From the Monday Morning meeting with the Mayor on Hal Row's First Talk program, June 6, 2011: I was listening to Hal and the Mayor talk about a Game changing Investment and if people have an idea that he wants them to bring it to him, no matter how big or small, this is the third month in a row that the Mayor has talked about this idea. $20 million has always been this number that he constantly brings up. He defines it as a parameter, but in the end -- in my opinion -- this is all about politics and frankly, although he's entitled to say whatever he wants, I am personally getting tired of hearing it. He states that he and the Council would take it (the Right Idea) to the people. What parameter defines "The People." First, if I have a $20 million idea, why am I going to bring it to the Mayor. What is his track record of making things happen? And why should I not be worried about it being steered away from myself and towards more connected interests?
Hal brings up the idea about municipal golf courses and the Mayor makes a simple statement about them having mixed reviews. My paranoid side felt like they were trying to poke and prod me to call in and state that I would be against it because it would compete against the local Private Clubs. I could give two piles of horse hockey about that. I know that this would not be a good time to call in about such a subject when one of our areas most important marketing events is taking place. However, my argument would be that there is an over saturation of golf facilities in our community already, especially with the current state of the economy. Go ask the existing golf facilities how their present revenues are going. Most of these "Golfers" don't have a clue about the intensive investment that it takes to run a proper Golf facility.
The next thesis of this program was that we need to bring more retirees into this community. I already have pointed out why I believe this to be a mistake -- ad nauseum. I am willing to debate the Mayor any time and any place on this issue. These two men kept talking about how it would create construction jobs, because these people buy houses and Hal was talking about how these people would buy houses on these municipal golf courses. Let me get this right. We don't have money to spend a few hundred thousand dollars to create a community swimming pool, but we have millions of dollars to spend on building golf courses with the hope that golf lovers will flock to the Hickory to play golf to infinity. We don't take care of the Citizens of Hickory now, but they want to bring in new people that they expect to cater to. Yeah right!!!
Ladies and gentleman, someone has to come out of the woodwork and I have been thinking about two years from now, because we cannot afford to remain on this path to nowhere that we are on. Hickory is a political microcosm of what we see from other dysfunctional governments that we see throughout the World. These governments have detached themselves from the people and do not look at themselves as public servants, instead we are looked upon as subjects. They look to themselves as Authorities and Authorities authorize.
I honestly think the Mayor has no intentions of doing anything. We are not moving forward in this community and the Mayor is basically telling you that he has no ideas. If he had any ideas about how to generate anything economic, then he would not be asking you for yours!!! And to a degree he has implemented his policies, which are to cut, cut, cut, cut.... the budget and by consequence reduce the effectiveness of the local government. Where is $20 million going to all of the sudden appear from?
With this act of desperation, the $20 million idea, he displays over and over again that he thinks he is the final arbiter of whether an idea is good or not and I have never heard him state that any idea sounds great. It is always that he needs to study it further or it has had mixed reviews or it hasn't worked somewhere else or people are looking for "The Right Idea."
The Mayor is becoming a caricature of how Old South Mayors were characterized on television shows like Andy Griffith, etc. back in the days of black and white TV -- jumping in front of the crowd on popular issues, while being scared to death to take any chances, because some political negativity might be pinned on him if he were wrong. I hate to say that, but when he is constantly making these broadbrushed generalities about community investment and other over simplified statements that he has made about the local economic situation and the scenarios to be played out over the next generation, then one can see that he has no intention of doing anything outside of the box to move this community forward. It is a Medicine Man approach to make a situation look grander than it is.
I want someone to come along, who is willing to face down this mess, this lack of focus, and this lack of leadership that is present day Hickory. I am not here to attack people. I do want to help, but I am given nothing to work with. Our leaders keep pushing this notion of this being a cheap place to live. That isn't a great way to attract the movers and shakers of this world. Smart people understand the concept of Cheap Begets Cheap. We need to stress Excellence and Value related to that excellence!!! We don't want to be a cheap place to live with cheap wages and amenities. We want to be a community with an excellent Quality of Life where people are happy and don't have to work two and three jobs to make ends meet; who can say that they don't have to sacrifice their way through life. There is a big difference between what our leaders consider sacrificing and what I am telling you about sacrificing.
We have got to move forward and stop worrying about political gamesmanship and instead think about the people. The people who have Hickory in their blood. Politics will not resolve Hickory's issues. It is going to take someone that will lay the facts out to the folks and be willing to lose in order to win. If you are trying to become Mayor for the next generation, then you will be part of the problem. If you want to get some things done around here and are willing to take some heat from the entrenched interests, then we can get some things done around here. Talk is cheap, let's step up to the plate and make some things happen.
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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- June 5, 2011
US house price fall 'beats Great Depression slide - The Independent on Sunday - By Stephen Foley - June 1, 2011 - The ailing US housing market passed a grim milestone in the first quarter of this year, posting a further deterioration that means the fall in house prices is now greater than that suffered during the Great Depression... The brief recovery in prices in 2009, spurred by government aid to first-time buyers, has now been entirely snuffed out, and the average American home now costs 33 per cent less than it did at the peak of the housing bubble in 2007. The peak-to-trough fall in house prices in the 1930s Depression was 31 per cent – and prices took 19 years to recover after that downturn... The latest Case-Shiller house price index was just one of a slew of disappointing economic data from the US yesterday, which suggested ebbing confidence in the recovery of the world's largest economy. The Chicago PMI manufacturing index showed a sharp slowdown in the pace of expansion in May, missing Wall Street forecasts and sending the index to its lowest since November 2009.
Why housing is in a depression - Commentary: New data says the double dip is even worse than the 1930s - Marketwatch - Brett Arends - June 1, 2011 - And the Case-Shiller data masks huge variations in housing markets. Prices have collapsed many suburbs, exurbs, rural areas, and in well-known disaster sites like Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Meanwhile the declines have been much milder in places like Manhattan or Boston. Some high-end real estate is actually selling well. The buyers have money... Is there a silver lining to this? Well, maybe... If you can get the financing, housing is now cheap. Really cheap. Capital Economics reckons housing is now 24% undervalued, and is the cheapest it’s been in thirty-five years... With mortgages rates on the floor, and inflation surely brewing down the road, housing in many parts of the country looks like a good deal. But you’ll have to be patient to see the biggest rewards. Capital Economics says, back in the Depression, it took 19 years for house prices to recover to their previous peaks.
Dreaded Double-Dip Is Here - Greg Hunter - USA Watchdog - June 1, 2011 - Another one of my favorite people to quote is economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com. He has been warning about a sinking economy for months and has been saying any good news is nothing more than “bottom bouncing.” In his most recent report, Williams said, “Most major economic reports in April disappointed consensus expectations and either were flat or negative for the month—including real retail sales, industrial production, housing starts and durable goods orders. Where first-quarter GDP growth slowed versus the fourth-quarter, the stage is set for the GDP to turn negative, again, sometime in the next two quarters, reflecting what would become an official double-dip recession.” Housing has been an unqualified disaster with housing starts and new home sales off 75% from the 2005 peak. Existing home sales are off nearly 30%, and of the homes that are sold, nearly 40% are foreclosures. Four in 10 homes sold as distressed properties do not signal a healthy economy—just the opposite... So, where are we headed? Well, all this bad news is going to push the Fed to print more money to keep the banks from going under. QE2 is supposed to end June 30, but the consensus of experts I quoted said it won’t be long before there is QE3. It will be either overt or covert, but it will be instituted. A double-dip in housing could start a daisy chain of very bad news for the big banks exposed to derivatives and residential real estate. (I wrote about this a few months back. Click here for the complete original post.) Williams agrees, and in his latest report he said, “The Federal Reserve is a private corporation owned by commercial banks or banking interests. The Fed’s primary job is not to generate sustainable economic growth, nor to contain inflation, but rather to keep the banking system sound and healthy. Accordingly QE1 and QE2 likely were targeted primarily at addressing systemic solvency issues, with the Fed using the weak economy as cover. As the systemic solvency crisis continues and/or intensifies, an overt or covert QE3 likely will be in place by third-quarter 2011, under the cover of a deteriorating economy. The broad inflation and economic outlooks discussed in Hyperinflation Special Report (2011) continue unabated.”... Williams thinks there is going to be a “great collapse” between now and 2014. Yes, the dollar and the entire financial system could go down in a giant hyper-inflationary ball of fire. The buying power of the buck will be completely wiped out. Please keep in mind, more than $12 trillion in liquid assets are held outside of the U.S. A stampede out of the dollar could trigger a hyperinflationary event at any time. At the very least, count on increasing inflation in everything but housing.
