Civilian Labor Force lowest in nearly 21 years

The Civilian Labor Force, here in Catawba County, is down to 73,081 people. That is down from 73,315 the month before. That means that 234 fewer people are in the workforce this month. That is a 3/10 of one percent reduction in the Labor force over the previous month (234/73,315).

The last time that we had fewer people in the Catawba County workforce was in September of 1992, when we had 73,033 in the local workforce. And remember in February 2001 that we had 82,245 in the workforce. We have lost over 11% of our workforce in the last 12 years (82,245-73081/82,245).

 Link to the data: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NCCATA5LFN?cid=29272

The media is looking at U-3 numbers and telling you that Unemployment fell to 10.1% from 10.8% the previous month. 3/10 of a percent of that number is explained by people dropping out of the Labor Force and I believe that the rest of that reduction comes from the arbitrary "Seasonal Adjustments." The U-3 numbers may even fall below 10% in the near future, but until one looks at the reality of the U-6 numbers and the ever shrinking workforce numbers, then one will not grasp the true nature of the local employment picture -- it is at best stuck in a rut. Since July 2008, the local Catawba County workforce has shrunk by nearly 5,000 people (77,976 - 73,081= 4,895) and the trend shows that number growing substantially for the foreseeable future.

U-3 Unemployment numbers in Catawba County:
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NCCATA5URN?cid=29272

These are the real numbers as they should be presented and represented. And please as always!

Inspiring Spaces photos from Open House on 4/18/2012

You can blow up the photos and look at the details by clicking on the pictures and clicking CTRL+ to the desired scale or saving the pictures and using a program such as Photoshop.. I did not reduce the image quality. The photos had themes of Greenways, Bikeways,Blueways, Parks, Gateways, Special Places, Streetscapes, This should give an idea of the proposed development for those who could not make the Open House Event.

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- April 28, 2013

Volkswagen layoffs (500) in Chattanooga marked by surprise, regret - timesfreepress.com - Mike Pare - April 19th, 2013 - Jason Hamilton, a contract worker at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant for the past 20 months, said Thursday he had quit a higher-paying job so he could assemble cars at the factory.                   "I thought it was going to be a better opportunity," said Hamilton, who learned he is one of about 500 VW plant employees being laid off.                  The automaker told contract employees supplied by Aerotek that it is cutting 15 percent of the workforce. VW uses the staffing agency to screen, hire and provide temporary production jobs in the plant.                 VW executives blamed slower-than-expected growth in Passat sales and said they're doing away with a third production shift at the factory.                "We had too high expectations," said Frank Fischer, who heads VW in Chattanooga.                  The layoffs are set to start at the end of May.                      Fischer said the Passat exceeded sales targets for eight to 12 months after the factory started assembly in 2011. A little more than a year ago, plant officials said they planned to add 800 employees to keep up with demand for the Passat.                He said that projecting sales and production is "always like looking in a crystal ball."                   Still, he said, the company expects 2013 Passat sales to exceed last year's by about 5 percent. The company sold more than 117,000 Chattanooga-made Passats last year, and it set an all-time record for the vehicle in the U.S. The plant produced 150,000 cars in 2012.                   But, Fischer said, officials saw a trend of slowing growth in Passat sales late in 2012 and tried to avoid layoffs by reducing the number of production days.                    In the end, though, it wasn't enough.                     "We were very hesitant to lay off anyone," he said. But, "we have to adjust."


America The Fallen: 24 Signs That Our Once Proud Cities Are Turning Into Poverty-Stricken Hellholes - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael - April 23rd, 2013 - What is happening to you America?  Once upon a time, the United States was a place where free enterprise thrived and the greatest cities that the world had ever seen sprouted up from coast to coast.  Good jobs were plentiful and a manufacturing boom helped fuel the rise of the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the planet.  Cities such as Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore were all teeming with economic activity and the rest of the globe looked on our economic miracle with a mixture of wonder and envy.  But now look at us.  Our once proud cities are being transformed into poverty-stricken hellholes.  Did you know that the city of Detroit once actually had the highest per-capita income in the United States?  Looking at Detroit today, it is hard to imagine that it was once one of the most prosperous cities in the world.  In fact, as you will read about later in this article, tourists now travel to Detroit from all over the globe just to see the ruins of Detroit.  Sadly, the exact same thing that is happening to Detroit is happening to cities all over America.  Detroit is just ahead of the curve.  We are in the midst of a long-term economic collapse that is eating away at us like cancer, and things are going to get a lot worse than this.  So if you still live in a prosperous area of the country, don't laugh at what is happening to others.  What is happening to them will be coming to your area soon enough.                The following are 24 signs that our once proud cities are turning into poverty-stricken hellholes...


