charts. I indicated we could see a pullback and consolidation, and it might be 'impressive.' I was thinking of support around 40, maybe 38.
Unless there is a liquidation panic as we saw in 2008 then I do not believe it will be much more profound than that.
Someone brought this interview on this very topic to my attention, and I include it here for your knowledge.
I have a lot of respect for Jimmy Rogers. He is an intelligent man and a real gentleman. I think there is wisdom and experience in what he says.
Is the Precious Metals Train Changing Speed or Direction?
By DoctoRx - DailyCapitalist.clom
I suspect the answer to the above question is 'maybe' for the first part and 'no' for the second.
It also may be that this weekend a well-read blogger laid down the Establishment’s gauntlet in an important way regarding the inflation story. Dr. Krugman opined on April 16 in "Inflation, Here and There (Wonkish)":
I've taken to looking at the Billion Price Index, which looks a lot like the goods-only, but with much higher frequencies. And right now the BPP index is clearly indicating that the big price bump of early 2011 is fading away . . .
Silver rise not unexpected for those who are into it
By Shyamal Mehta - CommodityOnline.com
MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Gold prices settled at new high yesterday while Silver also rose and made a new high. Gold prices settled near USD 1500 per ounce yesterday but failed to touch and cross the said level.
Gold rose as fresh investors demand emerged after Standard & Poor’s downgraded US economy outlook. The downgrade reverted investors from greenback (no more attractive for investment) to Gold, the safe haven asset for investment.
How High Will Silver Go?
BY RYAN JORDAN - FinancialSense.com
At a time when silver is exploding ever higher, it may be hard to believe that the white metal can continue to move on up. Or you may be tempted to think that there is no precedent for silver really launching higher without a major, Weimar style currency event. Obviously, in a “toilet paper moment” for the U.S. currency the fiat value of silver would likely shoot up into the trillions of dollars. It is in preparation for the possibility of such a currency accident that everyone should acquire some gold and silver. It is quite likely that everyone CAN’T do this, however, since there may come a time when many potential sellers of metal are so scared for their financial future that they decide not to sell. All the more reason to keep acquiring your gold and silver when you see the politicians arguing over how to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, and when the FED and other financial elites keep on creating fiat money. In fact, it was just reported that the monetary base in the US has increased something like 500 billion dollars in the last six months! To put things into perspective, the US monetary authorities have created 10 times as much fiat money in six months as all the silver coins and bullion hoarded over 4,000 years!
Debt, Deficit and Inflation
BY RONALD GRIESS - FinancialSense.com
Debt, the debt ceiling, the federal budget and inflation seem to be gathering much attention in the media. The following charts review each of these areas.
Chart 1
The following chart plots the amount of gross federal debt each and every month from December, 1924. A least squared trend line of the entire period shows debt is rising at a compound annual rate of 7.8%
Budget Cuts are Meaningless Without Fed Transparency
By Congressman Ron Paul - paul.house.gov
Congress focused on issues surrounding government spending this week as talk of deficits, the national debt, and the debt limit saturated the airwaves. This is a positive development. In years past, there was very little concern over how much was spent here in Washington, how it was spent, or how much of our gross domestic product was being consumed by government. That blissful ignorance naturally resulted in decades of government spending with impunity, bringing us to where we are today: trillions in debt with astronomical entitlement obligations that will be impossible to fulfill in the not too distant future. So it is a good thing that there is so much political pressure now on our leaders to actually put the brakes on runaway spending.
Debts Just Don't Disappear
BY BRIAN PARAGAMIAN - FinanacialSense.com
I believe we are in the early stages of a major currency and debt crisis we have never seen here before in the United States. Yet, our government continues to paint a rosy picture. Why can’t they fess up and tell us the truth as to what is really happening and how dire the situation really is? I don’t believe anything that comes out of Washington DC these days and it doesn't seem like I am the only one. I just heard last week, 2 CNBC contributors who we see nearly every morning talking about economic data say they don’t believe anything Washington says either. What people don’t realize is, this crisis, if it plays out, could rock the foundation of the United States, like never before. The US dollar is the foundation of the world banking system and has been the reserve currency for the last 50 years. If it loses it’s status, all hell will break loose. I know, you don't think it can happen but did anyone think Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or General Motors could go bankrupt? Or that the mortgage sector would meltdown? Those who did were a small minority.
The U.S. could lose its AAA credit rating? Why Treasury bond investors aren't flustered
By Tom Petruno - LATimes.com
For all the headlines that Standard & Poor’s generated Monday by warning that it might lower America’s AAA credit rating, the news has failed to panic the target audience: Treasury bond investors.
Yields on Treasury securities slipped on Monday from Friday’s levels, and on Tuesday the market ended mostly unchanged. The 10-year T-note yield (charted below), a benchmark for other long-term interest rates, eased to 3.37% from 3.38% on Monday.
Bernanke May Reinvest Maturing Deb
to Avoid 'Cold Turkey' End to Stimulus
By Scott Lanman - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may keep reinvesting maturing debt into Treasuries to maintain record stimulus even after making good on a pledge to complete $600 billion in bond purchases by the end of June.
The Fed chief’s top two lieutenants said this month the economy and inflation are too weak to warrant the start of a monetary-policy reversal. Investors and economists including David Kellyat JPMorgan Funds see that as a signal the Fed will keep its balance sheet at current levels by replacing about $17 billion a month in maturing mortgage debt with Treasuries.
Surprise warning on U.S. debt comes as Washington inches away from gridlock Standard & Poor's warning that it could downgrade the AAA rating on U.S. debt in the next two years jolts financial markets. The warning comes even as a new sense of realism emerges in the stalemate between President Obama and congressional Republicans over fiscal policy.
By Don Lee, Tom Hamburger and Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles— An unexpected warning about America's soaring debt jolted financial markets and threatens wider consequences for the U.S. economy, even as a new sense of realism emerges in the stalemate between President Obama and congressionalRepublicans over fiscal policy.
The shot across the government's bow came from Standard & Poor's, a leading credit rating firm, which served notice that there was a 1-in-3 chance that it would lower the now-sterling AAA rating on U.S. debt in the next two years.
The FDIC and the Federal Reserve The Tales of Scylla and Charybdis
BY DAVID KOTOK - FinancialSense.com
The Strait of Messina separates the eastern coast of Sicily from the southern tip, or “boot,” of Italy. This passage, three kilometers wide at its narrowest, is known for its strong tidal currents. Here is where Greek mythology recounted the tales of Scylla and Charybdis. These two monsters were believed to reside in the Strait of Messina, threatening ships and their crews as they transited through the strait from the Ionian Sea in the Mediterranean to the Tyrrhenian Sea, which lies off the western coast of Italy.
The Greeks described Charybdis as a monster who manifested herself as a whirlpool, gulping and spitting out huge amounts of water several times a day, creating the treacherous currents. Scylla was a six-headed and twelve-armed monster, who would consume everything that crossed her path. It was by the presence of these two monsters Greek legend explained the shipwrecks and destruction that took place in these perilous waters.
Fed offers up two options for protecting lenders
By Dina ElBoghdady - WashingtonPost.com
A sweeping financial measure enacted last year bars lenders from approving a mortgage without verifying if the borrower has a reasonable ability to repay it.
Lenders that violate that rule leave themselves vulnerable to lawsuits and enforcement actions. Struggling homeowners could even use violations of this rule to fight foreclosure.
But lawmakers left it up to regulators to decide how this measure should be applied in the real world — and under which conditions lenders would be free from liability.
The Dollar's Surprising Reaction to a Negative US Debt Outlook
By Addison Wiggin - DailyReckoning.com
04/18/11 Baltimore, Maryland – Sniffing the obvious, Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook for US sovereign debt from stable to negative this morning.
"We believe," reads a statement released with the announcement, "there is at least a one-in-three likelihood that we could lower our long-term rating on the US within two years."
As we type, the Dow is down more than 200 points. The S&P hangs by its fingernails to 1,300. And the yield on a 10-year Treasury has inched its way to 3.44%
For the record… or, should we say, for what it's worth… S&P still considers US debt AAA.
Geithner Defends U.S. on Debt
By CAROL E. LEE and DAMIAN PALETTA - WSJ.com
President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner expressed confidence that Washington will solve its budget problems, seeking to tamp down concern over a credit-rating report that questioned the country's long-term fiscal health.
Their efforts came after Standard & Poor's for the first time lowered its outlook on U.S. government debt from "stable" to "negative." The firm shook Wall Street and Washington Monday when it warned it could downgrade the government's top-notch AAA debt rating if the White House and Congress can't reach a credible plan to rein in federal budget deficits by 2013.
Geithner Sees Progress Toward Accord
to Reduce Record U.S. Budget Deficits
By Ian Katz and Peter Coo - Bloomberg.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said he’s confident U.S. political leaders will bridge their differences and move toward a long-term plan to narrow record budget deficits and reduce the debt.
"We have an opportunity now over the next two months to make some real progress," Geithner said in an interview on Bloomberg Television today. "What we agree on is putting in place strong targets for savings, deficit reduction over a specific time frame with enforceable limits," he said.
Obama fights back against S&P move
By James Politi in Washington
The Obama administration has fought back against Standard & Poor’s decision to lower the US credit rating outlook, arguing that there is no danger of a downgrade and that a deficit reduction deal in Congress is within reach.
"I believe that Democrats and Republicans can come together to get this done," Barack Obama, US president, said in a speech at a community college in northern Virginia on Tuesday. "It won’t be easy. There are going to be some fierce disagreements ... But I’m optimistic."
Why S&P's Official Statement is Nothing But a Joke
By Joel Bowman - DailyReckoning.com
04/18/11 Leblon Beach, Rio de Janeiro – You want a good laugh, Fellow Reckoner? We’ve got a great joke for you, courtesy of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services Inc. But first, the news…
We had other notes prepared for you this morning, but then this headline crept across our screen:
"S&P Moves US Outlook to Negative"
The Wall Street Journal provides some details...
"Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services Inc. cut its outlook on the US to negative, increasing the likelihood of a potential downgrade from its triple-A rating, as the path from large budget deficits and rising government debt remains unclear."
Timothy Geithner moves to allay market concerns
about S&P report on U.S. credit rating
By Jim Puzzanghera - LATimes.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner took to the business airwaves to try to ease market concerns about the U.S. fiscal situation in the wake of Monday's warning from Standard & Poor's that the nation's AAA credit rating was in danger.
Geithner, one of the Obama administration's point people on the issue, told CNBC and Bloomberg TV on Tuesday that he was optimistic that the White House and congressional Republicans would bridge their sharp differences and agree on a way to reduce the huge budget deficit.
Fiscal Conservatives Dodge $10 Trillion Debt
By Simon Johnson - Bloomberg.com
Washington is filled with self- congratulation this week, with Republicans claiming that they have opened serious discussion of the U.S. budget deficit and President Barack Obama’s proponents arguing that his counterblast last Wednesday will win the day.
The reality is that neither side has come to grips with the most basic of our harsh fiscal realities.
Start with the facts as provided by the nonpartisanCongressional Budget Office. Compare the CBO’s budgetforecast for January 2008, before the outbreak of serious financial crisis in the fall of that year, with its latest version from January 2011. The relevant line is “debt held by the public at the end of the year,” meaning net federal government debt held by the private sector, which excludes government agency holdings of government debt.
Dead mules and the Big Sleep
By Wesley Pruden - The Washington Times
Ours may be remembered as the era of the Big Sleep. Barack Obama and the Democrats lie comatose at the switch as the federal government continues to swell up like a dead mule in the heat of late July. Air-traffic controllers doze off with airliners circling airports, frantically trying to get landing instructions.
Joe Biden sleeps through the boss’s forgettable speech about the economy, caught on camera with his chin against his chest, happily sawing hickory logs. A man sitting next to him in the photograph is obviously wrestling with a protocol problem: How loud does a veep get to snore before he gets a sharp elbow in the ribs?
Libya rebels will receive $25 million from U.S.
White House OKs nonlethal support
By Eli Lake-The Washington Times
The Obama administration informed Congress on Friday that it is providing $25 million in nonlethal aid to Libya's rebels, a sign that the United States and its allies are stepping up support for the opposition toCol. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in the Libyan civil war.
"The president’s proposed actions would provide urgently needed nonlethal assistance to support efforts to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack in Libya," said Joseph E. Macmanus, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, in an April 15 letter. A copy of the letter, sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was obtained by The Washington Times.
Obama Blames 'Speculators' For High Gas Prices
AFP -- ANNANDALE, Virginia - US President Barack Obama blamed oil "speculators" on Tuesday for soaring gasoline prices that risk weighing down the US recovery and could dampen his 2012 election hopes.
"It is true that a lot of what's driving oil prices up right now is not the lack of supply. There’s enough supply. There’s enough oil out there for world demand," Obama said at a campaign-style event not far from Washington.
Gasoline prices climb in California and the nation
Costs at the pump are getting closer to record levels. The state's average over the last week for a gallon of regular gasoline is up 4.4 cents to $4.205. The U.S. has seen a 5.3-cent rise to $3.844.
By Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
The relentless rise in retail gasoline prices continued over the last week, the U.S. Energy Department said, with some analysts predicting that fuel prices could test record highs.
In California, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline climbed 4.4 cents to $4.205. That was $1.115 a gallon higher than a year earlier, but still considerably short of the record $4.588 set in June 2008, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of fuel retailers, which was released Monday.
Foreclosure system in chaos Lenders and lawmakers discover thousands of mishandled mortgage documents
WashingtonPost.com
During the housing boom, millions of homeowners got easy access to mortgages. Now, some lenders have discovered many mortgage documents were faked, forged or otherwise mishandled. Attorneys general in all 50 states have launched an investigation into the foreclosure system, and politicians in Washington are pushing for a federal investigation into the matter.
Leaving money to children is not a priority for baby boomers If you're counting on a lush inheritance from your baby boomer parents, think again. -- LATimes.com
A survey released Tuesday shows only 49% of wealthy parents say it’s important to leave money to their children when they die. Instead, many people plan to use their savings for travel and to focus on personal relationships, according to the study by U.S. Trust, a unit of Bank of America Corp.
The study up-ends the old notion of parents carefully tending their financial estates to be passed down at the reading of their wills.
"There is an expectation about the wealthy that they have an implicit, sacred responsibility to pass down their fortune to the next generation," said Sallie Krawcheck, head of Bank of America’s wealth-management division. "Our research, however, uncovered a distinct generational mindset that reflects changing views about what retirement means and an evolving sense of what one generation owes the next."
FHA Loans Looking Eerily Similar to Their Subprime Predecessor
By Ted Spradlin - Portland Credit Examiner
I've recently had several first-time homebuyer FHA loans come across my desk and I'm a bit unsettled by what I'm looking at. There really is no difference between the highly destructive subprime mortgages of the 2004-2007 period and today's FHA mortgages. I fully expect these loans to blow up in 2012-2014 almost as spectacularly as the subprime loans did starting in 2007.
Here's what I mean.
Dollars Flow Back Into Tech IBM and Intel See Surge in Earnings
as Businesses Spend Big on Hardware
By SPENCER E. ANTE And DON CLARK - WSJ.com
Two of the world's largest technology vendors surprised Wall Street by posting surging sales and profits in the first-quarter, and signaled brighter days ahead.
International Business Machines Corp. and Intel Corp. both saw a big boost in spending from businesses, especially on servers and machines used in corporate data centers.
IBM logged the highest revenue growth the company has seen in 10 years, adjusting for currency fluctuations. Its quarterly revenue rose 7.7%, as demand for a new mainframe computer lifted hardware sales 19%.
China's 'Shift in Rhetoric' May Signal Faster Yuan Gains
By Bloomberg News
A "shift in rhetoric" indicates that China may be on the verge of allowing faster gains by the yuan to damp import costs that may fuel inflation, Capital Economics Ltd. said.
"Several senior policymakers have signaled in the last few days that China will allow the renminbi to strengthen in order to dampen imported price pressures," said London-based economist Mark Williams, a former adviser on China to the U.K. Treasury. "This would be a significant departure -- the exchange rate is usually viewed narrowly as an instrument of trade policy rather than as a monetary policy tool."
His comments were in an e-mailed note dated yesterday. Renminbi is another term for the currency.
Gold hits another new high; Silver at 31-year high
By Jim Wyckoff - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) - Gold prices are trading weaker on some mild profit-taking pressure Monday after hitting another fresh all-time record high of $1,489.70 overnight, basis the Comex June futures contract. Meantime, May Comex silver futures scored a fresh 31-year high of $43.38 an ounce overnight. A firmer U.S. dollar index and lower crude oil prices are somewhat limiting buying interest in the precious metals Monday. Comex June gold last traded down $4.90 an ounce at $1,481.10. Spot gold last traded down $6.40 at $1,480.50.
Gold still the first choice of nervous investors
By Amrita Mashar
AHMEDABAD (Commodity Online): Gold and Silver futures were down this morning, as an unexpected rate hike by China was offset by ongoing violence in North Africa and the Middle East and fears over the Euro zone’s debt crisis.
In the back ground, investors in international market awaited the release of the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.
Government debt fears drive more investors into gold and silver
By Tom Petruno - LATimes.com
Gold and silver marched to new highs Monday, benefiting from Standard & Poor’s warning about America’s credit rating and from more turmoil in Europe’s government-debt markets.
April gold futures in New York rose $7 to $1,492.30 an ounce, an all-time high (unadjusted for inflation). The metal traded as high as $1,497.30 before falling back.
Silver futures rallied 39 cents to $42.96 an ounce, the highest since the spike of late 1979 and early 1980, when the Hunt brothers briefly cornered the market.
Gold hits fresh record, silver repeats 31 yr high
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): Gold extended gains Monday and hit a fresh record while silver again hit 31 year high, boosted by concerns over euro zone debt crisis.
Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $ 1484.31 an ounce at 1.00 p.m Singapore time after hitting as high as $1488.50 an ounce in early trade.
However US gold futures were nearly flat at $1,486.60 an ounce while silver hit 31-year highs for the third consecutive session, hitting $43.34 an ounce in early trade.
Throw Out the Money Changers
By Chris Hedges - TruthDig.com
We stand today before the gates of one of our temples of finance. It is a temple where greed and profit are the highest good, where self-worth is determined by the ability to amass wealth and power at the expense of others, where laws are manipulated, rewritten and broken, where the endless treadmill of consumption defines human progress, where fraud and crimes are the tools of business.
The two most destructive forces of human nature - greed and envy - drive the financiers, the bankers, the corporate mandarins and the leaders of our two major political parties, all of whom profit from this system. They place themselves at the center of creation. They disdain or ignore the cries of those below them. They take from us our rights, our dignity and thwart our capacity for resistance. They seek to make us prisoners in our own land. They view human beings and the natural world as mere commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. Human suffering, wars, climate change, poverty, it is all the price of business. Nothing is sacred. The Lord of Profit is the Lord of Death.
A Review on Where We Stand
with Regard to Deflation, Hyperinflation and Stagflation
Jesse's Café Américain - SilverBearCafe.com
Well, the good news for everyone is that nothing seems inevitable here, that there is almost always a choice, but it is often wrapped up in a nice looking rationale, with all the compulsion of a necessity, for the good of the people. Us versus them in a battle for survival and all that. And clever leaders on the extremes provide the 'them' to be dehumanized and objectified. The leftist wishes to murder the bankers, and the fascist the lower classes and outsiders. The extremes of both end up making life miserable for almost everybody except for a privileged few.
And so I reiterate that in a purely fiat currency, the money supply is indeed fiat, by command.
Inflation Hits... Money and Lies
Joel S. Hirschhorn - SilverBearCafe.com
How do the powerful keep the US population dumb and distracted? A key tactic has been using methodologies that produce totally misleading underestimates of key economic factors. First we learned that official unemployment figures are too low by a factor of two. Now, understand that the official rate of inflation hitting consumers is even more inaccurate. You will hear about a low inflation rate of less than 3 percent. In reality, it is closer to 10 percent, according to the highly regarded analysis by John Williams.
How Inflation Violates Retiree Civil Rights
John Rubino - SilverBearCafe.com
While we're on the subject of inflation's immorality, consider the impact of the dollar's destruction on retirees.
Citizens who work hard, save, and eventually retire with money in the bank are the bedrock of a stable society. In a rational world they would be held up as examples for the rest of us to emulate, and public policy would aim to create the highest possible number of self-reliant seniors.
Instead, four decades of soaring government spending, borrowing, money printing and public/private corruption have left the US with the historically-all-too-familiar dilemma of "inflate or die". Translated into policy, this means keeping interest rates at rock-bottom levels in order to ease the pressure on "consumers" who the government previously encouraged to go deeply into debt - and to convince the rest of us to leverage ourselves to the hilt with mortgages and car loans.
And You Thought the Fed Couldn't Get More Controversial?
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
There's an intriguing conspiracy theory being spread around the financial blogosphere. It purports that the Federal Reserve has been taking unprecedented measures to ensure that U.S. Treasury security prices remain high. This action would go far beyond its well-publicized quantitative easing efforts of simply purchasing Treasuries. The theory is little more than that -- just a theory accepted by few in financial markets. But it's interesting to think about: is the Fed using puts as a monetary policy tool?
The Financial Times Alphaville blog has a few posts about the "literal Bernanke put" today. It would entail the Fed selling Treasury puts to investors. Tracy Alloway does a good job of explaining:
The basic idea here is that the Fed, by selling those puts, comforts a US Treasury market increasingly nervous about rising interest rates, the end of QE2, US debt dynamics or whatever. These are American-style put options conferring the right, but not the obligation, to sell a given quantity of the underlying asset at a certain price. So they act almost like portfolio insurance in this particular case.
Retail Sales: The Next Chapter of the Financial Crisis
Addison Wiggin - SilverBearCafe.com
It was a good effort...but "federal debt held by the public would double under the President's budget," says the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
While we were exploring gold storage, junior miners and asset protection in Zurich, the CBO did some heavy lifting on the budget proposal advanced by Mr. Obama on Wednesday.
Even as the president promises to raise taxes, protect consumers and cut spending, the CBO shows the federal portion of the national debt held by the public growing from $10.4 trillion (69% of GDP) at the end of 2011 to $20.8 trillion (87% of GDP) at the end of 2021...adding $9.5 trillion to the nation's debt in nine years.
Nobody is Smarter Than The Markets The trend is your friend, two sides to every market, and lack of knowledge makes for unfortunate decisions, the shortage in silver, new high ground for gold and silver, a secret flight from currency spurs the rise in metals values.
By Bob Chapman - TheInternationalForecaster.com
Neither government nor anyone is smarter than the markets. As they say the trend is your friend. All you have to do is get on for the ride. It's really as simple as that. The trick is picking the trend. We were fortunate enough to pick gold and silver in June of 2000. We went long and stayed long all those years only occasionally making a trade. Every time there was a correction we recommended further purchases.
It has been unfortunate that the US government, other central banks, including the Federal Reserve, chose to attempt to manipulate those markets. They did retard the progress of these two metals and they are still doing so, but in the end they will fail, because the markets are far bigger than they are and the collective wisdom of investors will always triumph over the narrow desires of petty elitists.
Bob Chapman's Friday Report 4/15/11:
Nobody is Smarter Than The Markets - Alex Jones Tv 1/2
Bob Chapman's Friday Report 4/15/11:
Nobody is Smarter Than The Markets - Alex Jones Tv 1/2
America’s Banker May Tell Geithner to Go Away:
By William Pesek - Bloomberg.com
Timothy Geithner says borrowing more from China to finance tax cuts for the most affluent Americans would be irresponsible.
The Treasury secretary has it backward. The real question is whether Beijing is willing to double down on a nation whose balance sheet makes Italy look good. Holding $1.2 trillion of U.S. debt is a fast-growing risk to China.
Traders have a theory about why the euro is reasonably stable amid a broadening debt crisis: Asian central banks are converting proceeds from recent intervention moves into other currencies. "Asian central banks" has become a euphemism for China, whose reserves now exceed $3 trillion.
S&P's $5 trillion bank doomsday tab Political gridlock and fiscal bloat
aren't the United States' only problems.
Posted by Colin Barr - Fortune.com
Those are the issues that prompted Standard & Poor's to raise a red flag over the U.S. credit rating Monday, certainly. But there's a third factor worth considering: the risk that the U.S. economy could crash, bringing down the financial sector yet again and forcing everyone butJamie Dimon (right) and Lloyd Blankfein to dig deep into their pockets to prop it back up.
While a full-fledged crash obviously is unlikely to happen, S&P is saying that cleaning up a banking mess would cost much more now than ever before. It put the upfront cost of government support for the financial sector in a so-called economic stress situation at $5 trillion – up from its 2007 estimate of $3.9 trillion.
S&P Revises Its Outlook for US Debt
By Clive Crook - TheAtlantic.com
Why did Standard and Poor's move the markets when it changed the outlook for its AAA rating of US government from "stable" to "negative"--meaning it sees a one-in-three chance of less-than-AAA within two years? S&P adduces no new information that I can see. Competent ratings of opaque instruments such as, oh, mortgage-backed securities would be very useful to investors (not that ratings agencies troubled to provide competent ratings in that case, obviously). But why should anybody need that kind of help in judging the soundness of US government bonds? S&P knows nothing about them that you or I don't know. Yet long-dated Treasury bonds fell on the news and the stockmarket wobbled. Markets, like ratings agencies, move in mysterious ways.
U.S. Warned on Debt Load S&P Signals Top Credit Rating Is in Danger,
Stoking Political Battle on Deficit
By DAMIAN PALETTA And E. S. BROWNING - WSJ.com
A blunt warning Monday from a credit rating firm about the U.S. government's mounting debt pushed stock markets lower and intensified political divisions in Washington about how best to tackle growing deficits.
Both the Obama administration and House Republicans scrambled to gain leverage from Standard & Poor's changing its outlook on U.S. Treasury securities to "negative" from "stable."
S&P didn't lower its top-notch AAA-bond rating for U.S. government Treasury securities, and their prices initially fell but later rebounded amid optimism that the report could serve as a catalyst to force both sides in Washington to compromise.
US financial meltdown
On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-15-2011-(Part1)
US financial meltdown
On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-15-2011-(Part2)
U.S. Taxpayers on the Hook for Portugal Bailout
by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) - BigGovernment.com
Recently, Portugal officially requested a $116 billion bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. This makes Portugal the third European nation to seek such a bailout in the past year (Greece got $157 billion; Ireland $122 billion). What most people don’t realize is that the U.S. is the largest contributor to the IMF. Therefore, U.S. taxpayers are paying for Portugal’s bailout which – like the earlier bailouts of Greece and Ireland – was caused by too much government spending and borrowing.
Last year, here at BigGovernment.com I warned how the Obama Administration was making a Greek bailout more likely by agreeing in advance that U.S. taxpayers would help foot the bill. Later, the IMF set up a $356 billion bailout fund for European governments with the consent of the Obama Administration– even though the fund will likely cost U.S. taxpayers between $50-100 billion and possibly more – all without a Congressional vote or consultation.
Greece Says No Restructuring Plan in Place
as Traders Raise Default Bets
By Mark Deen and Rainer Buergin - Bloomberg.com
Greece said it has no plans for a debt restructuring even as German officials openly discuss the possibility and investors charge a record amount to insure the country’s obligations.
"Restructuring is not an issue we're discussing," Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in an April 16 interview in Washington. "The pain and the cost" of doing so would be greater than repaying lenders, he told reporters the same day.
Analysis: Libya is A Brave Face on a Farce
by Dr. Amiel Ungar - IsraelNationalNews.com
In what may become a symbolic photo of the current Libyan intervention, Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi was shown on Libyan state television driving in an open jeep in the midst of a coalition bombing of Tripoli, his capital.
One must allow for the fact that Qaddafi's appearance was staged and did not take place during the bombing, but still the Libyan dictator's swagger contrasts sharply with the extreme caution of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The latter rarely leaves his bunker and is said to change his sleeping quarters nightly to avoid an attack on his person by either Israel or by his many antagonists in Lebanon.
Libya: Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy vow Gaddafi must go
By Orla Guerin - BBC.co.uk
The leaders of the US, the UK and France have said in a joint letter that there can be no peace in Libya while Muammar Gaddafi stays in power.
Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy say Nato must maintain military operations to protect civilians and maintain pressure on Col Gaddafi.
To allow him to remain in power would "betray" the Libyan people, they write.
Signs of division remain within Nato, which is struggling to find additional combat aircraft for its strikes.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague met his US counterpart Hillary Clinton at a Nato summit on Friday, before telling the BBC he was "hopeful" more aircraft could eventually be found.
BAHRAIN: Security forces continue wide, deep crackdown on dissent
By Alexandra Sandels - LATimes.com
In the latest developments in Bahrain's ongoing crackdown on the country's political opposition and human-rights activists, more than two dozen uniformed and plainclothes security officers stormed the home of prominent defense lawyer Mohammed Tajer on Friday night and detained him, said watchdog group Human Rights Watch in a statement.
The raid of Tajer's home took place around 11 p.m. Friday when security officers surrounded and then barged into his home, confiscating laptops and cellphones, among other things, before taking Tajer away. The raid is among the latest occurrences in the aftermath of the violent government crackdown against the anti-government protest movement that shook the country to the core earlier this year (pictured, clashes in February in the capital of Manama).
US Seeks New Business Ties in Arab Countries
by Chana Ya'ar - IsraelNationalNews.com
The U.S. State Department is hoping to promote new business in what it calls "transitional democracies" of the Arab nations.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced this week the nation's corporate leaders will arrange talks between investors and new partners in the Middle East.
She told the U.S.-Islamic World Forum the meeting will take place at the end of May, under the auspices of the Partners for a New Beginning (PNB) organization, AFP reported.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest Islamic movement and the founder of Hamas, has set up a network of political parties around the country that eclipse the following of the middle class activists that overthrew the regime. On the extreme fringe of the Brotherhood, Islamic groups linked to al-Qeada are organising from the mosques to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of the dictatorship.
The military-led government already faces accusations that it is bowing to the surge in support for the Muslim movements, something that David Cameron warned of in February when he said Egyptian democracy would be strongly Islamic.
{feigned surprise} Oh, my, who'd have thought that could happen? Only the terminally naïve or those with no understanding of the area or human nature would have figured otherwise.
Power vacuums produce opportunities for others to fill them. The US helped create that vacuum by insisting Hosni Mubarak must step down.
Dispatches From Cairo: Keeping Up With Egypt
By Lauren Unger-Geoffroy - TruthDig.com
For God’s sake, American press! Hurry up! Get up to speed on the Egyptian revolution evolution! It is changing every day.
You journalists do deserve thanks for your international outcry about the abuse of power against citizens, notably women. Faces were red, small ignorant aggressive heads fell, the military boys are sorry and on best behavior and under the eye of officers (for now, and of course this is not static!). People are sitting on the tanks and sharing soft drinks with their soldier brothers again. They've turned the page, we’re on to the next chapter - this is EGYPT, my brothers. The people are forgiving, they do not hold a grudge: THE LOVE IS BACK.
Kerry Slams Obama Over Settlement Freeze Rhetoric
by Gavriel Queenann - IsraelNationalNews.com
Senator John Kerry (D) slammed President Barack Obama on Wednesday for his focus on forcing Israel into a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, Reuters reports.
Kerry, the Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told attendees at a Brookings' Saban Center for Middle East Policy conference Obama had "wasted" more that half of his presidential term by publicly demanding that Israel suspend all settlement expansion.
Gerald Celente on The Bruce Collins Show
Fed Aims at Mortgage Fraud, Shoots Housing Market in the Gut The problem with mortgage fraud wasn't broker compensation: it was the ease of the fraud and the incentives throughout the food chain for collusion. New Fed rules simply wipe out competitors to the "too big to fail" mortgage banks.
By Charles Hugh Smith - OfTwoMinds.com
Why are we not surprised that the Fed took aim at mortgage fraud and ended up shooting the housing market in the gut. Here's a simple guide to what's good and bad for housing:
Things which makes it easier and cheaper to borrow money: good.
Things which make it harder and more expensive to borrow money: bad.
And that's the fundamental problem with the Federal Reserve's new regulations crimping mortgage broker compensation. Unless we expect mortgage brokers to take vows of poverty, then the system has to allow legitimate brokers to get paid in accordance with the amount of work the loan requires to get funded.
HOUSING: Falling rates, prices create local buyers' paradise HOME MORTGAGE PAYMENTS HIT HISTORIC LOWS IN MANY NEIGHBORHOODS
By ERIC WOLFF - NCTimes.com
Last year, at age 37, electrician Fred Boyd and his wife ended years of renting in Orange County and bought their family a three-bedroom house in Oceanside about seven miles from the beach.
"Home values have come down, and the loan rates have been pretty reasonable," he said. "And what you're able to buy down here, compared to what you'd be able to buy up there, it's in a lot nicer of an area."
Boyd could hardly have picked a better time.
U.S. Foreclosure Settlement Muddies Outlook for Mortgage Relief
By Prashant Gopal - Bloomberg.com
The foreclosure-abuse settlements announced yesterday by federal regulators may make it harder for state attorneys general and the Obama administration to force banks to reduce loan balances for more troubled U.S. homeowners.
The 14 largest U.S. mortgage servicers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), agreed to review all foreclosed loans from 2009 and 2010, and pay back losses in cases that were mishandled. They also will improve procedures by hiring staff, upgrading document-tracking systems and assigning a single point of contact for each borrower.
The Budget Ax: Why Homeless Veterans but Not NASCAR?
By Rajiv Srinivasan Friday, Apr. 08, 2011 - Time.com
My eyes always cringe at the sight of a homeless veteran. As I know the pains of war firsthand, it breaks my heart to see that people who have sacrificed so much for my freedom are suffering to such a degree. But it's comforting to know that groups like the American Legion Homeless Veterans Housing Project in Jewett City, Conn., have been renovating old buildings and turning them into shelters for veterans for quite some time. They've raised millions of dollars from private businesses and caring citizens. The federal government has even said it would chip in the monthly rent of $875 for 15 veterans each year and provide additional funds for construction.
Unfortunately, in the recent round of intense budget cuts in Congress, this small funding for the homeless-shelter project was slashed, along with a total of $75 million in homeless-veteran benefits. As both a veteran and an American, I don't believe that veterans' programs should ever be isolated from budget cuts. After all, if the nation is hurting, it is we veterans who have sacrificed and will sacrifice first to protect her. But when I turn the pages of the budget to find a $7.4 million guaranteed commitment to fund a U.S. Army NASCAR sponsorship - and $20 million more from the National Guard to do the same - my blood begins to boil.
When Unions Get Desperate There haven't been any major natural disasters in California recently, but teachers apparently think potential budget cuts merit a "State of Emergency Week."
By ALLYSIA FINLEY - WSJ.com
There haven't been any major earthquakes or wildfires in California recently, but teachers apparently think that the potential budget cuts to education merit a "State of Emergency Week."
The California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union, is planning a week of activities in May. The goal is to pressure Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown and the state legislature to raise taxes rather than cut education spending.
Earlier this week the union posted a 10-page list of potential activities on its website, CAstateofemergency.com. Ideas included stalking legislators for a day; boycotting corporations like Microsoft that advocate for education reform; attempting to close down major roads; dying their hair red; holding night-time vigils with coffins and black arm-bands; picketing companies; and withdrawing funds from banks that "are not paying their fair share of taxes." They also planned to work with Ben & Jerry's to create a "labor-union flavored ice cream."
Hospital group proposes new taxes to save AHCCCS
Phoenix Business Journal - by Mike Sunnucks
Hospitals are pitching new plans to Gov. Jan Brewer this week that would ease cuts she is planning to the state's Medicaid system.
Proposals forwarded by the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association would impose a $360 million tax on hospitals, a $100 million tax on health plans and a $5 million tax on nursing homes that serve patients under the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. AHCCCS patients also could face new $10 to $15 co-payments for some visits to the doctor.
Social Security Isn't Broke, But We Still Ought to Fix It
ByCharles Wallace - DailyFinance.com
It has been a big week in Washington for thrashing out the federal budget, both this year's and those for the future. Along with discussions about slashing spending on such things as defense and Medicare, a growing number of lawmakers are lining up behind plans to cut Social Security, one of the most cherished -- and vital -- programs for the elderly in this country.
Republicans want to increase the retirement age and some Democrats have joined the chorus to cut benefits. Even President Obama, in outlining his budget proposals on Wednesday, indicated that Americans would have to accept "reforms" of Social Security.
Obama Pushes Chinese-Style Internet ID System
Alex Jones Tv Sunday Edition 1/3
Obama Pushes Chinese-Style Internet ID System
Alex Jones Tv Sunday Edition 2/3
Obama Pushes Chinese-Style Internet ID System
Alex Jones Tv Sunday Edition 3/3
Wells Fargo Tests Microchip Credit Cards for Globetrotting Clients
By Elizabeth Ody - Bloomberg.com
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the U.S. bank with the most branches, is testing microchip-embedded credit cards with frequent travelers to address complaints of customers who have trouble using their cards abroad.
The pilot program announced today marks the first effort by a major U.S. bank to deploy Visa Inc. (V) credit cards with so-called EMV-chip technology, which has become a standard inEurope and much of the rest of the world, according to San Francisco-based Wells Fargo.
FBI shuts down poker sites in major online gambling crackdown
By Gautham Nagesh
Executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker have been charged with bank fraud and money laundering.
The FBI shut down three of the largest poker websites Friday in what appears to be the largest crackdown on illegal online gambling to date.
Eleven executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker have been charged with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses. Prosecutors are seeking to immediately shut down the sites and recover $3 billion from the firms.
When the Aliens Touch Down, Make for This Missile Base
By Arnie Cooper - Wired.com
Larry Hall believes in preparing for scenarios that the Man would have you believe are fictional - Mayan disaster prophecies, pole shifts, alien invasions, that sort of thing. So the 54-year-old software engineer shelled out $250,000 for a decommissioned Atlas F Missile Base in Kansas. "I thought, wow, I can transform it into an ultrasafe, energy-efficient fortress," Hall says. Then he figured that other people might also sleep better 200 feet underground within epoxy-hardened concrete walls. And with a custom retrofit featuring GE Monogram stainless-steel appliances and Kohler fixtures, they could also eat (and flush) in style. So Hall announced a "condo suite package" - starting at $900,000 - that includes a five-year food supply (think hydroponics and aquaculture) and "simulated view windows" with light levels calibrated to the time of day to keep you from going crazy.
Is Chernobyl a Wild Kingdom or a Radioactive Den of Decay?
By Adam Higginbotham - Wored.com
The pine trees framing the entrance to the forest appear to be normal. Unremarkable. But the crackling dosimeter says otherwise. On this freezing February afternoon, about 2 miles from the concrete sarcophagus that now entombs the number four reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, Gennadi Milinevsky, a physicist from a university in Kiev, walks along a path carpeted with pine needles and patches of recent snow. The size of a transistor radio, the dosimeter emits a sharp click when it detects a radioactive particle. Milinevsky waves the instrument: Its digital readout indicates levels of radiation 120 times higher than normal. As he walks, the staccato popping gets faster as the levels climb to 250 times higher than normal. "It's not good," he says. He ventures toward a wide clearing littered with the trunks of dead trees. Milinevsky suggests stopping the tour here. On the far side of the clearing, he knows, the dosimeter will begin to make a sound no one wants to hear: a terrifying snowstorm of screeching white noise, indicating highly toxic levels of gamma radiation some 1,000 times above normal.
Scientists puzzled by giant whirlpools
that have appeared in the Atlantic Ocean
Posted on April 12, 2011 by The Extinction Protocol
April 13, 2011 – SAO PAULO – U.S. scientists discovered two giant whirlpools in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Guyana and Suriname. It became a sensational discovery because this part of the ocean has been studied thoroughly, and no one expected anything like that to appear in the area. More importantly, no one can understand where the whirlpools came from and what surprises they may bring to people. According to Brazilian scientist Guilherme Castellane, the two funnels are approximately 400 kilometers in diameter. Until now, these were not known on Earth. The funnels reportedly exert a strong influence on climate changes that have been registered during the recent years. “Funnels rotate clockwise. They are moving in the ocean like giant frisbees, two discs thrown into the air. Rotation occurs at a rate of one meter per second, the speed is sufficiently large compared to the speed of oceanic currents, on the border hoppers is a wave-step height of 40 cm,” Castellane said. Even during the dry months, when the movement of oceanic currents and the flow of the Amazon River practically comes to a standstill, the funnels do not disappear. Therefore, the nature of the funnels does not depend on the flow of water, which one of the world’s biggest rivers brings into the ocean. The natural phenomenon, which creates the whirlpools, is unknown to modern science.
Progressive Greens getting impatient and aggressive in forward march toward globalism ....
President Obama Meets with Power Shift Youth Clean Energy Leaders
by Jeff Mann - PoserShift2011.com
Today at the White House, President Obama met with twelve young leaders from across the country that are in town for Power Shift 2011, a youth clean energy and climate summit being attended by over 10,000 people.
The young leaders described the meeting as positive and expressed excitement about working with the Administration to transition America to 100% clean energy and protect the Clean Air Act.
Power Shift 2011: Is Obama Snuffleupagus?
by Glenn Hurowitz - PowerShift2011.com
On the eve of the Power Shift 2011 climate youth conference, no one expects President Obama to show. If he did, he'd probably get booed by activists angry about his tightening embrace of the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear industries. But it was a very different story two years ago at the last Power Shift, when 10,000 young, idealistic activists filled the Washington Convention Center screaming his name on the opening night of the conference, anticipating his arrival after tantalizing hints from White House staff that he would accept the invitation. After all, we were the ones who'd helped elect him, and he certainly wasn't one to pass up the chance to fire up so many young, idealistic activists to make the world a better place.
Port of Galveston seeks private partners
By Laura Elder - The Daily News
Published April 11, 2010
GALVESTON - A year ago, something happened at the Virginia Port Authority that sent ripples across waterfronts everywhere.
Illinois-based CenterPoint Properties Trust, an industrial real estate company, made a $3.5 billion offer to take over operations of the state-run authority in a 60-year partnership.
Public-private partnerships are nothing new. The Port of Galveston has sought private partners since voters a decade ago shot down a merger of its public docks with the Port of Houston.
Galveston port poised to outsource its operations
By HARVEY RICE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
GALVESTON — The Port of Galveston is in final negotiations to lease its facilities to a major investment group, which could make it the first U.S. port to turn over its entire operation to the private sector.
Several U.S. ports lease terminal operations to private operators, but "in this case it is the entire port structure, which is really a unique opportunity," said economist John Martin, who heads Martin Associates, based in Lancaster, Pa.
Martin Associates had done work for every U.S. port and did the economic study for the proposed lease, a 50/50 joint venture of global investment firm Carlyle Group and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, the world's largest stevedore-terminal operator with operations in more than 50 ports in 25 countries.
From China's mouth to Texans' ears:
Outreach includes small station in Galveston
By John Pomfret - Washington Post Staff Writer
GALVESTON, TEX. -- Cruise southeast out of Houston, past the NASA exits and toward the Gulf ofMexico, and you pick up something a little incongruous on the radio, amid country crooners, Rush Limbaugh, hip-hop and all the freewheeling clamor of the American airwaves.
"China Radio International," a voice intones. "This is Beyond Beijing."
Way, way beyond Beijing.
Sandwiched between a Spanish Christian network and a local sports station, broadcasting at 1540 on your AM dial, is KGBC of Galveston, wholly American-owned and -operated, but with content provided exclusively by a mammoth, state-owned broadcaster from the People's Republic of China.
Hutchison Plans $5.8 Billion Ports Offering
BY CHRIS V. NICHOLSON
Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate controlled by the billionaire Li Ka-shing, said Monday that it would seek to raise $5.8 billion in a spin-off of its ports unit.
The listing, which is set to surpass SingTel’s issue in 1993 for 4 billion Singapore dollars ($3.1 billion), would be the largest initial offering ever in Singapore.
Hutchison is listing its ports division, Hutchison Port Holdings Management, as a business trust, which would be a first. The company chose Singapore because it offered a regulatory framework where listing such a business trust was possible.
The company is offering 3.9 billion units for up to $1.08 each, with a possible overallotment option. It has also secured a number of large investors who have agreed to buy $1.6 billion worth of the shares.