Half of Last Month's New Jobs Came from a Single Employer — McDonald's - The Weekly Standard - Mark Hemingway - Jun 3, 2011 - According to the unemployment data released this morning, the economy added only 54,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent. However, this report from MarketWatch suggests the data is much worse than that.... McDonald’s ran a big hiring day on April 19 — after the Labor Department’s April survey for the payrolls report was conducted — in which 62,000 jobs were added. That’s not a net number, of course, and seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000. The Labor Department won’t detail an exact McDonald’s figure — they won’t identify any company they survey — but there will be data in the report to give a rough estimate.... If Morgan Stanley is correct, about half of last month's job growth came from the venerable fast-food chain. That is hardly the sign of a healthy economy.
Offshoring has Destroyed the US Economy - Nobel Economist Michael Spence Says Globalism Is Costly For Americans - GlobalResearch.ca - by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts - May 31, 2011 - These are discouraging times, but once in a blue moon a bit of hope appears. I am pleased to report on the bit of hope delivered in March of 2011 by Michael Spence, a Nobel prize-winning economist, assisted by Sandile Hlatshwayo, a researcher at New York University. The two economists have taken a careful empirical look at jobs offshoring and concluded that it has ruined the income and employment prospects for most Americans... All of this was over the heads of “free trade” ideologues, who threw accusations such as “protectionist” at Sir James, Roger Milliken, Herman Daly, Ralph Gomory, Charles McMillion, and myself. These “free trade” ideologues are economically incompetent. They do not know that the justification for free trade is based on the principle of comparative advantage, which means that a country specializes in those economic activities in which it performs best and trades for those goods that other countries do best. Instead, the ideologues think that free trade means the freedom of capital to seek absolute advantage abroad in lowest factor cost. In other words, the free trade incompetents have never read David Ricardo, who formalized the case for free trade... Other economists, especially those high profile ones in high profile academic institutions, were bought and paid for. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28189.htm In exchange for grants from offshoring corporations these hirelings invented “the New Economy,” in which everyone would prosper as a result of getting rid of “dirty fingernail jobs.” The New Economy wouldn’t make anything, but it would lead the world in innovation and in financing what others did make. The “new economists” were not sufficiently bright to realize that if a country didn’t make anything, it couldn’t innovate... To find a Nobel prize-winner documenting the high cost of globalism to developed economies is extraordinary. For the Council on Foreign Relations to publish it suggests that the Establishment, or some part of it, suspects that its hubris has run away with its fortunes, and that different thinking is needed to restore the US economy.
The Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families - Global Research - Dean Henderson - June 1, 2011 - The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch... According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.[1]... So who then are the stockholders in these money center banks?... This information is guarded much more closely. My queries to bank regulatory agencies regarding stock ownership in the top 25 US bank holding companies were given Freedom of Information Act status, before being denied on “national security” grounds. This is rather ironic, since many of the bank’s stockholders reside in Europe.... One important repository for the wealth of the global oligarchy that owns these bank holding companies is US Trust Corporation - founded in 1853 and now owned by Bank of America. A recent US Trust Corporate Director and Honorary Trustee was Walter Rothschild. Other directors included Daniel Davison of JP Morgan Chase, Richard Tucker of Exxon Mobil, Daniel Roberts of Citigroup and Marshall Schwartz of Morgan Stanley. [2]...
Pinks Slips Coming For 450,000 State and Local Government Employees in 2012 - SHTFplan.com - Mac Salvo - May 26, 2011 - In June of 2010 we noted that well known financial sector analyst and the woman who blew the doors open on the 2008 mortgage crisis, Meredith Whitney, was forecasting that two million government employees would see their jobs cut over coming years because of fiscal problems.... It’s happening.... Over 300,000 jobs have been cut in fiscal year 2011, and that number is about to increase 50% going into 2012:
War Zones: As The Economy Dies, Murders, Shootings, Robberies And Looting Erupt All Over America - Before It's news - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - As the U.S. economy falls apart and millions of Americans descend into despair we are seeing some really shocking things start to happen all over America. The mainstream media keeps telling us that crime is under control, but they are also the ones that keep telling us that we are in the midst of an "economic recovery". Unfortunately, the truth is that the economy is slowly dying. Today, an all-time record 44 million Americans are on food stamps. That number is 18 million higher than it was just four years ago. When people can't get jobs and when people feel deprived they get desperate. The incidents that you are about to see and read about below are very disturbing. Many American communities are rapidly turning into war zones. Sadly, it is mostly young people that are involved in the crimes and the violence that are now sweeping America.... Yesterday, I wrote an article entitled "18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons", and there were some readers that objected to the article because they said that the youth of today are so wild that if you don't use extreme measures they will just be completely out of control.... John Adams, the second president of the United States, once made the following statement: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.".... Today, we have an incredibly wicked and immoral government that is governing a population that cannot even agree on what "right and wrong" are anymore.
John Williams of ShadowStats.com - May 31, 2011
Why housing is in a depression - Commentary: New data says the double dip is even worse than the 1930s - Marketwatch - Brett Arends - June 1, 2011 - And the Case-Shiller data masks huge variations in housing markets. Prices have collapsed many suburbs, exurbs, rural areas, and in well-known disaster sites like Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Meanwhile the declines have been much milder in places like Manhattan or Boston. Some high-end real estate is actually selling well. The buyers have money... Is there a silver lining to this? Well, maybe... If you can get the financing, housing is now cheap. Really cheap. Capital Economics reckons housing is now 24% undervalued, and is the cheapest it’s been in thirty-five years... With mortgages rates on the floor, and inflation surely brewing down the road, housing in many parts of the country looks like a good deal. But you’ll have to be patient to see the biggest rewards. Capital Economics says, back in the Depression, it took 19 years for house prices to recover to their previous peaks.
Dreaded Double-Dip Is Here - Greg Hunter - USA Watchdog - June 1, 2011 - Another one of my favorite people to quote is economist John Williams of Shadowstats.com. He has been warning about a sinking economy for months and has been saying any good news is nothing more than “bottom bouncing.” In his most recent report, Williams said, “Most major economic reports in April disappointed consensus expectations and either were flat or negative for the month—including real retail sales, industrial production, housing starts and durable goods orders. Where first-quarter GDP growth slowed versus the fourth-quarter, the stage is set for the GDP to turn negative, again, sometime in the next two quarters, reflecting what would become an official double-dip recession.” Housing has been an unqualified disaster with housing starts and new home sales off 75% from the 2005 peak. Existing home sales are off nearly 30%, and of the homes that are sold, nearly 40% are foreclosures. Four in 10 homes sold as distressed properties do not signal a healthy economy—just the opposite... So, where are we headed? Well, all this bad news is going to push the Fed to print more money to keep the banks from going under. QE2 is supposed to end June 30, but the consensus of experts I quoted said it won’t be long before there is QE3. It will be either overt or covert, but it will be instituted. A double-dip in housing could start a daisy chain of very bad news for the big banks exposed to derivatives and residential real estate. (I wrote about this a few months back. Click here for the complete original post.) Williams agrees, and in his latest report he said, “The Federal Reserve is a private corporation owned by commercial banks or banking interests. The Fed’s primary job is not to generate sustainable economic growth, nor to contain inflation, but rather to keep the banking system sound and healthy. Accordingly QE1 and QE2 likely were targeted primarily at addressing systemic solvency issues, with the Fed using the weak economy as cover. As the systemic solvency crisis continues and/or intensifies, an overt or covert QE3 likely will be in place by third-quarter 2011, under the cover of a deteriorating economy. The broad inflation and economic outlooks discussed in Hyperinflation Special Report (2011) continue unabated.”... Williams thinks there is going to be a “great collapse” between now and 2014. Yes, the dollar and the entire financial system could go down in a giant hyper-inflationary ball of fire. The buying power of the buck will be completely wiped out. Please keep in mind, more than $12 trillion in liquid assets are held outside of the U.S. A stampede out of the dollar could trigger a hyperinflationary event at any time. At the very least, count on increasing inflation in everything but housing.
