Sunday, January 23, 2011
The Great American Bank Robbery -- By William K. Black
1. Why do we have repeated, intensifying economic crises?
2. What can white collar criminology add to our understanding of what's going wrong?
These vital questions get to the very heart of the fraud that takes place internationally by the establishment. -- Lies are built foundationally on top of themselves to the point that reality is perceived as something completely different than what it actually is, and everyone you know fully LIVES that lie of an unaware reality. Mr. Black is a great man, and has an insiders' perspective on the purposeful fraud committed by our federal government, where overtly risky behavior is encouraged, even sponsored, and assailants are essentially told that the 'moral hazard' is "on" and to do whatever they want since profits are privatized and losses are socialized...
Thirteen Techniques for Truth Suppression
re-post from David Martin
Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government. When the government lacks an effective, fact-based defense, other techniques must be employed. The success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.
1. Dummy up. If it's not reported, if it's not news, it didn't happen.
2. Wax indignant. This is also known as the "how dare you?" gambit.
3. Characterize the charges as "rumors" or, better yet, "wild rumors." If, in spite of the news blackout, the public is still able to learn about the suspicious facts, it can only be through "rumors."
4. Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike.
5. Call the skeptics names like "conspiracy theorist," "nut," "ranter," "kook," "crackpot," and of course, "rumor monger." You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned.
6. Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money.
7. Invoke authority. Here the controlled press and the sham opposition can be very useful.
8. Dismiss the charges as "old news."
9. Come half-clean. This is also known as "confession and avoidance" or "taking the limited hang-out route." This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal "mistakes." This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken.
10. Characterize the crimes as impossibly complex and the truth as ultimately unknowable.
11. Reason backward, using the deductive method with a vengeance. With thoroughly rigorous deduction, troublesome evidence is irrelevant. For example: We have a completely free press. If they know of evidence that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) had prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing they would have reported it. They haven't reported it, so there was no prior knowledge by the BATF. Another variation on this theme involves the likelihood of a conspiracy leaker and a press that would report it.
12. Require the skeptics to solve the crime completely.
13. Change the subject. This technique includes creating and/or reporting a distraction.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Hal Sparks is awesome.
10 Things That Would Be Different If the Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created
Reprtinted From The Economic Collapse
10 Things That Would Be Different If The Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created
The vast majority of Americans, including many of those who believe
that they are "educated" about the Federal Reserve, do not really
understand how the Federal Reserve really makes money for the
international banking elite. Many of those opposed to the Federal
Reserve will point to the record $80.9 billion in profits that the
Federal Reserve made last year as evidence that they are robbing the
American people blind. But then those defending the Federal Reserve
will point out that the Fed returned $78.4 billion to the U.S.
Treasury. As a result, the Fed only made a couple billion dollars last
year. Pretty harmless, eh? Well, actually no. You see, the money that
the Federal Reserve directly makes is not the issue. Rather, the
"magic" of the Federal Reserve system is that it took the power of money
creation away from the U.S. government and gave it to the bankers.
Now, the only way that the U.S. government can inject more money into
the economy is by going into more debt. But when new government debt is
created, the amount of money to pay the interest on that debt is not
also created. In this way, it was intended by the international bankers
that U.S. government debt would expand indefinitely and the U.S. money
supply would also expand indefinitely. In the process, the
international bankers would become insanely wealthy by lending money to
the U.S. government.
Every single year, hundreds of billions of dollars in profits are made lending money to the U.S. government.
But why in the world should the U.S. government be going into debt to anyone?
Why can't the U.S. government just print more money whenever it wants?
Well, that is not the way our system works. The U.S. government has
given the power of money creation over to a consortium of international
private bankers.
Not only is this unconstitutional, but it is also one of the greatest ripoffs in human history.
In 1922, Henry Ford wrote the following....
"The people must be helped to think naturally about
money. They must be told what it is, and what makes it money, and what
are the possible tricks of the present system which put nations and
peoples under control of the few."
