HOTI2

[Jason]

Many have said and believe that the banks and the large corporations have taken over government. The reality is much more dangerous than that:

The fundamental and all so overpowering point it appears most are over looking per the banks and the large corporations due to intentional omission is the answer to this question:

How do you steal the majority of wealth from the population with the cooperation of the government?

ANS: You give government the largest portion of the take. The banks and large corporations did not "take over" government. What they did was made government the primary beneficiary by investment so that their own small percentage (being massive in itself) of the take was assured.

Walter Burien - CAFR1
P. O. Box 2112
Saint Johns, AZ 85936
Tel. (928) 445-3532

Bernanke Rejects Bailouts - Fed Chief Says State and Local Governments Shouldn't Expect Federal Loans
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... Collection

....only for the top....don't need the little guys anymore.

U.S. Taxpayers Will Contribute $5 Billion to Bailout the Irish Banks
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... &Itemid=35

Portugal given lifeline ahead of 'Battle of Spain'
http://www.euractiv.com/en/euro-finance" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ews-501119

Las Vegas is the kind of region that evokes strong and varied reactions. Many people see Vegas as freedom and a state of mind, while others curse it as a Sodom and Gomorrah, den of iniquity. Yet when you strip away the glitz, glamour and gambling, you get down to the real guts of the metropolis – MONEY.

The casinos may have a license to coin chips that translate into cash, but the overarching experience of the facade generates a broad base economy that has little respect for the fiat paper notes that pass for legal tender. The saying "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" really applies to the money you bring when you visit. Lately this huge cash cow machine moos not because it is content, but because the feed supply doesn’t meet the obligations and indebtedness of this dreamscape.

Examine the enormous project called City Center. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The $8.7 billion project, with its hotels, condominiums, casino and giant mall designed by Daniel Libeskind, is the largest privately funded construction project in the U.S. It was supposed to usher in a new era of sophistication and urban living in the gaming capital. But it almost collapsed before it opened, and because of its huge scale, its fortunes and those of Las Vegas are closely linked.

Over the summer, executives of Dubai World and MGM Resorts International, which jointly own the project, studied and rejected closing two of the site's three hotels and the Viva Elvis Cirque du Soleil show, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The documents show that the partners have also outlined a plan to seek relief on the terms of the complex's $1.8 billion loan, which requires the joint venture to earn far more cash than currently seems feasible. If they can't renegotiate the terms, City Center could be in default on the loan as early as mid-2011.

Could this be the next "Too Big to Fail" rescue candidate for a midnight stealth earmark coming from the lavish Senator Harry Reid? Politics aside, why was this project ever built?

The clear answer suggests that Excess as a Way of Life is the basis for monumental scale developments. Take a word from the environmental "true believers" SUSTAINABLE. Is the economics sound for a project that constructs such opulence? Certainly, Las Vegas is not the only area that labors under the illusion that the flow of riches will never end. Someone forgot to tell the developers that building on sand dunes have an added cost.

The LV Review Journal cites "Las Vegas lost 13,400 construction jobs, a 23 percent decrease, the Washington, D.C.-based contractors association reported. Overall, the city has lost an estimated 55,000 construction jobs since the recession began -- roughly half of its construction work force -- leading to one of the nation's highest unemployment rates at 14.3 percent in November".

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/sar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ivist.html





Vegas home prices: On the skid until 2032
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/07/real_es" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... /index.htm

Poor economy forces Georgia to rethink drug criminalization
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/econ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... alization/

CoreLogic: House Prices declined 1.6% in November
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ed+Risk%29

The financial abyss otherwise known as the California budget – 6 charts showing a challenging year for California housing and economy. Rental vacancy rate adding pressure to buying a home, per capita income down, and lost decade in homeownership.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/cali" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... e+SoCal%29

Brown Seeks 10% Pay Reduction For State Employees, Unveils $12.5 Billion Spending Cuts; Suggestions to Eliminate the Gap
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. ... nalysis%29

Food Stamp Usage Hits New High Of 43.2 Million
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/food-s" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 32-million

Portugal has a debt problem (duh, just like the rest of Europe). Rates blow out, they can no longer finance their debts conventionally. China steps in and says they’ll buy Portugal’s debts (with their freshly printed Yuan)… as if debt is what Portugal needs (note that printing money and buying debt gives China an element of control over Portugal and even the entire Euro region). Now Japan, a thoroughly and completely bankrupt nation, has announced that they too are going to step up to bailout Portugal by buying up their debt! How does a bankrupt nation do such a thing? Simply by printing more Yen, that’s how. It’s okay for them, because in this nutty juncture in history, the Yen, as bankrupt as it is, has been gaining value despite the Japanese own attempts to destroy its value!

As if any of this will last… it won’t. The entire Euro region is bankrupt, the United States is bankrupt, Japan is bankrupt. We can all trade debt around all we want, but in the end there is simply not enough income to service it. Pretend will only get you so far and there is no doubt that currencies the world over are weakening very quickly now. Yes, you need to be prepared for the system to break down, it’s inevitable that there will be major changes to global money structure. History shows that those changes will be turbulent.

The market is looking very weak, especially internally where more and more divergences are appearing. Yesterday the NDX made a new high, yet the number of stocks above their 30 day average fell. These weakening internals are all a sign of an approaching top.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 11111.html

Much of the nation's South remains paralyzed today by a major winter storm that left up to a foot of snow and dangerous ice accumulations in its wake. Six states have declared states of emergency, and travel is extremely hazardous in the affected region, including Atlanta, where at least five closures of major interstates occurred this morning due to severe icing. The storm began Sunday in northeast Texas and tracked eastward, bringing snow amounts as high as 7 - 8 inches to northeastern Texas and southern Arkansas, 9 - 11 inches to northern Mississippi, northern Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and southern Tennessee. As of 3am CST, the heaviest snow as reported in the NOAA Storm Summary occurred at Cashiers, North Carolina, 12.5 inches. The worst freezing rain was reported in central Georgia at Wrightsville, which received 1.5" of ice. Aiken, South Carolina received 1" of ice, and numerous locations in South Carolina, Central Georgia, and Central Alabama received over 1/2" of ice. Freezing rain amounts of 1/4" were also reported in northern Louisiana, central Mississippi, and western Arkansas. Dangerous travel conditions will persist across the affected region the rest of today, as temperatures will struggle to reach 40°.

Major Nor'easter expected for New York City and Boston
Today's snow storm has pushed off the coast of North Carolina, and is expected to "bomb" into a classic Nor'easter off the coast of New England tonight through Wednesday. Up to a foot of snow is possible for New York City, Boston, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The heaviest snow--up to 16 inches--will likely fall across central Massachusetts, eastern Connecticut, western Rhode Island, and Long Island. Today's Nor'easter will not be as intense as the December 26 blizzard, however. The winds from today's storm are expected to remain less than 35 mph, resulting in only minor coastal flooding and an absence of blizzard conditions (frequent wind gusts over 35 mph or sustained winds over 35 mph, plus visibility less than 1/4 mile for at least three consecutive hours.)

Deadly flash flood hits Australia
Flood-weary Queensland, Australia suffered a new flooding disaster yesterday when freak rains of six inches fell in just 30 minutes near Toowoomba. The resulting flash flood killed nine people and left 59 missing. The flood waters poured into the Brisbane River, causing it to overflow, and significant flooding of low-lying areas in Brisbane, Australia's third largest city with some 2 million people, is expected on Thursday. As I discussed last week, Australia had its wettest spring (September - November) since records began 111 years ago, with some sections of coastal Queensland receiving over 4 feet (1200 mm) of rain. Rainfall in Queensland and all of eastern Australia in December was the greatest on record, and the year 2010 was the rainiest year on record for Queensland. The ocean waters surrounding Australia were the warmest on record during 2010, and these exceptionally warm waters allowed much higher amounts of water vapor to evaporate into the atmosphere, helping fuel the heavy rains. The record warm ocean temperatures were due to a combination of global warming and the moderate to strong La Niña event that has been in place since July. Queensland typically has its rainiest years when La Niña events occur, due to the much warmer than average ocean temperatures that occur along the coast. Beginning in December, the Queensland floods have killed at least 19, done $5 billion in damage, and flooded an area the size of Germany and France combined.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... rynum=1724

....what happens when the bank owns the cars....get out the video camera rather than the keys




















Two dead as wave of water smashes Toowoomba
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-dept" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 5985117820

Brisbane flood to be worst in 118 years
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -118-years

100,000 to lose power, supermarkets bare as flooding crisis continues
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/we" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 19l56.html

Residents flee Brisbane as flood threat grows in Australia
http://www.sify.com/news/residents-flee" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ffiga.html

Queensland under water
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/environ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... floods/map

Australia floods: Food prices 'to rise 30%'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12162952" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another Mass Animal Die-off
http://www.infowars.com/another-mass-animal-die-off/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wholesale Inventories Miss Expectations Of 1%, Print -0.2%, First Decline Since November 2009
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/wholes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ember-2009

Sharp Rise in World Food Prices
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... &Itemid=35

'One poor harvest away from chaos'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... chaos.html

For Millions Of Senior Citizens The Only Future They Have To Look Forward To Is One Filled With Debt And Poverty
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... nd-poverty

Government Spending Per Minute: $6.85 Million
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 03544.html

Geithner Says U.S. Insolvent
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff338.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

With Friends Like Japan Who Needs Acne?
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/friend" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... needs-acne

(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve's journey to the outer limits of monetary policy is raising concerns about how hard it will be to withdraw trillions of dollars in stimulus from the banking system when the time is right.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7096FE20110111" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Exclusive: America has ‘reached the point of no return,’ Reagan budget director warns
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/amer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... tor-warns/

Freedom fighters for a fading empire
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MA11Ak01.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

41% of NYC pregnancies end in abortion
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?secti" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... id=7883827

True Individual Freedom Depends on Educational Freedom
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... Itemid=124

Homeschooling Grows Beyond 2 Million
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... Itemid=127

Bangladesh Plunge Protection Team Arrives, Stock Market Rises 15%
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bangla" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... t-rises-15

China Owns Lots of Paper
http://econompicdata.blogspot.com/2011/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... paper.html

China Trade Surplus for December 2010
http://www.economicpopulist.org/content" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ember-2010

....some little insights into how China works...

Official reports say former Zhaiqiao village chief Qian Yunhui died accidentally while crossing a road. But villagers say he died December 25 after being forced by five police officers to lie in front of a rolling truck.

Photos allegedly from the scene that have been circulating on the Internet show a man's torso positioned beneath a truck wheel and beside a severed head.

Qian, leader of the Zhejiang Province village until 2004, once drew controversy for spearheading a campaign against government officials who allegedly expropriated land from farmers illegally. He served three jail terms for leading petition drives against the takeover of more than 140 hectares of farmland.

Witnesses say more than 50 armed police officers were deployed at the Qian death scene and clashed with villagers. Hundreds of people gathered within 10 minutes of the death, prompting the police deployment, they said.

http://english.caing.com/2011-01-10/100215288.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... Itemid=122

Gates says China moving fast on new weapons
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/01/09" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... w-weapons/

Chinese 'hiding military build-up'
http://www.theage.com.au/national/chine" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 19hjc.html

US will respond to Chinese military build-up
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ld-up.html

...the next "cold" war to provide purpose for taking the last of what we have?

Downturn's Ugly Trademark: Steep, Lasting Drop in Wages
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... TopStories

Explaining Recent Trends in Household Saving
http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/201" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... _rece.html

Crushing State Budget Cuts Wiping Out Stimulative Effects of Tax Deal
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/01/10/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -tax-deal/

The economic impact of the foreclosure slowdown
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/01" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -slowdown/

Foreclosure pet rescues reach the 1,000 mark, group says
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/01/10/f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ahoo!+Mail

Big Banks to New Jersey: Stop Bugging Us About Foreclosure Documents
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/credi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... _copyright

Group: Exclude Foreclosure Protection From New Mortgage Rules
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ge-rules/#

The US-Japan Congruity Explained By David Rosenberg In Ten Easy Pictures
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/us-jap" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... y-pictures

....and the theme of the day for Japan has been Deflation....

Government-created climate of fear
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... eenwald%29

How Congress helped created the very mental illness that resulted in the Giffords shooting
http://www.naturalnews.com/030976_menta" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ghner.html

An individual who made an unspecified threat against the office of Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., was arrested by FBI officials and Capitol Hill Police, Fox News confirmed Monday.

"We can confirm that there was a threat against Senator Bennet's office and that the FBI working with the Capitol Police have arrested the individual responsible for the threat,” Bennet’s office said in a written statement. “Per their advice, we are referring inquiries related to this matter to the Capitol Police. Michael has full confidence in the law enforcement agencies handling the case and remains focused on his job serving the people of Colorado."

A U.S. Capitol Hill Police spokeswoman confirmed the arrest to Fox News but referred all calls to the FBI.

Bennet, 46, was appointed to his Senate seat in January 2009 by Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter when then-Sen, Ken Salazar joined the Obama administration as secretary of the interior. In November, Bennet he narrowly beat Tea Party-backed Republican Ken Buck to win a full six-year term.

http://www.patrioticspace.com/forum/top" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... hare_topic

WASHINGTON — Fire and police officials Monday were investigating the death of a Washington energy lobbyist who was the wife of a White House aide. Ashley Turton was found dead in the pre-dawn hours inside a burning car at her Capitol Hill home. She was married to Daniel Turton, the White House's deputy director of legislative affairs.

She also was the mother of three children — 4-year-old twin boys and a 2-year-old girl, said Brian Wolff, a close friend.

"This is so horrific; I can't believe it," said Wolff, a senior vice president at Edison Electric Institute, a trade association for utility companies including Turton's employer, Raleigh-based Progress Energy.

"How much will they know of this person?" Wolff said of her young children. "How will they know how special their Mom was?"

News of Turton's death quickly spread through the nation's capital, where lawmakers are reeling from Saturday's attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. Six people, including a federal judge and a Giffords' staffer, were killed in the shooting rampage at a constituent event in Tucson.

D.C. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer said firefighters responded to a call of a garage fire shortly before 5 a.m. Monday and found heavy smoke and fire coming from a garage at the back of the home. Once firefighters extinguished the flames, they discovered a person inside a sport-utility vehicle.

Piringer said the fire apparently started after the vehicle crashed into something, perhaps inside the garage, and the victim was unable to get out.

Piringer would not identify the person in the car, but Progress Energy officials confirmed Turton's death. Washington, D.C., property records show the home is owned by Daniel Turton.

Beverly Fields, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office in Washington, said authorities have not yet determined the cause of death.

"We are just devastated by the news," Progress Energy spokesman Mike Hughes said. Ashley Turton, who is a former chief of staff to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., joined the company in September 2007, he said.

Turton was "a pioneering chief of staff who knew how to make the House of Representatives work for people," DeLauro said in a statement. "This is truly a terrible week for our congresss/

Frfamily."

Wolff said he nicknamed Turton "Ashley-in-charge" because of her penchant for problem-solving.

The day before she died, Wolff said, the two brainstormed on the telephone about establishing a foundation to aid Turton's younger brother, who had sustained brain injuries in a motorcycle accident, but no longer had insurance benefits to cover his therapy.

"That's who she was, always trying to find a solution," he said.

http://www.patrioticspace.com/forum/top" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... hare_topic

Ms. Giffords, 40, whom the authorities called the target of the attack, was in critical condition Sunday morning at the University Medical Center in Tucson, where she was operated on by a team of neurosurgeons on Saturday. Dr. Peter Rhee, medical director of the hospital’s trauma and critical care unit, said Saturday that she had been shot once in the head, “through and through,” with the bullet going through her brain.

President Obama, speaking at the White House, confirmed that a suspect was in custody and said that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, was on his way to Ariz/

to oversee the investigation.

Investigators identified the gunman as Jared Lee Loughner, 22, and said that he was refusing to cooperate with the authorities and had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. Mr. Loughner was in custody with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Saturday night, the Pima Country sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Loughner had exhibited increasingly strange behavior in recent months, including ominous Internet postings — at least one showing a gun — and a series of videos in which he made disjointed statements on topics like the gold standard and mind control.

Pima Community College said he had been suspended for conduct violations and withdrew in October after five instances of classroom or library disruptions that involved the campus police.

The authorities were seen entering the Loughner family house about five miles from the shooting scene. Investigators said they were looking for a possible accomplice, believed to be in his 50s.

The shootings raised questions about potential political motives, and Sheriff Dupnik blamed the toxic political environment in Ariz/

. There were immediate national reverberations as Democrats denounced the fierce partisan atmosphere in Ms. Gifford’s district and top Republicans quickly condemned the violence.

Mark Kimble, an aide to Ms. Giffords, said the shooting occurred about 10 a.m. in a small area between an American flag and an Ariz/

flag. He said that he went into the store for coffee, and that as he came out the gunman started firing.

Ms. Giffords had been talking to a couple about Medicare and reimbursements, and Judge Roll had just walked up to her and shouted “Hi,” when the gunman, wearing sunglasses and perhaps a hood of some sort, approached and shot the judge, Mr. Kimble said. “Everyone hit the ground,” he said. “It was so shocking.”

The United States Capitol Police, which is investigating the attack, cautioned lawmakers “to take reasonable and prudent precautions regarding their personal security.”

Because of the shootings, House Republicans postponed all legislation to be considered on the floor this week, including a vote to repeal the health care overhaul.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/po" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... s&emc=tha2

Two exploding BMWs in two days, within about six miles of each other…

Move along, citizen, nothing to see here?

Perhaps. That’s why we have the Coincidence category.

http://cryptogon.com/?p=19827" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ashley Turton, former Hill aide, dead in burning car
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/crime-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -of-a.html

'Ariz/

gunman' appears in court
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12157589" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Department of Homeland Security advises members of Congress on dealing with `active shooter'
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/nov" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... y_id=80687

Classitup10 is supposedly the channel belonging to the Ariz/

shooter, Jared Lee Loughner. This has been widely reported in the MSM. So how is it possible that he is still posting comments on youtube when he’s in jail? Did he give a friend access to his account?
http://deadlinelive.info/2011/01/11/lou" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... utube-wtf/

Hillary Clinton compares Gabrielle Giffords shooting to 9/11 attacks
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... tacks.html

Oh, It Was The John P. Wheeler III Who Was Involved In The Barksdale-Minot Incident Who Was Found In A Landfill!
http://femalefaust.blogspot.com/2011/01" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... o-was.html

TUCSON — Shooting suspect Jared Loughner was ordered held without bail Monday on charges of two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder in Saturday's mass shooting that left U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords clinging to life, and he was assigned a lawyer who defended Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Timothy McVeigh.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... main_N.htm
Bold and Underline mine

Leftists Attack Parents Of Murdered 9-Year-Old
http://www.prisonplanet.com/leftists-at" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... r-old.html

Dem planning bill that would outlaw threats to lawmakers
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -lawmakers

Obama Administration Reportedly Plans to Create Internet ID for All Americans
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... americans/

Tom DeLay sentenced to three years in prison
http://content.usatoday.com/communities" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... m-delay-/1

Drug War Violence Expands in Acapulco: 31 Dead in 4 Days
http://publicintelligence.net/drug-war-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... in-4-days/

According to a recently released PCA Market Intelligence report, 60.6 percent of total American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) highway funds have been dispersed through November, compared to 56.7 percent in October. November highway stimulus spending was $1.047 billion, an 11 percent decrease from October’s spending rate.

Monthly spending levels in September were the highest level to-date. Spending has averaged $1.256 billion in the last three months, down from the peak September average of $1.361 billion.

South Dakota (95.1 percent) surpassed Wyoming (93.8 percent) with the largest share of stimulus funds spent, while Maine (92.7 percent) remains in third. Virginia (21.1 percent) continues to have spent the least amount of ARRA highway funds followed by Hawaii (24.1 percent). The five largest cement consuming states have 51.7 percent of their stimulus funds available—down from 55.7 percent last month.

According to a review of project details, if seasonal patterns repeat, the first quarter of 2011 is expected to see an accelerated decline in spending. PCA maintains expectations of $9 billion in highway stimulus spending in 2011 with funds nearly depleted this time next year.

http://www.cement.org/exec2/01-10-11.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dioxin-contaminated liquid egg distributed in UK
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Qual" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... er%2BDaily

German dioxin scare spreads to meat
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -meat.html

EC to tighten up dioxin monitoring as UK consumers exposed to tainted food
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Qual" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... er%2BDaily

New food safety bill should spur industry action: Report
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Qual" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... er%2BDaily

...add more cost with little added safety....just more central power and control

GM corn releases insecticide chemicals that are now polluting rivers and streams
http://www.naturalnews.com/030959_GM_co" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... cides.html

8 Conspiracy Theories About Health That The Mainstream Media Has Been Forced To Admit Are Actually True
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ually-true

Chicken ‘titan' Don Tyson dies
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Proc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... er%2BDaily

....too much cocaine snorting with Bill!

Lees faces pressure from coconut price surge
http://www.confectionerynews.com/Financ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... %252BDaily

Danisco is to be snapped up by DuPont for $6.3bn, in a deal Dupont says could create a global leader in industrial biotech – and help drive science-based solutions to the world’s food and fuel challenges.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/Financial-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... %252BDaily

Dallas clubs run the gamut, from parolee and sailors-on-leave sorts of dives where a mild-mannered writer has no business being, to the high-end establishments with their slathers of French Quarter swank, heavy on gilt and red-velvet. At the Lons quDallas’s most upscale club, alcohol sales are up more than 11 percent from last year. “We’re doing better than real estate,” is how Michael Precker, the co-manager, put it.

Even in a market as competitive as Dallas, which is home to upward of 40 topless clubs, neither Mr. Precker nor Dawn Rizos, the chief executive of the Lons qucould think of a single club that’s closed its doors during the past two years. But what, a neophyte might wonder, made Dallas a mecca for strip clubs?

“Because we’re in the Bible Belt,” said Ms. Rizos. “There’s a church on every block, and men just like to sneak around. Most of our customers are married men. They get a little bored with their wives, they can come in here and get some flirtation, our girls make them feel good and special, then they go home and feel so guilty about it that they treat their wives really nicely.”

“It’s very Baptist,” she continued. “If you’re going to give up sin, you got to sin.”

Even Newt Gingrich knows a good thing when he sees it; his American Solutions organization invited Ms. Rizos to Washington in 2009 to receive an entrepreneur of the year award. The invitation was mysteriously revoked a week before the ceremony, but Ms. Rizos’s model still stands in refreshing contrast to what “capitalism” has come to mean in recent years, a transnational phalanx of giant corporations that eat their young and flatten everything in their path.

Then again, making the rounds of the clubs, one gets the feeling that even in the best of circumstances, taking off your clothes for a bunch of drunks is a tough way to make a buck. Tough on the ankles and feet (those stilettos). Tough on the head. Tough on the heart. It’s a beatdown, acting out a party every night. Most dancers will tell you they wouldn’t be dancing if they could make the same money doing something else.

“Why would I show my body if I didn’t have to?” was the way one dancer at a rival operation, the Men’s Club, put it. When I asked how she worked through the burnout, she shrugged. “I just look at my kids,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/opini" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... emc=tha212

Deepening crisis traps America's have-nots
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -nots.html

...forewarning...while much of what John Perkins says is true...there is a twist and his end goal is the new age implementation....so while he changed jobs....it was mainly just a marketing angle.

Economic Hit Man John Perkins interviewed by Health Ranger
http://www.naturalnews.com/030963_John_" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... t_man.html

Live interview -
http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=83B1AF930" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... 5C459A530B

....speaking of new age...here's a link with documentary on new age and Hollywood and the devil

Hollywood Unmasked
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... Itemid=118

Organized Crime Assault Threatens Central America
http://www.mexidata.info/id2915.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“We Are Now at a Historical Inflection Point at Which the Time Has Arrived for a Classic Post-War Demobilization of the Entire Military Establishment"
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ction.html

Biden: U.S. will help Afghanistan beyond 2014 if needed
http://content.usatoday.com/communities" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ond-2014/1

Militarization Of Energy Policy: U.S. Africa Command And Gulf Of Guinea
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/01" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... of-guinea/

More protests in Tunisia after dozens said killed
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ae970b.8d1

$1B NSA 'spy' center underway in Utah
http://gcn.com/articles/2011/01/07/nsa-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... -utah.aspx

"Greenspan Challenges Critics to Prove Him Wrong"
http://economistsview.typepad.com/econo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ahoo!+Mail

The Alcohol Revolution
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/alc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ution.html

Evolution Propaganda Comic Books to Indoctrinate Young Children
http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... Itemid=124

US says too much fluoride causing splotchy teeth
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110107/ap_" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ide_levels

EPA to Bar Fluoride-Based Pesticide
http://www.ewg.org/release/epa-bar-fluo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... +Topics%29

'Great Garbage Patch' in the Pacific Ocean not so great claim scientists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthn" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... tists.html

GDP Now Matters More Than Force
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... mit+Crisis

Survival Awareness
http://modernsurvivalonline.com/surviva" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... ine.com%29

[Songbird]

Wow Mummy, You really know how to put this together. I have not read it all, but have one question: What is HOT12 or HOTI2 ?

[durangout]

Wow Mummy, You really know how to put this together. I have not read it all, but have one question: What is HOT12 or HOTI2 ?

I wanted to ask that too. There is one other question and I mean it will all sincerity: What point are you trying to make with this collection of news stories (i.e. life in a telestial world sucks; the end is near, move to a desert island while you still can...)?

Have a great day.

[Jason]

Wow Mummy, You really know how to put this together. I have not read it all, but have one question: What is HOT12 or HOTI2 ?

I wanted to ask that too. There is one other question and I mean it will all sincerity: What point are you trying to make with this collection of news stories (i.e. life in a telestial world sucks; the end is near, move to a desert island while you still can...)?

Have a great day.

H-O-T-I-2 = Home Of The Ignorant Part 2

Purpose is twofold - 1) Observation of the times and the fulfillment of prophecy; and 2) Heads up on what is going on in our world - i.e. get prepared and know what is coming (food storage, a little cash for a rainy day, politically involved in opposing evil as best possible, reality check, etc.).

Hopefully its helpful....and positive in the sense that days like today show that we are moving towards Zion quite rapidly! I recognize that not everyone thinks that is positive though like my own mother and most fear the dark blip in the tunnel before hitting that shiny bright light (kind of like being choked to death before seeing God)....which is understandable. Or as Thomas Paine said -

“These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph....Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”

[durangout]

Mummy:

I think you perfectly fulfilled your purpose. Thanks.

[InfoWarrior82]

Mummy:

I think you perfectly fulfilled your purpose. Thanks.

Haha, are you implying he should now go back to live with The Creator?

Thanks mummy for that cumulative post. Many will say that these things have been going on since the beginning of this country and there's nothing to worry about. I think if our long dead relatives were to see what was going on today, they would say they could not even conceive of such things happening in their time. Like someone's quote says: It's a frog, pot, and boiling water thing.

[Squally]

Mummy, Thanks for the updates... All I can say about the most recent news post and all that is happening is WOW! Things are speeding up a bit.

[durangout]

Mummy:

I think you perfectly fulfilled your purpose. Thanks.

Haha, are you implying he should now go back to live with The Creator?

Thanks mummy for that cumulative post. Many will say that these things have been going on since the beginning of this country and there's nothing to worry about. I think if our long dead relatives were to see what was going on today, they would say they could not even conceive of such things happening in their time. Like someone's quote says: It's a frog, pot, and boiling water thing.

That wasn't what I ment but you are funny.

[Jason]

Just got the results this morning from a study I participated in at Pepperdine if anyone is interested -
http://bschool.pepperdine.edu/newsroom/ ... -FINAL.pdf

...its all just the opinion of people or responses to questions so more of an insight into perspective than anything else. The results I found interesting were:

mixed bag on opinion for fixing economic situation pg. 7
69.7% think privately held companies create more jobs (which is true) pg. 9
68.7% think unemployment will get back to 6% or lower by 2013 at the earliest pg.10
the majority thought the uncertain economic environment/low demand was the biggest impediment to economic growth pg.11 - 12
51.6% are less confident in 2011 economic growth versus 2010 pg.15
64% said public companies benefited more from stimulus (compare to 2nd line item) pg.18
71.5% of the entire sample said private companies got hosed pg.20
the majority think weaker dollar is better for economy pg.21
59.3% said an increase in the debt limit would be detrimental pg.26

Quote the chairman: "This fear of inflation is way overstated. We've looked at it very, very carefully. We've analyzed it every which way... We will not allow inflation to rise above 2% or less... I am 100% certain i can control inflation." Presenting the Jefferies global commodity index (CRB) which just hit a 27 month high.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/global ... month-high

....of course Zero Hedge is mocking Bernanke...but I think he's right. He can control inflation because he controls the cost of debt (interest rates) and the printing of debt (need I repeat Nathan Rothschild's statement about the control of money). So the Federal Reserve, as the front corporation for the banks, which are front corporations for a few private individuals, is actually controlling the economy....therefore one must come to the reconciliation that they purposely have increased the price of commodities thus putting additional margin squeeze as demand dries up due to deflation (collapsing credit).

14 Eye Opening Statistics Which Reveal Just How Dramatically The U.S. Economy Has Collapsed Since 2007
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/12 ... t+Press%29

World's ATMs Pump Billions Into Wrong Places: William Pesek

It’s official: the world economy is completely upside down.

What else is one to think as Europe goes hat-in-hand to developing China and feeble Japan? You would think China had better things to do with its cash than shore up a sinking euro zone. The same goes for Japan, where deflation and paralysis may soon deliver the sixth prime minister since September 2007.

Japan plans to buy bonds issued by Europe’s financial-aid fund, joining China in assisting a region battling a fast- spreading debt crisis. And does Europe ever need the help. Bailouts of Greece and Ireland merely pave the way to even bigger ones of Portugal, Spain and, perhaps, Italy.

It’s this last economy that should have officials in Beijing and Tokyo thinking twice about loading up on European debt. Yet here’s something even bigger to consider: what the world really needs isn’t China’s and Japan’s excess cash, but more balanced and sustainable growth in Asia’s main economies.

Europe’s debt woes are just beginning. No matter what the region’s policy makers do, they’re still stuck with a currency they can’t devalue and massive and growing debt loads. Buying Europe’s debt may Band-Aid things over, but China and Japan can’t stop the inevitable worsening of the euro crisis.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... pesek.html

(Reuters) - Home prices fell for the 53rd consecutive month in November, taking the decline past that of the Great Depression for the first time in the prolonged housing slump, according to Zillow.