Half of Last Month's New Jobs Came from a Single Employer — McDonald's - The Weekly Standard - Mark Hemingway - Jun 3, 2011 - According to the unemployment data released this morning, the economy added only 54,000 jobs, pushing the unemployment rate up to 9.1 percent. However, this report from MarketWatch suggests the data is much worse than that.... McDonald’s ran a big hiring day on April 19 — after the Labor Department’s April survey for the payrolls report was conducted — in which 62,000 jobs were added. That’s not a net number, of course, and seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000. The Labor Department won’t detail an exact McDonald’s figure — they won’t identify any company they survey — but there will be data in the report to give a rough estimate.... If Morgan Stanley is correct, about half of last month's job growth came from the venerable fast-food chain. That is hardly the sign of a healthy economy.
Offshoring has Destroyed the US Economy - Nobel Economist Michael Spence Says Globalism Is Costly For Americans - GlobalResearch.ca - by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts - May 31, 2011 - These are discouraging times, but once in a blue moon a bit of hope appears. I am pleased to report on the bit of hope delivered in March of 2011 by Michael Spence, a Nobel prize-winning economist, assisted by Sandile Hlatshwayo, a researcher at New York University. The two economists have taken a careful empirical look at jobs offshoring and concluded that it has ruined the income and employment prospects for most Americans... All of this was over the heads of “free trade” ideologues, who threw accusations such as “protectionist” at Sir James, Roger Milliken, Herman Daly, Ralph Gomory, Charles McMillion, and myself. These “free trade” ideologues are economically incompetent. They do not know that the justification for free trade is based on the principle of comparative advantage, which means that a country specializes in those economic activities in which it performs best and trades for those goods that other countries do best. Instead, the ideologues think that free trade means the freedom of capital to seek absolute advantage abroad in lowest factor cost. In other words, the free trade incompetents have never read David Ricardo, who formalized the case for free trade... Other economists, especially those high profile ones in high profile academic institutions, were bought and paid for. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28189.htm In exchange for grants from offshoring corporations these hirelings invented “the New Economy,” in which everyone would prosper as a result of getting rid of “dirty fingernail jobs.” The New Economy wouldn’t make anything, but it would lead the world in innovation and in financing what others did make. The “new economists” were not sufficiently bright to realize that if a country didn’t make anything, it couldn’t innovate... To find a Nobel prize-winner documenting the high cost of globalism to developed economies is extraordinary. For the Council on Foreign Relations to publish it suggests that the Establishment, or some part of it, suspects that its hubris has run away with its fortunes, and that different thinking is needed to restore the US economy.
The Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families - Global Research - Dean Henderson - June 1, 2011 - The Four Horsemen of Banking (Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo) own the Four Horsemen of Oil (Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP and Chevron Texaco); in tandem with Deutsche Bank, BNP, Barclays and other European old money behemoths. But their monopoly over the global economy does not end at the edge of the oil patch... According to company 10K filings to the SEC, the Four Horsemen of Banking are among the top ten stock holders of virtually every Fortune 500 corporation.[1]... So who then are the stockholders in these money center banks?... This information is guarded much more closely. My queries to bank regulatory agencies regarding stock ownership in the top 25 US bank holding companies were given Freedom of Information Act status, before being denied on “national security” grounds. This is rather ironic, since many of the bank’s stockholders reside in Europe.... One important repository for the wealth of the global oligarchy that owns these bank holding companies is US Trust Corporation - founded in 1853 and now owned by Bank of America. A recent US Trust Corporate Director and Honorary Trustee was Walter Rothschild. Other directors included Daniel Davison of JP Morgan Chase, Richard Tucker of Exxon Mobil, Daniel Roberts of Citigroup and Marshall Schwartz of Morgan Stanley. [2]...
Pinks Slips Coming For 450,000 State and Local Government Employees in 2012 - SHTFplan.com - Mac Salvo - May 26, 2011 - In June of 2010 we noted that well known financial sector analyst and the woman who blew the doors open on the 2008 mortgage crisis, Meredith Whitney, was forecasting that two million government employees would see their jobs cut over coming years because of fiscal problems.... It’s happening.... Over 300,000 jobs have been cut in fiscal year 2011, and that number is about to increase 50% going into 2012:
War Zones: As The Economy Dies, Murders, Shootings, Robberies And Looting Erupt All Over America - Before It's news - Wednesday, June 01, 2011 - As the U.S. economy falls apart and millions of Americans descend into despair we are seeing some really shocking things start to happen all over America. The mainstream media keeps telling us that crime is under control, but they are also the ones that keep telling us that we are in the midst of an "economic recovery". Unfortunately, the truth is that the economy is slowly dying. Today, an all-time record 44 million Americans are on food stamps. That number is 18 million higher than it was just four years ago. When people can't get jobs and when people feel deprived they get desperate. The incidents that you are about to see and read about below are very disturbing. Many American communities are rapidly turning into war zones. Sadly, it is mostly young people that are involved in the crimes and the violence that are now sweeping America.... Yesterday, I wrote an article entitled "18 Signs That Life In U.S. Public Schools Is Now Essentially Equivalent To Life In U.S. Prisons", and there were some readers that objected to the article because they said that the youth of today are so wild that if you don't use extreme measures they will just be completely out of control.... John Adams, the second president of the United States, once made the following statement: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.".... Today, we have an incredibly wicked and immoral government that is governing a population that cannot even agree on what "right and wrong" are anymore.
John Williams of ShadowStats.com - May 31, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
The 800 lb. Gorilla - Increasing Jobs = Leveling the Global Playing Field
We can push all of the notions in the world about a service oriented creative economy, but if we don't get consumers back, then we won't grow the economy again. What does it take to grow consumption? People have to have money. How do people get money? As the EF Hutton commercial used to state, "They EEAARRNN IT!!!"
How do they earn it. The average person earns money through labor (a job), We have so debased our real job market, that it is no longer functioning properly. The National average real wage (Based on the Consumer Price Index) has not risen in almost two generations and I will bet you that it has actually fallen "substantially" in our area over that same time.
Below is an excellent article that I have read today that shows ten signs that we are in a free fall and I mean free fall in our economy.
10 Worrying Signs Obviously Missed During Tuesday's Market Rally - http://seekingalpha.com/article/272761-10-worrying-signs-obviously-missed-during-tuesday-s-market-rally?source=email_macro_view
Yes, call me an alarmist. Somebody has to be. But look at the real news. Turn off the TV and get on your computer and use the search engine. It will give you a completely different perspective than the pablum.
How do they earn it. The average person earns money through labor (a job), We have so debased our real job market, that it is no longer functioning properly. The National average real wage (Based on the Consumer Price Index) has not risen in almost two generations and I will bet you that it has actually fallen "substantially" in our area over that same time.
Below is an excellent article that I have read today that shows ten signs that we are in a free fall and I mean free fall in our economy.
10 Worrying Signs Obviously Missed During Tuesday's Market Rally - http://seekingalpha.com/article/272761-10-worrying-signs-obviously-missed-during-tuesday-s-market-rally?source=email_macro_view
Yes, call me an alarmist. Somebody has to be. But look at the real news. Turn off the TV and get on your computer and use the search engine. It will give you a completely different perspective than the pablum.
...According to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller price index the National Index fell 4.2% over the first quarter alone, and is down 5.1% compared to its year-ago level. This means housing prices have now fallen by more than they did during the Great Depression. It also means the housing market is not recovering anytime soon and declines seem to be accelerating.
...Tax revenues were 14.9 percent of G.D.P. in both 2009, and 2010. This is substantially less than the 18.5% postwar average. This means the economy is still struggling and one of key ways to slow the deficit is sorely lagging.
