Currently I do not subscribe to the International Forecaster, but Bob Chapman is in my top 3 trusted sources for news on the world economy. I listen weekly to GoldSeekRadio where Bob has a segment.
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What the tax package proves conclusively is that the President, the House and the Senate have absolutely no intention of getting their fiscal house in order. We will address the lurid details later. There is no change in the policies of borrowing continuously in order to sustain current consumption and to keep the economy from collapsing. As far as we are concerned the hold up in the package was to load it up with pork and stimulus. Some call it bells and whistles – we call it irresponsible. The Fed and all the players are buying time and 70% of the public knows that and they are going along with it. Very few want to face the music.
The Fed, via the “President’s Working Group on Financial markets” is targeting asset prices, if possible, and the equities market. This is really the only bastion of wealth that the public recognizes. Wait until government and Wall Street go after their retirement plans, then they will get a wake-up call. Mr. Bernanke believes a strong stock market will spur spending, leading to higher income and profits. They had best have some heavy propaganda ready because 4th quarter GDP will probably come in around 2%. Inventories are building production is again stagnant, railroad traffic is off over 1% and the Baltic Index is down. Consumer credit has expanded more than $3 billion the first two-month rise in more than two years, although that number was aided by one off student loans, which accounted for all of October’s gains. In reality consumer credit fell more than $32 billion, the lowest level since late 2004. If you cut away the student loans consumer credit fell about $75 billion over the past three months.
What may seem odd to you is that a federal judge’s rejection of mandatory insurance, a keystone provision of the Obama Health Care Reform Package, is bullish for the stock market. The bill is enormously unpopular and the gutting of this part of the bill neuters it. It is on to the Supreme Court, where unfortunately it will be upheld, by our bought and paid for socialist activist judges. It reminds us in many ways of the Warren Court. The judges may take the case for decision by next June.
Irrespective, temporary fiscal stimulus has been just that, temporary. We ask, why would the result be any different this time? All the exercise, a very expensive exercise of $2.5 trillion annually, is doing is buying time. The result will be more inflation and unemployment and the beginning of demonstrations and violence as we have seen all over Europe for the past few years. Incidentally, both are worsening and next year will reach a level not seen since 1968 in Paris. Riots are on the way in America, just be patient, they will come in good time. This is the result of austerity from the bottom up and the rich getting richer. Washington and NYC had best re-read French history starting in 1788.
The last time we saw numbers that we see today was in mid-2007, when the stock market took a sharp plunge. A correction to 8,000 on the Dow would wring out present excess evaluation and perhaps then some. This market is way over valued.
In none of the news and research reports we read do we see any reference to the fact that insured unemployment jumped 523,000 to 4.2 million. Markets often ignore cold hard facts at their peril.
We wonder what Wall Street thought about the expose forced by court order of the distribution of bank bailouts? There was no discussion. They just ignored the preliminary report. There are different estimates, but we will stick with our original estimate of $13.8 trillion. There is no question the collateral was substandard and in defiance of Fed rules. It is understandable why the Fed wanted to hide what they had been up too. There were 4,200 different loans and securities purchases under 13 different bailout programs of $3.8 trillion, that is that we know of at this time. This was shared by a host of lenders to affect profits to lessen these lenders deplorable condition. It even included transnational conglomerates. Some $61 billion was loaned to hedge funds to assist their exit from ABS, Asset Backed Securities. Much of the money found its way to the Cayman Island accounts of these entities in order to cover up what has happening. These funds may have bailed out these hedge funds, but the funds were also used to attack the European bond market and the ECB and its policies. We still do not know how many trillions are still out there. Did they also use the IMF and World Bank to front secret transactions? None of this has been as yet disclosed. It is estimated that some 36% of collateral for the loans was stock, which is illegal, including junk bonds. This is only the beginning. When the full story is known the reign of the Fed will be history.
The final details of the tax package are not as yet available, but here are a few comments. The tax extension bill has become a boondoggle worth about $900 billion. Payroll tax cuts will work about as well as the Bush tax rebates – they didn’t work. Temporary measures never work, because they do not affect long-term behavior. Most of the money will be saved or used to reduce debt. Business needs accelerated depreciation allowances and research credits like they need a hole in the head. They are sitting on almost $2 trillion in cash, or 7.4% of assets, the highest in 52 years. This is just another payoff to business for their campaign contributions.
One of the things we would like to address is the “Shadow Lenders.” As you know the Fed gave support to hundreds of banks and other corporations and then would not divulge what they had done. One of the sneaky things they did was to use $140 billion, or 20% of the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility, $28 billion, to secretly fund domestic and foreign corporations. Banks around the world benefited. How they did it was via vehicles known as conduits. This contributed significantly to asset bubbles in residential and commercial real estate prior to the financial crisis, which began three years ago, by obscuring risks. Spokesmen for theses facilitators, banks, won’t say whether their firms borrowed money from conduits that tapped the commercial paper facility. These people are real beauties. Some transactions allowed companies to remove assets from their balance sheets and reduce capital requirements. These vehicles get quite large and were secretly hidden from regulators and Congress. This criminal enterprise functioned from September 2008 through January 2010.
The total loaned from this facility by the Fed was $738 billion. The Fed says they did not know what the conduits were doing with the money. If you believe that I have a bridge you might be interested in. These conduits were similar to SIVs, or Special Investment Vehicles, where assets, usually their losers, were held off balance sheets. In pulling this slight of hand they did not need to hold capital against these assets. Thus, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland, etc. served as a vertical faucet for loans that very few knew about. As you can see, just about anyone who wanted or needed funds got them and the fed often didn’t even know where the funds went.
Both Europe, the UK and the US are on life support. Why else would they need such massive injections of money and credit? Now and during the coming year there will be about 2% growth, half of which will be supplied by quantitative easy of one form or another. These estimates come from official statistics, which unfortunately are incorrect: all three general economies in reality are in the minus column.
In order to maintain this level far more money and credit will be needed than has been admitted or anticipated. By June there is a good possibility that Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain will have defaulted. Already Moody’s has 10 Portuguese banks under review for possible downgrade.
Europe waited too long to pour money and credit into the system and as a result is showing distinct signs of deflation. Strains will be great during the first quarter of the year due to heavy refinancing demands. The euro zone has to refinance $750 billion. This event could push Spain and Portugal into the same position that Greece and Ireland are now in. This means for those who have to be in currencies the US dollar and the Swiss franc will be the obvious gainers. You might call them, for this period, the best of the worst. This is not as yet being reflected in the currencies or their bond markets. Higher US rates are the result presently of US fiscal fears that will abate as we cross into the first quarter of 2011.
It won’t take long for Rep. Ron Paul and Senator Bernard Sanders to go gunning after the Fed, which has to expose what they have been up too and what they have done, which has been illegal under their charter. That should calm dollar strength and add fuel to the fires that are driving gold, silver and commodity prices higher.
The “Build America Bond” program will be dead and the states will be strangled for lack of funds and as a result muni yields will have to climb further, which means lower muni prices and more layoffs in a sector that makes up 1/7th of the economy.
Housing will have another bad year that will stretch to 2013, and see 20% lower prices, many more foreclosures and a staggering inventory that could hit a 4 to 5 year supply, when normal is 4 to 5 months.
It looks like the administration and Congress with the assistance of the Fed will attempt to make $2.5 to $3 trillion in stimulus in a combination QE2-QE3, stretch out over two years. We are afraid they will find that is not going to work.
As we mentioned the first quarter should be good for the dollar, but as massive money has to be raised other borrowers will be crowded out of the market and yields will tend to rise again. The Fed could end up buying almost all the Treasury and Agency bonds, new and existing. This will continue to strangle credit to small and medium sized businesses that create 70% of new jobs. That means little improvement in employment. That also means the Chinese and Japanese could leave the Treasury-Agency markets and spend their dollars elsewhere, such as they have been in commodities, gold and silver. We have seen two years where loans to small and medium sized businesses have fallen by 25%. That is going to worsen.
Long-term debt will be overwhelming not only in the US and UK, but in Europe as well. If you can believe it banks have again been borrowing short, lending long a proven recipe for disaster. The 3% spread isn’t worth the effort.
On top of such a poor choice they have leveraged themselves as well. Many banks will bankrupt themselves in this process as they did in the early 1980s. The taxpayers simply cannot bail every bank out, especially if they get hit simultaneously. At the same time these banks have bad real estate loans on their books.
Unemployment should improve only slightly, up to June, due to adjustments and financial turmoil in the US, UK and Europe. The following year could improve by 1% to 2% on a U6 basis. That could take real unemployment over two years from 22 5/8% to close to 20%, which will neutralize recovery again.
We could see 0.4% ten-year T-notes and perhaps even higher over the next two years as deliberately created inflation takes its toll on purchasing power.
Most of you have observed rioting in London, Athens and Rome this past week, as Europeans become more militant in retaliating against austerity, higher taxes and growing unemployment. The bitterness, resignation and militancy is reminiscent of the late 1960’s demonstrations in Paris. Now we have seen this not only in Paris over the last three years, but now over Europe as well. The entire Continent is in contagion.
The established parties in every country represent the financial interests and on the edges we see the parties of protest. If an establishment politician steps out of line their money is cut off and they are isolated. No new direction is allowed. Wages must be lowered; the cost of business must fall, as well as corporate taxation. All the gains from higher productivity and lower wages must fatten the bottom line to increase salaries and options for the leadership. They cannot have constituents getting anything whether it is in Europe, the UK or the US. The elitists want all the wealth and world government to go along with it. The bureaucrats and the technocrats make the decisions and pass their orders on to the countries leadership.
In Europe the media is largely government controlled, which means it is controlled by the people behind the scenes that control government. It is more or less the same in the UK and US, but the elitists have direct control. That is why talk radio and the Internet, that emanates from the US, is so important. Their existence breaks the monopoly censorship. This process of sterilization then becomes broken and decent rises. The discontent you see in Europe is being fueled by the truth that is being dispersed by alternative media.
In Europe, education is in the hands of government, as well as research. As a result there is no cause and effect. This, of course, leads to mediocrity, an absence of original thinking and conformity, and a mold that youth is trying to break away from among other issues. Freedom in Europe has been extinguished by socialism. Socialism was the compromise lost in the 1930s between National Socialism and communism. It was a third way that began after World War II as a political and social solution. It avoided war but otherwise has been a failure. Unfortunately in every one of these isms, including what is called capitalism; freedom has been asphyxiated by the state. The question is do we opt for anarchy? What we did find out like others before us is that there is no ideal society. In the next issue we will cover more on the dilemma of civilization in Europe, the US and England, and where we believe the powers behind societies are leading us.
FedEx, which used to be seen as a proxy for the economy, reported misses on revenue and earnings. Revenue is $963B vs. $9.77 expectations. Earnings are $1.16; $1.32 was expected.
FedEx tried to excuse the earnings miss on higher employee benefit costs. But where is the justification for the miss in revenue?...FedEx boosted FY estimates to $5.00-$5.30 from $4.80-$5.25. So, FedEx, like most everyone, is betting on a better economy in the future.
As the incoming chairman of the House monetary policy subcommittee, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will hold the bully pulpit when it comes to the nation's money woes.
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
US Government Is Bankrupt Still Spending Like Drunken Sailors
FULL STORY WITH LINKS
You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties. These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled “Wastebook 2010“. Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable. Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it just keeps getting worse. So just what in the world is going on here?
It almost seems as though Congress actually enjoys inventing new ways to waste U.S. taxpayer money. It seems nearly inconceivable that anyone could keep a straight face while trying to justify spending money on many of the things in the list below.
At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 14 trillion dollars, government waste just seems more out of control than ever. The following are 20 of the craziest things that the U.S. government is spending money on….
#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this “video game research” is reportedly to study how “emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace.”
#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
#3 $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.
#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this “research” is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.
#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions.”
#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
#7 Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the “poetry” is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.
#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.
#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.
#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 “phantom” medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these “phantom” medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.
#11 The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000 from the federal government to construct a “critter crossing”. Thanks to U.S. government money, the lives of “thousands” of migrating salamanders are now being saved.
#12 In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform “green energy upgrades” on a building that has not been used for a decade.