Home prices have fallen 26 percent since their peak in 2006, exceeding the 25.9 percent drop registered in the five years between 1928 and 1933, the housing data company said in a report on Monday. Prices fell 0.8 percent over the month.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7 ... lContainer

Housing Slump Worse than the Great Depression
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... great.html

71% Oppose Raising Debt Ceiling As Congress Prepares To Ignore Supermajority's Wishes Again
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/71-opp ... shes-again

India Gold Imports Hit Record As "Price Is No Longer A Factor"
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/india- ... ger-factor

More Clues Of China's Real Estate Bubble: Ghost Malls
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/more-c ... host-malls

The Chinese Eco-Disaster
http://www.slate.com/id/2280338/pagenum/all/

The Political Measuring Stick
http://yophat.blogspot.com/

10 Things That Would Be Different If The Federal Reserve Had Never Been Created
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... en-created

Food Prices Rise Higher Than Ever As Globalists Predict Food Riots
http://theintelhub.com/2011/01/11/food- ... ood-riots/

Oil price hits two-year high

LONDON — The price of oil struck a two-year peak above 98 dollars per barrel here on Wednesday as a trans-Alaskan pipeline, which carries 12 percent of US production, remained shut following a leak.

Traders were meanwhile awaiting Wednesday's publication of official weekly crude inventory data for the United States -- which is the world's biggest oil consuming nation.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in February reached 98.46 dollars a barrel in early London trade, which was the highest level since October 1, 2008.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/oil- ... year-high/

Virginia: House Joint Resolution 557: ‘Establishing a joint subcommittee to study whether the Commonwealth should adopt a currency to serve as an alternative to the currency distributed by the Federal Reserve System in the event of a major breakdown of the Federal Reserve System.’

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604 ... +ful+HJ557

State and Local Update: Illinois
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/ ... ed+Risk%29

The gambling economy – Nevada GDP contracted 6.4 percent during the crisis. A state where 1 out of 4 people is unemployed or underemployed. States trying to balance budgets with gambling and casinos.

The above chart really highlights the magnitude of the contraction in Nevada. Even a state like California that has fallen down on incredibly hard times saw GDP contract by 2.2 percent from 2008 to 2009. Nevada contracted during this time by a stunning 6.4 percent. The only other state that comes close to this level of economic malaise is Michigan. Nevada depends heavily on neighboring states especially traffic from California. When the economy slowed down so did the amount spent in Las Vegas.

In 2006 those who gambled in Las Vegas played on average $651. In 2009 this number fell to $481. In a relatively short amount of time the average amount of money gambled fell by 26 percent. For a city that is completely dependent on splurging money this did not bode well for the state economy. As a result Nevada has been shedding jobs at a feverish pitch:

Nevada has a headline unemployment rate of 14.3 percent which puts the unemployment and underemployment rate at above 25 percent. It is hard to believe that we are dealing with states that have underemployment rates of 25 percent all the while talking about a healthy economy.

Las Vegas has the highest foreclosures per capita of any region in the country. The above chart shows that when booms go to busts prices usually come down hard and fast.

$10.6 billion in gaming revenue was brought in to the Las Vegas area in 2006. In 2009 this dropped to $8.8 billion. For 2010 the data is tracking close to that of 2009. Nevada is facing severe challenges ahead and many of the nation’s largest banks are holding onto loans that are backed by commercial real estate in Las Vegas. What is the likelihood that prices will reach their apex any time soon? Banks have suspended mark to market valuations and are basically making money in other arenas speculating in the stock markets not only domestically but globally and are trying to build enough gambling revenues to sweep the commercial real estate problems under the rug. The problem of course is this is only able to happen thanks to taxpayer bailouts and financial chicanery.

The economic engine came to a grinding halt in 2007 and nothing has really changed since that time except that instead of gambling money in Las Vegas money is now being gambled on Wall Street. Even the recent jobs report showed a decline in the unemployment rate not necessarily because massive jobs were added but because 260,000 people simply gave up or stopped looking for work. You have much more transparency on the Vegas Strip than you do on Wall Street.

http://www.mybudget360.com/gambling-eco ... -revenues/

...gambling in commodities thus putting further squeeze on the people....

Here They Come For Your Money – Dozens Of States Are Raising Taxes In 2011
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... es-in-2011

The still worthless and still near all-time historic lows MBA Purchase Index fell another 3.7% in the past week, here’s Econoday:

Highlights
Purchase applications fell a steep 3.7 percent in the January 7 week, a dip that threatens to sink what has been no better than a flat trend. Week-to-week adjustments on the data, however, are severe given the shortened prior week. The four-week average for the purchase index is down 1.0 percent. Refinance applications rose 4.9 percent in the week with 30-year mortgages averaging 4.78 percent, down four basis points in the week.


The housing market is still a mess, and don’t forget that we are in a temporary lull in Option-Arm reset activity until about March when resets launch into a peak. Bad timing for higher mortgage rates as all those people must either pay way higher monthly payments or refinance their homes that are most likely deeply underwater:

That will pressure upper-end home prices which in-turn will pressure banks and overall consumption.

This doesn’t phase Goldman Sachs, however, where analysts there must see nothing but POMO and HFT trading from now until the next coming of Jesus! They just issued their forecast stating that they expect U.S. stocks to rise 18% this year and that the bond market will “do okay.” Maybe, but then again maybe historic divergences and extreme overvaluation catch up to the market? With Goldman you never know whether or not you are being set up for distribution, but in this case that’s exactly what I think their latest marketing disguised as a “forecast” is all about. Made, not unexpectedly, during wave 5…

Both Import and Export Prices rose an unconscionable amount in December – Exports rose .7%, while Imports rose 1.1% for the month, pushing year over year Export Prices up 6.5% and Import Prices up 4.8%! While I believe these figures are understated, they are catastrophically high and completely unsustainable. Compare those to income figures and you’ll see that this cannot last for long. It is strictly a monetary phenomena, one that pressures the middle class as well as business margins.

Here’s Econoday’s summary:

Highlights
Inflation pressures for input prices are tangible but easing based on December import and export prices. Import prices rose 1.1 percent vs November's revised 1.5 percent rise (plus 1.3 percent first reported). The year-on-year rate is climbing, now at plus 4.8 percent. Prices of imported foods, feeds & beverages eased to plus 1.3 percent from November's plus 2.5 percent with industrial supplies at plus 2.8 percent vs plus 3.5 percent. These rates are significant yet there's little sign the increases are being passed through to final purchasers: import prices for consumer goods are unchanged while import prices for capital goods are up only 0.1 percent, the third straight 0.1 percent increase.

The export side likewise shows no significant pressure at the final goods level with consumer goods up 0.2 percent, down from November's 0.4 percent increase, and capital goods up only 0.1 percent. Exports of foods, feeds & beverages rose 0.7 percent, sizable but well below gains of 5.9 percent, 2.4 percent, and 2.0 percent in prior months. Year-on-year rates do show pressure, at plus 6.5 percent for total export prices and at plus 5.1 percent for non-agricultural prices for the largest increase since 1987.

Despite some negative details, today's report generally shows an easing in price pressures during December and points to no surprises for tomorrow's report on producer prices or Friday's report on consumer prices.


“Largest increase since 1987…” Hmmm, nothing bad happened that year did it? …As I watch the dollar dive…

Oh yeah, I forgot that Europe is saved! You know, since Japan and China are lending money to Portugal and all of their bond market sales are now likewise rigged, just like here in the United Fraudulent but Bankrupt States. But that truth-speak is incendiary, isn’t it? So maybe we just shouldn’t talk about it, right? I guess I shouldn’t even mention that the IMF is once again talking about raising their own self-imposed phony bailout limits, just like Congress must once again talk about raising our debt limits. Funny thing that if you follow both money trails that they lead to the same people in the same banks, and that the money in all cases comes from the same taxpayers. But I guess pointing that out would be inflammatory too. And in a quick conversation with a neighbor yesterday I had the joy of listening to him recite verbatim from the media how it’s a shame that the rhetoric “caused” that Jared kid to shoot up all those people.

By the way, where's all the media attention regarding the Omaha, Nebraska High School Vice Principal who was shot and killed by a 17 year old who also shot the school's Principal? I guess that was just caused by the "rhetoric" too.

Meanwhile the media barely discussed how Illinois just raised taxes by a historic amount on its citizens, and I’ll bet my neighbor is completely unaware of that fact, or the fact that a very large percentage of those taxes are needed to pay interest to the private banks who are very inappropriately, in my opinion, financing public debt:

Illinois lawmakers pass massive tax hikes

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Illinois lawmakers on Wednesday approved major personal and corporate income tax hikes to bring the state's budget back from the financial abyss.

The state is facing a $13 billion budget deficit that must be resolved by the end of the fiscal year on June 30. This includes $6 billion in unpaid bills to social service agencies, schools, contractors and others. In addition, the state's pension plan is severely underfunded.

To address these shortfalls, the Illinois House and Senate approved:
Temporarily raising the personal income tax rate to 5%, from 3%.

Temporarily hiking corporate income taxes to 7%, from 4.8%.

Imposing a moratorium on new programs with spending growth capped at 2% per year, with the exception of increased school aid of more than $700 million.

The House postponed a vote on increasing the tobacco tax to $1.99 per pack, up from 98 cents. And lawmakers defeated a proposal to borrow $8.75 billion to clear the current stack of unpaid bills.

The state's Senate also approved a measure allowing the state to borrow $3.7 billion for the fiscal 2011 pension payment. The House approved this debt issuance last May.

Democratic lawmakers were racing to pass the tax hikes before the newly elected legislators are seated later Wednesday. Republicans, who gained ground in the November election, are firmly opposed to hiking taxes, preferring instead to cut spending.

The fiscal package remained in flux until the end. To gain support, Democrats scaled back the personal income tax spike to 66%, down from an initial proposal of 75%, and also reduced the jump in the corporate tax rate, which was originally set to rise to 8.4%.

The tax hikes, steep as they are, won't eliminate the state's deficit, since they are only expected to raise about $7 billion. Complicating matters is the defeat of the bond measure to cover the unpaid bills.


Uh huh… Historic tax increases – note that income taxes are going up from 3% to 5%! That’s a two-thirds increase, and it will barely cover half of their deficit! Now that’s bad math! And the truth is that by now having some of the highest taxes in the world, Illinois is going to drive away capital like nobody’s business – as in capital flight. This will make their income projections just plain old fashioned wrong, they will come up far short of their projections as jobs, money, and people continue to flee Illinois.

Sadly Washington State is not too far behind – we are $4.6 billion in the hole, more math that simply is impossible to fix within current frameworks. And note that the “FED” has said in very plain terms that they have no intention of helping the states. In fact, Ben Bernanke said that it’s simply not their business to help the states. But boy can they help the banks! DUH, that’s because the “FED” is nothing but a front for the private banks – and if people think that they are going to print even more money to bail out non-banks, then they simply don’t understand WHO the “Fed” is. Sure, Congress can bail out the states, but then we have even more massive federal deficits for which interest must be paid… to the private banks. See WHO is in the no lose position and WHO is in the no win position?

Boy we must like that position because no one is doing anything about it… SHHHHH, stop all that inflammatory rhetoric!

But I do believe in the power of positive thinking! Optimism is a necessary ingredient to moving forward. However, when confronting physics and math, there are certain realities that cannot be ignored least you get yourself into gigantic trouble. For example, you may stand on your rooftop flapping your arms in the belief that you can jump off and fly like a bird! However, that blind optimism might just get you into trouble, a very fitting analogy to buying today’s stock “market.”

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... d-112.html

What Do 50 Cent, Carmen Electra & Shaquille O’Neal Have in Common? Touting Penny Stocks
http://www.propublica.org/article/what- ... -theyve-al

Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence
http://healthland.time.com/2011/01/07/t ... z1AiJRKLhO

Pennsylvania’s Drilling Wastewater Released to Streams, Some Unaccounted For
http://www.propublica.org/article/penns ... ounted-for

Flooding in Australia
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Natura ... &src=nhrss

A classic Nor'easter continues to intensify this morning off the New England coast, bringing heavy snow and strong winds from New Jersey to Maine. The snow has ended in New York City, which received 9.1" at Central Park as of 7am EST. Heavier snows of just over a foot fell on nearby regions, with 12.1" in Bedford Park, 13.2" in Levittown, and 12.5" in East Rutherford, NJ. The heaviest snow is occurring in Connecticut, where a storm-high 23" has fallen so far at North Haven. Twenty-two inches fell at Ridgefield on the Connecticut/New York border. The storm is at peak intensity this morning in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, and blizzard warnings are now posted for Boston and the surrounding coast of Massachusetts. Blizzard conditions occur when a storm has frequent wind gusts over 35 mph or sustained winds over 35 mph, plus visibility less than 1/4 mile for at least three consecutive hours. Today's Nor'easter intensified a little more than expected, reaching a central pressure of 983 mb at 8am EST. The storm is currently centered along the Southeast Massachusetts coast, and is bringing very high winds to all of coastal Massachusetts. Winds at the Provincetown airport on the tip of Cape Cod were sustained at 43 mph, gusting to 79 mph, at 6:35am EST. A personal weather station at Humarock Beach in Scituate, southeast of Boston, recorded a wind gust of 64 mph at 5:51am EST this morning. Snow fall rates of 1 - 2 inches per hour are common over Rhode Island, western Connecticut, and much of Massachusetts this morning. Some of the heaviest bands are producing three inches of snow per hour, accompanied by thunder. The highest snowfall amounts in Massachusetts as of 6am EST were 14" at Goshen and Worthington. A few locations in the state may see as much as 20" from the storm.

Winter misery continues in the South
Meanwhile, travel over much of the nation's South remains difficult this morning due to the winter storm that left up to a foot of snow and dangerous ice accumulations in its wake. Atlanta had all of its interstate highways open this morning, but continued icy conditions resulted in numerous crashes on area roads. With temperatures expected to remain below freezing in Atlanta and surrounding regions today, the area will be slow to shed its coasting of snow and ice. Temperatures will struggle to reach freezing on Thursday, and it is not until Friday that much of the South will see significant melting of their ice and snow. The South's storm began Sunday in northeast Texas and tracked eastward, bringing snow amounts as high as 7 - 8 inches to northeastern Texas and southern Arkansas, 9 - 11 inches to northern Mississippi, northern Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, and southern Tennessee. The heaviest snow as reported in the NOAA Storm Summary occurred in the Smoky Mountains at Bakersville, North Carolina--20 inches. The worst freezing rain was reported in central Georgia at Wrightsville, which received 1.5" of ice. Aiken, South Carolina received 1" of ice, and numerous locations in South Carolina, Central Georgia, and Central Alabama received over 1/2" of ice. Freezing rain amounts of 1/4" were also reported in northern Louisiana, central Mississippi, and western Arkansas.

According to our weather historian, Christopher C. Burt, in his blog post this morning titled, "Snowstorms in the South: A Historical Perspective", the 8.9" that fell on Huntsville, Alabama from this week's storm was that city's third heaviest snow on record. The post has a nice summary of the remarkable heavy snow storms that have hit the South in the past.

Extreme flooding continues in Australia
Flood-weary Queensland, Australia suffered a new flooding disaster on Monday when freak rains of six inches fell in just 30 minutes near Toowoomba. The resulting flash flood killed twelve people, and 40 are still missing. The flood waters poured into the Brisbane River, causing it to overflow, and significant flooding of low-lying areas in Brisbane, Australia's third largest city with some 2 million people, is expected on Thursday. At least 20,000 homes and businesses are expected to be inundated when the Brisbane River crests at a record 18 feet, according to media reports. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) reports that an additional 100+ mm (4") of rain has fallen in the Brisbane area in the 24 hours ending at 9am local time this morning, further adding to the city's flood woes. No further significant rains are forecast in the Brisbane area until next week, though. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, this is the most significant flooding event in Australia since at least the 1970s. In 2010, Australia had its wettest spring (September - November) since records began 111 years ago, with some sections of coastal Queensland receiving over 4 feet (1200 mm) of rain. Rainfall in Queensland and all of eastern Australia in December was the greatest on record, and the year 2010 was the rainiest year on record for Queensland. Queensland typically has its rainiest years when La Niña events occur, due to the much warmer than average ocean temperatures that occur along the coast. The BOM notes, "Previous strong La Niña events, such as those of 1974 and 1955, have also been associated with widespread and severe flooding in eastern Australia. Sea surface temperatures off the Queensland coast in recent months have also been at or near record levels." The BOM's annual summary also reported, "Sea surface temperatures in the Australian region during 2010 were the warmest value on record for the Australian region. Individual high monthly sea surface temperature records were also set during 2010 in March, April, June, September, October, November and December. Along with favourable hemispheric circulation associated with the 2010 La Niña, very warm sea surface temperatures contributed to the record rainfall and very high humidity across eastern Australia during winter and spring." Beginning in December, the Queensland floods have killed at least 22, and damage estimates are now as high as $13 billion. Queensland has an area the size of Germany and France combined.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1725

Snow present in 49 of the 50 U.S. states
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/11/sn ... es/?hpt=C2

Brisbane's floods reaching peak
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12173846





Humans – The Next Canaries In the Mine?
http://theintelhubradio.com/2011/01/12/ ... -the-mine/

Fearing tea party violence, four Arizona Republicans resign
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/fear ... ns-resign/

Gun maker sells assault rifle component engraved with ‘You Lie’ congressman’s quote
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/gun- ... ans-quote/





Universe captured in mind-boggling detail by Sloan Digital Sky Survey
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/ ... sky-survey

.....UPDATE.....

Interest on unemployment debt as of January 11, 2011 is $50,045,483.55
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/repo ... ssched.htm

At $400 a week for unemployment benefits (a little above average) that would pay 125,113 people a week of unemployment benefits.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Dec. 18 was 8,765,952
http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm

National Guard Deployed In Mass. Due To Massive Snow Storm
http://theintelhub.com/2011/01/12/25597/

Portents of a Collapsed Society
http://www.oldthinkernews.com/?p=725

Allen Stanford's Trial Indefinitely Delayed. Suspected CIA Banker Became "Drug Dependent" -- in Federal Custody
The strange case of accused swindler and suspected CIA banker R. Allen Stanford became a whole lot stranger last week.

During a preliminary hearing in Houston, U.S. District Judge David Hittner ruled that Stanford, charged with orchestrating an $8 billion dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of investors, cannot be tried until he undergoes detoxification for a drug addiction acquired after his incarceration in a federal detention facility.

http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/

The Federal Reserve Becomes Most Profitable Bank In History
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... in-history

How The Fed Spent $2 Trillion And In Exchange We Got 650,000 Temp, Leisure And Retail "Jobs"
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/how-fe ... etail-jobs

After Brief Sabbatical, Muni Massacre Is Back
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/after- ... sacre-back

Tunisia Rioting Escalates, Hits Capital As More Are Killed While Protesting Surging Unemployment And Food Prices
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/tunisi ... employment

....more from Australia








CNN: Australia crippled by floods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQTjeLIb27M

[Jason]

Daily Oil Market Summary: 1.12.2011

Crude oil prices were higher on Wednesday and printed new two-year highs as traders reacted to news that it will require at least five days to build a bypass around the affected portion of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. The actual construction is forecast to take four days and then it should take another 36 hours to install the bypass. In the meantime, the pipeline will resume limited operation. It will be a temporary restart to prevent tanks from filling completely along the route, which would halt movement altogether. The pipeline also needs to restart temporarily to keep the sections from icing over. This was not the solution that most expected and is more complicated.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/daily- ... ry-1122011

2 Dead, 4 Injured In Chile As Gas Price Hike Protests Turn Deadly
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/2-dead ... urn-deadly

Lower corn and soybean output sends prices surging
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financia ... N2PD00.htm

JP Morgan Told Judge To Stop Paying Mortgage To Become Eligible For Loan Modification
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/jp-mor ... dification

Death toll mounts from flooding in Rio de Janeiro state
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12171710

Brisbane flood levels reach peak
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12173846

Mount Etna Erupting?

Is there a VIX index of climatic and/or geologic activity? Cause the last few weeks have been off the charts. Breaking News shares pictures showing that the Etna volcano has erupted (or at least is projectiling magma far more potently than it traditionally does in its dormant state). As of now, it is unclear if millions of birds, crabs, or fish have fallen out of the sky surrounding Vesuvius. Conveniently this occurs hours after we presented Nigel Farage's rather "glass half emptyish" outlook on Italy's prospects.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mount-etna-erupting

Starting on the late evening (about 21.00 GMT) of 11 January 2011, a slight increase in the volcanic tremor amplitude has been recorded by the INGV-CT seismic network, which reached a peak at 07:00 on 12 January. During the early morning of this day, the source of the tremor was observed to shift from its previous location to the north of the Northeast Crater toward the Southeast Crater. These variations have been accompanied by the resumption of weak eruptive activity within the pit crater located on the eastern flank of the Southeast Crater cone, as observed already during the day of 11 January, and which gradually increased in intensity during the early morning of today. As of 08:45 GMT this morning, the activity continues to be rather weak, without any emission of volcanic ash, whereas dense emission of gas and vapor is observed at the other summit craters of Etna.

On the evening of 12 January, Strombolian activity continued from the active vent within the pit crater; during the afternoon and evening the volcanic tremor amplitude had continued to increase. Shortly after 21:00, lava that had accumulated within the pit crater started to overflow on its low eastern rim, feeding a lava flow that advanced toward the western wall of the Valle del Bove. It is possible that the ongoing activity is producing volcanic ash.

http://www.ct.ingv.it/index.php?view=ar ... om_content

Mount Etna (Αἴτνη (Aítnē) in Classical Greek,[3] Aetna in Latin, also known as Muncibeddu (beautiful mountain) in Sicilian and Mongibello in Italian (from the Latin mons and the Arabic gibel, both meaning mountain[4]) is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. Its Arabic name was Jebel Utlamat ("the Mountain of Fire").[citation needed] According to Adrian Room’s book Placenames of the World, the name Etna is said to have originated from a Phoenician word attuna meaning “furnace.” He dismisses the theory that Etna is from a Greek source meaning “I burn.”[5] It is the largest active volcano in Europe, currently standing 3,329 metres (10,922 ft) high, though this varies with summit eruptions; the mountain is 21 m (69 ft) lower now than it was in 1981. It is the highest mountain in Italy south of the Alps. Etna covers an area of 1,190 km² (460 sq mi) with a basal circumference of 140 km. This makes it by far the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, being about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius. Only Mount Teide in Tenerife surpasses it in the whole of the European region.[6] In Greek Mythology, the deadly monster Typhon was trapped under this mountain by Zeus, the god of the sky.

Mount Etna is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is in an almost constant state of activity. The fertile volcanic soils support extensive agriculture, with vineyards and orchards spread across the lower slopes of the mountain and the broad Plain of Catania to the south. Due to its history of recent activity and nearby population, Mount Etna has been designated a Decade Volcano by the United Nations.[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna

Mount Etna, towering above Catania, Sicily's second largest city, has one of the world's longest documented records of historical volcanism, dating back to 1500 BC. Historical lava flows of basaltic composition cover much of the surface of this massive volcano, whose edifice is the highest and most voluminous in Italy. The Mongibello stratovolcano, truncated by several small calderas, was constructed during the late Pleistocene and Holocene over an older shield volcano. The most prominent morphological feature of Etna is the Valle del Bove, a 5 x 10 km horseshoe-shaped caldera open to the east. Two styles of eruptive activity typically occur at Etna. Persistent explosive eruptions, sometimes with minor lava emissions, take place from one or more of the three prominent summit craters, the Central Crater, NE Crater, and SE Crater (the latter formed in 1978). Flank vents, typically with higher effusion rates, are less frequently active and originate from fissures that open progressively downward from near the summit (usually accompanied by strombolian eruptions at the upper end). Cinder cones are commonly constructed over the vents of lower-flank lava flows. Lava flows extend to the foot of the volcano on all sides and have reached the sea over a broad area on the SE flank.

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano ... m=0101-06=

Volcano Eruption Caught on Tape

SICILY, ITALY -- Mount Etna, the highest active volcano in Europe, erupted overnight sending jets of molten lava into the air but not threatening nearby residents.

The white-hot lava jets were thrown over 600 feet above Etna while a spout on the southeast flank of the volcano released two streams of lava in the direction of an uninhabited area.

There was a similar eruption on March 29 while last December the nearby airport of Catania had to be closed at night for two weeks because of ash blown into the atmosphere by volcanic activity.

Etna's last major eruption was in summer 2001.

http://www.kfvs12.com/Global/story.asp?S=6446985








Vesuvius's big daddy: The supervolcano that threatens all life in Europe
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive ... urope.html

Magnitude 6.5 - BONIN ISLANDS, JAPAN REGION
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 0011yn.php

World map of trouble spots
http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index2.php?lang=

[Jason]

NASA says it can’t afford shuttle replacement
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/nasa ... placement/

....sign of the times....suck it up!

Initial Claims Surge To 445K, On Expectations Of 410K, Not Adjusted Claims Surge By 191,686 To 770,413 In One Week

So much for that amazing beat in the last 2010 number in initial claims, which is now proven to have been purely a figment of the BLS' imagination and a whole load of guesstimations. Today's initial claims number throws cold water to all those who expected the trend in claims to be improving. At 445K, this was a huge miss to expectations of 410K, and a major deterioration from last week's (upwardly revised of course) 410K (was 409K before). Elsewhere, continuing claims came at 3,879K on expectations of 4,088K (with the previous naturally revised higher as well from 4,103K to 4,127K). And the kicker: in NSA terms initial claims were a mammoth 770,413, a 191,686 increase in just one week, and the highest NSA number in one year! The result: the spread between SA (3.1%) and NSA (3.8%) unemployment rate jumps to year highs. Of course, the BLS blames the huge disappointment on "paperwork delays", yet blamed nobody for the amazing beats in the end of 2010 which brought the market to a complete frenzy.

Lastly, completing the trifecta of bad data, those on various forms of extended claims jumped by 130K, confirming that we are nowehere close to dealing with the "99 week completion" cliff issue, as ever more people roll off continuing claims.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/initia ... 3-one-week

Crop Prices Soar on Supply Warnings
U.S. Cuts Global Grain Supply Outlook; Higher Prices Expected at Grocery Stores

Evidence of tightening global food supplies grew as the U.S. Agriculture Department cut its estimates for global harvests of key crops and raised some demand forecasts, adding to worries about rising food prices.

Prices of corn and soybeans leapt 4% Wednesday and wheat gained 1%, continuing the broad rally in commodity prices that began in June. With yesterday's gains, prices of corn futures contracts are now up 94% from their June lows; soybeans are up 51% and wheat is up 80%.

The USDA's revisions reflect the impact of dry weather in South America and floods in Australia, which have compounded supply constraints that first started to emerge in the middle of last year, when a drought in Russia ravaged that country's wheat fields. The agency also cut estimates for U.S. harvests of corn and soybeans.

At the same time, demand is increasing. The USDA said ethanol producers likely will increase their use of corn, and consumption by emerging market countries continues to be strong.

Prices of many agricultural commodities are still below the levels that sparked food riots in poor countries around the world in 2008. But economists see few signs that prices for grain, livestock and cotton will cool significantly anytime soon, signaling potential headaches for consumers and food companies.

"The markets are very, very tight," said Joseph Glauber, the USDA's chief economist. "There is concern, no doubt."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB2000142 ... 00340.html
Bold and Underline mine

....by design of course!

How oil affects the price of peas in China

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian president, has launched a national drive to encourage his countrymen to grow their own chilli peppers. The South Korean government has released emergency supplies of cabbage, pork, mackerel, radish and other staples as part of President Lee Myung-bak’s war on inflation. This week, the Indian cabinet met to discuss the soaring price of onions, an issue reputed to have caused the downfall of two previous administrations. As in 2007-08, the topic of food inflation – even food security – has percolated to the very top of the political agenda.

The spectre of inflation has rattled investors. India’s stock market has fallen 5 per cent since the start of the year. Indonesian shares, among the world’s best performers in 2010, have slid 7 per cent in a few days. Central banks are caught in a bind. Bank Indonesia, citing concerns that higher interest rates could attract more inflows of hot money, last week left rates unchanged for the 17th month in a row. That has prompted concerns that Indonesia’s monetary-policy horse might be clopping along far behind the inflationary cart.

In China, too, higher food prices are feeding inflation, which scaled 5 per cent in November, well above the official 3 per cent target. One of the unorthodox countermeasures taken by Chinese authorities has been to allow vegetable trucks to travel toll-free on highways – a sort of quantitative easing for carrots and aubergines.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8acc5964-1e86 ... z1AvuUEL9S

....a few posts back an article stated that 75% of China's inflation was food related! Remember the massive flooding across the east last summer while Russia burned? I'd bet a nickel to a dollar that is the culprit....but they wouldn't want to coerce people into praying for better weather.

How the Food Safety Modernization Act will destroy American jobs, farms and local foods
http://www.naturalnews.com/030986_food_ ... rmers.html

Failing Elite Food Gambit?
http://www.thedailybell.com/1676/Failin ... ambit.html

Housing Market Slips Into Depression Territory
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41019790

American cities starting to fail in droves: Charles Ferguson explains the roots of the economic crisis and the oligarchy of economic elites
http://dailycensored.com/2011/01/12/ame ... ensored%29

The Financial Crisis, the Recession, and the American Political Economy: A Systemic Perspective
http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/861

U.S. Foreclosure Filings May Jump 20% in 2011 as Crisis Peaks

The number of U.S. homes receiving a foreclosure filing will climb about 20 percent in 2011, reaching a peak for the housing crisis, as unemployment remains high and banks resume seizures after a slowdown, RealtyTrac Inc. said.

“We will peak in foreclosures and probably bottom out in pricing, and that’s what we need to do in order to begin the recovery,” Rick Sharga, RealtyTrac’s senior vice president, said in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “But it’s probably not going to feel good in the process.”

A record 2.87 million properties got notices of default, auction or repossession in 2010, a 2 percent gain from a year earlier, the Irvine, California-based data seller said today in a report. The number climbed even after a plunge in filings in the last part of the year -- including a 26 percent drop in December -- as lenders came under scrutiny for their practices.

Banks seized more than 1 million homes in 2010, according to RealtyTrac. That was up 14 percent from a year earlier and the most since the company began reports in 2005.