America: #1 In Fear, Stress, Anger, Divorce, Obesity, Anti-Depressants, Etc. - The Economic Collapse Blog - Michael, on April 22nd, 2013 - The United States is a deeply unhappy place.  We are a nation that is absolutely consumed by fear, stress, anger and depression.  It isn't just our economy that is falling apart - the very fabric of society is starting to come apart at the seams and it is because of what is happening to us on the inside.  The facts and statistics that I am going to share with you in this article are quite startling.  They are clear evidence that America is a nation that is an advanced state of decline.  We are overwhelmed by fear, stress and anxiety, and much of the time the ways that we choose to deal with those emotions lead to some very self-destructive behaviors.  Americans have experienced a standard of living far beyond the wildest dreams of most societies throughout human history, and yet we are an absolutely miserable people.  Why is this?  Why is America #1 in so many negative categories?  Why are we constantly looking for ways to escape the pain of our own lives?  Why are our families falling apart?  There is vast material wealth all around us.  So why can't we be happy?                  Just look around you.  Are most of the people around you teeming with happiness and joy?  Sadly, the truth is that most Americans are terribly stressed out.  Yeah, many of them may be able to manage to come up with a smile when they greet you, but most of the time they are consumed by internal struggles that are eating away at them like cancer.                    So why is this happening?  Is modern life structured in a way that is fundamentally unhealthy?                Below I have posted a short excerpt from a message that one of Charles Hugh Smith's readers named Kenneth Daigle recently sent to him.  I think that it does a good job of describing the incredible stress that many people contend with on a daily basis...


Doctor: 'I gave up on health care in America' - CNN Money - Parija Kavilanz - April 26, 2013 - ...   "Primary care is highly respected here. That's not the case anymore in America," said Snyder. "In the United States, health care has become more about the business of making money. The personal side of medicine is going away."                     In fact, Snyder said he wouldn't be surprised if more primary care doctors in the U.S. look for opportunities elsewhere. His own contract expires at the end of June but he's renewing it for another two years..


Rich got richer during the recovery, and rest got poorer, study says - Life Inc. on Today - Allison Linn - April 24, 2013 - The nation’s richest American households generally gained wealth during the first two years of the economic recovery, a new research report finds, while most American households saw their net worth drop.                The report, released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center, found that the mean net worth for the 7 percent of American households at the top of the wealth distribution rose by 28 percent between 2009 and 2011, the most recent data available.                    Meanwhile, the mean net worth for the other 93 percent of American households fell by 4 percent during that period, according to Pew’s analysis of Census data.           Overall, the aggregate net worth for all American households rose between 2009 and 2011. But Pew’s more detailed analysis showed that the gains were concentrated among the wealthiest Americans, and the wealth gap increased during that time.


Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever - The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix - Rolling Stone - Matt Taibbi - APRIL 25, 2013 -
Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.               You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t") worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history – MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."                           That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.                Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget.                       It should surprise no one that among the players implicated in this scheme to fix the prices of interest-rate swaps are the same megabanks – including Barclays, UBS, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland – that serve on the Libor panel that sets global interest rates. In fact, in recent years many of these banks have already paid multimillion-dollar settlements for anti-competitive manipulation of one form or another (in addition to Libor, some were caught up in an anti-competitive scheme, detailed in Rolling Stone last year, to rig municipal-debt service auctions). Though the jumble of financial acronyms sounds like gibberish to the layperson, the fact that there may now be price-fixing scandals involving both Libor and ISDAfix suggests a single, giant mushrooming conspiracy of collusion and price-fixing hovering under the ostensibly competitive veneer of Wall Street culture....


JPMorgan Accounts For 99.3% Of The COMEX Gold Sales In The Last Three Months - Zero Hedge - Tyler Durden - April 26, 2013 - Submitted by Mark McHugh from Across The Street  - Jamie Dimon Has Issues - When just one firm accounts for 99.3% of the physical gold sales at the COMEX in the last three months it’s not what most of us on this side of the rainbow would consider “broad-based” selling.  Of course discovering this kind of relevant information requires an internet connection, 2nd grade math and reading skills, and the desire to do a teeny-weeny bit of reporting.  Sadly they’ve wandered so far down the rabbit hole that the concept of “physical demand” (i.e. people actually wanting to take possession of the stuff) is puzzling to them because the vast majority of the world’s so-called “gold-trading” takes place in the realm of make believe (which is their natural habitat).  It’s all fun and games until somebody loses their metal and “somebody” has lost one hell of a lot of metal in the last 90 days.                        This is the CME Group’s COMEX metals issues and stops year-to-date report, which can be found here everyday for free.  It chronicles the physical delivery notices of various metals, including gold.  Let’s have a look:

AMERIKA

 AMERIKA

AMERIKA

CEG seeks answers from the City of Hickory in relation to Rebecca Inglefield vs. Hickory Inc.