#13 $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.
#14 One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.
#15 The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.
#16 A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a “recession-themed” video game entitled “Layoff”.
#17 The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called “Wolfquest”.
#18 A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria’s facade and give it a more “inviting feel”.
#19 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000 to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations”. This one sounds like something that Dwight Schrute would have dreamed up.
#20 Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in “stimulus funds” to study the impact of a “genital-washing program” on men in South Africa.
In light of all this, is it any wonder why the approval rating of Congress recently hit another new record low?
According to the most recent Gallup poll, only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing.
Just think about that – only 13 percent!
Our politicians seem very confused about why there is so much anger in the country today. Well, there are certainly a lot of reasons for it, including the fact that the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse, but it certainly doesn’t help that our government is basically flushing our tax dollars down the toilet and spending them on some of the most wasteful things imaginable.
It would be bad enough if the federal government was swimming in money, but the truth is that all of this waste is being committed at a time when the U.S. government is nearing bankruptcy.
Over the last 30 years, the U.S. national debt has gotten 13 times larger. We have accumulated the largest debt in the history of the world and there is no end in sight.
In fact, we are rapidly running out of people to borrow money from. According to the Wall Street Journal, in order to repay maturing bonds and finance the exploding budget deficit, the U.S. government will have to borrow 4.2 trillion dollars in 2011.
Eventually the rest of the world is going to lose confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to repay all of this debt. Once confidence in U.S. Treasuries is totally gone, and there are already signs this is starting to happen, the game will be over and the U.S. financial system will collapse.
But the U.S. Congress just continues to act like it is “business as usual” and the wasteful spending just continues to get worse. Someday historians will look back and think that we must have been a nation full of idiots and morons.
For decades our politicians have been spending us into oblivion, yet we keep sending the vast majority of them back to Washington D.C. every time an election rolls around and the mainstream media keeps assuring us that our “respected leaders” know exactly what they are doing and that everything is going to be okay somehow.
It is almost as if some sort of collective insanity has overtaken most Americans. The path we are on inevitably leads to national bankruptcy and the destruction of our financial system, but only a small percentage of the population seems to care.
Well, in the end we will reap what we have sown. Unfortunately, the economic pain that is coming is going to be devastating for all of us – including those of us who are awake and are trying desperately to change things.
You are not going to believe some of the things that the U.S. government is spending money on. According to a shocking new report, U.S. taxpayer money is being spent to study World of Warcraft, to study how Americans find love on the Internet, and to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam. Not only that, but money from the federal government is also being used to renovate a pizzeria in Iowa and to help a library in Tennessee host video game parties. These are just some of the examples in a new report on government waste from Senator Tom Coburn entitled “Wastebook 2010“. Even as tens of millions of American families find themselves suffering through the worst economic downturn in modern history, the U.S. government continues to spend money on some of the craziest and most frivolous things imaginable. Every single year articles are written and news stories are done about the horrific government waste that is taking place and yet every single year it just keeps getting worse. So just what in the world is going on here?
It almost seems as though Congress actually enjoys inventing new ways to waste U.S. taxpayer money. It seems nearly inconceivable that anyone could keep a straight face while trying to justify spending money on many of the things in the list below.
At a time when the U.S. national debt is closing in on 14 trillion dollars, government waste just seems more out of control than ever. The following are 20 of the craziest things that the U.S. government is spending money on….
#1 A total of $3 million has been granted to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so that they can play video games such as World of Warcraft. The goal of this “video game research” is reportedly to study how “emerging forms of communication, including multiplayer computer games and online virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life can help organizations collaborate and compete more effectively in the global marketplace.”
#2 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the University of New Hampshire $700,000 this year to study methane gas emissions from dairy cows.
#3 $615,000 was given to the University of California at Santa Cruz to digitize photos, T-shirts and concert tickets belonging to the Grateful Dead.
#4 A professor at Stanford University received $239,100 to study how Americans use the Internet to find love. So far one of the key findings of this “research” is that the Internet is a safer and more discreet way to find same-sex partners.
#5 The National Science Foundation spent $216,000 to study whether or not politicians “gain or lose support by taking ambiguous positions.”
#6 The National Institutes of Health spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.
#7 Approximately $1 million of U.S. taxpayer money was used to create poetry for the Little Rock, New Orleans, Milwaukee and Chicago zoos. The goal of the “poetry” is to help raise awareness on environmental issues.
#8 The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spent $175 million during 2010 to maintain hundreds of buildings that it does not even use. This includes a pink, octagonal monkey house in the city of Dayton, Ohio.
#9 $1.8 million of U.S. taxpayer dollars went for a “museum of neon signs” in Las Vegas, Nevada.
#10 $35 million was reportedly paid out by Medicare to 118 “phantom” medical clinics that never even existed. Apparently these “phantom” medical clinics were established by a network of criminal gangs as a way to defraud the U.S. government.
#11 The Conservation Commission of Monkton, Vermont got $150,000 from the federal government to construct a “critter crossing”. Thanks to U.S. government money, the lives of “thousands” of migrating salamanders are now being saved.
#12 In California, one park received $440,000 in federal funds to perform “green energy upgrades” on a building that has not been used for a decade.
#13 $440,955 was spent this past year on an office for former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that he rarely even visits.
#14 One Tennessee library was given $5,000 in federal funds to host a series of video game parties.
#15 The U.S. Census Bureau spent $2.5 million on a television commercial during the Super Bowl that was so poorly produced that virtually nobody understood what is was trying to say.
#16 A professor at Dartmouth University received $137,530 to create a “recession-themed” video game entitled “Layoff”.
#17 The National Science Foundation gave the Minnesota Zoo over $600,000 so that they could develop an online video game called “Wolfquest”.
#18 A pizzeria in Iowa was given $60,000 to renovate the pizzeria’s facade and give it a more “inviting feel”.
#19 The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave one enterprising group of farmers $30,000 to develop a tourist-friendly database of farms that host guests for overnight “haycations”. This one sounds like something that Dwight Schrute would have dreamed up.
#20 Almost unbelievably, the National Institutes of Health was given $800,000 in “stimulus funds” to study the impact of a “genital-washing program” on men in South Africa.
In light of all this, is it any wonder why the approval rating of Congress recently hit another new record low?
According to the most recent Gallup poll, only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job that Congress is doing.
Just think about that – only 13 percent!
Our politicians seem very confused about why there is so much anger in the country today. Well, there are certainly a lot of reasons for it, including the fact that the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse, but it certainly doesn’t help that our government is basically flushing our tax dollars down the toilet and spending them on some of the most wasteful things imaginable.
It would be bad enough if the federal government was swimming in money, but the truth is that all of this waste is being committed at a time when the U.S. government is nearing bankruptcy.
Over the last 30 years, the U.S. national debt has gotten 13 times larger. We have accumulated the largest debt in the history of the world and there is no end in sight.
In fact, we are rapidly running out of people to borrow money from. According to the Wall Street Journal, in order to repay maturing bonds and finance the exploding budget deficit, the U.S. government will have to borrow 4.2 trillion dollars in 2011.
Eventually the rest of the world is going to lose confidence in the ability of the U.S. government to repay all of this debt. Once confidence in U.S. Treasuries is totally gone, and there are already signs this is starting to happen, the game will be over and the U.S. financial system will collapse.
But the U.S. Congress just continues to act like it is “business as usual” and the wasteful spending just continues to get worse. Someday historians will look back and think that we must have been a nation full of idiots and morons.
For decades our politicians have been spending us into oblivion, yet we keep sending the vast majority of them back to Washington D.C. every time an election rolls around and the mainstream media keeps assuring us that our “respected leaders” know exactly what they are doing and that everything is going to be okay somehow.
It is almost as if some sort of collective insanity has overtaken most Americans. The path we are on inevitably leads to national bankruptcy and the destruction of our financial system, but only a small percentage of the population seems to care.
Well, in the end we will reap what we have sown. Unfortunately, the economic pain that is coming is going to be devastating for all of us – including those of us who are awake and are trying desperately to change things.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Gerald Celente's 10 Trends For 2011
After the tumultuous years of the Great Recession, a battered people may wish that 2011 will bring a return to kinder, gentler times. But that is not what we are predicting. Instead, the fruits of government and institutional action – and inaction – on many fronts will ripen in unplanned-for fashions.
Trends we have previously identified, and that have been brewing for some time, will reach maturity in 2011, impacting just about everyone in the world.
1. Wake-Up Call In 2011, the people of all nations will fully recognize how grave economic conditions have become, how ineffectual and self-serving the so-called solutions have been, and how dire the consequences will be. Having become convinced of the inability of leaders and know-it-all "arbiters of everything" to fulfill their promises, the people will do more than just question authority, they will defy authority. The seeds of revolution will be sown….
2. Crack-Up 2011 Among our Top Trends for last year was the "Crash of 2010." What happened? The stock market didn’t crash. We know. We made it clear in our Autumn Trends Journal that we were not forecasting a stock market crash – the equity markets were no longer a legitimate indicator of recovery or the real state of the economy. Yet the reliable indicators (employment numbers, the real estate market, currency pressures, sovereign debt problems) all bordered between crisis and disaster. In 2011, with the arsenal of schemes to prop them up depleted, we predict "Crack-Up 2011": teetering economies will collapse, currency wars will ensue, trade barriers will be erected, economic unions will splinter, and the onset of the "Greatest Depression" will be recognized by everyone….
3. Screw the People As times get even tougher and people get even poorer, the "authorities" will intensify their efforts to extract the funds needed to meet fiscal obligations. While there will be variations on the theme, the governments’ song will be the same: cut what you give, raise what you take.
4. Crime Waves No job + no money + compounding debt = high stress, strained relations, short fuses. In 2011, with the fuse lit, it will be prime time for Crime Time. When people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it. Hardship-driven crimes will be committed across the socioeconomic spectrum by legions of the on-the-edge desperate who will do whatever they must to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table….
5. Crackdown on Liberty As crime rates rise, so will the voices demanding a crackdown. A national crusade to "Get Tough on Crime" will be waged against the citizenry. And just as in the "War on Terror," where "suspected terrorists" are killed before proven guilty or jailed without trial, in the "War on Crime" everyone is a suspect until proven innocent….
6. Alternative Energy In laboratories and workshops unnoticed by mainstream analysts, scientific visionaries and entrepreneurs are forging a new physics incorporating principles once thought impossible, working to create devices that liberate more energy than they consume. What are they, and how long will it be before they can be brought to market? Shrewd investors will ignore the "can’t be done" skepticism, and examine the newly emerging energy trend opportunities that will come of age in 2011….
7. Journalism 2.0 Though the trend has been in the making since the dawn of the Internet Revolution, 2011 will mark the year that new methods of news and information distribution will render the 20th century model obsolete. With its unparalleled reach across borders and language barriers, "Journalism 2.0" has the potential to influence and educate citizens in a way that governments and corporate media moguls would never permit. Of the hundreds of trends we have forecast over three decades, few have the possibility of such far-reaching effects….
8. Cyberwars Just a decade ago, when the digital age was blooming and hackers were looked upon as annoying geeks, we forecast that the intrinsic fragility of the Internet and the vulnerability of the data it carried made it ripe for cyber-crime and cyber-warfare to flourish. In 2010, every major government acknowledged that Cyberwar was a clear and present danger and, in fact, had already begun. The demonstrable effects of Cyberwar and its companion, Cybercrime, are already significant – and will come of age in 2011. Equally disruptive will be the harsh measures taken by global governments to control free access to the web, identify its users, and literally shut down computers that it considers a threat to national security….
9. Youth of the World Unite University degrees in hand yet out of work, in debt and with no prospects on the horizon, feeling betrayed and angry, forced to live back at home, young adults and 20-somethings are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore. Filled with vigor, rife with passion, but not mature enough to control their impulses, the confrontations they engage in will often escalate disproportionately. Government efforts to exert control and return the youth to quiet complacency will be ham-fisted and ineffectual. The Revolution will be televised … blogged, YouTubed, Twittered and….