About 3 million homes have been repossessed since the housing boom ended in 2006, Sharga said. That number could balloon to about 6 million by 2013, when the housing market may “absorb the bulk of distressed properties,” he said.

Foreclosure Pipeline

“What makes this almost inevitable is the fact there are 5 million seriously delinquent loans not yet in foreclosure,” Sharga said. “They’ve got to eventually get in the pipeline unless the homeowners cure the defaults.”

As many as 250,000 foreclosure filings that would have occurred at the end of 2010 were delayed by the ongoing probe into lender practices, according to RealtyTrac. Those proceedings will be pushed into this year, resulting in an “ugly” first quarter, Sharga said.

Attorneys general in all 50 states are investigating whether banks and loan servicers used faulty documents and signatures on loan documents, a process that has come to be known as robo-signing. Companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Ally Financial Inc. halted some repossessions as they reviewed their procedures.

Nevada had the highest U.S. foreclosure rate in 2010 for the fourth consecutive year, with more than 9 percent of the state’s households receiving a filing. Arizona was second at 5.7 percent and Florida third at 5.5 percent.

California’s rate was 4.1 percent, Utah’s was 3.4 percent and Georgia’s was 3.3 percent. Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado rounded out the top 10.

Five states accounted for 51 percent of the U.S. filing total, with almost 1.5 million. California led with 546,669, down almost 14 percent; Florida was second at 485,286, down 6 percent; and Arizona was third at 155,878, down 4 percent.

Illinois ranked fourth at 151,304 and Michigan was fifth at 135,874, both down about 15 percent from 2009.

Georgia, Texas, Ohio, Nevada and New Jersey also ranked among the top 10, said RealtyTrac, which sells data from counties representing 90 percent of the U.S. population.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... peaks.html

....won't peak with unemployment continuing to spiral down...or up depending on your perspective. Have to take it in the context of the big macro picture which I describe in further detail here -
http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... 19&t=15706

or here -
http://yophat.blogspot.com/

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.

Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)

Regarding Obama’s speech last night, my thought is that talk is not only cheap, but when facing the harsh reality of bad math, rhetoric that fails to address the math is counter-productive and is exactly what leads to those “other” events. It is action, not happy rhetoric that matters when facing tangible threats. Bring on the deeds, otherwise zip it. Americans are being robbed of their money, of their property, of their food, of their liberty. We need a leader with GUTS to stand up to the banks – let me know when you’re ready.

Weekly Jobless Claims rose from 409,000 to 445,000, a 36,000 one week increase. Consensus was looking for a decrease to only 405k. This huge miss and increase back into the 450k zone throws tons of cold water on the massaged numbers that came out over the holiday weeks. Yet, in a delusional haze, the Labor Department and Econoday say that the “special factors” are in this report… Large doses of Thorazine, Stat!

Highlights
In data blurred by special factors, initial claims surged to 445,000 in the January 8 for the worst result since October. The week-to-week rise, at 35,000, is the largest since July (prior week revised 1,000 higher to 410,000). The four-week average offers the best handle on the data, up 5,500 to 416,500 which is still nearly 10,000 lower than the month-ago comparison, a comparison that does hint at improvement for monthly payrolls.

Now the special factors. The Labor Department believes the week's surge reflects administrative backlog built up during the shortened weeks of the holidays. They also note that many claimants postponed filing until the New Year, a move that will increase their benefits.

Continuing claims fell a very steep 248,000 to 3.879 million in data for the January 1 week. There's no explanation offered for this change. The unemployment rate for insured workers fell two tenths to 3.1 percent.

One week's data is only one week's data and in this case very hazy data. Nevertheless this report, however skewed, will awaken talk of unexpected deterioration in the jobs market. Next week's report will be unusually important.


Not mentioned is that the 4 week moving average rose from 410k to 416k. Remember, job destruction is occurring with any number above 350k. Unadjusted claims rose by a whopping 191,686! The headline number for this same week in 2010, one year ago, was 470k… that’s a decrease of only 25,000 following trillions more thrown at the banks. Trillions that could have been used to clear out our debt saturated condition that would have led to real job production, not just trumped up numbers and a trumped up phony “market.” If you ask me, forget about the fluoride in the water, what we really need as a population are anti-psychotics to help us with our economic mass-psychosis!

Psychosis is the only way I can explain jubilation at running a nearly $40 billion a month trade deficit:

Highlights
We got a nice surprise on the trade front despite the recent run up in oil prices. The overall U.S. trade deficit in November shrank slightly to $38.3 billion from a revised $38.4 billion gap the month before (original estimate of $38.7 billion). The November deficit was much less negative than market expectations for a $41.0 billion shortfall. A combination of factors led to the improvement. Exports rose 0.8 percent, following a 3.0 percent jump in October. Imports rebounded a modest 0.6 percent after declining 0.8 percent in October.

The narrowing of the trade deficit was primarily in the nonpetroleum goods gap which eased to $30.3 billion from $30.8 billion in October. The services surplus also edged higher. The petroleum differential widened to $20.1 billion from $18.9 billion the month before.

By end-use categories, the increase in goods exports was led by a $1.0 billion gain in consumer goods with foods, feeds & beverages up $0.6 billion. Also rising were capital goods. The automotive category dipped $0.6 billion.

The rebound in goods imports was led by a $1.9 billion boost in industrial supplies-largely oil imports. Foods, feeds & beverages rose $0.2 billion while capital goods rebounded $1.0 billion. Imports of autos and consumer goods declined $0.4 billion and $0.9 billion, respectively.

Today's report is good news for manufacturers which are seeing continued gains in exports. We are likely to see economists nudge up their estimate for fourth quarter GDP due to the favorable trade numbers for December.

There was little initial market reaction. Partially offsetting the good news on trade was an unexpected jump in initial jobless claims.


Horrid is how I would describe a situation in which sales measured in falling and worth less dollars are falling, and in which the cost of oil is rising. This is the worst of all words, brought to you courtesy of the narcissistic bastards pulling the strings at the “Fed.” Again, the rhetoric is NEEDED, and it is needed to get on point fast as food riots break out over the globe and real people DIE! Riots are now happening in Argentina with deaths occurring over gasoline riots. Think that can’t happen here? Think again, they are coming unless we reel the banksters in.

The PPI numbers are rising and are simply too high already. Any inflation whatsoever is completely unsustainable over time, yet the “Fed” profits from it so they treat it as if it is good and try to create it. It’s not good, it’s destructive. REAL growth is fine when kept under control, but PRICE growth through constant monetary expansion only leads to massive problems and the eventual destruction of confidence in the money system. Lucky us, we’re going to live through the destruction and change of our current system, not to mention the “other events” that history says accompany such upheaval:

Highlights
The Fed may be in a quandary soon if not already. While core inflation is still tame, headline inflation is running higher than expected. And unemployment is not coming down as hoped. But focusing on today's inflation numbers, the overall PPI inflation rate remained on the hot side in December with a 1.1 percent boost after jumping 0.8 percent in November. The December boost topped the consensus forecast for a 0.9 percent increase. At the core level, the PPI rate slowed to 0.2 percent a 0.3 percent rebound the prior month. Analysts expected a 0.2 percent rise.

By components, food prices gained 0.8 percent, after a 1.0 percent jump in November. The energy component continued a strong upward trend, surging 3.7 percent in December after rising 2.1 percent the prior month. Within energy, gasoline spiked 6.4 percent after jumping 4.7 percent in November. The core was kept somewhat soft in part by a 0.4 percent decline in prices for passenger cars.

For the overall PPI, the year-on-year rate increased to 4.1 percent from 3.5 percent in November (seasonally adjusted). The core rate firmed to 1.4 percent from 1.3 the prior month. On a not seasonally adjusted basis for December, the year-ago the headline PPI was up 4.0 percent while the core was up 1.3 percent.

There was little market reaction. Also out at the same time, initial unemployment claims unexpectedly jumped while the international trade deficit was smaller than forecast. Today's PPI numbers will heat up the debate at the Fed during the end of month FOMC meeting as inflation pressures are rising while unemployment remains high. And it is not just energy that is a concern as food prices are being pressured by higher commodities prices.


That’s right, high inflation and high unemployment – welcome to debt saturation and money printing which is the exact wrong way to handle the saturation problem.

So, everyone’s convinced that we’ll soon see QE3 followed shortly thereafter by QE10! Really? Are we going to be QEing and POMOing when the CPI passes 10%? What happens to the “market” when that stops?

I’m not saying it’s going to stop, I’m saying that the idiots still have choices – sure, they can create high or hyper-inflation if they so choose or even by accident, but this will be devastating to our population, to our economy, and to businesses in the longer run. You simply cannot get out of an impossible math situation by ignoring it! Not talking about it WON’T WORK!

So, wave 5 up is going to run headlong into tough decisions. In the meantime we continue to POMO more than $100 billion a month. Is the economy getting better? If the honest answer is yes, then they better pull the support. But we know the truth… it’s all fluff. Pull the support and the “market” goes boom. Thus we are now damned if we do and we are damned if we don’t – a position brought to you by WHO controls the production of YOUR money! Want it not to happen to your kids and future generations? Change that one part of the equation and get our nation out of the business of paying private individuals for the use of our own money. That means NO MORE NATIONAL DEBT!

And if you think that the Jefferson quote at the top of this update is hype, consider the ongoing destruction of our money and the current price of gold which the majority thought was crazy talk just a few short years ago – inflation! While at the same time property values continue to deflate and honest hard working citizens continue to lose their jobs and their homes! Yes, their property is being stolen by the banks who made money from absolutely nothing and are repossessing properties by the millions – properties that if they did not control the production of money they would have no legal claim to! The money system and the property of the United States belongs to its people, not to a few private individual bankers!

Here are the sickening statistics for 2010 foreclosures:

1 million homes repossessed in 2010

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Foreclosures were at a record high in 2010, and more than 1 million people lost their homes, even as notices started leveling off during the end year.

In total, there were nearly 2.9 million foreclosure notices filed during the year, according to report released Thursday by RealtyTrac. That was a record high, but just 1.7% above 2009.

It most certainly would have been higher had notices not plunged in November and December as banks halted tens of thousands of foreclosures in the face of the robo-signing scandal.

"Total properties receiving foreclosure filings would have easily exceeded 3 million in 2010 had it not been for the fourth quarter drop in foreclosure activity," said James Saccacio, RealtyTrac's CEO. "Many of the foreclosure proceedings that were stopped in late 2010 -- which we estimate may be as high as a quarter million -- will likely be re-started and add to [foreclosure] numbers in early 2011."


That’s one million families just in the past year that lost their homes! And, there were nearly three times as many families who were put into the foreclosure process! Think about the STRESS that puts on those families! It’s a wonder, a miracle to me, that there is not far more violence occurring. It is the LACK OF REAL AND MEANINGFUL RHETORIC that’s to blame. We are one screwed up country and we are still in deep denial.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... d-113.html

Citing a "high level of volatility" in the muni market, Vanguard cancels plans to open three municipal bond ETFs - a blow to its moves to catch up with BlackRock (BLK) and State Street (STT) in that area. Mutual funds report eight straight weeks of withdrawals from munis.

http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/65786?source=feed

25 Hard Questions That You Will Not See Asked On CNN, MSNBC Or Fox News
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... r-fox-news

December Foreclosure Filings Slump By Biggest Annual Amount In History As Fraudclosure Clampdown Persists
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/decemb ... pdown-pers

Global economic growth to slow in 2011, says World Bank
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12179248

...duh...interest is coming due and new money (credit) is declining despite all the rhetoric!

Failing to Prosecute Financial Fraud - On Either Side of the Atlantic - Is Extending Our Economic Crisis
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... ud-on.html

Brisbane a `War Zone' as Worst Floods Since 1974 Swamp 15,000 Properties
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... ssing.html

Australian Flood Photos January 2011
http://publicintelligence.net/australia ... uary-2011/

Magnitude 7.3 - LOYALTY ISLANDS
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... 0012cx.php

Since the first of the year we have had 7 earthquakes 6 and higher magnitude....pretty good start to the year eh?
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/ ... es_big.php
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/qed/

Brazil flood and mudslide deaths rise as search goes on - More than 350 people have now been killed by flooding and mudslides in south-eastern Brazil, say officials.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12180079


Top 10 Survival Items for a Survival Kit
http://modernsurvivalonline.com/top-10- ... ine.com%29

Tunisia protests: Live bullets fired in central Tunis
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12180738

'Dozens killed' in Tunisia protests
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12162096

Lebanon’s Government Collapses
http://publicintelligence.net/lebanons- ... collapses/





'Our savings have vanished – we've lost everything' - Angry investors take to streets as Dhaka's stock exchange crashes
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 81132.html

China Promises To Kill The Rich
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead ... 10112.aspx

China's Currency Reserves Rise to Record, Domestic Lending Exceeds Target
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... arget.html

Bit by Bit, a Mexican Police Force Is Eradicated
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/world ... exico.html

Acclaimed Author: DHS Recruited Me To Write Terror Plots
http://truthsquad.tv/?p=247

From NAFTA to CETA: Canada-EU Deep Economic Integration
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=22767

Third gun control bill proposed since Tucson shootings

His bill seeks to accomplish a goal other gun control advocates have tried and failed to do in recent years: close the "fire sale loophole," which permits unauthorized gun dealers to sell firearms at gun shows and allows buyers to purchase them without an otherwise mandatory FBI background check.

Jared Loughner, the 22-year-old accused of perpetrating Saturday's shootings, purchased his firearm legally, passing an instant background check in a state many consider to have the most lax gun laws in the nation. Arizona does not require a permit for concealed carry.

"After this weekend’s tragedy, it's clear that Congress must close troubling loopholes in federal gun control laws that let firearms fall into the hands of convicted felons, fugitives, domestic violence perpetrators and severely emotionally disturbed individuals," Ackerman said. "Every gun sold should require a background check, period."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/ny-d ... shootings/
Bold and Underline mine

....trying to shut down classified sales of weapons!








Video: Hillary Clinton falls over boarding plane
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 82609.html

[Jason]

TSA makes ‘nominal’ payment to settle suit over exposing 24-year-old’s breasts
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/tsa- ... sure-suit/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Republican prepares bill to let lawmakers carry guns on House floor
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/repu ... -congress/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Health Advocacy Groups Take Drug Company Cash—Often Without Full Disclosures, Report Says
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/hea ... isclosures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Faces of Evil that Rule the World – Updated
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/13 ... t+Press%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





America's "War on Drugs": CIA- Recruited Mercenaries and Drug-Traffickers
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=22777" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mexico drug wars have killed 35,000 people in four years
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ja ... s-calderon" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...of course US abortions during the same time period are 1.4+ million....

The Northeast U.S. is digging out today from the winter's third major snowstorm, and the nation's South continues to deal with travel disruptions caused by the nasty coasting of ice, snow and sleet the storm left behind early this week. Yesterday's Nor'easter has exited into Canada, and the storm is over for the U.S. It was a pretty average Nor'easter as far as intensity goes--the storm's central pressure bottomed out at 982 mb, and just the Massachusetts coast was subject to high winds that merited blizzard warnings. The storm did generate one hurricane-force wind gust--Provincetown airport on the tip of Cape Cod had sustained winds at 43 mph, gusting to 79 mph, at 6:35am EST yesterday, and a personal weather station at Humarock Beach in Scituate, southeast of Boston, recorded a wind gust of 64 mph at 5:51am EST yesterday.

But what was remarkable about the January Nor'easter of 2011 were its snow amounts. This rather ordinary-strength Nor'easter managed to assemble the perfect mix of conditions needed to transport moisture to a region of the storm highly favorable for heavy snow formation. Many heavy snow bands with snowfall rates up to 3 inches per hour formed over New England, with some of these bands intense enough to generate lightning and thunder. Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont all came within an inch of setting all-time state 24-hour snowfall records yesterday. North Haven, Connecticut received 29.5", falling just short of the 30.2" 24-hour snowfall record for the state, set at Fairfield in February 2006. Savoy, Massachusetts received 34.5", falling just short of that state's all-time 24-hour snowfall record, the 36" recorded at Milton in February 1997. Wilmington, Vermont got 36" in yesterday's storm, just missing the state record of 37", set at Peru in March 1984. The capital of Connecticut, Hartford, had its greatest snowstorm in history yesterday, with 24". The old record was 23.5", set in a February 1899 storm.

Brazilian floods, landslides kill at least 350
The globe's parade of massive flooding disasters in recent months continued yesterday in Brazil, where heavy rains of up to 10 inches in 24 hours inundated the region about 60 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. At least 350 are dead and 50 people missing, and the death toll is expected to go much higher once rescuers reach remote villages that have been cut off from communications. Brazil suffers hundreds of deaths each year due to flooding and mudslides, but the past 12 months have been particularly devastating. Flooding and landslides near Rio in April last year killed 246 people and did about $13 billion in damage, and at least 85 people perished last January during a similar event.

New floods ravage Australia's 3rd largest city
Flood waters swept today into Brisbane, Australia's 3rd largest city, inundating 14,400 homes and businesses, partially submerging another 17,200, and cutting power to 118,000, as the Brisbane River peaked at its highest level since 1974. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh, who has called the recent floods in Queensland the greatest natural disaster in their history, said, "What I'm seeing looks more like a war zone in some places. All I could see was their rooftops...underneath every single one of those rooftops is a horror story. We are facing a reconstruction effort of post-war proportions." Much of Brisbane's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, including 55,000 miles of roads. The Port of Brisbane, one of Australia's busiest, has been closed because of debris, and the city's largest sports stadium is under several feet of water.

The search for bodies continues in Toowoomba, about 60 miles west of Brisbane, where freak rains of 6 inches in just 30 minutes triggered a flash flood that killed 12 and left 61 missing on Monday. The flood waters from the Toowoomba disaster poured into the Brisbane River, contributing to its rampage through Brisbane yesterday. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) reported that only scattered light rains less than 1/3" fell in the Brisbane area over the past 24 hours, and no further significant rains are forecast in the Brisbane area until Tuesday next week, so the worst of the flooding is now over for Queensland. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the December - January floods in Queenland are the most significant flooding event in Australia since at least 1974. In 2010, Australia had its wettest spring (September - November) since records began 111 years ago, with some sections of coastal Queensland receiving over 4 feet (1200 mm) of rain. Rainfall in Queensland and all of eastern Australia in December was the greatest on record, and the year 2010 was the rainiest year on record for Queensland. Queensland typically has its rainiest years when La Niña events occur, due to the much warmer than average ocean temperatures that occur along the coast. The BOM notes, "Previous strong La Niña events, such as those of 1974 and 1955, have also been associated with widespread and severe flooding in eastern Australia. Sea surface temperatures off the Queensland coast in recent months have also been at or near record levels." The BOM's annual summary also reported, "Sea surface temperatures in the Australian region during 2010 were the warmest value on record for the Australian region. Individual high monthly sea surface temperature records were also set during 2010 in March, April, June, September, October, November and December. Along with favourable hemispheric circulation associated with the 2010 La Niña, very warm sea surface temperatures contributed to the record rainfall and very high humidity across eastern Australia during winter and spring." Beginning in December, the Queensland floods have killed at least 22, and damage estimates are now as high as $20 billion. Queensland has an area the size of Germany and France combined.

2010 tied for warmest year in Earth's history
Earth's warmest year in history occurred in 2010, NASA reported yesterday. The globe's temperature beat the previous record set in 2005 by just .01°C, so we should consider 2010 and 2005 tied for the warmest year on record. Reliable global temperature records go back to 1880. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also announced yesterday that 2010 was tied with 2005 as the warmest year on record, with temperatures during 2010 1.12°F (0.62°C) above the 20th century average. I'll have a full blog post on the subject Friday morning.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1726" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Today's RealtyTrac report serves as a warning to big banks, Fannie (FNMA.OB), Freddie (FMCC.OB) and local communities, Diana Olick writes: The foreclosure glut is coming, and they'd better be ready to get rid of that glut in a big way. It could mean that the dip in overall home prices may fall deeper than expected, she says.

http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/65840?source=feed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hallucinations on Curing Unemployment; Modeling the Model
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

State budget outlook: the worst isn't over
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/s ... adlines%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FERFRANS HVLAR (High Volume Light Automatic Rifle) IAR-Type AR Carbine Performs 150-Round Full-Auto Mag Dump with ARMATAC SAW-MAG 150-Round Double-Drum Magazine (Video!)
http://www.defensereview.com/ferfrans-h ... ine-video/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

Volcano erupts in Italy

Italian volcano Mount Etna has come back to life with a brief eruption that sent lava down its slopes and a cloud of ash into the sky, forcing the overnight closure of a nearby airport.

The Volcanology Institute in the nearby town of Catania said the eruption lasted two hours.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glanceview/1 ... aly.glance" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....some cool pictures!

[Jason]

99% of Pregnant Women in US Test Positive for Multiple Chemicals Including Banned Ones, Study Suggests
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 081653.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Huge ring appears over Australia, is HAARP involved?
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/14 ... t+Press%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Latest Inflation Riot Tally: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen And Jordan
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/latest ... and-jordan" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Inflation Wins As Tunisian President Ben Ali Flees Country
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/inflat ... es-country" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....namely food & energy! No one is rioting because their homes have tripled in value over the last 3 months....

Obama Orders Military To Prepare For Spring Food Riots
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1439.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mountain House Food Alert, None Available, 92% Dealers Cut
http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/1 ... House.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

5 Simple Ways To Prepare For The Coming Food Crisis
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/01/5-s ... oming.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Haiti: Another Success Story… for U.S. Corporations
http://cryptogon.com/?p=19884" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Update: Week Of January 13, $1.070 Trillion In UST Holdings

The steady climb in Fed assets continues, with the left side of Bernanke's balance sheet swelling to just under $2.5 trillion, as US Treasury holdings hit $1.07 trillion, implying that the Fed's DV01 continues to increase on a daily basis with every single POMO. The differential between the US and China is now $163 billion and rising. We expect our now second-largest creditor to realize the game theory balance of leverage (no pun intended) is shifting away from its favor (and to the Fed), and to respond accordingly.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/federa ... t-holdings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...as to be expected. During END GAME all assets flow to the creator of the debt!

The chart below shows that even though the U.S. doesn’t have the world’s highest debt levels (the blue bars) the average maturity of U.S. government bonds has sunk lower than that of any developed nation, to 4.4 years (the red dots).

http://wealthcycles.com/blog/2011/01/12 ... ted-states" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

20 Shocking New Economic Records That Were Set In 2010
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Record 2.9 Million U.S. Properties Receive Foreclosure Filings in 2010 Despite 30-Month Low in December
http://www.realtytrac.com/content/press ... eport-6309" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2010 Had Record 2.9 Million Foreclosures
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/2010-rec ... 271&page=2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Over 1 million Americans seen losing homes in 2011
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110113/ap_ ... JlcG9zc2U-" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

December Inflation Comes Highest Since June 2010 As Retail Sales Miss Expectations: Stagflation?

And after all the hype we finally know that December inflation was greater than expected, even as retail sales confirmed that the consumer is much weaker than had been propagandized: step aside word of the year "contagion" and meet your replacement "stagflation." CPI comes in surging at 0.5%, beating estimates of 0.4%, and far higher than November's 0.1%: the highest jump since June 2009. And those readers who have cars will likely be aware that Gasoline jumped by a massive 8.5% in December, the highest in a long time. Broadly, energy jumped by 4.6%. On an unadjusted 12 month basis, gasoline and fuel oil surged by 13.9% and 16.5% respectively. And there will be much more pain in store: somehow December food prices are supposed to have increased by just 0.1% in December: the lowest amount in the past 5 months. This number will very rapidly jump much higher as costs start being pass through.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/decemb ... tagflation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Christie Bankruptcy Remark Amid Bond Sale Is Criticized

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s comments that rising health-care costs might “bankrupt” the state, made the same day of a planned bond sale, drew criticism for poor timing and may have driven up borrowing costs.

About 20 minutes after Christie, 48, made the bankruptcy reference in a town-hall meeting in Paramus yesterday, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority cut its tax-exempt school bond offering by almost half to $777.5 million.

“He is scaring some people when he says the state is going bankrupt,” said Gary Pollack, head of bond trading at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York.

“It wasn’t timed well,” said Pollack, who oversees $6 billion and said he continues to buy New Jersey bonds.

Christie, a first-term Republican, said health-care spending “will bankrupt” the state unless it requires its workers to pay more for medical coverage. New Jersey will spend $4.3 billion on employee and retiree health insurance this year, and that cost will rise 40 percent within four years, he said. He wants all public employees in New Jersey to contribute more than the current 1.5 percent of salary toward medical benefits.

The fiscal impact of having to scale back the bond sale compounds other revenue losses by Christie’s administration, including $400 million in federal school aid and $3 billion in U.S. funding for a commuter-rail tunnel to Manhattan that the governor canceled, said Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo. Both are Democrats who have criticized many of Christie’s decisions.

In August, Christie’s administration lost $400 million in federal school aid because of an error on its application for Race to the Top funds. In October, the governor killed a proposed $8.7 billion tunnel under the Hudson River that was designed to double rail-passenger capacity into New York City, saying New Jersey couldn’t afford it. The federal government had pledged $3 billion toward that project.

John Lawlor, head of municipal markets at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which led underwriters on the New Jersey bond sale, said the offering was cut because of market conditions.

“But the fact that New Jersey got $1 billion done is quite a feat, considering $15 billion of assets have come out of muni- bond mutual funds in the last six weeks,” Lawlor said. “We saw over $2 billion of bids from institutional clients today, and many other deals of much smaller size were hung up.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... rease.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....the states are dead....its just a matter of time now before they start to really stink and draw flies!

100 major dams need repair, state auditor says

The two-year investigation concluded that the state’s aging and neglected stock of dams poses a “significant threat to public safety’’ and needs an estimated $60 million in repairs. More than one in five potentially hazardous public dams have substantial structural deficiencies, the report found.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massac ... Local+news" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Take the following as a clue as to what might be lying in wait on the horizon:

* In Detroit, the problem has gotten so bad that a new proposal would deprive a fifth of the city of basic municipal services, like trash collection and police protection.
* Neighboring Hamtramck has run out of services to cut, and expects to spend its last dollar early this year.
* Prichard, Alabama, in a desperate response to depleted coffers, has illegally stopped paying pensions through contributions. Without pension checks, 11 retirees have died, according to the NYT. Others have declared personal bankruptcy. The rest of the 150 retired workers are struggling to get by.
* Newark has cut 13 percent of its police force.
* Camden, N.J., one of the nation’s most dangerous cities, has begun a process of cutting about half of its police department.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

http://dailycensored.com/2011/01/12/ame ... ensored%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

State's lawmakers pass 66 percent income tax increase
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41034406/ns ... _politics/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Business Owners Blast IL Tax Hikes;Quinn's Blatant Lies;Neighboring States Gleeful, Mayor Daley Whines;Escape to Wisconsin; Arrogance,Greed,Corruption
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Banks Walking Away from Houses in Chicago
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/ ... ed+Risk%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Caution: Credit Leads, And People Live In States
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2358202" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Recovery: Jobless Claims Hit 10-Week High, Biggest One-Week Jump In 6 Months
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2011/01/ ... Unknown%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Long Shadows Cast Over US Economy
http://news.goldseek.com/GoldenJackass/1294862635.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lack of Credit Leads Some Borrowers to Controversial Payday Lenders
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41056493" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Price Shocks, Food Shortages And Global Economic Riots In 2011?
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... ts-in-2011" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The PPI (producer prices) leads the CPI (consumer prices). This morning the CPI also came in hotter than expected, rising .5% in December, up from .1% in November. Of course a lot of the increase has to do with the hot money pushing up the price of oil, and thus when you remove energy from the equation the “core” rate rose “only” .1%. Keep in mind that this number is one of the most highly manipulated numbers our government produces, failing to capture true inflation:

Highlights
Headline and core CPI inflation seemed to be on different tracks in December as energy jacked up the overall number while core inflation remains modest. The CPI in December jumped 0.5 percent, following a modest 0.1 percent rise the month before. Analysts had projected a 0.4 percent boost for the latest month. Excluding food and energy, CPI inflation came in at 0.1 percent, equaling the rise for November and matching expectations.

By major components, energy jumped 4.6 percent, following a 0.2 percent rise in November. Gasoline spiked a monthly 8.5 percent, following a 0.7 percent increase the prior month. Food price inflation actually slowed to 0.1 percent from 0.2 percent in November.

As in recent months, shelter helped keep the core rate soft. The index for shelter rose 0.1 percent for the third month in a row. The rent index rose 0.2 percent while the index for owners' equivalent rent increased 0.1 percent. Motor vehicles also helped the core. The index for new vehicles was unchanged in December while the used cars and trucks index fell 0.1 percent, its fourth consecutive decline. Also falling in December were the indexes for recreation, communication, and household furnishings and operations.

Year-on-year, overall CPI inflation rose to 1.4 (seasonally adjusted) from 1.1 percent in November. The core rate, however, eased 0.6 percent from 0.7 percent. On an unadjusted year-ago basis, the headline number was up 1.5 percent in December while the core was up 0.8 percent.

Essentially, headline inflation is seeing upward pressure from higher oil prices. While there has been no consistent upward pattern for food prices, there could be higher numbers in coming months from stronger transportation and production costs. Commodities prices have been notably higher recently.

But core inflation is soft due to weak housing and heavy competition among retailers. In coming months, the Fed likely is going to have to address this issue of two track inflation between headline and core numbers.


Right, this report fails to capture food inflation. Bad government data only extinguishes confidence, it is imperative that our system of reporting economic data be overhauled as I outlined in Freedom’s Vision.

Retail Sales is another data series that is riddled with error. They are measured in dollars and thus in error due to the errors in measuring the CPI, even when “corrected.” They are also subject to substitution bias, that is when businesses close, it fails to account for the lost sales and instead measures only sales at stores that have been open for one year or longer. It would be easy to simply capture total sales from all stores, but that’s not how it’s measured… therefore in times of economic contraction this error is large, as it is now. In this report, Retail Sales supposedly grew by .6% in December, that is down from November’s .8% and it is less than consensus for another miss. For what it’s worth, here’s Econoday:

Highlights
Retail sales looked good at the headline level for December but there were signs of fatigue by consumers after ringing up the cash registers so loudly in November. Overall retail sales in December rose 0.6 percent after jumping 0.8 percent the month before. Although healthy, the December figure fell short of the consensus forecast for a 0.8 percent boost. Excluding autos, sales were not quite as strong, rising 0.5 percent, following a 1.0 percent surge in November. Analysts had called for a 0.7 percent gain. However, higher gasoline prices played a role behind face value strength. Sales excluding autos and gasoline rose a moderate 0.4 percent after a 0.6 percent increase in November.