The Other Handover
By Stephen Vines Saturday, Aug. 06, 2005 - Time.com
During the heyday of colonial rule in Hong Kong, the shorthand of speech was telling: "the Club" was the Hong Kong Club, and "the Bank" meant the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. The people who mattered belonged to the former and banked at the latter. And most of the people who mattered were either British or had very strong ties to the British establishment. Not a single Chinese person occupied a leading post in the government, and business was dominated by the big hongs, or trading houses, controlled by old English and Scottish families.
That cozy world tumbled just before midnight Hong Kong time on Sept. 25, 1979, after trading had ceased on the London stock exchange. The Bank had issued a statement saying it was selling, for just HK$639 million (about $82 million at today's exchange rate), its 22% stake in Hutchison Whampoa, one of the hongs. The buyer was Cheung Kong (Holdings), a mass-market property developer owned by Li Ka-shing, a once penniless Chiu Chow immigrant. Hutchison, which rapidly came under Li's control, had a slew of valuable real estate interests - it owned docks and retail ventures. But under the often erratic leadership of Sir Douglas Clague, a charismatic war hero, the company ran into trouble and had to be rescued by the Bank, which then quickly showed him the door.
Soros: A Corporate Private Word Government
to Pay Your Taxes To - Alex Jones Tv 1/2
Soros: A Corporate Private Word Government
to Pay Your Taxes To - Alex Jones Tv 2/2
6 more bank failures... U.S. bank failure tally hits 34 Superior Bank had $2.7 billion in deposits
By Wallace Witkowski and John Letzing, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Regulators closed six U.S. banks including the principal subsidiary of Superior Bancorp. on Friday, bringing the year’s tally so far to 34, demonstrating the lingering effects of the financial crisis, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Hamilton State Bank will assume the deposits and buy the assets of failed Bartow County Bank of Cartersville, Ga. Bartow County Bank had $304.1 million in deposits and $330.2 million in assets.
Here's the Setup for the Con of the Decade This is the ultimate endgame of the financialization of the U.S. economy and the concentration of wealth and thus political power in the hands of those who skimmed the immense gains from that financialization.
By Charles Hugh Smith - OfTwoMinds.com
The Con of the Decade, which I described last July, is being set up nicely.
I described The Con of the Decade last July (2010). The Con makes me a heretic in the cult religion of Hyperinflation. I consider myself an agnostic about the destruction of the U.S. dollar and hyperinflation (basically the same thing), but my idea that hyperinflation is fundamentally a political process makes me a heretic. I skimmed a few of the dozens of comments posted on Rick's Picks and Zero Hedge after they posted one of my expositions on this dynamic, and didn't see even one comment in favor of this perspective.
The Con is being set up right now, and the outlines are clearly visible. The Con works like this:
1. The Financial Elites/Oligarchy raked in billions in private profit from the orgy of leverage, credit expansion, fraud, embezzlement and misrepresentation of risk that resulted in the Housing Bubble.
World Bank president: 'One shock away from crisis'
BBC.co.uk
The president of the World Bank has warned that the world is "one shock away from a full-blown crisis".
Robert Zoellick cited rising food prices as the main threat to poor nations who risk "losing a generation".
He was speaking in Washington at the end of the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile, G20 finance chiefs, who also met in Washington, pledged financial support to help new governments in the Middle East and North Africa.
Mr Zoellick said such support was vital.
GETTING OFF THE GLOBALIST CHESSBOARD: AN INTRODUCTION - Neithercorp.us
By Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers
and Brandon Smith of the Alternative Market Project
To put it simply, America is nearing a checkmate scenario. Like the final torrid maneuvers of a rigged chess match, we have been pressed, manipulated, and attacked into the last remaining corner of the “grand global chessboard” left to us; centralized control of all social and economic power into the hands of an unworthy elite. If we continue playing the game by their rules, we will lose. There is no doubt. There have been many solutions presented to us in the past to combat this development, but nearly all of them function within the constraints of Federal politics. Working within the system has earned us no quarter, and frankly, no results. Our only recourse (and, frankly, the best recourse all along) is to STOP relying on the rules of their game, and to walk away from the chess board completely.
Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers: Getting off The Globalists Chessboard - Alex Jones Tv 1/3
Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers: Getting off The Globalists Chessboard - Alex Jones Tv 2/3
Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers: Getting off The Globalists Chessboard - Alex Jones Tv 3/3
NWO Soros, claims Bretton Wood II did NOT remake the world order... Why the present has no time for future economic thinking It's no surprise that the Bretton Woods agreement evokes nostalgia. Delegates from the 44 Allied countries remade the world's financial order in July 1944.
By Richard Blackden - Telegraph.co.uk
Three intense weeks at The Mount Washington Hotel in the New Hampshire resort of Bretton Woods (and this, remember, was before the widespread introduction of air conditioning) created the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and a relatively stable system of exchange rates that lasted 30 years.
John Maynard Keynes - the economist who led the British delegation and suffered a minor heart attack racing up the hotel's stairs - added genius and an other-worldly glamour to the mix.
Here are the Globalists' endeavors who sent invites to Bretton Woods II
1. Institute of New Economic Thinking, a group funded by George Soros
2. Center for International Governance Innovation, bankrolled by Jim Balsillie, co-founder of the Blackberry.
History of Bretton Woods The New Hampshire town of Bretton Woods secured its place in financial history only because air conditioning hadn't been invented by 1944. It remains famous as a rare example of economic superpowers working effectively together.
By Richard Blackden - Telegraph.co.uk
John Maynard Keynes could not face a conference in Washington DC or New York during the height of the summer.
Keynes was one of 744 delegates from 44 Allied countries who assembled at The Mount Washington Hotel in July 1944 to thrash out a new international financial order from the rubble of World War Two and the economic trauma of the decade that preceded it.
Keynes, then the world's most famous economist and head of Britain's delegation, and Harry Dexter White, a key member of the US contingent, had spent the previous 12 months doing the legwork for a conference that would last three weeks.
America Is a "Failed State" with a "Dual Justice System ... One for Ordinary People and then One for People with Money and Enormous Wealth and Power"
GeorgeWashington's Blog
It is now mainstream news that none of the big financial criminals have been prosecuted.
The New York Times is running an article today entitled "In financial crisis, no prosecutions of top figures", which has been picked up as the leading front-page story by MSNBC. The story even quotes Bill Black:
But their policies have created an exceptional criminogenic environment. There were no criminal referrals from the regulators. No fraud working groups. No national task force. There has been no effective punishment of the elites here.
The End Of An Empire And The Beginning Of A Depression
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Since the end of World War 2, the United States has been the leading military power and the leading economic power on the entire globe. The U.S. has had the largest economy in the history of the world, the U.S. dollar has been used by nearly all of the nations on earth as a reserve currency and the U.S. military has had a physical presence in most of the countries on the planet. Today, the U.S. military is in approximately 130 different nations and it has a total of about 700 military bases around the world. But just like the Roman Empire, the U.S. empire has become overextended and it is starting to decline. Most of our politicians believe that we can continue to "police the world" and project our power to every corner of the globe, but the more we meddle the more the rest of the world hates us and the worse our financial problems get. America is now swamped with debts and our influence is fading. The truth is that what we are witnessing is the end of an empire and the beginning of a depression.
Over the past decade, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost U.S. taxpayers well over a trillion dollars.
US financial meltdown-
On the Edge with Max Keiser -04-15-2011-(Part1)
US financial meltdown-
On the Edge with Max Keiser -04-15-2011-(Part2)
Obama $1 Trillion Tax Proposal Slams Into Republican Wall
By Richard Rubin - Bloomberg.com
President Barack Obama’s call for raising taxes by focusing on spending in the tax code was immediately rejected by top Republicans, signaling that any effort to increase the government’s take from the economy would be difficult to move through Congress.
As part of a $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan announced yesterday, Obama said he wanted Congress to overhaul the tax code by lowering rates, eliminating tax breaks and generating more money than the current system does. The plan would allow tax cuts affecting high-income taxpayers to expire at the end of 2012 and would raise $1 trillion on top of that.
Chaos on House floor
as Democrats try to unsettle GOP budget during vote
By Pete Kasperowicz - TheHill.com
The House floor erupted into a chaotic scene Friday as House Democrats tried to upset Republican plans to pass their 2012 budget resolution.
Democrats unsettled Republicans by voting "present" in a vote on a more conservative budget than the official GOP proposal put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), almost enabling that bill to pass.
In the end, it failed in a 119-136 vote, with 172 Democrats voting present.
G20 backs early-warning plan against future crises
By Daniel Flynn and Wanfeng Zhou
(Reuters) - Leading world economies agreed on Friday to put the policies of seven major nations under a microscope as part of a plan to prevent a repeat of the global financial crisis.
The pact was agreed by the Group of 20 nations after months of wrangling highlighted by China's fears that its policy of limiting its currency's rise was being targeted.
Under the deal, the International Monetary Fund will look at national levels of debt, budget deficits and trade balances to determine if a nation's policies are putting the global economy at risk and should be changed.
One potential shortcoming is that countries will not be bound to follow any recommendations that emerge.
China's Economy Expands More-Than-Forecast 9.7% as Inflation Accelerates
By Bloomberg News
China’s economy grew a more-than- estimated 9.7 percent in the first quarter and inflation accelerated in March to the fastest pace since 2008, adding pressure for more monetary tightening.
Consumer prices rose 5.4 percent from a year earlier, thestatistics bureau said at a briefing in Beijing today. The median forecasts in Bloomberg News surveys of economists were for growth of 9.4 percent and inflation of 5.2 percent.
G20 turns spotlight on shortcomings of big economies
Reuters) - At least seven of the world's leading economies will undergo scrutiny of their economic policies under a new plan to help prevent future financial crises like the one of 2007-09.
All Group of 20 countries will be judged on indicators such as debt and budget deficits as well as trade and investment flows, and may face reviews by the International Monetary Fund which could lead to suggestions for policy fixes.
At least seven major economies will automatically go into the so-called second stage reviews, based on their size.
Those nations are the United States, China, Japan, Germany, Britain, France and India, according to G20 officials.
Emerging markets bristle at capital control limits
By Lesley Wroughton and Isabel Versiani
(Reuters) - Developing countries on Saturday pushed back hard against attempts to restrict how they manage money pouring into their fast-growing economies and said rich nations should reconsider their own policies instead.
Resistance to limiting capital controls, a sensitive topic for economies inundated with inflows of inflationary "hot money" from countries with low interest rates such as the United States, was widespread among emerging market finance leaders at a weekend International Monetary Fund meeting here.
"We oppose any guidelines, frameworks or 'codes of conduct' that attempt to constrain, directly or indirectly, policy responses of countries facing surges in volatile capital inflows," said Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega.
Emerging Nations Reject Capital Plan IMF Delays Program to Help Countries Manage Short-Term Inflows; as Geithner Blames China, Others Blame the Fed
By SUDEEP REDDY - WSJ.com
WASHINGTON - Representatives of emerging economies rebuffed an International Monetary Fund plan to guide them on managing huge flows of capital into their economies, viewing it as a way to constrain their actions rather than help.
The IMF's policy-steering committee, at its spring meeting over the weekend, responded by effectively delaying the plan, which would influence the use of capital controls - tools such as taxes and restrictions on foreign investment. The committee agreed to study the issue more in coming months.
Obama Sees Libya 'Stalemate,' Qaddafi’s Eventual Departure
By Flavia Krause-Jackson and Patrick Donahue - Bloomberg.com
Forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi shelled Libya's rebel-held coastal city of Misrata as U.S. President Barack Obama said the conflict has become a "stalemate on the ground militarily."
Qaddafi is "getting squeezed” in many ways, Obama said in an interview with the Associated Press. “I think over the long term, Qaddafi will go and we will be successful."
The attacks on Misrata, the main rebel-held city in the west, have made Libya’s third-largest city a symbol of the limitations of NATO’s air campaign to protect civilians. Qaddafi’s forces have fired ground-to-ground Grad rockets and cluster bombs, a type of anti-personnel munition that scatters small bomblets over a wide area, into residential areas, the New York Times andHuman Rights Watch reported.
IMF Believes Greece Should Consider Debt Restructuring By 2012
By COSTAS PARIS and IAN TALLEY - WSJ.com $$
WASHINGTON -- The International Monetary Fund believes Greece's debt is unsustainable and has told European government and central bank officials that Athens should consider restructuring by next year, three people familiar with the situation said Saturday.
"The IMF believes the debt situation in Greece is unsustainable," one of those people, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told Dow Jones Newswires. "Senior (IMF) officials have told the parties involved that restructuring should be considered soon," including the European Commission and euro-zone governments.
FRAUD:
Federal Reserve Is Selling Put Options On Treasury Bonds
To Drive Down Yields
Debt: The first five thousand years
By David Graeber - Eurozine.com
Throughout its 5000 year history, debt has always involved institutions - whether Mesopotamian sacred kingship, Mosaic jubilees, Sharia or Canon Law - that place controls on debt's potentially catastrophic social consequences. It is only in the current era, writes anthropologist David Graeber, that we have begun to see the creation of the first effective planetary administrative system largely in order to protect the interests of creditors.
What follows is a fragment of a much larger project of research on debt and debt money in human history. The first and overwhelming conclusion of this project is that in studying economic history, we tend to systematically ignore the role of violence, the absolutely central role of war and slavery in creating and shaping the basic institutions of what we now call "the economy". What's more, origins matter. The violence may be invisible, but it remains inscribed in the very logic of our economic common sense, in the apparently self-evident nature of institutions that simply would never and could never exist outside of the monopoly of violence - but also, the systematic threat of violence - maintained by the contemporary state.
Rate Hikes by Foreign Central Banks
Could End the Party for U.S. Investors
[Editor's Note: In late 2008, in the depths of the global financial crisis, Money Morning's Shah Gilani told you about five looming "aftershocks" that could lead to major profits. Each prediction came true. Now he explains how foreign central banks are poised to end the party for U.S. investors.]
BY SHAH GILANI, Contributing Editor, Money Morning
William McChesney Martin Jr., the revered former head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is remembered for many things - including an unprecedented term as chairman that lasted from March 1951 to January 1970.
But Martin is perhaps best remembered for the central-banking aphorism that says that the Fed's most important job is "to take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going." (See accompanying graphic below.)
We'll have to wait until June 30 to see if current Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke brings down the curtain on "QE2" - the quantitative-easing bash that he spiked with $600 billion worth of economically inebriating liquidity.
Fed Policy Makers Differ Over Policy as Inflation Accelerates
By Scott Lanman - Bloomberg.com
Federal Reserve policy makers aired their differences over how to tackle accelerating inflation before a report showed the cost of living in the U.S. rose in March for a ninth consecutive month.
Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke said in Washington yesterday that rising commodity costs aren't resulting from U.S. monetary policy and don't warrant higher interest rates, while Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said he sees no sign of inflation spreading more broadly. Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker and Philadelphia's Charles Plosser indicated they're more concerned about prices, with Lacker saying the central bank must tighten credit before inflation gains speed.
America, poised for a hyperinflationary event? the Roadmap
By Michael Pollaro - Forbes.com
What follows is an update to our recent essay - America, poised for a hyperinflationary event? - including an update to our supporting metrics through December 2010. We're calling it a Roadmap to an inflation supernova in America, this essay elaborating on the dynamics and possible triggers behind the supernova. Not the only way America could get there, but if present trends continue, a roadmap that we think should be high on the list. Let's get right to it.
The U.S. government borrows and spends, running up its debt obligations, ad infinitum. At trend growth of 1.5 times U.S. net private savings and rising, such borrow and spend policies are increasingly beyond the means of America to finance the obligations.
US consumer inflation gains most in 15 months
as food and petrol prices increase Rising food and petrol prices pushed the US cost of living to its largest year-on-year gain in 15 months, official figures showed on Friday.
By Alex Webb - Telegraph.co.uk
The US Labor Department said that consumer prices climbed a higher-than-expected 2.7pc in March from a year before.
Almost three quarters of the rise was due to surging food and petrol prices, with petrol costs climbing 5.6pc, the ninth straight month of increases. Food rose 0.8pc in March, the largest gain since July 2008.
A survey of 41 economists by Bloomberg had on average expected annual inflation to hit 2.6pc.
Fed's Exit Doors Close: Inflationary Spiral Ahead
By: Dr Jeff Lewis - MarketOracle.co.uk
The pressure for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to put a damper on inflation is growing strong. This week, Reuters reported that Bill Gross's PIMCO Total Return Fund, the largest mutual fund in the world, had reduced its US Treasury holdings to zero, and then followed the sale with a short-position, signaling to the market that holding US debt is not only risky, but also an entry into an asset class that provides a negative return when adjusted for inflation.
The Grand Compromise Republicans are right not to budge on taxes
until serious spending cuts are in place.
By Charles Krauthammer - NationalReview.com
The most serious charge against Rep. Paul Ryan's budget is not the risible claim, made most prominently by President Obama in his George Washington University address, that it would "sacrifice the America we believe in." The serious charge is that the Ryan plan fails by its own standards: Because it only cuts spending without raising taxes, it accumulates trillions of dollars of debt and doesn't balance the budget until the 2030s. If the debt is such a national emergency, they say, Ryan never really gets you there from here.
But the critics miss the point. You can't get there from here without Ryan's plan. It's the essential element. Of course Ryan is not going to propose tax increases. You don't need Republicans for that. That's what Democrats do. The president's speech was a prose poem to higher taxes - with every allusion to spending cuts guarded by a phalanx of impenetrable caveats.
Losing 84 Cents on Dollar Reveals Runaway U.S. Public Pensions
By Elliot Blair Smith - Bloomberg.com
The deal came together behind the doors of a Louisiana psychiatric ward. John Skannal, 74, signed a document in October 2003 authorizing the sale of land handed down through eight generations of his family.
The buyer was a statewide pension plan for municipal law officers. The fund assembled golf and real estate holdings that lost 84 cents on each dollar the police spent on them over 10 years. The losses are emblematic of a decade in which the $1.2 billion program went from fully funded to $836.3 million short of meeting future retirement obligations.
A Run On the Central Bank of Belarus
in Devaluation Fear Forces Halt to All Gold Sales
JESSE'S CAFÉ AMÉRICAIN
"Destroyers seize gold and leave to its owners a counterfeit pile of paper. This kills all objective standards and delivers men into the arbitrary power of an arbitrary setter of values. Gold was an objective value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Paper is a check drawn by legal looters upon an account which is not theirs: upon the virtue of the victims. Watch for the day when it bounces, marked, 'Account overdrawn.' -- Ayn Rand
I was a little surprised the people fled to gold and tried to drain the central bank, desperately trying to get out of their fiat currency ahead of a suspected devaluation.
This is how it happens, on a smaller scale.
I was in Moscow in the 1990's when they were starting to flee the Russian rouble for gold, diamonds, US dollars, and vodka. It is hard to imagine what it feels like to watch your life savings simply and relentlessly evaporate away. It was a 'quiet panic' that left a very deep impression on me.
Belarus c.bank halts sales of gold for roubles
MINSK, April 15 (Reuters) - Belarus' central bank has stopped selling gold to local retail customers for Belarussian roubles BYR=, it said on Friday, after demand for precious metals soared due to expectations of a currency devaluation.
The bank did not explain its decision.
Belarus is in talks with Russia on a $3 billion bailout package that Minsk hopes will help it avoid a painful devaluation of the rouble and offset the large current account deficit.
U.S. Budget Impasse and its significance for gold and silver
By Jeb Handwerger - CommodityOnline.com
Regardless of whether a compromise is reached over the approaching lockdown of the United States ceiling and the raising of the debt, this impasse has momentous significance for holders of gold (SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)) and silver (iShares Silver Trust (SLV)).
The serious weaknesses of our economic structure is exposing it as a paper tiger. Instead of seeking fiscal sanity, the inability of our leaders to agree on even the smallest of issues is reminiscent of the Roman Empire dealing out bread and circus to the masses when Rome could no longer afford the good times and the games.
Metals Outlook: Gold, Silver to remain volatile
By Debbie Carlson - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) - After a shaky start to the week, gold and silver prices ended on a firm note and firmer gains could be in store for next week, but activity will remain volatile.
On the week, the June gold contract at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 0.801% to settle at $1,486 an ounce. May silver gained 4.61% to settle at $42.571 an ounce.
Inflation data helped to cement gains this week, analysts said. Chinese inflation gauges rose strongly again and the overall U.S. producer and consumer inflation readings rose, but remained sub-1%.
Inflation worries adding further fuel to Gold's rally to record highs
By Allen Sykora
(Kitco News) - Inflation worries remain a theme among gold traders, and this has been reinforced by some of the data this week in the U.S. and elsewhere, analysts said.
"I think inflation is a concern," said Frank Lesh, broker and futures analyst with FuturePath Trading. "I think it’s one of the reasons we have been buying gold."
Gold hit record Fresh highs and silver hit a 31-year peak Friday. As of roughly noon EDT, June gold had been as high as $1,480.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while May silver had been as muscular as $42.825.
Silver to gain $5-10 a day when mania starts
NEW JERSEY, USA (Commodity Online): Silver has outperformed gold in recent times but the true silver mania is yet to begin as prices are yet to move by $2 or more on a single day, according to National Inflation Association (NIA).
"When we start to see a true "silver mania" with investors around the world rushing out of their U.S. dollars and panic buying silver, we expect to see silver gain by $5 to $10 in a single day on more than one occasion," NIA said in an analysis.
Jim Grant On Inflation: "There Will Be A Lot Of It Suddenly" Because Our Interest Rate Structure Is "Beyond Strange"
Submitted by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
One of our favorite economic commentators - Jim Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer - was on Consuelo Mack continuing his ongoing crusade against Ben Bernanke's lunacy, and the monetary central planning of the Federal Reserve, particularly focusing on the topic of pernicious inflation which for good reason has received much attention of the past year. Grant, who unlike Steve Liesman correctly observes that inflation is now rampant (those who need a reminder can do so at the only objective source for actual inflation tracking, MIT's Billion Price Index), is eating away at the standard of living of the bulk of the population, even as this same population can not benefit from anything beyond minimal rates on their saving deposits. "The Fed is unconscionably complacent about the consequences of what it is doing, and let us not blink at what it is doing: it has imposed the lowest money market interest rates anyone remembers, it has expanded its balance sheet into something grotesque all in the space of a couple of years. These are monetary events that have never before been seen, and indeed, never before imagined...
Bank Of America Still Haunted By Ghosts Of Mozilo, Lewis
By John Dobosz - Forbes.com
Bank of America disappointed badly on first quarter earnings this morning, with much of the blame for the blown bogey laid upon the company's mortgage business, as well as its consumer banking (I guess those foreclosed borrowers don't make for good cross-selling targets.) This underwhelming profit snapshot from BofA comes on the heels of JPMorgan Chase blowing away analysts' consensus forecast earlier this week.
CEO Brian Moynihan must be thinking of his predecessor in Bank of America's chief executive job, Ken Lewis. Specifically, it would not be surprising if Moynihan's mind takes him back in time a few years to January 2008, understandably with a bit of lip biting.
Runaway Public Pensions Betrayed by Fraud, Abuse
By Elliot Blair Smith - Bloomberg.com
The deal came together behind the doors of a Louisiana psychiatric ward. John Skannal, 74, signed a document in October 2003 authorizing the sale of land handed down through eight generations of his family.
The buyer was a statewide pension plan for municipal law officers. The fund assembled golf and real estate holdings that lost 84 cents on each dollar the police spent on them over 10 years. The losses are emblematic of a decade in which the $1.2 billion program went from fully funded to $836.3 million short of meeting future retirement obligations.
Veronique de Rugy Tells the Truth
About Health Care Reform and the Economy on Bloomberg
35 Statistics That Show The Average American FamilyHas Been Broke Down, Tore Down, Beat Down, Busted And Disgusted By This Economy -- EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
The economic statistics that you are about to read are incredibly shocking, but they are also very, very real. Tonight there are going to be millions of men and women all across America that cannot sleep because they are consumed with anxiety about their financial problems. Even as you read this, there are a lot of parents out there that are trying to figure out how to explain to their children why their homes are being taken away. There are also hordes of very hard working Americans that are incredibly frustrated because they have sent out thousands of resumes and yet they can't seem to get a job interview. Have you ever been at a point where you couldn't pay the mortgage or put food on the table for your family? It can be an absolutely soul-crushing experience. In fact, there are some cities in the U.S. that have been so utterly devastated by this economy that it seems as though virtually everyone has had the hope sucked right out of them. The mainstream media is trying to convince all of us that we are in an economic recovery, but that is a lie. The truth is that we are in the middle of a long-term economic decline and the greatest economy in the history of the world is dying right in front of our eyes.
Lenny Dykstra arrested, charged with embezzling from his estate Ex-baseball star Lenny Dykstra is accused of selling off property frozen in his bankruptcy case.
By Alejandro Lazo and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
Former Major League Baseball star and self-styled financial guru Lenny Dykstra has been charged with selling pieces of his former life as he struggled to battle numerous creditors in Bankruptcy Court.
Dykstra helped the New York Mets win the 1986 World Series and later became a celebrity stock picker and entrepreneur before his finances dissolved in the summer of 2009. Dykstra was charged with one count of embezzling from a bankruptcy estate, the Justice Department said Friday.
U.S. to Aid Japanese, Push Deal on Korea
By CHESTER DAWSON And EVAN RAMSTAD
TOKYO - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with senior Japanese leaders Sunday to express sympathy with Japan's people and support for its economy after last month's earthquake and tsunami. Earlier, she reiterated the Obama administration's support for a free-trade deal with South Korea in meetings with officials in Seoul.
On the second stop of a weekend trip to Asia, Mrs. Clinton announced in Tokyo a public-private partnership to help Japan's economic prospects, and sounded a note of optimism about the Japanese business community's ability to rebound in the wake of the magnitude-9 quake on March 11. The disaster has seriously disrupted supply chains and electricity supplies in Japan, and threatens to knock the wind out of a budding economic recovery.
Busby: 400,000 to develop cancer in 200 km radius of Fukushima
Japan's Nuclear Volcano Erupts
Wednesday, 13 April 2011 08:20
By Mike Whitney April 12, 2011 - Hamsayeh.net
"Information Clearing House"
Shares plunged across Europe and Asia on Tuesday as the crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant deepened and Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised the atomic alert level to its highest rating. Conditions at the stricken facility have steadily deteriorated and now the station is intermittently spewing lethal amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and around the world. A French nuclear group has warned that children and pregnant mothers should protect themselves from the fallout. According to Euractiv:
"The risks associated with iodine-131 contamination in Europe are no longer "negligible," according to CRIIRAD, a French research body on radioactivity. The NGO is advising pregnant women and infants against "risky behaviour," such as consuming fresh milk or vegetables with large leaves."
Who will save America from drowning in debt? Both political parties have failed to come up with any credible plan to solve this crisis
By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
If you want to scare yourself with statistics, go to www.usdebtclock.org. This brilliantly conceived internet graphic engenders much the same feeling you get when watching the extortion of the meter in a London taxi; at some stage, you know you are going to have to get out and walk.
Amongst much else, what it shows is the real-time accumulation of US public debt. When I last looked, this was approaching $14.228 trillion, or around 100 per cent of GDP. Higher and higher, the big number goes. America is bankrupting itself as surely as Wilkins Micawber. So extreme is the country’s addiction to debt that if nothing is done, it will surely force the wholesale retreat from the New World’s century-old dominance of international economic and geopolitical affairs. Worse, the medicine required to correct the problem threatens to be so strong that it may force that same retreat in any case.
Geithner says Congress will lift debt ceiling
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday that Congress will act to raise the debt ceiling because lawmakers recognize the major consequences of not doing so.
"We’re only two years from [2008's] cataclysmic financial crisis, and the huge damage to credibility and huge loss of confidence," he said before a Bertelsmann Foundation conference that included a sizable European audience. "The idea that Washington would court that risk is inconceivable."
Publicly and privately, congressional Republicans have indicated they understand the implications of not raising the debt ceiling, Geithner said.
Obama Eyes Medicare Changes, Tax Increases
ByThe Associated Press - DailyFinance.com
Challenging Republican budget plans, President Barack Obama on Wednesday proposed lowering the nation's future deficits by $4 trillion over a dozen years through a blend of specific measures and vague objectives designed to lower spending in politically sensitive health care programs while also increasing taxes.
The president proposed reductions in the growth of Medicare spending, cuts in defense, an overhaul of the tax system to eliminate many loopholes enjoyed by individuals and corporations, and an end to Bush era tax cuts for wealthier Americans.
What the Medicare Debate Means to You
by AnnaMaria Andriotis - SmartMoney.com
The battle over Medicare has only just begun, with the Republicans' proposed cuts announced a week ago, and President Barack Obama unveiling an alternative slate yesterday. But whichever way the Medicare debate goes, there's no relief in the overall trend: Health care costs for people 65 and over will continue to rise.
At its most basic, Medicare currently covers hospital care and doctor visits for most Americans aged 65 or older, though there are several additional policies that cover more, for a price. But the program is expensive – it already accounts for about 13% of the federal budget, around $452 billion in 2010 – and it's only getting more costly as more baby boomers cross the eligibility threshold. Meanwhile, health care is getting more expensive, and people are living longer, all of which add to the costs of the program. Faced with a growing deficit, the government seems to be willing to at least re-examine the program. "It's not looking good," says Thomas Harte, treasurer of the National Association of Health Underwriters.
2011 spending bill clears House
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
Facing down a minor revolt among their conservatives, Republican leaders pushed the 2011 spending bill through the House Thursday afternoon, sending it over to the Senate for final approval later in the day and closing the books on this year’s budget six months late.
But Republicans again had to rely on Democrats for passage after nearly five dozen members of the GOP balked at the deal, struck late last week by House Speaker John A. Boehner, President Obama andSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
"I just want this bill over with," said House Appropriations CommitteeChairman Harold Rogers, a Republican who supported the bill, summing up the prevailing attitude on both sides of the measure.
Boehner: Spending Cuts Deal Isn't a Perfect Bill
A Plan to Fix the Budget or Blind Faith in Fairy Tales?
By Morgan Housel, The Motley Fool - DailyFinance.com
The first thing you notice when looking at House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) budget proposal -- "The Path to Prosperity" -- is how great it will be if it passes. The plan promises to balance the budget by 2015 with lower taxes, higher employment, and higher wages, and puts us on a path to eliminate the national debt entirely. It presents pictures like this, which, come on, just makes you want to smile and hug the guy next to you:
The Safest Bonds in the World Aren't U.S. Treasuries
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
With a fight in Washington looming over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, suddenly the nation's sovereign debt isn't looking so "risk free." But where can investors find safety if not in U.S. Treasury securities? Europe is a mess. Japan was debt-ridden even before having to deal with the recent massive earthquake. Brett Arends at MarketWatch suggests looking to Scandinavia. In particular, Norway stands out above all others. He says public savings exceed public debt by 160%! How is the nation so fiscally responsible? He explains:
Gold, silver futures rally to fresh records
By Virginia Harrison, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) - Gold futures hit fresh records in Asian trading hours on Friday, while silver also tracked new highs.
Gold futures for June delivery GCM11 +0.37% rose $7.30 or 0.5% to $1,479.70 an ounce on Globex, after settling at $1,472.40 on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Analysts at Barclays Capital said inflation fears are pushing gold and silver prices higher.
"The Federal Reserve’s beige book highlighted inflationary worries amidst the current economic recovery. Despite the improving U.S. economy, the Federal Reserve acknowledged increasing raw-material and energy costs have created upward pressures on the overall price level," the analysts said in a research note.
Gold climbs up on weak dollar
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): Gold prices advanced further in Asia as the dollar dropped while gold holdings extended losses.
Gold for immediate delivery was seen trading at $ $1,459.61 an ounce at 1.30 p.m Singapore time while U.S. gold futures for June rose $6.1 an ounce to $1,461.7 an ounce.
Analyst said gold prices are likely to climb further this week as inflation worries and a weak dollar continued to support the yellow metal.
When Will the Gold Bull Market End?
BY STEVE SAVILLE - Greenfaucet.com The short answer is: not soon. The slightly longer answer is provided herewith.
During the second half of last year some analysts were treating the gold market as if the current situation could be likened to the upside blow-off that occurred during 1979-1980. Our view, at the time, was that this couldn't be right because it implied that the gold bull market was nearing its conclusion. Our view then, and now, is that the gold bull market won't end until at least 2013-2014 and could easily extend through to the end of the decade. We therefore think that the gold market is at least 2-3, and possibly as many as 8-9, years away from the bubble-like conditions that many gold bulls continue to anticipate.
China's Hot Inflation Drives Gold to $2200
By: Lee Brodie - CNBC.com
Chatter on the Street Thursday had everything to do with just how high inflation fears could drive commodities especially after new data leaked onto the market.
Although Beijing won’t release official inflation data until Thursday evening (New York time), the advance numbers were hot.
According to Hong Kong's Phoenix TV, citing an unnamed source, China's annual rate of inflation in March hit a 32-month high - it's likely to be 5.3-5.4 percent.
Radical gold bugs keep confidence
Commentary: Bugs also still contemptuous of Goldman Sachs
By Peter Brimelow, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Was that it for gold? Assorted gold bugs, and others, think not.
On Friday the metal closed at an all-time record high ($1,474.60 on the CME June contract). So did Arca Gold Bugs HUI +1.30% , after finally getting above the previous record of December last year earlier in the week.
As the chartist Martin Pring said with characteristic understatement in his Weekly Infomovie report: "It seems highly likely that a new up-leg in the bull market for gold prices is now underway."
Will Gold and Silver Survive the Double Dip?
By: John Browne - EuroPac.net
It is rare in recent history for precious metals to appreciate in parallel with the broader stock market. Yet, this has been the case in the two years since the stock market began crawling out of the wreckage of the 2008 financial crisis. Although metals have vastly outperformed US equities over that time frame, it is noteworthy that stocks have gone up at all. Since January 2, 2009, the S&P 500 stock index is up just about 50%. Over the same time, gold is up 68% and silver is up a staggering 267%. With rising interest rates, oil at over $100 a barrel, and the recovery running out of steam, many investors are wisely asking if the markets are set for a sharp pullback. Given the correlation that we have seen across asset classes, some are making the seemingly logical conclusion that metal prices are vulnerable.
Silver offers the only positive return
By Dr Jeffrey Lewis - CommodityOnline.com
When thinking about an investment, the best managers look for returns that beat what they perceive to be average. In the long run, wealth is a relative measure today, even the poorest people are wealthier than the richest people five hundred years ago, though we’d still say that today’s poor are poor.
Investments work along the same lines, with the simple concept being that an investment must have performance that is preferable to your current financial trajectory, and it must have a return that beats holding money in cash, as well as the negative returns incited by inflation.
Honest Money vs. Sound Money
Is There A Difference?
BY DOUG TJADEN - FinancialSense.com
The debate over the very nature of our monetary system continues to gain traction. With Utah’s historic passage of their Sound Money Act, it is certain that more people will begin to pay attention to the issue. As they do, they will discover two terms that are often used interchangeably to describe a constitutional alternative proposed to compete with our current central bank/fiat monetary system.
The terms "sound money" and "honest money" convey a common principle – that money should serve as a reliable store of value and that people who use it should be able to trust that it will remain so. There are differences in the terms however, when they are used in their proper context.
Oil-Price Shock Is Hitting American Consumers Hardest
By: Simon Hobbs - CNBC Anchor
US crude is now up $20 in two months. The extra wealth oil producers are now draining from America is greater than the annual cost of most US government agencies.
The falling dollar is ensuring that consumers in the US are hardest hit.
Two months ago popular uprisings across North Africa had already rocked Algeria, forced regime change in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak’s resignation in Egypt.
But the price of oil really took off Feb. 16, when riot police clashed with protestors in Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi. The fear was that unrest would spread to Saudi Aria and destabilize its vast exports of crude.
Want to Blame Someone? Blame the Fed
Szandor Blestman - SilverBearCafe.com
Are you currently experiencing economic difficulties? It seems like everyone is these days. All kinds of people from all walks of life seem to be having more and deeper financial problems. Normally I would make the claim that a person should blame themselves for their financial woes, but in the real world there are extenuating circumstances and powerful forces working against the best interests of even the most hard working and capable people. The common folk have been kept in the dark. People can't make choices for themselves when they don't know choices exist. People can't be blamed for their behavior when they have been trained from birth that the system they live in is the only system they can operate in.
Burning The Candle At Both Ends Raising the Debt Ceiling, and Extending QE-2 Indefinitely
BY GONZALO LIRA - FinancialSense.com
This coming May 16, the U.S. Federal government debt ceiling will be breached; that is, the national credit card - currently topped at $14,294,000,000,000 - will be maxed out. (Yeah, I know: It’s one thing to read "$14 trillion" and quite another to see the actual number, written out with all those zeroes.)
It's not like lighting farts...
Shortly thereafter, the Federal Reserve’s policy colloquially known as Quantitative Easing-2 (QE-2) - whereby the Fed created $600,000,000,000 of new money, and used it to purchase Treasury bonds - will end.
Economic Growth Still Weak Due to Housing: Pimco's El-Erian
By: Margo D. Beller - CNBC.com
First-quarter economic growth will be lower than most people expect because of continued problems in the housing market, Pimco Chief Executive Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC Thursday.
"I think people are going to be surprised that the first quarter, which was initially thought to be a four percent quarter, may end up two percent or below," he said.
El-Erian is not the only analyst seeing weakness ahead. On CNBC Wednesday, John Taylor, chairman of FX Concepts, predicted a recession by the end of the year.
Banks Face $3.6 Trillion 'Wall' of Debt: IMF
By Reuters - CNBC.com
The world's banks face a $3.6 trillion "wall of maturing debt" in the next two years and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned on Wednesday.
Many European banks need bigger capital cushions to restore market confidence and assure they can borrow, and some weak players will need to be closed, the International Monetary Fund said in its Global Financial Stability Report.
The debt rollover requirements are most acute for Irish and German banks, with as much as half of their outstanding debt coming due over the next two years, the fund said.
End the Cartel!
by ROBERT HAMBURGER - HamburgersStand.com
Two nights before Christmas in 1913, with most of its members home for the holidays, Senator Nelson Aldrich, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and his cohorts in the United States Congress conspired and slipped through the Federal Reserve Act. The legislation granted a private corporation (the Federal Reserve Bank) the exclusive right to issue money in America. President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation into law.
Wilson would later come to say, "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit… We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."
G. Edward Griffin, author of The Creature from Jekyll Island:
The Secret of Oz - by Bill Still
Winner, Best Documentary of 2010 v.1.09.11
The American Dream As We Know It Is Obsolete Why progressives need to think beyond the mantra of creating a "middle class America."
AlterNet / By Arun Gupta
In an era of insecurity, we all want security.
We want a decent home to call our own, healthcare to heal us when we are sick or old, education to improve our minds and job prospects, healthy food and clean water to nourish us, income to provide for all our needs and even some affordable luxuries, a career to give us social status and a sense of self-worth, and a pension for our golden years.
These seemingly universal desires define the post-WWII American Dream, and are still the reference point for both left and right. The "Golden Age of American Capitalism" from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s is commonly seen as the triumph of the middle class, a time when the fruits of a robust capitalist economy extended to tens of millions.
Predicting Global Revolutions, Civil Wars and Riots
BY RUSS WINTER - FinancialSense.com
Every 10 percent increase in global food prices equates to a 100 percent increase in anti-government protests, according to a recent report from the International MonetaryFund. Looking at recent increases in foodstuff commodities - up a total of 45 percent since the arrival of QE2 last year - it’s no wonder there are revolutions, civil wars and riots breaking out across the globe. According to the IMF, a 45-percent increase in foodstuffs should quadruple the levels of unrest, and that seems to be precisely what’s happening.
Recent chaos caused by food inflation and hunger is being heartwarmingly marketed by propagandists as democratization. Remember the French Revolution and "let them eat cake." The causa proxima was food inflation.
Our Lives Are Under Threat
From Some of the Most Powerful and Richest Entities --
Here's How We Can Fight Back and Win
We need to rebuild the kind of mass movement that marked 1970: bodies, passion, and creativity are the currencies we can compete in. It's not impossible.
April 8, 2011 | AlterNet / By Naomi Klein and Bill McKibben
Not for forty years has there been such a stretch of bad news for environmentalists in Washington.
Last month in the House, the newly empowered GOP majority voted down a resolution stating simply that global warming was real: they've apparently decided to go with their own versions of physics and chemistry.
This week in the Senate, the biggest environmental groups were reduced to a noble, bare-knuckles fight merely to keep the body from gutting the Clean Air Act, the proudest achievement of the green movement. The outcome is still unclear; even several prominent Democrats are trying to keep the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases.
Obama's Deficit Plan will Impoverish Main Street America
by Kevin Zeese - GlobalREsearch.ca
President Obama announced the outlines of his deficit plan, leaving a lot up for negotiation. He planted his poll at the center right and where he ends up, with his history of compromising to bring right wing Republicans and Democratic corporatists together, can only be worse.
I was pleasantly surprised to see groups that usually side with Obama even criticizing him. True Majority/US Action wrote "Obama wants to cut $4 trillion, but not $1 from the Pentagon," in their headline. They go on to point out that "President Obama today proposed reducing the deficit through almost $800 billion in cuts." They correctly point out that the country needs jobs not deficit cuts, and if cuts are going to be made they should not be made in domestic programs where funds are needed but in the military writing: "Over half of the money Congress makes decisions on goes directly into the Pentagon’s pocket, and that doesn't count the money for actual wars. But instead of cutting the Pentagon budget, Obama is proposing over $700 billion in cuts to programs that benefit the poor, seniors and children, while only trying to save $400 billion on war and weapons."
Bernanke Middle Class Murderer
Pentonomics - Goodbye Middle Class
By: Michael Pento - EuroPac.com
Surprise! Bernanke now has to make a difficult choice. Despite the Fed's best laid plans, inflation is soaring but the housing and job markets are dead in the water. I have been warning from the start of Quantitative Counterfeiting that the economy, housing market and the unemployment would not significantly improve - however, inflation would become a significant problem.
Today we received data on Initial Claims and inflation. Producer Prices increased by .7% from February to March and jumped 5.8% YOY. Meanwhile, the number of individuals filing first time jobless claims jumped by 27k to 412k for the week ended April 9th. Significantly rising prices and an anemic job market are the products of the Fed’s desire to crumble the currency. One of the so called unintended consequences of bailing out the banks is the destruction of America's middle class.
Taxes and Politics
WRITTEN BY THOMAS SOWELL - TheNewAmerican.com
Someone once said that taxes are the price we pay for civilization. That may have been true when he said it, but today taxes are mostly the price we pay so that politicians can play Santa Claus and get reelected.
That's not the worst of it. We may think of taxes as just a source of government revenue. But tax rates are a big political statement on the left, whether they bring in any revenue or not.
For more than 80 years, the political left has opposed what they call "tax cuts for the rich." But big cuts in very high tax rates ended up bringing in more revenue to the government in the Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan and Bush 43 administrations. This included more - repeat, more - tax revenue from people in the highest income brackets than before.
Banks are foreclosing while homeowners pursue loan modifications Lenders say 'dual tracking' protects their investment if the homeowner is unable to qualify for new loan terms. But regulators seeking to ban the practice say it lulls some borrowers into thinking they won't have their homes taken away.
By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times
Mortgage lenders call it "dual tracking," but for homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosure, it might go by another name: the double-cross.
The term refers to a common banking tactic. When a borrower in default seeks a loan modification, the institution often continues to pursue foreclosure at the same time.
Lenders contend that dual tracking simply protects their investment if the homeowner is unable to qualify for new loan terms. Mortgage servicers can lose money if they don't foreclose in a timely manner, and repossessions often are complicated and lengthy.
U.S. Orders Big Banks to Reimburse Homeowners
ByThe Associated Press - DailyFinance.com
The federal government on Wednesday ordered 16 of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and servicers to reimburse homeowners who were improperly foreclosed upon.
Government regulators also directed the financial firms to hire auditors to determine how many homeowners could have avoided foreclosure in 2009 and 2010.
Citibank, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, the nation's four largest banks, were among the financial firms cited in the joint report by the Federal Reserve, Office of Thrift Supervision and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
How Much Farther Will Home Prices Fall?
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Home prices are declining again. Although the home buyer credit delayed their descent for a while, you can't keep an overvalued market up forever. How much farther can we expect prices to fall? One way to determine this is to look at the historical trend.