10. End of The World! The closer we get to 2012, the louder the calls will be that the "End is Near!" There have always been sects, at any time in history, that saw signs and portents proving the end of the world was imminent. But 2012 seems to hold a special meaning across a wide segment of "End-time" believers. Among the Armageddonites, the actual end of the world and annihilation of the Earth in 2012 is a matter of certainty. Even the rational and informed that carefully follow the news of never-ending global crises, may sometimes feel the world is in a perilous state. Both streams of thought are leading many to reevaluate their chances for personal survival, be it in heaven or on earth….
Trends we have previously identified, and that have been brewing for some time, will reach maturity in 2011, impacting just about everyone in the world.
1. Wake-Up Call In 2011, the people of all nations will fully recognize how grave economic conditions have become, how ineffectual and self-serving the so-called solutions have been, and how dire the consequences will be. Having become convinced of the inability of leaders and know-it-all "arbiters of everything" to fulfill their promises, the people will do more than just question authority, they will defy authority. The seeds of revolution will be sown….
2. Crack-Up 2011 Among our Top Trends for last year was the "Crash of 2010." What happened? The stock market didn’t crash. We know. We made it clear in our Autumn Trends Journal that we were not forecasting a stock market crash – the equity markets were no longer a legitimate indicator of recovery or the real state of the economy. Yet the reliable indicators (employment numbers, the real estate market, currency pressures, sovereign debt problems) all bordered between crisis and disaster. In 2011, with the arsenal of schemes to prop them up depleted, we predict "Crack-Up 2011": teetering economies will collapse, currency wars will ensue, trade barriers will be erected, economic unions will splinter, and the onset of the "Greatest Depression" will be recognized by everyone….
3. Screw the People As times get even tougher and people get even poorer, the "authorities" will intensify their efforts to extract the funds needed to meet fiscal obligations. While there will be variations on the theme, the governments’ song will be the same: cut what you give, raise what you take.
4. Crime Waves No job + no money + compounding debt = high stress, strained relations, short fuses. In 2011, with the fuse lit, it will be prime time for Crime Time. When people lose everything and they have nothing left to lose, they lose it. Hardship-driven crimes will be committed across the socioeconomic spectrum by legions of the on-the-edge desperate who will do whatever they must to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table….
5. Crackdown on Liberty As crime rates rise, so will the voices demanding a crackdown. A national crusade to "Get Tough on Crime" will be waged against the citizenry. And just as in the "War on Terror," where "suspected terrorists" are killed before proven guilty or jailed without trial, in the "War on Crime" everyone is a suspect until proven innocent….
6. Alternative Energy In laboratories and workshops unnoticed by mainstream analysts, scientific visionaries and entrepreneurs are forging a new physics incorporating principles once thought impossible, working to create devices that liberate more energy than they consume. What are they, and how long will it be before they can be brought to market? Shrewd investors will ignore the "can’t be done" skepticism, and examine the newly emerging energy trend opportunities that will come of age in 2011….
7. Journalism 2.0 Though the trend has been in the making since the dawn of the Internet Revolution, 2011 will mark the year that new methods of news and information distribution will render the 20th century model obsolete. With its unparalleled reach across borders and language barriers, "Journalism 2.0" has the potential to influence and educate citizens in a way that governments and corporate media moguls would never permit. Of the hundreds of trends we have forecast over three decades, few have the possibility of such far-reaching effects….
8. Cyberwars Just a decade ago, when the digital age was blooming and hackers were looked upon as annoying geeks, we forecast that the intrinsic fragility of the Internet and the vulnerability of the data it carried made it ripe for cyber-crime and cyber-warfare to flourish. In 2010, every major government acknowledged that Cyberwar was a clear and present danger and, in fact, had already begun. The demonstrable effects of Cyberwar and its companion, Cybercrime, are already significant – and will come of age in 2011. Equally disruptive will be the harsh measures taken by global governments to control free access to the web, identify its users, and literally shut down computers that it considers a threat to national security….
9. Youth of the World Unite University degrees in hand yet out of work, in debt and with no prospects on the horizon, feeling betrayed and angry, forced to live back at home, young adults and 20-somethings are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore. Filled with vigor, rife with passion, but not mature enough to control their impulses, the confrontations they engage in will often escalate disproportionately. Government efforts to exert control and return the youth to quiet complacency will be ham-fisted and ineffectual. The Revolution will be televised … blogged, YouTubed, Twittered and….
10. End of The World! The closer we get to 2012, the louder the calls will be that the "End is Near!" There have always been sects, at any time in history, that saw signs and portents proving the end of the world was imminent. But 2012 seems to hold a special meaning across a wide segment of "End-time" believers. Among the Armageddonites, the actual end of the world and annihilation of the Earth in 2012 is a matter of certainty. Even the rational and informed that carefully follow the news of never-ending global crises, may sometimes feel the world is in a perilous state. Both streams of thought are leading many to reevaluate their chances for personal survival, be it in heaven or on earth….
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Madness Of A Lost Society
This is a democracy, these peoples vote counts just as much as yours.
It is your job and my job to wake up those around us and prepare for the things which are coming down the line. They aren't going to prepare and they are going to die, we will prepare and we will survive to pick up the pieces.
It is your job and my job to wake up those around us and prepare for the things which are coming down the line. They aren't going to prepare and they are going to die, we will prepare and we will survive to pick up the pieces.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
USPS Loses Nearly 9 Billion Dollars
Meanwhile in the private sector UPS made over 2 billion.
Yeah let's keep subsidizing lazy government "workers" instead of turning it over the the private sector creating jobs and lowering taxes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Postal Service said Friday it lost $8.5 billion last year despite deep cuts of more than 100,000 jobs and other reductions in recent years.
The post office had estimated it would lose $6 billion to $7 billion, but a sharp decline in mail took a toll. Increased use of the Internet and the recession, which cut advertising and other business mail, meant less money for the agency.
For the year ending Sept. 30, the post office had income of $67.1 billion, down $1 billion from the previous fiscal year. Expenses totaled $70 billion, a decline of about $400 million. The post office also was required to make a $5.5 billion payment for future retiree health benefits.
"Over the last two years, the Postal Service realized more than $9 billion in cost savings, primarily by eliminating about 105,000 full-time equivalent positions — more than any other organization, anywhere," chief financial officer Joe Corbett said in a statement. "We will continue our relentless efforts to innovate and improve efficiency. However, the need for changes to legislation, regulations and labor contracts has never been more obvious."
The post office is currently in contract negotiations with two of its unions, with two more scheduled to be negotiated next year.
The loss of $8.5 billion in 2010 was $4.7 billion more than the previous year.
Mail volume totaled 170.6 billion pieces, compared with 176.7 billion in 2009, a decline of 3.5 percent. At the same time, volume was declining the post office was required to begin service to thousands of new addresses to accommodate population growth and new businesses.
The post office has asked Congress for permission to reduce mail delivery to five-days-a-week and to eliminate annual payments for future retiree health benefits. A request from the agency for a 2-cent increase in postage rates to take effect next year was recently turned down by the independent Postal Rate Commission. The post office has appealed that decision in federal court.
While the post office does not receive tax money for its operations it still must answer to Congress, which has been reluctant to agree to closing of local post offices and centers.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., blamed the loss on the recession and "operating restraints placed on postal management." The result, he said, may represent the most serious threat to the post office in its 200-year history.
"If corrective action is not taken quickly, the Postal Service will likely run out of cash and borrowing authority by this time next year, placing its ability to continue operations in serious jeopardy," said Carper, who urged quick congressional action.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is expected to head the House committee overseeing postal operations, said the loss "only underscores the urgent need for the Postal Service to trim its operating costs to match revenues."
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said the loss "comes as no surprise."
"For the Postal Service to improve its financial situation, the government must let the USPS manage its financial affairs in the most effective manner possible, like any other business," he said. "Essential to that process would be for Congress to fix an onerous congressional mandate from 2006, which obligates the Postal Service to make annual payments of $5.5 billion to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. No other institution in America, public or private, has to do this."
Some have suggested privatizing the service, but the requirement to provide service everywhere in the country at the same price is not likely to be attractive to private companies.
Of particular concern has been the decline in the lucrative first-class mail, largely consisting of personal letters and cards, bills and payments and similar items. First-class mail volume fell 6.6 percent in 2010, 8.6 percent in 2009, and 4.8 percent in 2008. Traditionally, this mail has produced more than half of total revenue.
Volume for standard mail — advertising and similar business items — improved somewhat, indicating some signs of economic recovery, but generates less income.
Postmaster General John Potter, who retires in December, has developed a 10-year plan for the future of the post office, but parts of that plan require congressional action.
Yeah let's keep subsidizing lazy government "workers" instead of turning it over the the private sector creating jobs and lowering taxes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Postal Service said Friday it lost $8.5 billion last year despite deep cuts of more than 100,000 jobs and other reductions in recent years.
The post office had estimated it would lose $6 billion to $7 billion, but a sharp decline in mail took a toll. Increased use of the Internet and the recession, which cut advertising and other business mail, meant less money for the agency.
For the year ending Sept. 30, the post office had income of $67.1 billion, down $1 billion from the previous fiscal year. Expenses totaled $70 billion, a decline of about $400 million. The post office also was required to make a $5.5 billion payment for future retiree health benefits.
"Over the last two years, the Postal Service realized more than $9 billion in cost savings, primarily by eliminating about 105,000 full-time equivalent positions — more than any other organization, anywhere," chief financial officer Joe Corbett said in a statement. "We will continue our relentless efforts to innovate and improve efficiency. However, the need for changes to legislation, regulations and labor contracts has never been more obvious."
The post office is currently in contract negotiations with two of its unions, with two more scheduled to be negotiated next year.
The loss of $8.5 billion in 2010 was $4.7 billion more than the previous year.
Mail volume totaled 170.6 billion pieces, compared with 176.7 billion in 2009, a decline of 3.5 percent. At the same time, volume was declining the post office was required to begin service to thousands of new addresses to accommodate population growth and new businesses.
The post office has asked Congress for permission to reduce mail delivery to five-days-a-week and to eliminate annual payments for future retiree health benefits. A request from the agency for a 2-cent increase in postage rates to take effect next year was recently turned down by the independent Postal Rate Commission. The post office has appealed that decision in federal court.
While the post office does not receive tax money for its operations it still must answer to Congress, which has been reluctant to agree to closing of local post offices and centers.
Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., blamed the loss on the recession and "operating restraints placed on postal management." The result, he said, may represent the most serious threat to the post office in its 200-year history.
"If corrective action is not taken quickly, the Postal Service will likely run out of cash and borrowing authority by this time next year, placing its ability to continue operations in serious jeopardy," said Carper, who urged quick congressional action.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is expected to head the House committee overseeing postal operations, said the loss "only underscores the urgent need for the Postal Service to trim its operating costs to match revenues."
Fredric V. Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, said the loss "comes as no surprise."
"For the Postal Service to improve its financial situation, the government must let the USPS manage its financial affairs in the most effective manner possible, like any other business," he said. "Essential to that process would be for Congress to fix an onerous congressional mandate from 2006, which obligates the Postal Service to make annual payments of $5.5 billion to pre-fund future retiree health benefits. No other institution in America, public or private, has to do this."
Some have suggested privatizing the service, but the requirement to provide service everywhere in the country at the same price is not likely to be attractive to private companies.
Of particular concern has been the decline in the lucrative first-class mail, largely consisting of personal letters and cards, bills and payments and similar items. First-class mail volume fell 6.6 percent in 2010, 8.6 percent in 2009, and 4.8 percent in 2008. Traditionally, this mail has produced more than half of total revenue.
Volume for standard mail — advertising and similar business items — improved somewhat, indicating some signs of economic recovery, but generates less income.
Postmaster General John Potter, who retires in December, has developed a 10-year plan for the future of the post office, but parts of that plan require congressional action.
41 Facts About The History Of Central Banks In The United States That Our Children Are No Longer Taught In School
SOURCE
*The original version of this article contained a few minor inaccuracies. I apologize for this. I am not a historian, and several of the facts that I made originally are hotly disputed among historians. I have attempted to revise the article in such a way as to reflect the historical consensus more accurately. However, the central points of the original article are not in dispute. Central banking has always been a huge issue throughout U.S. history and central banking remains a tremendous threat to our financial system in 2010. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am sure I will make many more. However, the main point of the article is to detail how corrosive central banking and the financial elite have been throughout U.S. history, and hopefully most everyone can see that very clearly. There will always be historical debate about certain points, but the overall themes are unmistakable when you step back to take a look at the bigger picture.