It is important to try to understand how the international banking
elite became so fabulously wealthy. One of the primary ways that this
was accomplished was by gaining control over the issuance of national
currencies and by trapping large national governments in colossal debt
spirals.
The U.S. national debt problem simply cannot be fixed under the
current system. U.S. government debt has been mathematically designed
to expand forever. It is a trap from which there is no escape.
Many liberals won't listen because they don't really care about ever
paying off the debt, and most conservatives won't listen because they
are convinced we can solve the national debt problem if we just get a
bunch of "good conservatives" into positions of power, but the truth is
that we have such a horrific debt problem because it was designed to be
this way from the beginning.
So how would America be different if we could go back to 1913 and
keep the Federal Reserve Act from ever being passed? Well, the
following are 10 things that would be different if the Federal Reserve
had never been created....
#1 If the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free
money all this time, the U.S. government could conceivably have a
national debt of zero dollars. Instead, we currently have a national
debt that is over 14 trillion dollars.
#2 If the U.S. government had been issuing debt-free
money all this time, the U.S. government would likely not be spending
one penny on interest payments. Instead, the U.S. government spent over 413 billion dollars
on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2010. This is money
that belonged to U.S. taxpayers that was transferred to the U.S.
government which in turn was transferred to wealthy international
bankers and other foreign governments. It is being projected that the
U.S. government will be paying 900 billion dollars just in interest on the national debt by the year 2019.
#3 If the U.S. government could issue debt-free
money, there would not even have to be a debate about raising "the debt
ceiling", because such a debate would not even be necessary.
#4 If the U.S. government could issue debt-free
money, it is conceivable that we would not even need the IRS. You doubt
this? Well, the truth is that the United States did just fine for well
over a hundred years without a national income tax. But about the same
time the Federal Reserve was created a national income tax was
instituted as well. The whole idea was that the wealth of the American
people would be transferred to the U.S. government by force and then
transferred into the hands of the ultra-wealthy in the form of interest
payments.
#5 If the Federal Reserve did not exist, we would
not be on the verge of national insolvency. The Congressional Budget
Office is projecting that U.S. government debt held by the public will
reach a staggering 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080. Remember when I used the term "debt spiral" earlier? Well, this is what a debt spiral looks like....
#6 If the Federal Reserve did not exist, the big
Wall Street banks would not have such an overwhelming advantage. Most
Americans simply have no idea that over the last several years the
Federal Reserve has been giving gigantic piles of nearly interest-free
money to the big Wall Street banks which they turned right around and
started lending to the federal government at a much higher rate of return.
I don't know about you, but if I was allowed to do that I could make a
whole bunch of money very quickly. In fact, it has come out that the
Federal Reserve made over $9 trillion
in overnight loans to major banks, large financial institutions and
other "friends" during the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009.
#7 If the Federal Reserve did not exist, it is
theoretically conceivable that we would have an economy with little to
no inflation. Of course that would greatly depend on the discipline of
our government officials (which is not very great at this point), but
the sad truth is that our current system is always going to produce
inflation. In fact, the Federal Reserve system was originally designed
to be inflationary. Just check out the inflation chart posted below.
The U.S. never had ongoing problems with inflation before the Fed was
created, but now it is just wildly out of control....
#8 If the Federal Reserve had never been created,
the U.S. dollar would not be a dying currency. Since the Federal
Reserve was created, the U.S. dollar has lost well over 95 percent of
its purchasing power. By constantly inflating the currency, it
transfers financial power away from those already holding the wealth
(the American people) to those that are able to create more currency and
more government debt. Back in 1913, the total U.S. national debt was
just under 3 billion dollars. Today, the U.S. government is spending
approximately 6.85 million dollars per minute, and the U.S. national debt is increasing by over 4 billion dollars per day.
#9 If the Federal Reserve did not exist, we would
not have an unelected, unaccountable "fourth branch of government"
running around that has gotten completely and totally out of control.
Even some members of Congress are now openly complaining about how much
power the Fed has. For example, Ron Paul told MSNBC last year that he
believes that the Federal Reserve is now more powerful than Congress.....