So here's a chart by from Robert Shiller, updated by Steve Barry, via Barry Ritholtz's the Big Picture blog:
Grocery workers' union to hold strike authorization vote A labor contract that covered about 62,000 grocery workers in Southern California expired March 6. Negotiations between the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Ralphs, Safeway and Albertsons are continuing.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times
Recalling memories of protracted labor talks that led Southern California grocery workers to the picket lines seven years ago, the United Food and Commercial Workers union is holding a strike authorization vote next week and warning its members to be prepared in case they have to walk off the job.
A labor contract that was reached in 2007 expired in March 6. It covered about 62,000 grocery workers in Southern California, including those employed by Ralphs, which is owned by Kroger Co.; Safeway Inc., which owns Vons and Pavilions stores; and Albertsons, which is owned by SuperValu Inc.
Postage rates rising for businesses, not for most letters
By Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press - USAToday.com
WASHINGTON — Postage rates go up Sunday, but the changes mostly affect businesses. Mailing that recipe to Aunt Mary or birthday card to Uncle Joe won’t cost any extra.
Among the changes, it will cost advertisers more to flood your mailbox with sales offers and publishers will face higher charges to send you their magazines.
But the basic 44-cent first-class letter rate will stay the same, even though postage overall will go up about 1.7% as the price of many other mailings rises.
U.S., Allies Raise Ante on Ouster of Gadhafi
By STEPHEN FIDLER, ADAM ENTOUS and SAM DAGHER - WSJ.com
The leaders of the U.S., France and the U.K. said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization must continue operations in Libya until Col. Moammar Gadhafi leaves power, raising the stakes for the alliance and the U.S. in its showdown with the Libyan leader.
In an op-ed to be published in major European newspapers, U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "So long as Gadhafi is in power, NATO must maintain its operations so that civilians remain protected and the pressure on the regime builds."
Libyan rebels: Colombian female snipers fighting for Gadhafi Regime receives aid from allies
By Ashish Kumar Sen-The Washington Times
Libyan rebels are receiving reports that female snipers from Colombiahave joined other mercenaries fighting to keep dictator Moammar Gadhafi in power.
No Colombians have been captured or killed, but rebels this week said they have received accounts of their deadly marksmanship from pro-Gadhafi prisoners and from eyewitnesses in the besieged city Misurata, the largest city in western Libya still under partial rebel control.
Rebel sources said the Colombians are part of a wider force of snipers firing from vantage points atop buildings in Misurata.
"They are shooting to kill," said Khalid, a doctor in Misurata who gave only his first name. He said most of the injured have head, chest and neck wounds.
*****
China blocks coastal waters, enlarges military Pacific’s chief calls shadowy move 'troubling'
By Bill Gertz-The Washington Times
China's "troubling" military buildup coincides with new efforts by Beijing to block the Navy from international waters near its coasts and field new missiles, submarines and cyberweapons, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific told Congress on Tuesday.
NavyAdm. Robert F. Willard said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that China's intentions behind its decades-long buildup remain hidden and are undermining stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
The four-star admiral said the arms buildup is understandable because of Chinas economic rise, but "the scope and pace of its modernization without clarity on China’s ultimate goals remains troubling.
U.S.-China relationship: A shift in perceptions of power One should be skeptical about dire projections of China's rise and America's decline. China still has a long way to go to catch up in military, economic and soft-power resources.
By Joseph S. Nye Jr. - LATimes.com
Last year, when China broke off military-to-military talks following the Obama administration's long-expected sale of defensive arms to Taiwan, a high American official asked his Chinese counterpart why China reacted so strongly to something it had accepted in the past. The answer: "Because we were weak then and now we are strong." On a recent visit to Beijing, I asked a Chinese expert what was behind the new assertiveness in China's foreign policy. His answer: "After the financial crisis, many Chinese believe we are rising and the U.S. is declining."
Fukushima Reactors Are a "Ticking Time Bomb,"
Japanese Govt in Denial Scientist Michio Kaku: When we hear "that things are stable, it's only stable in the sense that you're dangling from a cliff hanging by your fingernails."
By AMY GOODMAN: AlterNet.org
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan tried Tuesday to calm fears about radiation levels and food safety in the region around the heavily damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. His comments came after Japan raised the severity rating of its nuclear crisis to the highest possible level, heightening concerns about the magnitude of the disaster.
Speaking at a news conference to mark one month since the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated the northeastern coast of the country, Japanese Prime Minister Kan said produce from the region around the Fukushima plant is safe to eat despite radiation leaks.
----- Weekend Extra -----
EXPOSING THE NWO, cont'd ...
[Disclaimer: the following includes the OPINION resulting from research by the webmaster, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or beliefs of PTG. Caveat Lector - let the reader beware.]
Understanding the "Zeitgeist, Moving Forward..."
GLOBALISM IS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT but it is difficult to define or learn how to recognize when encountered in the news and in politics.
Unless you are of a progressive mindset and/or well researched, you may not understand Zeitgeist or their worldwide agenda. One of the goals it to take out the existing money system and change the existing American political discourse.
"The American people have much to loose through the tearing down of America's Financial Sovereignty."
--
the late Joan Veon.
In a nutshell, the globalists are, in part, using the Progressive Green movement to bring about the NWO to rule the world (environmentally, economically, politically, and militarily), and if you don't agree, ultimately you will be compromised, imprisoned, or eliminated altogether, regardless of label you wear politically or culturally.
The Greens want to reform the IMF, World Bank, American politics, but are NOT opposed to globalization or free trade, so their agenda plays into the hands of the globalists who exploit the Green movement.
It's about CONTROL (alternate ways of governance) and neither side (right/left paradigm) will win or be spared when push comes to shove and the globalists try to take charge. They want to tear down nation states (implosion from chaos within), and then pick up the remaining pieces after humanity has been largely decimated. It's real easy to "lord it over" people who are hungry, broke, homeless, fearful and without hope, when you control all of the world's resources.
Zeitgeist Movement/Venus Project is of and by, and for those who have swallowed the GREEN PILL of "sustainability and global warming", politically progressive and staunchly libertarian at the same time, with a Godless worldview who believe that man can achieve god-like authority over the planet, once we get rid of about 4/5's of the worlds' population (i.e. useless eaters) leaving that much more for those (worthy) who remain.
Who Are The Globalists?
Simply put, the globalist movement is an alliance based on self-interest of the private international financiers and the royal, dynastic and hereditary land owning families of Britain, Europe and America which over the years have intermarried to create a self regenerating power structure that through lies and deception seeks to control everything and everyone on earth. Through their control of the ability to create money, they are able to exercise control over all the power centers of society including the corporations, the media, culture creation, the educational system, the historical societies, the political system, the military, religion, foundations and other NGOs, medicine, and law. Over time they have extended their network of control to include elites from countries all over the world working towards the same end.
The Quigley Formula "A Conspiratorial View of History
as Explained by the Conspirators Themselves"
[mp3 audio file by G. Edward Griffin at U of TX in 2008]
The Zeitgeist Movement is the epitome of the New World Order from the Green point of view. Regardless of your side of the fence, you need to be aware of the global agenda because it will impact all on the planet, if they get their way. This agenda goes way beyond the 'environmental idealist' notion that we need to be stewards of the earth. They want to RULE THE WORLD, but are also deceived.
The Venus Project / Zeitgeist: Moving Forward... Agenda 21 NWO Propaganda
WRITTEN BY ALEX NEWMAN - The New American
The Zeitgeist Movement is described on its website as "a grass-roots campaign to unify the world through a common ideology based on the fundamentals of life and nature. It is based on the social/technological work of Jacque Fresco and his Venus Project." The Venus Project, for its part, "proposes a feasible plan of action for social change, one that works toward a peaceful and sustainable global civilization" - essentially creating Heaven on Earth.
The Zeitgeist Movement has already attracted a large following, claimed to be over a half a million people so far - worldwide. Numerous Facebook groups - one with more than 70,000 people, another with more than 35,000, and still one more with almost 20,000 - transmit instructions and ideas to the activists around the globe. Various local and national groups have memberships in the thousands, using social-networking services to coordinate their campaigns and events.
Saul Alinsky and Class Warfare
WRITTEN BY SAM BLUMENFELD - TheNewAmerican.com
lass warfare, as we have been told by Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, and every other socialist and communist, is inherent in capitalist society because of the conflict between management and labor, between the owners of corporations and their employees, between the workers and the bourgeoisie. And the only solution to this conflict is the peaceful or violent transfer of corporate ownership from the stockholders to the employees.
That in essence is what is meant by class warfare. Of course, in different countries it has taken on different forms. In the case of Russia, it was evidenced by the confiscation of all the means of production, including farms, and the creation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In Germany, under the National Socialists (Nazis), it meant forcing all private companies to serve the State and confiscating all companies owned by Jews. In Communist China it involved the confiscation of all productive property by the Communist Party. In the socialist democracies of Western Europe, it has been indicated by strict government regulation of the economy.
Movers and shakers of the Zeitgeist Movement include Jacque Fresco, Peter Joseph, Ben Mcleish and Rupert C. Murdock to name a few leading the way, and YOU are in their crosshairs because you are consuming or squandering too many of the worlds' resources, so it would behoove everyone to know the goals of the movement, including their planning for the "beyond politics, poverty and war" phase of humanity. Sounds good on the surface of idealism, but look deeper. Read and understand the agenda.
Jacque Fresco Essays:
Beyond Utopia
New Frontiers of Social Change
The Obsolete Monetary System
Resource-Based Economy
Motivation, Incentive & Creativity
The Human Aspect
The Venus Project
Agenda 21 UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Divison for Sustainable Development
US Dollars are helping to fund and implement this agenda, through the United Nations.
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Zeitgeist and Venus Project exposed - elitists rule, no democracy, worse than Hitler, Stalin and Mao?
Tue, 02/03/2009 - 15:08 - christine
I somehow got back to looking at the Zeitgeist Movement forum and was shocked to see so many incredibly desperate followers willing to give up ALL rights to be ruled by "computers" making decisions based on the "carrying capacity of the earth."
The Jonestown, Scientology, Hitler, Mao and Stalin atrocities pale in comparison to the Zeitgeist/Venus project desire to control humans.
As many thousands of people are losing their jobs, they're desperate and willing to give up all rights, clinging to the hope that Jacque Fresco's Venus Project will solve all problems.
WEALTH AND DEMOCRACY - [excerpts]
By Kevin Phillips - WomensGroup.org
.... In collaboration with US multinational banks and corporations, the US government, on a bipartisan basis, was indeed closely involved in writing the rules of the new global investor economy, especially through two new frameworks brought into existence in the 9190s: the North American Free Trade Agreement 1993 - and the World Trade Organization 1995.
Sovereignty International, Inc., focuses on threats to national sovereignty in public policies, international treaties and agreements, and in educational and cultural trends. Representatives of Sovereignty International have attended U.N. meetings around the world since the mid 1990s, reporting back to American audiences through live radio broadcasts, newspaper articles, and printed special reports. Much of this information is collected here for your research.
Sustainable Communities Under construction everywhere
(from eco-logic January/February, 1998)
Sustainable Development is defined as meeting today's needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable Development is, in fact, the process by which societies are being reorganized around the central principle of protecting the environment -- as called for by Al Gore in his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance. It is a process that originated in the international community and is now sweeping across America, encompassing small towns and large cities, without legislative authority or legal definition. Congress has never defined, debated nor approved a national policy of sustainable development. Nevertheless, the Executive Branch of the federal government is promoting and implementing the principles of sustainable development through each of its agencies.
Colyar makes the appropriate distinction of where we are headed (fascism, not socialism) which leads to totalitarianism IF NOT CHECKED. Skipping Down the Road to Serfdom
by Duane Colyar - StirkeTheRoot.com
Legislators Never Bowl Alone: Big Money, Mass Media, and the Polarization of Congress
Thomas Ferguson1 - INET Conference Bretton Woods April, 2011
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
President Eisenhower, 1954
There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can't remember what the other one is. Mark Hanna
This is a small paper on a big subject: the polarization of American politics since the mid-1970s. In its early stages this process bore more than a passing resemblance to the opening scenes of a Grade B disaster movie: With almost everyone's attention focused elsewhere, a series of tiny, seemingly insignificant departures from long standing routines took place. Just about all of these stayed well beneath the radar. Then, in the mid-1980s, came the shock of recognition: Everyone suddenly woke up and realized that the American political system had altered dramatically. Polarizing Parties: The Problem Defined
GOP Criticizes Obama Speech as Too Partisan
By JANET HOOK And NAFTALI BENDAVID
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's budget speech Wednesday had a clear but unnamed political target: Rep. Paul Ryan (R.,Wis.) and the conservative budget he has written for his party.
In a critique that delighted many liberals and infuriated conservatives, Mr. Obama portrayed Mr. Ryan's ambitious plan to cut the deficit - by overhauling Medicare and Medicaid while keeping upper-income tax rates low - as a gift to the nation's millionaires at the expense of the neediest in America.
Is It Really the Economy, Stupid?
WRITTEN BY ISABEL LYMAN - TheNewAmerican.com
You might be an "economite" if you … prefer city lights to starry skies in wide open spaces; agree that a college education is worth going into significant debt; patronize stores in which the majority of the goods were made in Communist China; believe that illegal immigrants are needed to "do the jobs Americans won't do"; forego family time to work to afford more expensive gadgets, clothes, and trips; are making minimum payments on credit card debt; subscribe to Forbes magazine; are bored without modern entertainment like sports teams, video games, social networking sites, reality shows, and iTunes; think free-trade agreements (like NAFTA, CAFTA, and KORUS FTA) benefit our economy; support politicians who think economic growth is always beneficial to a community; frequent casinos; or eat to thrive rather than to survive.
Something Evil This Way Comes - Real Soon Now! The Federal Reserve and the Monkey Wrench Gang
BY MIKE ENDRES - FinancialSense.com
You may now stop singing and dancing and playing around. The party is about to be over and I'll be glad to be a party pooper and tell you why.
The Federal Reserve is about to pull the plug on money pumping. The signs of this non-action (when one stops doing something, it's a non-action, right?) have been laid out in plain text tablets from on high and even plainer actions everywhere this week and last. Straws in the Wind:
Bill Gross, an extremely smart fellow and boss of PIMCO, the largest bond fund in the world has cast two votes against U.S. Treasury debt. First, a few weeks ago, in his weekly newsletter, he plainly stated that PIMCO was not going to hang around with a "wait and see" attitude as far as QEII ending, maybe QEIII, maybe not. So he sold every last Treasury Bond he had in his voluminous inventory. Boom.. Just like that.
Soros: U.S. Dollar No Longer World Reserve Currency
WRITTEN BY JACK KENNY - TheNewAmerican.com
It was President Richard M. Nixon, a favorite of the neoconservative establishment, who announced in his first term that "We're all Keynesians now," indicating that the old Republican bible of balanced budgets and a limited role for government in the marketplace was dead forever. Perhaps a future President - no doubt one who, like Nixon, got elected by preaching the virtues of free markets and small government - will look back at the Bretton Woods II Conference and announce grandly: "We're all Sorosians now."
Cantor in 2010: 'Beyond Comprehension'
To Lift Debt Limit to $14.294 Trillion
By Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) - On Feb. 4, 2010, when the House of Representatives voted to increase the legal limit on the national debt by another $1.9 trillion (lifting the limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion), not one Republican voted for the increase.
Then-Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R.-Va.) rose on the House floor that day and declared that it was "beyond comprehension" and "a travesty" to talk about raising the legal debt limit to $14.294 trillion.
Last week, the Republican House leadership agreed to a deal with President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) to spend $3.7555 trillion in this fiscal--even though at the close of business Friday, as the deal was being struck, the Treasury reported that it could borrow only an additional $80.85 billion before hitting the $14.294-trillion debt limit Congress set last year.
Coming Economic Collapse: U.S. At Risk of Dollar Devaluation, "Run On Dollar"
By Dale May - TheIntelHub.com
A "run on the dollar." or any currency, for that matter, takes place when the currency is losing its value (devaluation). This happens when a country’s debt becomes so great that there is danger of a major default-that is, large scale or even national bankruptcy.
At that point, people and other countries whose wealth is invested in that particular currency (or in relatively liquid assets denominated in the currency) try to get rid of them as fast as they can. Today, that includes foreign countries such as China and Russia which are holding large quantities of U.S. government bonds.
Government Spending and the Path to Money Printing
By Bill Bonner - DailyReckoning.com
04/13/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina – Stocks down yesterday. Gold down. Oil down. Everything was down. The beginning of the end? Beats us. The Fed is still pumping in money. But investors are beginning to look beyond QE2.
If the economy really is recovering, they say to themselves, the Fed will be able to back off from money printing. Stocks, gold, commodities – everything should go down. Did we mention a "hyperinflationary depression"?
What's that, you're probably wondering.
Well, it's when you have a deflationary correction… and soaring prices too. And that's what happens when the feds try to stop a major correction by pumping in huge amounts of money and credit.
Obama Stokes Deficit Fight President Rips GOP Fiscal Plan, Says Mix of Taxes,
Cuts Needed; Foes Dismayed
By CAROL E. LEE And DAMIAN PALETTA - WSJ.com
President Barack Obama asked Congress to adopt a mix of revenue increases and spending cuts to tame the nation's long-term budget deficits, in a combative speech that portrayed Republicans as backing "tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires" while demanding sacrifice from the nation's seniors, poor and the middle class.
But on a day in which both parties seemed to present hardened positions publicly on taxes, Medicare and other programs, top Democratic and Republican officials were working behind the scenes to put together a general deficit-reduction framework that would clear the way on their most immediate fiscal priority, raising the ceiling on how much the federal government can borrow.
New Obama budget still leaves fiscal future fuzzy
By James Pethokoukis - Reuters.com
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's budget do-over is certainly an upgrade. U.S. deficits a decade from now would be sharply lower than under his previous plan. But the approach is still full of accounting gimmicks, and ducks making necessary long-term fixes. That tactic may be good politics as the president heads into an election year, but it also shows a worrying lack of urgency.
The slight fiscal progress of Obama’s first attempt earlier this year mostly evaporated once the Congressional Budget Office re-ran the numbers. Debt as a share of the economy would have risen to 87 percent in 10 years versus 62 percent last year, according to the CBO. This updated version of his budget would aim to limit deficits to 2.5 percent of GDP in 2015 and 2 percent toward the end of the decade. That would more or less stabilize debt ratios at current levels and mimics the bottom-line numbers of the plan recently put forward by House Republican leader Paul Ryan.
Our Polarized and Money-Driven Congress: Created Over 25 Years By Republican
(and Quickly Imitated by Democrats)
NakedCapitalism.com
Political scientist Tom Ferguson prepared a short but important paper for the INET conference last weekend on how Congress got to be as polarized as it is today. His answer: it was redesigned quite deliberately by conservative Republican followers of Newt Gingrich starting in the mid 1980s and their methods were copied by the Democrats. Their changes resulted in firmer control by leadership (ie, less autonomy of individual Congressmen) and much greater importance of fundraising (which increased the power of corporate interests).
Stiglitz and the progressive Ouroboros
TheEconomist.com
JOSEPH STIGLITZ, an economics professor at Columbia University with a Nobel prize and stints at the White House and the World Bank on his gold-encrusted CV, takes to the perfumed pages of Vanity Fair to decry the alleged rule "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%". Mr Stiglitz's essay [see yesterday's news page], though riddled with error and confusion, remains an illuminating encapsulation of a certain misguided conception of political economy common on the left.
Scott Winship does us the service of ferreting out Mr Stiglitz's false and misleading claims. The share of national income and wealth accruing to the top 1% has not grown as much as Mr Stiglitz asserts. Median income has declined only if one omits the value of health benefits. The claim that "All the growth in recent decades - and more - has gone to those at the top", is plainly incorrect. There is little evidence that increasing levels of inequality "undermine the efficiency of the economy". Mr Stiglitz maintains that it is "well-documented" that high levels of inequality lead "people outside the top 1 percent" to "increasingly live beyond their means", but the increase in indebtedness is small, and theories, such as Robert Frank's, connecting middle-class consumption and indebtedness to rising inequality remain speculative. There's more, but fact-checking is tedious business. Please do read Mr Winship's postfor the details.
Insolvent and Going Deeper Fiscal and currency crises lie ahead
BY CHRIS MARTENSON PHD - FinancialSense.com
The US budget process is entirely out of control and, by extension, its fiscal future is rather bleak.
All one has to do is back up two steps, entirely ignoring the meaningless budget scuffles currently ongoing in DC, to see that the federal government's fiscal situation is in complete shambles. In fact, as things currently stand in terms of spending and revenues, the US government is insolvent - as its liabilities vastly exceed its assets on a net present value basis.
The Coming Bond Bust The Timing and Pattern of the Coming Bond Bust is Unpredictable
BY KRASSIMIR PETROV - FinancialSense.com
.... To understand the unpredictability of the coming bond bust, you need to remember the basic lesson that bond prices are determined by demand and supply for bonds. While there are over a dozen of critical factors determining bond demand and supply, it is sufficient to provide only three such dominant factors, each of which is highly uncertain and unpredictable. More specifically, you need to recognize that bond fundamentals (demand and supply) are driven by monetary policy, fiscal policy, and currency policy. Then you need to recognize that each policy itself is driven by faulty pseudo-economics and often trumped by pure politics. Here are the three factors:
Keeping Capital in a Depression
BY DOUG CASEY - FinancialSense.com
Nothing is cheap in today’s investment world. Because of the trillions of currency units that governments all over the world have created – and are continuing to create – financial assets are grossly overpriced. Stocks, bonds, property, commodities and cash are no bargains. Meanwhile, real wages are slipping rapidly among those who are working, and a large portion of the population is unemployed or underemployed.
Inflation near 10% using reporting methodologies
before Greenspan put the fix in
InvestorVillage.com
After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.
Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.
Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter's web site, Shadowstats.com.
Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure
By: John Melloy, Executive Producer, Fast Money - CNBC.com
After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.
Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.
G-7 Boosting Currency Reserves as UBS Sees Intervention Revival
By Simon Kennedy - Bloomberg.com
Group of Seven governments are boosting their currency reserves as strategists at UBS AG (UBSN) and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK) detect the potential for more intervention to quell exchange-rate swings in coming years.
G-7 finance ministers and central bankers meet in Washington tonight for the first time since uniting to sell yen on March 18, after avoiding such action for more than a decade.
They meet as Mansoor Mohi-uddin, UBS’s chief currency strategist, suggests the growing risk of currency sell-offs in the next decade means G-7 nations may increase reserves from about $200 billion in the euro area and $50 billion each in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. British and Canadian officials have signaled they will raise their stockpiles to meet commitments to the International Monetary Fund. Japan’s now top $1 trillion.
Why Is JPMorgan So Eagerly Acquiring Bars of Physical Platinum?
Avery Goodman - SeekingAlpha.com
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is the biggest derivatives issuer of all U.S. banks, but it is busy below the radar, loading up its vaults with 50 troy ounce platinum bars. JPMorgan has been a large net physical platinum buyer in 2011, and it was also a big buyer in 2010.
In 2010 the bank "stopped" a total of 975 platinum contracts, while delivering only 463, resulting in a net accumulation of 512 contracts, representing 25,600 troy ounces of platinum. In 2011, the delivery pace increased substantially. In January, 2011, JPM took delivery of 333 contracts, representing approximately 16,650 troy ounces of platinum.That month, a sum total of only 527 contracts were delivered to all clearing members, leaving JPM with 63% of all the delivered platinum at NYMEX. Then, in March, JPM took delivery of 12 more contract, even though it was a nonstandard "off-month" for platinum futures contracts. The off-month adventure added another 600 troy ounces to its kitty.
Goldman Sachs Misled Congress After Duping Clients, Levin Says
By Robert Schmidt, Clea Benson and Phil Mattingly - Bloomberg Businessweek.com
April 13 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. misled clients and Congress about the firm’s investments in securities tied to mortgages, the chairman of the Senate panel that investigated the causes of the financial crisis said.
Senator Carl Levin, releasing the findings of a two-year inquiry, said he wants the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to examine whether Goldman Sachs violated the law by misleading clients who bought the complex securities known as collateralized debt obligations without knowing the firm was betting they would fall in value.
US States creating their own banks
On the Edge with Max Keiser-04-08-2011
Central Banks question dollar, favour gold
CommodityOnline.com
Stocks are higher in Europe after gains in Asia despite losses on Wall Street yesterday. Gold and silver are showing tentative gains after 1% declines yesterday. Gold is particularly strong in yen terms as the yen has weakened against all 16 of its major peers.
China's yuan climbed to a 17-year high versus the dollar but is lower against the precious metals.
Treasuries have fallen as the U.S. prepares to sell $21 billion of 10-year notes today, the second of three auctions this week. Ten- year yields rose three basis points and the yield on the five-year Treasury note rose three basis points.
BRICs Said to Seek End to West’s Monopoly of World Bank, IMF
By Andre Soliani - Bloomberg.com
Five of the largest emerging nations will push the U.S. andEurope to end their 65-year monopoly on leadership positions at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, according to two diplomats who helped negotiate a statement by the countries.
The management structure of the institutions needs to reflect changes in the world economy, the draft statement by Brazil,Russia, India, China and South Africa says, according to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified because the final text isn’t public. The section calls for a bigger role for developing countries in global institutions, a reference to concerns with how leaders are chosen at the World Bank and IMF.
Libya all about oil, or central banking?
By Ellen Brown - ATimes.com
Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank - this before they even had a government. Robert Wenzel wrote in the Economic Policy Journal:
I have never before heard of a central bank being created in just a matter of weeks out of a popular uprising. This suggests we have a bit more than a rag tag bunch of rebels running around and that there are some pretty sophisticated influences. Alex Newman wrote in the New American:
In a statement released last week, the rebels reported on the results of a meeting held on March 19. Among other things, the supposed rag-tag revolutionaries announced the "[d]esignation of the Central Bank of Benghazi as a monetary authority competent in monetary policies in Libya and appointment of a Governor to the Central Bank of Libya, with a temporary headquarters in Benghazi."
Pastor Lindsey Williams:
NWO to Target 'Yemen' Next! - Alex Jones Tv 1/4
Pastor Lindsey Williams:
NWO to Target 'Yemen' Next! - Alex Jones Tv 2/4
Pastor Lindsey Williams:
NWO to Target 'Yemen' Next! - Alex Jones Tv 3/4
Pastor Lindsey Williams:
NWO to Target 'Yemen' Next! - Alex Jones Tv 4/4
Will the Gold Standard Ever Make a Comeback?
BY DOMINIC FRISBY - FinancialSense.com
What we use as money today is either issued by governments, or created by banks through the issuance of debt. The status of money is protected by the law – we must use what we use as money – and by the fact that taxes are levied in this money.
But underneath it all, there's nothing there – nothing tangible anyway. It's just a law, a man-made law. It's not even a proper promise. The writing you see on a £20 sterling note – 'I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds' – is in effect a promise to pay something that doesn't exist. It's a great big load of old baloney.
Modern money is a man-made phenomenon, responsible in my view – though rarely held culpable – for many of the economic problems the world faces today.
But nature has provided an alternative.
Visual Evidence to Disprove the "Gold Bubble" Theory
By Addison Wiggin - DailyReckoning.com
04/13/11 Zurich, Switzerland – Precious metals are proving resilient after yesterday’s beat-down. Gold is back up to $1,461. Silver spent a few nanoseconds below $40 yesterday and as of this writing sits smartly at $40.56.
With regular runs at historic highs, it’s no longer cranky gold bugs and dollar bears doing their share of gold price forecasting. Analysts for the proper, if stodgy, British bank Standard Chartered announced yesterday they are expecting gold to reach $2,107 an ounce by 2014.
What's more, they say, "our modeling suggests a possible 'super-bull' scenario," based on a"powerful relationship" between per capita income in Asian emerging markets and the gold price.
World leaders debate Lybia's future U.N. chief warns of humanitarian disaster as Libya meeting opens
By the CNN Wire Staff
Doha, Qatar (CNN) -- The United Nations chief opened an international meeting on Libya Wednesday with a grim assessment of the humanitarian fallout from the conflict.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Arab and African diplomats and their NATO counterparts that in a worst-case scenario, as many as 3.6 million strife-affected people could eventually require help. And the money to provide that help is slow in coming, he said.
So far the United Nations has seen only 39 percent of the $310 million it requested in emergency funding, "clearly insufficient given the prospective need," Ban said.
Top White House aide delivers Obama letter to Saudi king
By Karen DeYoung - WashingtonPost.com
A top White House aide delivered a personal letter from President Obama to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Tuesday, as the administration moved to calm tensions between the two countries over how to respond to upheaval in the Arab world and deal with their mutual adversary in Iran.
The hastily arranged visit to the kingdom by national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon came less than a week after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates made the same trip. While administration officials confirmed the delivery of Obama's missive, they declined to specify its contents.
Syrian marchers: Free our men
By the CNN Wire Staff
(CNN) -- Women and children from a Syrian village rallied Wednesday for the release of their husbands and fathers snatched up by security forces the day before, an eyewitness told CNN.
The women and children from Baida -- a village just southeast of the coastal city of Banias and north of Damascus -- are protesting the incarceration of men from the community.
It is the latest demonstration in nearly a month of unrest across Syria, and recently there has been a great deal of instability in Banias.
Muslim Brotherhood targets overthrow of Yemen Tens of Thousands Protest in Yemen
By LAURA KASINOF and J. DAVID GOODMAN - NYTimes.com
SANA, Yemen - More than 100,000 people converged on Yemen’s capital for a second Friday of dueling demonstrations over the fate of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who faces a rising tide of international sentiment in favor of his departure.
In the city of Taiz, three protesters were killed and 33 wounded by gunfire, a doctor at a local field hospital said. Witnesses said that security forces and plainclothes snipers fired on protesters as they were marching to the governor’s office.
Former Egyptian President Mubarak hospitalized
By the CNN Wire Staff
Cairo (CNN) -- Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was admitted to a hospital Tuesday after complaining to his doctor that he felt unwell, according to a spokesman for the Egyptian military.
A military source said Mubarak's condition was stable, not critical, and that his wife and elder son were with him.
Egyptian state television reported Mubarak suffered a heart attack during questioning over possible corruption charges. When contacted by CNN, however, the prosecutor's office denied any reports Mubarak had been questioned by authorities Tuesday.
J.P. Morgan bankers in line for 34% raise: update
Posted by Colin Barr - Fortune.CNN.com
Who says there's no wage growth in the United States?
Bankers at J.P. Morgan, the investment banking unit of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), are in line for a 34% raise this year, if the bank keeps paying at its torrid first-quarter clip.
The investment bank set aside $3.3 billion for compensating its 26,494 workers in the first quarter. That's equivalent to $124,330 for the quarter and projects to $497,320 for the year.
We are Way Over the Edge Right Now
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
Last Friday, I wrote a piece called "Could America be Pushed over the Economic Edge?" It was about how Libya, Japan or even covert economic warfare (from America's enemies) could push the U.S. into another financial meltdown. I received a one sentence email from my friend Jim Sinclair that said, "We are way over the edge right now." His message gave me a sinking feeling. Mr. Sinclair is a world renowned gold expert, but in order to trade that market, you must be extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of economics and politics. Almost everything affects the price of gold. War, government, oil, debt, money creation, the Fed and many other variables can dictate how much the yellow metal costs. Gold is probably the single most difficult market to trade, and Sinclair is the Yoda of gold traders (except much better looking.)
Death Trap Democrats
By Peter Ferrara The American Spectator.org
Despite November's New Deal magnitude political earthquake, surviving House Democrats just laughed off their historic 63 seat loss and reelected ultra-left San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi as House Minority Leader, a position she will now apparently hold for life. Somehow Democrats are convinced that the American people will come to realize the error of their ways and turn to embrace taxation that seizes most of their money for the government to spend, rejecting traditional American prosperity. Good luck with that.
But Democrats have now repeated the folly by choosing Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) to head the Democratic National Committee. Schultz is just as left wing as Pelosi, but less soft spoken and even more transparently unreasoned.
Huge gap between rich and poor must close: IMF
By Annalyn Censky - Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The chief of the International Monetary Fund is encouraging governments to focus on job creation and narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
"We need policies to reduce inequality, and to ensure a fairer distribution of opportunities and resources," IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in prepared remarks Wednesday morning.
The speech comes two days ahead of a key meeting of G-20 nations in Washington, D.C., where finance ministers will try to push through standards reducing global economic imbalances.
Record number of Americans get government help
By Tami Luhby - Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- One in six Americans is receiving help from the government, just as fiscal austerity threatens to reduce some of that aid.
Soaring unemployment during The Great Recession has driven tens of millions of people to the dole. Enrollment in Medicaid and food stamp programs are at record highs, while unemployment insurance rolls remain at elevated levels. Many people depend on more than one program.
But as President Obama and lawmakers fiercely debate budget cuts to reduce the country's $14 trillion-plus debt, some of those lifelines could be at risk. House Republicans are looking to revamp and slash funding for many programs, including Medicaid and food stamps.
Shop for free! Researchers cheat PayPal checkout
By Julianne Pepitone - Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A group of security researchers say software flaws in the ways major merchants have implemented payment systems from PayPal, Amazon Payments and Google Checkout allowed them to buy products online for free or at a deep discount.
The researchers, from Indiana University and Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) Research, said "logic flaws" created inconsistencies between the merchant site and the payment service.
Vulture investors flipping their way to big profits
By Les Christie - Money.CNN.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Even in these down times, there's money to be made buying and flipping houses.
One might think this would be a most dangerous game -- after all, home prices are down more than a third from their peak in most areas. But plenty of investors are taking the risk in exchange for big profits.
In fact, nearly 1 million homes were bought as investment properties in 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Chinese editors, and a Web site, detail censors' hidden hand
By Keith B. Richburg - WashingtonPost.com
BEIJING - When fears of radiation spreading from Japan prompted a rush on iodized salt in China, a weekly business newspaper posted the story on its Web site under the headline: "Panic buying in Guangdong, Shenzhen and Dongguan; iodized salt out of stock, nuclear panic in Japan spreads."
Within minutes, government censors called the Economic Observer's vice chief editor, Zhang Hong, "and asked us to delete that post immediately," he said.
In a small act of defiance, Zhang left the story on the site, but he changed the second part of the headline to read: "Salt bureau said the stock is sufficient.
Chinese aircraft carrier nears completion
By J. Michael Cole / TaipeiTimes.com
After nearly nine years of refurbishing work, China's first aircraft carrier - a platform that could add to Taiwan's defense concerns - could soon embark on its maiden voyage, Chinese media reported last week.
Work on the Varyag, a refurbished carrier purchased from Ukraine in 1992 for about US$20 million, was near completion and the hull was being painted in the standard Chinese naval color, a Web site associated with the state-run People's Daily newspaper reported last Wednesday.
China intent on taking over Taiwan: US expert
By William Lowther / TaipeiTimes.com
A new analysis of China's latest defense white paper concludes that it is part and parcel of Beijing's "political warfare against Taiwan."
The analysis by Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center, said the white paper "provides a disturbing insight into the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) strategy of coercive envelopment of Taiwan."
Fisher said the paper was "a stark reminder of the PRC's [People's Republic of China] ongoing strategy of economic and political 'united front' warfare combined with military intimidation, which the PRC could decide to change into a direct military campaign at any point in the future."
Mainstream Media Buries the Lead, Again
By Greg Hunter's USAWatchdog.com
The headline in yesterday's USA Today read "The World to the Rescue."It was followed by the sub-headline, "Japan crisis showcases social media's muscle." When I saw this, I immediately thought that the nuclear crisis was under control and folks were using the Internet to help the island country recover.
The story said, "Japan's disaster has spotlighted the critical role that social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, You Tube and Skype increasingly are playing in responses to crises around the world. They may have been designed largely for online socializing and fun, but such sites and others have empowered people caught up in crises and others wanting to help to share vivid, unfiltered images, audio and text reports before governments or more traditional media can do so."
Arnie Gunderson The Real Fukushima Information
Japan crisis showcases social media's muscle
By Steve Sternberg, USA TODAY
Nine days after Japan's catastrophic earthquake, two urgent pleas for help appeared on the Twitter stream of U.S. Ambassador John Roos:
"Kameda hospital in Chiba needs to transfer 80 patients from Kyoritsu hospital in Iwaki city, just outside of 30km(sic) range."
"Some of them are seriously ill and they need air transport. If US military can help, pls contact (name withheld) at Kameda."
Amid mixed signals, Japan rates nuclear crisis at highest severity level
By Chico Harlan - WshingtonPost.com
TOKYO - Japanese authorities issued contradictory assessments Tuesday about the severity of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan saying that the situation is improving "step by step" and a senior official from the operating power company warning of further mass radiation releases.
The mixed signals provided a backdrop to a decision earlier in the day by Japan's nuclear agency to raise the severity rating of the nuclear crisis at Daiichi from Level 5 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES), indicating an "accident with off-site risk," to Level 7, a "major accident" on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Silver, the Canary in the Gold Mine
BY DARRYL SCHOON - FinancialSense.com
Silver, the Canary in the Gold Mine was my talk at a Gold Standard Institute symposium in Canberra, Australia in November 2008. The topic could well describe today’s gold and silver markets.
Today, both silver and gold are achieving record highs but silver’s accelerating price indicates silver may indeed be the canary in the gold mine, the leading indicator for gold’s long-awaited explosive move upwards, a move the Fed and major bullion banks have colluded since the 1980s to prevent.
Gold and Silver Breaks Out Technical Targets Being Monitored
BY JEB HANDWERGER - FinancialSense.com
Gold broke out of its 6 month consolidation and cup and handle pattern. The gold bulls are now in control and short covering should begin to cause an explosive move to my late January target of $1600 on gold and $40 on silver. In late January, gold and silver were in a sell-off and many were predicting lower prices as moving averages were broken. Now we are on our way to the January target in gold of $1600. Many ask what to do as they sit on hefty gains. I have learned through many years of studying the markets that the use of measured moves and technical targets when making a selling decision is quite important and must be followed. Institutional investors sell into strength at overhead resistance and are able to take profits. At those times of extreme optimism is when one must get worried and take some risk off the table. For one person it may be going off margin, for another it may mean raising cash. At times when technical targets are reached risk management becomes crucial as it is the most difficult time to sell as the consensus turns positive. Please stay tuned to daily bulletins on when technical targets are reached.
Gold slips on profit taking spurred by Goldman Sachs
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): Gold eased Tuesday along with oil on profit selling by some investors while silver also dipped from the record 31 year high.
Spot gold was seen trading at $1454.64 an ounce at 1.30 p.m Singapore time while U.S. gold futures for June dropped to $1,458.5 an ounce on the comex division of the Nymex.
Spot silver slipped 19 cents to $39.98 an ounce, below a 31-year high at $41.93. Silver futures for May delivery advanced 0.4 cent to $40.612.
Analysts attributed gold’s dip to Goldman Sachs advice to investors to lock-in trading profits before oil and other markets reverse.
We Have Until July at Latest Even a Caveman Can See It
Michael C. Ruppert - CollapseNet.com
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation's income - an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret.
By Joseph E. Stiglitz - VanityFair.com
It's no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably. Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33 percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous - 12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades - and more - has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow.
The Real Housewives of Wall Street Why is the Federal Reserve forking over $220 million in bailout money to the wives of two Morgan Stanley bigwigs?
By MATT TAIBBI - RollingStone.com
America has two national budgets, one official, one unofficial. The official budget is public record and hotly debated: Money comes in as taxes and goes out as jet fighters, DEA agents, wheat subsidies and Medicare, plus pensions and bennies for that great untamed socialist menace called a unionized public-sector workforce that Republicans are always complaining about. According to popular legend, we're broke and in so much debt that 40 years from now our granddaughters will still be hooking on weekends to pay the medical bills of this year's retirees from the IRS, the SEC and the Department of Energy.
Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?
Soros and friends reorder global finance at new Bretton Woods
By: Mary Claire Kendall - WashingtonExaminer.com
While all the focus is now on the three-ring circus in Washington vis-a-vis passing the fiscal 2011 budget the Democrats failed to pass in 2010, up in New Hampshire this weekend at Bretton Woods, the Institute for New Economic Thinking is convening a very important conference, "CRISIS and RENEWAL: International Political Economy at the Crossroads."
It's no accident they're meeting on the very same site as the Bretton Woods Conference -- formally United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference -- that met from July 1-22, 1944, during World War II to plan the postwar financial world after the expected defeat of Germany and Japan.
[scroll down see videos from Bretton Woods Conference]
IMF sides with central bank against bankers in Turkey
By HAKAN TAŞÇI - TodaysZaman.com
The effects of the global financial crisis are diminishing; however, the speed of the recovery differs considerably from country to country.
Advanced economies have far smaller growth projections compared to emerging and developing economies. According to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook April 2011 report published on Monday, the growth of advanced economies is expected to be around 2.5 percent, while emerging and developing economies will grow by 6.5 percent. The driving economies are, of course, China and India. If this positive climate continues and global commodity and food price rises settle down, Turkey and Brazil would be a member of these high growth countries together with Sub-Saharan Africa. This two-speed recovery makes the headline of the report quoted above: "Tensions from the Two-Speed Recovery: Unemployment, Commodities, and Capital Flows."
U.S. plans new push on Arab-Israeli peace: Clinton
By Arshad Mohammed | Reuters - Taranaki Daily News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States plans a new push to promote comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, Secretary of StateHillary Clinton said on Tuesday, suggesting a stronger U.S. hand in trying to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
President Barack Obama will lay out U.S. policy toward the Middle East and North Africa in the coming weeks, Clinton told Arab and U.S. policy makers in a speech that placed particular emphasis on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
What I Don't See at the Revolution As someone who has witnessed many stages of upheaval, whether in Eastern Europe, Asia, or South Africa, the author puts forth a wary prognosis for the brave Egyptians who thronged Tahrir Square: they likely haven't got the resources to break the chains of tyranny.
By Christopher Hitchens - VanityFair.com
When anatomizing revolutions, it always pays to consult the whiskered old veterans. Those trying to master a new language, wrote Karl Marx about the turmoil in France in the 19th century, invariably begin haltingly, by translating it back into the familiar tongue they already know. And with his colleague Friedrich Engels he defined a revolution as the midwife by whom the new society is born from the body of the old.
The Face of Egypt's Uprising
By MATTHEW KAMINSKI - WSJ.com
Cairo, Egypt -- Alaa Al Aswany, the bestselling novelist in the Arab world, wears blue surgical garb and chain smokes through a pack of Davidoffs. A dentist with a practice in Cairo's fashionable Garden City, he says with a laugh that he ought to know better, but has other priorities these days.
Mr. Al Aswany is one of the few prominent faces of Egypt's so-called leaderless revolution, a Vaclav Havel for this Arab Spring. Except for a few hours to change clothes, he was in Tahrir Square each of the 18 days before Hosni Mubarak fell from power two months ago. "It was unbelievable," he says, "but now I am worried."
What the West fears
DOU ERGİL - TodaysZaman.com
It has taken a while for the West to understand that Islamism is not directly related to religion but is an ideology of cohesion and struggle against adversaries (occupiers or domestic governments that are labeled oppressive) with a rhetoric derived from religion based on justice, equity, etc. Islamists are one of those political groups/parties that vie for power and power is an instrument of governance.
Yet, fear of the Islamists is still widespread in the West because Westerners can hardly make sense of people who turn their body into a bomb and blow themselves up for an exalted cause that they will never see fulfilled. However, it was not too long ago in the West when nationalism and its extreme variants fascism and communism socialized people into such absolute sacrifices as well. Hence it is collectivism that abhors individualism and everything that comes along with it, such as freedoms, rights and personal choice. But more than their own past, people tend look at the present and future of other societies.
Dubai on Empty
By A. A. Gill - VanityFair.com
Its skyline erupting from the desert in just two decades, Dubai is a cautionary tale about what money can't buy: a culture of its own. After gorging on the Viagra of easy credit, the emirate has the world’s tallest building, the world’s most expensive racetrack, and a financial crisis to match. From the Western mercenaries and Asian drones who maintain the gaudy show to 100-odd families who are impervious to any economic reality, A. A. Gill discovers that no one truly belongs in Dubai, where the legacy of oil has made everything worthless.
Oil Hits 32-Month High As Unrest Persists in the Middle East
BY CASEY RESEARCH - FinancialSense.com
With the civil war in Libya now entering its third week, Egypt moving haltingly towards free elections, and hundreds dead in Syria, Yemen and Bahrain after a month of anti-government protests in each country, the Middle East is rife with instability. On Wednesday, April 6, that instability pushed the spot price of Brent oil above US$123 per barrel, a high not seen since August 2008 when prices were crashing from an all-time peak of US $147.50 on the eve of the financial crisis.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is brushing aside pressure to act, saying it is already doing all it can to subdue the rally.