Notable components include motor vehicles, up 1.1 percent after a 0.2 percent rise in November. There was a significant swing in general merchandise (which includes department stores). This component fell 0.7 percent in December after jumping 1.1 percent the month before.

Overall retail sales on a year-ago basis in December improved to 7.9 percent from 7.5 percent the previous month. Excluding motor vehicles, sales rose to a year-ago 6.7 percent from 6.4 percent in November.

The bottom line is that consumers front loaded holiday purchases (broadly defined core sales) in November and some softening in December is not surprising. But the softness was modest as sales were still healthy in December even after discounting some price effects. Consumers with jobs are now pulling their weight keeping the recovery going.

On the news, equities were little changed.

In this report it is obvious how destroying the value of our money creates the ILLUSION of growth… gasoline sales, that are measured in dollars and not gallons, rose to help this index gain. If, however, you were to remove that cost that ripples through the entire system, then sales measured in dollars would not show the apparent growth that’s there. Again, by incorrectly measuring statistics, we are only fooling ourselves and creating a false market and false economy. This report is weak even with the induced errors, I guarantee you that it would be negative if you removed them.

Industrial Production is another data series affected by inflation as output is again falsely measured in dollars instead of actual output. In this report it is again energy, but in the form of utilities, that makes it appear stronger than it actually is. The headline number “grew” .8%, this is an increase from November’s .4%, and is above the .5% consensuses. The utilization figure is more reliable and is still at depression era levels, coming in up, but only at 76%. That is a horrid level, a healthy number should be 85% or more, and it’s quite obvious that we won’t be anywhere near that level for years:

Highlights
The manufacturing sector continues to lead the recovery based on December data-but not quite as strongly as suggested by the headline for industrial production. Industrial production posted a healthy 0.8 percent gain, following a 0.3 percent rebound in November. The December figure came in higher than analysts' estimate for 0.5 percent. However, the boost was led by a monthly 4.3 percent surge in utilities output, following a 1.5 percent increase in November. Utilities were up on atypically cold weather.

Nonetheless, manufacturing increased a healthy 0.4 percent after a 0.3 percent rise in November. The latest was softened by a 0.2 percent dip in motor vehicle output. Excluding autos, manufacturing advanced 0.5 percent after a 0.6 percent boost in November. So, manufacturing is still on a significant uptrend. With motor vehicle sales somewhat strong, auto assemblies are likely to pick back up soon.

For the remaining major industry group, mining rebounded 0.4 percent after declining 0.7 percent in November.

Overall capacity utilization continued to improve, rising to 76.0 percent in December from 75.0 percent in November. December's figure beat expectations for 75.6 percent.

The bottom line is that while the utilities component has been volatile and led to swings in the headline production number, manufacturing is on a moderately healthy uptrend.


Is auto production strong or not? We keep hearing how well sales are going yet report after report is mentioning that autos are not as strong as expected. Autos, in my opinion, are still in bubble price territory, risen there by creative financing in the very same manner that housing was fluffed into a bubble. Car prices need to come down and financing for them needs to be better matched to income with more substantial down payments and shorter financing periods. Regarding overall production, let’s face it… we simply do not produce much of anything anymore, and that will bite us hard in the end. Our manufacturing capital continues to flee overseas leaving our labor market gutted and doomed to produce only financially engineered paper products. But it’s nice to have our children with college degrees making our coffee for us, isn’t it?

Consumer Sentiment came in much weaker than expected… again. Last month it was at a pathetic 74.5 reading, and for this month it fell to 72.7 against a consensus that was looking for it to rise to 75.0. Hey, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time… especially when they are unemployed or flipping burgers with their $40,000 a year education. Stocks are higher on the release... Welcome to Walmart, would you like fries with that?

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... d-114.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Torrential rains inundated a heavily populated, steep-sloped area about 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and Wednesday, triggering flash floods and mudslides that have claimed at least 511 lives. Rainfall amounts of approximately 300 mm (12 inches) fell in just a few hours in the hardest-hit regions, Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo. Many more people are missing, and the death toll is expected to go much higher once rescuers reach remote villages that have been cut off from communications. The death toll makes the January 2011 floods Brazil's worst single-day natural disaster in its history. Brazil suffers hundreds of deaths each year due to flooding and mudslides, but the past 12 months have been particularly devastating. Flooding and landslides near Rio in April last year killed 246 people and did about $13 billion in damage, and at least 85 people perished last January during a similar event.

Role of near-record sea surface temperatures in Brazil's flood
This week's heavy rains occurred when a storm system crossing from west to east over southern Brazil drew in a moist southerly flow air off the Atlantic Ocean over southern Brazil. Sea surface temperatures along the Brazilian coast are at near-record warm levels, which likely contributed to the heavy rains. Record rains are more likely when sea surface temperatures over the nearby moisture source regions are at record high levels. This occurs because increased amounts of water vapor evaporate into the atmosphere from a warm ocean compared to a cold one, due to the extra motion and energy of the hotter water molecules. According to an analysis I did of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre sea surface temperature data set, December 2010 sea surface temperatures in the 5x5 degree region of Earth's surface along the Brazilian shore nearest the disaster area, 20S to 25S and 45W to 40W, were the second warmest on record since 1900. Temperatures were 1.05°C (1.9°F) above average in this region last month. Only 2007, with a 1.21°C departure from average, had warmer December ocean temperatures.

More rain in the forecast
The coast of Brazil is embedded in a warm, moist tropical airmass that is expected to continue to bring heavy rains over he Rio de Janeiro area for at least the next week. Heavy rains in excess of five inches in the next seven days (Figure 3) are predicted by the GFS Ensemble computer model for the disaster region, just north of Rio de Janeiro. The additional heavy rains are likely to cause more life-threatening mudslides and floods.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1727" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brazil floods: More than 500 dead
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12187985" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In Pictures: Australia Biblical Floods – Latest updates
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/14 ... t+Press%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Australia flood clean-up starts; risk of more floods
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BU09620110113" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Europe becomes even more dependent on Russian natural gas after Norway reduces its estimate for "gas to be discovered" by 31% - an amount equal to 5 years of current production. Norway is counting on gas to replace oil production, which has fallen 50% over the past decade.

http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/65912?source=feed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

IDF troops on alert following collapse of Lebanon government
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-d ... t-1.336788" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sheriff: Gunmen In Mexico Shoot At Road Crew In Hudspeth County, Texas
http://www.kvia.com/news/26484512/detail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Arizona Shooter Was On Powerful Hallucinogens
http://www.infowars.com/arizona-shooter ... ucinogens/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Missouri: Concrete “Home” of Overwatch Systems CTO Is One of the Largest in the U.S.
http://cryptogon.com/?p=19886" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

Vaccine Induced Child Abuse Exposed
http://vactruth.com/2011/01/14/vaccine- ... e-exposed/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...anti gun propaganda really trying to get the max out of the terrific Arizona incident

Armed bystander almost shot hero that disarmed AZ shooter
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/arme ... z-shooter/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Rise of the New Global Elite
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/pri ... lite/8343/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Global food chain stretched to the limit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41062817/ns ... sumer_news" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Opponents to Fracking Disclosure Take Big Money From Industry
http://www.propublica.org/article/oppon ... m-industry" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Market Conditions" = The States Are BROKE


New Jersey had to pull a bond auction yesterday..... that's an unusual thing.

Why?

(Bloomberg) - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has learned that talking about state insolvency may have a cost.

About 20 minutes after Mr. Christie, 48, told a town-hall meeting in Paramus, N.J., today that health care costs “will bankrupt” the state, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority cut its tax-exempt school-related bond offering by more than half to $712.3 million.

Oh, you mean we should just not talk about state insolvency?

The solution to being insolvent is to lie about being insolvent?

There's a principle in the law called theft by conversion. There's also quite a bit of black-letter law that makes it illegal to lie on a loan application.

When you sell bonds, you're borrowing money. If you intentionally and falsely misrepresent your solvency, either by omission or commission, what is that, exactly, in reference to existing law?

Not only is it securities fraud, it's a clear lie on a loan application, right?

Well, yeah. And while the law is drawn only to count written loan documents, one can certainly argue that an offering of a bond is a "written" document and further, a bond offering is an explicit attempt to borrow money.

“Mr. Christie made a rookie mistake,” Mr. Pietronico said. “The market is very sensitive to the word ‘bankrupt.'”

Oh really? Mr. Christie told the truth and this is a "rookie mistake"?

No, this is what lawful behavior is, unlike the rest of the bankster class who are more than happy to steal your money - or help someone else steal your money - by deceiving you as to the economic conditions of the borrower.

Remember, we have these very same sorts of people who, during the housing bubble, appear to have not only helped borrowers lie about incomes (that is, their economic conditions) they actually did the lying and then asked the borrowers to sign for it, insisting that this was perfectly ok despite the fact that they knew any material misrepresentation on a loan application is a federal offense!

In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2357953" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gingrich Touting State Bankruptcy Bill to Gut Pensions

There has been an interesting lack of commentary on an effort underway by Newt Gingrich and his allies to enable state governments to declare bankruptcy as a way to slash pension obligations, and given the lack of mention of other creditors, perhaps only pension obligations.

The latest sighting was via an article today in Pensions & Investments:

Former House Speaker and possible GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich is pushing for federal legislation giving financially strapped states the right to file for bankruptcy and renege on pension and other benefit promises made to state employees…

Mr. Gingrich discussed the proposal in a Nov. 11 speech before the Institute for Policy Innovation, an anti-big-government group based in Lewisville, Texas. According to a transcript of the speech on Mr. Gingrich’s website, http://www.newt.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, he said: “I … hope the House Republicans are going to move a bill in the first month or so of their tenure to create a venue for state bankruptcy, so that states like California and New York and Illinois that think they’re going to come to Washington for money can be told, you know, you need to sit down with all your government employee unions and look at their health plans and their pension plans and, frankly, if they don’t want to change, our recommendation is you go into bankruptcy court and let the bankruptcy judge change it, and I would make the federal bankruptcy law prohibit tax increases as part of the solution, so no bankruptcy judge could impose a tax increase on the people of the states.”….

So far, proponents of the legislation said they have not yet recruited a congressional sponsor for the proposed measure. “We’re still shopping for the guy who is going to carry it,” Mr. [Grover] Norquist said.

Nonetheless, union executives are concerned that the proposal — which has been promoted on conservative websites recently — is part of a well-orchestrated and hitherto underground campaign now surfacing as Republicans settle into leadership positions in the new Congress.

I’m quite puzzled by this initiative and wonder if readers have any insight.

First, the obstacle to states filing for bankruptcy is a Constitutional issue, namely sovereign immunity (which is conferred both by the Constitution itself and reinforced by the 11th Amendment). The reason is that bankruptcy court is a Federal court, so it cannot have jurisdiction over a state. So I don’t see how a mere bill changes this issue and the odds of getting a Constitutional amendment passed are just about zero. What am I missing here?

Second, the Gingrich crowd is keen to restrict the judges from imposing new taxes in a bankruptcy. Isn’t this also a Constitutional issue and hence open to court challenge?

Third, the proponents are stressing that the purpose of the bill is to allow states to repudiate union pension funds. There is no mention of, say, getting out of bad swap contacts or renegotiations other creditor interests. Yet the a bankruptcy process puts all creditors on hold as the judge sorts out who gets what based on the seniority of claims and the borrower ability to pay. If the bill is going to restrict judges in terms of options for dealing with the bankrupt estate, does that also mean that it will try to restrain judges from restructuring state obligations ex pensions?

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/01/ ... sions.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

States Will Soon Have To Start Paying Interest on Their Massive Unemployment Borrowing

Sometimes it's time to pay the piper. And sometimes that piper is the federal government. And sometimes the piper wants more than $1 billion. Soon.

Because of the high jobless rate and past fiscal irresponsibility, 30 states have collectively had to borrow more than $40 billion from the federal government just to keep unemployment insurance checks in the mail. A provision in the stimulus bill made those loans interest-free for an extended grace period.

But no more. Efforts to include an extension of the grace period in Obama's tax cut extension enacted at the end of last year failed, and the first batch of 14 states will have to start paying interest before the end of this year. Given that state budgets need to be hammered out in advance, that means state legislatures will soon face tough choices as they come back in session.

The amounts due range from California and Michigan, which each face payments of more than $300 million dollars, to Kansas, which will owe about $6 million. (Fun fact: That's $2 for every Kansan.) And because of federal rules, states can't use unemployment insurance taxes to make interest payments, which means cash-strapped states will have to take that money from their general budgets, so there will be less money for roads, schools and other priorities.

Because of a historical compromise, each state operates its own unemployment insurance fund with wide latitude to set tax rates and benefits. While some states were careful to save up and build a cushion of reserves in good years, others got themselves into this mess by maintaining dangerously low levels of reserves for years before the Great Recession hit. (How is your state doing? Check out our Unemployment Insurance Tracker [1].)

The bill is coming due at a particularly bad time for state legislatures, which already face an $82 billion shortfall for 2012, said Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

That budget crunch is the largest and deepest fiscal crisis states have faced since the end of the great depression, Perez said.

To make matters worse, most states with trust funds in the red are still bleeding--borrowing more from the federal government to pay out benefits even as they are hit with interest payments.

California is borrowing millions of dollars a day, said Loree Levy, a spokesperson for California's workforce agency. Other states have passed unemployment insurance tax increases, straining employers at the worst possible time, but they were not enough to get their funds back in the black.

Overall, state legislators are at something of a loss to deal with the problem, Perez said.

Some creative solutions are on the table. Texas, which still has reasonably good credit, plans to sell bonds. California, which at this point would probably not be approved for a Sears card, will borrow money from a creditor that can't say no: Gov. Jerry Brown's plan would dip into the state's disability pension fund.

http://www.propublica.org/article/state ... nemploymen" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...isn't it just absolutely beautiful when a plan comes together.....instead of the states cracking down at the first hint of crisis....they were lulled by the promises of the Federal government that the crisis was temporary the Fed would give them unlimited amounts of "stimulus" money. Of course revenues dropped but the stimulus money kept the ship at an even keel. Now, a couple years later, with continued decline in tax income, removal of stimulus funds, and rising expenses from the Federal government (interest, Medicaid, etc.)...the states now fall off a cliff! Nice power roll up strategy!!!

Speaking of plans coming together.....

Chinese Yuan; A new world reserve currency?
http://economicassassin.blogspot.com/20 ... rency.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chinese company eyes Boise
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/12/3 ... boise.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Homeland Security Axes Bush-Era 'Virtual Fence' Project

ABC News' Jason Ryan reports: The Department of Homeland Security today officially scrapped a Bush-era program designed to use radar technology to detect illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a DHS official and a congressional source.

The project, called "Virtual Fence," was rolled out under the Bush administration in 2006 with much fanfare about how technology could help secure the border. Illegal immigrants crossing the border would be detected by a radar and picked up by remote cameras, which were monitored by border patrol agents.

But numerous internal and Congressional reviews found consistent performance problems with the project's systems, which only spanned 53 miles of the vast U.S.-Mexico border.

There were also cost overruns and the primary contractor, Boeing, repeatedly missed deadlines, officials said.

Members of Congress on the oversight committees welcomed the news.

“The secretary’s decision to terminate SBInet ends a long-troubled program that spent far too much of the taxpayers’ money for the results it delivered," Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said in a statement. "From the start, SBInet’s one-size-fits-all approach was unrealistic. The department’s decision to use technology based on the particular security needs of each segment of the border is a far wiser approach, and I hope it will be more cost effective.”

"The SBInet program has been a grave and expensive disappointment since its inception," Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., ranking member of the House Homeland Security committee, said in a statement.

The system is estimated to cost about $1 billion. If the entire project had been accepted and rolled out, its cost would have exceeded $6 billion.

"We know that we cannot continue to put out millions and millions of dollars of taxpayer's money if we're not confident that it's really not going to work,” Napolitano, who ordered a review of the program upon taking office, said in October.

DHS had granted Boeing two 30-day extensions on contracts for the project towards the end of 2010 as it became clear the department was moving to cancel the program.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/0 ... oject.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Economy facing headwinds, but Bernanke hopeful
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70A41H20110113" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“Finally they are acknowledging that the problem is there and they are working on a way to solve it," says a banker about Spain's plan to recapitalize its cajas. Barclays estimates the process will add 300-800 basis points to Spain's debt as a percentage of GDP.

http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/65935?source=feed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mexico is proving to be a failed state and what may happen in the future is unclear. The suffering of the Mexican people, due in great part to the North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA, is horrendous and accounts for much of the immigration into the United States as the Mexican people seek refuge from drug cartel violence and corrupt governmental collusion and control.

While the right wing in this country continues to refer to immigrants as ‘aliens’, the fact of the matter is they are refugees, both economic and social, and as so many Latin Americans have done, they seek escape from the violence and economic policies supported and funded by the United States and their puppet allies in the corridors of Mexican power. Speaking of those who flee as ‘refugees’ and not simply ‘undocumented workers’ or ‘illegal aliens or workers’ is key to reshaping the American understanding of the dire situation that is occurring in Mexico while at the same time building support and empathy for the Mexican people.

http://dailycensored.com/2011/01/13/new ... ensored%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pilgrims killed in stampede at Indian festival
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12196178" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brazil floods: Rain hampers rescue effort
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12195226" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;











Panel to Recommend Allowing Women in Combat
http://www.military.com/news/article/pa ... mbat-.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Barrett Announces Commercial MRAD Rifle
http://kitup.military.com/2011/01/barre ... rifle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HK45 Interview with Ken Hackathorn and Larry Vickers
http://pistol-training.com/articles/hk4 ... ry-vickers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Gun Magazine with magnets instead of Spring
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011 ... rm+Blog%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

.....the wafer thin increase in the debt ceiling....

[Jason]

Brazil braces for more rains, mourns 500 dead
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/braz ... -500-dead/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tunisia: Deadly jail fire in unrest after Ben Ali exit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12198396" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unrest engulfs Tunisia after power changes hands for second time in 24 hours
http://www.haaretz.com/news/internation ... bled=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Preparing for War with Russia? Washington To Rearm Georgia For New Conflicts
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php? ... leId=22805" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Weak holiday sales are even more dismal than they seem, Jeff Nielson writes. When adjusted for inflation, the 2010 shopping season was actually worse than in 2008 and 2009 - "nothing short of an economic disaster." But at least we're eating well.

http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/65958?source=feed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....of course maybe not for long...





Global food chain stretched to the limit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41062817/ns ... sumer_news" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hello Mayor Daley ... About Your Plan to Poach Business from Oregon and Other States: No Business Owners in Their Right Mind Would Move to Illinois
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bank Failure #3 for 2011: Oglethorpe Bank, Brunswick, Georgia
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/ ... ed+Risk%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unofficial Problem Bank list increases to 933 Institutions
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/ ... ed+Risk%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

There are a number of fallacies - or delusions, if you will- concerning our economies that are set to inflict enormous - in many cases lethal- damage in both our own rich lives and those of people elsewhere in the world who are far less well-off than we still are - for now. These fallacies are closely connected, which adds greatly to their insidiousness as well as the perverse influence they have both on ourselves, and on our awareness of what's happening around us. And whatever there may be that we can't change overnight, we can at least try to comprehend some issues, file them, and move on. Let’s do these first:

1. Recovery
2. Inflation
3. Food prices


1: Recovery

There is no economic recovery, there hasn't been one in the past five years, and there won't be one for a very long time to come. Claiming that we are seeing a recovery today equals claiming that a society can borrow its way into recovery. I'm not going there, and I strongly advise you to not do it either.

There will be a Keynesian faction which clings to the theory that says it is indeed possible to borrow your way up, but that's a mere mirage, since it would require a surge in real productivity, i.e. outside of the service industry. Where and how have we increased production since the crisis started? Where have we created the great deal of additional value required to dig ourselves out of the hole? Obviously, nowhere. The vast majority of "jobs created" is in the service sector, while manufacturing today counts for less than 10% of US jobs. And no, flipping burgers does not create value.

For the US economy to recover for real, we would need to see hundreds of thousands of jobs created every month, on top of the 150-250,000 needed to just keep up with population growth. Not happening. It doesn't matter if the BLS says the unemployment rate went from 9.8% to 9.4% on 103,000 jobs created. If and when it issues numbers like that, the BLS itself ceases to matter. To wit, Zero Hedge reports: "Initial Claims Surge To 445K, Not Seasonally Adjusted Claims Surge By 191,686 To 770,413 In One Week".

What has happened that fools people into believing in a recovery are two things:

First, the US government and the Federal Reserve have injected more trillions of dollars into the system than anyone can keep track of. Moreover, they have done so only in those sectors that remain beyond the grasp of the average American. Which means that we see relative highs in the markets, as well as record or near record amounts paid out in bonuses on Wall Street, and at the same time there are record numbers of foreclosures and record or near record unemployment numbers.

While it's true that stock markets have been rising lately, how anyone can see that as proof of a recovery is beyond me. The idea that if you just make the rich richer, the rest will follow, is not even something I want to discuss anymore.

Second, any attempt to maintain what could be considered accounting standards, such as those that would apply to you and me, was given up long ago. The reason for this is that the trillions upon trillions of dollars that were taken away from you and your offspring, and handed to the main banks, would still not have been enough by any stretch of the imagination to keep up even the slightest appearance of solvency for these banks. It's important to let that sink in.

The untold trillions have been only sufficient to pay down the first "level" of debt the banks had accumulated, that part of the debt that could no longer be hidden from view. The rest of the debt, which is far greater than all the trillions handed out so far, remains in dark vaults, treated like some sort of state secrets that can’t be divulged for the next 50 or 100 years. The result is that hardly anyone realizes how big the debt is, and the losses are, and that bank stocks have actually been going up. This is how zombie money is created.

You, too, if you’re a gambling addict, could live for a while pretending you're rich, even after you’ve lost all you have and ten times more, provided you’re capable of hiding your lost wagers. Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff did it on their own for years; JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America do it with the full aiding and abetting from Washington, which uses your money to comply with whatever it is Dimon, Blankfein and Moynihan say is needed to stave off a collapse.

In other words, the economy may seem to be recovering, and the banking system may seem to have recovered, but the illusion has come at a gigantic price to the American (and European) societies, and in the end it will not make one iota of difference for the outcome. Then again, let's correct that: it will make a difference, but not - at all- in your favor: the multi-trillion dollar illusion will greatly enhance the misery and destitution on Main Street. All that money could have been used to mitigate and minimize the suffering of the herd; instead, it’s all gone to wolf packs and vampire squids. We’ll yet come to deeply regret this.


2: Inflation

The fact that there’s all that zombie money around (or zombie credit, to be precise) leads many to believe the US witnesses inflation. Not true. First off, inflation is not the same as rising prices. Prices can rise because of different causes: scarcity, speculation and (real) inflation. And it’s important to be able to identify which of these causes is in play. If you call all price rises inflation, you lose the ability to distinguish between the causes, which means you lose a crucial analytical tool. There may be those who would like nothing better than for us to lose that tool, but it’s not smart to give in.

I know the media has force-fed the incorrect definition of inflation to the masses, and I know there are plenty of people who say rising prices is all they care about, not monetary theory. However, a clear view of causation is essential when it comes to defining your reaction to rising or falling prices, and prices that rise because of scarcity demand a totally different set of actions than those that do because of a rise in total supply of money and credit, combined with velocity of money, which is what inflation truly is.

The present, incorrect and force-fed "meaning" of inflation as all price rises no matter what their cause is, is relatively new. Rising prices used to be referred to as "(currency) devaluation". Not perfect, but way better than what we have now, where terms like “monetary inflation", "price inflation", "consumer inflation", "energy inflation" all the way down to "cookie inflation" fill the media.

Why is the distinction between the definitions important? Because today in the US both the money/credit supply and the velocity of money are falling (deflation), while some prices are rising, in particular those of food and energy. And no, you can't have deflation in one sector and inflation in the other. That really turns the whole debate into obscure nonsense. It's important that we can determine that if prices rise in times of deflation, the cause for those price rises must be something other than inflation.

In today's world, that something else is speculation. But not of the ordinary kind. What we have right now is zombie money speculation. The same unrecognized losses in the financial system that our governments cover up with criminally negligent accounting non-standards cause prices of oil and food to rise, since that's where the zombie money -inevitably- ends up. And it's not just the banks that invest zombie money, it's all of us.

If banks would have been forced to reveal their losses, the hammering of home prices would have been huge. Since this did not happen, a lot of people are still sitting pretty in their homes, which are way more overvalued -in free market terms- than just about anyone is ready to recognize. Also, if banks had revealed their losses, unemployment rates would have been far higher than they are today.

I know what many are thinking: maybe it's not such a bad idea to cover up those losses. But you're not seeing the whole picture. First, the cover-up has enabled the banks to access your money in order to pay down their debts. And second, zombie money is not the same as real money, as something that has been earned by adding real value. Zombie money is not real.

I read a piece at Zero Hedge the other day by a group that calls themselves the NIA, for National Inflation Association. But they don’t even know what inflation means. Hence their slogan: "Preparing Americans for Hyperinflation". Hey, if you can't define inflation, chances are you’ll miss the truth on hyperinflation too. Look, the US depends for its money and credit supply on international bond markets. Whenever Bernanke turns on his so-called "printing press", which in actual fact is an "additional credit" press, it's not as if free money is created. There‘s interest to be paid on all of it. And while interest rates may be low right now, it's not Bernanke who sets those rates, try as he might to make you think so.

If and when the bond markets decide that the risk on US debt rises enough -or too much-, they will decide what the interest rate is, not Bernanke, and not Geithner. Obviously, with every dollar printed, risk assessments will rise, and the outcome is inevitable: less appetite for US debt (don’t forget that there's plenty zombie money in the bond markets too), and higher rates. And only if and when the US no longer has access to international markets does the option of hyperinflation come into play. Now, I may be quite negative on the prospects for the US economy, but a full separation from global debt markets is a while away yet, and that means the prospect of hyperinflation is as well.

Preparing for hyperinflation is not just useless at this point in time, it's also damaging in that it makes people blind to the real problem: deflation. And before we get to hyperinflation, if we ever do, deflation will cause so much pain and grief and unrest and death, that the very thought of hyperinflation will come to be seen as a highly delusional non-issue.

So how long will the zombie money last? Can it last as long as Bernanke and Geithner and Obama and Dimon want it to? No, in fact, they're fighting a lost battle against time itself.

The zombie money has to disappear, and it will. It all starts and ends with US and European real estate, the one biggest investment of those of us living on Main Street, by far. US home prices have now fallen for 53 consecutive months, despite the fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy up and guarantee near 100% of all mortgages, and despite the fact that the Fed has purchased huge swaths of the securities allegedly backed by these mortgages.

All those trillions "worth" of your money haven't been able to prevent that. And no amount of additional trillions will. Foreclosures are setting brand new records across the country, even as banks are ever more nervous about their paperwork, and their balance sheets. It doesn't matter how much money Washington throws at the issue, other than it’ll make you a whole lot poorer, for you’ll never see it back.

A further deterioration in home prices can't be prevented. Fannie and Freddie can’t buy 101% of mortgages; they're buying close to a 100% right now and prices still fall. Wal-Mart greeters, burger flippers and the rest of the great unwashed will not be allowed back into the housing market. There are over 10 million homes on the market, and perhaps twice that if you count all foreclosed properties that banks sit on (and the millions they won’t foreclose on), plus all those that people would like to sell but can't lest they go underwater. And the pool of potential buyers has shrunk with a vengeance since the 2005-6 "heydays". Huge increase in supply, huge decrease in demand; we all know where this will go.

Now, take Fannie and Freddie out of this picture. What do you see? They’ll be taken out in some way, and at some time, and it won’t take years. I know what I see: the housing and mortgage situation in the US has turned into what I've always called the “Bulgaria model”, where you guarantee the mortgage on your neighbor's home, and he guarantees yours; anything goes as long as it's not the free market your politicians and media tell you about. And we know what happened to Bulgaria in the end, don't we?

I’m all for a society, a government, that takes care of the weakest in its midst. I’m all against a government that props up the strongest in its midst, in this case the bankers with bonuses larger in one year than the weaker among us can make in a lifetime, the same bankers who lost more money in bad wagers than the entire country can cough up, and still be economically viable. We’re fast becoming zombie societies.

But first we'll have to live through this:


3: Food prices

Let’s start with the news that the Tunisian president has fled his country, and the military's taken over, according to Al Jazeera. Mass protests are ongoing in Morocco and Algeria. The riots in Tunisia are not all about food prices, but they were certainly a substantial factor. And more, much more, of the same is on the horizon, in many different places. But food prices this time around are not rising because of widespread dramatic shortages, at least not so far. And Lester Brown, much as I like the man, has it completely wrong:

The Great Food Crisis of 2011

[..] whereas in years past, it's been weather that has caused a spike in commodities prices, now it's trends on both sides of the food supply/demand equation that are driving up prices. On the demand side, the culprits are population growth, rising affluence, and the use of grain to fuel cars. On the supply side: soil erosion, aquifer depletion, the loss of cropland to nonfarm uses, the diversion of irrigation water to cities, the plateauing of crop yields in agriculturally advanced countries, and -- due to climate change -- crop-withering heat waves and melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets.


In the same vein, the peak oil crowd fails to see what drives up oil prices today. Yes, long term trends affect prices to some extent. But no, Lester, you can't provide an accurate assessment of what’s happening if you don’t include the very obvious contribution of speculation, especially that which originates with zombie money. Ditto for oil prices.

Food prices are rising partly because, let’s not forget, China, unlike the US, does have inflation, with its money supply going through the roof. But much more than that they're rising because we have elected to kill off the principles of our own western economic systems, which were once supposed to be based on free market ideas, that dictate that success is rewarded and failure punished.

They have since come to resemble some kind of sophomore notion of Darwinianism, where the upper alpha rhino gets all the girls and the rest get none at all. And that in turn is supposed to pose as justice in human societies, whereas in reality it’s nothing but what happened in Bulgaria for decades.