...The Financial Times bureau chief, Jamil Anderlini, came out with a piece showing how the growth in the Chinese property market is not sustainable. Given that some estimates show China now consumes up to 50 percent of key global commodities and materials such as cement, iron ore, steel and coal and Chinese real estate is the main driver of that demand; the bursting of this bubble or even a significant slowdown will have worldwide ramifications.
... May Consumer Confidence fell to 60.8. Estimates were for a reading of 66.3. Chicago PMI (The National outlook for Purchasing Manager's Index) was released and showed a reading of 56.3. This was much lower than the expected projection of 63. The previous reading was 67.3. This seems to show a decelerating rate of economic growth, confirming 2nd QTR GDP estimates probably need to come down further.
On the China Outlook -- Three worrying signs from China. Massive drought has caused food prices to rise a reported 20% this month in Shanghai. Chinese authorities also allowed energy producers to bump prices in some regions as the country is facing the worst energy shortages in a decade. Finally, land prices, which are already down 20% for the year, could fall further as Chinese developers may be forced to write down assets.
What do you think China consuming up to 50 percent of key global commodities and materials such as cement, iron ore, steel and coal means? If you carry that out what will it mean for us? Competition for Global Natural Resources is going to cause the prices of commodities to sky rocket. And the Fed printing all of this money is only going to exacerbate that!!!
At a time when we need to be searching for stability, our national leaders are creating instability! We need to demand that they seek stability!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Kumbaya my Lord -- Ohhhh Noooo!!!
Horror for US Economy as Data Falls off Cliff - CNBC - Wednesday, Jun 1, 2011 - Patrick Allen
From the Drudge Report:
Dow tumbles 280 points...
Private Sector Jobs Grew By Only 38,000 in May...
Planned Layoffs Up...
Manufacturing Slows...
The Hound: Where did you read this information first. The admitted double dip has begun. It is really a full-fledged Depression that they can't paper over anymore. It will be further pushed over the upcoming months. The answer will be to raise the debt ceiling, compromise on cuts that would, most likely never, be instituted down the road, and monetize more debt pushing us closer and closer to the reality of hyperinflation.
Do not trust these people. Think about what their agenda is. What are they trying to nudge us towards. They want to monetize more debt to pad their crony pockets before the ultimate crisis begins. Will the Gullible American public wake up to this?
Those who constantly keep pushing the notion that the economy is improving look like idiots at this point. How long have they been touting this line? How long have they been wrong? And mostly how long are the willing dupes of the public going to listen to the "Powers That Shouldn't Be" sing Kumbaya with their eyes closed and their fingers firmly entrenched in their ears. It is way past time to start cleaning house folks. Way past time!!!
P.S. After manipulation and consolidation Silver will be heading back up and way beyond here soon.
The last month has been a horror show for the U.S. economy, with economic data falling off a cliff, according to Mike Riddell, a fund manager at M&G Investments in London.
"It seems that almost every bit of data about the health of the US economy has disappointed expectations recently," said Riddell, in a note sent to CNBC on Wednesday.
"US house prices have fallen by more than 5 percent year on year, pending home sales have collapsed and existing home sales disappointed, the trend of improving jobless claims has arrested, first quarter GDP wasn’t revised upwards by the 0.4 percent forecast, durables goods orders shrank, manufacturing surveys from Philadelphia Fed, Richmond Fed and Chicago Fed were all very disappointing."
From the Drudge Report:
Dow tumbles 280 points...
Private Sector Jobs Grew By Only 38,000 in May...
Planned Layoffs Up...
Manufacturing Slows...
The Hound: Where did you read this information first. The admitted double dip has begun. It is really a full-fledged Depression that they can't paper over anymore. It will be further pushed over the upcoming months. The answer will be to raise the debt ceiling, compromise on cuts that would, most likely never, be instituted down the road, and monetize more debt pushing us closer and closer to the reality of hyperinflation.
Do not trust these people. Think about what their agenda is. What are they trying to nudge us towards. They want to monetize more debt to pad their crony pockets before the ultimate crisis begins. Will the Gullible American public wake up to this?
Those who constantly keep pushing the notion that the economy is improving look like idiots at this point. How long have they been touting this line? How long have they been wrong? And mostly how long are the willing dupes of the public going to listen to the "Powers That Shouldn't Be" sing Kumbaya with their eyes closed and their fingers firmly entrenched in their ears. It is way past time to start cleaning house folks. Way past time!!!
P.S. After manipulation and consolidation Silver will be heading back up and way beyond here soon.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
In North Carolina, Elected Officials are owned by the Telecoms
The next time that you wonder why your Telephone Bill or Cable Bill keeps rising and yet the technology isn't moving forward and you can't get the service you desire, then go look at your elected representatives in Raleigh and on the local level. Look at the Republicans who talk about how competition will solve all economic ills, but don't practice what they preach!. The problem is that they want to qualify who is to compete and who isn't worthy. They want to decide who is allowed to compete against whom. They want to protect their buddies who pad their pockets with campaign contributions and various other perks. If you have a better way of providing technology and service you will have to go through your elected representatives first.
Great Article in the Raleigh News and Observer on Friday May 20th that lays it all out in black and white. Every community in this state is facing this issue of representatives stuck in the stone age when it comes to technology and who haven't a clue that they are holding our State back, because this is an infrastructure and economic development issue and when has this State put that at its forefront?
In the article, Perdue criticizes, but won't veto, municipal broadband limits, our Obama coat tail ridin', down home Gubna Bev, "criticized a bill that restricts municipalities from building and operating broadband Internet systems, but said she would not use her veto power to block it." This bill was pushed through from our State sanctioned Cable and Telephone monopolies. The Governor wants her cake and to eat it too.
As the article states:
At least some of the communities in this state had leadership with enough brainpower to understand that there needs to be checks and balances placed on these telecommunications companies. It is not competition, just because they are crossing over on some services. I have Directv and the bill went up 4 years ago when these same forces cried that I wasn't paying my fair share of taxes to level the North Carolina Government mafia field. I think that is BS, since I'm not using publiv infrastructure to receive my signal.
Look what the beloved slush fund giants Time-Warner has done to buy off our elected officials and god knows who else in this state, because they don't want to upgrade broadband technology at more than their chosen pace of a snail:
And I'm sure that Charter has been playing this game too.
Look at this article that shows that North Carolina has 7 of the top 10 worst cities in the United States as far as cost of Megabits per Second of Broadband Download speed. these numbers show that the citizens of this state are getting gouged because of the relationship between these Telecom Providers and our so-called representatives. In North Carolina, we can see who they represent. when we are paying 5 to 10 times what other communities are paying for data communications:
Bandwidth.com Launches a Better Broadband Map
Can't you see that this is outrageous and this is a very important issue that we can't continue to keep falling behind on. We are supposed to be trying to move this area and this State forward in a new economy that requires expanded information capacities that can help in creative processes, instead we have a bunch of elected officials that don't have a clue about what this means to our economic development.
First of all they are out and out getting bought off as the Time-Warner numbers above plainly show and secondly this Don Quixote pseudologic about Private Business competing against Government is laughably ludicrous. These are out-and-out monopolies for gosh sake. I think it shows once again that the politicians will do all that they can to protect cronies over the interest of the public they always fail to represent. This is an issue worthy of going to the mat to get these people out of office over.
Mark Hilton, Mark Hollo, and Mitchell Setzer voted to keep Catawba County in the Stone ages when it comes to broadband services by helping to approve this bill to stifle competition and maintain the status quo for the local telecom companies in our area. Where is the incentive for these companies to improve their service? Where is the competition? The above numbers don't lie folks. We are paying cable bills, phone bills, and data communication bills at a higher rate than most of the nation, because our representation is not looking out for our interests. They give us no alternative. If you want the internet, then you pay the price, There will be no competition!!!
Great Article in the Raleigh News and Observer on Friday May 20th that lays it all out in black and white. Every community in this state is facing this issue of representatives stuck in the stone age when it comes to technology and who haven't a clue that they are holding our State back, because this is an infrastructure and economic development issue and when has this State put that at its forefront?
