North Carolina Congressional Redistricting plan renders Hickory Irrelevant

The redistricting proposed by the North Carolina legislature splits the immediate vicinity around the City of Hickory into three different districts. This area will now be represented by the current 5th District - Virginia Foxx, 10th District -Patrick McHenry, and 11th District - Heath Shuler.

Caldwell County and portions of Burke County will move from the 10th district to the 11th district, about two-thirds of Hickory, but excluding Longview will move to the 5th with Watauga and Alexander. The balance of Catawba County stays in the 10th and will now be associated with Asheville and Gastonia.

Some people have pointed out that this will cause our area to lose political clout. My argument is that we don't have any political clout to begin with. Look at the fact that the local "Formal" media is more interested in mixing articles with advertising in relation to local Professionals and businesses, instead of doing any investigative reporting about what is going on around here in relation to local governance. Has anyone heard anything about this issue on WHKY or in the Hickory Daily Record?

In my conversation with Harry Hipps, related to this issue, he quoted the Ted Turner book, "Lead, Follow, or get out of the way." Hickory's political leadership has proven itself to be all to unwilling to exercise any initiative on anything that would be considered innovative or outside of the box thinking, because that would be considered too risky. Another serious problem is the arrogant attitude of our leadership that seems to feel that the City of Hickory is entitled to be the focal point of the attention of this area through infinity without taking action to express the City's importance. This dissolution of the current electoral paradigm will neuter Hickory as far as being a politically viable cog in the wheel of North Carolina politics; at least for the time being.

We have zero political clout, because we don't stand for anything. We have zero in the way of leadership on the local level politically. Our local political establishment is defined by glad handing and status. Tell me where there is a game plan on getting some things done?

Every time we have a local election people talk about how they don't want it to be too partisan or vitriolic. In my opinion, in Hickory that is the reason why you have that Status Quo, all of one mindset governance and that is the reason why all of this is happening.

The thinkers have a gameplan, but the thinkers aren't in office. Critical Thinkers aren't allowed a seat at the table. They are labeled trouble makers for asking too many questions of the establishment. The people who are in office have to be "Doers" and because of the rules that I set forth above, the leaders aren't going to be challenged and if they aren't going to be challenged, then where is the energy that forces them to do anything going to come from? Where is the accountability going to come from?

Look at the Hickory Daily Record and WHKY, one or both have been expressly given stories that they will not touch. I don't understand the thought process, but empirical evidence shows that they will not report on anything that could shape a political thought process. They will report on murder and mayhem and fluff, but anything that could affect political decisions they will not touch.

Personally that is the reason why I have moved away from writing opinion pieces to the HDR. I am sorry, but I don't look at what they do as being a valid news organization at this point. I beg them to change and become more involved. It is like a colleague has stated that they are usually the only "formal" presence at Hickory City Council meetings, but what have they really discussed? All they seem to do is take the City's information from the meetings and run with it in different blurbs over the week following the meeting. There is no in depth analysis and it leaves the public ignorant of the facts of what is happening in the community.

That is part of the multi-level negligence that I describe above. They have been given the story related to the malfeasance at the airport. They haven't ever talked about the bankruptcy of the operators of the airport. They were given details of interest related to the rental property task force. They will not devote diligence on the issues related to downtown. No one from the HDR showed up to the proceedings of the Hickory By Choice meetings. They barely touched the issue of the redistricting of the wards in the City of Hickory and won't touch ward specific elections with a 10 foot pole. There were factual discrepancies that tilted towards city management in relation to the pool issue.

It surely seems that when someone tries to hold an elected official's feet to the fire in our area, you have one of their buddies toting their water and making excuses for them and they don't have to lift a finger to defend their record. And that is a big problem. The apologists need to stand down and let us have a real election for once, instead of another processional pageant where no one participates, because the fix is in. We need to have a series of real debates and serious dialogue where the people who have the best ideas can get their message out, because from ideas we get action and from action we get things done!!!

What implications will this Congressional Redistricting hold for our area? The goal is what Congressman McHenry pointed out a couple months ago in the Politico article from May 4, 2011 entitled Race politics hit North Carolina redistricting. In this article the Congressman states:

“It’s politically probable that there will be a new minority influence district. … It’s logical based on the demographics of our state,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who has become the point man in Congress for the state’s redistricting.