The consequence is that the zombie money is now allowed to drive up food prices to levels which make sure that millions of people around the world will go hungry, and will revolt as a result of that. Blankfein, Dimon et al have long since realized that they can't maintain their velvet “God's work" thrones just by robbing Americans of all they're worth. Their losses are far too great. They need to have access to everyone's wealth all over the world.

And since oil and food are traded on international commodity markets, and they have gotten hold of all the money America is worth, and then some, they can play these markets as much as they want, whether it’s wheat or natural gas or gold. People like to claim that gold will rise as the US dollar becomes worth less, but they forget that it’s zombie money that has been buying gold, and that has thus lifted gold prices. Once daylight comes and the zombies are gone, there's only one way left to go for gold prices too.

So, once again, when will the zombie money see daylight?

This could be caused by any of a myriad of choices. We could force all banks to put foreclosed homes on the market, all at once. Or tell the same banks they have no right to foreclose on homes they have no perfect(ly legal) paper trail on. We could force all derivatives contracts out into the open. Or just the mortgage backed securities; that would do it. Provided we fold Fannie and Freddie, and not let the FHA or any of those guys take over.

As I wrote eons ago, even just closing down Fannie and Freddie for business one or two months would probably do the trick. China could wreck the US economy in 5 minutes simply by demanding to know what their purchases of Fannie and Freddie debt are worth (they have a lot of it). Or it could be a small country, maybe not Iceland, but surely Vietnam, or Belgium, or Denmark, insisting on knowing what that paper their banks and pension funds have so heavily invested in is really worth. MBS, or any other species of derivatives, the whole shebang only has a value attached to it by the grace of nobody trying to figure what that value is.

Is US housing debt, and the securities and derivatives based on that debt, a zombie, or a person? It may certainly seem confusing late at night. But then again, you can't have meaningful relationships with zombies, they're sort of one-dimensional. Funny how that resembles the person-rights US companies enjoy,

And frankly, does it really matter? What we know for sure is that the zombie money we elected to have flow through our financial systems is going to kill a lot of people this year. Want to plead innocence? How long do you think that excuse will be accepted?

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2 ... -real.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bold and Underline mine

[Jason]

Budget Worries Push Governors to Same Mind-Set
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/us/17 ... .html?_r=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

State Budgets: Year Ahead Looms As Toughest Yet
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/1 ... 09521.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Health care budgets in critical condition
http://www.stateline.org/live/details/s ... adlines%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Detroit — Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state.

The plan, part of a monthly update Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb gives the Department of Education, was filed late Monday to provide insight into Bobb's progress in his attempt to slash a $327 million deficit in the district to zero over the next several years. Under it, the district would slim down from 142 schools now to 72 during 2012-13.

http://detnews.com/article/20110112/SCH ... ts-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Financially dreaming in California – 50 percent of California households with a mortgage cannot afford the home they are living in. The lingering effects of Alt-A mortgages and negative equity.
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/fina ... e+SoCal%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Utah's "Quiet Title Law" Bypasses MERS, Awards Homes Free and Clear; One Homeowner Had $417,000 Debt Erased
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fed President Charles Plosser Says Fed Is Helpless To Reverse Sharp Decline in House Prices
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fed-pr ... use-prices" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

CoStar: Commercial Real Estate Prices declined in November
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/ ... ed+Risk%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Spain Cancels Market Auction, As It, Portugal And Belgium Go Syndicate, Spook Bond Investors (Again)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/spain- ... tors-again" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Afghan Opium Business Thriving
http://publicintelligence.net/afghan-op ... -thriving/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Afghan drug trafficking brings US 50 billion a year
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=19207" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wayne Madsen & RTR Expose Rahm Emanuel, Obama and the Chicago Political Syndicate
http://www.federaljack.com/?p=19210" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obama Prepares To Rule By Executive Order
http://www.rightsidenews.com/2011010612 ... order.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bill Gates wants to register all new babies on the planet for vaccines
http://www.naturalnews.com/031031_Bill_ ... cines.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54132" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Horrifying Pictures Of Brazil Floods and Mudslides
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/17 ... t+Press%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

S. Lanka warns of high food prices after floods
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... a534cf.251" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Food Riots 2011

Just consider the following five facts....

#1 Approximately 1 billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry every single night.

#2 Approximately 28 percent of all children in developing countries are considered to be underweight or have had their growth stunted as a result of malnutrition.

#3 Every 3.6 seconds someone starves to death and three-quarters of them are children under the age of 5.

#4 "Least developed countries" spent 9 billion dollars on food imports in 2002. By 2008, that number had risen to 23 billion dollars.

#5 A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research discovered that the bottom half of the world population owns approximately 1 percent of all global wealth.

So if things are this bad already, what kind of food riots are we going to see if all of this weird weather continues and global harvests are much lower than anticipated in 2011?

Most Americans have a really hard time even imagining such a thing, but the truth is that we are just one really bad harvest away from mass starvation in many areas of the world.

We are not going to see mass starvation in the United States in 2011, but we could see food prices start to go up significantly. Keep in mind that more than 43 million Americans are already on food stamps. The incredible abundance of food that we have been enjoying for so many decades is not guaranteed to last indefinitely.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... riots-2011" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Price Shocks, Food Shortages And Global Economic Riots In 2011?

People need to wake up - 2011 has just begun and yet we are already seeing significant price shocks and serious food shortages in many areas of the globe. In fact, violent economic riots are now being reported in Algeria, in Chile and in Mozambique. Food shortages and price increases are also causing political unrest in other nations such as India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. This is a very serious situation, and if the major food producing nations of the world do not have another record harvest this year there is very likely going to be an incredibly serious global food crunch. According to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organization, the global price of food hit a new record high in December. The previous record high for food prices was in June 2008, and we all remember what happened during the summer of 2008. Massive food riots erupted in countries such as Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt. So with price shocks and food shortages already being reported all over the globe, will we see even worse global economic riots in 2011?

One of the things that is playing into all this is all of the really extreme weather that we have been witnessing all over the globe. In Australia, they have been experiencing flooding that is of Biblical proportions. Brazil has also been hit by very serious flooding. In other parts of South America, extremely dry weather is severely damaging many crops. In the Northern Hemisphere, unusually cold and unusually snowy weather has many people scratching their heads. Something really strange seems to be happening to global weather patterns, and that is not good news for global food production.

All of this bad weather is fueling a tremendous amount of commodity speculation. Over this past year, almost every single major agricultural commodity has experienced a dramatic increase in price.

According to Forbes, corn is up 94% since June, soybeans are up 51% since June, and wheat is up 80% since June.

Ouch!

All of these agricultural commodity price increases are really starting to be felt around the globe. Meanwhile, global demand for food only continues to increase.

For the last several years, great harvests in major food producing nations such as the United States have been able to offset the rising demand for food around the globe.

But what is going to happen if the big food exporting nations have a year or two of really bad harvests?

Not only that, but there are a couple of other factors that have many analysts warning of "inflation spikes" in the year ahead....

*Crude oil prices set new multi-year highs on Wednesday and we continue to see a relentless march back toward $100 dollars a barrel. The price of oil affects the price of almost everything else, so this is a key indicator to watch.

But for most people around the world in 2011, the main economic problem is likely to be the price of food. In many areas of the globe, large numbers of people have to spend more than half their incomes just to feed themselves, so a spike in the price of food can have very, very serious consequences.

In some areas of the world, we are already witnessing very violent economic riots in response to rising prices for food.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... ts-in-2011" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bold and Underline mine

...food and energy are tied at the hip (everything from fertilizer to transportation to markets).....the agriculture infrastructure is founded on bank financed operating capital.....speculation is fierce as banks try to make money via other avenues like speculating in commodities (debt saturation so declining debt)......extreme weather is complicating matters and increasing the speculation factor....oil prices are also gamed and production is being cut to keep prices high...

all combining for what may become a truly spectacular run-up in food prices....which most people will interpret as inflation or hyperinflation....and the banks are more than happy to keep it that way!

Tunisia’s revolution is another feather in the cap of freedom as another tyrant is removed from power, this time in Northern Africa. Ben Ali’s regime was high on the scale of despotism despite a relatively high standard of living compared to surrounding countries. This revolution has other despot countries, such as Egypt, on notice and now on guard. In fact Egypt’s, and many other tyrannical countries’ markets, are under heavy selling pressure today. My hope is that the new government gets the money system right alongside of their political system – they must both work together to produce true freedom. Stay away from the world’s private banks, look towards Iceland as a model.

DEBT is pressuring many other parts of the globe as well. Spain, Portugal, and Belgium just cancelled market based bond auctions in favor of more secretive private bank run auctions as demand was obviously not there. Europe is a basket case, with all countries in debt trouble. Bankrupt countries like Japan stand no chance of providing any real help to Europe, the best they can accomplish is to further destroy their own currencies. The ECB would like for the IMF to create more phony money to bail their whole debt based system out by providing more debt! This is laughable and is so far removed from reality that one must seriously question banker and political sanity.

It matters not, as all debt-based global monetary systems are in a state of free-fall. Food riots? No mention in the press as to the real root cause, namely the debasement of money. Real people go hungry when bankers get greedy, thus you will see more revolution and more violence throughout the world – these are the “other” events that history says are coming.

Yet here in America we are still playing ostrich with our collective heads in the sand. Our media at best can now acknowledge that our national debt is “Ugly:”

National debt: The ugly facts

NEW YORK -- Commentary: Maya MacGuineas is the director of the fiscal policy program at the New America Foundation.

The facts are ugly. The federal debt, which has averaged less than 40% of the total economy, now represents more than 60%. It's likely to hit 100% in a little oYou want more? Here's more.

Pretty much every impartial analyst has declared the situation unsustainable. And many European countries have already been hit by nervous credit markets worried about their debt levels.

Bottom line: If Congress and the president fail to make changes to current policies, the United States will experience some form of a fiscal crisis.

Not a pretty picture. And yet policymakers continue to drag their feet.

When it comes to fiscal policy, the political system is stuck in posturing mode.

Sorry, the abominable $858 billion tax deal President Obama struck with Republicans last month, in which both sides piled on more to the public debt and called it a win-win, does not qualify as my kind of fiscal compromise.

Geithner's debt ceiling warning
It's time for real compromise.

As long as each political party sees an advantage to delaying, we will continue to inch along, closer and closer to that inevitable crisis.

Last week, both Moody's and Standard and Poor's commented on the need for the United States to make changes or jeopardize its triple-A credit rating. A few years back, such warnings would have seemed inconceivable.

The gridlock comes in part from both sides believing they are right.

Republicans view smaller government as promoting more individual freedoms and as better for the economy because it allows for lower taxes. Fair enough.

Democrats see government as serving a more useful purpose -- one that is particularly justified because of the needs of an aging population, years of under investment and growing income inequality. Also legit.
On top of that, both sides blame the other for having made the problem worse for political reasons. Unfortunately, both are right.


No, the real unfortunate is that both parties are wrong, and so is the author of this article. The reality is FAR AND AWAY more UGLY than that!

Our current national debt has entered a parabolic growth phase, and because it went parabolic on banker bailouts, instead of acknowledging the debt, we now “expand the Fed’s balance sheet” by trillions. We use false accounting so bad that our country’s own chief accountants haven’t been willing to sign off on our financials for years. We fail to use GAAP accounting principles and thus ignore our promises and liabilities. We have lowered interest rates on each economic cycle to accommodate more and more DEBT, and now the private banks (the “Fed) has resorted to all out money printing. So much so, that this month there are 19 of 20 market days with POMO operations adding up to an incredible $112 billion in just one month!

Think about how large that parabolic figure is! It is nearly THREE TIMES our nation’s trade deficit! Think about that! There is no way it can end and still maintain the façade of economic or market growth, no way. In fact, the numbers MUST GET LARGER or the apparent growth ends. And that’s just one reason why finding physical gold and silver is getting harder and harder – the latest report showing that the European silver shortage is striking the U.K.

And how are equity markets priced? Ridiculous and fraudulent is all I can say. Fraud is rampant and now condoned, here’s yet another example of accounting fraud: US Banks Reporting Phantom Income on $1.4 Trillion Delinquent Mortgages.

With QE2 slated to end by June of this year, look for another banker induced crisis to generate enough angst to get QE3 or TARP 12,000 or whatever they call the next bailout – it will be necessary.

Just look at what has transpired in the Municipal Debt markets over the past couple months and in the past 3 weeks in particular. I talked about it coming years ago, I talked about it as the current CRASH began, and I’m talking about it again because there are so many Muni funds crashing to new 52 week lows, that the NYSE new lows number shot up to 153! This figure is high enough to generate another Hindenburg Oman, however, the McClellan Oscillator is just positive and thus another one was not triggered this week. This split in the market is a warning that should not be ignored, it is yet another expression of the sickness created from debt saturation. Municipalities are in big trouble, especially if their cost of financing sky rockets. Below is a weekly chart of the S&P National Municipal Bond Fund, it has already fallen 9.4% from its peak just a couple of months ago:

The market is now so concentrated in a few hands, and the indices are so weighted by just a few momo stocks, that the slightest hiccup can produce very large and sudden movements. Witness the NDX which is now comprised of 20% APPL. Steve Jobs just announced he is stepping back out of the company on medical leave and though it is a holiday, shares trading in Germany are off 8%, and look at the effect it just had on the Q’s this morning:

Ultimately something has got to give. Right now it is food and commodity prices. They shoot up to destroy people’s standard of living and the poor countries are negatively impacted first as they have less marginal ability to absorb price shock – thus revolutions and violence – the root cause of which are our own private bankers who cleverly call themselves the “Fed.”

What’s next to give? Can the markets actually fall with $112 billion a month in direct support? What happens when the primary dealers (who happen to own the “Fed) own all of the stock? What happens when they don’t get their way? What happens when municipalities fail, what excuse can be found/generated to bail them out? What happens when the revolution moves from Tunisia, to Egypt, then into Europe, and then onto the U.S.? Will we ever be smart enough to produce and control our own money system by removing the private banks from it?

Technically the markets are HISTORICALLY overextended even with trumped up valuations (valuations are not real, they are fraudulent). Never before in the past 82 years of modern history have stock prices remained above their 10 day moving average for 30 straight days as they have now!

Bullish sentiment is extreme, the CBOE Put/Call ratio is at the lowest point in the past 3 years. Note on the chart below how extreme lows tend to correlate with stock market tops. Also note how this past week’s close of .57 is lower than all the other weekly lows that occurred at lower price levels, thus creating yet another market divergence of which there are more than I can recall ever seeing:

Money and Markets just posted the following chart comparing the CRB to the Baltic Dry Shipping Index. It shows a giant sized divergence that is, I believe, a direct indication of MONETIZATION. It shows that commodities are zooming in price not due to demand, but simply due to global money printing. Note that this chart was also divergent prior to the late ’07 top:

The markets are now into areas of very heavy volumetric resistance. The DOW Industrials are now at the same place they peaked in the year 2000, 11 years ago. This area is also the area where the plunge in both the DOW and the S&P began in earnest in 2008 (wave 3). Thus we know there is resistance and under even slightly normal circumstances I would expect a pull-back or at least sideways action for quite some time:

The question then becomes, can POMO power through all that resistance? Again, it boils down to choices… still. Is it okay to starve people throughout the rest of the world? How long until the people become the resistance? Note that when the rule of law breaks down to despotism (corporate fascism here in the U.S.), that eventually the natural rule of law kicks in – other events then occur.

Lastly, there was a very small change in the McClellan Oscillator on Friday, meaning that a large directional price move can be expected Tuesday or Wednesday.

Enjoy your $15 hamburger, $20 is only a few more POMO months away! Other events are in motion and on the way. It’s been a long time coming…

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... l-top.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Foreclosure activity was unexpectedly mixed in December. Between recent documentation issues and the December holidays, an across the board slow down in foreclosure activity seemed likely. Foreclosure starts were down in Arizona, California, and Washington; flat in Nevada; and higher in Oregon. Foreclosure sales were down in Arizona and Oregon; flat in California and up in Nevada and Washington.

While we expect foreclosure activity to bounce around as mortgage servicers deal with the fallout from recent documentation issues, we found this month's mix of activity particularly strange as most large servicers and foreclosure trustees operate across all of the states we cover. One possible explanation for this mix of activity is that servicers and trustees are dealing with issues specific to each stage of the foreclosure process on a state-by-state basis. This would align with the recent Massachusetts Supreme Court decision that made it clear that lenders must follow the letter of the law in each state rather than simply continue industry practices. This could certainly slow one type of activity while accelerating another.

"Servicers appear to have their hands full and it may be a while before foreclosure activity stabilizes," says Sean O'Toole, CEO and Founder of ForeclosureRadar.com. "While it seems unlikely at the moment, it is our hope that 2011 will bring clarity to the foreclosures process for all involved."

Arizona
Dropping for the third month in a row, Notice of Trustee Sale filings fell 11.0 percent from November to December to 7,428 filings. Conversely, foreclosure sales saw their first significant increase in months, climbing 17.2 percent from November, but still 8.8 percent lower than a year earlier.

California
Notice of Default filings fell 16.7 percent month-over-month in California, while Notice of Trustee filings rose 1.5 percent from November. Foreclosure sales dropped slightly, with 0.7 percent fewer sales back to the bank and 8.2 perfect fewer purchased by third parties, typically investors. The time it took investors to resell properties they purchased at auction rose 6.1 percent from November and is up 51.0 percent from a year earlier to 157 days on average.

Nevada
Notice of Default filings finished their downward trend for 2010 with a decline of 2.3 percent from November to December. Activity on the courthouse steps increased in December, with both foreclosure sales and cancellations increasing. Foreclosure sales rose 24.3 percent month-over-month and 41.2 percent year-over-year, while cancellations jumped 39.8 percent from November.

Oregon
After dropping for three months, foreclosure filings rose in Oregon. Notice of Default filings increased by 18.4 percent while Notice of Trustee Sale filings increased 7.4 percent from November to December. Conversely, foreclosure sales dropped, with sales back to the bank declining by 20.8 percent and sales to third parties declining 23.1 percent. Year-over-year, both foreclosure filings and sales are down. Compared to December 2009, Notice of Default filings are down 19.3 percent, Notice of Trustee Sale filings are 40.4 percent lower and foreclosure sales are down 38.6 percent.

Washington
For the second, month Washington saw a dramatic drop in the number of Notice of Trustee Sales filed, down 20.1 percent from November, and 44.5 percent compared to October. Foreclosures sales, conversely, began to rebound. The number of foreclosure sales that went back to the bank increased 15.1 percent and those sold to third parties also increased 15.1 percent from November to December.

World's first flu-resistant GM chickens 'created'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12181382" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Auditors See Rising Defaults in Rural Loans
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/busin ... f=business" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

60% Of New Jobs In 2010 Were In Low-Paying Industries
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/1 ... 08447.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Foreclosure Situation to Worsen in 2011; How We Got Here

According to RealtyTrac, home repossessions will rise in 2011 from the record one million homes that were repossessed in 2010. There are five million homeowners who are at least two months behind on their mortgages, primarily due to job losses and declining home prices, which pushes more borrowers underwater.
One in 45 households received a foreclosure filing in 2010, for a record high 2.9 million homes. RealtyTrac projects three million foreclosures in 2011, with 1.2 million repossessions. This hidden inventory is on top of the 700,000 homes on the books of banks within the $53.2 billion in Other Real Estate Owned (OREO). It will likely take three years to clean up these unwanted homes and some banks are abandoning OREO properties. This environment will reduce property appraisals, which will eventually filter through to lower home prices.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/246578- ... e-got-here" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Homelessness In The Middle Class: Stable Families Reduced To Poverty
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/1 ... 08339.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

US Banks Report Phantom Income on $1.4 Trillion Delinquent Mortgages; Purposeful Delays to Inflate Earnings?
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... on-14.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Consumer Spending Collapses in Early January, But So What?
http://seekingalpha.com/article/246663- ... ource=feed" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PRINCETON, NJ -- Overall self-reported daily consumer spending in stores, restaurants, gas stations, and online averaged $55 per day in the week ending Jan. 9 -- down as expected from the $75 average for the month of December, but also well below the $68 average for the same week in 2010.

Throughout 2010, consumer spending remained relatively close to that of 2009 -- the "new normal" trend. Spending surged in December of each year and then fell back in January as expected, given seasonal spending trends; Gallup's spending data are not seasonally adjusted. Weather may be partly responsible for the sharper drop in early January 2011 -- Gallup has found that it can affect weekly spending. Regardless, there are no signs that an improvement in consumer spending is taking place in early January 2011.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/145562/Consu ... nuary.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tomgram: William Hartung, Lockheed Martin's Shadow Government
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175339/ ... government" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Floods Spread Across Australian States as Brisbane Residents Clean Up City
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... -1974.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oil is flowing with restart of Alaska pipeline
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110117/ap_ ... e_shutdown" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Scientists warn California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... superstorm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks to HBO's hit vampire television series, "True Blood," and the Twilight series of novels and movies that center on teenage vampires, law enforcement agencies nationwide are seeing an upswing in ritual and occult-related crimes, said Don Rimer, a retired Virginia Beach police officer and an international expert on occult crime.

More than 100 people — mostly police officers from across Hampton Roads and central Virginia — turned out for Rimer's seminar Saturday about how occults can impact teenagers. The presentation, sponsored by the Newport News Police Department, also helped educate officers about the influences that satanic, gothic, and vampire groups can have on teens.

"Occult crime happens all over the world and it's growing," said Rimer.

http://www.noonehastodietomorrow.com//i ... Itemid=124" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bold and Underline mine

....thank the Mormon vampire lady!!!

As natural disasters have risen, so have insurance claims. That being the case, insurance companies are noticing trends that most of us are missing. True some of the increased damage is due to the increase in suburbs and development, but not all of it.

According to Scientific American, this past year saw an increase in natural disasters in the United States. There were 247 blizzards, thunderstorms and floods. The total number of such disasters in 1980 were 60. There has also been an increase in “meteorological disasters”. In 1980 there were a little over 50 damaging storms. In 2010 that number had climbed to 150.

Yes, some of the increase is due to urban sprawl. People now live in places where disasters might have occurred previously but no one was paying attention. With people moving into areas previously unoccupied, disasters in those areas are now being felt by insurance companies as well as the insured.

One such example is the amount of devastation that occurred only from thunderstorms last year. That figure is $9 billion which is a 500 percent increase over 1980. The above $9 billion dollar figure does not include the losses from last winters snow storms, December’s snow storms and the California floods.

Munich Reinsurance has detected what seems to be a changing weather pattern.

But it’s likely that the number of strong storms involving rain, snow and hail is also rising because of warming temperatures, says Ernst Rauch, who heads the company’s Corporate Climate Center.
“We believe we see indications that weather patterns — so the frequency and intensity of convective storms — in some parts of the United States has already changed,” he said yesterday. “So we believe we have indications that climate change is already, at least to some extent, visible.”

But the increased number of disasters is not confined to the U.S. alone. Haiti’s earthquake caused $8 billion of damage. Russia experienced a heat wave so severe that 56,000 died before it was over. Pakistan endured devastating floods. Seven hundred people died in China’s floods last July. Altogether the past year saw 950 disasters world wide. The number 30 years ago was a mere 400.

The new year has already experienced two horrendous disasters with the floods in Australia and Brazil. The eastern United States has experienced a series of snow storms that have shut down airports and left businesses empty of both staff and customers.

The U.S. may be in for a worse year this year. Very few hurricanes and tropical storms actually made landfall last year. Our luck is not expected to hold for much longer. More tropical storms and Hurricanes are expected to hit the U.S. Global warming is increasing their intensity which increases the amount of damage they leave in their wake. Think Katrina.

Floods and droughts may also be on the rise.

Researchers say heavier downpours are already occurring in the United States. More moisture is able to build up in the warming atmosphere, and when it’s released, more falls to the ground. But the time between rainfalls might be longer, contributing to drought.
“If you pull more water out, it will take longer to recharge,” said Harold Brooks, a research meteorologist with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Oklahoma. “That’s why we get both flood and drought [with climate change].”

While politicians bicker over the reality of climate change, insurance companies are dealing with its reality. As loss of life, property, business, and agriculture increases due to an increasing number of natural disasters, insurance companies are going to continue to see claims rise and payouts increase. The old adage is that “Money Talks.” Now it will be interesting to see if the U.S. Congress and other governments around the world, are willing to listen.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if the single most powerful lobbyist on the issue of climate legislation were insurance companies?

http://green.blorge.com/2011/01/increas ... te-change/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brisbane floods: before and after
http://www.abc.net.au/news/infographics ... eafter.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

.....very cool graphic on a tragic event...

Central Bank steps up its cash support to Irish banks financed by institution printing own money
http://www.independent.ie/business/iris ... 97212.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

British undercover agent led attack on Irish police at rally
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Britis ... 40214.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

More banks walking away from homes, adding to housing crisis
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011 ... -servicers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Commingling of Crime & Terror in Latin America
http://www.mexidata.info/id2920.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Financial trends of the new American economy – Higher educated workforce with harder time finding and keeping jobs, median retirement account for Americans at $2,000, global stock market growth, and housing bust covering up inflation in other areas.
http://www.mybudget360.com/financial-tr ... education/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OPEC Raises Oil Demand Forecast for 2011
http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/20 ... t-for.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

THE BREAKING POINT: $120 Oil
http://pragcap.com/120-oil-the-breaking-point" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Texas releases $45 million more for first-time homebuyer tax credit
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/01/17/t ... ingWire%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Meet America's 25 Richest Politicians

Per the just released OpenSecrets list of top 25 wealthiest politicians in America, there are 12 republicans and 12 democrats (and Hillary, whatever she is). While we applaud the diversity among the country's richest "representatives", we can't help but wonder if these people actually "represent" the common man, or the man (such as themselves) having a minimal average net worth of $28 million...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/meet-a ... oliticians" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

Monsanto’s Roundup Triggers Over 40 Plant Diseases and Endangers Human and Animal Health
http://www.responsibletechnology.org/blog/664" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Seasonal flu vaccine fairy tale rapidly collapsing as the truth comes out
http://www.naturalnews.com/031043_flu_v ... ckery.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 'new normal' of unemployment
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... cs-economy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ike was right all along: The danger of the military-industrial complex
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 86133.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....kind of ironic...warn us about something he created....ike was a traitorous turd!

A world in breakdown
http://www.opendemocracy.net/paul-roger ... 15%2005:30" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In Corrupt Global Food System, Farmland Is the New Gold
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54119" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

World is 'one poor harvest' from chaos, new book warns
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'Explosive' Food Prices the Biggest Risk: Analyst
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41089972" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Flooding in Brisbane Suburbs
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=48625" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

California’s ‘Big One’ could be massive ‘superstorm’ that floods state: scientists
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/big- ... uperstorm/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jan 18 (Reuters) - Extensive reconstruction after Australia's floods risks fuelling a wages blow-out, as flooded states and the booming resource sector bid for scarce workers, which will in turn push up inflation and add pressure for a tightening of interest rates.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL3E7CI0BQ20110118" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Australia floods: crisis moves south to Victoria
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... toria.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brazil floods: further deadly landslides feared as rain returns
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... turns.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

African Food Riots Spread To Persian Gulf As Oman Is Next; Adverse Implications For Oil Prices?
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/africa ... oil-prices" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sudan Next To Succumb To Bernanke's Inflationary Experiment, As Country Threatens Revolution Over Surging Food Prices
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sudan- ... over-surgi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Washington DC, January 16, 2011 – The US intelligence community is now in a manic fit of gloating over this weekend’s successful overthrow of the Tunisian government of President Ben Ali. The State Department and the CIA, through media organs loyal to them, are mercilessly hyping the Tunisian putsch of the last few days as the prototype of a new second generation of color revolutions, postmodern coups, and US-inspired people power destabilizations. At Foggy Bottom and Langley, feverish plans are being made for a veritable Mediterranean tsunami designed to topple most existing governments in the Arab world, and well beyond. The imperialist planners now imagine that they can expect to overthrow or weaken the governments of Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Algeria, Yemen, and perhaps others, while the CIA’s ongoing efforts to remove Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi (because of his friendship with Putin and support for the Southstream pipeline) make this not just an Arab, but rather a pan-Mediterranean, orgy of destabilization.

http://tarpley.net/2011/01/16/tunisian- ... mpaign=rss" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wheat Advances, Corn Extends Rally as Grain Demand Climbs, Inventories Ebb
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... gains.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One in three Hackney families too poor to heat their homes
http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk/2011/01 ... eir-homes/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....how did we all get so poor so suddenly.....oh yeah the debt increases have stopped due to debt saturation and its a deflationary spiral from there! See this post for more insight....last one if you want all the prophetic warnings to go with it -
http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... 19&t=15706" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Austerity In America: 22 Signs That It Is Already Here And That It Is Going To Be Very Painful

The following are 22 signs that austerity has already arrived in America and that it is going to be very, very painful....

#1 The financial manager of the Detroit Public Schools, Robert Bobb, has submitted a proposal to close half of all the schools in the city. His plan envisions class sizes of up to 62 students in the remaining schools.

#2 Detroit Mayor Dave Bing wants to cut off 20 percent of the entire city from police and trash services in order to save money.

#3 Things are so tight in California that Governor Jerry Brown is requiring approximately 48,000 state workers to turn in their government-paid cell phones by June 1st.

#4 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is proposing to completely eliminate 20 percent of state agencies.

#5 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has closed 20 fire departments at night and is proposing layoffs in every single city agency.

#6 In the state of Illinois, lawmakers recently pushed through a 66 percent increase in the personal income tax rate.

#7 The town of Prichard, Alabama came up with a unique way to battle their budget woes recently. They simply stopped sending out pension checks to retired workers. Of course this is a violation of state law, but town officials insist that they just do not have the money.

#8 New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently purposely skipped a scheduled 3.1 billion dollar payment to that state's pension system.

#9 The state of New Jersey is in such bad shape that they still are facing a $10 billion budget deficit for this year even after cutting a billion dollars from the education budget and laying off thousands of teachers.

#10 Due to a very serious budget shortfall, the city of Newark, New Jersey recently made very significant cuts to the police force. Subsequently, there has been a very substantial spike in the crime rate.

#11 The city of Camden, New Jersey is "the second most dangerous city in America", but because of a huge budget shortfall they recently felt forced to lay off half of the city police force.

#12 Philadelphia, Baltimore and Sacramento have all instituted "rolling brownouts" during which various city fire stations are shut down on a rotating basis.

