Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- April 13, 2014

Beef prices climb to highest in 25 years - AP through CNBC - April 12, 2014 - The highest beef prices in almost three decades have arrived just before the start of grilling season, causing sticker shock for both consumers and restaurant owners — and relief isn't likely anytime soon.                  A dwindling number of cattle and growing export demand from countries such as China and Japan have caused the average retail cost of fresh beef to climb to $5.28 a pound in February, up almost a quarter from January and the highest price since 1987.               Everything that's produced is being consumed, said Kevin Good, an analyst at CattleFax, a Colorado-based information group. And prices likely will stay high for a couple of years as cattle producers start to rebuild their herds amid big questions about whether the Southwest and parts of the Midwest will get enough rain to replenish pastures.

Showdown on the range: Nevada rancher, feds face off over cattle grazing rights - CNN - Michael Martinez - April 12, 2014 - A 20-year dispute between a Nevada rancher and federal rangers over illegal cattle grazing erupted into an Old West-style showdown on the open range this week, even prompting self-proclaimed members of militia groups from across the country to join the rancher in fighting what they say is U.S. "tyranny."                       What began as a legal fight between longtime rancher Cliven Bundy and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has escalated as Bundy kept his cattle on the federal land, and the government has responded by beginning roundups of the livestock.                           A confrontation teetered on violence Wednesday when Bundy family members and dozens of supporters angrily confronted a group of rangers holding Tasers and barking dogs on leashes near Bunkerville, about 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

Harry Reid and his long dirty fingers in the Bunkerville, NV range dispute - Before It's News - April 12, 2014 - It has been reported that there were over 50 ranchers in the Bunkerville area. Now down to one. The story to be told has yet to be revealed. What is clear, that this story is more than a rancher not paying the BLM grazing fees. What we do know is that Harry Reid has his long dirty fingerprints in this story. While the Bundy family may not be the most articulate, soon we hear from others what the BLM has been doing to ranchers. You betcha. Here we go:

The son of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Rory Reid, is the primary representative for ENN Energy Group, a Chinese energy company seeking to build a $5 billion solar panel plant on a 9,000-acre Clark County desert plot in Laughlin, Nevada.                       ENN scored big when Clark County commissioners unanimously voted to sell the Chinese company the public land for just $4.5 million, despite the fact that it was appraised at $38.6 million.                      Sen. Reid has been one of ENN’s biggest supporters, having recruited the company during a 2011 trip to China. According to Reuters, last month Sen. Reid tried to “pressure Nevada’s largest power company, NV Energy, to sign up as ENN’s first customer.”                            This isn’t the first time the Reids have come under fire for alleged cronyism. In 2003, allegations emerged that Nevada industries frequently lobbied Sen. Reid through his well-connected relatives.                        (Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com …

 Reid’s son, a lawyer with a prominent Las Vegas firm that is representing ENN, helped it locate a 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) desert site that it is buying well below appraised value from Clark County, where Rory Reid formerly chaired the county commission.                          To advance the Nevada project, ENN retained the state’s largest and most prestigious law firm – Lionel Sawyer & Collins, where Rory Reid works. It is headed by Richard Bryan, a former Nevada attorney general, governor and member of the U.S. Senate

Corporatocracy: How the Corporate Welfare State Divides and Conquers - Against Fascism: Towards the Separation of Business and State - The Corbett Report - James Corbett - February 11, 2014 - Since 1996, the United States Department of Defense has accumulated an $8.5 trillion black hole in its budget. The number is so staggering that it is quite literally inconceivable. Several times larger than the annual budget for the entire federal government, it is equivalent to half of the entire fraudulent debt of the United States government itself. Aside from a recent report by Reuters or the occasional back-of-the-paper mention in one of the dinosaur media outlets, however, you’d have to turn to Russian state-sponsored media to discover this fact.




Paul Craig Roberts Interview on King World News - April 13, 2014 - Listen Here
The Beginning of the End of the Dollar. 2014 will be the year of reckoning for the United States. The threat of sanctions against Russia has brought on actions that will unhinge the Dollar as the World Reserve Currency... Russians are saying they won't take Dollars for Russian Oil... Must purchase Rubles to purchase their Oil.... Corruption is rampant in U.S. regulatory agencies..  Foreign policy Propaganda against Ukraine and others is backfiring on U.S.... String of Lies to go to war... Prestige and Dollar are taking hits... Domestic U.S. economy is turning down - actual numbers support it... People are having a hard time making ends meet... House of cards and markets manipulated can only be kept together as long as the Dollar remains the World Reserve Currency... U.S. can only survive these crises with the help of Russia and China.

Gerald Celente Interview on King World News - April 11, 2014 - Listen Here
Markets are in a downtrend... Negative sensitivity and Emotions... Cheap money into the system has caused the market to go higher through propping up the Banks... seeing more consolidation... cheap money building deals and thus a bubble... there is going to be a Lehman Brothers moment... Federal Reserve has given banks two more years to get rid of troubled loans... they are just shifting the risk from one group to another... gambling has heated up and wrong house is going to make the wrong bet and it is going to take down a lot of people... It's a House of Cards built on paper/digital money... The problem is systemic and it has grown in size and intensity... It is a bubble built on rigged games, inside deals, outright lies... We have never seen gambling at a level like this... It is even more unregulated by the latest moves signaled by the Fed... they will do unprecedented money world wide... they will blame it on the House of Cards... a cover up to justify more money printing... Interest rates will have to eventually rise and this will send the global economies into cardiac arrest. Then they will have to create more cheap money to keep the Ponzi scheme going.

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Zero Prosecutions of Elites for Most Destructive Frauds in World History - William Black - USAWatchdog.com - March 31, 2014 - Greg Hunter - Fraud expert and former regulator Professor William Black says, "Even today, we are well into 2014, and the Department of Justice record is intact. There have been zero prosecutions of the elite officers who led the epic epidemic of fraud. It was the most destructive in world history, zero of them even unsuccessfully prosecuted, much less prosecuted."                  What is the result of massive rampant unprosecuted fraud? Professor Black says, "If you don't have any accountability, you not only make certain that there is going to be a next blow-up, but it will be worse. . . . We have effectively removed the criminal laws for a particular elite class of frauds."                  Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Professor William Black of University of Missouri Kansas City.