Rebecca Inglefield gets deferred prosecution with No Admission of Guilt

No Admission of Guilt. Prohibited from Whitener Building for one year. And has to do 24 hours of community service.

The City tried to force her to admit guilt and wanted her disbarred as an Attorney in North Carolina.

More to come including statements from the Inglefields and the Citizens for Equity in Government.

Rebecca Inglefield Trial Tomorrow Morning at 9am - (4/25/2013)

Attorney Rebecca Inglefield's trial vs Hickory Inc. will be in the morning at 9am in Hickory District Court Room A. Rebecca's supporters will be gathering at 8:30am at the Courthouse. We'd like for you to be there if you can.

Statement by Rebecca Inglefield about her arrest at City Hall - September 13, 2012

They gonna Arrest you!!!

Rebecca Inglefield had the audacity to follow the rules!!!

Newsletter about the City Council meeting of May 1, 2012 -- Rebecca Inglefield requests items F & G be removed from the Agenda

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- April 21, 2013

10 Signs The Takedown Of Paper Gold Has Unleashed An Unprecedented Global Run On Physical Gold And Silver - Economic Collapse Blog - Michael - April 18th, 2013 - The crash of the price of paper gold on Monday has unleashed an unprecedented global frenzy to buy physical gold and silver.  All over the planet, people are recognizing that this is a unique opportunity to be able to acquire large amounts of gold and silver at a bargain price.  So precious metals dealers now find themselves being overwhelmed with orders in the United States, in Canada, in Europe and over in Asia.  Will this massive run on physical gold and silver soon lead to widespread shortages of those metals?  Instead of frightening people away from gold and silver, the takedown of paper gold seems to have had just the opposite effect.  People just can't seem to get enough physical gold and silver right now.  Those that wish that they had gotten into gold when it was less than $1400 an ounce are able to do so now, and it is absolutely insane that silver is sitting at about $23 an ounce.  If the big banks continue to play games with the price of gold, we are going to see existing supplies of physical gold and silver dry up very quickly.  And once reports of physical shortages of gold and silver become widespread, it is going to absolutely rock the financial world.  But this is what happens when you manipulate free markets - it often has unintended consequences far beyond anything that you ever imagined.                         The following are 10 signs that the takedown of paper gold has unleashed an unprecedented global run on physical gold and silver...

History Tells Us That A Gold Crash + An Oil Crash - Guaranteed Recession - Michael - April 17th, 2013
 


eBay Starts Massive Push Against Sales Tax - CNBC - April 21, 2013 - EBay Chief Executive John Donahoe began emailing millions of users of the company's online marketplace on Sunday in an unprecedented lobbying effort to change looming Federal sales tax legislation.                        The e-commerce giant plans to send emails from Donahoe to at least 40 million eBay users, including most sellers on the marketplace. The first messages were sent out Sunday morning.                    In the emails, Donahoe said the legislation, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act, unfairly burdens small online merchants and asked eBay users to send an email message to members of Congress asking for changes.                     The legislation, due to be voted on by the Senate in coming days, gives states the power to compel retailers outside their borders to collect online sales tax. Currently, states can only require merchants with a physical presence within their borders to collect.                    The legislation includes an exemption for merchants that generate less than $1 million in annual out-of-state revenue.                  Donahoe argued in the emails that merchants with less than $10 million in annual out-of-state sales, or fewer than 50 employees, should be exempt. Reuters viewed copies of the emails.                        In emails to eBay sellers, Donahoe singled out Amazon.com, eBay's main rival, which supports the current legislation.                       "This legislation treats you and big multi-billion dollar online retailers - such as Amazon - exactly the same," Donahoe wrote. "Those fighting for this change refuse to acknowledge that the burden on businesses like yours is far greater than for a big national retailer."                       Amazon generates more than $10 million in sales every 90 minutes, giving the world's largest Internet retailer more resources than a typical small merchant to collect sales tax in all states, Donahoe argued....


GM to add four more plants in China by 2015: executive - Reuters through Yahoo - Bernie Woodall and Norihiko Shirouzu - April 20, 2013 - SHANGHAI (Reuters) - General Motors Co (GM.N) will add four new plants in the next three years in China to bring its production capacity to 5 million vehicles a year, the head of GM China said on Saturday at the Shanghai auto show.                 Bob Socia, head of GM China, said that the company and its joint venture partners will invest $11 billion in China by 2016, but did not break out the cost of the new plants.