McHenry and other North Carolina Republicans defend their redistricting efforts, saying the Tar Heel State’s booming population and the surge in Republican voters — not to mention the fact that Democrats drew the current districts — justify a new map that could give the state nine Republicans and four Democrats in Congress.

“Republicans should pick up three seats under any fair and legal map,” McHenry said. “That is huge. No other states in the nation would gain as many Republican seats. This would be in a state that Barack Obama won in 2008 and where we have had a Democratic governor since 1992 — the longest such period in the nation. A 9-4 delegation is pretty good and would attempt to avoid the risk of a bad year for Republicans. Clearly, Reps. Kissell and Miller are serving their final term.”

The swerving of our Congressional district lines serves multiple purposes. It most likely puts a Democrat seat out of the reach of Heath Shuler, because they are going to add Republican strongholds to the 11th district, while taking away Asheville and sacrificing some of the wide two-thirds support that McHenry now receives in the 10th district. Congressman McHenry also remembers that he had a tough go against Daniel Johnson in the City of Hickory in 2008, while he blew him away in the rest of the district. For that reason, I can see why as a strategy he doesn't mind trading in the City of Hickory. It also helps Virginia Foxx maintain the current wide support in the 5th District. Her district seems to be the least affected district in our area with only modifications affecting sparsely populated areas north of Winston-Salem, while allowing her to keep her centrifugal force centered around North Wilkesboro. IIt is also going to most likely spell doom for Larry Kissell, because the heavily Republican area in south Iredell County moves from Congressman McHenry's district to his 9th district. (EDIT: My mistake - Sue Myrick is the 9th District representative and inherits South Iredell from McHenry, while giving up parts of Gaston County, which is McHenry's home county. Kissell inherits parts of Rowan, Davidson, Randolph, and Robeson County, which I presume to be more Republican and loses some constituents to Mel Watt's gerrymandered minority district. Still making it harder for him to be reelected. The results of my hypothesis still don't change.)

The effects on Hickory, I believe, are related to our bad economy here. These Congressional representatives don't want the Hickory Metro's bad economy hindering their personal political efforts; so why not split it up? It can be good for Hickory if we find some leadership, because we would have three advocates for our interest, if we could ever focus on a gameplan. The one thing that I believe is that it essentially renders it nearly impossible for a candidate from the City of Hickory to ever be viable, because Hickory is on the fringes of all three of these districts and its population is split amongst those districts. In general, I believe that most candidates come from the heart of their district or the most populated areas within their district.

There is also the fact that our metropolitan area is taken for granted, because for the most part it automatically supports the Republican candidate. We do not have a valid two party structure in our area. We are the milk cow of North Carolina politics. Two-Thirds of the people here can be counted on to go in and vote straight Republican. I doubt that most of these people can even tell you who they are voting for. If we are going to not even have any expectations, then why shouldn't we be ignored. As the old saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. The only time we have ever squeaked was in relation to the Inter-basin transfer from the Catawba River. We took notice on that issue, but have never chirped on the issues related to the loss of our local industry due to "Free for All" trade and the devastating effects it has had on our area.

So, in the end, we are getting what we deserve. This cannot be good from the standpoint that our Metropolitan area is being sliced and diced by Raleigh and Washington. Essentially they are saying that our metropolitan designation is unfocused, irrelevant, and not politically significant. As my colleagues have stated and I have conveyed in this blog, Inaction is an Action and that is what we are guilty of from the top to the bottom of our area.

Whether people are scared of retaliation or whatever the excuse, the fact is that there isn't much getting done around here. There isn't much movement, much less energy. People are scared to rock the boat and if you don't rock the boat and make waves, then you aren't going to get moving. That is where our problem lies. This is just another in a long list of  issues that can be labeled as "the same ole story, the same ole song and dance, my friends."