----Beginning of the original article----
Today, most American students don't even understand what a central bank is, much less that the battle over central banks is one of the most important themes in U.S. history. The truth is that our nation was birthed in the midst of a conflict over taxation and the control of our money. Central banking has played a key role in nearly all of the wars that America has fought. Presidents that resisted the central bankers were shot, while others shamefully caved in to their demands. Our current central bank is called the Federal Reserve and it is about as "federal" as Federal Express is. The truth is that it is a privately-owned financial institution that is designed to ensnare the U.S. government in an endlessly expanding spiral of debt from which there is no escape. The Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression and the Federal Reserve is at the core of our current economic crisis. None of these things is taught to students in America's schools today.
In 2010, young Americans are taught a sanitized version of American history that doesn't even make any sense. As with so many things, if you want to know what really happened just follow the money.
The following are 41 facts about the history of central banks in the United States that every American should know....
#1 As a result of the Seven Years War with France, King George III of England was deeply in debt to the central bankers of England.
#2 In an attempt to raise revenue, King George tried to heavily tax the colonies in America.
#3 ---Correction--- The following quote, supposedly from Benjamin Franklin in 1763, was quoted in Money and Men by Robert McCann Rice in 1941 but it has not been found in any previous source to this point. So is it really from Franklin? In any event, it does accurately describe the conditions of the day....
"That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.
In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one."
#4 The Currency Act of 1764 ordered the American Colonists to stop issuing legal tender. Colonial script (the money the colonists were using at the time) was to be exchanged at a two-to-one ratio for "notes" from the Bank of England.
#5 ---Correction--- There is debate over whether or not Benjamin Franklin was the original source of the following quote....
"In one year, the conditions were so reversed that the era of prosperity ended, and a depression set in, to such an extent that the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployed."
#6 ---Correction--- When asked why the American colonies had lost respect for Parliament, Benjamin Franklin responded with the following quote....
"To a concurrence of causes: the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the Colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions."
#7 Gouverneur Morris, one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, solemnly warned us in 1787 that we must not allow the bankers to enslave us....
"The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will... They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by (the power of) government, keep them in their proper spheres."
#8 Unfortunately, those warning us about the dangers of a central bank did not prevail. After an aborted attempt to establish a central bank in the 1780s, the First Bank of the United States was established in 1791. Alexander Hamilton (who had close ties to the Rothschild banking family) cut a deal under which he would support the move of the nation's capital to Washington D.C. in exchange for southern support for the establishment of a central bank.
#9 George Washington signed the bill creating the First Bank of the United States on April 25, 1791. It was given a 20 year charter.
#10 In the first five years of the First Bank of the United States, the U.S. government borrowed 8.2 million dollars and prices rose by 72 percent.
#11 The opponents of central banking were not pleased. In 1798, Thomas Jefferson said the following....
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution - taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."
#12 In 1811, the charter of the First Bank of the United States was not renewed.
#13 One year later, the War of 1812 erupted. The British and the Americans were at war once again.
#14 In 1814, the British captured and burned Washington D.C., but the Americans subsequently experienced key victories at New York and at New Orleans.
#15 The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 16th, 1815 and was ratified by the British on February 18th, 1815.
#16 In 1816, another central bank was created. The Second Bank of the United States was established and was given a 20 year charter.
#17 Andrew Jackson, who became president in 1828, was determined to end the power of the central bankers over the United States.
#18 In fact, in 1832, Andrew Jackson's re-election slogan was "JACKSON and NO BANK!"
#19 On July 10th, 1832 President Jackson said the following about the danger of a central bank....
"It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners... is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? ... Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence... would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy."
#20 In 1835, President Jackson completely paid off the U.S. national debt. He is the only U.S. president that has ever been able to accomplish this.
#21 President Jackson vetoed the attempt to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836.
#22 Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot Andrew Jackson, but he survived. It is alleged that Lawrence said that "wealthy people in Europe" had put him up to it.
#23 The Civil War was another opportunity for the central bankers of Europe to get their hooks into America. In fact, it is claimed that Abraham Lincoln actually contacted Rothschild banking interests in Europe in an attempt to finance the war effort. Reportedly, the Rothschilds were demanding very high interest rates and Lincoln balked at paying them.
#24 Instead, Lincoln pushed through the Legal Tender Act of 1862. Under that act, the U.S. government issued $449,338,902 of debt-free money.
#25 This debt-free money was known as "Greenbacks" because of the green ink that was used.
#26 ---Correction--- The following quote is claimed to have appeared in the London Times in 1865, but many historians dispute whether it is actually real or not....
"If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe."
#27 Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th, 1865.
#28 After the Civil War, all money in the United States was created by bankers buying U.S. government bonds in exchange for bank notes.
#29 ---Correction--- How President James A. Garfield really felt about the international bankers is a matter of legitimate historical debate. The quote from the original article has not been fully documented.
#30 President Garfield was shot about two weeks later by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2nd, 1881. He died from medical complications on September 19th, 1881.
#31 In 1906, the U.S. stock market was setting all kinds of records. However, in March 1907 the U.S. stock market absolutely crashed. It is alleged that elite New York bankers were responsible.
#32 In addition, in 1907 J.P. Morgan circulated rumors that a major New York bank had gone bankrupt. This caused a massive run on the banks. In turn, the banks started recalling all of their loans. The panic of 1907 resulted in a congressional investigation that ended up concluding that a central bank was "necessary" so that these kinds of panics would never happen again.
#33 It took a few years, but the international bankers finally got their central bank in 1913.
#34 ---Correction--- The U.S. House of Representatives voted on the Federal Reserve Act on December 22nd, 1913 and the U.S. Senate voted on the Federal Reserve Act the following day on December 23rd, 1913.
#35 A significant portion of Congress was either sleeping at the time or was already at home with their families celebrating the holidays.
#36 ---Correction--- The correct version of the quote about our system of credit from President Woodrow Wilson is posted below....
A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. This is the greatest question of all, and to this statesmen must address themselves with an earnest determination to serve the long future and the true liberties of men.
There is debate about whether or not Woodrow Wilson ever truly regretted allowing the Federal Reserve to be created, but hopefully most of us can agree that he should have regretted it.
#37 Between 1921 and 1929 the Federal Reserve increased the U.S. money supply by 62 percent. This was the time known as "The Roaring 20s".
#38 In addition, highly leveraged "margin loans" became very common during this time period.
#39 In October 1929, the New York bankers started calling in these margin loans on a massive scale. This created the initial crash that launched the Great Depression.
#40 Rather than expand the money supply in response to this crisis, the Federal Reserve really tightened it up.
#41 In fact, it was reported the the U.S. money supply contracted by eight billion dollars between 1929 and 1933. That was an extraordinary amount of money in those days. Over one-third of all U.S. banks went bankrupt. The New York bankers were able to buy up other banks and all kinds of other assets for pennies on the dollar.
But are American students being taught any of this today?
Of course not.
In fact, it is a rare student that can even adequately explain what a central bank is.
We have lost so much of what is important about our history.
And you know what they say - those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
It is absolutely critical that we educate as many Americans as possible about what is really going on in our financial system and about why we need to make some truly fundamental changes.
*The original version of this article contained a few minor inaccuracies. I apologize for this. I am not a historian, and several of the facts that I made originally are hotly disputed among historians. I have attempted to revise the article in such a way as to reflect the historical consensus more accurately. However, the central points of the original article are not in dispute. Central banking has always been a huge issue throughout U.S. history and central banking remains a tremendous threat to our financial system in 2010. Everyone makes mistakes, and I am sure I will make many more. However, the main point of the article is to detail how corrosive central banking and the financial elite have been throughout U.S. history, and hopefully most everyone can see that very clearly. There will always be historical debate about certain points, but the overall themes are unmistakable when you step back to take a look at the bigger picture.
----Beginning of the original article----
Today, most American students don't even understand what a central bank is, much less that the battle over central banks is one of the most important themes in U.S. history. The truth is that our nation was birthed in the midst of a conflict over taxation and the control of our money. Central banking has played a key role in nearly all of the wars that America has fought. Presidents that resisted the central bankers were shot, while others shamefully caved in to their demands. Our current central bank is called the Federal Reserve and it is about as "federal" as Federal Express is. The truth is that it is a privately-owned financial institution that is designed to ensnare the U.S. government in an endlessly expanding spiral of debt from which there is no escape. The Federal Reserve caused the Great Depression and the Federal Reserve is at the core of our current economic crisis. None of these things is taught to students in America's schools today.
In 2010, young Americans are taught a sanitized version of American history that doesn't even make any sense. As with so many things, if you want to know what really happened just follow the money.
The following are 41 facts about the history of central banks in the United States that every American should know....
#1 As a result of the Seven Years War with France, King George III of England was deeply in debt to the central bankers of England.
#2 In an attempt to raise revenue, King George tried to heavily tax the colonies in America.
#3 ---Correction--- The following quote, supposedly from Benjamin Franklin in 1763, was quoted in Money and Men by Robert McCann Rice in 1941 but it has not been found in any previous source to this point. So is it really from Franklin? In any event, it does accurately describe the conditions of the day....
"That is simple. In the colonies we issue our own money. It is called Colonial Script. We issue it in proper proportion to the demands of trade and industry to make the products pass easily from the producers to the consumers.
In this manner, creating for ourselves our own paper money, we control its purchasing power, and we have no interest to pay to no one."
#4 The Currency Act of 1764 ordered the American Colonists to stop issuing legal tender. Colonial script (the money the colonists were using at the time) was to be exchanged at a two-to-one ratio for "notes" from the Bank of England.
#5 ---Correction--- There is debate over whether or not Benjamin Franklin was the original source of the following quote....
"In one year, the conditions were so reversed that the era of prosperity ended, and a depression set in, to such an extent that the streets of the Colonies were filled with unemployed."
#6 ---Correction--- When asked why the American colonies had lost respect for Parliament, Benjamin Franklin responded with the following quote....
"To a concurrence of causes: the restraints lately laid on their trade, by which the bringing of foreign gold and silver into the Colonies was prevented; the prohibition of making paper money among themselves, and then demanding a new and heavy tax by stamps; taking away, at the same time, trials by juries, and refusing to receive and hear their humble petitions."
#7 Gouverneur Morris, one of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, solemnly warned us in 1787 that we must not allow the bankers to enslave us....
"The rich will strive to establish their dominion and enslave the rest. They always did. They always will... They will have the same effect here as elsewhere, if we do not, by (the power of) government, keep them in their proper spheres."
#8 Unfortunately, those warning us about the dangers of a central bank did not prevail. After an aborted attempt to establish a central bank in the 1780s, the First Bank of the United States was established in 1791. Alexander Hamilton (who had close ties to the Rothschild banking family) cut a deal under which he would support the move of the nation's capital to Washington D.C. in exchange for southern support for the establishment of a central bank.
#9 George Washington signed the bill creating the First Bank of the United States on April 25, 1791. It was given a 20 year charter.
#10 In the first five years of the First Bank of the United States, the U.S. government borrowed 8.2 million dollars and prices rose by 72 percent.
#11 The opponents of central banking were not pleased. In 1798, Thomas Jefferson said the following....
"I wish it were possible to obtain a single amendment to our Constitution - taking from the federal government their power of borrowing."
#12 In 1811, the charter of the First Bank of the United States was not renewed.
#13 One year later, the War of 1812 erupted. The British and the Americans were at war once again.
#14 In 1814, the British captured and burned Washington D.C., but the Americans subsequently experienced key victories at New York and at New Orleans.
#15 The Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the war, was ratified by the U.S. Senate on February 16th, 1815 and was ratified by the British on February 18th, 1815.
#16 In 1816, another central bank was created. The Second Bank of the United States was established and was given a 20 year charter.
#17 Andrew Jackson, who became president in 1828, was determined to end the power of the central bankers over the United States.