"All that OPEC can do is provide the market with the oil it needs, and it is doing that," said Hussain al-Shahristani, Iran's deputy prime minister for Energy Affairs, at a Paris oil conference. "We have not seen any slowdown in growth."
Turkey's oil reserves sufficient for only 17 years
THE ANATOLIA NEWS AGENCY, ANKARA
Turkey's oil reserves have been calculated as 291.5 million barrels (43.14 million tonnes) while natural gas reserves are 6.2 billion cubic meters.
Unless new discoveries are made, Turkey's oil reserves would be sufficient for only 17 years while natural gas reserves would be sufficient for only 8.6 years.
The world's total reserves of oil would be sufficient for 49.2 years while natural gas reserves would be sufficient for 59.5 years.
SUVs: Safer, Heavier, But What About the Gas?
By Joseph B. White - WSJ.com
Consumers love sport utility vehicles and crossover wagons for their roominess and comfort. Now, new studies of federal crash data show they're among the safest vehicles on the road—thanks to more than a decade of effort by auto makers and safety regulators to attack the root causes of deadly SUV rollover accidents.
But this safety comes with a cost: weight. The continued popularity of secure-but-heavy SUVs and crossovers will make it tougher to cut U.S. oil consumption.
A GLOBAL TSUNAMI, COURTESY OF THE FED
by Chris Martenson - CollapseNet.com
The Fed is in a bind. No matter which way it turns, utter failure is a risk. Putting more money into the system risks no less than the dollar itself. Stopping quantitative easing (QE) risks plunging the economy and financial system into another period of turbulent decline. It looks like the Fed is going to choose the latter.
In a recent report, I made the case that pressure was building on the Fed to end its QE 2 program in June, and that if it did, there would be an enormous rout in the stock, bond, and commodity markets. That analysis still stands.
Deficit Speech Will Be Lightning Rod Lawmakers in Both Parties Are Likely to Fault Obama's Approach Wednesday to Long-Term Cutbacks
By CAROL E. LEE And DAMIAN PALETTA - WSJ.com
President Barack Obama will describe his plans for long-term deficit reduction Wednesday, in a move likely to kick off a months-long debate with Republicans while alienating some members of his own Democratic Party.
In a midday speech in Washington, Mr. Obama will propose a sweeping plan that includes cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicare, limits on military spending and an overhaul of the tax system designed to bring in more revenue. To pre-empt criticism from Democrats and Republicans, Mr. Obama is hosting congressional leaders at the White House in the morning to preview his goals.
Debt Jumped $54.1 Billion in 8 Days Preceding Boehner-Obama Deal
to Cut $38.5 Billion for Rest of Year
By Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) - The federal debt increased $54.1 billion in the eight days preceding the deal made by President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) and House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) to cut $38.5 billion in federal spending for the remainder of fiscal year 2011, which runs through September
U.S. Deficit to Rise to Largest Among Major Economies, IMF Says
By Sandrine Rastello - Bloomberg.com
The U.S. is set to have the largest budget deficit of major developed economies this year and should narrow it now rather than face tough adjustments in the next two years, theInternational Monetary Fund said.
The U.S. shortfall will reach 10.8 percent of its gross domestic product this year, ahead of Japan and the U.K., the Washington-based IMF said in a report released today. It estimates that President Barack Obama will need to cut the deficit by 5 percentage points of GDP in the next two fiscal years, the largest adjustment in "at least half a century," to meet his pledge of halving it by the end of his four-year term.
Big banks are government-backed: Fed's Hoenig
By Joe Rauch | Reuters.com
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Big banks like Bank of America Corp and Citigroup Incshould be reclassified as government-sponsored entities and have their activities restricted, a senior Fed official said on Tuesday.
The 2008 bank bailouts at the height of the financial crisis and other implicit guarantees effectively make the largest U.S. banks government-guaranteed enterprises, like mortgage finance companiesFannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig.
"That's what they are," Hoenig said at the National Association of Attorneys General 2011 conference.
Equity Valuations Forming Second Biggest Bubble in US History
BY JASON KASPAR - FinancialSense.com
Despite the terrible economic performance of the past ten years (both in terms of the markets and the general economy), equity valuations are now approaching the second largest bubble in United States history, surpassed only by the technology bubble. Both the cause and the potential ramifications of this development are astounding.
Exhibit one: The cyclically-adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, or CAPE.
This is not a "fad" valuation metric. CAPE dates back to 1871, offering 140 years worth of data, during which time the mean price-to-earnings ratio is 16. According to Yale University’s Dr. Robert Shiller, the market is now 41% overvalued according to this valuation metric. The only time the markets have been more overvalued was a few brief months in 1929 and the tech bubble.
Is the Dow Forming a Huge Head and Shoulders Pattern?
BY RICHARD RUSSELL - FinancialSense.com
"In all my years of investing, I have never seen an asset hit record highs, as gold has done recently, with less fanfare. There were no front page stories in the Wall StreetJournal or Financial Times, heralding the new milestones." Fred Hickey, editor of theHigh-Tech Strategist and a member of Barron's Roundtable.
A leading analyst writes to tell me that we're seeing "the formation of the greatest top in stock market history." The "top" he's referring to is seen on the chart below. And sure enough, on the chart we can see the outline of a monster, multi-year head-and-shoulders pattern, with the head at the 2007 high and what appears to be a right shoulder now in the process of formation.
Michigan Plan Would Tax Retirees Up to Age 67
By Kathy Barks Hoffman, Associated Press - CNSNews.com
Lansing, Mich. (AP) - Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder announced a new plan Tuesday to tax retirees' income up to age 67.
The Republican governor had wanted to tax all retirement income the same as normal income in a bid to raise $900 million to help pay for a business tax cut, but many lawmakers balked after seniors made their displeasure clear. More than a thousand angry seniors protested at the Capitol a month ago, and many had told lawmakers during a recent legislative recess that the taxes would be a hardship.
Snyder has been working to reach a compromise with top Republican lawmakers, and they joined him at his announcement Tuesday. Although neither Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville or House Speaker Jase Bolger promised the votes were there for the revised plan, both said it was likely the two chambers' Republican majorities would pass the bills.
Tough economy refills empty nests
By Kim Palmer, Star Tribune - Cleveland.com
MINNEAPOLIS -- It's been almost a year since Charlie Evans graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in engineering, eager to launch a career in the aerospace industry. "I started applying right away," he said. But 200 job applications later, he's landed only two "solid" interviews.
"There are jobs out there," he said, "but so many other people are looking," including experienced engineers willing to take entry-level jobs.
Evans' summer job ended in October. So for now, he's living in a guest bedroom in his parents' Edina, Minn., basement, his belongings in boxes. (His younger brother got his room when he went off to college.) "It is what it is," he said. "But it would be nice to have a place of my own."
Bank forecloses on Kan.-based Big Dog Motorcycles
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A bank has foreclosed on Wichita, Kansas-based Big Dog Motorcycles, ending the run of a 17-year-old company that specialized in custom heavy cruisers and had 100 U.S. dealers.
The Wichita Eagle says founder Sheldon Coleman Jr., heir and former CEO of camping and outdoor equipment maker Coleman Co., dissolved the corporation.
Government's Border Security Approach
Is 'Ineffective and Expensive,' Texas Judge Tells Senators
By Edwin Mora
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Judge Veronica Escobar of El Paso, a Texas Democrat, told CNSNews.com that the federal government's border security approach is "ineffective" because it involves building fences that are "pushing border crossers" to "more dangerous, treacherous crossings" or inspiring them to build tunnels.
The judge said the federal government should invest more money in modernizing ports of entry.
"While federal law enforcement has gone on the record to praise the border wall, it is to me and others an example of considerable federal dollars being spent on a rusting monument that makes my community look like a junkyard," Judge Escobar told a recent hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
The Facts About American 'Decline' In absolute terms, the U.S. increased its GDP, population and military spending from 2000 to 2010. In relative terms, the story is not always as good, especially in GDP.
By CHARLES WOLF JR. - WSJ.com
It's fashionable among academics and pundits to proclaim that the U.S. is in decline and no longer No. 1 in the world. The declinists say they are realists. In fact, their alarm is unrealistic.
Early declinists like Yale historian Paul Kennedy focused in the 1980s on the allegedly debilitating effects of America's "imperial overstretch." More recently, historians Niall Ferguson and Martin Jacques focus on the weakening of the economy. Among pundits, Paul Krugman and Michael Kinsley on the left and Mark Helprin on the right sound the alarm.
Why We Are Totally Finished
BY DAVOS SHERMAN OKST - 06/27/2010
In A Nutshell: Corporatocracy Has Replaced Capitalism
Capitalism Fixes Problems & Preserves Democracy: Capitalism is what we should be relying on to fix our problems. Capitalism has it's own ecosystem, just like biology's ecosystem. An economic ecosystem that weeds out the weak, has parasites that eat the failures and new bacteria that evolves and grows replacements for that which failed. A system that keeps everything in balance.
The problem is we are no longer a capitalistic society. What we were taught in school is now utter and absolute nonsense. Capitalism is a thing of the past.
As outlined in "It's Not A Financial Crisis - It's A Stupidity Crisis", we created two back to back bubbles. The air out of the Tech Bubble was sucked up for fuel by our next stupidity crisis: The Housing Bubble.
The Fascist States of America
LewRockwell.com Jesse Ventura tells Lew Rockwell about The 63 Documents the Government Doesn’t Want You to Read.
Naked-body "microwave" machines target travelers in violation of the 4th Amendment, the Republican and Democratic parties make everything worse, the CIA is embedded in state governments to control the governors, and the USA is already a police state, censoring Jesse’s show about the building of FEMA camps. Big corporations in control, military kangaroo courts, sixteen million documents stamped "Top Secret," authoritarian borders – all are a part of the foolish, dangerous, and evil actions of our overlords, exposed in 63 Documents the Government Doesn't Want You to Read.
America:Freedom to Fascism (Full)
Series of articles by Steve Farrell on TheMoralLiberal.com. Steve Farrell also has a column on TheRenewAmerica.com web site...
Democrats In Drag, Foreword
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - January 07, 2010
When I began this project a decade ago, I recognized the title I chose, "Democrats in Drag," would be provocative and controversial, offensive and humorous, hated and praised, cursed and hallelujahed. I also knew it was marketable. Yet the bottom line is the title was chosen because it reflected an issue I felt passionately about, namely: The Republican Party speaks conservative, but legislates liberal, gets all dressed up for church, but drives down to the brothel.
If there ever was any truth to the claim that the Republican Party was conservative, constitutionally based, and morally sound, its 1990?s flying leap into the arms of Progressive Government and the Third Way, and it's follow on act in the 21st Century with Compassionate Conservatism, insured that honest men would soon come to believe otherwise. Yesterday's defenders of the Republic are today's champions of the New World Order and the corporations that figure to cash in most on the megalomaniacal prize.
Technology, Sovereignty, and The Third Wave Introduction, Democrats In Drag, Part 1
by Steve Farrell - January 11, 2010
On November 11, 1994, in a post-election victory speech, Republican House member Newt Gingrich revealed to Congress what his Contract With America, his Republican Revolution was all about. (1) He called it "The Third Way," a progressive movement he would interchangeably refer to as the Third Way, the Third Wave, or Conservative Futurism in speech after speech from that day forward. To understand what Congressmen Gingrich meant by that he recommended the reading of two books, the first, "The Third Wave" by ex-Marxist Alvin Toffler, and the second, "The Tragedy of American Compassion" by ex-Marxist Marvin Olasky, founding father of George W. Bush's, "Compassionate Conservatism," and the editor in chief of World Magazine.
What is the Third Way/Wave? What is its child Compassionate Conservatism? The early history of the catchphrase sends us our first disturbing hints.
Clinton and Blair's Center-Left Democracy Democrats In Drag, Part 2
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - January 21, 2010
Democrats In Drag, Part 1, "Technology, Sovereignty, and the Third Wave," raised a justifiable flap about the hush-hush history of that Tsunami for political and sociological change called the Third Wave or the Third Way. It presented the first layer of evidence that the 1990′s famously popular Third Way, like its 1999-2008 twin sister Compassionate Conservatism, emerged like a creature in hiding from the socialist badlands of communism and fascism.
Gingrich, Toffler, and Gore: A Peculiar Trio Democrats In Drag, Part 3
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - January 30, 2010
The most-heralded achievement and high water mark of Republican leadership since the revival of America's military superiority under Ronald Reagan is, without question, the coming forth of the "Contract With America" during the election of 1994.
Its 100-day surge through the House of Representatives, with its visionary agenda and its promise and delivery of lock-arm partisan voting, is a singular feat; such a one that ever since Republicans have looked back with fondness and longing for a revival of 'the good old days.'
Groveling in the Gutter of the Gulags Democrats In Drag, Part 4
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - February 08, 2010
If ever there was a person suffering under the delusion that there really was a nickel's difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, Newt Gingrich's surfing in Alvin Toffler's Third Wave and his application of the same as the launching pad of 21st century Republicanism should have been the wake-up call to stack the sandbags, vacate the beachheads, and run for the hills.
Mr. Gingrich told his fellow congressmen in his Republican Revolution Victory Speech in November 1994 that "The Third Way [The Third Wave]" represented the key to figuring out where he and the new Republicans were coming from, and that this futurism-based book was "one of the seminal works of our time." (1, 2)
It isn't.
Eradicating the U.S. Constitution by Design Democrats In Drag, Part 5
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - February 16, 2010
A half-century ago, in a classic exchange between two men on opposite ends of the moral and political spectrum, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev bragged to American patriot and Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson: "Your grandchildren will live under communism!" To which Secretary Benson enthusiastically replied: "If I have it my way, your grandchildren will live free!" Khrushchev, undeterred, fired back: "Oh, you Americans! You're so gullible! We'll spoon-feed you socialism until you're communists and don't even know it. We'll never have to fire a shot!"(1)
Ironically, history has to some degree vindicated both men. A greater degree of liberty has arisen, if only temporarily, behind the Iron Curtain, as was Benson's hope; but nevertheless, Khrushchev was also on target, for socialism is still alive and well in Russia, throughout the old Soviet empire, on all seven continents, on the isles of the sea, at the U.N., in its regional arrangements, and, as Khrushchev predicted, in the United States.
Contract With America: The Betrayal Begins Democrats In Drag, Part 6
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - March 08, 2010
On the steps of the U.S. Capitol on September 27, 1994, more than 300 candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives stood under an unusually warm, sun-filled sky and made history. All of them were there joining hands and rubbing shoulders with one goal in mind: to help launch a new revolution - the Republican revolution.
This catapult into a new order of things for the U.S. Congress began with the reading and then the signing of a Contract With America, a contract which committed its 357 signatories to a bold 10-point program promising a "return to the wisdom and brilliance of the Founding Fathers." And speaking of returns, included in that context was a promise to return to limited government, individual liberty, free markets, personal responsibility, and the protection of American sovereignty.
Using Jefferson As A Cloak for Revolution Democrats In Drag, Part 7
By Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - March 30, 2010
Tyranny will never bind a great and free people by preceding its terrible deed with a confession of ill intent. To believe that is to believe nonsense. In free societies slavery is won by consent; and consent is won with a disarming smile, a sympathetic heart, a list of promises to groups, a series of solutions to crises, and above all by attachment to a seemingly good cause.
Third Way socialists, like every other socialist (by any other name), are not unaware of such stratagems. They live by them. That is why that although their foundational literature abhors the Constitution in both subtle and direct language, their public statements focus almost exclusively on one thing - Jeffersonian democracy; - that is, the belief that direct or semi-direct democracy is best for America, best for Europe, and best for a high-tech, highly interconnected world.
Term Limits and the Citizen Legislature Scam Democrats In Drag, Part 8
by Steve Farrell - theMoralLiberal.com - May 24, 2010
In April of 1996, the traditionally liberal Democratic Party did something it is, in theory, never supposed to do. It out-conservatived the Republican Party, stood up for the U.S. Constitution, and threw out a radical proposal designed to transform the United States from a republic to a democracy. This the congressional Democrats did so when they rejected the Republican Party-sponsored Term Limits Amendment.
In March 2001, the Supreme Court repeated the favor, sending to the dumpster an even more radical version of term limits, again the work of Republicans, which would have permitted the states to accomplish what the U.S. Congress hadn't - that is, to enforce state laws that would overstep their bounds under the U.S. Constitution and force term limits on U.S. congressional incumbents via an in-the-voting-booth tool of bias, a derogatory asterisk placed next to the name of any candidate running for re-election after his state mandated maximum time in office expired
Panel from INET's Bretton Woods Conference
Fitoussi, James, Rogoff, Soros (1 of 5)
Panel from INET's Bretton Woods Conference
Fitoussi, James, Rogoff, Soros (2 of 5)
Panel from INET's Bretton Woods Conference
Fitoussi, James, Rogoff, Soros (3 of 5)
Panel from INET's Bretton Woods Conference
Fitoussi, James, Rogoff, Soros (4 of 5)
Panel from INET's Bretton Woods Conference
Fitoussi, James, Rogoff, Soros (5 of 5)
Are Mega Earthquakes on the Rise?
Becky Ham, Inside Science News Service
(ISNS) — The devastating 2004 Indonesian tsunami, with its death toll of as many as 250,000 people, was caused by the first magnitude-9.0 earthquake since 1967. A succession of smaller but still destructive tremors in Haiti, Chile, and New Zealand - surpassed by this year's magnitude-9.0 quake in Japan - has some researchers wondering whether the number of large earthquakes is on the rise.
An earthquake represents the abrupt release of seismic strain that has built up over the years as plates of the Earth's crust slowly grind and catch against each other. Giant earthquakes live up to their fearsome name. The biggest ever recorded was the magnitude-9.5 Chile earthquake of 1960. It accounts for about a quarter of the total seismic strain released worldwide since 1900. In just three minutes, the recent quake in Japan unleashed one-twentieth of that global total according to geophysicist Richard Aster at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.
The Symptoms of Nuclear Hysteria
BY JOHN DOWNS - FinancialSense.com
Imagine you invented a machine that revolutionized travel. You know your invention could cut local and long distance travel time substantially and vastly improve the ability for business to deliver freight efficiently. The invention would add trillions to global GDP. If released, your invention would no doubt be universally used and admired. However, based on the initial safety assessments, analysts predict that if used widely your invention would cause the deaths of 300,000 Americans per year and countless more around the globe. Would you still release it?
If not, imagine a world without cars.
It turns out that car accidents are among the leading causes of death in the US, and yet few of us would give up the luxury, convenience, and autonomy of owning an automobile. We've decided the benefits are worth the risk.
China nuclear watchdog says Japan crisis no Chernobyl
BEIJING, April 13 (Reuters) - China's nuclear safety agency said radiation from Japan's leaking Fukushima Daiichi plant is no immediate threat to Chinese residents, playing down parallels with Chernobyl, the world's worst nuclear disaster.
The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, which also acts as the nuclear safety watchdog, nonetheless said the "long-term consequences of the Fukushima accident cannot be ignored", and the government would continue assessing its impact on China's environment and seas.
WHEN TO START TAKING POTASSIUM IODIDE: A Nuclear Expert Answers Directly
by Michael C. Ruppert - CollapseNet.com
April 5, 2011, 1730 (PDT) SEBASTOPOL-- Last week I started to get a number of requests from friends and members as to whether or not they should start taking Potassium Iodide (KI) given the continuing uncontrolled severity of the ongoing and far-from-resolved nuclear crisis at Fukushima, Japan. Collapsenet was the first media outlet to issue a warning to purchase KI on March 12th, two days after the earthquake. We were anticipating possible exposure to radiation after a catastrophic core meltdown, through the floor (see below) of a reactor containment building and at such temperatures as to create a molten drill that would go straight down until it reached a water table. The unparalleled heat combined with an ongoing chain reaction would electrolyze H20 into its constituent elements of Hydrogen (H) and Oxygen (O). This event is called a China Syndrome.
Ex-Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker says breaking up Wall Street banks 'almost impossible' Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve and a driving force behind financial reform in the US, has said that the task of splitting up Wall Street banks now seems "almost impossible".
By Richard Blackden - Telegraph.co.uk
"I don't like these banks being as big as they are," Mr Volcker told a conference at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire on Sunday night. But "to break them up to the point where the remaining units would be small enough so you wouldn't worry about their failure seems almost impossible," he said.
The concern about the effectiveness of the reform of Wall Street since the crisis from Mr Volcker, who was chairman of the Fed for almost a decade from 1979 and, more recently, an adviser to President Barack Obama, comes as the Independent Banking Commission (ICB) today delivered its report on the future structure of British banks.
Soros: Financial Regulation Bill Strengthened 'Too Big to Fail'
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Architects of the summer's massive financial regulation bill proclaimed it would end "too big to fail," but did it actually make the problem worse? Billionaire investor George Soros thinks so. He says the moral hazard is worse now than ever, as the bill institutionalizes bailouts. He made the remarks at a conference on Sunday in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Is he right?
John Detrixhe at Bloomberg reports Soros saying:
The evidence is overwhelming that the first priority of the authorities is to prevent a market collapse, and everything else has to take second place.
George Soros: U.S. Could "Absorb Some More Debt"
Dean Baker - "Let's Just Default"
BY BRUCE KRASTING - FinancialSense.com
An interesting article by Dean Baker today. "Defaulting on debt is not the end of the world". Dean has gone over the top and is now advocating a debt default by the USA as a way of “fixing” our problems. Dean thinks that the existing obligations of Social Security and Medicare are much more important to maintain that our credit rating. His words:
Compared to these outcomes, (cuts in SS and Medicare) a financial crisis and the subsequent slump that follows may seem like a relatively small cost.
Baker thinks this would be an easy matter. He points to Argentina as an example. This just proves that Dean has no clue what he is talking about. Yes Argentina defaulted and recovered after a few years. But Argentina is not a reserve currency that has a linchpin role in the global financial system. Argentina is a fraction of global GDP (Argentina = 0.5%; US = 25.0%). Their default was painful to all. Both citizens and creditors suffered. Savers lost everything. Pensioners got worthless script versus the payments they were promised. Dean thinks following Argentina is the right thing to do:
Bill Gross Is Now Short US Debt, Hikes Cash To $73 Billion, An All Time Record
by Tyler Durden - ZeroHedge.com
A month ago, Zero Hedge first reported that Bill Gross had taken the stunning decision to bring his Treasury exposure from 12% to 0%: a move which many interpreted as just business, and not personal: after all Pimco had previously telegraphed its disgust with US paper, and was merely mitigating its exposure. This time, in another Zero Hedge first, we discover that it is no longer business for Bill - it has now become personal (and with an attendant cost of carry). In March, Pimco's flagship Total Return Fund (TRF) has now taken an active short position in US government debt: -3% on a Market Value basis (or $7.1 billion), and a whopping -18% on a Duration Weighted Exposure basis. And confirming just what PIMCO thinks of US-related paper is the fact that the world's largest "bond" fund now has cash, at a stunning $73 billion, or 31% of all assets, as its largest asset class on both a relative and absolute basis. We repeat: cash is more than PIMCO's holdings of Treasurys and Mortgage securities ($66 billion) combined.
The Nanny State Can't Last
By: Dr. Ron Paul, U.S. Congressman - GoldSeek.com
Last week, Congress and the administration refused to seriously consider the problem of government spending. Despite the fear-mongering, a government shutdown would not have been as bad as claimed.
It is encouraging that some in Washington seem to be insisting on reduced spending, which is definitely a step in the right direction, but only one step. We have miles to go before we can even come close to a solution, and it will involve completely redefining the role of government in our lives and on the world stage. A compromise was struck at the last minute, but until Democrats agree to rein in entitlement spending, and Republicans back off the blank checks to the military industrial complex, it all amounts to political gamesmanship.
Senator Lee and Judge Napolitano
Discuss Budget Shortcomings - 4.6.2011
The Fed's Most Dangerous Game: Checkmate
By Charles Hugh Smith - OfTwoMinds.com
The Fed can only choose the least-worst option now: either destroy the real economy by sinking the dollar below support and unleashing the Inflation Monster, or abandon the "risk trade" stock market rally.
The Fed's game plan--sink the U.S. dollar to goose corporate profits, reinflate asset prices and create "modest inflation"--is now the most dangerous game on Earth. As overleveraged assets from real estate to stocks imploded in 2008 and early 2009, the Federal Reserve rushed to flood the global economy with zero-interest dollars. This did a number of things the Fed reckoned were necessary:
Ron Paul Links Bullion Coin Shortage
To Horrendous Currency Debasement Are the Feds Trying To Limit Gold and Silver Sales?
LewRockwell.com
Rep. Ron Paul, during a Subcommittee hearing on problems at the US Mint, linked the shortage of gold and silver coins to the "huge debasement" of the United States currency.
The remarks came during a hearing by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy, entitled "Bullion Coin Programs of the United States Mint: Can They Be Improved?" Four different coin and previous metals industry experts provided testimony on how to address ongoing problems with coin production and shortages.
Jim Rogers Sees Gold $2000, Oil $200 Soon
Middle East Unraveling
Speculators pile into US Gold market: CFTC
By Debbie Carlson - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) - The rise in gold prices to nominal price records was accompanied by a sizable increase in speculative buying as that type of trader significantly added to bullish U.S. futures and options positions, according to U.S. government data released late Friday.
For the week ended April 5, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed in its weekly commitment of traders report that speculators increased their gold net-long positions sharply in both the agency’s disaggregated and legacy reports. They also returned as buyers to the platinum metal group, but exited some bullish copper trades.
On Freedom and Gold's Future
GoldSeek.com
How has the increase in government in the last 150 years driven precious metal prices? In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Leonard Melman, editor of The Melman Report newsletter and the author of Reverse the Way In, discusses why he recommends precious metal stocks, but advocates changes in monetary policy that could diminish the price of gold. The Gold Report: Your report is a hot commodity in the mining space. You also recently published a book, Reversing the Way In. Can you tell me about it? Leonard Melman: It amounts to this: I believe the world has too much government. I don't think too many people would argue about that, except the dedicated leftists. Two phases have occurred in the last 300 years to create our present situation. The first, from 1700 to 1850, was immensely positive because the principles of real liberty became established. Authors like John Stuart Mill wrote about the tremendous benefits of economic liberty combined with individual liberty. Freedom became dominant and life improved dramatically.
Silver at new record high of $42/oz
CommodityOnline.com
Gold and silver rose to new record nominal highs (all time and 31 year respectively) in Asian trading overnight. Both have given up earlier gains with profit taking being cited. Cash silver surged nearly 3% in Asia to $41.9525 an ounce, a new 31 year high, before trading at $41.31 an ounce.
Silver nearly 3% surge in trading in Asia may indicate that the long expected short squeeze may be underway. Bullion banks with very large concentrated short positions may be being forced to buy back their short positions – propelling silver higher.
This could see silver surge over the record nominal high of $50.35/oz in short order.
Silver Options Trader Bets $1 Million on Price Drop by July
By Jeff Kearns - Bloomberg.com
A trader’s almost $1 million bet that an exchange-traded fund tracking silver will decline by July was today’s biggest single options trade on U.S. exchanges as futures on the metal reached a 31-year high.
The 100,000 puts, or options to sell 100 shares each of theiShares Silver Trust (SLV) at $25 by July, changed hands at the ask price of about 10 cents and exceeded the open interest of 6,054 outstanding contracts before today, indicating that a buyer of a new bearish position initiated the transaction. The ETF rose to $40.33, the highest intraday level since trading began five years ago, before falling 1.6 percent to $39.21 at 4 p.m. New York time. It hasn’t closed below $25 since November.
Larry Summers:
The U.S. Is Like Japan In The 1990s
And We Need To Keep Spending
By Meredith Lepore - BusinessInsider.com
Comparing the U.S. to Japan in the midst of its 1990s lost decade, Larry Summers argued at this weekend's INET conference at Bretton Woods that the government needs to maintain domestic demand through further spending.
The medicine depends on the disease. It is very different to have the disease which is no one wants to lend you any money anymore and therefore your currency is collapsing, then to have the disease the asset prices in your country are collapsing and people are bringing money back to your country because they think your money is safer there.
Marc Faber - Peter Schiff Radio Show - 04-11-2011
China Inflation Is 'Somewhat Out of Control'
on Weak Currency, Soros Says
By John Detrixhe - Bloomberg.com
China’s decision to keep its currency weak has caused the government to lose control of inflation and risks fuelling wage-price gains, billionaire investor George Soros said.
While the policy helped insulate China from the financial crisis in 2008, the world’s second-biggest economy has missed its chance to allow the yuan to appreciate to tame inflation, Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, said yesterday at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.
Seeds of Their Own Destruction
BY JOHN RUBINO - FinancailSense.com
All those new dollars being created by an apparently-still-panicked Fed are pushing up asset prices across the board (with housing the only exception) and pushing the dollar down to near-record lows versus other currencies. The charts look eerily like a replay of 2007, which, of course, is exactly what policymakers want. Rising asset prices, according to the prevailing logic, will get us spending and borrowing again and return the economy to self-sustaining expansion. 2006 and 2007, for the people running this show, were the good old days.
Inflation pressure from higher commodity prices won't last,
Fed's Yellen says
By Tom Petruno - LATimes.com
The jump in oil and other commodity prices so far isn’t enough to make the Federal Reserve want to tighten credit, the central bank’s vice chairwoman said Monday.
In a speech in New York, Janet Yellen hewed to Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s line that inflation pressures from higher commodity prices will be "transitory."
"These developments seem unlikely to have persistent effects on consumer inflation or to derail the economic recovery and hence do not, in my view, warrant any substantial shift in the stance of monetary policy," Yellen said.
Fed's Dudley Says Fed Shouldn't Rush to Tighten Policy 'Too Early'
William C. Dudley, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the U.S. central bank shouldn't rush to tighten monetary policy.
"We're probably going to have excess slack in the U.S. labor market at least through the end of 2012, and that’s one reason that colored my view that we shouldn’t be overly enthusiastic about tightening monetary policy too early," Dudley told a forum in Tokyo today.
Fed Policy makers at a meeting last month differed over whether to start removing stimulus this year, according to minutes of their March 15 meeting. "A few participants indicated that economic conditions might warrant a move toward less- accommodative monetary policy this year; a few others noted that exceptional policy accommodation could be appropriate beyond 2011," according to the minutes.
Bankers Get Off Scot-Free in Industry Overhaul:
By Matthew Lynn - Bloomberg.com
Everything you needed to know about the long-awaited report of the U.K.’s Independent Commission on Banking was summed up in a few share prices yesterday.
Barclays Plc (BARC) and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) surged after details on overhauling the finance industry were released.
Split up the banks? Shut them down? Make them move elsewhere? No. The commission came up with some irrelevant, complex and hard-to-enforce rules aimed at raising capital ratios and separating their retail from investment arms.
Gas Prices Climbing Toward $5 Per Gallon
CHICAGO (CBS) – At one time, $5 per gallon gas seemed like a far-fetched idea, but that is no longer the case.
As of Monday, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the Chicago area is $4.11, compared with $3.71 a month ago, and about $3.10 a gallon at this time a year ago.
Some experts say $5 per gallon gas is possible by Memorial Day-or sometime in summer. Others caution that reaching that mark is unlikely over the next six weeks. In Chicago, the prices keep rising to near-record levels–with no relief in sight.
Oil-Sands Pipeline Fuels Concern
By EDWARD WELSCH - WSJ.com
CALGARY - While Canadian regulators are tightening environmental oversight of oil-sands production in Alberta, American environmentalists and some U.S. mayors are campaigning against what they see as another potential threat from Canadian oil: pipeline corrosion.
With U.S. oil prices up sharply this year, thanks in part to unrest in the Mideast and Africa, Canadian oil-sands producers, and some U.S. politicians, have talked up Canadian crude as a reliable alternative to the Mideast.
How Safe Is Your Roth IRA?
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
The Roth IRA is something close to motherhood, baseball, and apple pie among America's middle class. Thus it's a rather novel sensation to see someone named Gerald Scorse, who seems to be a left-leaning tax activist, takes to the pages of the LA Times to excoriate them.
In a Roth, taxes are treated the other way around. There's no tax break on contributions. But from that point on, taxes simply vanish. As long as the account is at least 5 years old, there is no tax on any withdrawals made after age 59 1/2. There's no requirement that you make a minimum withdrawal -- after age 70 1/2, or ever.
25 Shocking Facts That Prove That The Entire U.S. Health Care Industry Has Become One Giant Money Making Scam
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
What is the appropriate word to use when you find out that the top executive at the third largest health insurance company in America raked in 68.7 million dollars in 2010? How is one supposed to respond when one learns that more than two dozen pharmaceutical companies make over a billion dollars in profits each year? Is it okay to get angry when you discover that over 90 percent of all hospital bills contain "gross overcharges"? Once upon a time, going into the medical profession was seen as a "noble" thing to do. But now the health care industry in the United States has become one giant money making scam and it is completely dominated by health insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, lawyers and corporate fatcats. In America today, just one trip to the hospital can cost you tens of thousands of dollars even if you do not stay for a single night. The sad thing is that the vast majority of the money that you pay out for medical care does not even go to your doctor. In fact, large numbers of doctors across the United States are going broke. Rather, it is the "system" that is soaking up almost all of the profits. We have a health care industry in the United States that is fundamentally broken and it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
Missouri Senate OKs jobless benefits extension
St. Louis Business Journal
The Missouri Senate voted 28-5 on Monday to advance a bill that extends unemployment benefits for 10,000 Missouri families who have reached, and those nearing, the 79 week cut-off.
Senators also adopted an emergency clause 28-5 so the extension to 99 weeks of benefits would take place immediately upon Gov. Jay Nixon's signature.
Bank gives man foreclosed Jacksonville house for free
By Roger Bull - Jacksonville.com
Perry Laspina was in the middle of foreclosure with the possibility of losing the house he owned in Jacksonville. Then the mail came one day in late January telling him that the house was his.
Despite the $72,000 mortgage that he barely paid anything on, despite the foreclosure ... the house was his.
In the middle of foreclosures gone wild, of a system overloaded by sheer volume, judicial investigations and allegations of corners cut, Laspina ended up with the house.
Housing Starts: Vacant Units and Unemployment Rate
by CalculatedRisk
The first graph shows total housing starts and the percent vacant housing units (owner and rental) in the U.S.
Back in 2009, I used this chart to argue that there would be no "V shaped" recovery, and that housing starts wouldn't rebound rapidly. See: Housing Starts and Vacant Units: No "V" Shaped Recovery.
The good news is the total vacancy rate is declining (and based onrecent Reis' data, the vacancy rate will fall further in Q1 2011). We know that the homebuilders will complete a record low number of housing units in 2011, and the declining vacancy rate suggests more households are being formed than net housing units added to the housing stock, or in other words, the excess supply is being absorbed.
Don't bank on loan modifications or debt aid that can't be promised A couple finds that turning to a law firm with an F rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 'debt management' firm for help can be costly and disappointing.
By David Lazarus - LATimes.com
Like a lot of homeowners, Mar Vista residents Faith and Gary Hunt found money a little tight during the recession and hoped they could work out some more accommodating terms with their lender, Chase bank.
To improve their odds, they said they turned to a law firm that said it could possibly cut their mortgage payment in half. They also signed on with a "debt management" company that, according to the Hunts, said it could eliminate their credit card debt.
American Ghost Towns of the 21st Century
by Douglas A. McIntyre - Yahoo Finance
There are several counties in America, each with more than 10,000 homes, which have vacancy rates above 55%. The rate is above 60% in several.
Most people who follow unemployment and the housing crisis would expect high vacancy rates in hard-hit states including Nevada, Florida and Arizona. They were among the fastest growing areas from 2000 to 2010. Disaster struck once economic growth ended.
Palm Coast, Fla., Las Vegas and Cape Coral, Fla., were all among the former high fliers. Many large counties which have 20% or higher occupancy rates are in these same regions. Lee County, Fla., Yuma County, Ariz., Mohave County, Ariz., and Osceola, Fla., each had a precipitous drop in home prices and increases in vacancy rates as homebuyers disappeared when the economy went south.
Federal appeals court upholds injunction
blocking Arizona immigration law The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turns down a request by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who had asked the jurists to lift an injunction imposed last year by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton. The immigration law had raised fears that Latinos would be harassed and had sparked strong protests.
By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times
A three-judge appeals panel, in a ruling released on Monday, held that a federal judge did not abuse her authority when she blocked provisions of the Arizona law that targeted illegal immigration.
The panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a request by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who asked the jurists to lift an injunction imposed by U.S. District Judge Judge Susan Bolton the day before the law was to go into effect on July 29.
The Definitive Guide To The Australian Housing Bubble
And Coming Financial Crisis
By Gus Lubin - BusinessInsider.com
Economist Steve Keen has warned for years of an Australian housing crash comparable to the U.S. subprime crisis.
Today Keen published a must-read essay full of charts on the housing bubble and how it propped up bank stocks.
Pakistan Tells U.S. to Halt Drones
By ADAM ENTOUS And MATTHEW ROSENBERG - WSJ.com
Pakistan has privately demanded the Central Intelligence Agency suspend drone strikes against militants on its territory, one of the U.S.'s most effective weapons against al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, officials said.
Pakistan has also asked the U.S. to reduce the number of U.S. intelligence and Special Operations personnel in the country, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.
Libyan rebels reject African cease-fire proposal Libyan rebels reject African Union cease-fire proposal,
demand Gadhafi's removal
Ben Hubbard, Associated Press, On Monday April 11, 2011, 6:53 pm EDT
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) -- Libyan rebels, backed forcefully by European leaders, rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators on Monday because it did not insist that Moammar Gadhafi relinquish power.
A day after an announcement that the Libyan leader had accepted the truce, a doctor in rebel-held Misrata said Gadhafi's forces battered that western city and its Mediterranean port with artillery fire that killed six people.
Stop Libya from becoming new Somalia – Moussa Koussa 'I ask everybody, all the parties, to avoid taking Libya into a civil war. The unity of Libya is essential'
By Ben Quinn - The Guardian
The former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa last night used his first public comments since his defection to Britain to urge all sides in the conflict to stop his country turning into "a new Somalia".
"I ask everybody, all the parties, to avoid taking Libya into a civil war," he told the BBC in a prepared statement. "More than that, we refuse to divide Libya. The unity of Libya is essential to any solution and settlement for Libya."
Nuclear Waste Storage in the Spotlight Following Fukushima
Written by Stuart Burns - OilPrice.com
Events at Fukushima in Japan have put the spotlight not just on nuclear power as a source of energy, but on the storage of nuclear waste. Some of the gravest dangers at Fukushima resulted from spent fuel rods held in cooling tanks that lost fluid and overheated. The world is awash with spent fuel rods being stored in this manner, usually for up to five years while the rods cool to the point were they can be moved, but often for much longer as utility operators struggle to find long-term storage solutions. The Japanese experience has added an additional dynamic to debates in the US about finding a long-term solution and encouraged members in both houses of Congress to try to overcome President Obama's cancellation of the Yucca Mountain project in Nevada.
Japan raises nuclear alert level to seven Fukushima Daiichi power plant emergency
is now on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl warning
By Justin McCurry in Tokyo - Guardian.co.uk
Japan is to raise the nuclear alert level at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant to a maximum seven, putting the emergency on a par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Nuclear safety officials had insisted they had no plans to raise the severity of the crisis from five – the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 – according to the international nuclear and radiological event scale.
Three strong aftershocks jolt Japanese quake zone The new temblors in northeastern Japan strike within a span of 10 minutes with magnitudes of 7.1, 6.0 and 5.6. They come as the government announces plans to expand the evacuation area near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
By Kenji Hall and John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Tokyo and Rikuzentakata, Japan - Three powerful aftershocks struck already jittery northeastern Japanwithin the span of 10 minutes on Monday, as the government announced new plans to expand the evacuation area near a stricken nuclear plant due to high radiation levels.
Japan is trying to rebuild after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that killed thousands and left countless others homeless. The tsunami has also caused several fires and explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which has leaked dangerous isotopes into the air, soil and water.
Japan nuke emergency on par with Chernobyl
AP - BrisbaneTimes.com.au
Japan's nuclear safety agency has raised the severity rating of the crisis at its nuclear plant to the highest level, on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
An official with the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan, speaking on national television, said on Tuesday the rating was raised from five to seven on an international scale of atomic crises.
The official, who was not named, said the amount of radiation leaking from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was about 10 per cent of that in the Chernobyl accident.
By TEPCO's worker - Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant
Reactors flooded with sea water from 2nd earthquake tsunami; water level to the orange horizontal line at about 14-15 meters (almost 50'); robots doing the cleanup
The Man Who Predicted the Tsunami After studying ancient rocks, a Japanese geologist warned that a disaster was imminent - to no avail
By PETER LANDERS - WSJ.com
The giant tsunami that assaulted northern Japan's coast surprised just about everyone. But Masanobu Shishikura was expecting it. The thought that came to mind, he says, was "yappari," a Japanese word meaning roughly, "Sure enough, it happened."
"It was the phenomenon just as I had envisioned it," says the 41-year-old geologist, who has now become the Japanese Cassandra.
Regulators Close Two Banks; US Bank Closures Reaches 25 In 2011
(RTTNews) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. or FDIC announced Friday the shuttering of the 24th and 25th U.S. bank in 2011, after the 157 bank closures in 2010, following the closure of Legacy Bank by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions,as well as the First NationalBank of Davis by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The two banks were also closed on Friday by the regulators, with the assets of the failed banks beings assumed by other banks in an FDIC assisted transaction. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the DepositInsurance Fund or DIF, by the two bank closures will be a total of $70.0 million.
Davis, Oklahoma-based First National Bank of Davis' deposits were assumed from FDIC by Pauls Valley, Oklahoma-based Pauls Valley National Bank, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Legacy Bank's deposits were taken over by Chicago, Illinois-based Seaway Bank and Trust Co.
Western Springs National Bank and Trust,Western Springs, Illinois, becomes the 27th ailing bank to be shuttered by the FDIC in 2011, at an estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) of $31.0 million.
BankImplode.com
Western Springs National Bank and Trust, Western Springs, Illinois was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Heartland Bank and Trust Company, Bloomington, Illinois, to assume all of the deposits of Western Springs National Bank and Trust.
Nevada Commerce Bank, Las Vegas, Nevada,
makes number 28 on the FDIC’s 2011 hit list. The bad bank will give a $31.9 million hit to the agency’s Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF).
BankImplode.com
Nevada Commerce Bank, Las Vegas, Nevada was closed today by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with City National Bank, Los Angeles, California, to assume all of the deposits of Nevada Commerce Bank.
Stiglitz Calls for New Global Reserve Currency to Prevent Trade Imbalances
By John Detrixhe and Sara Eisen - Bloomberg.com
The world economy needs a new global reserve currency to help prevent trade imbalances that are reflected in the national debt of the U.S., said Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
A "global system" is needed to replace the dollar as a reserve currency and help avoid a weakening of U.S. credit quality, said Stiglitz, a professor at Columbia University in New York. The dollar fell to an almost 15-month low against the euro last week, and the U.S. trade deficitwidened more than forecast in January to the highest level in seven months.
'Euro-Zone Leaders Need the Courage to Tell the Truth'
Spiegel.de
A day after Portugal formally requested aid from the European Union to help ease ongoing debt problems, Madrid on Friday insisted that it was "out of the question" that Spain would be next. German commentators aren't so sure, and say that it's time for European leaders to reveal the true extent of the problems.
Late last month, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned after parliament in Lisbon rejected a series of new austerity measures his government had proposed to meet his country's 2011 deficit reduction targets. But now, with Portugal having formally requested aid from the European Commission to help it weather the debt crisis storm, the belt-tightening measures requested by the EU might be even more radical than those called for by Socrates.
To Fight Inflation, Europe Ends Cheap Money Strategy
Spiegel.de
The era of cheap money is ending: For the first time since the financial crisis, the European Central Bank raised interest rates by a quarter point to 1.25 percent on Thursday. ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet wants to limit inflation and apply the brakes on speculators.
In a significant shift in its monetary policy marking an end of several years of extremely cheap money, European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet announced Thursday an increase in the leading interest rate by 0.25 percent to 1.25 percent. The interest rate hike marks the first time it has been increased in nearly three years.