"The regulations should be on the Federal Reserve. We
should have transparency of the Federal Reserve. They can create
trillions of dollars to bail out their friends, and we don’t even have
any transparency of this. They’re more powerful than the Congress."
#10 If the Federal Reserve had never been created,
the American people would be much more free. We would not be enslaved
to this horrific national debt. Our politicians would not have to run
around the globe begging people to lend us money. Representatives that
we directly elect would be the ones setting national monetary policy.
Our politicians would be much less under the influence of the
international banking elite. We would not be at the mercy of the
financial bubbles that the Fed has constantly been creating.
There is a reason why so many of the most prominent politicians from
the early years of the United States were so passionately against a
central bank. The following is a February 1834 quote by President Andrew Jackson about the evils of central banking....
I too have been a close observer of the doings of the
Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time,
and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate
in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the
profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. You
tell me that if I take the deposits from the Bank and annul its
charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true,
gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin
fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out.
But we didn't listen to men like Andrew Jackson.
We allowed the Federal Reserve to be created in 1913 and we have
allowed it to develop into an absolute monstrosity over the past
century.
Now we are drowning in debt and we are on the verge of national bankruptcy.
Will the American people wake up before it is too late?
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
It doesn't get any more layman than this folks...
inflation? ...only on the very things you NEED TO SURVIVE...
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Presto! 9.4% Unemployment! How The Government Lies.
Written by Silver Shield from Don't Tread on Me
That is exactly what the elite would have us believe with the 9.4%
unemployment number in this huge CONfidence game otherwise known as the
USEconomy.
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” -George Orwell
We were having dinner at my in-law’s house and I had overheard the
TV playing in the back ground. At one point, I thought I had heard the
squealing of teenagers who were fawning over Justin Beiber. Instead,
it turned out that it was someone on the news reporting the new, much
lower 9.4% unemployment rate. I could hear the panting of excitement
spoken by the breathless reporters who were interviewing very serious
economists about this new 9.4% rate. The news aired their personal
interest piece about a girl who was just hired at an internet company.
She commented with the utmost confidence that the economy was getting
better!! You have all heard that saying, “it is a recession when your
neighbor loses a job, but when you lose a job it is a depression.”
Well, according to her, we are out of her depression.
But alas, this is all a dream and the media is using their very
best, tried and true propaganda to keep the people from getting too
upset with reality. Let me just state that the real rate of
unemployment is much, much more than the 9.4% and if the government
really reported what was really going on, there would be
revolution in the morning. Allow me to destroy this fictional 9.4%
number and the billion dollar propaganda machine that provides cover
for the trillion dollar banking and government schemes. I will accomplish this magical feat with writing a blog post in my pajamas. That is real magic!
“There are three types of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.” -Mark Twain.
The first thing we need to understand is the birth/death model.
It is an estimate/lie that the Bureau of Labor Statistics starts with
to figure out how many jobs small companies have created.
Since so many jobs in this country are created by small companies,
they pull numbers out of a hat to start with. This is a total guess
that constantly gets manipulated to hide the truth. Literally 250,000
jobs can be created out of thin air.
The rest of the number is determined from a survey. The BLS’s number
showed an overall increase of +103,000 jobs.(Can you hear my sarcastic
Whoopie!?) The economy needs to create 250,000 a month just to keep up
with the growth of the population. A household survey showed an
increase of +297,000 jobs and -260,000 fewer people in the labor force.
This combined into a drop of 9.8% to 9.4%.
The majority of those jobs are all of those “awesome” seasonal jobs
during the Christmas season that will be going away now that we are in
the new year. This little bump happens every year and is touted as a
great development. Actually, it is sad that in our consumer economy,
we have to hire part-time workers to handle the hoards of debt slaves
as they spend their way into oblivion. I wish it was seasonal work at a
factory like hiring a third shift at a plant actually producing
something. Moving on…
The next big thing we need to understand is the labor force participation rate.