#13 In Georgia, the county of Clayton recently eliminated its entire public bus system in order to save 8 million dollars.

#14 Oakland, California Police Chief Anthony Batts has announced that due to severe budget cuts there are a number of crimes that his department will simply not be able to respond to any longer. The crimes that the Oakland police will no longer be responding to include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism.

#15 In Connecticut, the governor is asking state legislators to approve the biggest tax increase that the state has seen in two decades.

#16 All across the United States, conditions at many state parks, recreation areas and historic sites are deplorable at best. Some states have backlogs of repair projects that are now over a billion dollars long. The following is a quote from a recent MSNBC article about these project backlogs....

More than a dozen states estimate that their backlogs are at least $100 million. Massachusetts and New York's are at least $1 billion. Hawaii officials called park conditions "deplorable" in a December report asking for $50 million per year for five years to tackle a $240 million backlog that covers parks, trails and harbors.

#17 The state of Arizona recently announced that it has decided to stop paying for many types of organ transplants for people enrolled in its Medicaid program.

#18 Not only that, but Arizona is do desperate for money that they have even sold off the state capitol building, the state supreme court building and the legislative chambers.

#19 All over the nation, asphalt roads are actually being ground up and are being replaced with gravel because it is cheaper to maintain. The state of South Dakota has transformed over 100 miles of asphalt road into gravel over the past year, and 38 out of the 83 counties in the state of Michigan have transformed at least some of their asphalt roads into gravel roads.

#20 The state of Illinois is such a financial disaster zone that it is hard to even describe. According to 60 Minutes, the state of Illinois is six months behind on their bill payments. 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Croft asked Illinois state Comptroller Dan Hynes how many people and organizations are waiting to be paid by the state, and this is how Hynes responded....

"It's fair to say that there are tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people waiting to be paid by the state."

#21 The city of Chicago is in such dire straits financially that officials there are actually toying with the idea of setting up a city-owned casino as a way to raise cash.

#22 Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is desperately looking for ways to cut the budget and he says that "hundreds of jurisdictions" in his state could go bankrupt over the next few years.

But everything that you have just read is only the beginning. Budget shortfalls for our state and local governments are projected to be much worse in the years ahead.

So what is the answer? Well, our state and local governments are going to have to spend less money. That means that we are likely to see even more savage budget cutting.

In addition, our state and local politicians are going to feel intense pressure to find ways to "raise revenue". In fact, we are already starting to see this happen.

According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, over the past couple of years a total of 36 out of the 50 U.S. states have raised taxes or fees of some sort.

So hold on to your wallets, because the politicians are going to be coming after them.

We are entering a time of extreme financial stress in America. The federal government is broke. Most of our state and local governments are broke. Record numbers of Americans are going bankrupt. Record numbers of Americans are being kicked out of their homes. Record numbers of Americans are now living in poverty.

The debt-fueled prosperity of the last several decades came at a cost. We literally mortgaged the future. Now nothing will ever be the same again.

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/arch ... ry-painful" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Debt Bondage: The Economic Treason of Banks
http://www.infowars.com/debt-bondage-th ... -of-banks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wall Street gorges on record bonuses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwetW1B3 ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare
http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-t ... care-a5758#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind
http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/19-F ... 5-119.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The U.S. economy has posted a net-negative balance in international trade every year since 1976.
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/sta ... /gands.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chase Admits Overcharging Troops on Mortgages, Improperly Foreclosing
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/cha ... reclosures" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

As I’ve been typing I watched bonds shoot lower just prior to the open, and on the opening bell prices shot higher – the market is completely HFT driven and controlled, completely unnatural. As I’ve been saying, at some point the bankers (who own the HFT machines, own the exchanges, own the “Fed,” and produce false money to fuel their HFTs) will fail to get their way. We have stupidly given a very small minority complete control of our money system, of our economy, and by extension our political system.

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... d-118.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bold and Underline mine

High Oil Price = Faster Economic Decline For America
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archiv ... or-america" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Venezuela Says Oil Reserves Surpass Saudi Arabia's
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41101601" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Will $100 Oil Hurt the Economic Recovery?
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41121650" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Iran joins Venezuela, Libya to say no harm in $100 oil
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE70 ... gle+Reader" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Australians hit record credit card debt
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/australia ... 5988447714" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Russia comes 2nd in 2010 world arms exports
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/01/17/40041661.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Inspire Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Magazine Issue 4, January 2011
http://publicintelligence.net/inspire-a ... uary-2011/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Biden Assures Karzai of Aid From U.S. Beyond 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/world ... &ref=world" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

David Rockefeller confronted at Chilean Airport during vacations
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFWzDFjB ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Egyptian, Algerian, Mauritanian set selves alight
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110117/ap_ ... mmolations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

About 1,000 students marched through the streets of the Yemeni capital on Sunday urging Arabs to rise up against their leaders in the wake of Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's ouster.
http://politics.inquirer.net/politics/v ... to-rise-up" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tunisia ministers quit government as protests resume
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12216243" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ex Tunisia President's Wife Left with 1.5 Tons of Gold: Report
http://www.cnbc.com/id/41115532" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chinese Troops Deploying In North Korea
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2011/01/18 ... t+Press%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China is in discussions with North Korea about stationing its troops in the isolated state for the first time since 1994, a South Korean newspaper reported Saturday.
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/China ... t_999.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NASA’s Hansen: Impose Chinese Totalitarianism on America
http://www.infowars.com/nasas-hansen-im ... n-america/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bill Gates: Cell phones can track newborns for shots
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=252409#ixzz1BODJvKcW" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rudy Giuliani Wants To Do Involuntary Mental Evaluations Of People! (Like… 9/11 Truthers? Rudy?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTdZ2UxX ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Genetic Soldiers? Advisory Group Urges Pentagon To Map Genes Of All Personnel
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/1 ... 08907.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Feds come knocking for home inspections
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=251069" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sick Gulf Residents Beg Officials for Help
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54132" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Vatican warned Irish bishops not to report abuse
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... a69d1e30a9" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Glenn Beck's New Book Reveals He Embraces New Age Theology, Is a Knowledgeable Mormon, and a Universalist
http://www.worldviewweekend.com/worldvi ... cleid=6809" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

For Hollywood, it was a tough 2010

To paraphrase Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert, “Hollywood, we have a problem.”

The industry that was supposed to be immune to economic downturns looks like it’s going to have some re-entry problems as the economy begins to recover.

Broad swaths of the entertainment business declined in 2010.DVD sales were off 13%. Music CD purchases plummeted 19%. Video game sales as well as concert and theater attendance also fell. Even the turnout for America’s favorite pastimes — baseball and NASCAR — was down. And swift changes in technology will make it difficult for Hollywood to capture pre-recession levels of revenue.

So much for the value of escapism.

http://www.infowars.com/for-hollywood-i ... ough-2010/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Forget Food Riots In Africa, Simon Black Says The Canary In The Inflationary Coal Mine Is In Southeast Asia

Laos, with its vast resources and small population, might loosely be considered an agricultural version of Kuwait. But Laos is nowhere near as wealthy, since oil is much pricier than rice, soy, and fish. Given its resources, it certainly seems ironic that the prices of staple foods in Laos, including rice, have soared in recent months, and that the Laotian government is now under intense pressure to "do something" about it. You expect this sort of thing to happen in Algeria, where the population is 35 million, where only 2% of the land is cultivated, and where agriculture makes up but a tiny percentage of the economy... but in Laos? This is akin to finding Kuwaitis unable to afford filling up their cars due to high gas prices. It's unthinkable. Thing is, it's not that there are food shortages in Laos; this isn't an issue where supply has failed to keep up with demand (thus resulting in rising prices). The price hikes are simply another indicator of monetary inflation causing severe price inflation, particularly in the developing world.

How does this happen? The trillions of new currency units being compulsively manufactured by central bankers are finding their way to developing countries. This surge heats up local markets, causing prices to rise.

This effect is compounded when developing markets fight to keep their currencies artificially depressed against the dollar. When the price of milk goes up by a dollar in the developed world, people grumble about it, but they can afford it. In Laos, where the minimum wage is about $65/month, an extra few dollars for groceries is unfathomable.

The government in Laos will most likely raise the minimum wage. The figure that's being discussed is about a 40% increase from today's level, which itself is nearly double the minimum wage in 2009.

Rising wages like this are a common ingredient in hyperinflation, spawning a vicious cycle of higher prices, which then beget higher wages, which then beget higher prices, and so on. Wage hikes are always playing catch-up with rising prices, and the end result is a reduced standard of living. No amount of monetary wizardry can prevent this.

I saw a similar case when I was in Sri Lanka a few months ago: the government there keeps the rupee fixed to the US dollar at an artificially low rate in order to support exporters... yet the weak rupee has hit the locals hard, causing soaring prices of 30% or more for staple foods such as rice and coconuts.

When I was in Zimbabwe recently, the locals told me similar stories about their days of hyperinflation: everyone was constantly getting a "raise" to keep up with inflation, but prices were adjusting so rapidly, their living conditions would constantly deteriorate.

Needless to say, banks do just fine in this situation. All the freshly printed money circulates through the banking system, generating greater volume and higher profits. It's no coincidence that Laos' largest commercial bank (BCEL) is expecting its net income to surge 27% this year, and I'll be curious to see what happens to the Laotian stock market (which just had its inaugural session last week).

Bottom line: if this sort of thing can happen in Laos, where there's about 2.5 acres of lush, fertile, arable land for every man, woman, and child in the country, it can happen anywhere... and I'll be watching this situation very closely to see if any civil unrest develops as a result.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/forget ... heast-asia" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Life In America's Most Dangerous City About To Become "Living Hell" As Layoffs Of One Quarter Of Government Labor Force Begin

Life in Camden, NJ has never been fun. Frequently ranked as America's most dangerous city, whose only claim to fame are the corporate offices of Campbell's Soup, Camden is about to get even more dangerous as it is among the first to experience wholesale cuts to its government labor pool. Bloomberg reports that "as many as 383 workers, representing one-fourth of the local government's work force, are expected to lose their jobs, including about half the police force and one-third of the city's firefighters." It seems cuts have already commenced: "police officers are turning in their badges as part of deep municipal layoffs that began Tuesday." It's a good thing then that unlike the rest of the world, New Jersey does not (yet) have surging food inflation as otherwise one may be tempted to argue this could be a rather interesting hot spot in the future, especially with the local police force deciding to find better pastures even as it starts collecting 99 weeks of unemployment benefits.

From Bloomberg:

Firefighters are planning to march to City Hall on Tuesday, and Mayor Dana Redd is planning a noon news conference to talk about the layoffs in a city facing a huge budget deficit and declining state aid.

The officers began turning in their badges Monday as it became clear that no last-minute deal was going to save many jobs.

Located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Camden is rampant with open drug-dealing, prostitution and related crimes. More than half of Camden's 80,000 residents, mostly black and Hispanic, live in poverty.

The anti-crime volunteer group Guardian Angels also says it will patrol Camden, as it has Newark, where there were major police layoffs in November.

The fire department, meanwhile, has already been relying on help from volunteer departments in neighboring towns. Interim fire chief David Yates, who retired Jan. 1, has warned that that layoffs will increase response times.

A local pastor says "the fear quotient has been raised," and a police union took out a full-page newspaper advertisement last week warning that Camden would become a "living hell" if layoffs were not averted.

Of course, this being Camden, the only thing that could really push the city to recreate the living conditions of Hades would be a surge not so much in the price of food, or even iPads, but crack cocaine. And according to the Chairman there is substantial slack in the drug production vertical. Which means there are at least a few months before Camden becomes ground zero for what happens when surging inflation and insolvent municipalities mix with curious consequences.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/life-a ... ernment-la" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....of course deflation is the real culprit....but 99.9% of people think with their wallets today with no consideration of yesterday or tomorrow. Just as the logic of home prices will go up forever carried the day yesterday.....the logic of inflation will carry the day today.

Despite that fact I'm going to re-post a portion of an article I have already posted -

There are a number of fallacies - or delusions, if you will- concerning our economies that are set to inflict enormous - in many cases lethal- damage in both our own rich lives and those of people elsewhere in the world who are far less well-off than we still are - for now. These fallacies are closely connected, which adds greatly to their insidiousness as well as the perverse influence they have both on ourselves, and on our awareness of what's happening around us. And whatever there may be that we can't change overnight, we can at least try to comprehend some issues, file them, and move on. Let’s do these first:

1. Recovery
2. Inflation
3. Food prices


1: Recovery

There is no economic recovery, there hasn't been one in the past five years, and there won't be one for a very long time to come. Claiming that we are seeing a recovery today equals claiming that a society can borrow its way into recovery. I'm not going there, and I strongly advise you to not do it either.

There will be a Keynesian faction which clings to the theory that says it is indeed possible to borrow your way up, but that's a mere mirage, since it would require a surge in real productivity, i.e. outside of the service industry. Where and how have we increased production since the crisis started? Where have we created the great deal of additional value required to dig ourselves out of the hole? Obviously, nowhere. The vast majority of "jobs created" is in the service sector, while manufacturing today counts for less than 10% of US jobs. And no, flipping burgers does not create value.

For the US economy to recover for real, we would need to see hundreds of thousands of jobs created every month, on top of the 150-250,000 needed to just keep up with population growth. Not happening. It doesn't matter if the BLS says the unemployment rate went from 9.8% to 9.4% on 103,000 jobs created. If and when it issues numbers like that, the BLS itself ceases to matter. To wit, Zero Hedge reports: "Initial Claims Surge To 445K, Not Seasonally Adjusted Claims Surge By 191,686 To 770,413 In One Week".

What has happened that fools people into believing in a recovery are two things:

First, the US government and the Federal Reserve have injected more trillions of dollars into the system than anyone can keep track of. Moreover, they have done so only in those sectors that remain beyond the grasp of the average American. Which means that we see relative highs in the markets, as well as record or near record amounts paid out in bonuses on Wall Street, and at the same time there are record numbers of foreclosures and record or near record unemployment numbers.

While it's true that stock markets have been rising lately, how anyone can see that as proof of a recovery is beyond me. The idea that if you just make the rich richer, the rest will follow, is not even something I want to discuss anymore.

Second, any attempt to maintain what could be considered accounting standards, such as those that would apply to you and me, was given up long ago. The reason for this is that the trillions upon trillions of dollars that were taken away from you and your offspring, and handed to the main banks, would still not have been enough by any stretch of the imagination to keep up even the slightest appearance of solvency for these banks. It's important to let that sink in.

The untold trillions have been only sufficient to pay down the first "level" of debt the banks had accumulated, that part of the debt that could no longer be hidden from view. The rest of the debt, which is far greater than all the trillions handed out so far, remains in dark vaults, treated like some sort of state secrets that can’t be divulged for the next 50 or 100 years. The result is that hardly anyone realizes how big the debt is, and the losses are, and that bank stocks have actually been going up. This is how zombie money is created.

You, too, if you’re a gambling addict, could live for a while pretending you're rich, even after you’ve lost all you have and ten times more, provided you’re capable of hiding your lost wagers. Charles Ponzi and Bernie Madoff did it on their own for years; JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America do it with the full aiding and abetting from Washington, which uses your money to comply with whatever it is Dimon, Blankfein and Moynihan say is needed to stave off a collapse.

In other words, the economy may seem to be recovering, and the banking system may seem to have recovered, but the illusion has come at a gigantic price to the American (and European) societies, and in the end it will not make one iota of difference for the outcome. Then again, let's correct that: it will make a difference, but not - at all- in your favor: the multi-trillion dollar illusion will greatly enhance the misery and destitution on Main Street. All that money could have been used to mitigate and minimize the suffering of the herd; instead, it’s all gone to wolf packs and vampire squids. We’ll yet come to deeply regret this.


2: Inflation

The fact that there’s all that zombie money around (or zombie credit, to be precise) leads many to believe the US witnesses inflation. Not true. First off, inflation is not the same as rising prices. Prices can rise because of different causes: scarcity, speculation and (real) inflation. And it’s important to be able to identify which of these causes is in play. If you call all price rises inflation, you lose the ability to distinguish between the causes, which means you lose a crucial analytical tool. There may be those who would like nothing better than for us to lose that tool, but it’s not smart to give in.

I know the media has force-fed the incorrect definition of inflation to the masses, and I know there are plenty of people who say rising prices is all they care about, not monetary theory. However, a clear view of causation is essential when it comes to defining your reaction to rising or falling prices, and prices that rise because of scarcity demand a totally different set of actions than those that do because of a rise in total supply of money and credit, combined with velocity of money, which is what inflation truly is.

The present, incorrect and force-fed "meaning" of inflation as all price rises no matter what their cause is, is relatively new. Rising prices used to be referred to as "(currency) devaluation". Not perfect, but way better than what we have now, where terms like “monetary inflation", "price inflation", "consumer inflation", "energy inflation" all the way down to "cookie inflation" fill the media.

Why is the distinction between the definitions important? Because today in the US both the money/credit supply and the velocity of money are falling (deflation), while some prices are rising, in particular those of food and energy. And no, you can't have deflation in one sector and inflation in the other. That really turns the whole debate into obscure nonsense. It's important that we can determine that if prices rise in times of deflation, the cause for those price rises must be something other than inflation.

In today's world, that something else is speculation. But not of the ordinary kind. What we have right now is zombie money speculation. The same unrecognized losses in the financial system that our governments cover up with criminally negligent accounting non-standards cause prices of oil and food to rise, since that's where the zombie money -inevitably- ends up. And it's not just the banks that invest zombie money, it's all of us.

If banks would have been forced to reveal their losses, the hammering of home prices would have been huge. Since this did not happen, a lot of people are still sitting pretty in their homes, which are way more overvalued -in free market terms- than just about anyone is ready to recognize. Also, if banks had revealed their losses, unemployment rates would have been far higher than they are today.

I know what many are thinking: maybe it's not such a bad idea to cover up those losses. But you're not seeing the whole picture. First, the cover-up has enabled the banks to access your money in order to pay down their debts. And second, zombie money is not the same as real money, as something that has been earned by adding real value. Zombie money is not real.

I read a piece at Zero Hedge the other day by a group that calls themselves the NIA, for National Inflation Association. But they don’t even know what inflation means. Hence their slogan: "Preparing Americans for Hyperinflation". Hey, if you can't define inflation, chances are you’ll miss the truth on hyperinflation too. Look, the US depends for its money and credit supply on international bond markets. Whenever Bernanke turns on his so-called "printing press", which in actual fact is an "additional credit" press, it's not as if free money is created. There‘s interest to be paid on all of it. And while interest rates may be low right now, it's not Bernanke who sets those rates, try as he might to make you think so.

If and when the bond markets decide that the risk on US debt rises enough -or too much-, they will decide what the interest rate is, not Bernanke, and not Geithner. Obviously, with every dollar printed, risk assessments will rise, and the outcome is inevitable: less appetite for US debt (don’t forget that there's plenty zombie money in the bond markets too), and higher rates. And only if and when the US no longer has access to international markets does the option of hyperinflation come into play. Now, I may be quite negative on the prospects for the US economy, but a full separation from global debt markets is a while away yet, and that means the prospect of hyperinflation is as well.

Preparing for hyperinflation is not just useless at this point in time, it's also damaging in that it makes people blind to the real problem: deflation. And before we get to hyperinflation, if we ever do, deflation will cause so much pain and grief and unrest and death, that the very thought of hyperinflation will come to be seen as a highly delusional non-issue.

So how long will the zombie money last? Can it last as long as Bernanke and Geithner and Obama and Dimon want it to? No, in fact, they're fighting a lost battle against time itself.

The zombie money has to disappear, and it will. It all starts and ends with US and European real estate, the one biggest investment of those of us living on Main Street, by far. US home prices have now fallen for 53 consecutive months, despite the fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy up and guarantee near 100% of all mortgages, and despite the fact that the Fed has purchased huge swaths of the securities allegedly backed by these mortgages.

All those trillions "worth" of your money haven't been able to prevent that. And no amount of additional trillions will. Foreclosures are setting brand new records across the country, even as banks are ever more nervous about their paperwork, and their balance sheets. It doesn't matter how much money Washington throws at the issue, other than it’ll make you a whole lot poorer, for you’ll never see it back.

A further deterioration in home prices can't be prevented. Fannie and Freddie can’t buy 101% of mortgages; they're buying close to a 100% right now and prices still fall. Wal-Mart greeters, burger flippers and the rest of the great unwashed will not be allowed back into the housing market. There are over 10 million homes on the market, and perhaps twice that if you count all foreclosed properties that banks sit on (and the millions they won’t foreclose on), plus all those that people would like to sell but can't lest they go underwater. And the pool of potential buyers has shrunk with a vengeance since the 2005-6 "heydays". Huge increase in supply, huge decrease in demand; we all know where this will go.

Now, take Fannie and Freddie out of this picture. What do you see? They’ll be taken out in some way, and at some time, and it won’t take years. I know what I see: the housing and mortgage situation in the US has turned into what I've always called the “Bulgaria model”, where you guarantee the mortgage on your neighbor's home, and he guarantees yours; anything goes as long as it's not the free market your politicians and media tell you about. And we know what happened to Bulgaria in the end, don't we?

I’m all for a society, a government, that takes care of the weakest in its midst. I’m all against a government that props up the strongest in its midst, in this case the bankers with bonuses larger in one year than the weaker among us can make in a lifetime, the same bankers who lost more money in bad wagers than the entire country can cough up, and still be economically viable. We’re fast becoming zombie societies.

But first we'll have to live through this:


3: Food prices

Let’s start with the news that the Tunisian president has fled his country, and the military's taken over, according to Al Jazeera. Mass protests are ongoing in Morocco and Algeria. The riots in Tunisia are not all about food prices, but they were certainly a substantial factor. And more, much more, of the same is on the horizon, in many different places. But food prices this time around are not rising because of widespread dramatic shortages, at least not so far. And Lester Brown, much as I like the man, has it completely wrong:

The Great Food Crisis of 2011

[..] whereas in years past, it's been weather that has caused a spike in commodities prices, now it's trends on both sides of the food supply/demand equation that are driving up prices. On the demand side, the culprits are population growth, rising affluence, and the use of grain to fuel cars. On the supply side: soil erosion, aquifer depletion, the loss of cropland to nonfarm uses, the diversion of irrigation water to cities, the plateauing of crop yields in agriculturally advanced countries, and -- due to climate change -- crop-withering heat waves and melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets.


In the same vein, the peak oil crowd fails to see what drives up oil prices today. Yes, long term trends affect prices to some extent. But no, Lester, you can't provide an accurate assessment of what’s happening if you don’t include the very obvious contribution of speculation, especially that which originates with zombie money. Ditto for oil prices.

Food prices are rising partly because, let’s not forget, China, unlike the US, does have inflation, with its money supply going through the roof. But much more than that they're rising because we have elected to kill off the principles of our own western economic systems, which were once supposed to be based on free market ideas, that dictate that success is rewarded and failure punished.

They have since come to resemble some kind of sophomore notion of Darwinianism, where the upper alpha rhino gets all the girls and the rest get none at all. And that in turn is supposed to pose as justice in human societies, whereas in reality it’s nothing but what happened in Bulgaria for decades.

The consequence is that the zombie money is now allowed to drive up food prices to levels which make sure that millions of people around the world will go hungry, and will revolt as a result of that. Blankfein, Dimon et al have long since realized that they can't maintain their velvet “God's work" thrones just by robbing Americans of all they're worth. Their losses are far too great. They need to have access to everyone's wealth all over the world.

And since oil and food are traded on international commodity markets, and they have gotten hold of all the money America is worth, and then some, they can play these markets as much as they want, whether it’s wheat or natural gas or gold. People like to claim that gold will rise as the US dollar becomes worth less, but they forget that it’s zombie money that has been buying gold, and that has thus lifted gold prices. Once daylight comes and the zombies are gone, there's only one way left to go for gold prices too.

So, once again, when will the zombie money see daylight?

This could be caused by any of a myriad of choices. We could force all banks to put foreclosed homes on the market, all at once. Or tell the same banks they have no right to foreclose on homes they have no perfect(ly legal) paper trail on. We could force all derivatives contracts out into the open. Or just the mortgage backed securities; that would do it. Provided we fold Fannie and Freddie, and not let the FHA or any of those guys take over.

As I wrote eons ago, even just closing down Fannie and Freddie for business one or two months would probably do the trick. China could wreck the US economy in 5 minutes simply by demanding to know what their purchases of Fannie and Freddie debt are worth (they have a lot of it). Or it could be a small country, maybe not Iceland, but surely Vietnam, or Belgium, or Denmark, insisting on knowing what that paper their banks and pension funds have so heavily invested in is really worth. MBS, or any other species of derivatives, the whole shebang only has a value attached to it by the grace of nobody trying to figure what that value is.

Is US housing debt, and the securities and derivatives based on that debt, a zombie, or a person? It may certainly seem confusing late at night. But then again, you can't have meaningful relationships with zombies, they're sort of one-dimensional. Funny how that resembles the person-rights US companies enjoy [mummy - courtesy of the compromised Supreme Court],

And frankly, does it really matter? What we know for sure is that the zombie money we elected to have flow through our financial systems is going to kill a lot of people this year. Want to plead innocence? How long do you think that excuse will be accepted?

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2 ... -real.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Bold and Underline mine

Something reese posted earlier....

Helaman 6:38
38-And it came to pass on the other hand, that the Nephites did build them up and support them, beginning at the more wicked part of them, until they had overspread all the land of the Nephites, and had seduced the more part of the righteous until they had come down to believe in their works and partake of their spoils, and to join with them in their secret murders and combinations.

For additional insights see -
http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... =5&t=15854" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopi ... 19&t=15706" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

Treasury Spreads, Yield Curve Steepest on Record

Curve Watchers Anonymous is watching the spread between 2-year treasuries and 30-year treasuries. Bloomberg reports "The spread between yields on the 30-year bond and the 2-year note marked the steepest slope in the yield curve since at least 1977, when regular offerings of long bonds began and Bloomberg started compiling the data."

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In the past few years, the concept of economic globalism has revealed itself as quite the Trojan horse; once posing as the next step in the evolution of “free market” capitalism and the savior of third world nations striving for development status, now revealed as a fiscal plague spreading delirium and destruction wherever it touches ground. There is no denying that the economies of the world are irrevocably tied to one another, but until recently, this was always thought of as a “good thing” in mainstream financial circles. Today, the great failings of engineered interdependency are painfully apparent. The EU’s many peripheral nations are dropping one after another like flies in a fog of DDT, rising economies in Asia are bloated with investment capital escaping from debt default in the West, causing impressive levels of inflation, and the U.S. is on the verge of a currency implosion as the Federal Reserve opens the floodgates of fiat in a bid to hide our system’s extreme destabilization and maintain what little international faith is left in our ability to service our rampant liabilities. Globalism has led us to disaster…

Of course, this disaster is not quite so obvious if you only follow the MSM’s version of events, or the pithy, watered down observations of mainstream economists, central bank officials, and puppet politicians. In fact, it’s difficult for the average person only mildly versed in economics to understand just what is going on! The closer we get to the edge of the ravine, the deeper the deception becomes. Most Americans feel the danger intuitively, and see the warning signs in their local communities, but clear, concise information in the midst of this ‘Gordian Knot’ of lies is difficult to come by.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner claims that the Fed’s quantitative easing programs are no threat to the dollar and that our country “will not engage in devaluation”, all while commodity and energy prices skyrocket to record levels and numerous nations threaten to dump the Greenback as the world reserve currency. China claims that their inflation is manageable, releasing CPI data that is even more arbitrary and skewed as our own, while the Chinese masses grow louder in their anger over a lack of purchasing power to match exploding housing and food prices. The U.S. blames the lack of global recovery on China’s undervalued Yuan and its unfair trade imbalance. China blames the lack of global recovery on the overprinting of the dollar. Europe sits across the Atlantic hoping both China and the U.S. will keep printing and sending currency care packages to keep the EU afloat, all while claiming every three months or so that the “crisis has passed”.

So, what’s the truth in all of this?

In the following, I will attempt to dismantle the latest disinformation campaigns, explaining the most important factors surrounding the developing calamity between the world’s major economic powers in the easiest terms possible; including how these factors will directly and indirectly affect you…

Truth: Dollar Devaluation Is Occurring, Inflation Is Here

As we have covered in recent articles, widely visible inflation in the U.S. has been steadily developing for at least one and a half years. Food, energy, and metals prices across the board are soaring, and commodities actually outperformed stocks, bonds, and the dollar in 2010:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-0 ... onomy.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Wholesale prices (according to “official” numbers) rose 1.1% in December, following a 1.5% gain in November. These figures are diluted, to be sure, but the fact that inflation is being reported at all signals probable danger for the coming year:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-who ... 2011-01-13" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Grain prices surged in 2010. Corn gained nearly 60%, while soy and wheat gained around 40%. Cooking oil prices jumped 62%:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-1 ... tlook.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone today who denies inflation is evident in our economy is either blind, dishonest, or mentally deranged. In any case, they are not to be trusted. The question now is, is this inflation being caused by devaluing world currencies like the dollar, or a myriad of random chaotic “coincidences”…

[Mummy note - see the article above for more detail....but here's the jist. You either have inflation or deflation but not both (increasing demand and dropping demand).....if one does not rule across the board then something else is causing the problem. For example food. Is the food demand higher or lower than last year? Is food supply higher or lower than last year? If the change isn't due to demand....then perhaps the currency. If the currency is truly the problem then everything related to currency should show the same effect - like house prices going up at the same time food, gold, and auto prices are. If currency isn't the problem then its something else like SPECULATION!]

Lie: Current Inflation Is Caused By “Global Recovery”, And “Rising Demand”

The great lie surrounding these inflationary warning signs is that they are a product of “recovery”, and increasing demand in the U.S. and developing countries. While the “demand” argument may be partly true for gold and silver’s rise, it is certainly not true for oil and grains. Global demand for goods overall is dropping off a cliff, as is evident in the Baltic Dry Index, which measures shipping and freight rates around the world. The BDI has suffered a 20% decline in the past three weeks alone:

http://www.theindonesiatoday.com/transp ... ll-20.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If shipping demand is falling around the world, then demand for goods is falling around the world. If demand for most base goods is falling, then demand is not the cause of our current price spikes. Period.