Financial experts had widely expected the increase, and Trichet suggested it would be coming in March when he said the ECB would use "strong vigilance" in view of creeping inflation.
Government Shutdown Dance Was Just a Warmup:
By Jonathan Alter - Bloomberg.com
The root canal Americans experienced over the averted government shutdown may seem painless compared with the operation that’s coming: debate over raising the debt ceiling followed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s plan to overhaul the government.
The political fates of President Barack Obama and most of Congress depend on the outcome. While the stakes for the 2011 budget skirmish has been over a few billion dollars, the next fight -- over the debt ceiling -- is about several hundred billion. Then, Ryan’s proposed rewrite of the nation’s social contract will be about several trillion dollars.
The Debt Ceiling
Boehner's Bargain: Conservative Victory?
By Robert Stacy McCain on 4.9.11 @ 11:33AM
Conservative opinions of the compromise deal struck late last night, which averted a shutdown of the federal government, are decidedly mixed. Andrew Stiles of National Review was triumphant, applauding "Boehner's robust leadership." And by avoiding the shutdown scenario -- which some Democrats clearly relished as an opportunity to excoriate Republicans as "extremists" -- Boehner's compromise deal "allows the Republicans to live again and fight another day," as our own Jim Antle observed in the wee hours.
My own midnight mood was disgruntled. It appears that Republican leaders used pro-lifers as a bargaining chip, making a show of standing firm on the defunding of Planned Parenthood, only to abandon that position at the last minute. The GOP thus made a winner of Chuck Schumer, who had vowed the Senate would "never, never, never" agree to cut the taxpayer subsidy to Planned Parenthood.
Obama to lay out long-term deficit plan this week
By Tom Cohen, CNN
Washington (CNN) -- Fresh off last-minute budget negotiations that averted a partial government shutdown, President Barack Obama this week will lay out his plan for long-term deficit reduction demanded by conservatives.
White House Senior Adviser David Plouffe appeared on four Sunday talk shows to announce Obama's intentions and deliver the administration message that further deals like the one reached last Friday night with House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, will be necessary as Congress and the administration face more major budget decisions in coming months.
Government shutdown averted, fiscal crisis assured!
Henry Kaufman Interview on Debt Ceiling, Banking System
[video interview]
April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Henry Kaufman, president of Henry Kaufman & Co., talks about the outlook for increasing the U.S. debt ceiling and his view of the U.S. banking industry.
The Inflationary Depression Moves Foreward Relentlessly
By Bob Chapman -TheInternationalForecaster.com
We see signs that American workers are getting worn out. Management may have squeezed the last drops of extra work that they can out of them. That has been reflected in the latest worker productivity. Since WWII the average increase has been 2-1/2% year after year, but last week's numbers were terrible, up only 0.2% per year. Europe and the US have been able in part to offset advantages of foreign producers by consistently getting better productivity results. For those of you that are new to these statistics, they are a reflection of labor productivity, or advances in the way work is done. Such previous success have allowed companies to get the job done with fewer employees and in instances to offshore some work to take advantage of cheap foreign labor. If you use a combination of labor and investment funds, recent results are only up 0.1% for 2009. Those numbers are usually about half of regular productivity numbers. What low overall numbers mean is that throwing money at manufacturing problems is not working as well as it has in the past.
A glimpse of the coming hell
By Donald Hank - RenewAmerica.com
Friends, provided below, by archeologist and freedom friend Guy Leven-Torres, is a glimpse of life in Britain, the America of tomorrow if the Left has its way (and so far it has).
In fact, even the "Christian Right" will happily escort us there via the New World Order (supranational government experiments such as "Christian" president Dubbya's PPP - Peace and Prosperity Partnership with Mexico and China, NAFTA, and later the North American Union designed by the makers of the European Union). GW Bush and his daddy were both pro New World Order.
"Christian Right" darling Mike Huckabee said in his last campaign that he wanted the head of the CFR as his secretary of state. Connecting the dots, this man, Richard Haass, had just written an essay suggesting that countries (incl the US) give up their sovereignty in the interest of something better, implying he wants an international government, of the kind that is embroiling the West in another misguided adventure in North Africa, where NATO jets recently "helped" the rebel forces by accidentally shooting a few of them from the air. Ooops. One of the survivors, a military leader, shouted "Down with NATO."
Ron Paul: "We Have a System of Corporatism"
When gold becomes money again
By Addison Wiggin
On the night our documentary I.O.U.S.A. made its nationwide premiere in August 2008, the film was followed up by a live panel discussion, broadcast via satellite. Our friend David Walker, the former US comptroller general and "star" of the film, took part... along with several other luminaries.
At one point, the question was asked: Might America's trading partners one day sell off their US Treasury holdings?
Impossible, said Warren Buffett. In fact, he insisted, they couldn't... because they'd need to convert it into some other currency, which would be little better than the dollar. No one else chimed in to challenge the assertion.
Gold, Silver And Oil Are All Skyrocketing
And That Is Bad News For The U.S. Economy
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
The following is one statement that you should get used to seeing: "The price of gold set another record today." Today, spot gold reached a new all-time record of $1461.91 an ounce before settling back a little bit. Silver is also skyrocketing. At one point today silver hit $39.75 an ounce. It seems inevitable that at some point we are going to be talking about $50 silver. The price of oil is also continuing to relentlessly march upwards. At last check U.S. oil was at about $108 a barrel. All of this is great news for those that are investing in gold, silver and oil, but all of this is also really bad news for the U.S. economy. Why? Well, because when these commodities go up in price it is a sign that the U.S. dollar is dying and that our country is getting closer to economic collapse.
Subpar U.S. Mint practices encourage speculation, Congress told Precious metals blanks used to manufacture U.S. Mint silver bullion coins often come from an Australian mint, a fact which upset several members of a House Financial Services subcommittee.
Author: Dorothy Kosich - MineWeb.com
RENO, NV - The U.S. Mint was taken to task Thursday before a House subcommittee for outsourcing precious metal coin and bullion blanks outside of the United States, and for its "surly and arrogant attitude" toward the public and industry.
While the U.S. Mint's bullion products are considered actually quite profitable, witnesses told the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology that the government agency loses at least one third of their bullion coin sales because they cannot meet demand.
The Bank Runs Of The Early 1930s And FDR’s Ban On Gold
By Richard M. Salsman - Forbes.com - Apr. 6 2011
The gold price reached a record of $1464/ounce this week, fittingly on the 78th year anniversary of FDR's ban on private gold ownership in 1933. Gold has increased by 30% over the past year, 145% in the past five years and 465% in the past decade; by contrast, the S&P 500 today is only 12% higher vs. a decade ago.
Although FDR's Executive Order #6102 eventually expired, other measures were enacted to perpetuate the government’s ban on private gold holding. The prohibition wasn’t lifted until early 1975, in a bill signed by President Gerald Ford, but by then President Richard Nixon had jettisoned the Bretton Woods gold-exchange standard (in August 1971).
JP Morgan selling Silver they do not have Silver Liberation Army with Max Keiser
Max Keiser: for every ounce of silver that somebody buys JP Morgan sells 20 to 50 ounces of silver that does not exist it's called naked short selling , that's the bottom line they are selling silver that does not exist , by some estimates they are 3 billion ounces short that's more than a billion of the entire silver stock above ground , the short sold more stocks than exist above ground on the floor everyday manipulating the price , for every ounce of silver JP Morgan tries to sell 10 ounces of silver as a naked short sell , silver that they do not own but at the end of the month the books have to be squared the COMEX has to physically deliver , now with the Silver liberation Army we are going to put JP Morgan six feet under says Max Keiser by taking possession of the remaining physical silver , The Silver Liberation Army a global army of physical buyers says Max.
Max Keiser: "The Silver Liberation Army!" - Alex Jones Tv 1/2
Max Keiser: "The Silver Liberation Army!" - Alex Jones Tv 2/2
Don't squeeze the silver
By Michael Victory - RenewAmerica.com [February 18, 2011]
When there isn't enough of X and excess demand exists for X, the price of X rises. The casino aggravates the cycle, and things can get wild when those betting against X's rise decide to get out of their bets. To suggest that JPM and others aren't sitting at the table with big bets against silver is silly. Nothing new really, the game has been going for a hundred years.
The ESF
According to GATA (2000), associate Reg Howe published "The ESF and Gold: Past as Prologue?", which revealed some good information about the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF), a quasigovernmental agency that reports to only the president and Treasury Secretary. Created behind to the 1933 gold confiscation, and subsidized by the paper profits arising form the 1934 devaluation of the dollar against gold, the ESF is cloaked in mystery and has the exclusive domain of the executive branch and operates largely outside of congressional oversight.
How do you crack a currency calamity?
By Michael Victory - RenewAmerica.com [April 9, 2011] The Corrections
Society is bursting with inefficiencies that should have been rooted out by recessions long ago. Today big government and big business share the same bed and insatiable addiction to money printing. It must be cured if we are to move into any genuine period of prosperity. Safe and Sound
The world needs a financial system that preserves confidence again. Small business owners deserve a stable currency to accurately plan for the future. Instead in its place, a relentless flood of paper money offers no reliable medium of exchange. There is little security in dollars to preserve purchasing power or store value. The lack of currency confidence worldwide is increasing at an unsettling rate. Eventually the same politicians that bought elections and reelections with promises and easy money will admit paper money is not working as the basic component of the monetary system. Citizens will seek an alternative currency and many are already turning to gold. Gold, through the centuries has proven to be unmatched as a standard of measurement, a medium of exchange, and store of value. The more distressed conditions become, the more of people's money governments will try and get their hands on. The rate at which money seeks gold as a less detectable form of capital preservation will continue to mount.
Is America Becoming The Land Of The Part-Time Job? Most Of The Jobs That Are Being Created Are Part-Time Jobs
And Some Companies Are Going To A "Part-Time Only Policy"
TheEconomiccollapseBlog.com
Do you need a good job? If so, there are millions of other Americans that are just like you. Unfortunately, most of the jobs that are available in America today are either part-time jobs, temp jobs or are "independent contractor" jobs. The "full-time job with benefits" is a dying breed. There are so many desperate unemployed workers in America today that companies don't have to roll out the red carpet anymore. Instead, they can just hire a horde of inexpensive part-timers and temps that they don't have to give any benefits to. But isn't the employment situation supposed to be getting better? No, it really is not. Yes, the U.S. economy added 216,000 jobs in March. However, the truth is that approximately 290,000 part-time jobs were created and about 80,000 full-time jobs were actually lost. This is all part of a long-term trend in America. Good jobs are rapidly disappearing and they are being replaced by low paying service jobs that do not pay a living wage. In many American households today, both parents have multiple jobs. Yet a large percentage of those same households can't even pay the mortgage and are drowning in debt.
Budget wars: The middle class loses big time
By John F. Wasik - Reuters.com
Now that federal government shutdown has been averted, it’s a good time to examine what’s at stake for most of America in the crucial next round of budget talks.
Not doing anything to reduce the size of government debt will be catastrophic. Not much quibble there. But acting hastily and cutting the wrong things can be even more costly to social and economic welfare.
Neither the Republican nor the Democrat’s budget plans for 2012 will meet the major challenge of sustaining social programs while cutting the most egregious waste.
CHINA REPORTS TRADE DEFICIT
By Annalyn Censky - CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- For the first time in seven years, China reported a quarterly trade deficit, as imports soared to an all-time high.
Imports outweighed exports by $1.02 billion in the first three months of the year, China's government said Sunday. That's a stark contrast to the country's $13.01 billion surplus in the same period a year ago.
China's General Administration of Customs attributed the trade gap to rapid domestic growth, surging prices for food, energy and other raw materials, and a long vacation during Chinese New Year in February.
President Obama, budget foes move to next phase of spending fight Obama is set to the address the nation Wednesday on his debt-reduction strategy. House Republicans will vote on the GOP budget plan for 2012 by week's end. Future of Medicare, Medicaid is a major issue.
By Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau - via LATimes.com
WASHINGTON - Without a moment's pause from last week's epic budget battle, Democrats and congressional Republicanshave set the stage for the next set of confrontations over federal spending, including the future of Medicare andMedicaid.
White House officials said President Obama will present his long-term debt-reduction strategy Wednesday in a speech that will include his insistence that the nation cannot afford to continue tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
the necessity of preventing the danger of perpetual revenue which must of necessity subvert the liberty of any Country. If it be objected to on the principle of Mr. Rutledge's motion that public credit may require perpetual provisions, that case might be excepted: it being declared that in other cases, no taxes should be laid for a longer term than _____ years. He considered the caution observed in Great Britain on this point as the palladium of the public liberty.
Mason was reflecting a common fear among America's Founders that giving government the right to go into debt to fund any of its projects could destroy any free state. A permission was eventually granted in the Constitution for fear of its need in war time, as was the case in the War for Independence. That we use it today to fund big-government socialism seems to validate their fears. However, the question is, was it really a flaw in the Constitution or are we flawed? both our corrupt representative on the one hand and our ignorant and less than vigilant citizenry on the other?
The Budget Hoax:
It's About Showering Wall Street with Tax Dollars We are being manipulated to give government handouts to the very same big banks and corporate scam artists that crashed our economy in the first place.
AlterNet / By Sally Kohn - April 8, 2011
There's a reason why it's illegal to yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. Motivated by fear, crowds can do very dangerous things.
And yet here we are allowing Congress to dangerously cut federal spending on which we all rely because, when Wall Street lobbyists yelled, "Fire!" about the state of our nation's budget, we believed them. And now we are letting Congress trample on our future. There is no Social Security crisis. And the extent of the federal budget crisis as a whole is being wildly overblown to scare us toward drastic measures rather than rational solutions.
We are being manipulated to give government handouts to the very same big banks and corporate scam artists that crashed our economy in the first place. We are told that what is good for big business is good for America. But these so-called "job creators" are only creating jobs for yacht manufacturers and maids. Check the math. The profits of our nation's (and the world's) largest corporations are rising, as are the salaries and bonuses paid to executives. Are they creating jobs? No.
The Destruction of Money: Who Does It, Why, When, and How? That cash in your wallet won't last forever, so what happens to it when it needs to be replaced?
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Think about money being created. A furiously spinning printing press might come to mind. Now imagine money being destroyed. Do you think of a three-story shredder, a bonfire, a wide blue recycling bin?
You might have noticed that it's pretty hard to find any cash printed much earlier than the 1990s in circulation. Just as more money is constantly being created, it's also constantly being destroyed. Who are the destroyers of money, and how do they do it?
The Financial System Designed To Self Destruct
By Bob Chapman -TheInternationalForecaster.com
As each day passes the US dollar loses prestige and its status as a world reserve currency. Washington and Wall Street pay little attention to its slide and the changes a lower dollar and loss of reserve status will bring. Once the dollar is dethroned Americans will have to learn to live on the edges of the economic and financial world. Those of you who have not read G. Edward Griffins' "Creature from Jekyll Island" should. It tells you why the Federal Reserve was created and why the Federal Reserve was created and what its function is. It also shows you why except for Wall Street, banking and selected elitist corporations why the system was designed to self-destruct. If you read economic and financial history you will discover why such economic and financial destruction takes place repeatedly and that more often than not does not happen due to incompetence, war or error, but it is planned that way. What has happened to the dollar since Bretton Woods and the planned removal of gold backing from the dollar is an example of deliberate destruction and in that process the destruction of the greatest nation in history. In that process of 97 years the wealthy and connected have become wealthier and powerful and have become even more so. They truly expect to exit this maelstrom and war as the leaders of the future. We have news for them. The power of talk radio and the Internet stretches worldwide and the world now understands what they are up too, and they are not going to be successful in their efforts to bring about world government. The collapse of the dollar is but one aspect in the change planned in the shift in world power.
Malls Face Surge in Vacancies Fallout From Boom and Downturn,
Change in Habits Hit Local Shopping Areas
By KRIS HUDSON And MIGUEL BUSTILLO - WSJ.com
Even as the economy picks up steam, many of the nation's malls and shopping centers are suffering a hangover due to changing consumer habits and the fallout from a massive building boom.
Mall vacancies hit their highest level in at least 11 years in the first quarter, new figures from real-estate research company Reis Inc. showed. In the top 80 U.S. markets, the average vacancy rate was 9.1%, up from 8.7%.
Oil tops $112 a barrel; is $4 gas nationwide close behind?
By Chris Kahn, Associated Press - USAToday.com
NEW YORK - Oil surged above $112 a barrel Friday following a drop in the dollar and continued jitters about shipments from the world’s major oil suppliers.
Benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery jumped $2.49, or 2.3%, to $112.79 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude oil set new 30-month highs almost every day this week.
Analysts said oil moved higher as the dollar plunged against other major currencies. Oil is traded in dollars and tends to rise when the greenback falls and makes crude cheaper for investors holding foreign currency.
Stocks were mostly lower.
Donald Trump isn't the only one asking Obama for birth certificate...
Obama birth certificate issue still haunts the president
By Steve Farrell - RenewAmerica.com The to-the-point question - Where's the Birth Certificate? and for that matter, why is the President of the United States spending millions on legal teams to block access to it? - has not, and will not go away until the President comes clean and produces the document and proves himself a naturalized citizen of the United States, or until the public furor and legal fallout intensifies to the point that the President finds himself ineligible to run for President in 2012.
There are a growing number of states moving forward legislation that just may cause the latter.
The latest to get on the eligibility bandwagon is Oklahoma. Oklahoma Senate Bill 91 requires presidential primary candidates to prove they are naturalized United States citizens by showing their birth certificates to the election board. On March 14, 2011, the bill passed in the Senate by a 34-10 vote. It goes to the House rules committee meeting next Wednesday.
A Day In The Life Of A "Homegrown Terrorist"
By Giordano Bruno - Neithercorp Press – 4/8/2011
There was a time when having one's name listed in the despised ranks of those villains that governments often categorize as “terrorists” involved quite a bit of leg work, as well as an ominous running resume of death, destruction, and general mean spiritedness. Of course, if one examines the history of every modern country which eventually disintegrated into despotism, the definition of who the "enemy" is tends to become rather broad rather quickly. That is to say, the more criminal the leadership of a country becomes, the easier it is for the average person to find himself labeled a criminal by that same leadership.
Chinese Purchases Of U.S. Real Estate Poised To Rise
By Russell Flannery - Apr. 10 2011
Growth in the number of well-off mainland Chinese, an increase in overseas study by their children, and a drop in U.S. property prices are leading to more purchases of U.S. real estate by buyers from China. Where are they buying and why? How can U.S. developers and other sellers connect with Chinese buyers?
To find out more, I talked to Steven Lawson, CEO of the Windham Realty Group of Michigan. He opened the company’s China headquarters in Shanghai in 2008 and has lived in the city since 2007. Excerpts follow.
Q. From a Chinese point of view, why is it a good time to buy U.S. property?
Rick Scott's Government Reorganization Proposal
Clears House Committee [Florida]
SunshineStateNews.com
BY: KEVIN DERBY
Gov. Rick Scott addressed the House Select Committee on Government Reorganization Friday as the Legislature continued to shape the proposed Department of Economic Opportunity. The committee forwarded a measure setting up the proposed department after hearing from the governor.
The proposed department would include the Division of Community Planning, the Division of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Unemployment Compensation Services, the Office of Early Learning -- which remains intact under the current bill, the Office of Workforce Services, the Florida Housing Finance Corp. and a number of trust funds. The proposal would mean that some of the trust funds currently under the Department of Community Affairs would be broken up under the bill. It would also reassign functions now under the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development, currently in the governor's jurisdiction, and reorganize the Agency for Workforce Innovation.
Gerald Celente on The Nutrimedical Report with Dr. Bill Deagle
07 Apr 2011
How to Eliminate Social Security and Medicare
Mises Daily: Friday, April 08, 2011 by George Reisman
Expenditures under the Social Security and Medicare programs account for approximately one-third of total federal government spending.[1] It is obvious that any major reduction in government spending requires major reductions in spending for these programs. Unfortunately, Social Security and Medicare are generally regarded as sacred and thus virtually untouchable, with the result that few if any proposals have been made that would greatly reduce the spending they entail.[2]
At present, the age at which full - "normal" - Social Security benefits can be obtained, given the individual's lifetime earnings and contributions to the system up to that time, is 66. This represents an increase of 1 year from the age in force from the system's inception until 2003, at which time it was increased by 2 months, reaching 66 after a series of 5 more 2-month increases in the years 2004–2008. Commencing in 2021, the full-benefit retirement age is scheduled to begin increasing by a second series of 2-month additions, until a full-benefit retirement age of 67 is reached in 2027.
House rejects FCC's 'open' Internet rules
By Kevin Drawbaugh
(Reuters) - The House of Representatives voted on Friday to reject Internet "neutrality" rules that were adopted last year to keep big Internet service providers from blocking certain traffic
House Republicans, in a 240-179 vote, pushed through a measure disapproving the Federal Communications Commission's rules. Tech and telecom giants such as Verizon Communications Inc and Microsoft Corp could be affected.
The outlook for further progress by the Republicans in rolling back the FCC's actions was uncertain, however.
'Atlas Shrugged' finally comes to the screen, albeit in chunks A capitalist taken with Ayn Rand's 1957 novel spends almost 20 years and $20 million of his own money to get the first third of it filmed. -- By Rebecca Keegan, Los Angeles Times
It has taken businessman John Aglialoro nearly 20 years to realize his ambition of making a movie out of "Atlas Shrugged," the 1957 novel by Ayn Rand that has sold more than 7 million copies and has as passionate a following among many political conservatives and libertarians as "Twilight" has among teen girls.
But the version of the book coming to theaters Friday is decidedly independent, low-cost and even makeshift. Shot for a modest $10 million by a first-time director with a cast of little-known actors, "Atlas Shrugged: Part I," the first in an expected trilogy, will play on about 300 screens in 80 markets. It's being marketed with the help of conservative media and"tea party" organizing groups and put into theaters by a small, Salt Lake City-based booking service.
Alyeska gets approval to open leaky pipeline
By Sheila McNulty in Houston - FT.com - January 12 2011
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company has received regulatory approval to briefly open its leaky Alaskan pipeline, the closure of which has halted most of the production from North America's largest crude oilfield.
The operator of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which carries oil 800 miles from Prudhoe Bay to the warm-water port of Valdez for shipping to market, said there were "technical risks" with the prolonged shutdown of the pipeline in cold weather.
Radiation Detected In Drinking Water In 13 More US Cities,
Cesium-137 In Vermont Milk
By Jeff McMahon - Forbes.com
Radiation from Japan has been detected in drinking water in 13 more American cities, and cesium-137 has been found in American milk—in Montpelier, Vermont—for the first time since the Japan nuclear disaster began, according to data released by the Environmental Protection Agency late Friday.
Milk samples from Phoenix and Los Angeles contained iodine-131 at levels roughly equal to the maximum contaminant level permitted by EPA, the data shows. The Phoenix sample contained 3.2 picoCuries per liter of iodine-131. The Los Angeles sample contained 2.9. The EPA maximum contaminant level is 3.0, but this is a conservative standarddesigned to minimize exposure over a lifetime, so EPA does not consider these levels to pose a health threat.
Inside report from Fukushima nuclear reactor evacuation zone
***** FYI - as the 2012 campaign nears *****
PTG does NOT endorse any political party or candidate. We appreciate ALL of our listeners and web visitors and respect you for your individual points of view.
As the 2012 campaign heats up later this year into 2012, the news and opinion articles will continue to focus on exposing the globalists' agenda rather than concentrating on specific candidates. Articles will focus on the money players funding the campaigns from the LEFT, the RIGHT, and everywhere in between, helping you to connect the dots.
You decide, ALWAYS... about what you read and hear. Some of the radio shows and posted articles will "Disturb the comfortable" on BOTH sides of any hot-button political or controversial issue.
Eric and Joe go to great lengths to bring you timely economic news with style and panache, as only they can do. The WebBabe posts a variety of daily news and op/ed pieces from differing viewpoints, so you can form YOUR OWN point of view.
These are controversial times and Culture IS the new media. Access to information on the Internet has changed everything. Get knowledge; apply wisdom and discernment.
----------------
George Soros Says China's Inflation Is 'Serious Concern'
[video embedding disabled by Bloomberg]
April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros talks about China's economic growth and inflation. Soros also discusses the European Central Bank's decision to raise its benchmark interest rate and the U.S. dollar. He speaks with Michael McKee and Sara Eisen at the Bretton Woods conference in New Hampshire on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." Bloomberg's Matt Miller also speaks.
AGENDA 21 IN ONE EASY LESSON
by Tom DeWeese - NewsWithViews.com
Awareness of Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development is racing across the nation as citizens in community after community are learning what their city planners are actually up to. As awareness grows, I am receiving more and more calls for tools to help activists fight back. Many complain that elected officials just won't read detailed reports or watch long videos. "Can you give us something that is quick, and easy to read that we can hand out," I'm asked.
So here it is. A one page, quick description of Agenda 21 that fits on one page. I've also included for the back side of your hand out a list of quotes for the perpetrators of Agenda 21 that should back up my brief descriptions.
Who Are These Suckers?
By William Tucker The American Spectator.org [3.10.11]
.... First, liberals can be suckered precisely because they think they are the only intelligent people in America. This smug confidence insulates them from having to pay attention to what anybody else is saying. The conventional wisdom among liberals is that people disagree with them only because they are stupid, uneducated, or have been bought off by the sinister forces of American capitalism. (The New York Times'current obsession with the Koch brothers is a case in point. Conservatives have the same mania over George Soros but they only resent Soros's funding of liberal projects; they do not dismiss any liberal intellectual working in one of his organizations as being "bought off" by his money.)
You cannot find a liberal intellectual anywhere who can give you an honest, objective accounting of conservative positions on major issues. All they know is that conservatives are "stupid," racist" and "scary" -- boilerplate terms but unfortunately the exact words employed by Schiller on the tape. Practically the only liberal around who has ever been able to give a recognizable presentation of a conservative position is Barack Obama, who was always very good at repeating everybody's argument before choosing the most liberal point of view. For that we elected him President.
Capital Rivals: Koch Brothers vs. George Soros
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Spencer MacColl - PatriotActionNetwork.com
Ever since Jane Mayer's recent New Yorker piece earlier this month, much of the media has risen to debate how much influence conservative and libertarian-leaning businessmen David and
Charles Koch, the owners of Koch Industries, have in American politics.
Some critics of the article argue that the media cries foul over the Koch brothers, yet largely ignores liberal George Soros, the Hungarian-American currency speculator and
stock investor, who has spent millions of dollars on liberal and
nonpartisan causes (including the Center for Responsive Politics).
OpenSecrets Blog is here to investigate the numbers behind these bold-faced names in our new feature, Capital Rivals.
Who Would You Want in YOUR Foxhole? George Soros or David Koch?
GoGreenTeaParty.com
So a conservative friend was upset about my revisiting thebrilliant piece by Jane Meyer in the New Yorker about the brothers intent on destroying America. His response was "We have the Koch boys and you and your big brother (Obama) have Soros."
He then said he'd post 15 threads about Soros, that he claimed would factually show, as Glenn Beck has said over and over, that Soros "is evil."
I told him: "Go ahead. Other than being a Progressive, what’s so evil about him?"
Koch's web of influence Koch spends tens of millions trying to shape federal policies that affect their global business empire
By John Aloysius Farrell - PublicIntegrity.org
Koch Inc., headquartered in Wichita, Kan., spends tens of millions of dollars to lobby Congress and federal agencies on issues ranging from oil and gas to the estate tax. Credit: Larry W. Smith/Associated Press
At an EPA hearing last summer, representatives from Koch Industries argued that moderate levels of the toxic chemical dioxin should not be designated as a cancer risk for humans.
When members of Congress sought higher security at chemical plants to guard against terrorist attacks, Koch Industries lobbyists prowled Capitol Hill to voice their opposition.
The Koch brothers: all the influence money can buy Not just liberals but conservatives should be deeply worried by a revelatory investigation of the libertarian billionaires' lobbying
By Paul Harris - Guardian.co.uk
The idea that Charles and David Koch are liberal bêtes noires is not new. Over the past year, the elderly brothers, head of the vast Koch Industries business empire, have occupied top spot in the demonology of the left.
Across a range of activities – from the birth of the Tea Party to undermining unions in Wisconsin, to opposing efforts to curb global warming – they have been believed by many Democrats to be forever lurking behind the headlines. Now, a brilliant piece of investigative reporting by the Washington-based watchdog Centre for Public Integrityhas detailed the Kochs' vast political and lobbying operations. It makes sobering and deeply disturbing reading. After all, it is one thing to believe that out there somewhere the devil exists, but reading the CPI report feels a little like being given his phone number.
Report: Koch Brothers Buy Politicians
Bring Donors Out of the Shadows
By DAVID CALLAHAN - NYTimes.com
THE billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch have drawn sharp criticism for their extensive giving to libertarian causes.Though some of their organizational ties are public, many are unknown, thanks to a provision in the tax code that allows the Koch brothers and other donors, on both the left and the right, to conceal the recipients of their largess, even as they get to write it off on their taxes.
Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem: require all nonprofit organizations that engage in political advocacy to reveal their donors.
True, individuals must disclose on their tax returns the details of large gifts to charitable organizations, known as 501(c)3 groups from the section of the tax code governing them. But this information is kept private by the Internal Revenue Service. While gifts given directly through foundations must be made public, the wealthy can give without leaving fingerprints by routing money through "donor-advised funds" sponsored by 501(c)3 groups - which don’t have to publicly name their donors.
The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama
Posted by Darla Dawald, National Director on March 1, 2011 at 3:07pm in Patriot Action Alerts
Patriots, this is an older article, however, very important for you to read. This article shows the relationship of the Koch brothers and their agenda to that of the Tea Party movement by using certain organizations. An important discovery if you have not made the connection to ensure the movement is NOT co-opted! Darla
Covert Operations
by Jane Mayer August 30, 2010
On May 17th, a black-tie audience at the Metropolitan Opera House applauded as a tall, jovial-looking billionaire took the stage. It was the seventieth annual spring gala of American Ballet Theatre, and David H. Koch was being celebrated for his generosity as a member of the board of trustees; he had recently donated $2.5 million toward the company’s upcoming season, and had given many millions before that. Koch received an award while flanked by two of the gala’s co-chairs, Blaine Trump, in a peach-colored gown, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, in emerald green. Kennedy’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had been a patron of the ballet and, coincidentally, the previous owner of a Fifth Avenue apartment that Koch had bought, in 1995, and then sold, eleven years later, for thirty-two million dollars, having found it too small.
The Conspiracy to Exploit the Koch Conspiracy
BY MARK HEMINGWAY - WeeklyStandard.com
Over at Politico, Kenneth Vogel has his second piece in just a few days reacting to Matthew Continetti's cover story in THE WEEKLY STANDARD about the left's obsession with the Koch brothers.
In Vogel's latest, he notes some interesting details about the assault on the Kochs and how it's being coordinated from the highest levels of the country's most prominent liberal groups:
Back in Washington last month, representatives from Common Cause, Greenpeace, Public Citizen and Think Progress huddled with researchers from the Service Employees International Union at SEIU headquarters to figure out how to make the most of the sudden focus on the Kochs. And meeting participants have continued to trade research about the Kochs and strategize via a Koch-related email listserv and a rolling series of conference calls.
Democrats Call Koch Industries 'Extreme,'
but Justify Taking Their Money
BY MICHAEL WARREN - WeeklyStandard.com
Ben Smith reported this morning that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising email, signed by Harry Reid, that tries to ride the anti-Koch bandwagon. Here's the relevant part of the email:
Senate Democrats are fighting back each and every day. But with only a slim four-seat majority, we have no margin for error. If Republicans can knock just a few bricks free from our firewall, they'll force through their extreme agenda faster than you can say "Koch brothers." With the GOP on the attack and with 23 Democratic-held seats to defend, we have no time to spare. We must act now to keep our majority standing strong. I need your help!
The DSCC must raise $150,371 by our March 31 FEC deadline to keep the Republicans at bay.
Advocates Call for Reopening Campaign Finance Ruling
By Patrick O'Connor - WSJ.com
.... In its letter to the Justice Department, Common Cause wrote that both justices are conflicted because they failed to report their attendance at retreats organized by Charles Koch, chief executive officer of Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held companies in the U.S.
Mr. Koch organizes regular retreats to raise money from other wealthy Americans for conservative political organizations. The company's political arm spent more than $2.5 million in the last election cycle, and groups funded, in part, by Mr. Koch and other family members reportedly spent millions more.
Group Asks DOJ to Examine Alleged Ties Between Kochs and High Court
By Ashby Jones - WSJ.com [JANUARY 20, 2011]
Update, 12:10 EST: Couple more articles to link to, following up on the NYT article. At the Huffington Post, the head of Common Cause, Bob Edgar, wrote this piece explaining his organization's request to the Justice Department.
But over at Politico, Ben Smith reports that Common Cause has its timeline off, that both Scalia and Thomas had spoken at the Koch-sponsored events before the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the Citizens United complaint. According to Smith's piece, the Federalist Society, not the Koch Brothers, had paid travel expenses for both justices.
Covert Operations The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.
by Jane Mayer - NewYorker.com [AUGUST 30, 2010]
On May 17th, a black-tie audience at the Metropolitan Opera House applauded as a tall, jovial-looking billionaire took the stage. It was the seventieth annual spring gala of American Ballet Theatre, and David H. Koch was being celebrated for his generosity as a member of the board of trustees; he had recently donated $2.5 million toward the company's upcoming season, and had given many millions before that. Koch received an award while flanked by two of the gala's co-chairs, Blaine Trump, in a peach-colored gown, and Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, in emerald green. Kennedy’s mother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, had been a patron of the ballet and, coincidentally, the previous owner of a Fifth Avenue apartment that Koch had bought, in 1995, and then sold, eleven years later, for thirty-two million dollars, having found it too small.
Greenpeace protests at Koch brothers' rally Billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch
accused of distorting US democracy
By Ed Pilkington, in New York - Guardian.co.uk - [30 January 2011]
Prominent figures on both the right and left of the US political spectrum gathered in the luxury enclave of Rancho Mirage in the Californian desert today amid increasingly heated debate about the influence of the secrecy-loving billionaires Charles and David Koch on the political process.
About 200 key figures in business, energy, the media and law were expected to assemble at a five-star hotel at the invitation of the Koch brothers for the latest of their twice-yearly discussion groups on how to forward their libertarian causes. The talks began at 1pm with sessions that focused on how to fight the Obama administration, which the Kochs see as a threat to the free market and unfettered wealth.
A Foil for the Koch Brothers?
By TODD WOODY - NYTimes.com
Is Thomas F. Steyer the anti-Koch?
For years, Mr. Steyer, a billionaire San Francisco hedge fund manager, assiduously maintained a low profile while becoming a major donor to Democratic candidates. That changed in 2010 when he led the successful fight to defeat Proposition 23, a California ballot measure backed by two Texas oil companies and a company controlled by Charles G. and David H. Koch, the secretive billionaire brothers and bankrollers of conservative causes.
Koch Brothers Increased Wealth by $9 Billion Last Yea
As They Fund Laws to Make Working Class Poorer
Submitted by Mark Karlin - Buzzflash.com [03/11/2011]
Based on a recent Forbes survey, Rachel Maddow revealed that while Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is stripping away the financial security of workers, the Koch brothers increased their wealth by $9 billion last year. Together, Maddow notes, they would rank as the fourth-wealthiest person ($44 billion) in the world.
Meanwhile, the Koch brothers and Karl Rove, among others, are using front organizations to pit working people, who are being exploited, against unions. It's the ultimate in class warfare: make the working class fight each other over an increasingly smaller piece of the financial pie, as the super wealthy run off with the bakery.
The Koch Empire and Americans for Prosperity More Tentacles Surface at Rightwing Front Group
By PAM MARTENS - CounterPunch.org [October 19, 2010]
Lily Tomlin said it best: "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." Despite two solid years of progressive media tracking the billionaire Koch brothers' funding of right wing front groups, new details have emerged which show a more sophisticated and ominous network than previously understood.
One of the key organizations funded by a Koch-controlled foundation is Americans for Prosperity (AFP). While it has been widely documented and publicized that the group is orchestrating the Tea Party, AFP is also a veritable smorgasbord of other "grassroots" personalities. The AFP or the AFP Foundation have spawned the following identities:
Conservative high-rollers gather to plot strategy Koch brothers laying the groundwork
for a major 'grassroots effort' to push GOP candidate
By Michael Isikoff
National investigative correspondent - MSNBC.MSN.com
RANCHO MIRAGE, CA - A phalanx of sheriff’s deputies with riot gear fended off protestors and blocked all access to one of southern California’s most luxurious resort hotels on Sunday as more than 200 conservative donors gathered inside to plot political strategy and raise an estimated $30 million for the 2012 election.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was among several members of Congress who flew in for the two-day event, a semi-annual meeting of political high-rollers sponsored by Charles and David Koch, the billionaire owners of Koch Industries, the giant, privately held oil firm based in Wichita, Kan. The Koch brothers, strong economic libertarians, have become two of the country’s biggest donors to conservative political groups and think tanks.
Koch conference under scrutiny
By KENNETH P. VOGEL & SIMMI AUJLA | 1/27/11 4:18 AM EST - Politico.com
This weekend, for the eighth straight year, the billionaire Koch brothers will convene a meeting of roughly 200 wealthy businessmen, Republican politicians and conservative activists for a semi-annual conference to raise millions of dollars for the institutions that form the intellectual foundation – and, increasingly, the leading political edge – of the conservative movement.
In the past, the meetings have drawn an A-list of participants – politicians like Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, leading free-market thinkers including American Enterprise Institute president Arthur Brooks, talkers Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and even Supreme Court justices - to mingle with the wealthy donors who comprise the bulk of the invitees. The meetings adjourned after soliciting pledges of support from the donors – sometimes totaling as much as $50 million – to non-profit groups favored by the Kochs.
Tuning Out the Mainstream News
by ROBERT HAMBURGER - HamburgersStand.com
I don't watch much television news anymore. At times, this can limit my knowledge on any given subject.
My desire to stay acutely informed isn't what it used to be. I'm also getting tired of the lies – America is the greatest nation on the planet, the economy is strong, government will be successful in creating more jobs, we need to be at war in the Middle East to keep us safe… not to mention news of the latest celebrity in trouble.
Let's face it:
America is not the greatest nation on earth. We are a great nation, and so are many other nations.
Our economy is not strong – it is insolvent. Manipulation and illusion are alive and well in America.
The Unites States Government will not create jobs. The aforementioned government is the organization that allowed U.S. companies to outsource the jobs overseas for the past seven decades.
War does not make us safe. War on other peoples' soil pisses them off at us.
Unreported Soros Event Aims to Remake Entire Global Economy
By DAN GAINOR - WSJ.com
From the Media Research Center
Two years ago, George Soros said he wanted to reorganize the entire global economic system. In two short weeks, he is going to start - and no one seems to have noticed.
On April 8, a group he's funded with $50 million is holding a major economic conference and Soros's goal for such an event is to "establish new international rules" and "reform the currency system." It's all according to a plan laid out in a Nov. 4, 2009, Soros op-ed calling for "a grand bargain that rearranges the entire financial order."
The event is bringing together "more than 200 academic, business and government policy thought leaders' to repeat the famed 1944 Bretton Woods gathering that helped create the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Soros wants a new 'multilateral system," or an economic system where America isn't so dominant.
SOROS CONVENES 'BRETTON WOODS II'
By Pete Papaherakles - AmericanFreePress.net
Internationalist billionaire George Soros is holding his international conference April 8 to April 11 at Bretton Woods, N.H., the noted birthplace of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, where he plans to "rearrange the entire financial order," as he noted in a November 2009 article in The Japan Times Online.
This "Bretton Woods II" comes along just as the Trilateral Commission will be meeting at the same time in Washington, D.C. With an apparent goal of creating nothing less than a new global economy, Soros is spending $50 million in New Hampshire to bring together up to 200 academic, business and government policy leaders under his Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).
Dickering on Budget Goes Down to the Wire
By NAFTALI BENDAVID, JANET HOOK and CAROL E. LEE - WSJ.com
The federal government moved within a day of shutting down for the first time in 15 years Thursday, as Republicans and Democrats couldn't even agree on what issues stand in the way of reaching a budget deal before a deadline of Friday night at midnight.
Lawmakers gave signs that the gap dividing them had narrowed, though, and a last-minute breakthrough remained possible. House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid emerged from an afternoon meeting with President Barack Obama saying that they would return to the White House for an evening session.
The Economic Impact of a Federal Government Shutdown Will the U.S. recovery be jeopardized if Republicans and Democrats don't agree on a budget by Friday?
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
Would a federal government shutdown harm the still-fragile U.S. economy? A shutdown will be in effect starting Friday night if Congress can't agree on a budget. Of course, the longer the government is shut down, the more devastation it could cause. At this point, however, many experts are predicting a short shutdown, possibly lasting just a few days. If the federal government was closed for weeks or months, then the economic impact could be significant across a variety of sectors and would be felt by most Americans. But how would the economy handle a shutdown of just a few days?
White House talks fail to produce budget deal; House passes stopgap bill
By Philip Rucker, Perry Bacon Jr. and William Branigin - WashingtonPost.com
President Obama and congressional leaders met again Thursday night to try to negotiate a deal on a spending bill that would avert a looming federal government shutdown, and the lawmakers vowed to keep working on an agreement ahead of a Friday deadline.
"Differences have been narrowed," Obama told reporters after he met with Senate Majority Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) for the third time in less than 24 hours. "I'm not prepared to express wild optimism, but I think we’re further along."
Obama vows to veto short-term bill Brinksmanship blocks budget; shutdown likelihood raised
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
High-stakes negotiations to head off a government shutdown went down to the wire Thursday night after President Obama rejected a last-minute bid by House Republicans to give the rest of the government a one-week reprieve on a shutdown.
Mr. Obama said he would veto a House-passed bill that would fund U.S. troops through the end of fiscal year 2011 and fund the rest of government through April 15. That veto threat leaves just two options: either all sides could agree to a full-year deal to fund all of government, or the government will shut down at midnight Friday.
Ron Paul on Dylan Ratigan April 5 2011
Shutdown 101
By Damian Paletta - WSJ.com
The White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memo to federal agencies telling them the game plan if a spending agreement can't be reached by midnight Friday. The bottom line:
Friday: All federal employees are expected to report to work as normal. The White House plans to inform federal agencies if a new spending bill is likely to be enacted. If the White House believes a spending bill won’t be enacted by midnight, federal agencies must tell employees who will be furloughed "that they are prohibited... from performing any work over the weekend pending further notice." They won't be allowed to work from home, use government-issued BlackBerries, cell phones, computers, or laptops, in almost all cases. They can, however, use that government equipment to perform "shutdown-related activities."
Government Shutdown Watch
By Garance Franke-Ruta - TheAtlantic.com
There's so much news pouring in so fast about the efforts to avert the looming first federal government shutdown since the mid-90s, which could start this weekend unless a deal on the remaining fiscal year 2011 budget is reached, we'll be blogging it here. This is the government's third trip to the brink in two months. In the last five weeks, two temporary funding agreements -- known as continuing resolutions, or "CR"s -- have kept the lights on. But there is growing sense that the third time will not be a charm for Washington, as Derek Thompson explained late last month in his story about how we got here -- and what a shutdown could mean for the nation.
Why the government should shut down Commentary: A national civics lesson is long overdue
By David Callaway , MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - A government shutdown would lead to homeless wandering the streets, a national unemployment problem, a vicious power grab by Wall Street’s elite, and a rush by Americans to hoard precious assets such as gold and silver.
So what else is new? By those measures, the government's been closed for months.
The gridlock in Washington is manifesting itself in the worst way possible this week, with both sides dug in and President Obama warning of dire consequences if the government grinds to a halt this weekend - from the furloughs of 800,000 federal employees to the freezing of paychecks issued to military personnel.
The People's Budget
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
Phil Klein has a leaked version of an alternative budget plan by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, dubbed "the Peoples' Budget". Unfortunate naming instincts aside, the outlines definitely make a contrast to the Ryan Plan:
To extend the long-term solvency of Social Security, it would propose dramatically increasing payroll taxes on both the employer and employee side, and funneling the money into even more generous benefits.
Payroll taxes are economically destructive, because they make it more expensive for employers to hire new workers, meaning lower real wages and higher unemployment.
Ryan Plan's "Path to Prosperity" Is Just for the Wealthy
By Chuck Marr - OffTheChartsBlog.org
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s name for his budget - "The Path to Prosperity" - is a cruel joke.