It reflects people between the ages of 18-64 years old, who are
actually working or looking for work. This does not include students,
moms, retired, and now more importantly people not even looking for
jobs. The decline in the labor participation rate is becoming a cancer
as people have been unemployed for a long time and entire industries
are gone for good. The labor participation rate is usually around
67-68%, but has just reached a fresh 25 year low of 64.4%. This means
on average, the unemployment numbers are lowered by 2.6-3.6% simply
because the eligible pool is dropping.
We
have now heard of the 99ers. They are people at the end of their 99
week of unemployment benefits/hush money. Well let’s get into our
little time machine and travel back 99 weeks ago. That would have been
smack dab in the middle of the 2008 financial crisis that set off this
huge mess. So people who still have not found a job since the economy
turned for the worst in 2008 do not count. We know
that the crisis may have started two years ago but the firings did not
happen right away as people tried to hang on. We can expect this
decline in the labor participation rate for sometime, hiding some of
the pain out there.
The
government does keep track of these discouraged workers in another
unemployment number. ( Although they do not have their minions in the
press shout it from the top of their lungs.) The U-6 number measures
the 9.4% unemployed number from above plus short term
discouraged workers and people working part time because they cannot
find suitable employment. This underemployment rate the government
admits to is 19%. Wow, that is a much scarier number but like the
commercials say, “but wait, there’s more!” If you added in long term discouraged workers that the government dropped from their number in 1994, you would have close to 25% unemployment.
25% unemployment should be torches and pitch fork numbers. We have been so thoroughly enslaved that people are more excited about American ‘Idle’
The unemployment nightmare does not stop there. What about all of
those good paying jobs that are gone forever like in finance, housing,
manufacturing, etc.? If you lose a $100k job in one of those industries
and you get the only job you can working at Costco of $25k a year, then
you are employed according to the unemployment number. What is not
shown, is the quality of the jobs that are out there. When you see
5,000 people applying for an $8 an hour job at Walmart, something is
seriously wrong.
Another factor you will not hear in the main stream media is how many of the jobs that are out there are government jobs. Nationally, if you include federal, state and local workers, the Government employs 17% of the work force.
This growth in government jobs is hiding probably another 8-10%. Now I
do not need to go into the fact that economically these workers provide
very little to the overall economy. Right now there are more people in
the government than in the manufacturing economy.
“Yeah, but government jobs are “good paying jobs.” The government produces nothing
and its only source of income is the productive efforts of those in the
real world, like you. The real sick thing is an average government
employee makes again on average, when you include their benefits, TWICE of what the average civilian makes. This is an unsustainable situation, to say the least.
Here’s another factor that is hidden from you. What about all of
those companies and industries that received government contracts or
even worse, got bailed out through the government largesse? How many of
the private sector jobs were as a result of more government spending?
So let’s break this down.
If we added to the official 9.4% unemployment rate to all of the short and long term
discouraged unemployed, the underemployed, the retired, the moms, the
babies, the government workers, the bailed out industries, the heavily
subsidized farmers, the private government contractors, etc., we are
just left with you and me that provide anything of value in
this country. Since I am in my pajamas and on my second cup of coffee, I
think we can even rule me out.
So get back to work!
The world’s paper ponzi scheme depends on you depends on you.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Food Stamp Usage Hits a New High at 43.2 Million
So as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is increasing in correlation to U-6, the dire straits of our economic situation become painstakingly clear. It is important to remember that the right-left paradigm is false when observing entitlement issues due to the 'divide and conquer' mentality displayed by the elite. First, lets set aside arguments over entitlements and whether individuals should or should not be given government assistance so that we can take in the heaviness of our economic predicament. Nearly doubling from ~4 years ago, the amount of people on food stamps is at its highest number ever at 43.2 million. This is staggering, and it means that these individuals are either unemployed or underemployed to the extent that they need direct monetary aid just to subsist. These people need help due to the economic ponzi scheme we have all been subject to. Through manipulative boom-bust economic strategies, where our rulers profit on both the bubbling up and the implosion of the malinvestment, over 14% of the US population have very little means to afford basic food necessities. These people MUST get food from SOMEWHERE.