The attack on our Liberty

The Reaffirmation of Independence of the United States of America

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Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- July 3, 2011

Biggest Tax Avoiders Win Most Gaming $1 Trillion U.S. Tax Break - Bloomberg - Jesse Drucker - Jun 27, 2011 - Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) has cut its income taxes by $7 billion since 2005 by booking roughly half its worldwide profits at a subsidiary at the foot of the Swiss Alps that employs about 100 people. Now Cisco, the largest maker of networking equipment, wants to save even more -- by asking Congress to waive most federal taxes due when multinationals bring such offshore earnings home. Chief Executive Officer John T. Chambers has led the charge for the tax holiday, which would be the second since 2004. He says it would encourage companies to “repatriate” as much as $1 trillion held abroad, spur domestic investment and create jobs. Cisco’s techniques cut the effective tax rate on its reported international income to about 5 percent since 2008 by moving profits from roughly $20 billion in annual global sales through the Netherlands, Switzerland and Bermuda, according to its records in four countries. The maneuvers, permitted by tax law, show how companies that use such strategies most aggressively would get the biggest benefit from the holiday, said Edward D. Kleinbard, a law professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.


Federal Reserve Secrets and Lies - Greg Hunter - USA Watchdog - June 27, 2011 - The Federal Reserve has been a clandestine organization since its inception. It is not really part of the federal government; it is merely a subcontractor for monetary policy. The Fed is basically a cartel of both U.S. and European banks. It has pulled the levers in the economy from behind a curtain of secrecy since 1913 and has always enjoyed a certain degree of respect and admiration. All that changed when the economy melted down in 2008. The respect and admiration of the Federal Reserve is being shredded right along with its veil of secrecy. The Fed allowed everyone to think the cost of controlling the 2008 financial crash was just a measly $3.3 trillion. This giant lie was exposed after Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont put a provision in last year’s financial reform bill that forced the Fed to come clean on $9 trillion in additional emergency loans and bailout money. The Fed funneled cash to foreign banks and companies right along with American banks and companies. It basically rewarded reckless and illegal behavior of greedy Wall Street bankers that caused the mess we are in now.


US Fed's QE2 stimulus ends with a fizzle - Activist Post - June 30, 2011 - The US Federal Reserve wound up its $600-billion "QE2" program to boost the ailing economy with easy liquidity on Thursday, having generated more controversy than jobs and growth. Without fanfare the US central bank's New York branch paid banks $4.9 billion for US Treasury bonds in the program's last step Thursday morning, as economists and bankers continued to argue its effect. Critics of the Fed's second "quantitative easing" program -- hence QE2 -- say it fueled surging food and fuel prices, pumped up asset bubbles in emerging economies like China and Brazil, and devalued the dollar. Even sympathizers say it didn't have much impact, noting that US employment remains stubbornly high at 9.1 percent and growth remains depressed.


What Accelerated Hyperinflation Looks Like - SHTFplan.com - Mac Slavo - July 1, 2011 
Never having lived through a hyperinflationary currency meltdown makes it difficult to visualize how such an event may unfold. We know from historical examples like the Weimar Republic and Zimbabwe that the end result is wheel barrows full of paper currency being used to buy basic staples like bread and rice. The following chart from the late Howard Katz provides us an example of what the beginnings of a currency meltdown look like, in this case Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation, and how quickly it can devolve into completely financial chaos:

year		rate of increase in prices
1999		56.9%
2000		55.22%
2001		112.1%
2002		198.93%
2003		598.75%
2004		132.75%
2005		585.84%
2006		1,281%
2007		66,212.3%
2008		231,150,888.87% (July)

The Zimbabwe dollar took roughly five years to completely lose the confidence of its people. But because the US dollar is the world’s reserve currency all bets are off in terms of time lines. Given our dependence on debt issuance and foreign investment to cover our expenses, there’s a distinct possibility that shouldn’t be ignored. As James Rawles discussed in his book Patriots and Troy Grice in his book Indivisible, if our foreign creditors pull the plug on lending, the entire monetary system of the United States could collapse in one fell swoop. This is certainly a possibility.

Whatever the triggering mechanism, and however long it takes for the American public and our foreign creditors to lose confidence, the end result will be the same. We often talk about store shelves emptying if and when the dollar becomes worthless,  but another likelihood in such an event would be that store shelves remain fairly well stocked simply because the people have nothing of value to acquire those goods (and eventually, that leads to riots and political collapse).