One of this nation’s core beliefs is that if you work hard and act responsibly, you can get ahead, raise a family, and have a decent life. That was never more true than in the three decades after World War II, when the path to prosperity was wide enough to accommodate a broad swath of Americans.
Would Ike Have Gone to Libya? American foreign policy has come to favor action over moderation. -- By Peggy Noonan - WSJ.com
Thick histories may well be written about how President Obama - a Democrat from the leftward wing of his party, a use-of-force skeptic who campaigned against Iraq as a war of choice - came to involve the U.S. in a third Mideastern war. Much will be made of the regrets of a generation of party leaders that the U.S. did not move in 1994 in Rwanda, but that nation's experience raises as many questions as it answers. Rwanda was a real and actual genocide in which, in the Human Rights Watch estimate, 800,000 people were killed. Some say it was a million. Libya, in contrast, was a civil war with a dictator only threatening brutality toward his myriad foes. And a great nation's foreign policy can't be built on regrets, it can't be built only on emotion, it has to be more steely-eyed than that, more responsive to immediate and long-term strategic needs.
Libya, Syria and the Road to World War III -
Paul Craig Roberts on The Corbett Report
U.S. General: Ground Troops to Invade Libya
By Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
Army General Carter Ham told Congress today that while sending a globalist ground invasion force including American troops into Libya may not be "ideal," it is probably the only way to make sure the CIA organized rebels and al-Qaeda defeat Gaddafi and his troops.
The use of an international ground force is a possible plan to bolster rebels fighting forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Ham said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, the AP and CBS report today.
Libyan minister to take Turkish peace plan to Gaddafi Rebels also 'positive' about three-point plan after separate meeting with Turkish officials
By Chris McGreal in Benghazi, Harriet Sherwood in Tripoli and Seumas Milne - Guardian.co.uk
Turkey has proposed a path to a peaceful resolution to the deadlocked conflict in Libya, involving a withdrawal by Muammar Gaddafi's forces from cities held by the rebels, and democratic reform.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has outlined the proposal in Ankara, saying: "We are working on the details of this roadmap." It would include humanitarian corridors in Libya, he said.
U.S. Pulled Record Aid Deal as Yemenis Rose Up
By KEITH JOHNSON, ADAM ENTOUS and MARGARET COKER
The U.S. was on the verge of launching a record assistance package to Yemen when an outbreak of protests against its president led Washington to freeze the deal, officials say, marking a sharper turn in U.S. policy there than the administration has previously acknowledged.
The first installment of the aid package, worth a potential $1 billion or more over several years, was set to be rolled out in February, marking the White House's largest bid at securing President Ali Abdullah Saleh's allegiance in its battle against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the group behind the failed underwear bombing in 2009 and the foiled air-cargo bombing plot in October.
U.S. was told of Yemen leader's vulnerability
By Craig Whitlock - WashingtonPost.com
A billionaire Yemeni sheik met with a high-ranking officer from the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa less than two years ago and revealed a secret plan to overthrow President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country’s longtime autocratic ruler.
Hamid al-Ahmar, an opposition party leader and a prominent businessman, vowed to trigger the revolt if Saleh did not guarantee the fairness of parliamentary elections scheduled for 2011, according to a classified U.S. diplomatic cable summarizing the meeting. The sheik said he would organize massive demonstrations modeled on protests that toppled Indonesia’s President Suharto a decade earlier.
Dissident group says Iran factory really a nuke site
By Joby Warrick - WashingtonPost.com
An Iranian opposition group claimed Thursday to have discovered the location of a secret factory that manufactures high-tech equipment for Iran's nuclear program, a facility the group says is disguised as a tool-making plant.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran said the alleged plant makes centrifuge parts for Iran's uranium enrichment program and is closely tied to Iran's Defense Ministry. The dissident group also claimed that Iran already has made components for 100,000 centrifuge machines, far more than is needed to supply the country's known uranium facilities.
The Return of the Sovereign Debt Crisis
By Eric Fry - DailyReckoning.com
04/07/11 Laguna Beach, California – The US stock market continued whistling past the graveyard yesterday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 33 points to 12,427 – its highest closing level in nearly three years.
Sure, the US economy is showing signs of life, but these signs seem like mere weeds atop a mass grave of government stimulus efforts. Even from a distance – say, from wherever you may be to Washington, DC – you can almost smell the rotting of government finances.
The stench is unavoidable. The smell of dying welfare states fills the air, whether you be in Athens, Sacramento, Tokyo or Lisbon. As the weakest of welfare states drifts off toward that “dark night,” the world’s equity markets seem not to care.
Portugal defaults, America on the waiting list?
Gambling with the Planet
Joseph E. Stiglitz - Project-Syndicate.org
DUBAI – The consequences of the Japanese earthquake – especially the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant – resonate grimly for observers of the American financial crash that precipitated the Great Recession. Both events provide stark lessons about risks, and about how badly markets and societies can manage them.
Of course, in one sense, there is no comparison between the tragedy of the earthquake – which has left more than 25,000 people dead or missing – and the financial crisis, to which no such acute physical suffering can be attributed. But when it comes to the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, there is a common theme in the two events.
Terror Alert Threats Escalated in Europe
(funny spoof!) By John Cleese
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross."
The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out.
Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
What Impact Will the Ivory Coast Unrest Have on Gold Prices
Written by Taras Berezowsky - OilPrice.com
Much has been speculated and written about the Egyptian and Libyan crises as they relate to the gold market, but another, perhaps even more volatile situation, has been brewing in Ivory Coast since last November. Although it is the world’s leading cocoa producer, the Ivory Coast is also home to several gold mines.
Stemming from a disputed November 2010 election in which current president Laurent Gbagbowas awarded the presidency on what many claim to be a faulty vote – the country’s Election Commission showed that his rival, Alassane Ouattara, won the majority. Nothing less than a civil war erupted, continuing to this day with more than 1,500 people killed so far.
New US rules to curb precious metals theft on anvil
IDAHO (Commodity Online): With home robberies of gold, silver and platinum on the rise, law makers in Washington and some states in USA are planning to introduce new rules for precious metals dealers that will stipulate licensing of precious metals dealers and asking them to hold on to newly bought used gold, silver or other precious metals jewelry for 10-days before being resold or melted down.
With gold prices zooming to record high of $1450 and silver rising to 31 year high, both the precious metals have witnessed growth in theft from home.The new rules to be brought into force may also stipulate dealers to have additional documentation regarding gold, silver and platinum items to enable police to track stolen jewelry, www.timesunion.com reported.
Ron Paul: Gold, Commodity Prices "Big Event"
Signaling Economic Collapse
Kurt Nimmo - Infowars.com
Skyrocketing gold, silver, oil and other commodity prices, a brazen attempt by the Federal Reserve to monetize a staggering and deleterious debt, a precipitously falling dollar, creeping inflation – these are elements of a "big event," Ron Paul told Alex Jones on Tuesday.
"It's huge, and it has started," Paul said, and it may be identified as such within 30 days. "I believe it is the beginning… you and others have been talking about commodity prices going up." The Texas Congressman noted that even the former boss of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, has warned about out of control inflation.
Gold cinches third record high in a row Metal faced head winds, however, as 'air getting thinner'
By Claudia Assis , MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Gold futures crawled higher Thursday, shaking off the weakness that permeated part of floor trading to make history a third straight day.
Gold cinched a settlement and an intraday nominal record highs, its third consecutive, and helped silver, the poor man's gold, reach another 31-year high close.
Momentum buying, heightened concerns about debt problems in Europe, fears of inflation, and even an aftershock in earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged Japan contributed to gold's top showing.
Prices wobbled at times, however, as some investors feared an imminent selloff after the two record-breaking sessions.
US Mint to release 2011 Silver 5 Oz Bullion Coins
(Kitco News) - The U.S. Mint plans to release the first two coins in its 2011 five-ounce silver bullion coins in two weeks and with "substantially higher" quantities than in did for the 2010 series, the Mint said Thursday.
Starting April 25, the Mint will accept orders for the first two of the 2011 "America the Beautiful" five-ounce silver bullion coins on an equal, allocated basis to its authorized purchasers, which is how the Mint distributes its bullion coins.
In a memo to this authorized purchasers, the Mint said it will issue these coins "in quantities substantially higher than we did for the 2010 America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Bullion Coins Program. As a result, there will beno terms and conditions imposed on the 2011 America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Bullion Coins Program," the memo said, emphasizing the words "no terms and conditions imposed."
When the Saudi Monarchy Falls Why gold and oil will soar but the dollar and America we knew might be finished! -- by Ron Holland - LewRockwell.com
Oil at $200 plus a barrel will be the least of America’s problems when the Saudi Monarchy falls.
"If something happens in Saudi Arabia it (oil) will go to $200 to $300 (a barrel). I don't expect this for the time being, but who would have expected Tunisia?" ~ Former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani 4/5/11
The most important question facing the United States today is whether the freedom revolutions sweeping the Middle East will impact the authoritarian regime of Saudi Arabia and the major oil producers surrounding this nation of major oil reserves? The second question is if the government is overthrown, will the new government continue the practice of pricing oil in depreciating dollars rather than consider new options?
Lindsey Williams Exclusive:
Arab Monarchies To Be Overthrown!! - Alex Jones Tv 1/4
*** Hillary gives green light to Muslim Brotherhood; they get to keep the countries they overthrow. Women in middle east will SUFFER greatly.
Lindsey Williams Exclusive:
Arab Monarchies To Be Overthrown!! - Alex Jones Tv 2/4
*** Commercial real estate will fall; worse than residential real estate collapse.
Lindsey Williams Exclusive:
Arab Monarchies To Be Overthrown!! - Alex Jones Tv 3/4
Lindsey Williams Exclusive:
Arab Monarchies To Be Overthrown!! - Alex Jones Tv 4/4
Crude at $175? Oil traders stress test the future
By Javier Blas - FT.com
Oil at $175 a barrel; copper at $12,000 a tonne and corn at $10 a bushel. As commodity prices rally, the world's largest trading houses have been busy 'stress testing' to be sure their finances can withstand a "super spike".
The levels are not a forecast – indeed, executives tell me they do not expect such hefty prices – but do signal a "worse case scenario" for which oil, metals and food commodities traders need to prepare.
"Can we reach $175? I don't think so," says a trading executive. "But there is a chance of a spike to that level for one or two days if something happens in Saudi Arabia." The same reasoning justifies tests for copper at $12,000 a tonne (think of an accident at a big mine in Chile) or corn at $10 a bushel, which could, for example, be caused by bad weather during the US planting season in May and June.
Oil could hit $200-$300 on Saudi unrest-Yamani
By Emma Farge
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Oil prices could rocket to $200- $300 a barrel if the world's top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is hit by serious political unrest, former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani told Reuters on Tuesday.
Yamani said he saw no immediate sign of further trouble following protests last month calling for political reforms but said that underlying discontent remained unresolved.
Pinched By $4 Gasoline? Blame The Big Banks
Written by Dian L. Chu - OilPrice.com
Yes, that's right! The same Big Banks that taxpayers bailed out during the financial crisis are now jacking up oil and gasoline prices (Fig. 1), thus making consumers pay yet once again at the gas pump. Don`t buy into the hype fed to the media by the Big Banks about impending global oil supply crisis due to the unrest in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. It All Started With Jackson Hole….
This run-up in oil prices started with Fed Chairman Bernanke's Jackson Hole speech where the big banks realized they were going to get a bunch more juice in the form of POMO operations by the Federal Reserve to play around in markets with.
Treasuries Fall, Headed for a Third Weekly Loss,
as Inflation Bets Rise
By Wes Goodman - Bloomberg.com
Treasuries fell, headed for a third weekly loss, after traders added to inflation bets and Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Jeffrey Lacker said the central bank may begin unwinding its stimulus by year-end.
The difference between yields on 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, a gauge of trader expectations for consumer prices over the life of the debt, widened to 2.61 percentage points. It was the most in 32 months.
"The Fed speakers are making very hawkish comments," said Chungkeun Oh, a fixed-income trader in Seoul at Industrial Bank of Korea, South Korea’s largest lender to small and medium-sized companies. "People are thinking the Fed will hike rates. I’m not sure if it will happen this year or next, but we have to prepare for it. Yields are rising."
Three Important Consequences for the Return of the Carry Trade
By Addison Wiggin - dailyreckoning.com
04/07/11 Baltimore, Maryland – It started in Asia. Now it's spread westward to Europe. And before it’s all over, it might even reach the United States.
Swine flu?
No. "It" is rising interest rates and an end to the free flow of easy money that flooded the globe in response to the 2007-08 financial crisis. The world’s monetary mandarins are deciding, one by one, that it's time to close up the spigot, if only a little.
It began last October, when China raised interest rates. Three more increases have followed, the most recent on Tuesday.
In Europe, despite an agreement to bail out Portugal to the tune of some $100 billion, the European Central Bank (ECB) voted this morning to bump up its benchmark lending rate for the first time since July 2008 - from 1% to 1.25%.
The "Crime" of Private Money
Mises Daily: by Robert P. Murphy
Bernard von NotHaus was convicted last month in federal court on conspiracy and counterfeiting charges for his development of silver "Liberty Dollars." He faces up to 25 years in prison. Earlier this week the feds moved to seize about $7 million of precious metals from the operation as well.
Besides the government's dubious legal maneuvers, its broader message here is clear: "Don't try to provide Americans with any alternative to the fiat dollar, or we will come after you." For those who have always wondered why free-market monies haven't supplanted various state's fiat currencies, we have yet another illustration of the answer.
4/7/2011 Peter Schiff On Freedom Watch:
NOTHAUS CONVICTED OF FRAUD
Sean Fieler and Jeffrey Bell: Our unaccountable Fed
Submitted by cpowell - GATA.org Not having a real budget means the Federal Reserve doesn't have to compete with anyone for scarce resources. What the central bank needs is a little money competition.
By Sean Fieler and Jeffrey Bell - The Wall Street Journal [WSJ story]
"I will maintain to my deathbed that we made every effort to save Lehman, but we were just unable to do so because of a lack of legal authority."
So said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in 2009. The statement was striking - not because it was false, but because the Fed lacked explicit legal authority to do so much of what it did during the financial crisis. Drawing the line at Lehman seemed arbitrary, and it proved that the Fed has become an unaccountable power within American government.
Mr. Bernanke's insistence that the Fed is restrained by some obscure statute is central to his argument that the Fed is a body subject to the check of external forces. But it's not. The principal check on its power is the self-restraint of its chairman, a point proven by the Lehman example: Had Mr. Bernanke saved Lehman, who would have enforced the statute that he had violated? No one. That's because the Fed, as currently configured, has no opposing force to rein it in.
Governments continued to enhance pensions amid economic collapse The bills for enhanced pension benefits in Costa Mesa, San Bernardino and other cities and agencies are coming due. Drastic cuts and legal battles are just some of the consequences.
By Evan Halper and Catherine Saillant, Los Angeles Times
Scores of California government agencies continued to sweeten employee pension plans even after the state's economy began collapsing into recession in 2008, a decision that is now haunting them as they struggle with deficits and deep budget cuts.
A state oversight panel has identified about 180 local governments that increased pension benefits at a time when the state's unemployment rate was rising, housing prices were falling and the nation's banking system was in crisis. The enhancements covered thousands of public employees, adding tens of millions of dollars of new debt to local governments, analysts say.
Cities are now paying the price.
Keiser Report: Cocaine Makes World Go Round (E136)
You Thought the Koch Brothers Were Bad?
Turns Out They're Even Worse Than You Thought Charles and David Koch's reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible.
By Adele M. Stan - AlterNet
You knew they were big. You knew they were evil. From the union-busting actions of their minions in Wisconsin and Ohio to their war on health-care reform, to their assault on the environment and their attacks on the science of climatology, Charles and David Koch have earned their place as the focus of progressives' scrutiny in the age of the Tea Party -- the destructive and regressive movement they bankroll. But a new report from the Center for American Progress Action Fund shows that, as bad as you thought the Kochs were, they're actually worse. And their reach into virtually every aspect of political, economic and physical life on the planet is probably greater than you thought possible.
Wells Fargo to lay off 85 mortgage jobs in Denver area,
1,900 nationwide
Denver Business Journal - by Heather Draper and Mark Harden
Wells Fargo & Co. - Colorado’s largest bank - said Thursday it is cutting 1,900 positions in its mortgage operations nationwide, with about 85 employees in the Denver area losing their jobs.
The cuts are in response to slowing demand for mortgage refinancings, the San Francisco-based bank said.
The 1,900 positions - mostly in loan processing, underwriting and servicing - amount to about 3 percent of Wells Fargo's mortgage workforce of 52,000.
Reforming entitlements is key to a strong military
By: Byron York - WashingtonExaminer.com
Nearly lost amid reporting on the early days of the Libyan war was a revealing look at the deteriorating military strength of Britain, the United States' oldest and most important ally. The Daily Telegraph reported that the British navy fired a dozen cruise missiles in the initial attack on Libya. The problem was, that was a significant portion of the Brits' entire arsenal of 64 cruise missiles.
"At this rate we are using up five or ten per cent of our stock per day and soon it could become unsustainable," a British defense industry source told the Telegraph. "What if the strikes go beyond a second week? We will simply run out of ammunition."
Protecting America from the Dire Threat
of Unlicensed Fabric Selection
Damon W. Root - Reason.com
Writing in Forbes, Institute for Justice President Chip Mellor highlights a very important effort by Florida Gov. Rick Scott to eliminate costly and unnecessary licensing requirements that currently infringe on the right to earn a living in 20 different occupations, including hair braiding and ballroom dance instruction. As Mellor notes, the special interests are pulling out all the stops to protect their lucrative licensing racket:
The most vocal of those seeking to maintain their protected status are interior designers. Florida is one of only three states that regulates the practice of interior design; the other two are Louisiana and Nevada. Even though no less than the Florida Attorney General's office has admitted there is no evidence that interior design licensing has benefited the public in any way, the designers' cartel has hired a high-powered lobbyist to wage an aggressive PR campaign to remove interior design from the should-be deregulated industries.
Capitalism at the Farm Stand
Mises Daily: by Stefano R. Mugnaini
I laugh to myself every time I pull up to the little farm stand to pick up my weekly share from the Community Supported Agriculture program. I see a hilarious irony in the bumper stickers on the cars, proclaiming the social consciousness and leftist orientation of my fellow CSA members. I chuckle when I see the variety of reusable shopping bags, each proclaiming some message about how they're saving the planet "one bag at a time."
As I stand, filling the provided plastic (and supposedly nonreusable) grocery bags, I can barely hide my amusement. I am engaging in an enterprise that is the essence of pure capitalism while surrounded by those to whom the very word "capitalism" is one of the greatest of obscenities. It is voluntary exchange; it is a relationship where everyone feels as if they have won. Isn't that the essence of the free market?
Good Morning America:
Jesse Ventura - Ron Paul Presidential Ticket 2012 - Ap-4 2011
How the economy may undermine Obama's 2012 reelection hopes
By James Pethokoukis - Reuters.com
"We are making progress on jobs and need to make more progress on jobs," said David Axelrod, a former senior White House aide who is part of Obama’s 2012 campaign team. "But people are also grappling with stagnant wages and rising prices. That’s a legitimate, important concern for people and we have to pay close attention to it."
Further, Jay Cost of the The Weekly Standard elaborates in great detail on something I have been writing about, how weak income growth could hurt Obama's 2012 chances:
So basically, here is where we are. Policymakers have spent the last three years tossing not millions, not billions, but trillions of borrowed dollars at the output gap in the American economy. And what is the result? A fair measurement of unemployment comes in higher than anything we've seen since the Great Depression. Real wages are in decline. Food stamp enrollment is at an all time high. Jobs are coming back, but at a painfully slow rate and without very good pay. Growth for this year and next are expected to come in below the historical trend. We’ve created a huge budget deficit, as we've borrowed from future generations to cover the output gap from the last couple years. And let's not forget this one (not that we ever could!).
Energy companies to post fracking chemicals online
Denver Business Journal - by Cathy Proctor
Oil and gas companies operating in Colorado are among many that say they will voluntarily disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.
The technique - also known as "fracking" - that blasts water, sand and chemicals into rock layers deep underground to unlock oil and gas.
The companies are uploading data, including well locations, this week to a website created by the Groundwater Protection Council, a national association of groundwater protection agencies, and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, an interstate commission created in 1935. Both are located in Oklahoma City.
Aftershock shakes Japan's ruined northeast coast
By Chizu Nomiyama and Yoko Kubota - TOKYO
(Reuters) - A major aftershock rocked northeastJapan on Thursday and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast devastated by last month's massive quake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.
The warning was later lifted and no tsunami was reported after the quake, which struck shortly before midnight. No damage from the quake, measured at magnitude 7.4 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said.
Workers struggling to bring the plant under control were evacuated but returned once the tsunami warning was lifted, a TEPCO official said.
Status of Japan nuclear plants after Thursday's quake
(Reuters) - A major aftershock rocked northeast Japan on Thursday and a tsunami warning was issued for the coast devastated by last month's massive quake and tsunami that crippled a nuclear power plant.
No damage from Thursday's quake, measured at magnitude 7.4 by the Japan Meteorological Agency, was detected at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said, and the tsunami warning was later lifted.
Looming U.S. Government Shutdown Sign of Future Financial Crisis
BY KERRI SHANNON, Associate Editor, Money Morning
Washington for months has been tangled in a messy political debate over the 2011 federal budget. The newest deadline to reach a budget deal - April 8 - is just a couple of days away.
The phrase "government shutdown" is being used with increasing frequency.
Temporary funding measures have kept the government running this year as U.S. lawmakers repeatedly extended the final budget deadline. An end to negotiations is still nowhere in sight - stoking the shutdown discussions.
Will Washington's Budget Standoff End With a Tax Increase?
ByPETER COHAN - DailyFinance.com
The U.S. faces a record$1.5 trillion budget deficit for 2011,and this week, there's a chance that House Republicans will shut down the government in an attempt to use the pain that would cause to achieve their political objectives.
On a deeper level, Republicans want to do everything in their power to make sure Barack Obama is a one-term president. In that mission, anything they can do to slow down economic growth will help their cause, because -- according to the uncannily accurate predictions of Yale economics professor Ray Fair -- if U.S. GDP grows at 3.7% in 2012, Obama will win nearly56% of the popular vote.
Ryan: Debt on Track to Hit 800 Percent of GDP;
'CBO Can't Conceive of Any Way' Economy Can Continue Past 2037
By Nicholas Ballasy
(CNSNews.com) – House Budget Chairman Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said President Barack Obama’s budget strategy is to “do nothing, punt, duck, kick the can down the road” while the debt remains on track to eventually hit 800 percent of GDP. Ryan added that the CBO is saying it "can't conceive of any way" that the economy can continue past 2037 given its current trajectory.
Rep. Ryan: 'Do Nothing, Punt, Duck, Kick the Can Down the Road' Causing A 'Debt Crisis'
Paul Ryan’s revolution would finish Reagan's
By James Pethokoukis - Reuters.com
Is Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” potentially the most important and necessary piece of economic legislation since President Ronald Reagan’s tax cuts in 1981? Quite likely. The blueprint embraces free markets and individual choice to radically reshape America’s social welfare state for the 21st century and shrink government. Instead of looking for ways to finance an ever-expanding public sector, it would prevent Washington from growing to a projected 45 percent of GDP by 2050 (vs. 24 percent today) and instead reduce it to just under 15 percent by that year. Ryan would downsize government to its smallest size since 1950 and prevent the Europeanization of the American economy. The Ryan Path embraces dynamic growth, not managed decline and stagnation.
Republicans embrace Rep. Ryan's government budget plan for 2012 GOP budget $6.2 trillion less than Obama's
By Lori Montgomery and Philip Rucker
House Republicans announced a far-reaching vision for a leaner federal government on Tuesday, presenting a 2012 budget blueprint that would privatize Medicare for future retirees, cut spending on Medicaid and other domestic programs, and offer sharply lower tax rates to corporations and the wealthy.
The proposal represents the most comprehensive philosophical statement by resurgent Republicans since they claimed control of the House in last fall’s midterm elections. It promises to define the party heading into the 2012 presidential election and to shape the policy debate in Washington as both parties grapple with a soaring national debt.
Dylan Ratigan April 5 2011
Congressman Paul discusses budget issues with Dylan Ratigan
Union blasts secretive Obama administration over looming shutdown
By Jim McElhatton-The Washington Times
Weeks after President Obama took office, John Gage, the head of the largest union for federal workers in the country, gave a speech hailing the new administration as a champion for "transparency, accountability and good government."
But in a sharply worded federal lawsuit filed last week, that same union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), accused the Obama administration of keeping important government records secret.
U.S. Can't Resist Meddling in the Middle East
By William Pfaff - Truthdig.com
The struggle is under way to re-establish American control over the successors to those despots whom popular uprisings have ousted from Tunisia and Egypt, threatening the careers of still other abusive absolute monarchs and presidents-for-life (and their offspring).
The report that Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh is to be thrown to the crocodile crowds by the American government, allowing for bids by the CIA for a successor, was "leaked" (meaning not announced at a press conference) to The New York Times. His fault, in American officials' eyes, is not so much the killing and other violence he has deployed against citizen protestors of his rule, tolerable until now (as in the earlier cases of Presidents Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Ben Ali in Tunisia), as it is the failure of this violence to suppress popular uprising. These figures are not disqualified by despotism but for unsuccessful despotism.
Gaddafi using human shields, NATO officials say
By Edward Cody - WashingtonPost.com
PARIS - NATO officials said Wednesday that Moammar Gaddafi’s military has concealed its tanks, troops and weapons among civilians in Libyan towns to prevent NATO aircraft from carrying out strikes in support of rebel forces.
The accusation, by the French foreign minister and in a briefing in Brussels, came in response to rebel complaints that Western airstrikes have tapered off so much as to be ineffective since the United States turned over command of Libyan operations to NATO over the weekend.
After Upsetting Saudis, Obama Sends Defense Secretary Gates
to Discuss Arab Upheaval With Saudi King
By Robert Burns, Associated Press - CNSNews.com
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in the Saudi capital Wednesday for talks with King Abdullah on coping with the political upheaval sweeping the Arab world, blunting Iranian efforts to exploit the unrest, and upgrading the kingdom's defenses against Iranian missiles.
In a sign of the depth of the Obama administration's concern about the political earthquake that has shaken the region, including the island of Bahrain off Saudi Arabia's Persian Gulf coast, this was Gates' third trip to the area in the past month. He has echoed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's cautioning of authoritarian Arab governments on the risks of moving too slowly in response to peaceful protests for political freedom.
Portugal's Debt Costs 'Unsustainable,' Goldman Says
By Scott Hamilton and Tom Keene - WashPost.Bloomberg.com
April 6 (Bloomberg) -- Portugal’s borrowing costs are "unsustainable" after the interest paid on an auction of 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of government bonds surged, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief European Economist Erik Nielsen said.
"They've been able to raise a bit of money, but it's still at rates that are clearly unsustainable," Nielsen said in an interview from London on Bloomberg Television's "Surveillance Midday" with Tom Keene today.
Portuguese bond yields have climbed to record levels since Prime Minister Jose Socrates quit on March 23 following a parliamentary rejection of proposed budget-deficit cuts. That has fuelled speculation the country will have to follow Greece and Ireland and agree a financial rescue package with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Portugal wants a bailout Portugal finally asks EU for help Poorly received auction prompts finance minister's comments
By Steve Goldstein and William L. Watts, MarketWatch
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - Portugal finally threw in the towel and asked for international assistance Wednesday, after paying a high price in its latest test of the global bond market.
Portugal’s prime minister, Jose Socrates, told the nation that the assistance was "inevitable" after parliament rejected an austerity plan. Portugal now looks set to join Greece and Ireland in receiving bailouts from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Roubini on China's Unsustainable, Unbalanced Growth Model; China Unexpectedly Hikes Interest Rates to Counter Inflation, Exorbitant Home Prices
By Mike Shedlock
In an unexpected move to curb soaring inflation China hiked interest rates for the 4th time since October. Premier Wen noted a threat to social stability and stated "Exorbitant" house price increases in some cities are a top public concern.
Please consider China Raises Interest Rates to Counter Inflation Pressure
China raised interest rates for the fourth time since the end of the global financial crisis to restrain inflation and limit the risk of asset bubbles in the fastest-growing major economy.
A Sharp, Swift Slide for Yen
Currency Sinks 12% Versus Dollar; Euro Hits 11-Month High After Intervention
By TOM LAURICELLA And ALEX FRANGOS - WSJ.com
Just three weeks after spiking to a record high against the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen is in full retreat.
On Wednesday, the currency weakened to ¥85 - a level not seen since late September. That marks a plunge of about 12% since mid-March, when a sudden surge sent the Japanese currency to ¥76.32 versus the dollar and prompted the world's central banks to jump in to quell the rise.
Reaping What Bretton Woods Has Sown
By Bob Chapman - TheInternationalForecaster.com
April 2 2011: The Bretton Woods agreement in 1944, a license to steal under the Federal Reserve Act, a model for finance that no longer works well, tax breaks for the wealthy and budget cuts for the rest of us, the possible re-monetization of silver, Fed discloses its discount borrowers for the first time ever, bailed out banks dump US workers in favor of offshore labor, Cal teachers pension system exposed, notes on the TARP bailout.
The seeds of today's monetary problems were laid at Bretton Woods, NH in 1944, as a combination of socialists, communists and fascists laid the groundwork for the IMF, the World Bank and the eventual elimination of gold from the monetary world. The Federal Reserve's role was to bring that about from behind the scenes.
The Peasants Need Pitchforks
By Robert Scheer
A "working class hero," John Lennon told us in his song of that title, "is something to be/ Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV/ And you think you're so clever and classless and free/ But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see."
The delusion of a classless America in which opportunity is equally distributed is the most effective deception perpetrated by the moneyed elite that controls all the key levers of power in what passes for our democracy. It is a myth blown away by Nobel Prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz in the current issue of Vanity Fair. In an article titled "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" Stiglitz states that the top thin layer of the superwealthy controls 40 percent of all wealth in what is now the most sharply class-divided of all developed nations: "Americans have been watching protests against repressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet, in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation's income - an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret."
Predatory Payday Lenders Put Military Families in the Crosshairs
ByBRUCE WATSON - DailyFinance.com
Members of America's military face threats to life and limb around the world every day, but it's a domestic threat that has recently put the top brass on the offensive on the home front -- predatory lenders.
In 2006, the Department of Defense researched the problem, interviewingsoldiers who had been devastated by payday loans. While each story is unique, they all include the same basic series of events: A soldier takes out a seemingly simple loan and soon finds him or herself drowning in an ever-deepening morass of debt. Take, for example, the case of an Air Force sergeant who got behind on her car payments and rent. To catch up, she took out a $500 payday loan, agreeing to pay back $600 in two weeks. Things spiraled downhill from there:
Gerald Celente On Goldseek radio with Chris Waltzek 29 March 2011
If the world around us collapses, gold may be our only saving grace In an increasingly worrying world there are numerous factors that could bring stock markets crashing back to earth, but gold has stood the test of time as a wealth insurance policy
Author: Lawrence Williams - MineWeb.com
LONDON - All is not well with the world! A seemingly obvious statement - is it ever? But recent events put us all on a more precarious footing than perhaps we have been since the onset of World War 2. Maybe the risks ahead are not military - although the chances of getting sucked in to a Sunni-Shia conflict masterminded by Iran in the Middle East and North Africa - or perhaps China flexing its military muscles over Taiwan, may become increasingly real as the days, weeks and years progress.
Gold advances on escalating Europe debt crisis
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online): Gold extended gains Wednesday as investors remained worried over Europe's debt crisis and uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
Spot gold was seen trading at $1454.91 an ounce at 12.30 p.m Singapore time while gold for June delivery was seen at $1455.97 an ounce on the comex division of Nymex.
Analysts said uncertainty about what may be next in Europe and in oil-rich countries like Libya is prompting investors to buy precious metals, which have the reputation of being relatively stable.
Comex Gold scores another new high as inflation concerns heatingUp
By Jim Wyckoff - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) - Comex gold futures on Wednesday closed higher and set another new all-time record high of $1,467.00 an ounce, basis the active June futures contract. Meantime, Comex silver futures hit another fresh 31-year high as prices close in on $40.00 an ounce. The precious metals are seeing strong investment demand coming from several fronts. There are no early warning signals to suggest gold or silver prices are close to market tops. Comex June gold last traded up $6.60 an ounce at $1,459.20. Spot gold last traded up $1.50 at $1,459.00.
Peter Schiff: The Fed's Incompetency Must Stop!
Alex Jones Tv 1/2
Peter Schiff: The Fed's Incompetency Must Stop!
Alex Jones Tv 2/2
Gold hits record; silver just short of $40
Geopolitical uncertainty, euro-zone debt fuel demand; copper rallies
By Claudia Assis and Myra P. Saefong, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Gold and silver futures made history Wednesday, landing top marks as investors flocked to the safe haven of precious metals, with a weaker dollar speeding up the run.
Gold notched a settlement and an intraday record high and set its sights on $1,500 an ounce. Silver stopped just pennies short of the psychologically important $40-an-ounce level, hitting a 31-year high on its way.
Silver's perfomance to treble that of gold over 3 to 5 years Silver is likely to be the investment of the decade in the same way that gold was the investment of the last one as both industrial and investment demand come to the fore, says Eric Sprott -- Author: Geoff Candy - Mineweb.com
According to Sprott Asset Management CEO, Eric Sprott, Silver is the investment of the decade. Not only is it likely to reach $50 an ounce by the end of the year but, he says, over the next three to five years, it's performance is likely to treble that of gold's.
11 Important Points "Deflationists" Miss (And Why They’re Wrong)
by Aaron Krowne, Founder, ML-Implode.com
Many have generated ample prose lately in the latest rumble in the deflationist/inflationist street brawl (a debate still largely ignored by the mainstream media, which continues to broadcast little besides the “Carry On, All Is Fine” message). So I won't add any more to that prose. But I did want to get across a "hit list" of important points that I think are ignored or undervalued by deflationists, which together make a pretty strong case that our present economy will "die by fire" (inflation), not ice (deflation).
Erica Payne on FBN's Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano
Erica Payne debates Bernanke's insistence that inflation is not a threat.
Inflation Fears
A Sanguine Fed is Underestimating the Escalating Threat
BY MARTIN HUTCHINSON, Contributing Editor, Money Morning
Pretty much everyone but U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke sees that inflation is returning: After all, even Bernanke's favorite inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) deflator, was up 0.4% in February - which hints at an annualized inflation rate of almost 5%.
What folks don't see, however, is just how bad inflation will get.
Oil Supply Crisis From War in Libya? Free Trade Begs to Differ
Written by Dian L. Chu - OilPrice.com
The recent news from Libya suggests that a transitional government is already being put in place as BBC reports that Libya's opposition groups is set to export first oil shipment, and are making plans to load a tanker due to dock at a terminal near Tobruk. And there were unconfirmed reports that the tanker en route to Libya was the Liberia-flagged Equator vessel, owned by Greece-based Dynacom Management, according to BBC.
Keiser Report: Virtual Pigs Eat Dirty Cash
Concerns Emerge as a Fed Rate Falls
By JON HILSENRATH And MARK GONGLOFF - WSJ.com
A sharp and unintentional decline in the Federal Reserve's key interest rate in recent days is raising eyebrows in financial markets and shining a light on the challenges the central bank could face steering monetary policy in the months ahead.
The federal-funds rate, an overnight bank lending rate that affects borrowing costs throughout the economy, has fallen to 0.09% from 0.13% in the past week and from 0.2% in late December.
While the numbers are small, such movement is unusual. The Fed's target for this rate is between zero and 0.25%, but the rate has generally held close to the high end of that range since the central bank set it in December 2008.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Calls His State's Teachers Union 'Political Thugs' Christie Tells Diane Sawyer He Won't Run for President in 2012, But Will His Friend Donald Trump?
139 COMMENTSBY BRADLEY BLACKBURN - ABCNews.com
New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie took another shot at his state's teachers today by describing their union leaders as "political thugs."
In an interview with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, Christie offered no apology for his often tough talk that has left some teachers feeling bruised. He also talked about the presidential possibilities of both himself and his "friend" Donald Trump, and criticism by Jersey rock icon Bruce Springsteen.
Amid Voter Split Over Union 'Rights,'
Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Too Close to Call
By Todd Richmond, Associated Press - CNSNews.com
Madison, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin's fight over union rights came to a head at the polls as voters split almost evenly over whether to re-elect a conservative-leaning justice or give his little-known opponent his seat on the state Supreme Court.
The race between Justice David Prosser and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg was too close to call early Wednesday morning. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Prosser led Kloppenburg by fewer than 600 votes. Final, official results could vary and a recount appeared likely.
Big Labor's Wisconsin Revenge A dead-heat judicial election shouldn't deter state reformers.
WSJ.com
We believe the battle between public unions and taxpayers will define the next decade in most U.S. states, and this week the union empire struck back in Wisconsin. Big Labor went all-in to seek revenge against Governor Scott Walker's public union reforms, and they may have taken over the state Supreme Court in the bargain.
Tuesday's race between Justice David Prosser and liberal challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg was a dead heat, with Ms. Kloppenburg pulling ahead by about 204 votes late yesterday. Until Mr. Walker's collective bargaining reform passed last month, incumbent Justice Prosser was a heavy favorite. Unions then turned it into a grudge match, with the union-backed Greater Wisconsin Committee alone spending $1,363,040 for Ms. Kloppenburg, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Turnout of 1.5 million was nearly double the usual number of voters in a state Supreme Court election.
Delinquency Rate Hits Record for Mortgage-
Backed Commercial Loans
By Eliot Brown - WSJ.com
Loans tied to commercial mortgage-backed securities hit a record delinquency rate in March, with 9.42% of all such loans having missed payments, loan research-service firm Trepp LLC said.
The rate has been on an upward climb since the real-estate market began to turn in late 2007. Facing significantly lower values than when loans were taken out during the peak years of 2005-2007, a number of landlords have been unable to pay off loans as they come due.
Housing Bubble Continues to Haunt Fed
By KELLY EVANS - WSJ.com $$
Americans' love affair with housing is over. But, ironically, deflation of the bubble risks fueling consumer-price inflation.
Shelter costs account for 32% of the overall consumer-price index and about 40% of core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy. The tightening rental market, as fewer Americans opt to buy homes, is a key reason why core inflation stopped declining last year and is moving higher.
Apartment Vacancies in U.S. Fall to Three-Year Lo
as Rental Demand Climbs
By Hui-yong Yu - Bloomberg.com
U.S. apartment vacancies dropped to the lowest in almost three years in the first quarter as the weak homebuying market fueled demand in what is usually a slow period for rentals, according to Reis Inc. (REIS)
The vacancy rate declined to 6.2 percent from 8 percent a year earlier and 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, the New York-based research firm said in a report today. The rate was the lowest since it reached 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2008.
FHA insured loans dominate top 20 metro areas The near nothing down mentality is the new rage in the housing market. FHA loans showing massive delinquency rates and have the potential of costing the taxpayer $100 billion in another bailout.
DoctorHousingBubble.com
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has stepped into the housing market in a too big to fail way. Their involvement in the mortgage market is not necessarily a good thing in the long-term. The reason for the FHA popularity is the incredibly low down payment requirement of 3.5 percent. Couple this with the Federal Reserve subsidizing lower mortgage rates and you have a recipe for a nation simply pushing debt off to the future. The FHA is now a mess since it is picking up the slack of defunct toxic mortgage lenders. In 2008 HUD went to Congress for a $143,000,000 subsidy, the first in three decades. More troubling is the projected losses that could amount to $100 billion over time. The rising delinquency rates and the market share of FHA insured loans assure us problems ahead. Let us look at the proliferation of this product since the housing market bubble burst in 2007.
Real Read on Real Estate
Government Shutdown Could Slam FHA, but GSEs Okay
By Brian Collins - NationalMortgageNews.com
The FHA has critical lending programs for homebuyers, particularly first-timers, but will have to stop endorsing new mortgages if Congress cannot agree on a budget deal with the White House by midnight Friday and the federal government is forced to shutdown.
"FHA cannot offer endorsements for any new loans in the Single Family program and cannot make commitments in the Multifamily in the event of a shutdown," according to a memo drafted by a housing trade group.
Last year, FHA insured nearly 40% of all home purchase mortgages totaling $200 billion, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.
Red tape cut in health care law GOP sees 'down payment on total repeal' of Obama initiative
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
Congress on Tuesday revoked the first significant parts of PresidentObama’s health care initiative when the Senate voted overwhelmingly to eliminate a burdensome tax paperwork requirement the law imposes on businesses.
Republicans called the bill “a down payment on total repeal” while most Democrats said it marked an improvement in last year’s law. The bill had previously cleared the House and now goes directly to Mr. Obama.
But it marked a rare flash of bipartisanship on a day when Democrats and Republicans otherwise clashed over short-term and long-term spending as they girded for a government shutdown by week’s end.
Glenn Beck to leave Fox News program
By Paul Farhi - WashingtonPost.com
Glenn Beck will end his popular and often controversial daily program on the Fox News Channel later this year, Fox News and Beck’s production company said Wednesday.
Beck will "transition" away from Fox, with no specific end date for his 5 p.m. program, the news channel and Mercury Radio Arts, Beck’s company, said in a joint statement.
Tom Woods: Media blacking out "Nullification" book
YouTube Recasts for New Viewers Google Plans to Organize Site Around 'Channels,'
Fund Original Content as TV and Web Converge
By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO, AMIR EFRATI and ETHAN SMITH - WSJ.com
Google Inc. is working on a major overhaul of YouTubeas it tries to position itself for the rise of televisions that let people watch online video in their living rooms, according to people familiar with the matter.
YouTube is looking to compete with broadcast and cable television, some of these people said, a goal that requires it to entice users to stay on the website longer, and to convince advertisers that it will reach desirable consumers.
Peter Schiff on CNBC 4-4-11
Airline Regulation Debate
Tsunami-Hit Towns Forgot Warnings from Ancestors
By Jay Alabaster, Associated Press - CNSNews.com
Miyako, Japan (AP) - Modern sea walls failed to protect coastal towns from Japan's destructive tsunami last month. But in the hamlet of Aneyoshi, a single centuries-old tablet saved the day.
"High dwellings are the peace and harmony of our descendants," the stone slab reads. "Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point."
Bill to repeal 1099 paperwork burden clears Congress
Pacific Business News - by Kent Hoover, PBN Washington Bureau Chief
The Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a health-care reform provision that requires businesses to file a 1099 form with the Internal Revenue Service any time they spend more than $600 a year with another business.
By a 87-12 vote, the Senate passed legislation repealing the 1099 provision, which was included in health-care reform as a way to help pay for that measure. Third-party reporting of income makes businesses less likely to try to hide income from the IRS, according to supporters of the provision.
Geithner: Debt Default Would Make Financial Crisis Look Tame
By Damian Paletta - WSJ.com
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wasn't mincing words on Tuesday when he warned what would happen if Congress didn’t soon raise the debt ceiling about its current level of $14.294 trillion.
He said the "consequences of that would be catastrophic for the United States. Default by the United States would precipitate a crisis worse than the one we just went through. I think it would make the crisis we just went through look modest in comparison. It would force us to cut payments to the military, cut critical payments to our seniors. It would be a reckless, irresponsible act."
Budget Talks Head to Brink Parties Far Apart on 2012 Spending,
Long-Term Vision as Friday Deadline Nears
By NAFTALI BENDAVID And CAROL E. LEE - WSJ.com
Republicans and Democrats stumbled one day closer to a government shutdown on Friday, as the two parties escalated what has become a broader battle over Washington's role in the U.S. economy.
The two fights - one over funding the government for the next six months, the other over a sweeping plan to reshape the government for decades to come - showed how far apart the two parties are on basic fiscal issues ahead of the 2012 elections.
International Monetary Fund Report: America Doomed
By David Weigel -Slate.com
Here's your nightmare fuel for the day: "An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?" The IMF crunches the numbers and warns that only huge tax increases and entitlement cuts can save America.
Under most scenarios, the fiscal adjustment needed to eliminate the fiscal and generational gaps would entail significant adjustments in taxes and/or transfers. Under the baseline scenario, for example, the federal government can restore fiscal balance by raising all taxes and cutting all transfer payments immediately and for the indefinite future by 35 percent.