Now, I have no doubt that in terms of overall efficiency in supplying direct aid for 'nutrition,' having a personal card to swipe makes spending easy for those on the program. (Especially when most fast food chains will gladly take your subsidized govt' fiat.) But if we delve into where the money from SNAP actually goes, we can see that the largest food corporations benefit from the spending of taxpayer money. Opportunity costs must be taken into consideration.
How many burgers could a family buy at (twin golden arches) for $20- or how much junk food, GMO-chemical-marinated-processed food product could be purchased, and what companies does that money flow to for the average grocery shopper? - now also consider the amount of food a family of four could get when spending $20 at a local farmers' market (granted, one cooking requires more ingredients than a typical farmers market could provide). The overall local economic benefit is no comparison. Clearly, the family would have more quality foods at the farmers market than from either the fast food chain, or processed food items in a grocery store. support local farming entrepreneurs and keeping that money circulating locally can increase local wealth and the economy.
With this said, the issue of our government using my tax dollars to help the needy sits much better on my stomach than spending money for defense or bailing out some elite-thug on wall street-- and besides the fact that the federal reserve over monetary expansion and contraction processes causes the poverty to begin with -- coercing those on food stamps to only spend at designated sources ensures that the governments corporate cronies ultimately increase profit revenues from the misfortune of our populace. This also means that individuals who receive help will be much more likely to psychologically support the hand that feeds them...
I feel that utilizing churches for providing meals and canned food items along with supporting food-bank charity and good 'ol fashioned farm-work for food may be a necessary step to further extend a loving hand to these people in need. Giving away tax-payer money to an ever increasing percentage of the population just for subsistance is quite obviously not a sustainable solution. A 'solution' would involve a complete restructuring of our economic society, but the powers that be will ensure an utter collapse before the current 'extend and pretend' status quo is eliminated.
Anyway, the chart speaks for itself.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Mike Krieger Explains How to Short Corruption in 2011
written by Mike Krieger of KAM LP
How to Short Corruption in 2011
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
- Attributed to Pericles, ca 430 BC
Suspicion towards a currency, once awaken, develops insomnia.
- James Dines
Addressing the Commodity Chatter
In the waning days of 2010 and the first week of 2011 it seems everyone under the sun has decided to weigh in on commodities general and gold specifically. Although I disagree with the conclusion of many of these notes, several of them are very well thought out and bring up excellent points of debate. I will address one note in particular in this email and others possibly in the future.Dylan Grice of Societe General is in my opinion one of the best big picture guys on the sell-side today. I find him to be intellectually honest and someone with a deep sense of human history, which is the crucial component of any successful analysis of global macro trends. History is in effect an intricate model of human nature. Since human being are the components of both civilizations and markets, what ultimately drives the big dynamic shifts that change the world forever is human nature itself. In the period that we are told is the whole of civilized human history (I have serious doubts about this but that is for another time), human nature has clearly not changed although our toys and weaponry have. All you have to do is study history to see this. If you don’t understand human nature or and the intricate but volatile web of events we call history you have no business being a macro investor.
Ok, so back to the Grice piece. In his Popular Delusions piece from December 15, 2010 he talks about how commodities are a horrible investment in the long-run and that you are much better investing in growing businesses. I am not going to argue with him here although I just want to make two points. First, is commodities have powerful secular bull markets and having exposure to this asset class is absolutely crucial to a macro investor such as myself that plays these big secular trends. I have not succumbed to a delusional love affair with this asset nor am I buying into some long-term Malthusian nightmare. At some stage investors will get this way (it happened in 2H08), commodities will rise to far too fast, and it will be time to get out. The attitude toward commodities in early 2011 is nothing like it was in 1H08. It is much more restrained and in fact more investors like equities than commodities today. I was there in 1H08. I called it a bubble then. I have a track record. This is not 2H08 from a sentiment perspective. This run has a long way to go in certain commodities (precious metals, agriculture and oil) from where I sit. A long way.