Can the Fed Stop Quantitative Easing? - Lew Rockwell.com - Paul Craig Roberts - June 29, 2011 - If the Fed stops QE, confidence in the US dollar would rise. Money would flow into US investments, both supporting the US stock market and helping to finance the large US budget deficit. Gold and silver prices would decline. Negative dollar expectations would

be squeezed out of oil and grain prices, although drought, flood, and supply factors would continue to impact grain prices and the administration's wars can impact oil prices.

If a halt to QE coincided with more European sovereign debt problems, the dollar might regain a lot of the ground that it has lost.

Looked at from this perspective, the Fed should halt its bond purchases, and people should bail out of their bullion investments and commodity speculations.

But there are other factors in play – the economy and continuing solvency worries about financial institutions. At a June 22 news conference, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said: "Some of the headwinds that have been concerning us, like the weakness in the financial sector, problems in the housing sector, balance sheet and deleveraging issues, may be stronger and more persistent than we thought."

Despite the fiscal stimulus of the large federal budget deficit and Obama's $700 billion stimulus program, the economy's growth and employment performance is not up to expectations. Indeed, as John Williams says, if inflation were fully measured, the economy's growth could be negative, and if unemployment were correctly reported, the current rate would be over 22%.

An economy this weak offers no support to US-derived corporate profits or to the outlook for financial organizations. US corporations have made large investments abroad in the production of goods and services to sell to US consumers who have neither the income nor borrowing capacity to purchase. People without jobs and those with the low paid jobs provided by domestic service, such as hospital orderlies, bartenders, and waitresses, cannot afford to buy a house even at the depressed current prices. To the extent that financial institutions' books remain filled with real estate paper, the financial crisis is not over.

Moreover, it is unlikely that the Dow Jones average can be sustained without growth in employment and GDP.

Can the Fed afford to sacrifice recovery, employment, and Obama's reelection to save the dollar and price stability? This is the unasked and unanswered question.

Bank Of America Forecloses On Wrong House: Dylan Ratigan With 82 Year-Old Tampa Man Who Returned From Vacation To Find Everything Gone

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Where are the UNC Board of Governors? - (Part 2) - Everybody knows "The Carolina Way"

This is the third article that I am writing on this subject matter. The story is about a collegiate football program and athletic department that has been allowed to perform in a rogue fashion with no expectations of operating on a level playing field via academics and/or amateurism. This is also a story about lots of money, absolute power, and corruption at the highest levels of our State.

The argument is not about the issue of fairness in relation to athletes not being paid for the economic value that they bring to their university. It is about the fact that every University and athlete is expected to perform under the guidelines set forth by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). With those guidelines, there is an expectation of amateurism and their is certainly an expectation; not only with the NCAA, but also with the University of North Carolina system; that all students meet the system's expectations, by doing their own academic work,  to work towards a degree within the system.

Dr. Bill Friday stated in an Interview with WRAL in Raleigh that, “It’s been a difficult time but like good North Carolinians we’ve admitted we’ve made the mistake. Now let's move on.” said Friday.  Last October, in an interview with the same television station, he even went so far as to state that all of college sports needs reform. He has basically admitted UNC-Chapel Hill's guilt all along, but he seems to want to put the punishment/sanction part to the side. In the article above he stated that, "He believes UNC can recover if it deals with the scandal honestly with a goal toward institutional control."

You see the problem is that this former UNC system President seems to believe that UNC deserves the benefit of the doubt. In his mind, pious ethics and the mythical "Carolina Way" are supposed to lend UNC-CH some sort of "Get out of Jail free" card. Is this the same Bill Friday who wanted to condemn NC State's sports program 20 years ago under a lot less conspicuous circumstances? Or the same Bill Friday who just one year ago tried to stop UNC-Charlotte from starting a football program?

What we have seen over the last year has shown that the "Carolina Way" is a fraud. They operate no better than any other program and their prior attitude of condemnation never reflects back on themselves. Now there is the repeated talking point, "Everybody Does It."

The information gleaned so far from this investigation shows UNC-CH's leadership along with its Board of Trustees and the system's Board of Governors care little about performing above board and operating an open investigation. Instead they have all lawyered up and only released information that the court system has forced them to release to the public. To any person paying attention and not drinking the "Cooperation" Kool-Aid, it is obvious to see that there is a lot to hide in all of these stacks of stuff and sooner or later it is all going to come out.