3 reasons the housing recovery may not last - CNN Money - Les Christie - April 18, 2013 - The housing market has made a big comeback over the past year; home prices have surged some 8% and homebuyers can't seem to buy up properties fast enough.                 But just as quickly as the market is gaining ground, some industry experts worry it will come crashing back to Earth. Here are three reasons the housing market recovery may not last:

1. The housing recovery is being led by investors...
2. The economic recovery is just not strong enough yet...
3. Government cuts will hurt homeowners...


Google Fiber to launch in Provo, Utah - CNN Money - Julianne Pepitone - April 17, 2013 - Google Fiber is branching out yet again. Google's ultra-high-speed network is slated to come to Provo, Utah.                     Google Fiber offers Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, which Google says is 100 times faster than the average American Internet user's service. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) also offers a Fiber TV service that lets customers watch all shows in HD, record up to eight shows at once and store up to 500 hours of HD video in the cloud. Customers can watch across several devices, including cell phones and PCs.                                 The Google-Provo deal isn't finalized quite yet. Google said in a blog post that the company has signed an agreement to buy iProvo, an existing fiber-optic network owned by the city.                         Provo's city council will vote on Google's iProvo purchase next Tuesday. If it's approved, Google said it will "upgrade the network to gigabit technology and finish network construction so that every home along the existing iProvo network would have the opportunity to connect to Google Fiber."                    Assuming that the iProvo purchase passes, Provo will be the third location to get Google Fiber. It will technically be the fourth city to receive access, after Google launched the service last summer in select neighborhoods in Kansas City, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo. Earlier this month, Google announced Fiber is also coming to Austin, Texas.


Intel offers more evidence of PC decline - CNN Money - James O'Toole - April 16, 2013 - In the midst of plunging PC sales, chipmaker Intel is doing its best to remain optimistic.               Intel reported another decline in chip sales for PCs as part of its first-quarter results on Tuesday, with revenue from that business falling 6% compared to a year ago. The news comes just a few days after research firm IDC reported that worldwide PC sales plunged 14% last quarter -- the worst yearly decline since IDC began tracking the data in 1994.               Intel's overall revenue fell 2.5% compared to last year, to $12.6 billion, and its net income dropped 25%, to $2 billion.
The company tried to draw investors' attention toward one of its bright spots: its growing in its data center business, where sales rose nearly 8% from last year, to $2.5 billion. Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) also offered solid guidance for the upcoming quarter. Shares rose slightly in after-hours trading Tuesday.                       Intel's results come as the PC industry continues to struggle against the rise of tablets like Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPad and other mobile devices. Intel and its rivals have tried to innovate their way out of their sales slump, but so far to little avail..


CEOs earn 354 times more than average worker - CNN Money - Jennifer Liberto - April 15, 2013 - Chief executives of the nation's largest companies earned an average of $12.3 million in total pay last year -- 354 times more than a typical American worker, according to the AFL-CIO.                 The average worker made $34,645 last year, according to the group that represents over 50 trade unions.                       Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) CEO Larry Ellison's $96.1 million pay package topped the list, followed by $54.3 million earned by Credit Acceptance Corp (CACC).'s Brett Roberts and Discovery Communications (DISCA) CEO David Zaslav's $50 million, according to the union's pay project.                     The one stand out was Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) CEO Timothy Cook, whose pay dropped to $4.2 million from $376 million in 2011, when his compensation package got a boost from long-term stock awards.                      The dip in Cook's pay was enough to lower the overall average for CEOs of top companies by 5% from 2011.                         Related: 20 top-paid CEOS                   The discrepancy in pay between CEOs and the average worker has skyrocketed over the years, peaking in 2000, when the gap was 525 times. In 1980, CEO pay was 42 times that of the average worker.


Fewer businesses provide health insurance - CNN Money - Jose Pagliery - April 15, 2013 -

Employee health insurance is on the decline, and for small businesses, it's gone from bad to worse.                  The share of small companies providing insurance plummeted from 47% to 38% between the years 2000 and 2011, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.                     The proportion of all companies offering insurance slid from 59% to 52%.                            Annual premiums paid by individuals doubled from $2,490 to $5,081, while family premiums rose even more, from $6,415 to $14,447.                    As a result, fewer companies are offering health insurance, and fewer employees are taking it.                        The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation defined a small business along new health reform guidelines: those with fewer than 50 employees. The organization is a long-time supporter of health care reform.

US desperately hides rising Poverty