In the article, Perdue criticizes, but won't veto, municipal broadband limits, our Obama coat tail ridin', down home Gubna Bev, "criticized a bill that restricts municipalities from building and operating broadband Internet systems, but said she would not use her veto power to block it." This bill was pushed through from our State sanctioned Cable and Telephone monopolies. The Governor wants her cake and to eat it too.
As the article states:
The governor said there is a need to establish rules to prevent cities and towns from having unfair advantage over private companies. But she said she was concerned that the bill would decrease the number of choices available to consumers.
The bill would require towns and cities that set up broadband systems to hold public hearings, financially separate their operations from the rest of government operations, and bar from them offering below cost services. They also couldn't borrow money for the project without voter approval in a referendum.
The five cities now offer the service – Wilson, Salisbury, Morganton, Davidson, and Mooresville – would be largely exempt.
At least some of the communities in this state had leadership with enough brainpower to understand that there needs to be checks and balances placed on these telecommunications companies. It is not competition, just because they are crossing over on some services. I have Directv and the bill went up 4 years ago when these same forces cried that I wasn't paying my fair share of taxes to level the North Carolina Government mafia field. I think that is BS, since I'm not using publiv infrastructure to receive my signal.
Look what the beloved slush fund giants Time-Warner has done to buy off our elected officials and god knows who else in this state, because they don't want to upgrade broadband technology at more than their chosen pace of a snail:
Time-Warner Cable, which has been pushing for the legislation since 2005, has argued that it ought not to face competition from tax-paid sources.
Time-Warner's political action committee has contributed at least $214,000 to state candidates since 2008, most of them state legislative candidates, according to state campaign finance records.
It contributed $3,000 to Perdue's gubernatorial campaign in 2008. Time-Warner also contributed $10,000 to the Democratic Governor's Association fund raising event that Perdue hosted last April at the Umstead Hotel.
And I'm sure that Charter has been playing this game too.
Look at this article that shows that North Carolina has 7 of the top 10 worst cities in the United States as far as cost of Megabits per Second of Broadband Download speed. these numbers show that the citizens of this state are getting gouged because of the relationship between these Telecom Providers and our so-called representatives. In North Carolina, we can see who they represent. when we are paying 5 to 10 times what other communities are paying for data communications:
Bandwidth.com Launches a Better Broadband Map
Can't you see that this is outrageous and this is a very important issue that we can't continue to keep falling behind on. We are supposed to be trying to move this area and this State forward in a new economy that requires expanded information capacities that can help in creative processes, instead we have a bunch of elected officials that don't have a clue about what this means to our economic development.
First of all they are out and out getting bought off as the Time-Warner numbers above plainly show and secondly this Don Quixote pseudologic about Private Business competing against Government is laughably ludicrous. These are out-and-out monopolies for gosh sake. I think it shows once again that the politicians will do all that they can to protect cronies over the interest of the public they always fail to represent. This is an issue worthy of going to the mat to get these people out of office over.
Mark Hilton, Mark Hollo, and Mitchell Setzer voted to keep Catawba County in the Stone ages when it comes to broadband services by helping to approve this bill to stifle competition and maintain the status quo for the local telecom companies in our area. Where is the incentive for these companies to improve their service? Where is the competition? The above numbers don't lie folks. We are paying cable bills, phone bills, and data communication bills at a higher rate than most of the nation, because our representation is not looking out for our interests. They give us no alternative. If you want the internet, then you pay the price, There will be no competition!!!
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Congressman McHenry, The Hickory Daily Record, and Petty Political Articles
I've lived long enough that I fear nothing and yet around me I see people who surround me who shiver in their boots about everything, whether it is real or not. Remember that nobody is getting out of this place alive. When you cower in the face of death, you empower those who create the fear of death. I'm not saying that I am suicidal. I'd love to live to be an old man, but not with the boot of authority stomping me in the face as in George Orwell's book "1984."
I am not here to provide sunshine and lollipops. I am one person that has been constantly stomped on by the system my entire life. I would be lying if I said that it didn't make me angry, but I use that anger as a constructive force. My grandmother always said to me that this is a mean world and at 44 years old I know what she means.
I have been working on this stuff going into the fifth year pretty soon and it is causing me anxiety. I have suffered from panic attacks in the past to the point where they were nearly debilitating. For physical reasons, I probably need to slow down on the output of this blog because sometimes I dream about where we are headed and it isn't good folks.
The people who read this blog care. I truly believe that. But lets get down to it. There are so many losers out here that the tide of idiots and lackies can be overwhelming. I am being consumed, because there are people that are so closed minded that they think that the message that I am preaching is way out there only because they are ill-informed. And I wonder if the people who understand the message and what I express, even have the guts to support me and inform people they know and create the chain that needs to be created.
I'm reading some of the Hickory Daily Record's latest articles and I am sorry, but I am truly ashamed of what they purport to be news. I'll be frank. I don't like some of Congressman Patrick McHenry's ties to the Megabanks and the donations they have given him. I am not even going to qualify that statement or give him excuses, because as I told the Congressman, we can't fix our economy until we stop Financial Institutions such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan-Chase from doing what they are doing. I want these banks to be reined in, but the Hickory Daily Record doesn't have a freaking clue about any of the paramount issues that we face related to banking.
They have made it an issue to go after the Congressman over two issues of so little merit, that it is an embarrassment to even bring them up. First, there was the issue of Congressman McHenry stating in Politico that in the upcoming redistricting that there would be another minority ward and that there would be more Republican districts because of the census and the way that the state is politically proportioned.
Here is the Link to the article - Race politics hit North Carolina redistricting. The HDR's stand on this issue is nonsensical. What Patrick McHenry states in that article is straight forward, which I honestly find to be refreshing. To claim that he is somehow being racially insensitive is beyond ridiculous. You look at the numbers and look at the statistics and tell me where he is wrong.
Then this weekend they put out an editorial in which they went after Congressman McHenry for having an "argument" with Elizabeth Warren who serves as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is basically another Czar that was created last year and her position is to snoop into your personal bank records and guess what folks, she works for the Treasury Department under Tax-in-Thief Tim Geithner whose Treasury Department has been usurped by the Federal Reserve and the New York banking cartel (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citi, BofA, Wells Fargo). A position that "had" to be created, because the banks have borrowed (stolen) trillions of taxpayer dollars from the public treasury, which caused this economic debacle we are presently in.
Mrs. Warren was up to her eyeballs in the administration of TARP. What he is trying to question her about is the unfettered power she has been given in this newly created position. Like other Obama administration officials, she believes she is above congressional inquiry. She is trying to run out the clock and leave. She doesn't want to answer the questions.
The Record construes this to be a squabble. I believe that it was a disagreement and it may have been caused by a misunderstanding, but who thinks that Bureaucratic Officials aren't late to meetings all the time and don't have to rearrange schedules all the time.
And The HDR, then goes on to point to Facebook and Twitter accounts that have been inundated by supporters of Mrs. Warren. Well whoopty-do. There are organizations that look to pounce on situations like this all the time. It happens with organizations that associate with groups from all sectors of the political spectrum. George Soros has several groups that are dedicated to these e-mail/message board bombs and Newt Gingrich's American Solutions organization does this same thing.
Then, they go into a diatribe about Congressman McHenry being rude. Watch the video below of the incident. Is he really being what anyone would term rude? Then they question McHenry's statesmanship, by stating that "public discourse has degenerated into vitriolic he-said, she-said. This episode added more fuel to that fire." And thus inferring that our Congressional Representative was in some way over the top in requesting that Mrs. Warren finish out her Congressional testimony, which would have only taken ten more minutes. I guess he can be faulted for not addressing her as "You imminence" or "Your Highness."
The Hound thinks that what we need to do in this nation is lose all of this subservient patronage of elected officials and bureaucrats. These people aren't smarter than us or better than us. The problem in this country is that we don't have too much debate. It is that we have too little. The problem is that in the end all we are seeing is political games and very little substance, very little passion, very little principle, and basically no leadership.