The question begs to be asked; what else has gone on over the years, because UNC-Chapel Hill surely seems to have been afforded this benefit of the doubt and had "The Powers that Be" tote their water for them and help hide things in the closet?

They have avoided scrutiny over the years by creating this false mystique deemed "The Carolina Way." You have heard sport's journalists and broadcasters such as Mike Patrick and Dick Vitale preach to the proletariat about how Carolina is special and about the "Carolina Way." How much momentum did the University gain from such advertising in which they (and their minion) have arrogantly promoted that they do everything above board and the right way and insinuate that everyone else cheats, while many of us have heard stories about their former "Student"-Athletes.

People like Friday and Erskine Bowles tell us that they are cooperating and that we are supposed to sit back and let the investigation play out. They say that we should trust all of these public officials involved in this situation, then we read about the lack of cooperation. We see shenanigans abound through all of this obfuscation and how the media is having to sue to gather public documents. Then when the documents are released and people start fitting the pieces together it doesn't look good and leads to more questions, which they have to go back through the courts to obtain.

Through it all we see new allegations come out periodically that appear to be credible, if not yet proven factual. We also see UNC-CH trying to lay all of the blame on everyone but the University itself. Agents, players, coaches, tutors... Look at John Blake who left the University with a $75,000 severance check. That just does not add up to those of us who live in the real world. What I am led to believe is that all of those who are fostering a notion of forgive and forget are either naive, in denial, or corrupt and maybe it is all three, which would be the definition of stupidity in my book. How about a straight forward Mea Culpa?

Last week UNC-Chapel Hill received its Notice of Allegations from the NCAA. In this 42-page document, they listed nine major infractions that the Football team is accused of. In the Semantic world of NCAA By-Laws, the University was not accused of a Lack of Institutional Control, which to many is the ultimate label of member impropriety, but what we see, and further information that is being discovered shows, is something much worse. What we see is that there has been Controlled Institutional Corruption, which has to be endorsed throughout the University. There is just way too much going on to characterize it all as a coincidence or a misunderstanding.

ESPN released a story under the Associated Press by Heather Dinich entitled UNC receives notice of allegations which details much of the report.

The notice states seven players received more than $27,000 in improper benefits in 2009 and 2010. In addition, the NCAA alleged unethical conduct by former tutor Jennifer Wiley for refusing to cooperate with the investigation and providing about $3,500 worth of extra benefits in travel, parking expenses and free tutoring to players.

The school was also cited for failing to monitor "social media activity" of the team in 2010 as well as the conduct of former player Chris Hawkins. Hawkins was previously connected to trips to Atlanta and Las Vegas made by cornerback Kendric Burney and also paid $1,000 for the jersey of Georgia's A.J. Green -- a transaction that resulted in Green's four-game suspension because the NCAA said Hawkins qualified as an agent. Hawkins had hung around the program and players in recent years but has since been told to stay away.

Here is a good summarization of most of what the University is currently accused of:

• A tutor paying parking fines
• A tutor writing papers for players
• A tutor giving free study sessions
• A tutor paying for a player's airline ticket
• An assistant coach funneling players to a specific agent, for money
• Ignoring information from a student athlete about improper benefits
• $27,097.38 worth of improper benefits to various players
• Failure to monitor the activities of Chris Hawkins, an agent/runner and former UNC player currently accused of distributing Cocaine and awaiting trial on this charge
• Failure to monitor the social networking of players

In that ESPN article, UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorpe admits, "I deeply regret that Carolina is in this position. We made mistakes, and we have to face that. ... We will emerge with a stronger athletics program, and we will restore confidence in Carolina football." Would these "Mistakes" have come to light if Marvin Austin hadn't made those public tweets on Twitter in late Spring of last year and the NCAA hadn't come knocking on the door? The signs that something was awry had been there, but administrators of the University, both inside and outside of the Athletic Department, were obviously neglecting all of those warning signs.

And now we see an article released in Sports Illustrated by Andy Staples dated July 4, 2011 entitled Carolina Blues. Folks, this is the Walter Cronkite on the Vietnam war moment. This is a Tar Heel friendly national publication that is saying that UNC-Chapel Hill should get hammered. The quote from them is one that many of us have understood for more than nine months, but now it has moved past conspiracy theory to generally accepted fact.