#18 In fact, in 1832, Andrew Jackson's re-election slogan was "JACKSON and NO BANK!"
#19 On July 10th, 1832 President Jackson said the following about the danger of a central bank....
"It is not our own citizens only who are to receive the bounty of our government. More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners... is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a bank that in its nature has so little to bind it to our country? ... Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence... would be more formidable and dangerous than a military power of the enemy."
#20 In 1835, President Jackson completely paid off the U.S. national debt. He is the only U.S. president that has ever been able to accomplish this.
#21 President Jackson vetoed the attempt to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States in 1836.
#22 Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot Andrew Jackson, but he survived. It is alleged that Lawrence said that "wealthy people in Europe" had put him up to it.
#23 The Civil War was another opportunity for the central bankers of Europe to get their hooks into America. In fact, it is claimed that Abraham Lincoln actually contacted Rothschild banking interests in Europe in an attempt to finance the war effort. Reportedly, the Rothschilds were demanding very high interest rates and Lincoln balked at paying them.
#24 Instead, Lincoln pushed through the Legal Tender Act of 1862. Under that act, the U.S. government issued $449,338,902 of debt-free money.
#25 This debt-free money was known as "Greenbacks" because of the green ink that was used.
#26 ---Correction--- The following quote is claimed to have appeared in the London Times in 1865, but many historians dispute whether it is actually real or not....
"If this mischievous financial policy, which has its origin in North America, shall become endurated down to a fixture, then that Government will furnish its own money without cost. It will pay off debts and be without debt. It will have all the money necessary to carry on its commerce. It will become prosperous without precedent in the history of the world. The brains, and wealth of all countries will go to North America. That country must be destroyed or it will destroy every monarchy on the globe."
#27 Abraham Lincoln was shot dead by John Wilkes Booth on April 14th, 1865.
#28 After the Civil War, all money in the United States was created by bankers buying U.S. government bonds in exchange for bank notes.
#29 ---Correction--- How President James A. Garfield really felt about the international bankers is a matter of legitimate historical debate. The quote from the original article has not been fully documented.
#30 President Garfield was shot about two weeks later by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2nd, 1881. He died from medical complications on September 19th, 1881.
#31 In 1906, the U.S. stock market was setting all kinds of records. However, in March 1907 the U.S. stock market absolutely crashed. It is alleged that elite New York bankers were responsible.
#32 In addition, in 1907 J.P. Morgan circulated rumors that a major New York bank had gone bankrupt. This caused a massive run on the banks. In turn, the banks started recalling all of their loans. The panic of 1907 resulted in a congressional investigation that ended up concluding that a central bank was "necessary" so that these kinds of panics would never happen again.
#33 It took a few years, but the international bankers finally got their central bank in 1913.
#34 ---Correction--- The U.S. House of Representatives voted on the Federal Reserve Act on December 22nd, 1913 and the U.S. Senate voted on the Federal Reserve Act the following day on December 23rd, 1913.
#35 A significant portion of Congress was either sleeping at the time or was already at home with their families celebrating the holidays.
#36 ---Correction--- The correct version of the quote about our system of credit from President Woodrow Wilson is posted below....
A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. This is the greatest question of all, and to this statesmen must address themselves with an earnest determination to serve the long future and the true liberties of men.
There is debate about whether or not Woodrow Wilson ever truly regretted allowing the Federal Reserve to be created, but hopefully most of us can agree that he should have regretted it.
#37 Between 1921 and 1929 the Federal Reserve increased the U.S. money supply by 62 percent. This was the time known as "The Roaring 20s".
#38 In addition, highly leveraged "margin loans" became very common during this time period.
#39 In October 1929, the New York bankers started calling in these margin loans on a massive scale. This created the initial crash that launched the Great Depression.
#40 Rather than expand the money supply in response to this crisis, the Federal Reserve really tightened it up.
#41 In fact, it was reported the the U.S. money supply contracted by eight billion dollars between 1929 and 1933. That was an extraordinary amount of money in those days. Over one-third of all U.S. banks went bankrupt. The New York bankers were able to buy up other banks and all kinds of other assets for pennies on the dollar.
But are American students being taught any of this today?
Of course not.
In fact, it is a rare student that can even adequately explain what a central bank is.
We have lost so much of what is important about our history.
And you know what they say - those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
It is absolutely critical that we educate as many Americans as possible about what is really going on in our financial system and about why we need to make some truly fundamental changes.
18 Iconic Products That America Doesn't Make Anymore
When 70% of your total GDP is based on consumption and the majority of the remaining 30% is government spending (theft from Americans) you cease to have a viable long term economy.
What you have instead is an empire in it's final stage which relies on the rest of the world to perpetuate its ever declining standard of living.
Here are 18 Iconic Products That America Doesn't Make Anymore:
Rawlings baseballs
Last production date: 1969
Rawlings is the official supplier of baseballs to Major League Baseball. The St. Louis shop was founded in 1887 by George and Alfred Rawlings. In 1969 the brothers moved the baseball-manufacturing plant from Puerto Rico to Haiti and then later to Costa Rica.
Etch a Sketch
Last production date: 2000
Etch A Sketch, an iconic American toy since the 1960s, used to be produced in Bryan, Ohio, a small town of 8,000. Then in Dec. 2000, toymaker Ohio Art decided to move production to Shenzhen, China.
Converse shoes
Last production date: 2001
Marquis M. Converse opened Converse Rubber Show Company in Massachusetts in 1908. Chuck Taylors– named after All American high school basketball player Chuck Taylor– began selling in 1918 as the show eventually produced an industry record of over 550 million pairs by 1997. But in 2001 sales were on the decline and the U.S. factory closed. Now Chuck Taylors are made in Indonesia.
Stainless steel rebar
Last production date: circa 2001
Many forms of this basic steel product are not available domestically. Multiple waivers to the Buy America Act have allowed purchase of rebar internationally.
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Dress shirts*
Last production date: Oct. 2002
The last major shirt factory in America closed in October 2002, according to NYT. C.F. Hathaway's Maine factory had been producing shirts since 1837.
*We know there are other shirt manufacturers in America. They do not produce in large quantities or supply major brands.
Mattel toys
Last production date: 2002
The largest toy company in the world closed their last American factory in 2002. Mattel, headquartered in California, produces 65 percent of their products in China as of August 2007.
Minivans
Last production date: circa 2003
A waiver to the Buy America Act permitted an American producer of wheel-chair accessible minivans to purchase Canadian chassis for use in government contracts, because no chassis were available from the United States. The waiver specified: "General Motors and Chrysler minivan chassis, including those used on the Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana, Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay, Chrysler Town & Country, and Dodge Grand Caravan, are no longer manufactured in the United States."
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Vending machines
Last production date: circa 2003
You know that thing you put bills into on a vending machine? It isn’t made in America, according to a waiver to the Buy America Act.
Neither is the coin dispenser, according to this federal waiver.
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Levi jeans
Last production date: Dec. 2003
Levi Strauss & Co. shut down all its American operations and outsourced production to Latin America and Asia in Dec. 2003. The company's denim products have been an iconic American product for 150 years.
Radio Flyer's Red Wagon
Last production date: March 2004
The little red wagon has been an iconic image of America for years. But once Radio Flyer decided its Chicago plant was too expensive, it began producing most products, including the red wagon, in China.
Televisions
Last production date: Oct. 2004
Five Rivers Electronic Innovations was the last American owned TV color maker in the US. The Tennessee company used LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology to produce televisions for Philips Electronics. But after Philips decided to stop selling TVs with LCoS, Five Rivers eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Oct. 2004. As part of its reorganization plan, the company stopped manufacturing TVs.
Now there are ZERO televisions made in America, according to Business Week.
Cell phones
Last production date: circa 2007
Of the 1.2 billion cell phones sold worldwide in 2008, NOT ONE was made in America, according to Manufacturing & Technology publisher Richard McCormick.
After studying the websites of cell phone companies, we could not identify a single phone that was not manufactured primarily overseas.
Railroads (parts including manganese turnout castings, U69 guard bars, LV braces and weld kits)
Last production date: circa 2008
Here's another standout from dozens of waivers to the Buy America Act: railroad turnouts and weld kits.
Manganese turnout castings are used to widen railroad tracks, and they were used to build our once-great railroad system. U69 guard bars, LV braces and Weld Kits, along with 22 mm Industrial steel chain are basic items that were certifiably not available in the US.
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Dell computers
Last production date: Jan. 2010
In January 2010, Dell closed its North Carolina PC factory, its last large U.S. plant. Analysts said Dell would be outsourcing work to Asian manufacturers in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the industry, said analyst Ashok Kumar.
Canned sardines
Last production date: April 2010
Stinson Seafood plant, the last sardine cannery in Maine and the U.S., shut down in April. The first U.S. sardine cannery opened in Maine in 1875, but since the demand for the small, oily fish declined, more canneries closed shop.
Pontiac cars
Last production date: May 2010
The last Pontiac was produced last May. The brand was formally killed on Halloween, as GM contracts Pontiac dealerships expired.
The 84-year-old GM brand was famous for muscle cars.
Forks, spoons, and knives
Last production date: June 2010
The last flatware factory in the US closed last summer. Sherrill Manufacturing bought Oneida Ltd. in 2005, but shut down its fork & knife operations due to the tough economy. CEO Greg Owens says his company may resume production "when the general economic climate improves and as Sherrill Manufacturing is able to put itself back on its feet and recapitalize and regroup."
Incandescent light bulb
Last production date: Sept. 2010
The incandescent light bulb (invented by Thomas Edison) has been phased out.
Our last major factory that made incandescent light bulbs closed in September 2010. In 2007, Congress passed a measure that will ban incandescents by 2014, prompting GE to close its domestic factory.
Note: A reader pointed out that the Osram/Sylvania Plant in St. Mary's, Penn. is still producing light bulbs to fill old and international contracts. However, the plant has announced plans to wind down incandescent production.
What you have instead is an empire in it's final stage which relies on the rest of the world to perpetuate its ever declining standard of living.
Here are 18 Iconic Products That America Doesn't Make Anymore:
Rawlings baseballs
Last production date: 1969
Rawlings is the official supplier of baseballs to Major League Baseball. The St. Louis shop was founded in 1887 by George and Alfred Rawlings. In 1969 the brothers moved the baseball-manufacturing plant from Puerto Rico to Haiti and then later to Costa Rica.
Etch a Sketch
Last production date: 2000
Etch A Sketch, an iconic American toy since the 1960s, used to be produced in Bryan, Ohio, a small town of 8,000. Then in Dec. 2000, toymaker Ohio Art decided to move production to Shenzhen, China.
Converse shoes
Last production date: 2001
Marquis M. Converse opened Converse Rubber Show Company in Massachusetts in 1908. Chuck Taylors– named after All American high school basketball player Chuck Taylor– began selling in 1918 as the show eventually produced an industry record of over 550 million pairs by 1997. But in 2001 sales were on the decline and the U.S. factory closed. Now Chuck Taylors are made in Indonesia.
Stainless steel rebar
Last production date: circa 2001
Many forms of this basic steel product are not available domestically. Multiple waivers to the Buy America Act have allowed purchase of rebar internationally.
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Dress shirts*
Last production date: Oct. 2002
The last major shirt factory in America closed in October 2002, according to NYT. C.F. Hathaway's Maine factory had been producing shirts since 1837.
*We know there are other shirt manufacturers in America. They do not produce in large quantities or supply major brands.
Mattel toys
Last production date: 2002
The largest toy company in the world closed their last American factory in 2002. Mattel, headquartered in California, produces 65 percent of their products in China as of August 2007.
Minivans
Last production date: circa 2003
A waiver to the Buy America Act permitted an American producer of wheel-chair accessible minivans to purchase Canadian chassis for use in government contracts, because no chassis were available from the United States. The waiver specified: "General Motors and Chrysler minivan chassis, including those used on the Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac Montana, Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay, Chrysler Town & Country, and Dodge Grand Caravan, are no longer manufactured in the United States."
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Vending machines
Last production date: circa 2003
You know that thing you put bills into on a vending machine? It isn’t made in America, according to a waiver to the Buy America Act.
Neither is the coin dispenser, according to this federal waiver.