The more important point Grice makes is one I am hearing repeated by parrots on television that don’t have half the brain power or understanding of Grice. As such, I want to address this point of view once and for all. In his note Grice writes:
When you buy commodities, you’re selling human ingenuity. Why bet against human ingenuity by buying physical commodities when you can bet on it by investing in the enterprises whose task is to remove the bottlenecks and lower commodity prices? As a strategy, this is something I will focus on in later notes. I think there are more efficient ways to gain exposure to commodity markets and I will write in more detail about them after Christmas.
While I think this statement on its face it correct, it is misleading and subject to poor interpretation by the weak minded. Yes, it is true that when you put capital into commodities you are betting against human ingenuity, but human ingenuity can be stifled by outside factors such as government and corruption. So in buying commodities, and precious metals in particular, I am in fact betting against real GDP growth and human ingenuity…in the SHORT-RUN (this can be described as several years or more when you look at markets from a truly long-term perspective as I do). Longer-term a bet against human ingenuity has been a disastrous bet and I believe it will be again. Nevertheless, the state of corruption and incompetence embedded within the current leaders of the United States and the Western World in general (and our Asian soft-colonies) is of such a magnitude that they are stifling human nature, its ability and desire to innovate and yes, ingenuity itself.
Shorting Corruption in 2011
While many will say I am a perma bear and just see everything as half full, I cannot wait until the day that I can sell all of my precious metals and commodity exposure and start to invest in non-mining and commodity businesses and equities generally. I have no doubt that this day will come but this is all a process and we are very, very far away from that day from a price perspective. A large part of my intent in writing these notes is to catalyze the change so that it happens as quickly as possible. The quicker we can change the guard within the elite class on Wall Street and Washington the quicker we can get on with human ingenuity.
Very early on I noticed that what Aldous Huxley and others have called the “power elite” have almost total political and economic control of the system. Remember the quote attributed to Mayer Rothschild over two hundred years ago that perfectly and simply states: “Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes the laws.” Combine this quote with Lord Acton’s: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men” and you can start to really put all the pieces together on how money power works and how it has taken the entire world hostage to its selfish ends.
The founding fathers of the United States of America were very well aware of this aspect of human nature when they framed the constitution which is why they made money gold and silver coin and also why they were obsessed with the idea of a division of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. It is also why states rights was such as big issue. Unfortunately, what we have today is almost the worst case scenario. While under a gold standard the politicians will cheat and print and then default (like the United States did in 1971) at least there is the legal framework of moral money during that period. Under a completely fiat system where money can be created to infinity and that power is granted to a small group of unelected academics (the Fed) that answer to the banks...well you get what we have today. A society where all the wealth has become concentrated in the hands of a very small, corrupt and unenlightened elite. Once their greed has collapsed the system they then scramble to secure their positions using their political connections (see the period from 2008-today) and in the process destroy the middle class. To protect themselves from the “people” they then try to put in a police state or a more authoritarian government. This has happened over and over and over in history and is happening again right now. This is pre-1789 France make no mistake about it.
So when the masses of a formerly free people figure out what has happened to them it is not pretty. My whole hope is to avoid the masses turning violent. There is no need for it. The system has an Achilles heel and it is precious metals. People must become educated on money power, how it works and then use the system against itself. The entire power of the elite resides in fiat money creation. Buy physical gold and silver and take delivery if you want to short corruption in 2011. Take that away and they go away. Enter human ingenuity.
George Soros and the New World Order
Many people hear the term “New World Order” and immediately shut down. They think conspiracy theory. The truth is this is a term the elite themselves use all the time in describing what they want (see Soros interview here). What we have the is second worst possible outcome in the U.S. dollar currency system. The absolute WORST outcome for humanity and freedom is the New World Order outcome, which in a nutshell is a global government and a one world currency. Think about it. It is bad enough to have the U.S. fiat dollar but at least you can flee to another nation. If there is one currency that must be used everywhere and it is managed by some power hungry maniac in Brussels what kind of world do you think that will be like? I’d rather not.