Any discussion of the litany of allegations the NCAA hurled at North Carolina last week must begin with these two: The Tar Heels allegedly employed an agent's runner as its associate head coach, and a woman employed by coach Butch Davis to tutor his son provided several players improper assistance. If proven, those violations rank alongside any of the last decade.

(The article ends.) ...Davis and Blake's relationship dates to 1976 when Davis coached Blake at Charles Page High in Sand Springs, Okla. Still, the coach has pleaded ignorance throughout this investigation. Last October, Davis said, "I'm sorry that I trusted John Blake," and the coach maintains that position.

Davis has taken the stance that those who remain ignorant should remain gainfully employed. But even if he somehow keeps his job, he probably won't find it so appealing once the NCAA is finished with the Heels.

The only people who don't seem to understand that the writing is on the wall are the caretakers of our state's University System. I truly believe that the reasoning is related to the fact that the majority of the people on the Board of Governors are Chapel Hill graduates. It is somewhat understandable that the University would try to spin damage control and minimize penalties, but this should be done through real cooperation and they are harming an asset of this state by operating in the manner they have over the last year. It is their fiduciary responsibility to operate in the public's interest and not their own. If they can't separate the two, then they should do the right thing and resign from the board.

None of the findings that have come out have come from the UNC-CH internal investigation. They have come through the NCAA or independent investigations. That should tell you what we are dealing with here. The most egregious, guilty party in this procedural mess is the Board of Governors. It is their responsibility as the overseers of this public asset, that is our University System, that they look out for the integrity of the entire system, not protect their personal interests and/or their cronies in Chapel Hill.

If this were happening in Wilmington (my Alma mater), then I would want all who are involved fired immediately. Instead, we are truly seeing the gang who couldn't shoot straight and as the light is being shed on the scene of the crime, we see all of the damage. I think most of us recognize that it will take years to undo this damage and it is embarrassing and the longer this goes on, the more angry many of us become.

I understand that the Board of Governors slots are politically appointed positions. If they are not willing to clean up the mess in Chapel Hill, sooner rather than later, then can we not get the Governor or the Legislature to do their jobs and make sure that the agencies in our state are operating properly? Over the last decade this State has proven itself to be very corrupt with scandals involving the former Governor, his wife, administrators at NC State University, the DOT, the Department of Agriculture, and we can go on. Isn't it time that we clean the messes up?

There have been a multitude of laws broken here. Many of these improprieties rank as felonies under both State and Federal statutes. I know that this all revolves around a spherical ball, but it also revolves around lots and lots of money and it also revolves around the integrity of a diploma from the oldest institution in our University system and that University system means something to those of us who properly worked towards a degree within that system.

The entire nation can see what has been taking place in Chapel Hill. If Dr. Friday truly wants to put this all behind us, then he should help to route out the corruption at his dear ole Carolina. I have my doubts that anyone will voluntarily do this. So we will continue to drag this out until the very bitter end, because that is where this story is headed and that is how it will end.

Where are the UNC Board of Governors?!?!? - UNC-Chapel Hill athletic scandal - October 1, 2010

State of North Carolina University System -- We've Got a Problem Here!!! - September 18, 2010 

#4 out of 10 - Ten Cities That Will Take A Decade To Recover From The Recession

Wall Street 24/7 - Charles B. Stockdale - June 22, 2011

.... To be sure, parts of the U.S. are recovering. Experts expect the economy to grow an average of 3% in the second half of this year. Thirty metropolitan areas will have reached their pre-recession peaks by the end of 2011. More than half of the nation’s 363 metropolitan areas are expected to return to their employment peaks by 2014 or before. Others are not so lucky.

The IHS report lists 37 metropolitan areas which are not expected to return to peak employment until after 2021. These areas are facing a “Lost Decade.” Some may never fully recover, although it’s probably useless to try to predict what may happen a decade or more from today....

.... Some cities are forced to address problems beyond manufacturing, yet in the end they face the same results. Atlantic City’s gaming industry has lost its previous strength due to increasing competition from neighboring states such as Pennsylvania which have legalized gaming in recent years. Hickory, North Carolina, was once a major center for furniture production. Many jobs there have since been sent overseas, causing textile mills to close down and workers to be laid-off.