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Levi jeans
Last production date: Dec. 2003
Levi Strauss & Co. shut down all its American operations and outsourced production to Latin America and Asia in Dec. 2003. The company's denim products have been an iconic American product for 150 years.
Radio Flyer's Red Wagon
Last production date: March 2004
The little red wagon has been an iconic image of America for years. But once Radio Flyer decided its Chicago plant was too expensive, it began producing most products, including the red wagon, in China.
Televisions
Last production date: Oct. 2004
Five Rivers Electronic Innovations was the last American owned TV color maker in the US. The Tennessee company used LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) technology to produce televisions for Philips Electronics. But after Philips decided to stop selling TVs with LCoS, Five Rivers eventually filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Oct. 2004. As part of its reorganization plan, the company stopped manufacturing TVs.
Now there are ZERO televisions made in America, according to Business Week.
Cell phones
Last production date: circa 2007
Of the 1.2 billion cell phones sold worldwide in 2008, NOT ONE was made in America, according to Manufacturing & Technology publisher Richard McCormick.
After studying the websites of cell phone companies, we could not identify a single phone that was not manufactured primarily overseas.
Railroads (parts including manganese turnout castings, U69 guard bars, LV braces and weld kits)
Last production date: circa 2008
Here's another standout from dozens of waivers to the Buy America Act: railroad turnouts and weld kits.
Manganese turnout castings are used to widen railroad tracks, and they were used to build our once-great railroad system. U69 guard bars, LV braces and Weld Kits, along with 22 mm Industrial steel chain are basic items that were certifiably not available in the US.
Note: The Buy America Act requires government mass transportation spending to use American products.
Dell computers
Last production date: Jan. 2010
In January 2010, Dell closed its North Carolina PC factory, its last large U.S. plant. Analysts said Dell would be outsourcing work to Asian manufacturers in an attempt to catch up with the rest of the industry, said analyst Ashok Kumar.
Canned sardines
Last production date: April 2010
Stinson Seafood plant, the last sardine cannery in Maine and the U.S., shut down in April. The first U.S. sardine cannery opened in Maine in 1875, but since the demand for the small, oily fish declined, more canneries closed shop.
Pontiac cars
Last production date: May 2010
The last Pontiac was produced last May. The brand was formally killed on Halloween, as GM contracts Pontiac dealerships expired.
The 84-year-old GM brand was famous for muscle cars.
Forks, spoons, and knives
Last production date: June 2010
The last flatware factory in the US closed last summer. Sherrill Manufacturing bought Oneida Ltd. in 2005, but shut down its fork & knife operations due to the tough economy. CEO Greg Owens says his company may resume production "when the general economic climate improves and as Sherrill Manufacturing is able to put itself back on its feet and recapitalize and regroup."
Incandescent light bulb
Last production date: Sept. 2010
The incandescent light bulb (invented by Thomas Edison) has been phased out.
Our last major factory that made incandescent light bulbs closed in September 2010. In 2007, Congress passed a measure that will ban incandescents by 2014, prompting GE to close its domestic factory.
Note: A reader pointed out that the Osram/Sylvania Plant in St. Mary's, Penn. is still producing light bulbs to fill old and international contracts. However, the plant has announced plans to wind down incandescent production.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Quantititive Easing Works
Just not how they tell you it will.
Things are rarely ever as they seem, or as they are sold to you. Continually I read articles and listen to podcasts where seemingly intelligent people are distraught over how "QE 2" will just exacerbate our severe economic woes. They say things like "doesn't this moron Ben Shalom Bernanke know this is going to cause high if not hyper inflation?"
The Fed's actions seem to bewilder most people, the Austrians say that Bernanke is just following the Keynesian playbook and that Keynesians "just don't understand economics" but at the same time they realize the Fed policy makers are highly educated men. Now I certainly am the last person to place any importance at all on paper, be it fiat currency or prestigious degrees but my point is that the international jewish bankers who control the world's monetary policy are NOT dumb. So for the austrians to contend that they are is quite naive. You don't just waltz in and gain 100% control over the money supply of the most powerful nation the earth has ever seen, you have to be greedy, evil, seditious and smart. These bankers are these things.
The Austrians have it partially right, that Quantitative Easing AKA printing money with reckless abandon does not help an economy, does not lower unemployment, raise GDP or lower prices. In fact it does the opposite raises private sector unemployment lowers real GDP (not counting QE spending) and drastically raises prices for everyone in the country.
So maybe you are asking yourself
"what the hell? This guy just said the QE works now he says it doesn't?"
QE does work, but it doesn't help an economy. What it does is what it's intended to do, not what they tell you it's supposed to do.
Pay attention here because this is crucial that you understand and study for yourself. As I have pointed out at every oppurtunity Marxism, Communism is a jewish invention and a jewish controlled instutition from day one. Nobody on the planet besides jews themselves deny that jews 100% dominate the banking industry, they control the world's central banks and by default the world's currencies.
As the above link shows, communism is the endgame for the jews. This is their dream and their weapon to carry it out is unlimited amounts of money because they control the worlds banks. So understanding how jewish communsim and jewish banking go hand in hand is absolutely step one to putting the puzzle together. They want a system where the jews and perhaps some token shabbos goy will reign over the slaves, the mere worker bees of whose lives have no importance. A workers paradise where everyone is equal except those running the show.
Now ponder this quote by Russian jewish communist leader Vladmir Lenin
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
The communist game has remained unchanged in over 100 years, the tactics are not different. YOU are being screwed in a system where the bankers print money at your expense and divvy it up amongst themselves, part of the check arrives immediately through inflation and the other part shows up shortly after in the form of extreme taxation (50% in the US in most cases) because someone has to pay for the enormous deficits.
You. You pay for it, nobody else. THEY spend it, YOU pay for it. That is the system, so while they are living large sailing the world on yachts and buying private islands you are busting your ass to pay your bills, all the while trying to keep your nose clean because big brother grips you tighter by the day.
This is communism, welcome to Amerika.
The first step to fighting it is realistically assessing the situation. So don't expect these communist jews to jump before Congress and say,
"Well yes sir Dr. Paul QE will bring on much higher inflation and the public's savings is eroded away every year and the prices they pay go up because of this money printing"
I honestly think this is what people expect Bernanke to say before Congress and it blows my mind.
Instead they say,
"We are in the midst of the longest and deepest economic downturns in modern history, something that we have never faced before and it requires new and creative ways to deal with the problem, Quantitative Easing will allow banks to lend and businesses to borrow thus creating jobs"
Wake up and don't expect them to tell the Truth, all these bastards do is lie.
This will be a two part post. In the second part I will explain why it is necessary for you to be poor.
Things are rarely ever as they seem, or as they are sold to you. Continually I read articles and listen to podcasts where seemingly intelligent people are distraught over how "QE 2" will just exacerbate our severe economic woes. They say things like "doesn't this moron Ben Shalom Bernanke know this is going to cause high if not hyper inflation?"
The Fed's actions seem to bewilder most people, the Austrians say that Bernanke is just following the Keynesian playbook and that Keynesians "just don't understand economics" but at the same time they realize the Fed policy makers are highly educated men. Now I certainly am the last person to place any importance at all on paper, be it fiat currency or prestigious degrees but my point is that the international jewish bankers who control the world's monetary policy are NOT dumb. So for the austrians to contend that they are is quite naive. You don't just waltz in and gain 100% control over the money supply of the most powerful nation the earth has ever seen, you have to be greedy, evil, seditious and smart. These bankers are these things.
The Austrians have it partially right, that Quantitative Easing AKA printing money with reckless abandon does not help an economy, does not lower unemployment, raise GDP or lower prices. In fact it does the opposite raises private sector unemployment lowers real GDP (not counting QE spending) and drastically raises prices for everyone in the country.
So maybe you are asking yourself
"what the hell? This guy just said the QE works now he says it doesn't?"
QE does work, but it doesn't help an economy. What it does is what it's intended to do, not what they tell you it's supposed to do.
Pay attention here because this is crucial that you understand and study for yourself. As I have pointed out at every oppurtunity Marxism, Communism is a jewish invention and a jewish controlled instutition from day one. Nobody on the planet besides jews themselves deny that jews 100% dominate the banking industry, they control the world's central banks and by default the world's currencies.
As the above link shows, communism is the endgame for the jews. This is their dream and their weapon to carry it out is unlimited amounts of money because they control the worlds banks. So understanding how jewish communsim and jewish banking go hand in hand is absolutely step one to putting the puzzle together. They want a system where the jews and perhaps some token shabbos goy will reign over the slaves, the mere worker bees of whose lives have no importance. A workers paradise where everyone is equal except those running the show.
Now ponder this quote by Russian jewish communist leader Vladmir Lenin
“The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation.”
The communist game has remained unchanged in over 100 years, the tactics are not different. YOU are being screwed in a system where the bankers print money at your expense and divvy it up amongst themselves, part of the check arrives immediately through inflation and the other part shows up shortly after in the form of extreme taxation (50% in the US in most cases) because someone has to pay for the enormous deficits.
You. You pay for it, nobody else. THEY spend it, YOU pay for it. That is the system, so while they are living large sailing the world on yachts and buying private islands you are busting your ass to pay your bills, all the while trying to keep your nose clean because big brother grips you tighter by the day.
This is communism, welcome to Amerika.
The first step to fighting it is realistically assessing the situation. So don't expect these communist jews to jump before Congress and say,
"Well yes sir Dr. Paul QE will bring on much higher inflation and the public's savings is eroded away every year and the prices they pay go up because of this money printing"
I honestly think this is what people expect Bernanke to say before Congress and it blows my mind.
Instead they say,
"We are in the midst of the longest and deepest economic downturns in modern history, something that we have never faced before and it requires new and creative ways to deal with the problem, Quantitative Easing will allow banks to lend and businesses to borrow thus creating jobs"
Wake up and don't expect them to tell the Truth, all these bastards do is lie.
This will be a two part post. In the second part I will explain why it is necessary for you to be poor.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
30 Reasons Why People Should Be Getting Really Nervous About the State of the U.S. Economy
Source
The mainstream media is full of happy economic news these days. The S&P 500 has shot up 16 percent since the beginning of July. Ford Motor Company just reported a profit that jumped nearly 70 percent in the third quarter. It was Ford's best third quarter performance ever and it was the 6th quarterly profit in a row for the company. Other major firms have announced earnings that have far exceeded expectations in recent weeks. Hooray! The pundits are proclaiming that the economic collapse is over and that the U.S. economy has won. It is almost enough to make one tear into a stirring rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again." But perhaps we should take a moment and get a hold of ourselves first. After all, the underlying economic fundamentals have not changed. The same long-term trends that were ripping the U.S. financial system apart a month or two ago are still continuing to do so. Millions upon millions of American families are still deeply suffering. So exactly what in the world is going on here? Well, this is what is known as a "sucker's rally." Those on the inside know better than to throw money at this market. In fact, corporate insiders are now selling off stock so fast you would think it is going out of style. Meanwhile, hordes of innocent rubes are jumping back into the stock market thinking that it is the perfect time to get in.
The truth is that these "good times" are only temporary. Don't get used to them. The following are 30 reasons why people should be getting really, really nervous about the state of the U.S. economy....
#1 Corporate insiders are selling off stock at a blinding pace and are looking for the exits. Alan Newman, the editor of the Crosscurrents newsletter, examined a number of the top performing stocks in the market including Google, Apple and Target and found that the ratio of corporate insider stock sold to corporate insider stock purchased over the last six months for those companies was 3,177 to 1. At the group of firms that Newman looked at, corporate insiders had purchased 38,000 shares of stock over the last six months and yet had sold off over 120 million shares.
#2 Analysts at both Bank of America and Goldman Sachs both believe that the U.S. Federal Reserve is going to initiate a new round of quantitative easing in November. It does not take a genius to figure out that this is very likely to push up inflation and have very serious consequences for the U.S. dollar.
#3 Economists at Goldman Sachs are projecting that the Fed will have to purchase at least $4 trillion in assets during this next round of quantitative easing to get the U.S. economy moving in a positive direction once again.
#4 In the United States today, there are 5,057 janitors with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or professional degrees.