The problem that we have is that our local newspaper doesn't even give issues that are happening in our own community more than a gloss over and most of the people of the community don't seem to care about important issues any way. The HDR website is (by far, no comparison)the worst news website I have ever come across. They have destroyed the ability to obtain their news under a fair electronic marketplace, because they want to pigeon-hole people into buying the paper edition and are scared of the electronic business model. That is a very bad move for the future of their viability.
As far as content (or lack thereof), I know of a Conflict of Interest story that would directly show how local elected officials throw kinks into regulatory governance that directly effects their personal interests. The Hickory Daily Record had this story laid in their lap several months ago and it has done nothing but collect dust. And the people behind this story want our local paper to step up to the plate this time, but it seems the HDR would rather run a story (the McHenry stories)that they obviously haven't really researched. I don't even think they have seen the video of the incident and they just pieced together the story from the New York Times and Washington Post's website.
I have no problem with Congressman McHenry on any of these issues. I also have seen him ask some very tough questions related to TARP and the other bailouts that have happened over the last two years. Can we say the same about the Hickory Daily Record? Can we ask why they only go after Congressman McHenry and we barely hear a peep about our other local and State officials?
Where is their editorial about the Ridgeview and George Ivey Pools? Where is their editorial about the overzealousness of local officials going after Drinking Establishments and their permits and licenses? What about the mismanagement of our local airport? Where is their editorial related to conflicts of interest happening related to zoning and code enforcement issues?
There is plenty to talk about with the local Hickory Metro scene, but little time or space is ever devoted to the local issues that truly impact our lives. Does Congressman McHenry's disagreement about scheduling with Mrs. Warren really have an impact on our lives here in Hickory? I think not. Does the Record's abandonment of the current local issues of the day have an impact on our lives? I most certainly think so.
I am not here to provide sunshine and lollipops. I am one person that has been constantly stomped on by the system my entire life. I would be lying if I said that it didn't make me angry, but I use that anger as a constructive force. My grandmother always said to me that this is a mean world and at 44 years old I know what she means.
I have been working on this stuff going into the fifth year pretty soon and it is causing me anxiety. I have suffered from panic attacks in the past to the point where they were nearly debilitating. For physical reasons, I probably need to slow down on the output of this blog because sometimes I dream about where we are headed and it isn't good folks.
The people who read this blog care. I truly believe that. But lets get down to it. There are so many losers out here that the tide of idiots and lackies can be overwhelming. I am being consumed, because there are people that are so closed minded that they think that the message that I am preaching is way out there only because they are ill-informed. And I wonder if the people who understand the message and what I express, even have the guts to support me and inform people they know and create the chain that needs to be created.
I'm reading some of the Hickory Daily Record's latest articles and I am sorry, but I am truly ashamed of what they purport to be news. I'll be frank. I don't like some of Congressman Patrick McHenry's ties to the Megabanks and the donations they have given him. I am not even going to qualify that statement or give him excuses, because as I told the Congressman, we can't fix our economy until we stop Financial Institutions such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan-Chase from doing what they are doing. I want these banks to be reined in, but the Hickory Daily Record doesn't have a freaking clue about any of the paramount issues that we face related to banking.
They have made it an issue to go after the Congressman over two issues of so little merit, that it is an embarrassment to even bring them up. First, there was the issue of Congressman McHenry stating in Politico that in the upcoming redistricting that there would be another minority ward and that there would be more Republican districts because of the census and the way that the state is politically proportioned.
Here is the Link to the article - Race politics hit North Carolina redistricting. The HDR's stand on this issue is nonsensical. What Patrick McHenry states in that article is straight forward, which I honestly find to be refreshing. To claim that he is somehow being racially insensitive is beyond ridiculous. You look at the numbers and look at the statistics and tell me where he is wrong.
Then this weekend they put out an editorial in which they went after Congressman McHenry for having an "argument" with Elizabeth Warren who serves as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is basically another Czar that was created last year and her position is to snoop into your personal bank records and guess what folks, she works for the Treasury Department under Tax-in-Thief Tim Geithner whose Treasury Department has been usurped by the Federal Reserve and the New York banking cartel (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citi, BofA, Wells Fargo). A position that "had" to be created, because the banks have borrowed (stolen) trillions of taxpayer dollars from the public treasury, which caused this economic debacle we are presently in.
Mrs. Warren was up to her eyeballs in the administration of TARP. What he is trying to question her about is the unfettered power she has been given in this newly created position. Like other Obama administration officials, she believes she is above congressional inquiry. She is trying to run out the clock and leave. She doesn't want to answer the questions.
The Record construes this to be a squabble. I believe that it was a disagreement and it may have been caused by a misunderstanding, but who thinks that Bureaucratic Officials aren't late to meetings all the time and don't have to rearrange schedules all the time.
And The HDR, then goes on to point to Facebook and Twitter accounts that have been inundated by supporters of Mrs. Warren. Well whoopty-do. There are organizations that look to pounce on situations like this all the time. It happens with organizations that associate with groups from all sectors of the political spectrum. George Soros has several groups that are dedicated to these e-mail/message board bombs and Newt Gingrich's American Solutions organization does this same thing.
Then, they go into a diatribe about Congressman McHenry being rude. Watch the video below of the incident. Is he really being what anyone would term rude? Then they question McHenry's statesmanship, by stating that "public discourse has degenerated into vitriolic he-said, she-said. This episode added more fuel to that fire." And thus inferring that our Congressional Representative was in some way over the top in requesting that Mrs. Warren finish out her Congressional testimony, which would have only taken ten more minutes. I guess he can be faulted for not addressing her as "You imminence" or "Your Highness."
The Hound thinks that what we need to do in this nation is lose all of this subservient patronage of elected officials and bureaucrats. These people aren't smarter than us or better than us. The problem in this country is that we don't have too much debate. It is that we have too little. The problem is that in the end all we are seeing is political games and very little substance, very little passion, very little principle, and basically no leadership.
The problem that we have is that our local newspaper doesn't even give issues that are happening in our own community more than a gloss over and most of the people of the community don't seem to care about important issues any way. The HDR website is (by far, no comparison)the worst news website I have ever come across. They have destroyed the ability to obtain their news under a fair electronic marketplace, because they want to pigeon-hole people into buying the paper edition and are scared of the electronic business model. That is a very bad move for the future of their viability.
As far as content (or lack thereof), I know of a Conflict of Interest story that would directly show how local elected officials throw kinks into regulatory governance that directly effects their personal interests. The Hickory Daily Record had this story laid in their lap several months ago and it has done nothing but collect dust. And the people behind this story want our local paper to step up to the plate this time, but it seems the HDR would rather run a story (the McHenry stories)that they obviously haven't really researched. I don't even think they have seen the video of the incident and they just pieced together the story from the New York Times and Washington Post's website.
I have no problem with Congressman McHenry on any of these issues. I also have seen him ask some very tough questions related to TARP and the other bailouts that have happened over the last two years. Can we say the same about the Hickory Daily Record? Can we ask why they only go after Congressman McHenry and we barely hear a peep about our other local and State officials?
Where is their editorial about the Ridgeview and George Ivey Pools? Where is their editorial about the overzealousness of local officials going after Drinking Establishments and their permits and licenses? What about the mismanagement of our local airport? Where is their editorial related to conflicts of interest happening related to zoning and code enforcement issues?
There is plenty to talk about with the local Hickory Metro scene, but little time or space is ever devoted to the local issues that truly impact our lives. Does Congressman McHenry's disagreement about scheduling with Mrs. Warren really have an impact on our lives here in Hickory? I think not. Does the Record's abandonment of the current local issues of the day have an impact on our lives? I most certainly think so.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- May 29, 2011
There’s a Secret Patriot Act, Senator Says - Wired - Spencer Ackerman - May 25, 2011 - “We’re getting to a gap between what the public thinks the law says and what the American government secretly thinks the law says,” Wyden told Danger Room in an interview in his Senate office. “When you’ve got that kind of a gap, you’re going to have a problem on your hands.”... What exactly does Wyden mean by that? As a member of the intelligence committee, he laments that he can’t precisely explain without disclosing classified information. But one component of the Patriot Act in particular gives him immense pause: the so-called “business-records provision,” which empowers the FBI to get businesses, medical offices, banks and other organizations to turn over any “tangible things” it deems relevant to a security investigation... “It is fair to say that the business-records provision is a part of the Patriot Act that I am extremely interested in reforming,” Wyden says. “I know a fair amount about how it’s interpreted, and I am going to keep pushing, as I have, to get more information about how the Patriot Act is being interpreted declassified. I think the public has a right to public debate about it.”