I personally think there will be no New World Order because people are waking up and becoming educated on how things work and they are doing it fast. The smartest of the elite are in their old age and we will be rid of them soon enough thanks to natural causes. My observation of their progeny is that they are much less intelligent, motivated and forward thinking than their ancestors. I can’t wait until the day I don’t have to listen to the dangerous fantasies about how civilizations should function from the like of George Soros or Warren Buffet. You guys had your day. Go away please you have done enough to ruin the future of my generation.
All the best as always,
Mike
Tyler Durden: Gallup Finds Unemployment Increased In December, Underemployment Is At 6 Month High, Blasts Government Data Fudging
Gallup has found that not only did the unemployment rate increase in December from 9.4% to 9.6%, that disgruntled part-time workers who want full-time work increased from 8.6% to 9.4%, the highest since September, but that the most important metric in a labor force increasingly consisting of part-time workers, underemployment, has surged to 19%, the highest since June!
Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 9.6% at the end of December -- up from 9.3% in mid-December and 8.8% at the end of November.Whatever the government reports about unemployment on Friday, Gallup's U.S. underemployment data for the end of 2010 show that nearly one in five Americans continue to be unemployed or employed part-time looking for full-time work. In turn, this underscores the importance of job creation as a top national priority.It is therefore too bad the top national priority is and continues to be manipulating stock markets, and creating a wealth effect for some and a poverty effect for most.
The Gallup Data:
Full Zero Hedge Article
Why the World Is Financially Doomed in Four Charts
written by Charles Hugh Smith - repost from Of Two Minds
Why the World Is Financially Doomed in Four Charts
The global economy is doomed to implosion, and here are four charts which explain why.
Though the complexities may appear endless, the global economy's coming implosion is really fairly easy to understand: here are four charts which do the heavy lifting. It boils down to these basics:
1. When money is dear and difficult to borrow, then productivity and capital accumulation are encouraged, speculation, malinvestment and debt-based consumption are discouraged.
2. When money is "free" (zero-interest rate policy) and liquidity is unlimited, then the opposite conditions hold: speculation in risk assets, malinvestment and debt-based consumption are all encouraged, and productivity and capital accumulation are heavily discouraged.
3. When debts exceed the value of the underlying assets, the only way out of the Tyranny of Debt is to write off the debt on both the borrower and lender's balance sheets, wiping out their capital via liquidation and bankruptcy.
4. The "extend and pretend" policy pursued by all major nations is simply transferring the impaired debt from private hands to the taxpayers (public debt), crippling the economy with higher taxes and higher debt service.
5. The Central State's "extend and pretend" policy requires heavy borrowing every year to prop up the status quo, pushing the Central State (or equivalent, i.e. the Eurozone) into an inescapable double-bind: either continue increasing public debt and cripple the economy with high taxes and high public-debt servicing costs, or let the financial status quo of "profits are private, losses are public" implode.
The first path leads to default, as the Tyranny of Debt cannot be masked for long, while the second path wipes out the Financial Power Elite which feeds the politicians.
Here are the charts. Note how the speculative economy created the illusion of rising wealth for the bottom 90%, an illusion stripped away by the Default Economy.
In essence, the Financial Power Elites profited immensely from creating this illusory wealth which gave the bottom 90% the false sensation that their declining earnings and purchasing power were being offset by the "magic" of asset bubbles.
Then, when the bubble popped, the Financial Power Elites transferred the impaired assets to the taxpayers, a process which is still underway. The politicos of both parties are complicit; behind the simulacra of toothless "reforms," this process proceeds in myriad ways (Bank of America transferring toxic debt to Fannie/Freddie, etc.) Behind the smokescreen of conjuring a "wealth effect" to foster more consumption, the Fed's purchase of Treasuries (QE2) serves this transfer-of-debt-to-the-public process.
This same process is playing out throughout the global economy: Greece, Ireland, the U.S., and eventually, in China when its monumental property bubble pops.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Micheal C. Ruppert's - "Collapse"