More Americans filed for consumer bankruptcy in 2010 than in any year since 2005. Keep in mind that the government’s new rules making bankruptcy filing far more difficult took effect after 2005. This means that even with harsher bankruptcy guidelines, we still saw a massive wave of filings last year. If demand is actually a substantial factor, then U.S. consumers are burying themselves in red ink in order to support it:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/consum ... 2011-01-03" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Considering that over 8 million Americans have stopped using credit cards just since Christmas 2009, I think it much more likely that consumer demand in the U.S. is flat, or, still falling, despite the claims of the MSM:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/holiday- ... d=12367547" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mainstream analysts are often quick to point out that annual retail sales for 2010 were up over 6%, claiming this is a sure sign of recovery. Unfortunately, in their effort to ignore inflationary factors in 2010, they forgot to consider that perhaps rising retail sales were not due to increased consumption, but INCREASING PRICES on goods we already buy daily. Black Friday and Christmas season sales were generally unimpressive compared to 2009. Black Friday sales were flat and December sales were up only 0.6%. Are Americans really buying more, or are they forced to spend more on goods they need due to inflation?

Lie: The BDI Is Falling Because Of An Expanding Shipping Fleet

A new disinfo tactic I’ve noticed in the past two weeks is the suggestion that the BDI is not falling because of decreasing demand for raw goods, but a growing fleet of idle freight vessels in an already tight market. That is to say, some analysts are suggesting that it is not demand that is falling, but the supply of ships that is growing.

While it is true that world freight fleets are to add 200 new ships, this is not to occur for another year and a half:

http://thestar.com.my/maritime/story.as ... c=maritime" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The BDI plummeted in 2008, and has not shown any signs of recovery since. This was not due to a new supply of ships, but directly tied to the global economic collapse. The “growing fleet” argument seems to be a distraction designed specifically because of the public’s growing awareness of the Baltic Dry Index and its implications.

Another poorly conceived argument is that the BDI is inaccurate because it does not take into account that smaller fleet vessels are seeing increased freight rates while larger ships are falling out of favor. It’s true, that if you only count the shipping frequency of smaller boats, demand appears to be rising (barely). However, I hardly see how this is a good thing. Increased demand for smaller boats means no one is shipping enough volume to make leasing a large vessel worthwhile. Smaller volume still equals smaller demand.

Lie: Food Inflation Caused By “Bad Growing Season”

It would appear that the “mystery” of exploding food prices has been solved, and according to a USDA report released this month, the culprit is “weak agricultural output” causing a diminished supply of staple grains in the U.S.:

http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/latest.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This release was so shocking to markets because the report’s figures were so far below the USDA’s original estimates for harvest at the middle of this year, but why should we care about the USDA’s estimates? Are they not arbitrary? Why not look at the actual output for previous years compared to 2010 and get a real sense of what is happening?

If we are going to compare the crop outputs of 2010 to 2009, we should also keep in mind that 2009 was a record year for agricultural production. Did the USDA really assume that 2010 would meet or surpass such a bumper crop?

http://www.businesspundit.com/usda-crop ... -harvests/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Corn harvests reportedly dropped 5% compared to last year, however, 2010 was still the third largest crop on record. Soybean production was down only 1% from 2009. Cotton (not edible, but still important) was up 50% from 2009. Wheat was down less than 1% from 2009. One of the only grains affected in a substantial way in 2010 was Sorghum. The crop yield for Sorghum dropped 10% compared to 2009, but the planting area used in 2010 was 19% less than a year before, so this drop was to be expected:

http://www.farms.com/FarmsPages/Comment ... wsID=37813" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What does this mean? The U.S. had a GOOD year for crop output, not a bad one. And what about Russia’s summer disaster wheat crop? Are our exports picking up the slack of bad harvests overseas, causing prices to rise? Actually, warmer Russian weather in November spurred wheat production, helping alleviate the weaker summer yields:

http://www.allbusiness.com/agriculture- ... 042-1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Are there dangers in world grain output due to weather? Yes, but not enough to warrant a doubling of commodity prices. The REAL concern of agriculturalists, not just in Russia but in many nations, has not been the weather, but the ever expanding costs of production itself! From fuels to fertilizers, the process of growing food is becoming more and more expensive. What is facilitating this surging cost of production? How about the one factor that no one seems to want to discuss; the devaluation of major currencies, most especially the dollar? I find it interesting that so much disinformation on supply and demand in commodities is hitting the news streams just as the Dollar and the Euro begin to unhinge. In my view, this engineered hysteria is meant to distract us from the collapse of our currency, and to create plausible scapegoats for the inevitable ill effects that devaluation will bring.

[Mummy note - of course Saudi Aramco cutting 1/3 of their production (due to declining demand) didn't have anything to due with price bumps either.....or parking boats of oil in the ocean.....or other such games related to SPECULATION.]

Lie: Oil Inflation Caused By Rising Demand

Same argument, different commodity. Oil output has been more than ample in light of the fact that oil consumption in almost every nation has fallen substantially in the past three years:

http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.c ... mmets.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://blogs.worldbank.org/prospects/ca ... oil-demand" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What about the surprise shutdown of the Alaskan pipeline this month? Is our supply in danger? No. According to the EIA (Energy Information Administration), the U.S. exports (that’s right, exports!) over 2 million barrels (2009 figures) of petroleum and petroleum byproducts a day, most of it from the Alaskan fields!

http://www.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_mov ... blpd_a.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Apparently, Americans didn’t need that oil when the pipeline was working, so shutting it down certainly wouldn’t diminish supply here at home.

Oil is pegged to and traded in the world reserve currency; the dollar. Any devaluation in the dollar will have immediate effects on the value of oil. OPEC nations can and have been absorbing the inflationary costs, but they can only succeed in this for a short time. Eventually, the fundamental expenses will overwhelm them, and they will be forced to allow the price per barrel to take flight. That time has essentially come. Prices are likely to climb at breakneck speed in 2011, not because of demand, but because of the crumbling Greenback.

[Mummy note - of course one must take into account the gaming of currencies and the number of countries in the world that do not operate with a central bank....or the cooperation between the US/China/Saudi/etc...in setting exchange rates, oil prices, etc.]

Truth: China Is Preparing To Dump The Dollar

Most economists should have seen the Chinese problem back in 2005, when their central bank started issuing Yuan denominated treasury securities called “Panda Bonds”:

http://www.emergingmarkets.org/Article/ ... ained.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe the cute name threw mainstream pundits for a loop, or maybe they just couldn’t see the true purpose behind such a move.

China is the largest holder of U.S. debt and dollars. It is also the largest holder of forex reserves in the world. China’s coffers are bloated with savings. So then, why would the Chinese government introduce a plan to sell their own debt securities? They don’t need constant inflows of foreign cash to stay afloat like we do here. Their currency was pegged to the dollar so issuing a Yuan denominated security would have been pointless, at least in the eyes of the common investor. What did the Chinese central bank know that we didn’t?

It took some connecting of dots, but in 2008, when the ASEAN trading bloc took shape and they began to allow Yuan bonds for cross border trades, the reason was clear; China was planning to de-peg from the dollar. China was going to allow their currency to valuate. China was going to move towards a consumer based economy. China was going to drop the dollar as its reserve currency for international trade. And, eventually, China was going to dump their U.S. Treasury holdings altogether.

Why would China start preparations for this all the way back in 2005? It seems like a serious gamble, unless they KNEW what was coming in 2008. Unless they knew that the credit crisis would strike hard, that U.S. consumption would falter for years, not months, damaging Chinese exports. Unless they knew that the Federal Reserve would recklessly pour fiat into the system. Looking back at China’s actions, one can only conclude that their central bank was made aware of coming events by others, or, they are all Jedi, and deserve some kind of award for their incredible powers of foresight.

So far, the Chinese have de-pegged from the dollar, Yuan bonds are now being issued by the World Bank, and China has dropped the dollar in bilateral trades with Russia. We are only a step or two away from a global shunning of the dollar and a treasury dump by our biggest creditor.

[Mummy note - who allowed them to peg their currency to ours? no tariffs or other penalties to equalize the trade balance? who helped stimulate trade in China and dumped obscene amounts of investment dollars into their previously archaic infrastructure and dilapidated manufacturing base? These countries aren't acting in isolation but working together. Its like the US setting up and funding United Nations but having communist Russians preside over the security counsel up until Obama....its not by accident!!!]

Truth: China Is Suffering From Inflation

Concise data on Chinese inflation is even more impossible to obtain than it is here in the U.S. The “official” inflation rate in China increased by 5.1% last year, however, some estimates double that figure:

http://www.businessinsider.com/marc-fab ... nt-2010-11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chinese property prices rose for the 19th month in a row last December, while Chinese demand for housing remained low. Government subsidization of residential construction has created modern day “ghost towns”; entire complexes of apartments and retail spaces devoid of inhabitants:

http://blogs.forbes.com/robertlenzner/2 ... erformers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China has introduced its own stimulus measures in the face of the global credit crunch. While our fiat dollars have all been stuffed into the pockets of corporate banks and foreign entities, their fiat Yuan is going directly into their real economy. This is why China’s inflation is so immediate, while ours is still partly subdued.

Does this mean China is in the midst of its own bubble, ready to pop and rain down financial havoc? Not necessarily…

Lie: China Can Counter Inflation Without Boosting The Yuan

China has one option; extreme Yuan appreciation boosting the buying power of their populace in order to counter rising prices. China denies this possibility in public forums, but their central bank’s actions tell a different story.

Reserve requirements (the amount of money Chinese banks must hold as a safety net) have been upped several times, mushrooming to 19%. This is meant to remove excess liquidity from the economy, but so far the move has failed miserably. China has also raised interest rates to curb lending several times to no avail. As noted above, inflation continues.

I believe Chinese as well as Western central bankers are well aware that the Yuan will have to spike considerably if inflation is going to be halted, but currency valuation is not something that can be enacted without consequence. Generally, for one currency to rise quickly, another currency tends to fall. In this case, that currency will be the dollar.

Forget about all the empty rhetoric you hear in the MSM or are liable to hear during Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit this week in Washington. Already, Hu has called for greater cooperation between the U.S. and China while at the same time stating that the dollar based system is a “product of the past”:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The U.S. government has called for greater cooperation with China while the Senate has issued a statement demanding Congress institute a bill that would label China as a “currency manipulator” on the eve of Hu’s visit:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110118/pl_nm/us_usa_china" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The meeting between Hu and Obama will generate nothing, because neither Hu nor Obama actually have any say in the financial decisions they will discuss. Those decisions are made by the central bankers of our respective nations, and the central banks want an end to the dollar. When it comes down to it, the banking elites of China and the U.S. are both working towards this goal, while the masses are led to believe that they stand opposed.

Most revealing has been China’s support of the EU. Why are the Chinese suddenly so interested in propping up European economies that are destined to default? It’s definitely not out of the kindness of their hearts. First, China gains greater proliferation of the Yuan by tying itself closer to Europe, Africa, and the rest of Asia. Greater Chinese investment in the EU makes a switch to the Yuan (or a basket of currencies) and a move away from the dollar more acceptable to the citizenry of Europe. (Notice that all the American taxpayer dollars that were sent to tide over the EU were made secret, while all that Chinese money sent to the EU is loudly paraded for all to see. China: good guy. America: bad guy). Second, the greater the proliferation of Yuan bonds, the faster the Chinese can begin to dump their U.S. Treasuries. This is the key!

China must shrink its forex and T-bill reserves in order to drive an appreciation of the Yuan able to cut off inflation concerns. Timothy Geithner claims this will be good for the U.S. Hu claims it would be bad for China. They are both liars. Ultimately, inflation will be used by China as the excuse to drop the dollar completely, which is what they have been planning to do since at least 2005. The private Federal Reserve and our government will announce victory and a “managed” devaluation of the dollar, only to have the treasury bubble snap and bury us in hyperinflation, which is what they wanted all along, for many reasons, but most importantly to allow for the birth of the IMF’s SDR as the new global currency (amply supported by the new improved Yuan).

The Saga Of Disinformation Continues

I thought the economic situation was confusing two years ago. I never dreamed the pretzel could become so twisted so fast. The reason it is vital to stay on top of the fog and misdirection should be evident; deception in the economy can be used to steer the public and our country towards terrible ends. While many of us might become exhausted with the constant reminders of the dark road ahead, we cannot take for granted that the battle for the truth is far from over. We have made great headway over the years, far more than I dared imagine possible, but this is a beginning, one that must be cradled carefully, like the embers of the first fire.

[Mummy note - of course one needs to have the whole truth and not just partial truths!]

The nature of propaganda is to strut, to pound its chest and wail the closer we get to reality. The more Americans stumble upon the facts behind the false statistics and false smiles of establishment pundits, the more we will be subjected to globalist think-tank fancies and elaborate insanities. In this, we find our most reliable gauge of impending jeopardy, and salvation. Bigger grifts signal precarious times, but also desperation amongst the perpetrators and con men. There does come a time when people become weary of being fooled, and they turn their blunderings from a hindrance into an education. Ironically, lies very often destroy themselves, by frustrating their intended victims into action.

http://neithercorp.us/npress/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

At least 43 are dead and thousands still in refugee camps due to extreme flooding in eastern Sri Lanka caused by record monsoon rains. According to the United Nations, the rains in recent weeks in Sri Lanka have been the heaviest in nearly 100 years of record keeping, and the flood that resulted was a 1-in-100 year event, according to The U.N. Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System. Rainfall at Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, during the 42-day period December 1 - January 12 was 1606 mm (63"), which is about how much rain the station usually receives in an entire year (1651 mm, or 65".) Sri Lanka's previous most devastating flooding disaster was the 2004 tsunami, but as The Economist commented, "in terms of the numbers of people displaced and farmland inundated, the floods have been even more devastating than the tsunami of December 2004." Damage estimates start at $500 million, and much of Sri Lanka's agriculture has been severely damaged by the disaster. Also of concern is the large number of land mines from the recent Sri Lanka civil war that may have been unearthed by the floods. Water is also a major concern in the flood-hit area, as fighting between government forces and Tamil Tigers rebels from mid-2007 to May 2009 damaged or destroyed almost all of the water facilities.

Sri Lanka is now the fifth nation in the past six month to suffer a flooding disaster unprecedented in its history. As I reported in a previous post, the other four mega-impact floods--the July 2010 Pakistan floods, the December - January Queensland Australia floods, the November 2010 Colombia floods, and the January 2011 Rio de Janeiro floods--were all accompanied by an atmosphere laden with moisture, due, in part, due to sea surface temperatures over nearby ocean areas that were the 2nd or 3rd warmest on record. However, that was not the case for the Sri Lanka floods. Ocean temperatures during December 2010 were 0.2°C below average in the 5x5 degree square of ocean adjoining the island (5N - 10N, 80E - 85E). The floods appear to be due to the normal monsoon rains that typically affect the region this time of year, enhanced by the strong La Niña event occurring in the Eastern Pacific.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1730" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NSA turns to smart phones for recruitment
http://defensesystems.com/articles/2011 ... dmgarea=DS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Domino's Pizza Gets $12 Million Government Bailout
http://www.roguegovernment.com/index.php?news_id=24453" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Mountain Ranges May Act as 'Safe Haven' for Species Facing Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 102718.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....hmmmm

Abortion Doctor Charged With Killing 7 Babies With Scissors

Dr. Kermit Gosnell, 69, made millions of dollars over 30 years, performing as many illegal, late-term abortions as he could, prosecutors said. State regulators ignored complaints about him and failed to inspect his clinic since 1993, but no charges were warranted against them given time limits and existing law, District Attorney Seth Williams said. Nine of Gosnell’s employees also were charged.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/abortio ... -scissors/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ontario hospitals grapple with surge in flu cases

Ontario's heath minister says hospitals are working together in an unprecedented way to cope with the crush of patients suffering from flu-like symptoms.

Health Minister Deb Matthews says some hospitals that can't take any more patients are transferring people to other hospitals.

She says hospitals are doing everything they can to prevent the postponement of surgeries as the flu season tightens its grip on Ontario.

She's urging everyone who hasn't received their flu shot to get the vaccine as soon as possible.

http://www.healthzone.ca/health/newsfea ... -flu-cases" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

FRAUD & CORRUPTION by OCCULT CIA NAZI'S That Rule EU - Whistleblower's Sudden Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJoHUp5Z ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


BOMBSHELL Video Evidence of Secret Illuminati Corporation More Wealthy Than the Combined Wealth of All Nations on Earth
http://alligatorfarm.wordpress.com/2010 ... -evidence/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has announced that he intends to dissolve parliament and call a general election on 11 March.

The Fianna Fail leader promised that budget laws key to the Irish Republic's 85bn-euro (£72bn) international bail-out would be passed before then.

In a setback for Mr Cowen, he added that five vacated cabinet seats would be reassigned to existing ministers.

His Green Party allies had apparently refused to back a reshuffle.

Support for the government has fallen sharply since it agreed to the November bail-out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12239332" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....5 ministers resigned in the past 48 hours!

Scanning [finger] prints at two meters could mean safer security checks.
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedi ... 052/page1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Belt-fed .22 caliber full-auto pellet gun…..cool!
http://modernsurvivalonline.com/belt-fe ... ine.com%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

George Lucas Believes World Ends In 2012
http://www.disinfo.com/2011/01/george-l ... rmation%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Even Small Amounts of Oil and Dispersant Are Toxic to Phytoplankton ... the Basis of the Entire Gulf Food Chain
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... rsant.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Suicide rate doubles for Army National Guard
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/19/army.s ... tml?hpt=T2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Hawaii governor can't find Obama birth certificate
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=252833" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is Bank America the Most Sued Company in the US? Sol Sanders on Charting the Arab Dark
http://us1.irabankratings.com/pub/IRAMain.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Kel-Tec KSG Shotgun video

When Kel-Tec announced the KSG shotgun, I was skeptical. I didn’t think the gun would work right, and I really had my reservations about the gun. I did have a chance to play with one yesterday and today at SHOT, and I discovered something that I really don’t like that makes the gun a poor choice for home defense – in fact, it’s something that could get you killed if you used this gun. The trigger doesn’t reset. If you pull the trigger, and then run the slide while still holding the trigger to the rear like you would on a Remington 870 or a Mossberg, the trigger will simply go dead. We actually tried this on several models and it was the same on each demo gun. Here’s video of me demonstrating what happens.

http://gunnuts.net/2011/01/20/kel-tec-k ... gun-video/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

Rising rivers swamp another Australian town
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_17147040" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Towns on alert as floodwaters flow north
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/towns ... 19xzc.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...another 7 to 10 days of problems

Delta problems a 'mess'

Bob Bea has investigated such high-profile disasters as the Exxon Valdez spill, the Deepwater Horizon blast, Hurricane Katrina and the space shuttle Columbia, which exploded in 2003.

But the UC engineer and associate director of the Center for Catastrophic Risk Management says the problems looming in the Delta dwarf the others because of the vulnerability of levees and the threat that poses to drinking water, power, transportation and other infrastructure.

"It's the worst damn mess I've ever seen, and I've seen some pretty bad ones," Bea told a Contra Costa water task force in Pleasant Hill on Wednesday.

The problem is not just the conflict between the Delta's ecosystem and the demand for water. It is flood safety and the risks that levee failure poses to a web of aqueducts, power lines, telecommunications, highways and rail lines.

The levees and other infrastructure are getting older, the risks are getting larger and no one seems to know how to untangle the "Gordian knot."

"We've got this infrastructure that is powering a very critical economic engine," Bea said, adding that the Delta is on a "roadmap to disaster."

Bea and a team of researchers are about halfway through a four-year study of how to assess and manage threats in the Delta, which touches five counties and provides a portion of water for two-thirds of Californians.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_1713 ... ck_check=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Illinois' First Tax Hike Victim: Jimmy John's Founder to Move to Florida, Corporate Headquarters May Follow
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Consensus Nonsense"; Is the Yuan Undervalued? Who Wins a Currency War?

Inquiring minds are playing a pair of CNN Money videos with Jim Chanos regarding various aspects of the Chinese economy, China's huge property and credit bubbles, the Yuan, and commodities. Unfortunately there is no way to embed the videos, but here are links with a brief synopsis.

"Nobody wins a beggar-thy-neighbor devalue your currency race to the bottom. That we know. It simply does not work. We found that out in the 1920's. ... Any economist worth his salt will tell you tariffs add costs. Free trade is the cheapest of all, but politics interferes in these things. Politics can get out of control quickly. Currencies are a case of the tail wagging the dog. I do not think the Yuan is terrifically undervalued. In fact, I think it might be overvalued. The whole world thinks it's undervalued and everyone is positioned for it to be undervalued. When everyone is positioned on one side of the boat you might want to explore the other side. The yuan is overvalued because of China's credit problems, the amount of RMB regulators will have to flood in to refloat the system ...."

Hedge fund manager Jim Chanos says China's credit grows 3 to 4 times as fast as its economy expands. China is in uncharted territory in the real estate bubble, debt, and 9.6% GDP growth.

"In an investment driven economy, once you finish putting up a building, you have to start all over again and put up another building. Anyone using common sense, this leads to its own set of problems. Everyone gets affected by China's Real estate bubble bursting. The US get affected least. The US is not dependent on resource exporters like Australia, Canada, and Brazil. Those will be the economies that will be hit the most. The real problem is China's credit growth is somewhere between 25 and 35% of the economy. They are expanding credit 3-4 times as fast as their economy which is growing at 9%. Bulls point out that individual purchasers of apartments are not highly leverage. What they are missing is the system, which is geared toward fixed investment is massively leveraged. The system is simply not stable. There will be a reversion to the mean pretty hard for some industrial commodities. ..."

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





Whistleblower’s home raided by armed FDLE agents
http://1787network.com/?p=295" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Jason]

The year 2010 was one the worst years in world history for high-impact floods. But just three weeks into the new year, 2011 has already had an entire year's worth of mega-floods. I'll recap here six remarkable floods that have already occurred this year.

Brazil
Brazil suffered its deadliest natural disaster in history last week, when torrential rains inundated a heavily populated, steep-sloped area about 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. Flash floods and mudslides from the heavy rains have claimed at least 772 lives, including 357 in Nova Friburgo and 323 in Teresópolis. The storm left 126 people missing, the Brazilian Health and Civil Defense Ministry said Thursday. Rainfall amounts of approximately 300 mm (12 inches) fell in just a few hours in the hardest-hit regions. Damage estimates are currently $1.2 billion, and 13,000 are homeless. Latest rainfall forecasts from the GFS model show the heaviest rains during the coming week staying well south of the Rio de Janeiro area, which will give the flood region time to dry out and recover.

Australia Queensland
Australia's most expensive natural disaster in history is now the Queensland flood of 2010 - 2011, with a price tag now as high as $30 billion. At least 31 have been killed since December in the floods, and another 40 are missing. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, in 2010 Australia had its wettest spring (September - November) since records began 111 years ago, with some sections of coastal Queensland receiving over 4 feet (1200 mm) of rain. Rainfall in Queensland and all of eastern Australia in December was the greatest on record, and the year 2010 was the rainiest year on record for Queensland. Queensland typically has its rainiest years when La Niña events occur, due to the much warmer than average ocean temperatures that occur along the coast. The BOM noted, "Previous strong La Niña events, such as those of 1974 and 1955, have also been associated with widespread and severe flooding in eastern Australia. Sea surface temperatures off the Queensland coast in recent months have also been at or near record levels." The BOM's annual summary also reported, "Sea surface temperatures in the Australian region during 2010 were the warmest value on record for the Australian region. Individual high monthly sea surface temperature records were also set during 2010 in March, April, June, September, October, November and December. Along with favourable hemispheric circulation associated with the 2010 La Niña, very warm sea surface temperatures contributed to the record rainfall and very high humidity across eastern Australia during winter and spring." Queensland has an area the size of Germany and France combined, and 3/4 of the region has been declared a disaster zone. The latest GFS precipitation forecast for the coming week shows new heavy rains of 3 - 5 inches can be expected over the extreme northern portion of Queensland, but the majority of the state will receive lesser rains that should not further aggravate the flooding situation.

Australia Victoria
From January 12 - 14, extremely heavy rains over the southern Australian state of Victoria caused major flooding that killed one person and caused hundreds of millions in damage. Kevin Parkyn, a senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology said "Victoria is experiencing one of its worst flood events in its history" after "a week in which rainfall totals have been smashed in parts of Victoria". Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Terry Ryan said "It's the worst flood in western Victoria in their history as far as our records go in terms of the depth of water and the number of places affected." According to atmospheric moisture expert Dr. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, extratropical storm systems like the one that affected Victoria get 70% of their moisture from the surrounding atmosphere, and 30% due to evaporation from the surface. Since the airmass that supplied Victoria with its flooding rains traveled over the already-flooded portions of Queensland to the north before reaching Victoria, the moisture from the Queensland floods contributed significantly to the Victoria floods. Little rain is predicted over Victoria during the coming week, fortunately.

100-year flood in Sri Lanka
As I reported in my previous post, at least 43 are dead and damage estimates are at $500 million in Sri Lanka, which suffered a 1-in-100 year flood this month.

South Africa
Heavy rains of up 345 mm (13.6") have fallen in South Africa so far this month, resulting in deadly floods that have killed 40 people. Seven of the country's nine provinces have been declared disaster zones. Agricultural damage alone from the floods is estimated at $145 million. Heavy rains and severe flooding have also affected neighboring Mozambique, where 13 people are dead and 13,000 homeless or suffering damaged homes. Neighboring Zimbabwe has seen its heaviest rains in 30 years in recent weeks, according to the nation's Civil Protection Unit, but severe flooding has not yet hit that nation. La Niña events commonly cause heavy rains in southern Africa. Sea surface temperatures off the east coast of South Africa were 0.2 - 0.4°C above average during December 2010--nowhere near record levels, but warm enough to contribute to enhanced rainfall.

Philippines
Very heavy rains since late December have triggered a major flooding disaster in the Philippines, where 40 are dead, 453,000 people displaced, and 1.2 million people affected. The heavy rains were caused when a cold front moved over the eastern Philippines and lingered for many days. Heavy rains are common in the Philippines during La Niña events, as unusually warm waters accumulate by the islands. This winter, the waters in the central Philippines (10N to 15N, 120E to 130E) were at the warmest levels in history--1.0°C above average during December. The exceptionally warm waters allowed more moisture than usual to evaporate into the air, enhancing rainfall.

Commentary
The year 2011 has begun with a remarkable number of high-impact floods world-wide, and much of the blame for this can be placed on the current La Niña event occurring in the Eastern Pacific. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center currently puts the La Niña event in the "strong" category, and whenever a La Niña or El Niño event reaches the strong category, major perturbations to global weather patterns occur. This typically results in record or near-record flooding in one or more regions of the globe. When one combines the impact of La Niña with the increase of global ocean temperatures of 0.5°C (0.9°F) over the past 50 years, which has put 4% more water vapor into the atmosphere since 1970, the result is a much increased chance of unprecedented floods. A 4% increase in atmospheric moisture may not sound like much, but it turns out that precipitation will increase by about 8% with that 4% moisture increase. Critically, it is the extreme rainfall events that tend to supply the increased rainfall. For example, (Groisman et al., 2004) found a 20% increase in very heavy (top 1%) precipitation events over the U.S. in the past century, and a 36% rise in cold season (October - April) "extreme" precipitation events (those in the 99.9% percentile--1 in 1000 events. These extreme rainfall events are the ones most likely to cause floods.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMa ... rynum=1731" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Northeast storm to bring heavy snow

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A storm system moving up the East Coast is expected to bring areas of heavy snow and winds to New England on Friday, spreading into Maine late into the night.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/nort ... eavy-snow/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Violent Seismic Activity Tearing Africa in Two

The fissures began appearing years ago. But in recent months, seismic activity has accelerated in northeastern Africa as the continent breaks apart in slow motion. Researchers say that lava in the region is consistent with magma normally seen on the sea floor -- and that water will ultimately cover the desert.

Cynthia Ebinger, a geologist from the University of Rochester in New York, could hardly believe what the caller from the deserts of Ethiopia was saying. It was an employee at a mineralogy company -- and he reported that the famous Erta Ale volcano in northeastern Ethiopia was erupting. Ebinger, who has studied the volcano for years, was taken aback. The volcano's crater had always been filled with a bubbling soup of silver-black lava, but it had been decades since its last eruption.

The call came last November. And Ebinger immediately flew to Ethiopia with some fellow researchers. "The volcano was bubbling over; flaming-red lava was shooting up into the sky," Ebinger told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The earth is in upheaval in northeastern Africa, and the region is changing quickly. The desert floor is quaking and splitting open, volcanoes are boiling over, and seawaters are encroaching upon the land. Africa, researchers are certain, is splitting apart at a rate rarely seen in geology.

In the last five years, the geologic transformation of northeastern Africa has "accelerated dramatically," says Wright. Indeed, the process is going much faster than many had anticipated. In recent years, geologists had measured just a few millimeters of movement each year. "But now the earth is opening up by the meter," says Loraine Field, a scholar at the University of Bristol who also attended the conference.

Earth tremors cause deep fissures to form in the desert floor and the ground in East Africa is shattering like broken glass. Researchers in the Gulf of Tadjoura, which juts into Djibouti from the Gulf of Aden, have recently registered a barrage of seismic shocks. "The quakes are happening on the mid-ocean ridge," Ebinger reports.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/wor ... 41,00.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells

The simmering volcano has produced major eruptions—each a thousand times more powerful than Mount St. Helens's 1980 eruption—three times in the past 2.1 million years. Yellowstone's caldera, which covers a 25- by 37-mile (40- by 60-kilometer) swath of Wyoming, is an ancient crater formed after the last big blast, some 640,000 years ago.

Scientists think a swelling magma reservoir four to six miles (seven to ten kilometers) below the surface is driving the uplift. Fortunately, the surge doesn't seem to herald an imminent catastrophe, Smith said. (Related: "Under Yellowstone, Magma Pocket 20 Percent Larger Than Thought.")

"At the beginning we were concerned it could be leading up to an eruption," said Smith, who co-authored a paper on the surge published in the December 3, 2010, edition of Geophysical Research Letters.

"But once we saw [the magma] was at a depth of ten kilometers, we weren't so concerned. If it had been at depths of two or three kilometers [one or two miles], we'd have been a lot more concerned."

