Russian General: “The USSR Collapsed and the Same Fate Has Been Prepared for the USA” - SHTFPlan.com - Mac Slavo - October 2nd, 2012
Army Suicides This Year Exceed 2012 Combat Deaths in Afghanistan - CNSNews.com - Patrick Burke - October 23, 2012 - The number of suicides among U.S. Army active duty and reserve personnel in 2012 is higher than the total combined military fatalities from Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan over the same timeframe. Even without Army data for October, the number of deaths believed to be suicides among U.S. Army personnel from January through September still surpass the combined military combat deaths in Afghanistan from January up to October 22. In 2012, there have been a total of 247 suspected suicides among Army active and reserve duty personnel. Of those, 158 have been confirmed as suicides and 89 remain under investigation. According to the Afghanistan Index database maintained by the Brookings Institution, there have been 222 combined military deaths in 2012 among active and reserve components from “hostile causes,” as of Sept. 28...
Will Frustrated Homeowners And Armed Posses Take Matters Into Their Own Hands As Home Invasions Rise? - The End of the American Dream Blog - Michael - October 22nd, 2012 - Violent crime is on the rise in the United States, and many Americans are totally fed up. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of household burglaries rose by 14 percent last year, and the overall rate of violent crime in the United States increased by 18 percent during 2011. Based on what we have seen so far this year, we will almost certainly see another huge increase once the statistics for 2012 are released. All over the country criminals are becoming bolder. Meanwhile, police budgets are being slashed from coast to coast. Things have gotten so bad in some communities that police are openly admitting that crime is completely and totally out of control. For example, police in Detroit recently handed out flyers with this message: "Enter Detroit at your own risk". Sadly, you can't even escape the crime and the violence by staying in your own home these days. Home invasions are becoming increasingly common, and many police departments seem powerless to stop them. If many of the poorer areas of America today, if you are a victim of a home invasion you will be really lucky to get a police officer to show up a couple of hours later to fill out a report. A lot of frustrated home owners have had enough and have started to arm themselves to the teeth. Some have even begun to form armed posses to patrol their own neighborhoods. We are watching America change right in front of our eyes, and it is frightening to think about what is coming next...
Will The Bottom Fall Out? 15 Signs That Layoffs And Job Losses Are Skyrocketing - The economic Collapse Blog - If you still have a good job, you might want to hold on to it very tightly because there are a whole bunch of signs that unemployment in the United States is about to start getting worse again. Over the past several weeks, a substantial number of large corporations have announced disappointing earnings for the third quarter. Many of those large corporations are also loaded up with huge amounts of debt. So what is the solution? Well, the favorite solution on Wall Street these days seems to be to lay off workers. In fact, it is almost turning into a feeding frenzy. Since September 1st, we have seen more job cuts announced than during any other two month period since the start of 2010. These announcements represent future layoffs and job losses which are not even showing up in the unemployment numbers yet. So needless to say, things don't look very promising for the end of 2012 or for the beginning of 2013. If this race to eliminate jobs becomes a stampede, will we see the bottom fall out of the employment market? If you are concerned about whether or not you will still have a job 12 months from now, you might find the numbers posted below to be quite alarming. We have not seen layoff announcements come this fast and this furious since the gloomy days of the last recession....
GDP - The Warning Signs From Exports - Street Talk Live - Lance Roberts - October 27, 2012 - Over the past several months we have been discussing that this is no longer your "father's economy."
What we have meant by this is the economic environment today is vastly
different than that which most of our parents grew up in. We recently
discussed in "Debt: Driving Our Economy Since 1980" that: "From
the 1950’s through the late 1970’s...the U.S. was the manufacturing and
production powerhouse of the entire global economy post the wide spread
devastation of Europe, Germany and Japan during WWII. The rebuilding
of Europe and Japan, combined with the years of pent up demand for goods
domestically, led to a strongly growing economy and increased personal
savings. However, beginning in 1980 the world changed. The development
of communications shrank the global marketplace while the rise of
technology allowed the U.S. to embark upon a massive shift to export manufacturing to the lowest cost provider in order to import cheaper goods." The importance of this shift in the U.S.
from away from being the epicenter of global production and
manufacturing to a service and finance based economy should not be
overlooked. This transition is responsible for the issues that are
impeding economic growth in the U.S. today from structural unemployment,
declining wage growth and lower economic prosperity. The four-panel
chart below gives you a visualization of this transition showing the
year-over-year change in the data, with the exception of the personal
savings rate which is linear, prior and post-1980...
Derivative Meltdown and Dollar Collapse - Daily Business Report James Hall - October 17, 2012
The frightening prospects from a derivative meltdown, well known for years, seem to deepen with every measure to prop up a failing international financial system. The essay Greed is Good, but Derivatives are Better, characterizes the gamble game in this fashion:
"The elegance of derivatives is that the rules that defy nature are not involved in intangible swaps. The basic value in the payment from the risk is always dumped on the back of the taxpayer. Ponzi schemes are legal when government croupiers spin loaded balls on their fudged roulette tables."
Under
conventional international trading
settlement, the world reserve
currency is the Dollar. The loss of confidence in the Federal Reserve
System causes a corresponding
decline in value in U. S Treasury
obligations. Add into this risk equation, derivative instruments that
are deadly threats
that can well destroy national
currencies. One such response to this unchecked danger can be found in a
Bloomberg Businessweek
perceptive article, A Shortage of Bonds to
Back Derivatives Bets, makes a stark forecast.
"Starting next year, new rules will force banks, hedge funds, and other traders to back up more of their bets in the $648 trillion derivatives market by posting collateral. While the rules are designed to prevent another financial meltdown, a shortage of Treasury bonds and other top-rated debt to use as collateral may undermine the effort to make the system safer."
However,
what happens when buyers of Treasury
notes abandon the reoccurring cycle of rollover debt and stop buying
new T-Bonds? Take
the Chinese example as a template
for things to come. China's yuan hits record
high amid US pressure,
"The Yuan touched an intraday high of nearly 6.2640 to $1.0, according
to the China Foreign Exchange Trade
System, marking the highest level since 1994 when the country launched
its modern foreign
exchange market."
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