#5 Investors have very little faith in the U.S. dollar (and in paper currencies in general) at this point. Precious metals are soaring to obscene heights. The price of gold has increased more than 20 percent in 2010. The price of silver has skyrocketed about 40 percent this year. These are not signs that indicate that the U.S. financial system is stable.
#6 Robin Griffiths, a technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC on Monday that the U.S. dollar is in danger of becoming "toxic waste."
#7 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.
#8 U.S. lending institutions repossessed an all-time record total of 102,134 homes in the month of
September. That was the first time that home repossessions in the U.S. had ever exceeded the 100,000 mark during a single month.
#9 According to a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price report that was released on Tuesday, single family home prices in the United States declined for a second straight month in August.
#10 In the United States today, over 18,000 parking lot attendants have college degrees.
#11 During the months of August and September, the state of Nevada had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent, which was the highest in the history of the state. Not that the rest of the country is doing any better. The state of California has become a complete and total economic disaster zone, and the city of Detroit, Michigan is literally dying.
#12 The "official" unemployment rate in the United States has been at nine and a half percent or above for 14 consecutive months.
#13 The number of people unemployed in the state of California is approximately equivalent to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
#14 According to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there are approximately 3 million more vacant housing units than usual in the United States.
#15 China has reduced the export quota on rare earth elements for the second half of 2010 by 72%, thus strengthening their position in the world economy even more. Rare earth elements are absolutely crucial to the manufacture of a vast array of high technology products, and now even more of them will have to be made in China.
#16 In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. In the month of August alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was over 28 billion dollars.
#17 Wheat, corn and other staples are absolutely soaring in price on world markets. These higher food prices are going to hit U.S. consumers hard.
#18 In 2007, 3 U.S. banks failed. In 2008, 25 U.S. banks failed. In 2009, 140 U.S. banks failed. Last Friday, it was announced that 139 U.S. banks have failed so far this year and it is not even the end of October yet.
#19 Total student loan debt in the United States is climbing at a rate of approximately $2,853.88 per second.
#20 Back in 1980, the United States imported approximately 37 percent of the oil that we use. Now we import nearly 60 percent of the oil that we use.
#21 According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the health care reform legislation that Congress didn't read but passed into law anyway will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by the year 2019.
#22 Median household income in the U.S. declined from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. That was the second yearly decline in a row.
#23 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in a government anti-poverty program, and yet the number of Americans signing up for food stamps and other social programs just continues to set new all-time records month after month after month.
#24 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.
#25 American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy.
#26 According to a recent poll conducted by CNBC, 92 percent of Americans believe that the performance of the U.S. economy is either "fair" or "poor."
#27 After analyzing Congressional Budget Office data, Boston University economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff came to the conclusion that the U.S. government is now facing a "fiscal gap" of $202 trillion dollars.
#28 A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the earth more than 380 times. That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.
#29 According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. national debt is rapidly closing in on 14 trillion dollars and and will climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.
#30 At our current pace, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.
The U.S. economy is in the midst of a long-term decline. There are always going to be moments when it seems like things are getting a bit better, but then reality will kick in and the depressing slide will continue.
If you really want to understand what is happening to the U.S. economy, do not become fixated on the short-term numbers. Instead, always keep an eye on the long-term trends.
The U.S. economy is dying. We are getting whipped by the rest of the world and we are drowning in a sea of debt. A little rally in the stock market is not going to do a thing to fix our very deep fundamental economic problems.
The mainstream media is full of happy economic news these days. The S&P 500 has shot up 16 percent since the beginning of July. Ford Motor Company just reported a profit that jumped nearly 70 percent in the third quarter. It was Ford's best third quarter performance ever and it was the 6th quarterly profit in a row for the company. Other major firms have announced earnings that have far exceeded expectations in recent weeks. Hooray! The pundits are proclaiming that the economic collapse is over and that the U.S. economy has won. It is almost enough to make one tear into a stirring rendition of "Happy Days Are Here Again." But perhaps we should take a moment and get a hold of ourselves first. After all, the underlying economic fundamentals have not changed. The same long-term trends that were ripping the U.S. financial system apart a month or two ago are still continuing to do so. Millions upon millions of American families are still deeply suffering. So exactly what in the world is going on here? Well, this is what is known as a "sucker's rally." Those on the inside know better than to throw money at this market. In fact, corporate insiders are now selling off stock so fast you would think it is going out of style. Meanwhile, hordes of innocent rubes are jumping back into the stock market thinking that it is the perfect time to get in.
The truth is that these "good times" are only temporary. Don't get used to them. The following are 30 reasons why people should be getting really, really nervous about the state of the U.S. economy....
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#1 Corporate insiders are selling off stock at a blinding pace and are looking for the exits. Alan Newman, the editor of the Crosscurrents newsletter, examined a number of the top performing stocks in the market including Google, Apple and Target and found that the ratio of corporate insider stock sold to corporate insider stock purchased over the last six months for those companies was 3,177 to 1. At the group of firms that Newman looked at, corporate insiders had purchased 38,000 shares of stock over the last six months and yet had sold off over 120 million shares.
#2 Analysts at both Bank of America and Goldman Sachs both believe that the U.S. Federal Reserve is going to initiate a new round of quantitative easing in November. It does not take a genius to figure out that this is very likely to push up inflation and have very serious consequences for the U.S. dollar.
#3 Economists at Goldman Sachs are projecting that the Fed will have to purchase at least $4 trillion in assets during this next round of quantitative easing to get the U.S. economy moving in a positive direction once again.
#4 In the United States today, there are 5,057 janitors with Ph.D.’s, other doctorates, or professional degrees.
#5 Investors have very little faith in the U.S. dollar (and in paper currencies in general) at this point. Precious metals are soaring to obscene heights. The price of gold has increased more than 20 percent in 2010. The price of silver has skyrocketed about 40 percent this year. These are not signs that indicate that the U.S. financial system is stable.
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#6 Robin Griffiths, a technical strategist at Cazenove Capital, told CNBC on Monday that the U.S. dollar is in danger of becoming "toxic waste."
#7 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.
#8 U.S. lending institutions repossessed an all-time record total of 102,134 homes in the month of
September. That was the first time that home repossessions in the U.S. had ever exceeded the 100,000 mark during a single month.
#9 According to a Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price report that was released on Tuesday, single family home prices in the United States declined for a second straight month in August.
#10 In the United States today, over 18,000 parking lot attendants have college degrees.
#11 During the months of August and September, the state of Nevada had an unemployment rate of 14.4 percent, which was the highest in the history of the state. Not that the rest of the country is doing any better. The state of California has become a complete and total economic disaster zone, and the city of Detroit, Michigan is literally dying.
#12 The "official" unemployment rate in the United States has been at nine and a half percent or above for 14 consecutive months.
#13 The number of people unemployed in the state of California is approximately equivalent to the populations of Nevada, New Hampshire and Vermont combined.
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#14 According to the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there are approximately 3 million more vacant housing units than usual in the United States.
#15 China has reduced the export quota on rare earth elements for the second half of 2010 by 72%, thus strengthening their position in the world economy even more. Rare earth elements are absolutely crucial to the manufacture of a vast array of high technology products, and now even more of them will have to be made in China.
#16 In 1985, the U.S. trade deficit with China was 6 million dollars for the entire year. In the month of August alone, the U.S. trade deficit with China was over 28 billion dollars.
#17 Wheat, corn and other staples are absolutely soaring in price on world markets. These higher food prices are going to hit U.S. consumers hard.
#18 In 2007, 3 U.S. banks failed. In 2008, 25 U.S. banks failed. In 2009, 140 U.S. banks failed. Last Friday, it was announced that 139 U.S. banks have failed so far this year and it is not even the end of October yet.
#19 Total student loan debt in the United States is climbing at a rate of approximately $2,853.88 per second.
#20 Back in 1980, the United States imported approximately 37 percent of the oil that we use. Now we import nearly 60 percent of the oil that we use.
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#21 According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the health care reform legislation that Congress didn't read but passed into law anyway will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by the year 2019.
#22 Median household income in the U.S. declined from $51,726 in 2008 to $50,221 in 2009. That was the second yearly decline in a row.
#23 One out of every six Americans is now enrolled in a government anti-poverty program, and yet the number of Americans signing up for food stamps and other social programs just continues to set new all-time records month after month after month.
#24 The number of Americans working part-time jobs "for economic reasons" is now the highest it has been in at least five decades.
#25 American 15-year-olds do not even rank in the top half of all advanced nations when it comes to math or science literacy.
#26 According to a recent poll conducted by CNBC, 92 percent of Americans believe that the performance of the U.S. economy is either "fair" or "poor."
#27 After analyzing Congressional Budget Office data, Boston University economics professor Laurence J. Kotlikoff came to the conclusion that the U.S. government is now facing a "fiscal gap" of $202 trillion dollars.
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#28 A trillion $10 bills, if they were taped end to end, would wrap around the earth more than 380 times. That amount of money would still not be enough to pay off the U.S. national debt.
#29 According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. national debt is rapidly closing in on 14 trillion dollars and and will climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.
#30 At our current pace, the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that U.S. government public debt will hit 716 percent of GDP by the year 2080.
The U.S. economy is in the midst of a long-term decline. There are always going to be moments when it seems like things are getting a bit better, but then reality will kick in and the depressing slide will continue.
If you really want to understand what is happening to the U.S. economy, do not become fixated on the short-term numbers. Instead, always keep an eye on the long-term trends.
The U.S. economy is dying. We are getting whipped by the rest of the world and we are drowning in a sea of debt. A little rally in the stock market is not going to do a thing to fix our very deep fundamental economic problems.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
US Drops From 1st to 7th In Average Wealth Per Adult
From Zero Hedge
As if we needed more warnings that the US is rapidly losing its position as the world's superpower and wealth aggregator, is the following chart from Credit Suisse, which ranks the top 10 countries in the world in terms of average wealth per adult. While the US was #1 10 years ago, due to an abysmal growth rate of only 23%, by far the lowest of all the ranked countries, the US has now dropped from first to seventh, falling behind such countries as Sweden and France. At the top - such perennially voted "top places to live" as Switzerland and Norway. Hopefully the US can fix its ever-expanding black hole of problems soon, as once the wealthiest decide they have had it here and move away, look for this number to drop ever faster until the US drops out of the ranking altogether
As if we needed more warnings that the US is rapidly losing its position as the world's superpower and wealth aggregator, is the following chart from Credit Suisse, which ranks the top 10 countries in the world in terms of average wealth per adult. While the US was #1 10 years ago, due to an abysmal growth rate of only 23%, by far the lowest of all the ranked countries, the US has now dropped from first to seventh, falling behind such countries as Sweden and France. At the top - such perennially voted "top places to live" as Switzerland and Norway. Hopefully the US can fix its ever-expanding black hole of problems soon, as once the wealthiest decide they have had it here and move away, look for this number to drop ever faster until the US drops out of the ranking altogether
Friday, September 17, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
40 Facts About The US Economy
Another collaboration like this one posted previously.
1 - According to one shocking new survey, 28% of U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.
2 - A recent Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.
3 - There are 9.2 million Americans that are unemployed but that are not receiving an unemployment insurance check.
4 - In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
5 - According to one analysis, the United States has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007.
6 - China's trade surplus (much of it with the United States) climbed 140 percent in June compared to a year earlier.
7 - This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
8 - According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck. That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
9 - According to a recent poll conducted by Bloomberg, 71% of Americans say that it still feels like the economy is in a recession.
10 - Banks repossessed 269,962 U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010, which was a new all-time record.
11 - Banks repossessed an average of 4,000 South Florida properties a month in the first half of 2010, up 83 percent from the first half of 2009.
12 - According to RealtyTrac, a total of 1.65 million U.S. properties received foreclosure filings during the first half of 2010.
13 - The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes has sunk to a 13-year low.
14 - Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
15 - 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.
16 - Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree's
Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.
17 - According to a new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won't be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.
18 - 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
19 - According to one survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
20 - According to one recent survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
21 - The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index declined sharply to 52.9 in June. Most economists had expected that the figure for June would be somewhere around 62.