Studies of the surge, he added, may offer valuable clues about what's going on in the volcano's subterranean plumbing, which may eventually help scientists predict when Yellowstone's next volcanic "burp" will break out.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... a-science/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tatooine's twin suns - coming to a planet near you just as soon as Betelgeuse explodes

Yet it's not just a figment of George Lucas's imagination - twin suns are real. And here's the big news - they could be coming to Earth.

Yes, any day now we see a second sun light up the sky, if only for a matter of weeks.

The infamous red super-giant star in Orion’s nebula - Betelgeuse - is predicted to go gangbusters and the impending super-nova may reach Earth before 2012, and when it does, all of our wildest Star Wars dreams will come true.

The second biggest star in the universe is losing mass, a typical indication that a gravitation collapse is occurring.

When that happens, we'll get our second sun, according to Dr Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of Southern Queensland.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-t ... 5991009247" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Queensland floods hit Great Barrier Reef
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110118/ ... 11.21.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

'Wall of water' swamps another Australian town
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41156119/ns/weather/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Police alarmed over graffiti claiming Calif. Gov. Brown to be killed on Valentine’s Day
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/graf ... -governor/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bin Laden says France will pay a 'high price' for its policies in Afghanistan

In a purported audio tape aired on Al Jazeera television on Friday, al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden warned French President Nicolas Sarkozy that his refusal to withdraw troops from Afghanistan was a "green light" to kill French hostages.

Bin Laden’s last authenticated message was broadcast on al Jazeera in October, when he threatened to kill French citizens and attack French interests in retaliation for the country’s policies regarding Muslims.

The previous message, bearing the imprint of as-Sahab, the media arm linked with al Qaeda’s top leadership, said the September 2010 kidnapping of seven foreign nationals including five French citizens in Niger was in retaliation for “the tyranny” France “practices against our Muslim nation.”

http://www.france24.com/en/20110121-bin ... stan-niger" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

....he's back! Back from the dead that is.....like Jason and Freddy and all the rest! With his own media arm no less...

Florida’s non-citrus crop losses from cold could total $370M

Green bean prices have tripled in North Florida. Mustard greens are hard to find at any price. Cabbage is now going for 69 cents a pound, way more than the three-pounds-for-$1 usually available in January.

The hikes in fresh vegetable prices are the most obvious signs for many Floridians that the exceptionally cold weather this winter has taken a big bite out of the produce supply chain.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has estimated 2.5 million cartons or cases of fruits and vegetables were lost during December — not including processed citrus. Officials said another 4 million cartons of produce are expected to be lost before the end of March.

http://www.ocala.com/article/20110120/A ... 370M&tc=ar" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obama Asks GE's Immelt to Head Economic Advisory Panel, Replacing Volcker
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-2 ... lcker.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Corporate Elite Have a New Platform for Intervening in the Economy
President Obama will name Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric CEO, to head a new advisory panel focused on "promoting economic growth by investing in business." Think of it as central planning by the corporate elite.

President Obama is, of course, all excited by this,“Jeff Immelt’s experience at GE and his understanding of the vital role the private sector plays in creating jobs and making America competitive makes him up to the challenge of leading this new Council,” said the President.

In a WaPo op-ed, by Immelt the truth was laid bare about this new panel.

Immelt sounds like a clueless central planner, who doesn't understand how markets foster innovation and move product to the most demanded parts of the economy. His comments indicate a lack of understanding with regard to price signals and the fact that central planning can not be successful in improving the standard of living of a country:

Business leaders should provide expertise in service of our country. My predecessors at GE have done so, as have leaders of many other great American companies. There is always a healthy tension between the public and private sectors. However, we all share a responsibility to drive national competitiveness, particularly during economic unrest. This is one of those times...

We need a coordinated commitment among business, labor and government to expand our manufacturing base and increase exports...

Businesses should invest more of their cash and resources in advanced products and technologies that will create jobs in the United States, and government should incentivize this investment in innovation...

We must work together to construct an economy that creates more opportunity for more people.


What can one say other than this is banana republic talk. Companies have no duty to drive "national competitiveness". The only goal of businesses should be to service their customers at a profit and compete against those in the same market they are in, whether those competitors are down the street or in Hong Kong. The use of the term "national competitiveness" is downright scary and suggests some kind of national planner designing rules or the government financing "national competitiveness". This, of course, has nothing to do with free markets. It does, however, suggest the potential for the government to interfere with free markets and harass small businesses for the benefit of the corporate elite.

As far as a "coordinated commitment among business, labor and government". There really is no role for government in a sound economy. A government would contribute nothing. And business should be allowed to offer its workers whatever it chooses, while workers should be free to choose or pass on any offer. This "coordinated commitment among business, labor and government" is central planning that will benefit the corporate elite, union bosses and the government---and will be an overall suffocator of the economy.

Immelt's call for government incentivization of investment in innovation is again central planning. Has Immelt never heard of Silicon Valley? There is no need for government incentivization, which is code talk for sending even more money to the politically connected.


"We must work together to construct an economy," says Immelt. Here, Immelt fails to understand the observations of Friedrich Hayek on what he called a "spontaneous order". Free markets are about this spontaneous order that develop complex economic and social systems without human design---no Jeff Immelts needed. Indeed, when Hayek promoted the concept "unintended consequences" he was using the term at a much deeper level than that at which it is used today by the intelligentsia. Hayek was referring specifically to the complex, unplanned, relationships that develop in society and in an economy. When Hayek thought of unitended consequences, he was thinking of such undesigned developments as language, money and a downtown business area--all of which developed (and continue to evolve) in a spontaneous fashion, and were the unitended consequences of other actions by humans. Governments have tried to intervene in all three of these sectors only to distort and hinder the ongoing spontaneous development.

When corporate elitists get involved in attempting to "construct" an economy, it's the same distortions and hindrances, with the additional kicker that they attempt to distort the economy in their favor. It's really rule in banana republic dictator style, with the only exception being the corporate elite don't subscribe to the fashion choices of banana dictators and thus tend to shy away from wearing military uniforms. But don't let that fool you, it's just about the only difference.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/20 ... m-for.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

General Electric Faces First Jury Test in Omniscan Litigation
http://www.propublica.org/article/gener ... litigation" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A Brief Tally Of Immelt's Catastrophic Job Creation Skillz

Dow Jones has created a brief compilation of Immelt's simply tragic job creation track record:

[Immelt] runs a big company, but Immelt has shown more skill at cutting jobs, frankly, than creating. GE finished 2009 with 18,000 fewer US workers than it had at the end of 2008, and US headcount is down 31,000 since Immelt's first full year in 2002. During his tenure, GE workers based in the US as a percentage of total employees has fallen to 44% from 52%.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/brief- ... ion-skillz" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It appears to me that the special interest takeover of the United States is just about complete. Immelt took over GE from “Chainsaw” Jack Welch in the year 2000, then proceeded to run the company into a bankrupt condition largely by taking on far too much risk within GE Capital which made GE effectively a financial company who just also happens to make jet engines. They could care less about making light bulbs or appliances, they were making subprime loans like crazy to every homeowner with a heartbeat and to every rag tag airline around the globe. They got into derivatives, and when their leverage turned on them, it bankrupted the company. But instead of the rule of law (and the rule of nature) being allowed to run its course, Hank Paulson and the boys stepped in with billions to bail GE out. Today they're back to being a mark-to-fantasy Ponzi financial company reporting false profits just like the rest of the insolvent financials. In fact, just this morning (coincidentally?) GE and Immelt reported stellar profits:


General Electric posts 31% earnings jump

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- General Electric logged higher fourth-quarter earnings and revenue Friday that beat Wall Street's expectations, getting a boost from its finance arm and strong growth in equipment orders.

The Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate said its fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations rose 31% to $3.9 billion. Earnings per share rose to 36 cents per share, up 33% from a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast a profit of 32 cents per share for the quarter.

Net income, including discontinued operations, was $4.5 billion, up 51% from a year earlier.

The industrial giant said its year-over-year revenue rose 1% to $41.4 billion -- the first positive growth in nine quarters. Analysts expected the company to report a 4% drop in revenue to $39.9 billion.

"GE ended 2010 with three consecutive quarters of strong earnings growth," Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said in a prepared statement, highlighting gains in the industrial segment, as well as strength in orders and equipment.

Orders on the rise: Fourth-quarter orders were up across the board. Overall industrial orders jumped 12% year-over-year, with a 20% surge in equipment orders and a 5% increase in service orders. Orders in energy infrastructure grew 4%. Meanwhile, the company's backlog increased by $3.1 billion to a record $175 billion.

"They have been posting solid order growth for a while now, so it's not difficult to see the company continuing to grow because of this," said Daniel Holland, an equity analyst at Morningstar.

The health care sector was another bright spot, with revenue rising 8% and profit jumping 10% in the quarter.

GE (GE, Fortune 500) manufactures products ranging from jet engines and health care technologies to light bulbs and electric cars, so the company is widely viewed as a barometer of the overall health of the economy.

"It was a team effort in terms of the overall story," said Holland. "It seems like the individual businesses are starting to make their way through the recession and are starting to turn around."

Revenue and profit at the company's energy infrastructure was also an encouraging sign, with revenue only slipping slightly and profit inching higher.

"You always want to see growth particularly out of its power generation segment," he said. "That segment is driven by electricity demand across the world, and electricity demand is linked to economic growth and activity -- so we want to see the wheels of the economy continuing to improve."

GE Capital recovering: GE Capital, the company's finance division that was hard-hit during the financial crisis, continued to improve in the fourth quarter. Net income in the unit rose to $1.1 billion from $100 million a year earlier.

"GE Capital is doing better than I think anyone would have expected a couple quarters ago, let alone two years ago when we were in the depths of the recession," said Holland. "Even in its weakest spot -- commercial real estate -- you're seeing losses lessen."


Did you catch all that? The spin in the talk and in the reporting is that orders and infrastructure grew… but that growth is anemic, especially when you consider that it is measured in dollars and that their revenue growth is WEAK. So, where did profits really come from? GE Capital whose profits jumped from $100 million to $1.1 BILLION!!! That’s a one BILLION dollar jump in financial profits in one year!! Can you say “Mark-to-Model? I thought you could. I can also say, “ACCOUNTING FRAUD.” This on the back of hot money pouring in from the “Fed.”

Remember, those closest to creation of money, particularly Ponzi money, profit the most from it. Of course Immelt loves the current hot money, no adult, no rule of law, Ponzi environment and I’m certain will do everything in his power to keep it flowing to the benefit of his FINANCIAL company along with all the other PHO Wall Streeters.

Again, I will simply point you to a doubling in the past 6 months in underlying food commodities and warn that another year of the current policies and hot money will literally produce starving Americans, not just starving people in 2nd and 3rd world countries. I cannot think of a worse pick, this President continues to show that he is a President of the special interests and NOT OF THE PEOPLE.

They sell these appointments as if they are bringing economic “expertise” in to help the economy and to create jobs, but what they are really doing is accelerating the looting and the debasement of our money. These are the same people who ran the economy into the ground, they ran their businesses into the ground, and they are the exact wrong people to be appointing. America is in BIG TROUBLE.

Did you catch that yesterday the “Fed” changed their own rules again which now makes it so that they will not allow themselves to become technically insolvent on paper? Oh the acts that desperate people will take… if you’re reading this I know that thankfully some people are paying attention.

I read a line this morning from a good article that said basically, “We’re like Tunisia, only less aware…”

http://economicedge.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... d-121.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

“The Vast Majority Of This Contraction Of Credit Availability To American Industry Has Been By The Larger Banks”
http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 ... -vast.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Blackwater’s Prince building mercenary force with apartheid-era ‘hit squad’ officer
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/01/blac ... y-somalia/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lockheed Gets Big Bucks to Prep Soldiers for Urban War
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/01 ... urban-war/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

DETROIT — A new security system in Detroit Public Schools has parents and community members questioning the violation of their Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

As of Jan. 3, all visitors — including parents — to DPS will have to scan their driver’s license or state-issued identification to obtain a visitor’s pass with a photo I.D. to enter the school.

Although the system is slated for all schools in the district, it is only up and running currently at a few schools, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Senior High School (King).

Security officers and staff at King refused to comment to this reporter on how the system works or what database visitors’ identification is run through.

“All questions have to go to the district,” said Officer Brewer, campus security of DPS Department of Public Safety.

Speculation is circulating that the information is run through law enforcement, including Homeland Security.

Allegedly, two parents visiting King were arrested the week of Jan. 3, one for outstanding child support and the other for outstanding tickets. These arrests have not been confirmed.

Repeated attempts to get detailed information about the new system such as the name of the system, supplier, data bases into which the information flows and costs from DPS Emergency Financial Manager (EFM) Robert Bobb and his communications spokesperson Steve Wasko have gone unanswered.

http://michigancitizen.com/dps-id-syste ... 9385-1.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

FAA warns of ongoing GPS issues in southeastern US due to Defense Department 'tests'

Don't panic, but anyone planning on using GPS in the southeastern US for the next month or so will likely want to make sure they have a fallback option. That's according to a flight advisory just issued by the FAA, which warns pilots that their GPS signal "may be unreliable or unavailable" due to "GPS tests" that the Department of Defense will be conducting between January 20th and February 22nd. Details are fairly light beyond that, but the FAA does note that when the "tests" occur they will be active for 45 minutes, and be followed by 15 minutes of off time -- additional notices to pilots will apparently be issued at least 24 hours prior to any test.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/20/faa- ... to-defens/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Doping Up the Troops
U.S. Central Command policy allows troops a 90- or 180-day supply of highly addictive psychotropic drugs before they deploy to combat, reports Nextgov.

The CENTCOM approved drug list is a mixture that includes drugs like Valium and Xanax, used to treat depression, as well as the antipsychotic Seroquel, originally developed to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, mania and depression.

CENTCOM policy does not permit the use of Seroquel to treat deploying troops with these conditions, but it does allow its use as a sleep aid, and allows deployed troops to be provided with a 180-day supply.

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/20 ... roops.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Plans being drawn up to let states declare bankruptcy

Policy makers are working behind the scenes to come up with a way to let states declare bankruptcy and get out from under crushing debts, including the pensions they have promised to retired public workers.

Unlike cities, the states are barred from seeking protection in federal bankruptcy court. Any effort to change that status would have to clear high constitutional hurdles because the states are considered sovereign.

But proponents say some states are so burdened that the only feasible way out may be bankruptcy, giving Illinois, for example, the opportunity to do what General Motors did with the federal government’s aid.

Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions, and it could provide an alternative to a no-strings bailout.

No state is known to want to declare bankruptcy, and some question the wisdom of offering them the ability to do so now, given the jitters in the normally staid municipal bond market.

Slightly more than $25 billion has flowed out of mutual funds that invest in muni bonds in the last two months, according to the Investment Company Institute.

A few weeks later, David A. Skeel, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, published an article, “Give States a Way to Go Bankrupt,” in The Weekly Standard. It said thorny constitutional questions were “easily addressed” by making sure states could not be forced into bankruptcy or that federal judges could usurp states’ lawmaking powers.

“I have never had anything I’ve written get as much attention as that piece,” said Mr. Skeel, who said he had since been contacted by Republicans and Democrats whom he declined to name.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41188877/ns ... york_times" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A new culprit: antibiotics

Researchers found that infants treated with antibiotics in their first six months were up to 52 percent more likely to develop asthma and allergies by age 6 than babies who did not get antibiotics. This result buttressed scientists’ suspicion that early use of the drugs can cause imbalances in the immune system and a poor allergic response.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/edito ... p_Emailed5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Largest Ever West Coast Rocket Launch Carried National Reconnaissance Office Satellite Into Space
http://cryptogon.com/?p=20055" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have lift off... just: Massive 235ft rocket carrying a secret spy satellite replacement blasts off from California coast
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... s-off.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Why the Massachusetts Supreme Court Voided Two Foreclosures and What It Could Mean for Banks
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/why ... hat-it-cou" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...win one little tiny battle.....and the threats come hot and heavy about taking the gloves off and really roughing us up -

Fighting MERS could lead to credit card rates for mortgages

If local governments succeed in the fight against how banks have recorded the transfer of mortgage notes through the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, home loans could become as expensive as credit cards, K&L Gates Partner Laurence Platt said Wednesday.

At the last panel of the Mortgage Bankers Association summit on the future of mortgage servicing, Platt and Adam Levitin, an associate professor at Georgetown University Law Center, discussed the validity of MERS. The company was created by major lenders to become the single title holder of a mortgage as the owners of the note made transfers back and forth through securitization.

This, Platt said, was a solution to "antiquated filing systems" at the local level. In Chicago's Cook County, for example, it can take up to a year for a lender to receive a recorded mortgage back at the time of foreclosure, prepayments and other actions.

http://www.housingwire.com/2011/01/19/k ... -mortgages" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China devalues US buying power by 30%, Protects US Treasury Holdings

The trade imbalance between the US and China, a hot button between the nations for the last decade or so, is finally going to start to stabilize in the summer of 2011. However, it is doing so with a de facto devaluation of the US dollar and its buying power. The average American will see a spike in the price of everything from their favorite jeans and T-shirts, to the cost of some electronics.

The Chinese have decided to devalue the US dollar’s buying power, without devaluing the US Treasury holdings they hold. It is an elegant solution to their issues. It will be interesting to see if they can pull it off, while they try to prop up the European Sovereign debt markets at the same time.

The Chinese are attempting, successfully so far, to introduce the Yuan as a global currency in which to settle international trade. China is pumping into its own internal currency markets so much liquidity, they need an export market to develop for the Yuan or their own internal markets will overheat.

China has no choice at this stage, but to pass on the cost of raw inflation to its customers. The era of cheap Chinese imports is over. The real impacts of higher commodity costs are going to push into the economy at different levels.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/china- ... y-holdings" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...what a complete flippin joke!!! No choice....yeah they had no choice but to fix the exchange rate and make everything extra cheap....and now they have no choice but to put the kibosh on the US. Gotta luv propaganda!!!

My Response to the Drudge Photo of China's Flag Centered Between Two American Flags to the Left and Right of It

Yesterday when I viewed the Chinese flag centered between two angled American Flags on the Drudge Report, immediately the scripture came bursting before my eyes "A house divided against itself shall not stand". This is Jesus speaking in Matthew 12:25.

Flags are symbols and symbols have meaning. This once great Republic has been brought to its knees, morally, financially and physically by the willful disregard and contempt for all the principles and foundations that made it great. Remember the long forgotten Pledge of Allegiance where it was stated "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all? It has long been abandoned and 'equal justice under the Law' is but a distant memory--only to get worse.

http://www.stevequayle.com/News.alert/1 ... vided.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

''If China becomes the world's No. 1 nation ... ." That was the headline in the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, The People's Daily, on the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington. The article went on to boast how "China's emergence is increasingly shifting to debate over how the world will treat China, which is the world No. 1 and has overtaken the U.S."

A story like this does not appear by accident in the official Chinese Communist Party newspaper on the eve of a state visit to the world's (current) No. 1 power, the United States.

It was a signal. The latest and boldest signal yet that China intends to become the world's No. 1 power.

President Obama took the occasion of his first visit to China to show "humility" and to assure his Shanghai audience that "we do not seek to contain China's rise."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/201 ... a-china-1/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shanghai just announced it will hike minimum wages by 10%
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/shangh ... um-wage-10" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

China's economy appears to have reached a critical threshold of complexity and obscurity that renders it uncontrollable. Recent reports of surging bank loans, real estate speculation, industrial growth and inflation triggered a sharp decline in the Shanghai stock index yesterday.

A recent comparison of food prices in Boston and Beijing found that China is now more expensive than the US.

Though the first link states that the average urban wage in China is about $3,000 a year, my sources in China report that a college-educated worker makes about $6,000 a year--about one-eighth the average U.S. income of $49,777. A mid-level manager might make $12,000 a year--an excellent salary in China.

Food eats up (sorry) about 40% of the average household budget in China, roughly in line with the percentage U.S. households devote to housing/mortgages. As I have noted here before, it's not the absolute percentage rise in essentials such as food and energy that matters, it's the relative impact on lower-income households that matters.

A 10% rise in food prices in a household that spends 10% on food (a typical upper-middle class U.S. household) results in a "statistical noise" 1% increase in the family budget. In a family budget with 40% devoted to food, a 10% increase in food meaningfully crimps household spending. A doubling of food prices would be catastrophic.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest- ... ay-chariot" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

...and since the majority of the food problem is speculation or manipulation by banks and governments.....seems like they are trying to really piss off a lot of people towards the United States....but maybe I'm off my rocker!

Liquidated North American industrial assets find new home in China

Maynards Industries Ltd. knows the intricacies of doing business in China, where state control of capital flows prevent transacting in yuan.

As a liquidator of industrial equipment, the Vancouver-based company finds new homes for unneeded and unwanted machines. And increasingly, the company finds itself removing that excess capacity from North America and transferring it to China.

“Millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment is going there,” said Aaron Stewardson, Maynards’ chief operating officer.

But in reselling that equipment to Chinese enterprises, Maynards has had to navigate the country’s tight currency regime, one of the biggest complaints of China’s trading partners.

Purchases and sales could not be completed in yuan, but rather in U.S. dollars, creating delays, piling on additional transaction costs and cutting off those Chinese companies that contract only in local currency.

But Maynards recently pulled off a small feat of commerce in China by completing a transaction exclusively with yuan, the first such successful exchange by a Canadian company under a Chinese pilot program, according to HSBC Bank Canada, which facilitated the exchange.

Although the sum, tendered for project management expenses, was modest, the transaction might be considered a small signpost on the slow march to free-flowing capital in China, said Tom Niebuhr, the bank’s head of product, trade and supply chain in North America.

http://www.financialpost.com/Liquidated ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Reuters) - Over the past two years, as U.S. unemployment remained near double-digit levels and the economy shed jobs in the wake of the financial crisis, over a million foreign-born arrivals to America found work, many illegally.

Those are among the findings of a review of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau data conducted exclusively for Reuters by researchers at the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70J37P20110120" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bangladesh Suspends Brokers For Selling Shares Into Third Market-Halting Stock Market Crash
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bangla ... rket-crash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Irish Government Collapses, Six Cabinet Members Resign, Election March 11; How To Negotiate Haircuts
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... nalysis%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

How the financial elite have dismantled the American middle class – top 1 percent share of wealth at levels not seen since the Great Depression. Goldman Sachs offering average bonuses of $430,000 while a record 43,200,000 Americans receive food stamps.
http://www.mybudget360.com/financial-el ... -homeless/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Debt Continues To Accumulate As The Economic Climate Worsens

2011 will witness the US financial structure and economy under severe pressure again, especially in the second half of the year. The US is forced with major refinancing and the issuance of new debt in the trillions, the municipal problems will come to fore after July 1st, not that they haven’t already with an illiquid market and Europe will be embroiled in keeping six of its EU-euro zone members from insolvency. It is going to be some year. Germany is comical. On one day the public says no more bailouts beyond the $1 trillion already committed. The next day Mrs. Merkel says Germany will save the euro. The euro can only be saved with a commitment of $3 to $5 trillion. That means an additional major financial commitment. We do not believe the solvent nations of Germany, France, Holland and Austria will commit for that. If they do they will go bankrupt.

The states and municipalities are essentially on their own. It is now very difficult to sell bonds, if possible at all. They’ll be no more Build America bonds and the federal government refuses to make additional loans, as Meredith Whitney has said more than 100 municipalities could stop paying interest on their bonds and approach insolvency.

These three events alone could bring down the financial structure of the Western world and perhaps the entire world. It could lead to no sovereign bond bids, as it already has for municipals. The deliberate effort to interconnect nations, regions and states could expedite such failure. It is not any longer possible to deal with problems in isolation. One thing affects another.

The denigration of the American middle class began three years ago and it is still just getting underway and the public hasn’t a clue as to what is happening to them and what is going to happen to them. An indication of that is this past Christmas spending. At the upper end sales rose 9% and at the lower end only 1.5%. There is no question that austerity is starting to take hold in America’s lower and middle class. What we see over the horizon is going to take its toll on U.S. GDP. Even with $2.5 trillion in net spending GDP growth in 2011 will be 2% to 2-1/4% down from 3% to 3-1/4% yoy. In addition what the government finally has to admit is that CPI and unemployment figures are totally bogus and GDP figures are substantially lower than stated. We can promise you in time this will all come out in the wash. We can also throw in that debt to GDP is not 80%, but 115% on a par with other failing nations. The financial and economic profile of the US has been altered by free trade, globalization, offshoring and outsourcing and without tariffs on goods and services prosperity can never return to what was once the greatest nation on earth. Listen Americans, if you want to live in a third world nation that is fine. If you don’t, force your representatives and senators to pass such legislation. If you are not successful and when all is said and done revolution will be your only choice, unless you like living on your knees.

Needless to say, these events are all going to be painful and destabilizing. These financial events are bound to have their social costs and that could cause severe changes in stock market performance. 2011 is going to be a very nasty year.

http://theinternationalforecaster.com/I ... te_Worsens" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The world's expected economic growth will have to be supported by an extra $100 trillion (£63 trillion) in credit over the next decade, according to the World Economic Forum. This doubling of existing credit levels could be achieved without increasing the risk of a major crisis, said the report from the WEF ahead of its high-profile annual meeting in Davos.

Oooh boy! Where to start? Let’s try some back of the envelope first glance ruminations (don't pin me on details or exact numbers, I’m going for the general gist here). The "global credit stock" rose by $52 trillion in the past ten 10 years (2010 not included). That is about an entire one year's worth of global GDP. Now, let’s see: the world will soon count 7 billion inhabitants. Which means that, since 2000, credit rose by about $7000 per person, including children, pensioners and the many hundreds of millions who have to live on $1 a day or thereabouts. And that was on top of some $8000 pre-existing credit per capita.

And now, say the World Economic Forum and McKinsey, we need to play double or nothing (again), everything on either red or black. In the next decade, we must raise global credit to the tune of over $14,000 per capita. But not to worry:

The WEF said the continued demand for credit could be met "responsibly, sustainably – and with fewer crises".


Well, you must admit, it worked great in the past ten years, we're doing just spiffy. After all, there were only three million foreclosure filings last year in the US, where real unemployment is only 16% or so, and most of all, only a handful of people set themselves on fire so far in northern Africa in 2011. In other words: steady as she goes?!

Let's see. Home starts are down from 2 million in 2005 to half a million today, annualized. A "normal, healthy" year would see 1 million starts.

We get into the inflation vs deflation debate here, since mortgage loans are a major contributor to credit creation, or were, I should say. The way it works - or used to - is you go to a bank, ask for a mortgage loan, they press some keys, et voilà, there's another, let's say, $250,000 that just entered the economy that never existed before.

In the 2005 good days, this would have expanded "available" credit in the US by $500 billion a year (at $250,000 per mortgage). In a normal year, $250 billion. Today, maybe $125 billion. Those amounts may not mean all that much to you, what's a billion more or less. But remember that the bank could take these new debt obligations, and slice and dice them, turn them into mortgage backed securities, pocket the profits and use them to move on to more sophisticated derivative instruments like credit default swaps, CDO's etc.

Partly because of the vanishing reserve requirements in our fractional banking systems, they could then leverage themselves up to their eyeballs. Let's be real conservative and say that the prevalent leverage ratio was 20:1 (I'm seriously lowballing it here). That would have turned 2005's 2 million housing starts into a $10 trillion credit-based bonanza. In a "normal" year the result would be $5 trillion. And that's just housing starts, that's not even counting existing home sales. There was over $3 trillion in mortgage originations in 2005. There are other aspects, like for instance the fact that most people pay 3-4 times the actual amount of their loans before their homes are paid off, which greatly increased the amount of available gambling tokens for the banks.

And now a large part of that is gone. It's not just the 75% loss that got us from the 2 million 2005 starts to the 500,000 now, but the securitization model has changed drastically as well; Fannie and Freddie (and FHA/Ginnie Mae) buy close to 100% of new loans today, vs less than 40% in 2005. And they issue the MBS now, along with Ginnie Mae. So the banks didn't just suffer huge losses on their toxic paper, they've also seen their 'housing tap' largely shut down to a trickle. Of course they've found ways to involve themselves again through the backdoor, but provided the market has shrunk 75%, they would have to up their leverage ratio by 300%, to 80:1, just to play even.

So is it any wonder that Geithner and Bernanke throw trillions into the system, without inducing any growth? A blacker hole than this has never been spotted even by the Hubble telescope. And to date, fuzzy accounting may delay the day of reckoning process somewhat, but that only works to hide losses incurred in the past. No amount of accounting fraud can make up for the effects going forward of losing 75% of a market, in this case housing.

US housing inventories are at crazy levels, and nobody even knows any more how much shadow inventory there is. Is it 5 million, units, or 10, or 15 million? On top of that, robo-signing and other forms of fraudclosure are set to cause huge additional problems in the housing finance sector, forcing lenders to buy back large amounts of loans. How will they pay for this? Nobody knows that either. And what then happens to the securities that are supposedly backed by these limbo loans? Will they be forced to be marked to market? Totally unclear.

How many people will end up living for free in their homes in a suspended Wile E. limbo, waiting to see if their lenders can produce the legally required papers to foreclose on them? It could be hundreds of thousands. It could be millions. The infamous Ibanez case in Massachusetts was just a start. In Maryland, 10,000 foreclosures were halted in one fell swoop the other day. There's no doubt that we’ll see much more of this in 2011-2012.

Then there's the resets of ARM mortgages, set to peak in 2011. That will push tons of additional homeowners over the edge, and tons more properties on the market, provided the paperwork isn't all shoddy.

And all these factors combined will lead to one inevitable outcome: prices will keep falling. Which will further exacerbate all of the above developments. Which will cause prices to fall further. And so on and so forth. There is no economic recovery, there are only trillions of dollars in additional credit. Which have led to only a 16% unemployment rate, only 3 million foreclosure filings in 2010, and only a close to 30% drop in home prices (according to Case/Shiller).

And now the WEF calls for $100 trillion in extra credit until 2020:

"This doubling of existing credit levels could be achieved without increasing the risk of a major crisis..."


Come to think of it, maybe they’re right. That major crisis is cast in stone as it is, so there is already a 100% risk. And you can't increase that. Then again, the WEF plan will greatly worsen the effects of that crisis on Main Street. Still, incumbent politicians don't want to let the present zombie model go, no matter how dead it is. Because it's this model that ensures Wall Street keeps paying for election campaigns. Main Street's already too poor to do so. Main Street's debt deleveraging.

http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/2 ... -need.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;