Restricting the Movement of You and Your Money - American Free Press.net - Keith Hansen - Last year’s legislation punished Americans—many of whom had sought a more stable financial environment for their money than existed in the U.S. amid a wave of bank failures—by obligating foreign banks to disclose the full details of non-exempt bank accounts to the Internal Revenue Service... These measures were implemented ostensibly to prevent terrorists and drug lords from moving and laundering money. But their chilling effect successfully froze Americans, who were ready to move their assets to foreign banks. The government’s implied message was clear: Your money isn’t going anywhere... Now the State Department has jumped into the restriction game. Last month it revealed a new application process for granting passports—which, by the way, will be needed for travel to Canada and Mexico—that in some cases is impossible to provide.
Subpoenaed Documents Show Goldman Sachs Offered to 'Tear Up' AIG Derivatives Contracts at 'Right Price' Before NY Fed Took Over Negotiations - DailyBail - May 26, 2011 - AIG has said they were negotiating "tear-ups" with counterparties at 50 cents on the dollar before the NY Fed told them to 'stand down' in negotiations with counterparties. 'Stand down' was the exact language from emails unearthed last week by Hugh Son of Bloomberg... Goldman openly admits that they were willing to tear up contracts with AIG for the 'right price,' as you will see below... But Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told Angelides and the FCIC panel last week that they were 'never asked' by the the New York Fed negotiators, working on behalf of AIG, to accept any haircut, or less than 100 cents on the dollar... The only logical conclusion is the following -- somebody's lying... Either New York Fed officials lied to investigators and reporters when they said that they had worked for a week to extract haircuts from AIG counterparties. OR Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was lying when he testified under oath that haircuts were never proposed by NY Fed negotiators.
Frank recommended partner for housing agency - Boston Globe - Donovan Slack - May 27, 2011 - Representative Barney Frank, who for more than two decades has been a member of the House committee charged with oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, acknowledged yesterday that he recommended his live-in companion for a job at one of the housing agencies in the early 1990s at the same time Congress was writing legislation to improve oversight of the agency... Frank also said problems with subprime mortgages at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not occur until the early 2000s, long after Moses left the job at Fannie Mae in 1998, the year Frank and Moses split up... “I think what it was, was an example of the type of favors that Fannie Mae was happy to provide,’’ she said. Morgenson also reported in the book that Fannie Mae made sizable grants — $25,000 in 1994 and $50,000 in 2001 — to a Boston organization cofounded by Frank’s late mother and twice gave the group an award for its work in providing housing for the elderly. Frank said yesterday in an interview with the Globe that the grants to the organization, the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, did not influence his duties.
The brittle financial American middle class – 50 percent of Americans would be in financial trouble if $2,000 of expenses came up in 30 days. By 2020 the world’s richest households will control $202 trillion in wealth, 4 times current global GDP. - MyBudget360.com - This economic recovery has excluded working and middle class Americans which begs the question, what really defines a financial recovery? In past and distant recoveries the economic gains were widely distributed amongst all Americans. Most realize that income gains will never be equal simply because in a market based economy those with certain desirable skills will be rewarded more than others. Yet in the last decade the banking sector has co-opted the government to turn it into a welfare state for the large banks. Desirable qualities are now replaced by predator diseased qualities of ripping off the taxpayer for bad market based bets. That is why recent data showing that nearly 50 percent of Americans are unable to come up with $2,000 in 30 days if an emergency came up is startling. $2,000 for most is the basic monthly expenses on food, home, and other little items. So half our country is living one paycheck away from financial collapse. 44,000,000 Americans are living with food assistance from the government already. Keep in mind the recovery has been going on now for close to two full years. According to the NBER the recession was over in June of 2009. The fact that $2,000 is enough to bankrupt half of American households tells you about the new state of our economic recovery.
Stubborn Jobless Claims Still Keep On Climbing Higher - CNBC/Reuters - May 26, 2011 - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed to 424,000 last week from a revised 414,000 in the prior week, pointing to a painfully slow improvement in the nation's job markets... Last week marked the seventh straight week in which claims topped the 400,000 level, indicating that payroll growth is soft and may continue to be so for some time. A department official said there were no exceptional factors to account for the rise in last week's claims.
Global Economic Rebound Weakens on Quake, Oil Price, European Debt Crisis - Bloomberg - Simon Kennedy - May 27, 2011 - Data this week backed that outlook as reports showed Chinese manufacturing expanding at the slowest pace in 10 months, orders for U.S. durable goods dropping the most since October and confidence among European executive and consumers sliding for the third straight month... Oil prices reached a 31-month high of $114.83 on May 2 as the war in Libya cut supply. Goldman Sachs this week raised its forecast for Brent crude at the end of 2012 to $140 a barrel from $120, suggesting the price’s path will be 20 percent higher than anticipated at the start of the year. That’s enough to shave 0.5 percentage point from U.S. growth over two years and a little less in other wealthy nations... The global economy’s change in tone is reflected in some company announcements. Chicago-based Boeing Co. (BA), the world’s largest aerospace company, said it received two orders last month compared with 98 in March. Hermes International SCA, the Paris-based maker of Birkin handbags, said on May 11 that its forecast for 2011 is “clouded by geopolitical and economic uncertainties.”
More Confirmation Of The Economic Slowdown - Comstock Partners Inc. - May 26, 2011 - First quarter revised GDP growth was not revised upward as the consensus expected, but remained at the originally reported 1.8%. Moreover the underlying data deteriorated as consumer spending growth was revised down to 2.2% from 2.7% and inventory accumulation was revised up by $9 billion. Furthermore, major firms have been reducing their second quarter GDP growth estimates to well below 3%. Recall that toward the end of 2010 most pundits were looking for 4% growth in the quarters ahead... The May numbers for both the Richmond and Kansas City Fed indexes fell sharply, confirming the previously reported results for the Philly Fed and the Empire State Manufacturing Survey. This strong unanimity strongly suggests that industrial production is still extremely sluggish in May.... Keep in mind that this has happened during a period where QE2 poured reserves into the financial system, the stock market rallied and fiscal policy was boosted by the reduction in payroll withholding. With all of that, we have an economy that is growing below trend and fading rapidly. Now QE2 is ending within weeks, fiscal policy is about to tighten and housing prices are still falling with lots of additional supply still coming.
Less banger for your buck: The Memorial Day BBQ will cost you 29% more this year thanks to inflation - UK Daily mail Online - May 26, 2011 - Those thinking of hosting a BBQ - even a modest one - can expect to fork out an extra $45 on food to serve a dozen guests... The total cost comes to $199, or around 29 per cent more than last year... and that's before soda and alcohol, according to the latest data for metro New York... Lettuce has sky-rocketed 28 per cent since last year's traditional BBQ, while an ear of sweet corn is now 50 cents, up from 20 cents last year... Ground beef is up 12.1 per cent on last year and sausages are up 6.2 per cent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics... And don't even think about potato salad. The apple of the ground is up 13.4 per cent... Ice cream is up 5.1 per cent, beer up 2.4 per cent and coffee has increased by 13.8 per cent nationwide.
20 Questions To Ask Anyone Foolish Enough To Believe The Economic Crisis Is Over - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com - Unfortunately, the truth is that the economic crisis is far from over. In 2010, more homes were repossessed than ever before, more Americans were on food stamps than ever before and a smaller percentage of American men had jobs than ever before. The reality is that the United States is an economic basket case and all of these natural disasters certainly are not helping things. The Federal Reserve has been printing gigantic piles of money and the U.S. government has been borrowing and spending cash at a dizzying pace in an all-out effort to stabilize things... #20 If the U.S. national debt (more than 14 trillion dollars) was reduced to a stack of 5 dollar bills, it would reach three quarters of the way to the moon. The U.S. government borrows about 168 million dollars every single hour. If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days. So how in the world can our politicians tell us that everything is going to be okay?