22 - Retail sales in the U.S. fell in June for a second month in a row.
23 - Vacancies and lease rates at U.S. shopping centers continued to get worse during the second quarter of 2010.
24 - Consumer credit in the United States has contracted during 15 of the past 16 months.
25 - During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
26 - Things are now so bad in California that in the region around the state capital, Sacramento, there is now one closed business for every six that are still open.
27 - The state of Illinois now ranks eighth in the world in possible bond-holder default. The state of California is ninth.
28 - More than 25 percent of Americans now have a credit score below 599, which means that they are a very bad credit risk.
29 - On Friday, U.S. regulators closed down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to be shut down so far in 2010.
30 - The FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.
31 - The U.S. federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion with three months still to go in the current budget year.
32 - According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.
33 - The M3 money supply plunged at a 9.6 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2010.
34 - According to a new poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.
35 - One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
36 - The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
37 - The number of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line rose by about 15% between 2000 and 2006, and by 2008 over 30 million U.S. workers were earning less than $10 per hour.
38 - According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
39 - For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
40 - A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey has found that just 23% of American voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.
1 - According to one shocking new survey, 28% of U.S. households have at least one member that is looking for a full-time job.
2 - A recent Pew Research survey found that 55 percent of the U.S. labor force has experienced either unemployment, a pay decrease, a reduction in hours or an involuntary move to part-time work since the recession began.
3 - There are 9.2 million Americans that are unemployed but that are not receiving an unemployment insurance check.
4 - In America today, the average time needed to find a job has risen to a record 35.2 weeks.
5 - According to one analysis, the United States has lost 10.5 million jobs since 2007.
6 - China's trade surplus (much of it with the United States) climbed 140 percent in June compared to a year earlier.
7 - This is what American workers now must compete against: in China a garment worker makes approximately 86 cents an hour and in Cambodia a garment worker makes approximately 22 cents an hour.
8 - According to a poll taken in 2009, 61 percent of Americans "always or usually" live paycheck to paycheck. That was up significantly from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
9 - According to a recent poll conducted by Bloomberg, 71% of Americans say that it still feels like the economy is in a recession.
10 - Banks repossessed 269,962 U.S. homes during the second quarter of 2010, which was a new all-time record.
11 - Banks repossessed an average of 4,000 South Florida properties a month in the first half of 2010, up 83 percent from the first half of 2009.
12 - According to RealtyTrac, a total of 1.65 million U.S. properties received foreclosure filings during the first half of 2010.
13 - The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that demand for loans to purchase U.S. homes has sunk to a 13-year low.
14 - Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
15 - 1.41 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009 - a 32 percent increase over 2008.
16 - Back in 1950 each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 workers. Today, each retiree's
Social Security benefit is paid for by approximately 3.3 workers. By 2025 it is projected that there will be approximately two workers for each retiree.
17 - According to a new poll, six of 10 non-retirees believe that Social Security won't be able to pay them benefits when they stop working.
18 - 43 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved for retirement.
19 - According to one survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything to retirement savings.
20 - According to one recent survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
21 - The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index declined sharply to 52.9 in June. Most economists had expected that the figure for June would be somewhere around 62.
22 - Retail sales in the U.S. fell in June for a second month in a row.
23 - Vacancies and lease rates at U.S. shopping centers continued to get worse during the second quarter of 2010.
24 - Consumer credit in the United States has contracted during 15 of the past 16 months.
25 - During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
26 - Things are now so bad in California that in the region around the state capital, Sacramento, there is now one closed business for every six that are still open.
27 - The state of Illinois now ranks eighth in the world in possible bond-holder default. The state of California is ninth.
28 - More than 25 percent of Americans now have a credit score below 599, which means that they are a very bad credit risk.
29 - On Friday, U.S. regulators closed down three banks in Florida, two in South Carolina and one in Michigan, bringing to 96 the number of U.S. banks to be shut down so far in 2010.
30 - The FDIC's deposit insurance fund now has negative 20.7 billion dollars in it, which represents a slight improvement from the end of 2009.
31 - The U.S. federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion with three months still to go in the current budget year.
32 - According to a U.S. Treasury Department report to Congress, the U.S. national debt will top $13.6 trillion this year and climb to an estimated $19.6 trillion by 2015.
33 - The M3 money supply plunged at a 9.6 percent annual rate during the first quarter of 2010.
34 - According to a new poll of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75, 61% said that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% thought death was scarier.
35 - One study found that as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets.
36 - The bottom 40 percent of all income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
37 - The number of Americans with incomes below the official poverty line rose by about 15% between 2000 and 2006, and by 2008 over 30 million U.S. workers were earning less than $10 per hour.
38 - According to one recent study, approximately 21 percent of all children in the United States are living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
39 - For the first time in U.S. history, more than 40 million Americans are on food stamps, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that number will go up to 43 million Americans in 2011.
40 - A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey has found that just 23% of American voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Presenting The Wall Of Worry: The 50 Ugliest Facts About The US eCONomy
Source
As we close on another week replete with ugly economic data and the usual bizarro counterintuitive market, here is a summary of the 50 most underreported facts about the state of the US economy, courtesy of the Coto report. After reading these it almost makes sense that the market has become completely desensitized to the sad reality now pervasive in this country. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations to this list. Surely if the list is doubled, the market will go up to 72,000 instead of just 36,000.
#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.
#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.
#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.
#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.
#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.
#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.
#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.
#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.
#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.
#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.
#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.
#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.
#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.
#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.
#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.
#32) In California’s Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.
#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.
#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.
#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.
#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.
#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.
#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.
#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.
#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of
20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn’t improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.
#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.
#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.
#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars.
#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed.
#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.
#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.
#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.
#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new “Car Theft Capital of the World”.
#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.
#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.
#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care “reform” bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.
#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.
#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.
#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.
#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on the interest rate).
#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.
#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in “Generation Y” pay their monthly bills on time.
#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4. Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.
As we close on another week replete with ugly economic data and the usual bizarro counterintuitive market, here is a summary of the 50 most underreported facts about the state of the US economy, courtesy of the Coto report. After reading these it almost makes sense that the market has become completely desensitized to the sad reality now pervasive in this country. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations to this list. Surely if the list is doubled, the market will go up to 72,000 instead of just 36,000.
#50) In 2010 the U.S. government is projected to issue almost as much new debt as the rest of the governments of the world combined.
#49) It is being projected that the U.S. government will have a budget deficit of approximately 1.6 trillion dollars in 2010.
#48) If you went out and spent one dollar every single second, it would take you more than 31,000 years to spend a trillion dollars.
#47) In fact, if you spent one million dollars every single day since the birth of Christ, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now.
#46) Total U.S. government debt is now up to 90 percent of gross domestic product.
#45) Total credit market debt in the United States, including government, corporate and personal debt, has reached 360 percent of GDP.
#44) U.S. corporate income tax receipts were down 55% (to $138 billion) for the year ending September 30th, 2009.
#43) There are now 8 counties in the state of California that have unemployment rates of over 20 percent.
#42) In the area around Sacramento, California there is one closed business for every six that are still open.
#41) In February, there were 5.5 unemployed Americans for every job opening.
#40) According to a Pew Research Center study, approximately 37% of all Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 have either been unemployed or underemployed at some point during the recession.
#39) More than 40% of those employed in the United States are now working in low-wage service jobs.
#38) According to one new survey, 24% of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
#37) Over 1.4 million Americans filed for personal bankruptcy in 2009, which represented a 32 percent increase over 2008. Not only that, more Americans filed for bankruptcy in March 2010 than during any month since U.S. bankruptcy law was tightened in October 2005.
#36) Mortgage purchase applications in the United States are down nearly 40 percent from a month ago to their lowest level since April of 1997.
#35) RealtyTrac has announced that foreclosure filings in the U.S. established an all time record for the second consecutive year in 2009.
#34) According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March 2010, an increase of nearly 19 percent from February, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
#33) In Pinellas and Pasco counties, which include St. Petersburg, Florida and the suburbs to the north, there are 34,000 open foreclosure cases. Ten years ago, there were only about 4,000.
#32) In California’s Central Valley, 1 out of every 16 homes is in some phase of foreclosure.
#31) The Mortgage Bankers Association recently announced that more than 10 percent of all U.S. homeowners with a mortgage had missed at least one payment during the January to March time period. That was a record high and up from 9.1 percent a year ago.
#30) U.S. banks repossessed nearly 258,000 homes nationwide in the first quarter of 2010, a 35 percent jump from the first quarter of 2009.
#29) For the first time in U.S. history, banks own a greater share of residential housing net worth in the United States than all individual Americans put together.
#28) More than 24% of all homes with mortgages in the United States were underwater as of the end of 2009.
#27) U.S. commercial property values are down approximately 40 percent since 2007 and currently 18 percent of all office space in the United States is sitting vacant.
#26) Defaults on apartment building mortgages held by U.S. banks climbed to a record 4.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. That was almost twice the level of a year earlier.
#25) In 2009, U.S. banks posted their sharpest decline in private lending since 1942.
#24) New York state has delayed paying bills totalling $2.5 billion as a short-term way of staying solvent but officials are warning that its cash crunch could soon get even worse.
#23) To make up for a projected 2010 budget shortfall of $280 million, Detroit issued $250 million of
20-year municipal notes in March. The bond issuance followed on the heels of a warning from Detroit officials that if its financial state didn’t improve, it could be forced to declare bankruptcy.
#22) The National League of Cities says that municipal governments will probably come up between $56 billion and $83 billion short between now and 2012.
#21) Half a dozen cash-poor U.S. states have announced that they are delaying their tax refund checks.
#20) Two university professors recently calculated that the combined unfunded pension liability for all 50 U.S. states is 3.2 trillion dollars.
#19) According to EconomicPolicyJournal.com, 32 U.S. states have already run out of funds to make unemployment benefit payments and so the federal government has been supplying these states with funds so that they can make their payments to the unemployed.
#18) This most recession has erased 8 million private sector jobs in the United States.
#17) Paychecks from private business shrank to their smallest share of personal income in U.S. history during the first quarter of 2010.
#16) U.S. government-provided benefits (including Social Security, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other programs) rose to a record high during the first three months of 2010.
#15) 39.68 million Americans are now on food stamps, which represents a new all-time record. But things look like they are going to get even worse. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is forecasting that enrollment in the food stamp program will exceed 43 million Americans in 2011.
#14) Phoenix, Arizona features an astounding annual car theft rate of 57,000 vehicles and has become the new “Car Theft Capital of the World”.
#13) U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year.
#12) The U.S. health care system was already facing a shortage of approximately 150,000 doctors in the next decade or so, but thanks to the health care “reform” bill passed by Congress, that number could swell by several hundred thousand more.
#11) According to an analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation the health care “reform” bill will generate $409.2 billion in additional taxes on the American people by 2019.
#10) The Dow Jones Industrial Average just experienced the worst May it has seen since 1940.
#9) In 1950, the ratio of the average executive’s paycheck to the average worker’s paycheck was about 30 to 1. Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
#8) Approximately 40% of all retail spending currently comes from the 20% of American households that have the highest incomes.
#7) According to economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez, two-thirds of income increases in the U.S. between 2002 and 2007 went to the wealthiest 1% of all Americans.
#6) The bottom 40 percent of income earners in the United States now collectively own less than 1 percent of the nation’s wealth.
#5) If you only make the minimum payment each and every time, a $6,000 credit card bill can end up costing you over $30,000 (depending on the interest rate).
#4) According to a new report based on U.S. Census Bureau data, only 26 percent of American teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs in late 2009 which represents a record low since statistics began to be kept back in 1948.
#3) According to a National Foundation for Credit Counseling survey, only 58% of those in “Generation Y” pay their monthly bills on time.
#2) During the first quarter of 2010, the total number of loans that are at least three months past due in the United States increased for the 16th consecutive quarter.
#1) According to the Tax Foundation’s Microsimulation Model, to erase the 2010 U.S. budget deficit, the U.S. Congress would have to multiply each tax rate by 2.4. Thus, the 10 percent rate would be 24 percent, the 15 percent rate would be 36 percent, and the 35 percent rate would have to be 85 percent.
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