The ten American cities discussed in this article were chosen for the large sizes of their workforces and the fact that they are not expected to have recoveries to their pre-recession employment rates until after 2021. They have lost the industries which once made them prosperous and they will probably never get them back....


4. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
- Change in employment 2001-2011: -13.6%
- Population: 365,497
- Unemployment: 11.7%
- Poverty level: 14.4%
- Median income: $40,181

Unemployment in Hickory, NC, soared from 2% to 16% during the recession, according to USA Today. The jobless rate has since decreased to 11.7%, although this is still significantly higher than the national average of 9.1%. The area’s economy is largely based on the production of furniture and fiber optics. Both industries have seen mass layoffs in recent years. According to an article in the Washington Post, “the region has lost more of its jobs to international competition than just about anywhere else in the nation.”

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Report says Hickory area jobs may not recover for a decade -  WBTV - Steve Ohnesorge - June 27, 2011

- A study prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors' annual meeting had a bleak prediction for the unemployment outlook in the Hickory metro area.

It said unemployment levels won't reach pre-recession levels for another decade.

The HIS Global Insight research firm put the hickory metro area near the bottom in the road for recovery nationwide.

"Honestly, it's hard to predict that far out," said Ronnie Grantham, manager of the Employment Security Commission office in Catawba County. "We are actually starting to see some positive things economy-wise around here."...

... As things improve, whenever that is, say officials, they don't expect major growth in the manufacturing sector.

That was the hardest hit by the recession with thousands of jobs lost and people heading back to school to learn new trades.

"Our growth right now has been in the service sector, call centers and things like that," said Grantham.

Some manufacturers are hiring but not in large amounts. Grantham said local economic officials are working to lure new businesses in but admits it is a slow process...
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Report: Local employment to recover by 2014 - Charlotte Observer - Kirsten Valle Pittman & Barbara Barrett - June 21, 2011 - Still, the study predicts the Charlotte region's employment rate will recover by mid-2014.

The Charlotte region will return to its pre-recession employment peak by mid-2014, years before beleaguered metros such as Cleveland, Detroit and Las Vegas, a new report found. But the area still faces a slow climb toward recovery, trailing cities from Raleigh to Dallas to Pittsburgh, according to the study from the IHS Global Insight research firm, prepared for the U.S. Conference of Mayors' annual meeting and released Monday....

Some places, such as Austin, Texas, and Burlington, Vt., have already recovered, and others are expected to rebound several quarters before Charlotte. The report said more than half of the country's metro areas will return to their pre-recession employment peaks by the end of 2014. Despite its struggles, Charlotte is performing better than some areas: Stockton, Calif., for instance, posted one of the highest jobless rates in April, 17.3percent.

Forty-eight metro areas, including Detroit, North Carolina's Hickory region and others pummeled by manufacturing and real estate losses, aren't forecast to reach their pre-recession employment peaks this decade, the report found.

The Charlotte area fared better in other measures of economic health, too, the study found. The area's jobless rate has fallen faster than other metro areas over the past year. And the economy continues to grow: The region's economic output totaled $117.3billion in 2010, up 4percent from the year before and 5percent from 2007, before the recession began, the report found. Metro regions' health is a critical component of the broader economic recovery, the report said. U.S. metro areas contributed nearly 90percent of the nation's economic output and jobs last year.

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The Hound: What this shows me is that the decision makers in our area who want to maintain the status quo, tweak around the edges, and remain separated from Charlotte and do our own thing are hindering our ability to recover.

I would like to see a Regional Economic Partnership Entity that is focused on attracting business to our area, but we have to do this with an eye on a relationship with the other major metropolitan areas in our region, especially Charlotte. As, I have stated since the inception of this blog, one of the main attractions of our area is the geographical location of the Hickory area in relation to the other Metros up and down the Eastern Seaboard. It isn't about the natural scenic beauty of the area, because we aren't going to build a tourist contraption or retirees moving here to wind it down.  The asset of our location is the fact that it is easy to get to and from our area and we can be a natural hub of transportation for larger metropolitan areas, including Charlotte, Atlanta, Greensboro, Columbia, Raleigh, Knoxville, Nashville, Washington, Pittsburgh, and so on.

We also need to work and adapt towards becoming a cog in the Energy Hub that Charlotte is evolving into with Duke Energy, Piedmont gas, and the innovative partnerships springing up as a result of these new concepts and innovation of energy.