The Inflation Solution? Austerity and inflation will go together.
By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. - WSJ.com
You can hardly turn over an investing advice newsletter without finding a recommendation to buy TIPS, or Treasury inflation-protected securities, to preserve the purchasing power of your dollar-denominated savings.
Economists and investment pros look out three years and can't believe we aren't due for a powerful flush of inflation. The usefulness of their favorite hedging advice, however, depends on the U.S. government actually carrying out the promise embodied in TIPS, honestly to apply an inflation adjustment to protect holders from loss of purchasing power due to the government's own mismanagement of the currency.
Wages not keeping up with pace of inflation Fed's index omits food and energy
By Patrice Hill-The Washington Times
American workers are getting squeezed, not able to get ahead because anemic growth in their wages is not keeping up with the fast rise in prices for food, fuel and other necessities.
Surveys show meager growth in average wages of 1.7 percent in the past year, while surged in gasoline and food prices have pushed the inflation rate to more than 2 percent. Growth in other sources of income such as rents, interest and Social Security also has been weak or nonexistent.
How Inflation Violates Retiree Civil Rights
BY JOHN RUBINO - FinancialSense.com
While we’re on the subject of inflation's immorality, consider the impact of the dollar’s destruction on retirees.
Citizens who work hard, save, and eventually retire with money in the bank are the bedrock of a stable society. In a rational world they would be held up as examples for the rest of us to emulate, and public policy would aim to create the highest possible number of self-reliant seniors.
Fear, hunger grip Tripoli as Gadhafi cracks down
By Ashish Kumar Sen-The Washington Times
Thousands of people in Tripoli live in fear of secret police as they struggle with a shortage of food and fuel approaching a humanitarian crisis, several current and former residents of the Libyan capital said Tuesday.
As protests against longtime dictator Col. Moammar Gadhafi have erupted across most of the North African nation since early February, the regime has terrorized most residents of Tripoli into submission, they told The Washington Times.
Libyan rebels, hoping for one state, prepare for two
By Tara Bahrampour - WashingtonPost.com
BENGHAZI, Libya - "One Libya, with Tripoli as its capital" is spray-painted on walls around this rebel city and glides off the tongues of opposition leaders. Moammar Gaddafi will fall in a week, they predict, two at the most, and they'll build a new country then.
But as weeks stretch into months and progress on the battlefield stalls, this rebel-held area of Libya is settling into its status as a de facto separate state.
Undertrained and Underfunded: Our Allies in Libya
Michael C. Moynihan - Reason.com
So they are untrained, have no real leader, no plan on how to dislodge Qaddafi, and are chronically short on weapons and supplies. Now it appears that the anti-Qaddafi forces in eastern Libya are also running out of cash. From the Financial Times:
Banks were short of local and foreign currency, said Ahmed el-Sharif, adding the asset freeze imposed on the Muammer Gaddafi regime was hurting its foes as well.
"When you get to the point of rationing liquidity, whether local or foreign currency, we are on the edge of a crisis," he said.
Post-Mubarak Egypt Moves Toward Radical Islamist Camp
BY JEREMIAH JACQUES - theTrumpet.com
Cairo's steps toward reconciliation with Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah confirm that a radical shift is under way in Egyptian politics.
AHamas delegation visited Cairo on March 28 with a message indicating that the relationship between the Islamist movement and Egypt is warming in the post-Mubarak era. The following day, Egypt's new foreign minister held his first press conference and announced that Egypt is ready to also turn over a new leaf in its relationship with Iran and Hezbollah.
Billions Over Baghdad:
How $9B Disappeared Into A Frenzy Of Mismanagement And Greed
by Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele - VanityFair.com
Between April 2003 and June 2004, $12 billion in U.S. currency - much of it belonging to the Iraqi people was shipped from the Federal Reserve to Baghdad, where it was dispensed by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Some of the cash went to pay for projects and keep ministries afloat, but, incredibly, at least $9 billion has gone missing, unaccounted for, in a frenzy of mismanagement and greed. Following a trail that leads from a safe in one of Saddam's palaces to a house near San Diego, to a P.O. box in the Bahamas, the authors discover just how little anyone cared about how the money was handled.
Another Israel-Hamas war is inevitable The Region: Egyptian revolution, incompetent and mistaken US policy make conflict with Gaza certain.
By BARRY RUBIN - JPost.com
I’m going to make a prediction here that, unfortunately, I’m sure is going to come true. Any good analyst should be able to see this, yet few will, until it happens within the next two years: The Egyptian revolution will make another Israel-Hamas war inevitable, with a lot more of an international mess.
And I'll go a step further: An incompetent and mistaken US policy makes such a conflict even more certain.
Why?
Gold settles at record, pushes past $1,455
By Claudia Assis, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Gold futures rose to a record high Tuesday, shaking off early weakness to find firmer footing in fears of a potential U.S. government shutdown, conflict in the Middle East and North Africa, and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis.
Gold for June delivery rose $19.50, or 1.4%, to $1,452.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Wachovia cheated investors by inflating markups, SEC says
By David S. Hilzenrath - WashingtonPost.com
Wachovia Capital Markets cheated investors by charging inflated markups on securities tied to home mortgages, regulators charged Tuesday.
The victims included a Zuni Indian tribe pension plan, the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
Wachovia has since been taken over by Wells Fargo, a unit of which settled with the SEC by agreeing to pay a fine of $4.45 million and to give up allegedly ill-gotten gains of $6.75 million. Wells Fargo neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
The alleged fraud took place in 2006 and 2007, as the housing market was beginning to show signs of distress, the SEC said.
FOMC Minutes Show Divided Fed
BY ASHA BANGALORE - FinancialSense.com
The main message from the minutes of the March 15 FOMC meeting is that policy making will be contentious as the members of the FOMC hold different opinions about inflation and the need to continue the exceptional financial accommodation that is underway. Although all members agree that the recovery is on a "firmer footing" and the housing sector remains in a slump, their views about inflation were significantly different.
Fed Minutes Show Differing Views on Inflation and Exit Strategy
By Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
When the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee met in mid-March, it had a lot of new developments to consider. Since it had met in January, unrest erupted in the Middle East. Oil and food prices had begun rising quite rapidly. A devastating earthquake hit Japan that shook Asian markets. Finally, the unemployment rate appeared to be declining significantly, while rising consumer confidence continued to boost spending. How do economists synthesize all of these contradictory signals? The FOMC's meeting minutes show the nation's top central bankers citing increased uncertainty, which led to differing views of what the future holds.
Life with the Fed: Sunshine and Lollipops?
Mises Daily: by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
We have heard the objection a thousand times: Why, before we had a Federal Reserve System the American economy endured a regular series of financial panics. Abolishing the Fed is an unthinkable, absurd suggestion, for without the wise custodianship of our central bankers we would be thrown back into a horrific financial maelstrom, deliverance from which should have made us grateful, not uppity.
The argument is superficially plausible, to be sure, but it is wrong in every particular. We heard it quite a bit in the financial press several months ago when it was learned that Congressman Ron Paul, a well-known opponent of the Fed, would chair the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. Fed apologists were beside themselves - a man who rejects the cartoon version of the history of the Fed will hold such an influential position? He must be made into an object of derision and ridicule.
Fed's Low Interest Rates Crack Retirees' Nest Eggs
By MARK WHITEHOUSE - WSJ.com
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - Forrest Yeager, a 91-year-old resident of this seaside community, had been counting on his retirement savings to last until he died. The odds are moving against him.
With short-term bank CDs paying less than 1%, the World War II veteran expects his remaining $45,000 stash to yield just a few hundred dollars this year. So, he's digging deeper into his principal to supplement his $1,500 monthly income from Social Security and a small pension.
"It hurts," says Mr. Yeager, who estimates his bank savings will be depleted in about six years at his current rate of withdrawal. "I don't even want to think about it."
Gold tops $1,450, silver above $39 as nervous money seeks refuge
LATimes.com
Gold and silver powered higher Tuesday as geopolitical worries continued to pile up, driving more investors and traders to buy the metals as havens against calamity.
Gold hit a new all-time high (unadjusted for inflation), rallying $19.60, or 1.4%, to close at $1,451.80 an ounce in New York futures trading.
Silver extended this year’s hot streak, rising 69 cents, or 1.8%, to $39.17 an ounce. Before adjusting for inflation, silver is at its highest since the infamous spike of late 1979 and early 1980, when theHunt brothers briefly cornered the market.
A Look at Gold's Long-Term Outlook
BY CLIF DROKE - FinancialSense.com
Let’s step back for a moment and take a look at the big picture. Although the primary focus of traders should be on the short-term technical outlook for gold, silver and mining stocks, it’s good to have a good idea of where the precious metals are likely headed in the 3-4 year out look.
Our primary analytical tools for discerning the longer-term trends that are likely to emerge are the yearly Kress Cycles. Fundamentals can be useful but the long-term cycles are even more important since they ultimately determine the overall direction that asset prices will take.
If Interest Rates Rise Will Gold Go Down and the Dollar Rise?
BY JULIAN PHILLIPS - FinancialSense.com
Interest Rate Rises in a Growing Economy
In an economy like China borrowers tend to be businesses enjoying the remarkable growth rates at around 10%. Their businesses in general are thriving and income either steady or growing with the potential to grow more of easily pay down debt. If you throw inflation of between 5 and 7% at them on certain items, their ability to absorb those costs is enormous. These may be items such as oil and food which do absorb a large portion of discretionary spending, but are accepted as one of life’s burdens that we all must endure. Usually they can pass them onto their customers without their customers being driven away. In such an environment interest rate rises then have the desired effect of tempering growth without stifling it. Overheating, at the risky end of the market is restrained and that along with a remarkable cooperation with government objectives in the economy has the desired effect of keeping the economy growing without excessive strains in one part or the other.
Inflation fears, dollar, Mideast tensions,
European debt continue to underpin Gold
By Allen Sykora and Daniela Cambone - CommodityOnline.com
(Kitco News) -- What a difference a few days can make. Gold prices hit record highs Tuesday as the market’s collective focus returned to the same factors that have been attracting investors for some time: worries about inflation, ideas the U.S. dollar will remain weak, continuing strife in the Middle East and the ongoing European sovereign-debt saga.
At the high, these influences had enabled gold to rebound nearly 3% from the lows hit Friday, when the market had fretted about the potential for higher U.S. interest rates down the road in the aftermath of a stronger-than-forecast March employment report.
Inflation, Bank Lending, and the Employment Spiral Can inflation happen when the banks aren't lending?
BY STEVE SAVILLE - GreenFaucet.com
We can state with absolute certainty that "yes" is the correct answer to the above question. We know for a fact that the total supply of money can increase in parallel with a contraction in the commercial banking industry's collective loan portfolio because that's exactly what has happened in the US since October of 2008. As illustrated by the following chart, "total loans and leases at commercial banks" (the blue line) peaked and began to trend downward in October of 2008. As also illustrated by the following chart, True Money Supply (the red line) has trended upward in parallel with the post-October-2008 decline in bank lending. In fact, the rate of growth of the money supply accelerated after bank lending went into decline!
Gas prices surge closer to $4 per gallon
Dayton Business Journal - by By Brittany Hart, DBJ Staff Reporter
Dayton-area fuel prices skyrocketed to as much as $3.79 on Monday.
Gas averaged $3.67 per regular gallon at gas stations across the region, up 30 cents from last month, according to AAA Fuel Gauge Reports. Premium gallons were at $3.86 and diesel nearly hit the $4 mark.
According to GasBuddy, fuel was highest - $3.79 - at some Centerville, Englewood and Xenia gas stations late Monday afternoon. Gas was reportedly lowest - $3.55 - at a few Franklin stations.
Is the Silver Trade Getting Too Crowded?
BY JEFF CLARK - FinancialSense.com
It’s no secret that the silver market is red hot. As I write, silver American Eagles and Canadian Maple Leafs are sold out at their respective mints. Buying in India has gone through the roof, especially noteworthy among a people with a strong historical preference for gold. Demand in China continues unabated. Silver stocks have screamed upward.
So, as an investor looking to maximize my profit, I have a natural question: is the silver trade getting too crowded, meaning we’re near the top? Have the masses finally joined the party such that we should consider exiting? After all, it's not a profit until you take it, and you definitely want to sell near the top.
State Banking Is Not Enough For A Stable Economy:
Sound Money Is Needed
by Aaron Krowne - Implode-o-Meter Blog
This past year has seen a resurgent interest in state (or public) banking as an answer to many of the ills displayed in our banking system in the wake of the credit crisis. I’m happy to see this, but concerned that there may be too many naive proponents of public banking that mistakenly see it as a "total" solution.
Ellen Brown, author of "Web Of Debt", is the leading proponent of public banking. In addition to her book, she has been writing online articles for years promoting the idea. More recently the idea has started to catch on, in my opinion, nudged by the obvious dismal results of our central bank/money center cartelized banking system.
Super-Rich CEOs are killing your retirement 11 reasons bankrupt Reaganomics ideas are leading to collapse
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Headlines race across the web: "Jamie Dimon Worries That Financial Regulation Will Doom Banks, Forever." Doom? Forever? Settle down Dimon, this sounds like an over-the-top B-movie promo for "Vampire Chronicles."
Suddenly the boss of $2 trillion J. P. Morgan Chase is our newest "Dr. Doom." Last week he was preaching his mantra to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce choir, warning that financial reforms would be a "nail in the coffin for big American banks."
Boeing Miscalculated Risks Aerospace Giant Didn't Anticipate Cracks Like Those on Southwest Jet So Early in Plane's Life
By ANDY PASZTOR and PETER SANDERS - WSJ.com
Boeing Co. said Tuesday that its engineering and safety experts were caught off guard by Friday's rupture in the fuselage of a midair Southwest Airlines Co. jet, failing to anticipate the risks of such an incident "until much, much later" in the aircraft's life.
In an attempt to explain what went wrong, including technical missteps by Boeing, a senior company engineer laid out some of the decisions and analyses by the aerospace giant that unwittingly set the stage for the five-foot tear in the aluminum skin of the 15-year-old Boeing 737 aircraft. The tear led to the rapid decompression of the passenger cabin while the plane was cruising above 34,000 feet, but no one was seriously injured.
Union's about-face spurs suit on secrets
By Jim McElhatton-The Washington Times
Weeks after President Obama took office, John Gage, the head of the largest union for federal workers in the country, gave a speech hailing the new administration as a champion for "transparency, accountability and good government."
But in a sharply worded federal lawsuit filed last week, that same union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), accused the Obama administration of keeping important government records secret.
In Wisconsin, Democrats who fled return to the Senate Lack of fanfare a stark contrast with departure
ByAssociated Press - WashingtonTimes.com
MADISON, Wis. | Wisconsin’s Democratic state senators returned to work Tuesday with little fanfare, a stark contrast to the scene in February when their dramatic decision to flee the state in protest over an anti-union bill helped fuel massive protests that made the state the center of a national fight over union rights.
The 14 Democrats left for Illinois with no warning on Feb. 17, leaving theSenate with one too few members to vote on the bill. Finally on March 9, Republicans removed some financial provisions from the bill so they could pass it with a lower quorum and no Democrats present. The Democrats returned to Wisconsin in March to participate in a massive rally the day after Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill into law.
Medicare Cost Would Rise for Many Under Ryan Plan
By JANET ADAMY - WSJ.com
The House Republican plan for overhauling Medicare would fundamentally change how the federal government pays for health care, starting a decade from now, likely resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs and greater limits to coverage for many Americans.
The current spending level on seniors in Medicare is widely viewed as unsustainable, given rising medical costs and the aging population. Medicare calculates that it spent an average of $11,743 on beneficiaries in 2009, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Red tape cut in health care law GOP sees 'down payment on total repeal' of Obama initiative
By Stephen Dinan-The Washington Times
Congress on Tuesday revoked the first significant parts of PresidentObama’s health care initiative when the Senate voted overwhelmingly to eliminate a burdensome tax paperwork requirement the law imposes on businesses.
Republicans called the bill "a down payment on total repeal" while most Democrats said it marked an improvement in last year’s law. The bill had previously cleared the House and now goes directly to Mr. Obama.
But it marked a rare flash of bipartisanship on a day when Democrats and Republicans otherwise clashed over short-term and long-term spending as they girded for a government shutdown by week’s end.
VA Attorney General
Republicans Should Defund Health Law
Since Its Constitutionality Has Not Been Determined
By Nicholas Ballasy
(CNSNews.com) – Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told CNSNews.com that congressional Republicans should cut off funds for the implementation of the health care law until its constitutionality is determined.
"People who hear from me and don’t know who I am should know that I think the House Republicans, the Senate Democrats, and the president should defund an awful lot of things in government. This is one of them in my view," Cuccinelli, a Republican, said after speaking at Hillsdale College’s Kirby Center in Washington on Friday.
KB Home's Loss Widens, Orders Slide
By DAWN WOTAPKA
NEW YORK - KB Home's first-quarter loss widened sharply as falling orders fueled a steep revenue drop and charges weighed on the bottom line.
The company also said its mortgage joint venture with Bank of America could be in trouble.
The builder was informally advised by Bank of America that it wants "to strategically move away from operating under joint venture structures in their business," KB Home Chief ExecutiveJeff Mezger said in an earnings conference call with analysts and investors.
The builder, which has more than nine years remaining on the joint-venture contract, is "working with them to see if we can restructure our relationship in a manner that is beneficial to both parties. As we explore new options, our business will continue to operate as usual," he said.
Illinois Tracks Its Currency Costs
By JEANNETTE NEUMANN - WSJ.com
William Atwood, head of the $11.2 billion Illinois investment board, has taken a crash course in discovering his portfolio's currency-trading costs - and he doesn't like what he sees.
A consultant said his fund paid $2 million more than the average of other institutional investors on currency transactions during most of last year. When Mr. Atwood tried to figure out the costs on his own, he received a two-foot-high stack of trading documents he didn't know how to interpret.
"If you don't pay attention, you do so at your own peril," says Mr. Atwood, a 49-year-old former money manager.
A few business tax breaks restored in Colorado budget deal
Denver Business Journal - by Ed Sealover
Colorado legislative Republicans and Democrats reached a compromise Tuesday on a roughly $7 billion budget that restores the vendors’ fee and reinstates tax exemptions for agricultural items and non-packaged software while reducing expected cuts on K-12 education.
The agreement essentially means that none of the other 10 tax exemptions that were suspended or eliminated as budget-balancing measures last year will be reinstated this year, however. And it does not lessen the $36 million cut proposed for higher education.
Hidden Bad Signs in a Good Jobs Report
By Phil Izzo - WSJ.com
There was lots of good news in Friday’s jobs report, but there are still some caveats to keep in mind.
Overall the economy added 216,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8%. The gain in jobs was relatively broad-based, though with some sectors still lagging. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate improvement was based on more people working, not just discouraged workers dropping out of the labor force. In fact, the labor force rose more than the general population, indicating the market has improved enough to draw some of the unemployed back into the pool of workers.
Marching in lockstep with homosexual agenda Obama militants shoot warrior tradition first, ask questions later
By Robert Knight-The Washington Times
"We used to conform behavior to the military. Now we’re conforming the military to behavior."
Rep. Allen B. West, Florida Republican, belled the cat neatly during a hearing last Friday on the military’s breakneck pace in implementing the new lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) law.
Mr. West, whose 20-plus years in the U.S. Army included combat commands, noted that he and others at Fort Bragg had to endure "sensitivity training" in the 1990s. It didn’t enhance the "warrior ethos" he recalled.
U.S. Sees Array of New Threats at Japan’s Nuclear Plant
By JAMES GLANZ and WILLIAM J. BROAD - NYTimes.com
United States government engineers sent to help with the crisis inJapan are warning that the troubled nuclear plant there is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential assessment prepared by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Among the new threats that were cited in the assessment, dated March 26, are the mounting stresses placed on the containment structures as they fill with radioactive cooling water, making them more vulnerable to rupture in one of the aftershocks rattling the site after the earthquake and tsunami of March 11. The document also cites the possibility of explosions inside the containment structures due to the release of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater pumped into the reactors, and offers new details on how semimolten fuel rods and salt buildup are impeding the flow of fresh water meant to cool the nuclear cores.
US pulls out warplanes from Libya: Pentagon
StraitsTimes.com
WASHINGTON - THE US military on Monday withdrew its fighter jets from the international air campaign in Libya, officials said, after Nato asked Washington to keep up bombing raids for another 48 hours.
The United States had planned to halt combat missions and Tomahawk cruise missile launches at the weekend but accepted a Nato request to continue the operations for another 48 hours until Monday.
US combat sorties ended at 2200 GMT (6am Singapore time), with American warplanes on standby as Nato takes the lead, Pentagon spokesman Captain Darryn James said.
After that, 'US aviation assets are expected to cease strike sorties and will remain on an alert status if Nato requests their support', Captain James said in an e-mail. Nato had issued the request to extend US bombing raids after bad weather last week hampered combat flights, which military leaders said allowed Muammar Gaddafi's forces to advance.
Arab revolts set to transform Middle East
By Alistair Lyon - Reuters.com
The astonishing popular protests against Arab autocrats that have churned the region for three months are the authentic birth pangs of a new Middle East. Israel’s American-backed attempts to bomb Hezbollah and south Lebanon into submission in 2006 did not change the region, as Condoleezza Rice predicted it would. Nor did the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq three years earlier, which former President George W. Bush touted as introducing democracy to the Arab world, have much effect.
The change now is coming from within - and from below. Ordinary people taking to the streets swept away the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia. The leaders of Libya and Yemen are fighting for survival. Arab leaders almost everywhere else are trying to fend off real or potential challenges with a mix of repression and concessions.
Libya rebels reject regime's truce offer Libyan rebels have rejected proposals for a peace deal with the regime, saying Muammar Gaddafi and his family must leave the country before they will negotiate a truce.
Telegraph.co.uk
The rejection came amid reports that Seif-al-Islam Gaddafi, Colonel Gaddafi's son, had offered to set up an interim government that would remove his father and supervise a transition to constitutional democracy in return for a ceasefire.
Abdelati Laabidi, Libya's Deputy Foreign Minister, is reported to have made the offer during negotiations in Greece.
SECRET HISTORY OF THE LIBYAN UPRISING
By Barry Lando - TruthDig.com
What you're probably going to read someday:
U.N. resolution 1973 authorized action to create a no-fly zone in Libya. It did not authorize the use of foreign troops on the ground.
President Obama seemed to accept that limitation when he made his famous "no U.S. boots on the ground" declaration - a statement that has been repeated by every U.S. spokesman since.
Since Obama's declaration however, we have learned that, in fact, for several weeks CIA operatives have been active in Libya. They are there supposedly to find targets for the missile and rocket attacks of the U.S. and its allies, as well as to get some idea of who the opposition is that Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy et al have chosen to support.
Libya: al-Qaeda 'receive looted Libyan weapons' Convoys of weapons have been looted from Libyan barracks and taken to al-Qaeda camps in northern Mali, according to security officials. -- By Damien McElroy - Telegraph.co.uk
The Libyan bombing campaign has allowed terrorist groups free access to some of Col Muammar Gaddafi's arms dumps and an Algerian official said that monitored shipments had made their way from Libya to al-Qaeda strongholds in the Sahara.
Eight Toyota pickup trucks crossed into Chad, across Niger and into northern Mali from desert armouries in eastern Libya. Algeria warned that al-Qaeda's North African wing, al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), had seized shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles in Libya.
Ivory Coast: United Nations launch air strikes on Laurent Gbagbo The United Nations has launched air attacks against Laurent Gbagbo, the Ivory Coast strongman who has refused to relinquish power, in retaliation for "reckless and mindless" attacks on its personnel and civilians.
By Aislinn Laing, Africa Correspondent - Telegraph.co.uk
According to witnesses, at least four missiles were fired from UN helicopters in Abidjan, the economic capital.
Hamadou Toure, the UN's chief spokesman in Ivory Coast, told The Daily Telegraph the UN had struck two military camps controlled by Mr Gbagbo along with the presidential palace and his residence.
He declined to say what weapons were being used, but stressed that care was being taken to ensure civilians were not being harmed. "We are engaged in neutralising the heavy weapons that Mr Gbagbo’s special forces have been using for the last few months against civilians and our forces," he said.
Ireland Caves in to Trichet; Backs of Irish Taxpayers Will be Broken
By Mike Shedlock
Costs to bail out bondholders of Irish banks has now soared to $142 billion. Worse yet, the new Irish government completely caved in to the EU and ECB and will attempt to balance the entire amount on the backs of taxpayers.
Please consider Ireland Bows to Trichet on Bondholders as Bank Rescue Reaches $142 Billion
Ireland yielded to the European Central Bank to protect bondholders even as its bailout bill for the region’s worst banking crisis moved to as much as 100 billion euros ($142 billion) after stress tests.
Is the cost of saving the euro beyond reach? Japan's earthquake is sending shockwaves through Europe's political structures -- By Jeremy Warner - Telegraph.co.uk
According to chaos theory, the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas. The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan can hardly be regarded as examples of "the butterfly effect", where small events can have dramatic and unpredictable consequences; this was no small event. Yet as is ever more apparent, the fallout is being felt in startling ways far beyond the narrow confines of the Japanese economy.
How the Tea Party is brewing up trouble for the world’s currencies When, decades in the future, historians write the definitive account of the great economic crisis of the early 21st century, the chances are they won’t waste too much ink on the G20 summit that just concluded in Seoul. Or will they?
By Edmund Conway - Telegraph.co.uk
For the past few months, leaders from the world’s major economies have been sleepwalking their way towards another crisis – one that may rival or even dwarf the financial mess of 2008. In the past few weeks that sleepwalk has become a waking stampede.
The Seoul summit, with its botched compromises and unresolved differences, has only underlined the problem. It acknowledged that there is a growing tension between nations over their currency policies, but revealed that no one can agree on what to do about it. It stopped short of banning competitive devaluation, or setting limits on current account deficits or surpluses, instead retrenching to tried-and-tested phrases from previous agreements.
The Bedrock of the Gold Bull Rally
BY FRANK HOLMES - FinancialSense.com
This week I had the pleasure of participating in a webcast forBloomberg Markets Magazine regarding gold investing. It was a very insightful presentation and I suggest you view the replay atwww.bloombergmarkets.com. What struck me on the call was the negativity surrounding the gold market. Call it a bubble, a frenzy or mania, there seems to be a large number of voices in the marketplace who just are not fans of gold, whether prices are moving up, down or sideways.
Comex Gold ends firmer,
Silver at 31-year high, as inflation concerns heat up
By Jim Wyckoff - CommodityOnline.clom
(Kitco News) - Comex gold futures prices closed modestly higher Monday as the market place is increasingly concerned about the prospect of heightened inflationary price pressures. Gold prices are hovering just below last month's all-time record high of $1,450 an ounce, basis the active Comex June futures contract. Meantime, Comex silver futures hit another fresh 31-year high Monday. Comex June gold last traded up $4.60 an ounce at $1,433.50. Spot gold last traded up $3.50 at $1,433.00.
Speculators add to bullish gold positions: CFTC data
By Debbie Carlson
(Kitco News) - Speculative traders returned to the U.S. gold futures and options market, even as prices slipped slightly, according to U.S. government data.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s weekly commitment of traders report for the week ended March 29 showed funds returned to the yellow metal in both futures and options, as seen in both the disaggregated and legacy reports.
The result was mixed for other metals, though. Speculators slightly lowered their bullish exposure to silver and palladium, but increased their bullish positions in platinum and copper.
Gold and Silver Coins Continue to Make Headlines
By Addison Wiggin - DailyReckoning.com
04/04/11 Baltimore, Maryland – The premium over spot price for a Silver Eagle is up to $4, according to an informal survey we made of dealers today – a signal the Mint can't keep up with demand.
"Why can't they keep the supply of coins up?" asks Rep. Ron Paul, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. That’s in part a rhetorical question: The Mint doesn't make its own blanks. "There is a contract with a foreign company, which makes no sense at all."
Silver markets-On the edge with Max Keiser-04-01-2011-(Part1)
Silver markets-On the edge with Max Keiser-04-01-2011-(Part2)
Silver price hits 38-year high at $38.50/oz
CommodityOnline.com
The positive momentum of gold and silver continue with both higher in European trade as oil prices have risen due to geopolitical tensions in oil rich nations and the euro has fallen on Eurozone debt concerns.
Focus will be on interest rates this week with the ECB likely to increase interest rates, and renewed speculation as to whether the Federal Reserve will attempt to increase interest rates or embark on QE3.
Gold and Silver and the Endgame for U.S.A. Inc.
BY JAMES WEST - FinancialSense.com
I’m going to take a leap of faith and assume the reader harbours a sufficiently enlightened mind to be aware of several key facts regarding the world as we know it. The fatuous commentary suggesting gold is a bubble, gold has peaked, gold is a bad investment, etc shall from this point forward be consigned to its rightful place in the Horribly Flawed Thinking dumpster and discussion of same restricted to the hopelessly naïve (or sublimely clever and duplicitous) CNBC. Henceforth we proceed under the assumption that;
The United States dollar is in a state of terminal deterioration, and its continuing viability as a fiat unit of trade value is for a limited time only.
The Inflation Tsunami
BY JOHN BUTLER - FinancialSense.com The Amphora Report
As the world reflects on the earthquake and tsunami tragedy still unfolding in Japan, investors are seeking to understand the economic and financial market implications. There are some general observations that one can make at this point, the most important of which is to recognize that, in much the same way that the Japanese authorities are responding to the disaster with monetary stimulus, other major governments around the world continue to implement stimulus of their own in a futile and counter-productive effort to restore high ratesof economic growth following the global credit crisis of 2008. The inevitable result of these responses to disasters, natural and man-made, is a global inflation tsunami which is going to cause significant economic damage. Time is running out for investors to escape into alternative assets.***
Debt Management: Is There Any Hope For America’s Debt Problem?
EndOfTheAmericanDream.com
Wouldn't it be nice if our politicians in Washington D.C. simply decided that we are not going to spend more money then we bring in? That would just seem to be common sense. After all, what do most of those big time debt management seminars teach? Most of the time they tell families with debt problems that the very first thing that they need to do is to stop spending so much darn money. Well, with the U.S. government things are just not that simple. In fact, even the most "crazy" budget proposals floating around Congress right now would not balance the federal budget until 20 years from now. The truth is that there does not seem to be much hope for America's debt problem. In fact, it appears to be inevitable that it will continue to get worse long into the future.
Jack Daniels Explains The Deficit
Does Honest Money Have a Chance? Developing trends in our monetary system
BY DOUG TJADEN - FinancialSense.com
Will we, our children, and our grandchildren look back on March 25, 2011 as a historic date in this nation’s history? A news item may catch our attention in the moment and quickly be dismissed as simply part of the ebb and flow of normal political events. However, with the passage of time, it is evident that it was a major marker in history.
The assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand of Austria in 1914 is one such event. Few at the time foresaw that his death would lead to World War I, yet today we see it as a major turning point in the course of world events that led to the first world war.
U.S. to Hit Debt Limit No Later Than May 16, Geithner Says
Rebecca Christie and Phil Mattingly - Washpost.Bloomberg.com
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will reach its $14.29 trillion legal debt limit no later than May 16 unless Congress acts before then, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said today, and he warned of "severe hardship" for Americans if lawmakers fail to act.
If the limit hasn’t been raised by May 16, the Treasury Department will turn to a toolkit of emergency measures that can provide up to eight weeks of additional borrowing room, Geithner said. That extra time would end about July 8, the Treasury chief said.
U.S. Treasury Would Sell Debt in Shutdown, Official Says
Vincent Del Giudice - Washpost.Bloomberg.com
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Treasury Department will conduct its regular schedule of securities auctions in the event of a government shutdown, a government official said today.
The official spoke to Bloomberg News on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly. The Treasury borrows money through the weekly sales of bills, monthly sales of longer-term notes as well as 30-year bonds to fund government operations.
Geithner Warns Congress of Crisis Without Debt Action
By DAMIAN PALETTA - $$
Without congressional action, the federal government will hit its legal borrowing limit no later than May 16 and could default on its debt by July 8, the Obama administration said Tuesday.
The warning came in a nine-page letter from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that marked the administration's most detailed plea to Congress to raise the $14.294 trillion debt ceiling.
Failure to act could trigger "a financial crisis potentially more severe than the crisis from which we are only now starting to recover," said Mr. Geithner.
Geithner warns U.S. to hit debt ceiling by May 16
By Rachelle Younglai - Reuters.com
(Reuters) - The United States will hit the legal limit on its ability to borrow no later than May 16, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday, ramping up pressure on Congress to act to avoid a debt default.
"The longer Congress fails to act, the more we risk that investors here and around the world will lose confidence in our ability to meet our commitments and our obligations," Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders.
"Default by the United States is unthinkable."
Previously, the Treasury had forecast that the $14.3 trillion statutory debt limit would be reached between April 15 and May 31. As of Friday, Treasury borrowing stood just $95 billion from the ceiling.
Treasury's tools to delay hitting debt limit
(Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Monday he expects the government to reach the $14.294 trillion statutory limit on its borrowing by May 16 at the latest, narrowing the time Congress has to act to raise it.
The Treasury Department previously had projected it would reach the debt ceiling sometime between April 15 and May 30.
In a letter to Congress, Geithner repeated that the Treasury could take extraordinary measures to postpone a potential default on government obligations.
But he warned that these measures would only last about eight weeks. He said the Treasury would exhaust all "headroom" to borrow under the limit after about July 8, at which time it would not have enough cash on hand to securely meet U.S. obligations.
The Fed Undermines Foreign Policy
BY RON PAUL - FinancialSense.com
Last week I was both surprised and pleased when the Supreme Court upheld lower court decisions requiring the Federal Reserve Bank to comply with requests for information made by Bloomberg under the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"). Bloomberg simply wanted to know who received loans from the Fed's discount window in the aftermath of the 2008 financial market crisis, and how much each entity received. Surely this is basic information that should be available to every American taxpayer. But the Fed fought tooth and nail all the way to the Supreme Court to preserve their privileged secrecy. However, transparency and openness won the day. There are some 29,000 pages to decipher, but a few points stand out initially.
The Secret Government
Bernanke's Speech Should Help to Clarify the Likely Direction of the Fed
BY ASHA BANGALORE - FinancialSense.com
The March employment report included several noteworthy aspects of strength in hiring. The March 15 FOMC policy statement upgraded the Fed's assessment of the economy from the January evaluation. At the same time, the housing market remains in a slump, there is severe financial stress at state and local governments, and there is considerable global economic uncertainty. Chairman Bernanke is scheduled to speak this evening at a financial conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. .Recent Fed rhetoric suggests that voting and non-voting members hold different opinions. Chairman Bernanke may not have FOMC members voting in the same direction at the April 26-27 meeting. In the interim, his speech today should suggest where he stands. These are the latest comments of voting and non-voting members of the FOMC.
March Madness:
U.S. Gov't Spent More Than Eight Times Its Monthly Revenue
By Terence P. Jeffrey - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Treasury has released a final statement for the month of March that demonstrates that financial madness has gripped the federal government.
During the month, according to the Treasury, the federal government grossed $194 billion in tax revenue and paid out $65.898 billion in tax refunds (including $62.011 to individuals and $3.887 to businesses) thus netting $128.179 billion in tax revenue for March.
Goldman Sachs Doubles Blankfein’s 2010 Pay to $19 Million
Christine Harper - Washpost.bloomberg.com
April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. awarded Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein $19 million in compensation for 2010, almost double the prior year, and granted him the first cash bonus in three years.
The total includes $5.4 million in cash, $12.6 million in restricted stock, a $600,000 salary and about $464,000 in other benefits, the New York-based firm's proxy statement showed. Blankfein’s $9.8 million pay for 2009 included $9 million in restricted stock plus salary and other compensation.
Extend and Pretend is Wall Street's Friend
BY JAMES QUINN - FinancialSense.com
The storyline that has been sold to the public by the Federal government, Wall Street, and the corporate mainstream media over the last two years is the economy is recovering and the banking system has recovered from its near death experience in 2008. Wall Street profits in 2009 & 2010 totaled approximately $80 billion. The stock market has risen almost 100% since the March 2009 lows. Wall Street CEOs were so impressed by this fantastic performance they dished out $43 billion in bonuses over the two year period to their thousands of Harvard MBA paper pushers. It is amazing that an industry that was effectively insolvent in October 2008 has made such a spectacular miraculous recovery. The truth is recovery is simple when you control the politicians and regulators, and own the organization that prints the money.
The Grand Failure of Conventional Economics
BY CHARLES HUGH SMITH - FinancialSense.com
The next decade will see the complete failure of conventional economics. Why is this so?
If we take the very long view, we find that all of conventional economics developed in the era of ever-cheaper, ever-more abundant energy and the miraculous "low hanging fruit" productivity gains made possible by cheap energy and the tools of mass production and industrialization. Like a creature that was born in the morning and has only seen daylight, conventional economics has never experienced night and so it has no conception of darkness.
This is true of classical, neo-classical, Marxist, Socialist, Keynesian, Neoliberal, "Capitalism with Chinese characteristics," etc.
Wisconsin's Supreme Moment
By John Rossomando - The American Spectator.org
Wisconsin's public-sector unions hope to exact revenge against Gov. Scott Walker in tomorrow's supreme court election for passing legislation curtailing their collective bargaining rights.
The law -- currently under court injunction -- inevitably will find its way before the state's high court, and many observers on both sides of the issue see the election as a referendum on how the court should rule on the law.
Wisconsin's High Stakes Judicial Election
By JOHN FUND - WSJ.com
Wisconsin's epic fight over Republican Gov. Scott Walker's curbs on public employee union power is being played out on a new battlefield.
Both unions and tea party groups are spending big bucks in tomorrow's state Supreme Court election. If the unions are able to oust Justice David Prosser, liberals will gain an ideological majority on the court and could threaten Gov. Walker's reforms. The law's implementation was put on hold Friday after a judge ruled that a temporary restraining order blocking it would remain in place for at least two months. The case is likely to be decided by the Supreme Court.
Ron Paul & Dennis Kucinich on Freedom Watch 04/01/11
Mortgage mess: Who really owns your mortgage? Scott Pelley explains a bizarre aftershock of the U.S. financial collapse: An epidemic of forged and missing mortgage documents
BY: Overtime Staff - CBSNews.com
Do you know who really owns your mortgage? As Scott Pelley reports on "60 Minutes" this week, that question has become a nightmare for many homeowners since the invention of mortgage-backed securities. Yes, those were the exotic investments that sparked the financial collapse in this country. And the're still causing problems.
The foreclosure mess isn't going away
By Zachary Roth - YahooNews
We've told you before about how big banks cut corners on paperwork over the last few years in order to speed struggling homeowners into foreclosure. And a "60 Minutes" report that aired last night offers fresh anecdotal reporting on just how irresponsible--and potentially fraudulent--the banks' practices were. Meanwhile, compelling video of a grandmother being evicted from her home by a SWAT team last week suggests the banks aren't slowing down their rush to foreclosure and eviction.
Are Subprime Mortgages Returning?
Daniel Indiviglio - TheAtlantic.com
A common reaction might be: it just isn't possible. Could subprime mortgages -- the toxic products the led to the worst financial crisis and subsequent recession in decades -- really be making a comeback, already? After all, it was less than three years ago that they wrecked the economy, as investors panicked and credit frozen due to the huge potential losses they feared subprime borrowers with cause for the financial sector. New reports appear to indicate that the market hasn't learned. Should we worry?
Renewed Demand for Toxic Securities?
First, Matt Wirz and Serena Ng at the Wall Street Journal report that investors are regaining their appetite for subprime. They note that subprime mortgage bonds have doubled in value since their low point of the crisis. Some investors are scooping up the securities again, in the hopes of earning a big return:
22 percent having difficulty paying mortgage
TheTruthAboutMortgage.com
A new Harris Poll revealed that 22 percent of homeowners are having difficulty paying themortgage, down from 29 percent a year ago.
This number includes seven percent who are having a "a great deal of difficulty," and 15 percent who are having "some difficulty" making mortgage payments.
That seven percent equates to about 11 million people, while the 22 percent accounts for roughly 32 million homeowners.
However, the numbers are much lower than the 11 percent and 18 percent, respectively, seen a year ago.
Unfortunately, Harris warned that the lower numbers could be partially attributed to some who had been in difficulty that eventually lost their homes to foreclosure.
The Problem With Low/No Down Payments
HousingDoom.com
Equity in a home typically means more stability for homeowners. When a buyer has a small down payment in a declining market, he is likely to be underwater quickly, and underwater mortgages tend to have big problems:
Underwater homeowners are of particular concern because they are more likely to default on their mortgages. First, households with mortgages worth more than their homes are unable to refinance their way out of the high-cost mortgages they can no longer afford. Second,even households who could afford to continue paying their mortgage may choose to strategically default, and walk away from their homes when there is no equity left to preserve . Some economists project that housing prices will continue to fall in 2010, increasing mortgage defaults by pushing more homeowners underwater and deepening the negative equity position for those already underwater.
Homebuilder plans to buy its own homes
TheTruthAboutMortgage.com
Beazer Homes introduced its "Pre-Owned Homes Division" today, which will acquire, improve, and rent out recently built and previously owned homes in markets where the company operates.
"Homes targeted for inclusion in the Pre-Owned Homes program will have been built since 2004 by a reputable builder, including homes built by Beazer Homes," the company said in a release.
"All Beazer Pre-Owned Homes will receive necessary repairs and upgrades to bring them up to strict Company standards."
Beazer expects to acquire homes at a discount as most will be distressed sales, includingforeclosures and short sales.
Health Care Law Still Really Unpopular
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
I took a casual gander at the health care poll numbers this morning, and what I saw surprised even me. Obamacare not only hasn't gotten more popular, but is now showing a record gap between favorables and unfavorables:
What's going on here? In part, it's just a matter of who's polling. There was a cycle in the poll numbers even at the height of the political battle over passage, because different pollsters tend to get numbers that are more or less favorable to the program. That effect is even more pronounced now, because few people are polling on it regularly, so having a couple of reliably negative or reliably positive pollsters in a row can make it look as if there's been a big movement.
The GOP Health Care Plan: A Difference in Kind, Not Degree
By Megan McArdle - TheAtlantic.com
So the Republicans have finally released what I think we can all agree is a plan for Medicare and Medicaid (though of course, I there remains the possibility that some of the people who have been complaining that the GOP "doesn't have a plan" may now retreat to saying that this is "not a real plan"). The plan is very real--though obviously, not to the liking of many. It essentially voucherizes Medicare (with larger vouchers for the poor and sick), while transforming Medicaid into block grants.
Jobs Report, Important Schiff Radio Interview
How To Find A Job Just Be Willing To Flip Burgers And Work For Minimum Wage
TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com
Do you want to know how to find a job in America today? It's easy. Just be willing to flip burgers, wait tables or welcome people to Wal-Mart. You must also be willing to work for close to minimum wage with no health benefits. It's not that complicated. On April 19th, McDonald's is going to be holding its first "national hiring day" and it will be attempting to fill 50,000 positions. Hundreds of thousands of applicants are expected, so if you are going to apply be ready for some stiff competition. McDonald's held a similar event last year in its western region and 60,000 people applied for just 13,000 jobs. But if you are one of the lucky ones, you too may soon be flipping burgers for minimum wage. Who said that finding a job was hard and that the U.S. economy doesn't work anymore? All of us just need to be "flexible" and we all need to be willing to adapt to the "new economic reality".
McDonald's wants to hire 50,000 in one day
Strait's Times
NEW YORK - MCDONALD'S unwrapped on Monday a Big Mac-sized hiring event, saying it hopes to add up to 50,000 employees in the United States in a single day this month.
The McJobs blitz will be April 19, when nearly 14,000 restaurants will seek new crew and managers for both full- and part-time positions, the fast-food giant said.
'Our national hiring event is an opportunity to invite more people across the country to join our team, and learn that a McJob is one with career growth and endless possibilities,' said Ms Jan Fields, president of McDonald's USA, in a statement.
The company noted that Ms Fields began her career in an entry-level restaurant position.
Stressing the chance for employees to move up the corporate ladder, McDonald's said that more than 50 per cent of its franchise owners and 75 per cent of restaurant managers started as crew.