Restricting the Movement of You and Your Money - American Free Press.net - Keith Hansen - Last year’s legislation punished Americans—many of whom had sought a more stable financial environment for their money than existed in the U.S. amid a wave of bank failures—by obligating foreign banks to disclose the full details of non-exempt bank accounts to the Internal Revenue Service... These measures were implemented ostensibly to prevent terrorists and drug lords from moving and laundering money. But their chilling effect successfully froze Americans, who were ready to move their assets to foreign banks. The government’s implied message was clear: Your money isn’t going anywhere... Now the State Department has jumped into the restriction game. Last month it revealed a new application process for granting passports—which, by the way, will be needed for travel to Canada and Mexico—that in some cases is impossible to provide.
Subpoenaed Documents Show Goldman Sachs Offered to 'Tear Up' AIG Derivatives Contracts at 'Right Price' Before NY Fed Took Over Negotiations - DailyBail - May 26, 2011 - AIG has said they were negotiating "tear-ups" with counterparties at 50 cents on the dollar before the NY Fed told them to 'stand down' in negotiations with counterparties. 'Stand down' was the exact language from emails unearthed last week by Hugh Son of Bloomberg... Goldman openly admits that they were willing to tear up contracts with AIG for the 'right price,' as you will see below... But Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told Angelides and the FCIC panel last week that they were 'never asked' by the the New York Fed negotiators, working on behalf of AIG, to accept any haircut, or less than 100 cents on the dollar... The only logical conclusion is the following -- somebody's lying... Either New York Fed officials lied to investigators and reporters when they said that they had worked for a week to extract haircuts from AIG counterparties. OR Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was lying when he testified under oath that haircuts were never proposed by NY Fed negotiators.
Frank recommended partner for housing agency - Boston Globe - Donovan Slack - May 27, 2011 - Representative Barney Frank, who for more than two decades has been a member of the House committee charged with oversight of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, acknowledged yesterday that he recommended his live-in companion for a job at one of the housing agencies in the early 1990s at the same time Congress was writing legislation to improve oversight of the agency... Frank also said problems with subprime mortgages at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not occur until the early 2000s, long after Moses left the job at Fannie Mae in 1998, the year Frank and Moses split up... “I think what it was, was an example of the type of favors that Fannie Mae was happy to provide,’’ she said. Morgenson also reported in the book that Fannie Mae made sizable grants — $25,000 in 1994 and $50,000 in 2001 — to a Boston organization cofounded by Frank’s late mother and twice gave the group an award for its work in providing housing for the elderly. Frank said yesterday in an interview with the Globe that the grants to the organization, the Committee to End Elder Homelessness, did not influence his duties.
The brittle financial American middle class – 50 percent of Americans would be in financial trouble if $2,000 of expenses came up in 30 days. By 2020 the world’s richest households will control $202 trillion in wealth, 4 times current global GDP. - MyBudget360.com - This economic recovery has excluded working and middle class Americans which begs the question, what really defines a financial recovery? In past and distant recoveries the economic gains were widely distributed amongst all Americans. Most realize that income gains will never be equal simply because in a market based economy those with certain desirable skills will be rewarded more than others. Yet in the last decade the banking sector has co-opted the government to turn it into a welfare state for the large banks. Desirable qualities are now replaced by predator diseased qualities of ripping off the taxpayer for bad market based bets. That is why recent data showing that nearly 50 percent of Americans are unable to come up with $2,000 in 30 days if an emergency came up is startling. $2,000 for most is the basic monthly expenses on food, home, and other little items. So half our country is living one paycheck away from financial collapse. 44,000,000 Americans are living with food assistance from the government already. Keep in mind the recovery has been going on now for close to two full years. According to the NBER the recession was over in June of 2009. The fact that $2,000 is enough to bankrupt half of American households tells you about the new state of our economic recovery.
Stubborn Jobless Claims Still Keep On Climbing Higher - CNBC/Reuters - May 26, 2011 - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed to 424,000 last week from a revised 414,000 in the prior week, pointing to a painfully slow improvement in the nation's job markets... Last week marked the seventh straight week in which claims topped the 400,000 level, indicating that payroll growth is soft and may continue to be so for some time. A department official said there were no exceptional factors to account for the rise in last week's claims.
Global Economic Rebound Weakens on Quake, Oil Price, European Debt Crisis - Bloomberg - Simon Kennedy - May 27, 2011 - Data this week backed that outlook as reports showed Chinese manufacturing expanding at the slowest pace in 10 months, orders for U.S. durable goods dropping the most since October and confidence among European executive and consumers sliding for the third straight month... Oil prices reached a 31-month high of $114.83 on May 2 as the war in Libya cut supply. Goldman Sachs this week raised its forecast for Brent crude at the end of 2012 to $140 a barrel from $120, suggesting the price’s path will be 20 percent higher than anticipated at the start of the year. That’s enough to shave 0.5 percentage point from U.S. growth over two years and a little less in other wealthy nations... The global economy’s change in tone is reflected in some company announcements. Chicago-based Boeing Co. (BA), the world’s largest aerospace company, said it received two orders last month compared with 98 in March. Hermes International SCA, the Paris-based maker of Birkin handbags, said on May 11 that its forecast for 2011 is “clouded by geopolitical and economic uncertainties.”
More Confirmation Of The Economic Slowdown - Comstock Partners Inc. - May 26, 2011 - First quarter revised GDP growth was not revised upward as the consensus expected, but remained at the originally reported 1.8%. Moreover the underlying data deteriorated as consumer spending growth was revised down to 2.2% from 2.7% and inventory accumulation was revised up by $9 billion. Furthermore, major firms have been reducing their second quarter GDP growth estimates to well below 3%. Recall that toward the end of 2010 most pundits were looking for 4% growth in the quarters ahead... The May numbers for both the Richmond and Kansas City Fed indexes fell sharply, confirming the previously reported results for the Philly Fed and the Empire State Manufacturing Survey. This strong unanimity strongly suggests that industrial production is still extremely sluggish in May.... Keep in mind that this has happened during a period where QE2 poured reserves into the financial system, the stock market rallied and fiscal policy was boosted by the reduction in payroll withholding. With all of that, we have an economy that is growing below trend and fading rapidly. Now QE2 is ending within weeks, fiscal policy is about to tighten and housing prices are still falling with lots of additional supply still coming.
Less banger for your buck: The Memorial Day BBQ will cost you 29% more this year thanks to inflation - UK Daily mail Online - May 26, 2011 - Those thinking of hosting a BBQ - even a modest one - can expect to fork out an extra $45 on food to serve a dozen guests... The total cost comes to $199, or around 29 per cent more than last year... and that's before soda and alcohol, according to the latest data for metro New York... Lettuce has sky-rocketed 28 per cent since last year's traditional BBQ, while an ear of sweet corn is now 50 cents, up from 20 cents last year... Ground beef is up 12.1 per cent on last year and sausages are up 6.2 per cent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics... And don't even think about potato salad. The apple of the ground is up 13.4 per cent... Ice cream is up 5.1 per cent, beer up 2.4 per cent and coffee has increased by 13.8 per cent nationwide.
20 Questions To Ask Anyone Foolish Enough To Believe The Economic Crisis Is Over - TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com - Unfortunately, the truth is that the economic crisis is far from over. In 2010, more homes were repossessed than ever before, more Americans were on food stamps than ever before and a smaller percentage of American men had jobs than ever before. The reality is that the United States is an economic basket case and all of these natural disasters certainly are not helping things. The Federal Reserve has been printing gigantic piles of money and the U.S. government has been borrowing and spending cash at a dizzying pace in an all-out effort to stabilize things... #20 If the U.S. national debt (more than 14 trillion dollars) was reduced to a stack of 5 dollar bills, it would reach three quarters of the way to the moon. The U.S. government borrows about 168 million dollars every single hour. If Bill Gates gave every penny of his fortune to the U.S. government, it would only cover the U.S. budget deficit for 15 days. So how in the world can our politicians tell us that everything is going to be okay?
How NAFTA KILLED Mexico and US!!!!!!!!!!!
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