Take this Job and Shove it
BY JAMES QUINN - FinancialSense.com
Barack Obama and his minions were out in force on Friday declaring that the 216,000 jobs added in February are proof of a recovering economy. The unemployment rate fell to 8.8%, down from 9.8% in April 2010. All it took was 2.8 million Americans to leave the labor force to achieve this fabulous reduction in the unemployment rate. The percentage of Americans in the labor force of 64.2% is the lowest since 1983. The employment to population ratio of 58.5% is also the lowest since 1983. These atrocious figures are after a supposed economic recovery that has been underway for the last 18 months.
Japan confirms radiation leak into sea
Japan Utility Dumps Radioactive Water Plant Operator Hopes Release of Low-Level Radiation Into Sea Can Blunt Threat -- By MITSURU OBE - WSJ.com
TOKYO - Tokyo Electric Power Co. began dumping three million gallons of low-level radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean on Monday in an effort to ward off the release of even-more-dangerous material from its damaged nuclear-power plant.
Government officials, who approved the move, said the radiation in the water was too low to pose a threat to human health. But the release, which will conclude Friday, demonstrates the tough choices the company and the government are making as they fight keep the stricken plant under control and prevent more radioactive material from being released.
Japan dumps 11,500 tonnes of radioactive water into series Engineers struggling to steam radiation leaks at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have dumped 11,500 tonnes of radioactive water into the sea in their ongoing battle to restore control over its crippled reactors. -- By Danielle Demetriou - Telegraph.co.uk
The low-level radioactive water was released into the Pacific Ocean on Monday to create space for more highly contaminated water.
"We have no choice but to safely release water tainted with radioactive materials into the ocean as a safety measure," said Yukio Edano, Japan's chief cabinet secretary.
Engineers were also planning to build a giant silk curtain in the ocean to contain contamination, the latest in a string of increasingly desperate measures.
Radioactive Iodine 131 Found in California Tap Water,
181 Times Over Safe Levels - Alex Jones Tv
Why Did the Fed Bail Out the Bank of Libya?
Senator Bernie Sanders How do Gadhafi’s Bankers Avoid U.S. Sanctions?
WASHINGTON, March 31 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today questioned why the Federal Reserve provided more than $26 billion in credit to an Arab intermediary for the Central Bank of Libya.
The total includes at least $3.2 billion in loans that the Fed was forced to make public today in addition to earlier revelations under a Sanders provision in the Wall Street reform law.
Sanders also asked why the Libyan-owned bank and two of its branches in New York, N.Y., were exempted from sanctions that the United States this month slapped on other Libyan businesses to pressure Col. Moammar Gadhafi's government.
Libya-Owned Arab Banking Corp.
Drew at Least $5 Billion From Fed in Crisis
By Donal Griffin and Bob Ivry - Bloomberg.com
Arab Banking Corp., the lender part- owned by the Central Bank of Libya, used a New York branch to get 73 loans from the U.S. Federal Reserve in the 18 months after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed.
The bank, then 29 percent-owned by the Libyan state, had aggregate borrowings in that period of $35 billion -- while the largest single loan amount outstanding was $1.2 billion in July 2009, according to Fed data released yesterday. In October 2008, when lending to financial institutions by the central bank’s so- called discount window peaked at $111 billion, Arab Banking took repeated loans totaling more than $2 billion.
Hundreds wounded in Yemen protests
Al Jazeera.net
Sources tell Al Jazeera about 1,600 people are hurt as police use live rounds and tear gas to disperse protests in Taiz.
s many as 1,600 people have been injured in the Yemeni city of Taiz after police reportedly used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse pro-democracy protesters in the city's main square, Al Jazeera has learnt.
A sit-in was held in the square on Sunday as part of nationwide anti-government protests. According to witnesses, police also opened fire above the heads of protesters, and used batons to disperse the crowds.
Medical sources said most of the injuries were from tear gas inhalation.
What US conservatives never saw coming Obama's critics say Arab revolutions vindicate Bush's freedom agenda, but they overestimate US influence.
By Todd M. Thompson - Al Jazeera.net
While many American conservatives were quicker to warm to the recent Arab revolutions than the Obama administration, they were wrong to have always assumed that American power was the essential ingredient for change in the region.
In his aptly (and mischievously) titled article, Project for a New Arab Century, Muhammad Khan alleged that the recent eruption of popular revolutions in the Middle East left conservative enthusiasts for democracy promotion "largely silent". In fact, conservatives have been very vocal as of late. In the midst of the Obama administration's waffling response to the protests, George W. Bush supporters have seized the opportunity to seek vindication for the former president's 'freedom agenda'.
Mubarak has left Egypt
Sources tell Al Jazeera that former president has departed for Germany, but military council denies the report.
Al Jazeera.net
Sources tell Al Jazeera that Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, has left the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on a flight headed to Germany, possibly for medical treatment.
Mubarak had been staying in Sharm El-Sheikh under house arrest since he stepped down from office on February 11.
Despite the reports, Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, said people in Egypt are not convinced that the news is true.
They are holding the military to the promise of keeping Mubarak in the country to stand trial for alleged crimes under his presidency, she said.
"The army has repeatedly said Mubarak would not be able to leave Egypt, even for medical treatment."
Taliban exploits Afghan riots over Koran burning
Officials say insurgents have used the riots as cover for attacks against Western and government targets and have reaped propaganda benefits by allying themselves with popular fury over the incident led by Florida pastor Terry Jones.
By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - One clear beneficiary has emerged from the wave of deadly riots that swept Afghanistan after members of a Florida evangelical church burned a copy of the Koran: the Taliban.
The insurgents, according to Afghan and Western officials, have been able to exploit the ongoing tumult, using the riots as cover for attacks against Western and government targets and reaping propaganda benefits by allying themselves with popular fury over the desecration of the Muslim holy book.
Foreign Banks Tapped Fed’s Secret Lifeline Most at Crisis Peak
By Bradley Keoun and Craig Torres - Bloomberg.com
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s two-year fight to shield crisis-squeezed banks from the stigma of revealing their public loans protected a lender to local governments in Belgium, a Japanese fishing-cooperative financier and a company part-owned by the Central Bank of Libya.
Dexia SA (DEXB), based in Brussels and Paris, borrowed as much as $33.5 billion through its New York branch from the Fed's "discount window" lending program, according to Fed documents released yesterday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Dublin-based Depfa Bank Plc, taken over in 2007 by a German real-estate lender later seized by the German government, drew $24.5 billion.
Where Has Silver Come From and Where Is It Going?
BY JULIAN PHILLIPS - FinancialSense.com
GFMS produced the report for the Silver Institute published last week. We have used this as a basis for this article on silver supply and demand in the last three years. Our objective in this piece is to have recent history confirm what we expect of the future for silver.
Industrial demand
The first fact that jumps off the page is that the future for silver looks remarkable with industrial silver demand rising from 15,160.19 tonnes [487.4 million ounces] in 2010 to20,712.29 tonnes [665.9 million ounces] in 2015.
Cash is Trash with Bernanke at the Helm Why the Stock Market and Economy are at Risk
BY CHRIS PUPLAVA - FinancialSense.com
Why the Stock Market and Economy are at Risk "Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair."-Sam Ewing
While most investors are familiar with the Dollar Index, it is actually a poor tool in gauging the strength of the USD given its weightings and only being a six currency basket. To truly see how the greenback is performing on a global scale one needs to look at more than sixcurrencies and include precious metals. When one does this it is truly amazing how much the purchasing power of the USD has declined since 2009 after two rounds of quantitative easing (QE), and it is this loss of purchasing power that has the potential to at least cause another growth scare like 2010 or even a bear market.
Ron Paul to probe US Mint Coin shortage
CommodityOnline.com
By Daniela Cambone
Texas (Kitco News) -- Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has one question for the U.S. Mint: why is there a coin shortage? He is aiming to get to the bottom of this during a scheduled April 7 hearing of his U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy to examine the bullion programs at the U.S. Mint.
"We are going to try and find out what the Mint has done so they can give us a better answer as to why there is a shortage. Why can’t they keep the supply of coins up?" said the congressman in an exclusive interview with Kitco News.
Demand for precious metals in the futures markets and in physical gold bullion coins increases as the dollar weakens, which often leads to coin shortages.
Gerald Celente on KFSO with Brian Sussman, 30 March 2011
Protecting Yourself from the Inexorable Decline of the US Dollar
By Bill Bonner - The DailyReckoning.com
04/01/11 Los Angeles, California – Free Baron von NotHaus! Free our money!
Poor Mr. NotHaus. He thought he was doing something good…something that needed to be done. His idea was to mint silver coins, which he called Liberty Dollars, or simply Liberties.
These were real coins, with real value. In fact, their value has been going up. Silver has been the big star of the latest hard money drama; compared to gold – which has also gone up nicely – silver is at its highest level since 1984. And compared to itself, it is as high as it has been in 30 years.
Silver has now gone mainstream. Even Jim Cramer advises listeners to buy the physical metal. They would be glad if they had. Almost nothing has outperformed it.
A Tale of Two Currencies Best of Times for Precious Metals, Worst of Times for U.S. Dollar
BY JEB HANDWERGER - FinancialSense.com
It is the best of times for equities and precious metals and the worst of times for the U.S. dollar. It is prudent to focus on the sectors with long secular uptrends as these patterns tend to last longer than expected and produce the greatest returns. Gold (GLD) and Silver (SLV) are in a decade long uptrend as geopolitical uncertainty and rising debt levels have caused many investors to seek the safe haven shelter of real money. In July 2010, as the European Crisis was the prominent topic of worry, gold reversed higher and made a major move on central bank plans to ease. This continued through October and November, when the precious metal trade was very overbought. For the past six months, gold has consolidated as the dollar took a respite before hitting new lows. A breakout in precious metals and continued weakness in the US dollar to all time lows could radically impact our investments. In late January, my buy signal was activated when gold reached its 2-year trend support. During this time we saw precious metals reach very oversold levels. Even the strongest trends need time to pause. For six months gold bears have put up resistance. But it may end soon and this breakout may be powerful. Gold may follow.
Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon expects inflation
By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
U.S. consumers face "serious" inflation in the months ahead for clothing, food and other products, the head of Wal-Mart's U.S. operations warned Wednesday.
The world's largest retailer is working with suppliers to minimize the effect of cost increases and believes its low-cost business model will position it better than its competitors.
Still, inflation is "going to be serious," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon said during a meeting with USA TODAY's editorial board. "We're seeing cost increases starting to come through at a pretty rapid rate."
Don't Wait for a Paycheck to Signal Inflation
By Caroline Baum - Bloomberg.com
Long and variable lags.
I doubt that inviolable tenet of how monetary policy works is etched into the cornerstone of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. It is, however, an article of faith for anyone who has ever worked there.
And yet, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his core group of doves at the Fed seem comfortable with the overnight rate at an emergency-like 0 percent to 0.25 percent when the economy is growing at a modest pace, private-sector job growth has topped 200,000 in the last two months and sensitive raw materials prices are skyrocketing.
Where’s the justification?
Bob Chapman's Friday Report 4/01/11:
The Road of Inflation Will Only End in Tears 1/2
Bob Chapman's Friday Report 4/01/11:
The Road of Inflation Will Only End in Tears 2/2
The Fed Still Can't End Stimulus Efforts!
BY SY HARDING - FinancialSense.com
The strong jobs report for March has expectations rising that the Fed will dial back its QE2 stimulus right away, and begin raising interest rates soon.
Even prior to the jobs report the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, and a voting member of the Fed’s rate-setting committee, said he expects a "big upward movement" in inflation, making it "certainly possible" that the Fed will raise interest rates this year. He said the so-called Taylor Rule, a method of predicting interest rates based on inflation, points to a sizable 0.75% increase in the Fed Funds rate if the rate of inflation he expects shows up.
How The Fed Gave Goldman Millions
In Exchange For Defaulted Bond Collateral
Submitted by Tyler Durden - Zerohedge.com
While it is no surprise that the day after Lehman failed, every single bank scrambled to the Fed to soak up any and all available liquidity after confidence in the entire ponzi collapsed, what is a little surprising is that of the 6 banks that came running to papa Ben, and specifically his Primary Dealer Credit Facility, recently upgraded, or rather, downgraded to accept collateral of any type, two banks (in addition to Lehman of course which at this point was bankrupt and was forced to hand over everything to triparty clearer JPM), had the temerity to pledge bonds that had defaulted (i.e. had a rating of D). As in bankrupt, and pretty much worthless. Now that the Fed would accept Defaulted bonds as collateral: or "assets" that have no value whatsoever is a different story.
The Fed is Dead Wrong... Again
BY JERRY ROBINSON - FinancialSense.com
Scare Tactics at the Fed
Almost three years after Bloomberg LP requested details on the emergency bank loans given out by the Federal Reserve at the height of the economic crisis, the records are finally being delivered. The records, which contain the names of financial institutions who borrowed money through the Fed's discount window, are being publicized today by Bloomberg. As we expected, the majority of the loans were taken by foreign entitities, that is, your tax-payer dollars were used to prop up foreign banks and institutions. In fact, one Libyan bank received 73 loans during the crisis.
Crunch time for the 2011 budget
By Paul Kane, WashingtonPost.com
Congress and President Obama have just about run out of time to craft a federal spending plan for the rest of the year, raising the specter of at least a brief government shutdown beginning next weekend.
With five days left to approve a 2011 funding plan for federal agencies, the two sides might have to break their own procedural rules to approve legislation by Friday or reverse their stated opposition to approving another stopgap measure to keep federal agencies open a few extra days as they finish their work.
Staff-level talks continued over the weekend in an effort to draw up a total of $33 billion in spending reductions. Yet neither side intends to officially announce a "deal" on that plan.
The Truth About Deficits and the Debt America needs to cut spending now.
By Veronique de Rugy - Reason.com Myth 1: Debt and deficits are a disease that can only be cured by raising taxes. Fact 1: Debt and deficits are only a symptom. The disease is overspending. And tax increases are no cure. Besides, even if we could balance the budget by raising taxes it wouldn’t stay balanced so long as programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid remain unreformed.
Polls reveal that debt and deficits have become defining issues in American politics. While these issues are indeed important and the American people are justifiably concerned about the level of debt our nation is racking up, they are only symptoms of the real problem: overspending. America is living beyond its means and is projected to continue doing so into the foreseeable future.
Veronique de Rugy
Discusses the Truth About Deficits and the Debt
The Causes of the Mess We're In
BY GONZALO LIRA - FinanacialSense.com
Right now, we're in that weird in-between time of financial crises: The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 is behind us, while the next global crisis is not here yet - but it's on its way.
We can feel how it's on its way. Most everyone plugged into the macro-economic zeitgeist can tell you that bad juju is most definitely in the post -just that nobody yet knows (or is sure) what shape the next crisis will take.
The decline and fall of business ethics Did we learn anything from the profit-at-any-price malaise that infected so many financiers during the 1980s?
By Myron Magnet - Fortune.CNN.com
WHAT IS THIS -- the business news or the crime report? Turn over one stone and out crawls Ivan Boesky's tipster, investment banker Dennis Levine, dirt clinging to his $12.6-million insider-trading profits. Turn over another and there's a wriggling tangle of the same slimy creatures, from minute grubs like the Yuppie Gang to plump granddads like jailed former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Thayer. A shovel plunged into the ground above General Electric (GE) recently disclosed a bustling colony industriously faking time sheets to overcharge the government on defense contracts. Almost everywhere you look in the business world today, from the E.F. Hutton check-kiting scheme to the Bank of Boston money-laundering scandal, you glimpse something loathsome scuttling away out of the corner of your eye.
America's Crumbling Infrastructure
By Keith Weiner, The Daily Capitalist
Last night, I watched "The Crumbling of America" on The History Channel. I was struck by two things:
Socialism decumulates capital.
Politicized decisions always result in poor outcomes.
Today, government cannot even maintain what it was able to build 50 or 100 years ago. A key factor is that (per Marx) they do not set aside a budget for depreciation. It is assumed that the government will provide new, when needed. All assets depreciate and at some point reach the end of their useful lives. Woe unto anyone who did not set aside some money each year–this is not "profit" but depreciation–so that there is cash on hand to replace the asset. Government does not–and cannot–do this. The result is capital (in the form of savings looted from productive people) is dissipated and usually replaced with debt (an attempt to mortgage the future of productive people).
America's Fastest-Dying Business? It's Mobile Homes
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
At the center of a perfect storm of boomer burnout, a brutal recession, and a rapidly changing industry, the mobile home retail market could be the worst industry in America. Here's why.
If I asked you to name America's least fortunate industry, your mind might go to records stores, obliterated by on-demand apps; or photofinishers, left in the cold as digital cameras turn Americans into our own photo editors; or fabric makers, where business is booming ... in Shenzhen, China.
Eight Years to Get Back to Full Employment?
By Sudeep Reddy - WSJ.com
The payroll gains in March were good. But we'd need eight years of consistent monthly gains just like that - taking us to the year 2019 - to bring the economy back to full employment.
The labor market lost almost 8.8 million jobs from the peak for payrolls in January 2008 (138 million payroll jobs, when the unemployment rate was 5%) to the trough in February 2010 (129.2 million). Since then, the U.S. has added 1.5 million jobs.
If the March gain of 216,000 jobs were to continue, payrolls would return to their peak in 34 months - early 2014.
Where Is Unemployment Heading?
By Jeff Harding, The Daily Capitalist
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) came out with a positive employment report for March, 2011, but the growth, while encouraging, is tenuous at best. There are still 13.5 million people unemployed in America.
Here are the headline numbers from Econoday: [see chart]
The 8.8% unemployment rate is the lowest since March, 2009. Private employment was actually up by 230,000, but the BLS deducts the loss of jobs from the public sector from that amount to get to the 216,000 headline number. The breakdown was as follows (from the BLS report):
The Plight of the Working Class
BY JOHN MAULDIN - FinancialSense.com Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the Muddle Through Middle with you!– With thanks to Stealers Wheel
I get a lot of email from readers. I recently got an impassioned letter from very-long-time reader Bill K., who asks some very pointed questions about austerity and spending cuts. It is a rather lengthy letter, so I will only quote part of it and use it is the launching pad for this week's letter, where we look at today's employment report, but from a little different slant. This letter will no doubt anger a few other long-time readers. I argue this week for the middle, but do so as a survivalist.
IRS cracks down on millionaires
By Blake Ellis - CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) --
Watch out millionaires: The IRS is coming for you.
Especially if you make more than $10 million. Audits of these folks surged 73% last year, hitting more than 18% of taxpayers in the highest income bracket, according to recently released statistics from the IRS.
"There's always been this public perception that the rich are getting away with murder and the poor guy is left footing the bill," said Thomas Cooke, professor of accounting and business law at Georgetown University. "It's true that historically the low income earner was more likely to be subject to an examination than a high income earner, but now the higher income taxpayer is getting the greater focus."
Empty houses taking toll on Valley With upkeep difficult, vacancies hurt neighbors, market
by Catherine Reagor - The Arizona Republic
On a typical block in metro Phoenix, there's at least one empty home, often several.
Overbuilding during the housing boom, record foreclosures during the subsequent crash and a significant drop in population growth have led to more than 100,000 vacant homes across the region, five times what was once considered normal.
With an average of three people per residence, the swath of vacant homes is equivalent to a city bigger than Chandler sitting empty.
An empty house - or a row of them - changes the character of a neighborhood and the way residents feel about where they live.
Housing Will Remain a Government Program
BY NEERAJ CHAUDHARY - FinancialSense.com
Recently, the Obama Administration seemed to flash a rare sign of laissez-faire thinking when it issued a report calling for the "winding down" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two taxpayer-guaranteed institutions now responsible for backing at least 90% of the US mortgage market. In its press release, the Administration acknowledged that the private sector should be the "primary source of mortgage credit," and that their goal is to "bring private capital back to the mortgage market."
Tomorrow Happened Yesterday
By Bill Bonner - The DailyReckoning.com
04/01/11 Los Angeles, California – A shocking figure came out last week. In the US, fewer new houses were sold last month than in any month since they started keeping records in 1963.
How is it possible? Simple. The houses that would have been sold to today’s able buyers were built and sold years ago. That’s what excess credit does. It doesn't really enlarge or enrich an economy... it stretches it, bringing things that would have happened tomorrow forward, to yesterday. Only a certain number of people every year can afford a new house. If in 2005, you give credit to buyers who won’t be ready for many years, or perhaps never – who will buy a new house in 2011?
ObamaCare’s Early Retiree Benefits Program: So Awesome the Administration Had to Shut It Down Early
Peter Suderman - Reason.com
How do you tell if a $5 billion federal program is a success? If you're in charge of ObamaCare's Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) - a slush fund that has already approved grants worth tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to state governments, unions, and big corporations - success means giving away so much money so fast that you have to shut the program down early.
ObamaCare created the $5 billion ERRP in order to encourage employers, public and private, to continue to provide health insurance to early retirees. The potential for abuse should be obvious: Any employer with a large number early retirees can easily make a claim on the money if it has a remotely plausible argument that it might have dropped benefits.
GOP budget plan would revamp Medicare and Medicaid to slash deficit The 2012 budget strategy outlined by Republican Rep. Paul Ryan promises more than $4 trillion in savings over the next 10 years and takes a dramatically different approach from what President Obama has proposed.
By Kathleen Hennessey, Washington Bureau - LATimes.com
Reporting from Washington -House Republicans' 2012 federal budget plan will propose significant changes to Medicare, shift control of Medicaid to the states and aim to chop more than $4 trillion from the deficit over the next decade, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Sunday.
Ryan's broad overview of the GOP plan, which is slated to be officially unveiled Tuesday, included a combination of entitlement reforms and spending cuts that amount to a dramatically different approach to deficit and debt reduction than that advocated by President Obama.
A shift toward smaller health insurance networks Thousands of employers in California and nationwide are opting for 'narrow network' HMOs, which offer notable savings on insurance premiums but also offer fewer medical providers.
By Duke Helfand - LATimes.com
Thousands of employers in California and across the country are slashing expensive doctors and hospitals from their insurance rosters in a move to hold down rising healthcare costs - a trend that is gaining favor with corporate bosses, if not the rank and file.
The savings on insurance premiums - nearly 25% in some cases - are gained when companies switch their health plans to "narrow network" HMOs that offer fewer choices of medical providers.
FDA proposes rules requiring restaurants
to post calorie counts on menus The FDA's proposed calorie rules would also apply to vending machines, coffee shops and convenience and grocery stores, but would not apply to movie theater concession stands.
By Andrew Zajac, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Washington - In the latest attempt to gain ground against the nation's epidemic of obesity, the Food and Drug Administration proposed rules Friday that would require some restaurant and fast-food chains to post the calorie content of standard items on their menus.
The rules, which are subject to another round of public comment before they take final form, would also apply to vending machines, coffee shops and convenience and grocery stores. But they would not apply to movie theaters, bowling alleys or airlines.
Bidders including Dish Network and Icahn
lining up for Blockbuster auction Monday
By Ben Fritz - LATimes.com
By next week, troubled home entertainment company Blockbuster Inc. might be in the hands of a famed Wall Street investor, a satellite TV company, a South Korean telecom firm, a group of hedge funds or another buyer.
On Monday, the DVD-rental chain that was once the biggest name in American home entertainment will go up for auction after a planned reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection failed when its financial performance deteriorated faster than expected.
Obama still wants nukes
Fortune.CNN.com
Daniel Poneman of the U.S. Energy Department talks about why the president is committed to nuclear power.
What role does the administration see nuclear playing in our energy portfolio after the disaster in Japan?
You have to put this in the context of the President's clear call in the State of the Union address for a new energy policy that will end our dangerous over-dependence on foreign oil and include a significant movement to renewables. We're very focused on nuclear power in that context as a component of the mix. But we're not going to pick winners and losers.
If it's a question of a cost-effective clean-energy mix, why not invest more in renewables in the hope of making them more competitive?
Honda Portable Generators Run Out as Earthquake Cripples Output
By Anna Mukai - Bloomberg.com
Portable power generators made by Honda Motor Co., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270) and Yamaha Motor Co. are running out after Japan’s largest earthquake crippled production while simultaneously stoking demand.
Orders for the generators, used to provide hot baths and meals to survivors of the magnitude-9 temblor and ensuing tsunami, surged after the disaster knocked out power plants, causing electricity shortages.
World's Deadliest Volcano in Africa Waiting to Explode
Indo-Asian News Service - Scott.net
London - Mount Nyiragongo, one of the world's deadliest volcanos, is waiting to explode and turn Goma, a city of a million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, into a modern day Pompeii, a Roman town completely destroyed by volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.
But scientists do not know when, since it is in the war-torn eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The two-mile high cauldron of lava is also one of the least understood.
TMI: FEAR, FUKUSHIMA AND FACTS
by ANIL DASH
Thirty-two years ago today, I noticed that things were odd at our pre-school. The teachers had drawn the blinds closed in a few rooms and at least one of the other kids had had his mom pick him up in a big wood-sided station wagon before the day was actually over. I didn't really know much more about what was going on, or why the day was strange, until years later I read much more about the accident at Three Mile Island and realized that since my pre-school and my home were just ten miles from the reactor meltdown, it's surprising that the parents of our classroom full of three year olds weren't more disturbed.
Japanese nuclear plant continues its radioactive spill into ocean For a second day, workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were unable to plug a leak of radioactive water. Meanwhile, Japan's prime minister says it will take months to resolve the problems at the plant.
By Julie Makinen and Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Tokyo and Los Angeles - Workers at theFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant failed for a second day to stem the flow of radioactive water into the ocean as plastic injected into the leak Sunday failed to form a plug.
Workers had discovered an 8-inch crack in a concrete channel at the lower levels of reactor No. 2 where radioactive water had been accumulating after it had been sprayed onto the reactor to cool it. The crack was spewing the contaminated water into the ocean, which may explain the high levels of radioactivity detected offshore near the plant.
Japan tries to plug crack at nuclear plant
By the CNN Wire Staff
Tokyo (CNN) -- Workers on Sunday tried to plug a crack at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility that's been a conduit for highly radioactive water leaking into the Pacific Ocean, officials said.
The workers poured a chemical compound mixed with sawdust and newspaper into the crack, hoping it would expand and stick. But so far it has not done the trick, officials with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said.
Tokyo Electric Sawdust Solution Fails to Stop Radiation Leak
By Shinhye Kang and Jae Hur - Bloomberg.com
Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s attempt to clog a cracked pit with a mixture of sawdust, newspaper and plastic failed to stop radioactive water leaking into the sea from its crippled nuclear plant.
The absorbent material, including the same polymer used in baby diapers, was injected into a power-cable storage pit at the plant where radiation-contaminated water is escaping through a crack, the power utility said yesterday.
The New Colonialism: Washington's Pursuit of World Hegemony
By Paul Craig Roberts - Infowars.com
What we are observing in Libya is the rebirth of colonialism. Only this time it is not individual European governments competing for empires and resources. The new colonialism operates under the cover of "the world community," which means NATO and those countries that cooperate with it. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was once a defense alliance against a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Today NATO provides European troops in behalf of American hegemony.
Gates grilled on price of 'illegal war'
$550M to start Libya strikes
By Shaun Waterman-The Washington Times
Skeptical lawmakers from both parties cross-examined Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates for hours Thursday in tense House andSenate hearings on U.S. strikes against Libya, which one angry Republican called "an unconstitutional and illegal war."
Mr. Gates told the House Armed Services Committee that the conflict had cost $550 million as of Monday and that the U.S. commitment to operations is winding down as NATO takes over. He said he expects the cost going forward to be about $40 million a month.
Pentagon:Libyan rebels desperately need help,
but don't look to US Libyan opposition forces need training and organization to oust Muammar Qaddafi, but the US military shouldn't be involved, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Congress Thursday.
By Anna Mulrine - CSMonitor.com
Libyan rebels are disorganized, on the defensive, and in desperate need of training, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told Congress on Thursday.
But none of that is likely to change the Pentagon's operations or the White House's political calculus in the weeks ahead, he added. The US military’s mission remains "much more limited" than America's stated political objective – namely, ousting Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.
THE LIBYA FARCE, CONT'D
PowerLineBlog.com
Rich Lowry cruelly asks: "Is it a war or a Marx Brothers comedy?" I believe that the Obama administration's position is that it is neither. Rich, however, links to the New York Times article by Thom Shanker and Charlie Savage reporting that NATO is prepared to bomb the the LIbyan rebels (or "rebels," as I prefer to call them) whom we have intervened to support.
Shanker and Savage lead their story with this: "Members of the NATO alliance have sternly warned the rebels in Libya not to attack civilians as they push against the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, according to senior military and government officials."
Robert Gates again rules out U.S. ground forces for Libya In his strongest statement yet on Libya, Defense Secretary Robert Gates reiterates that the U.S. would not send ground troops. The administration is still considering whether to provide arms to the rebels, but what opposition forces need most is traini
By David S. Cloud, Washington Bureau - LATimes.com
Reporting from Washington - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates reiterated Thursday that the U.S. would not put ground forces in Libya, but conceded that allies involved in the operation might provide arms and send in trainers to aid the rebels, who have lost ground to Col. Moammar Kadafi's forces in recent days.
In his strongest language since the U.S. deployed warplanes to protect Libyan civilians, Gates ruled out sending any U.S. forces to Libya "as long as I'm in this job" - a viewpoint that he said President Obama shared. But he admitted that the rebels needed help to withstand the assault from Kadafi's forces, even with NATO warplanes overhead.
Qaddafi Defector Shows Regime Crumbling as NATO Takes Charge, Cameron Says
By Thomas Penny and Patrick Donahue - Bloomberg.com
The defection of Muammar Qaddafi’s foreign minister shows his regime is disintegrating, said U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, while the Obama administration called the departure "a significant blow."
"It tells a compelling story of the desperation and the fear right at the heart of the crumbling and rotten Qaddafi regime," Cameron told reporters in London today.
In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen said they don't favor using the American military to provide weapons or training to the rebels fighting troops loyal to Qaddafi in the North African country.
LIBYA: THE REBELS RETREAT
Posted by Jon Lee Anderson - NewYorker.com
The second Libyan rebel advance didn’t last very long. Sparked by the withdrawal of Qaddafi’s forces from Ajdabiya last weekend under devastating allied air strikes, and spurred on by the belief that they would somehow sweep westward to Qaddafi’s stronghold of Sirt, and on to Tripoli, the rebels chased their retreating foes on Monday to within fifty miles of Sirt. Then they were stopped in their tracks, hard, and began falling back again, as they had done so many times before.
SYRIA: Economic hardship feeds social unrest,
says analyst Lahcen Achy
Syria's economic challenges are feeding the population's growing anger, which recently led to protests in the south and are creating a nationwide uprising.
Despite an impressive annual economic growth rate of 5% over the last five years, reforms to gradually shift from a state-led to a market-oriented economy, and a promising trade-diversification strategy, Syria faces critical economic and social challenges. Its poverty rate remains high, with one out of every three Syrians living below the poverty line, and social and regional inequalities are increasing.
BAHRAIN: Crackdown continues,
opposition and human rights groups say
LATimes.com
While regional attention is riveted by the ongoing unrest in Libya, Syria and Yemen, the government of Bahrain has been left in relative peace by the international community to continue its crackdown against the anti-government protest movement there, human rights groups say.
"The last few nights they been raiding houses and beating and arresting people," Nabeel Rajab, the president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, told Babylon & Beyond, adding that approximately 400 people are either missing or in custody.
Saudi army destroyed Islamic banar in Bahrain
Why Iran Is Sweating Bullets
By Brad McDonald - theTrumpet.com
As Syria unravels, the mullahs in Iran are growing alarmed.
When it comes to understanding Middle East geopolitics, one question brings terrific clarity: Does this work to the advantage of Iran?
Generally speaking, if an event, decision or circumstancepleases Iran, it will come with negative repercussions for Israel, America or the broader Western community. If Iran is displeased - if sweat is pooling on the brows of Iran’s mullahs - the West must somehow be gaining an advantage. Consider the wave of anti-government uprisings rolling across the region. In virtually each case, be it Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain or Libya, Iran watched the chaos with an ear-to-ear grin. Why? Because in each instance Tehran knew the outcome would bolster its regional influence, either directly or via its radical Islamic proxies.
Will Greece Be Forced To Sell The Acropolis?
By Douglas McIntyre - TheAtlantic.com
After months of denials, Greek Prime Minister George Papaconstantinou admitted the country may be forced to sell the some of its property. That means that the unfathomable may be possible: could the Acropolis soon be on the auction block, sold to the highest bidder?
Though the wonder of the Ancient World may escape this fate, lesser-known state assets may have to be sold as Greece looks to dig itself out of its financial hole. Up until now, the premier did not want to face voter ire if possible. It is enough that citizens will suffer the results of austerity that cut some of their salaries and raised their taxes.
Endgame for Global Mercantilism
By Andrew McKillop - FinancialSense.com
In a great article published 28 March on why the European Union is doomed to collapse or total transformation – into what? - Charles Hugh Smith shows the explain-it-all chart, below. One important fact is this economic model is a convergent and globalized "no alternative". Countries that don’t play this game are almost inexistent, for example the paranoid police state of North Korea.
Global systemic crisis: Second half of 2011 – Get ready for the meltdown of the US Treasury Bond market
- Public announcement GEAB N°53 (March 17, 2011)
Beyond its tragic human consequences (1), the terrible disaster that has just hit Japan weakens the shaky US Treasury Bond market a little more. In the GEAB No. 52, our team had already explained how the sequence of Arab revolutions, this fall of the “petro-dollar” wall (2), would translate during 2011 into the cessation of the massive purchases of US Treasury Bonds by the Gulf States. In this issue, we anticipate that the sudden shock experienced by the Japanese economy will lead not only to the halt in US T-Bond purchases by Japan, but it will force the authorities in Tokyo to make substantial sales of a significant portion of their US Treasury Bond reserves to finance the enormous cost of stabilization, reconstruction and revival of the Japanese economy (3).
Europe relies on U.S. power again NATO defenses unbalanced
By Rowan Scarborough-The Washington Times
Even under NATO command, the U.S. military will do the bulk of the fighting in Libya - even as the Obama administration argues that this is Europe’s conflict to lead, not America's.
The number of U.S. warplanes and ships deployed to fight Libya's regime underscores that NATO's other 27 members do not have the firepower and high-tech targeting capability to go solo or with little U.S. help.
Even though Europe pressed the White House to enter the war, it provided only a few of the 110 ship-launched cruise missiles fired in the first days and has flown only about 40 percent of all sorties. To some military analysts, the European performance is the result of two decades of cutting defense spending and relying on the United States to do the heavy lifting.
New Portuguese, Irish economic disclosures deepen European financial struggles
By Howard Schneider - WashingtonPost.com
Portugal on Thursday disclosed new and larger budget deficits for last year, and Ireland said its banks need tens of billions of dollars in additional capital. The fresh round of bad news is likely to further shake confidence inEurope’s ability to resolve its lingering financial problems anytime soon.
The announcements from Portugal’s finance ministry and the Central Bank of Ireland show a continent still struggling to understand the depth of the problems facing its banking system and its economically weaker nations.
Skunked "How the U.S. will likely default on its debt"
by William H. Gross - Pimco.com
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security now account for 44% of total federal spending and are steadily rising.
Previous Congresses (and Administrations) have relied on the assumption that we can grow our way out of this onerous debt burden.
Unless entitlements are substantially reformed, the U.S. will likely default on its debt; not in conventional ways, but via inflation, currency devaluation and low to negative real interest rates.
Federal Reserve: U.S. Headed for Insolvency
By Robert Morley - theTrumpet.com
Fed presidents Fisher and Dudley offer two very different opinions on the economy.
A voting member of the Federal Reserve Bank just told an audience in Germany that America is heading toward insolvency and that the Fed has printed too much money. Another member told an audience in Queens that things are good and that the cost of living really isn't rising. Which is it?
Speaking at the University of Frankfurt on March 22, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher told audience members that America has too much debtand, in his opinion, is at a "tipping point."
For federal workers, anxiety over a possible shutdown
By Lisa Rein and and Ed O’Keefe - WashingtonPost.com
Just before 7 a.m. most weekdays, Michael Kane sits at a table in the cafeteria of the Energy Department headquarters on Independence Avenue SW and tries valiantly to quell the anxiety of the people who work there.
The government could shut down in a week if Congress can't reach a budget deal. And the Obama administration hasn't told workers what a shutdown would look like - who will be asked to come to work and who will be told to stay home.
Jim Rogers: Don't sell your silver CNBC 31 March 2011
Hoenig Says Fed Shares Blame for Higher Commodity Prices; Urges Tightening
By Vivien Lou Chen - Bloomberg.com
The Federal Reserve's "highly accommodative" monetary policy is partly to blame for rapidly increasing global commodity prices, said Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig, who called on colleagues to raise the benchmark interest rate toward 1 percent soon.
"Once again, there are signs that the world is building new economic imbalances and inflationary impulses," Hoenig, the central bank's longest-serving policy maker and lone dissenter at meetings last year, said in a speech today in London. "The longer policy remains as it is, the greater the likelihood these pressures will build and ultimately undermine world growth."
Japan Rebuilds While The Fed Tears Down
Bob Chapman - TheInternationalForecaster.com
In today’s world there is always plenty to write about and today is no exception.
As far as we are concerned QE3 is on the way accompanied by almost zero official interest rates. QE1 was to bail out the financial sectors in the US and Europe and QE2 was to bail out US government debt. That is why the Fed has purchased 70% to 80% of Treasuries. Previous debt and the $1.6 trillion of new debt created this year means someone has to buy that debt and there are very few buyers.
That means the Fed has to buy most of paper with funds created out of thin air in this monetization process. Those tremendous amounts of funds will most certainly increase inflation. This policy is never ending unless default becomes inevitable. That is why money and credit has to be created indefinitely until hyperinflation occurs and the system eventually collapses.
Don't Believe the Chart, the US Dollar is Dropping Like a Stone
Graham Summers - SilverBearCafe.com
I want to take a moment to address the US Dollar’s collapse.
The US Dollar which most investors follow is the US Dollar index. This represents the US Dollar’s value against a basket of major currencies: the Euro, Japanese Yen, etc.
Think about that for a moment: the way we measure the US Dollar's value is against a collection of other un-backed paper currencies all issued by over-indebted, bankrupt nations.
In other words, its nonse
Rising Rates a Boon for Metals
By Dr. Jeffrey Lewis
So often the finance folk engorge themselves with the concept that a low cost-of-carry is the sole reason for metals’ ascent. While cheap money perpetuates the commodity’s investment interest, it will be higher rates – not lower rates – that ultimately send metals higher.
The Attraction of Arbitrage
Currently, the world is engaged in a time value of money arbitrage at a level never before seen. Quantitative experts, hiding beyond Excel spreadsheets and years of database data, and the financiers are finding commodities of all type, especially monetary commodities, to be more lucrative than they ever have. They see opportunity in what they’re used to doing: buying dollars at a low rate and selling them at higher rate large enough to compensate for risk.
Treasuries Set for Two-Week Loss on Signs Fed Won't Extend Bond Purchases
By Wes Goodman - Bloomberg.com
Treasuries headed for a second weekly loss as economists said a U.S. report today will show the labor market is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to end its bond-buying program as scheduled in June.
Shorter maturities, which will lose the most support because that’s where the Fed concentrates its purchases, led the decline. The extra yield that 30-year bonds offer over five-year notes shrank to 2.23 percentage points, the least since August.
Federal Reserve, forced by court,
identifies banks that got emergency loans during financial crisis
AP - LATimes.com
For the first time in its 98-year history, the Federal Reserve on Thursday identified banks that borrowed from its oldest lending program.
The Fed was compelled to name the banks that drew emergency loans during the financial crisis after the Supreme Court rejected a bid by major banks to keep that information secret. It's the latest sign of how the Fed is becoming more transparent - either by choice or by force.
SEN. SANDERS GOES OFF ON BERNANKE 03/03/09
Geithner's Blatant Lies at the G20 Meeting; Four-Pronged Solution
By: Mike Shedlock - SafeHaven.com
Proving that he cannot find his ass with two hands and a road map, Treasury secretary Tim Geithner says inflexible currencies are biggest monetary problem.
Tightly controlled exchange rate regimes are the main flaw in the international monetary system and the solution is simple, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a G20 meeting on Thursday.
In a thinly veiled swipe at the Chinese hosts of the seminar of the Group of 20 wealthy and developing economies, Geithner said that countries should have flexible exchange rates and permit free flows of capital to be major players in the global currency order.
Guest Post From Dylan Ratigan: Step 1 - Fire Tim Geithner
The DailyBail.com
Editor's Note: Originally published in Nov. 2009. Nothing has changed.
Submitted to The Daily Bail by Dylan Ratigan
A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system is a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs pay themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they don't have to customers who can't pay back the loans.
In those dark days between the fall of Lehman Brothers and before the presidential election, we were often carried through that time by the small glimmer of hope that at least we would soon have a new leader who would hopefully fix this mess and punish those responsible.
Yet in the past 9 months, not only has the administration failed to fix anything, they have actually made things much worse for anyone who isn't a Wall Street banker. Therefore, we are past the point where anyone in power still gets the benefit of the doubt -- the process of taking back our country for all citizens must begin now.
Why States Are Shying Away From ObamaCare’s Health Insurance Exchanges
By Peter Suderman - Reason.com
Should states refuse to implement the health care overhaul? As I pointed out last week, some of them already are, and now opposition to the law appears to be scoring wins in even more states. A story in Politico this afternoon notesthat Tea Party activists opposing the law seem to be "finding surprising success... blocking the law’s implementation." Those victories are occurring at the state level, where a number of governors are both politically sympathetic and justifiably worried about the burdens the law places on their states.
Ohio police, firefighters cite safety concerns,
vow fight over collective bargaining limits
AP - WashingtonPost.com
CLEVELAND - Unlike Wisconsin's high-profile effort to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers, Ohio's new law includes police officers and firefighters - who say it threatens the safety of them and the people they protect.
Opponents have vowed to put the issue on the November ballot, giving voters a chance to strike down the law. The firefighters’ union in Cleveland plans to hit the streets and help gather signatures.
Many Jobs Seen as Failing to Meet the Basics
By MOTOKO RICH - NYTimes.com
Hard as it can be to land a job these days, getting one may not be nearly enough for basic economic security.
The Labor Department will release its monthly snapshot of the job market on Friday, and economists expect it to show that the nation’s employers added about 190,000 jobs in March. With an unemployment rate that has been stubbornly stuck near 9 percent, those workers could be considered lucky.
Food Commodities Surge Seen Swamping Consumers With Inflation
By Nicholas Larkin - Bloomberg.com
Coffee, sugar and cocoa prices will rise five- to 10-fold by 2014 because of shortages that will mean consumers getting "swamped" by food-price inflation, according to Superfund Financial.
A lack of farmland and rising costs means growers will fail to keep up with demand, said Aaron Smith, managing director of Superfund Financial (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Superfund USA Inc. Commodities account for about 40 percent of Superfund’s $1.25 billion assets under management. Smith correctly predicted record copper prices in November and a month later rightly anticipated that silver would outperform gold.
Keiser Report: Food Stamp Army (E134)
WTO panel says Boeing received banned U.S. subsidies The panel cites $5.3 billion in state and federal government funding for the 787 Dreamliner program.
By Julie Johnsson - LATimes.com
Boeing Co. got a $5.3-billion boost from banned state and federal government subsidies to develop its 787 Dreamliner and other commercial aircraft, a World Trade Organization panel found.
The ruling Thursday was hailed by the European Commission and helped even the score in the messy and long-running trade dispute between the United States and the European Unionover government funding of airliner development, a major source of exports on both continents.
Springs man's claim to have Obama records starts buzz
By Matt Steiner - Colorado Springs - The Gazette.com
A Colorado Springs "birther," retired Air Force Col. Gregory Hollister, has Internet blogs abuzz with what may be an illegal foray into an online Social Security data base and how he obtained a copy of President Barack Obama's draft registration from 1980.
"Col. Greg Hollister, USAF (Ret.) contacted the Selective Service, falsely impersonated President Obama, improperly registered his own address as President Obama’s address, and by this false impersonation and identity theft he managed to obtain a duplicate registration acknowledgement card with President Obama’s Selective Service information on it," a blogger posted on gratewire.com last week."This may violate several federal criminal statutes, and apparently caused the federal record of President Obama's address with the Selective Service to be altered to show that he lives in Colorado Springs, CO."
Today on The Alex Jones Show: CIA-Al-Qaeda Ties, Webster Tarpley
& Radiation Hits Spokane, WA
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