The biggest issue is changing the mindset, energy, and focus of many of the people in this community. There is no energy or excitement. There is no sense of urgency. It is all about cutting back and winding down. You cannot build or maintain an economy like that. We don't have a decade to spare. We can't afford to wind down, especially in the dog-eat-dog economic environment we are in today. I know these are words, but to many of us these words mean something.

The only thing that is constant in life is change and people who attempt to maintain and devote extraordinary energy towards a status quo are wasting energy and time that should be devoted towards adaptation to new realities. What SilenceDoGood has stated in some of his commentary related to this area "having to be dragged kicking and screaming" into new realities is spot on in my opinion. That is what has us behind the 8-ball presently.

We have seen some evolution from business leaders who do understand that there is a need to get moving towards a new economic paradigm for the area, but there are many people in key/vital positions who either don't understand what is going on or they are protecting certain interests or constituencies at the expense of much needed progress. These people want to qualify and lay out parameters for competition in the local area; and in the mean time, while they are arguing over peanuts, National and Global interests have taken a sledgehammer to our economic foundation. What does this show? That our community's leaders weren't asking the proper questions or focusing on what the reality was and is. I don't need to repeat myself. I'll just point to links below of in-depth articles from this blog posted 5 months ago, 17 months ago, 29 months ago, 32 months ago, and the genesis of this blog posted nearly 48 months ago in our local newspaper.If you have never read these, then please do. I do not pretend to be a prophet. I am a thinker and the bottom line is that we need to start thinking about where we are headed, where we want to head, and how we are going to get there.

The State Of Hickory - January 2011  

The State of Hickory - January 2010

(The State of) Hickory, North Carolina 2009

The Objectives of the Hickory Hound

An All-American City deserves first-class leadership

Hal Row Show - The Mayor - Hickory Alive - A lack of tolerance for Younger Generations

Once again this morning I listened to the Mayor on Hal Row's show. In one of the last segments, the Mayor spoke of the issue of unattended youth, stating ages 11 to 16, walking up and down the streets of Downtown Hickory during Hickory Alive in a mob. He says that parents need to know where their kids are at on Friday evening and he is very worried that something could happen.




I'll be the first to admit that I do not attend Hickory Alive. I have been up there a few times in recent years on Friday nights to meet people to eat at the Tap Room while Hickory Alive was going on and I wasn't paying full attention to the happenings on the Square, but I did see the crowd of people attending and yes some were unattended youth, but I have also seen this on a much grander scale during Octoberfest.

Now, don't believe that I am arguing for public youth drunkedness, because if you would want to juxtapose me into that position, then you would be very wrong. It is just that I am 44 years old and I am not all things "Senior" like most of the people in this community. That does not mean that I dislike the older generation. It means that I don't center my life around them and I think we need to be more balanced in how we treat the different generations and generational interests of this community. I believe that doing otherwise is socially and economically harmful.

What I am stating is that young people should be given the same benefit of the doubt that older citizens are given. If they break the law, then they should be punished, but they should not be looked at as guilty before hand. Are we supposed to look at our youth as terrorists? Could we not hold the same wary eye towards any citizen that walks on the streets of Hickory?

The one lady during this show stated that they wouldn't allow her to turn her car and that she was scared. If they were just crossing the street, then they do have the right of way. If they physically stopped her from turning her car that is wrong and yes it is the police's responsibility to stop that behavior. It is up to parents to teach right and wrong, but none of us can ever guarantee 100% that the youth is going to always do what they are supposed to do. If that is the onus then we are all screwed. One thing that I know is that you do have to walk in some way to the event. Should these kids be allowed to walk to a Downtown event? Should they be allowed to walk on the streets of Hickory without adult supervision? Have we really come to that?

When I was a kid my mother used to work downtown. I would walk around by myself down there. I used to go to the Carolina Theater and watch movies with my friends unsupervised. I used to walk through my on Union Square and in my neighborhood with my friends ... unsupervised. You may say that this world has changed, and in ways it has, but what has changed more is people's mindset -- the willingness to use fear to control people.

As part of the Future Economy Council our group has studied the issue of Vibrant Downtowns and we have also studied the mass exodus of young people in this community. This is having a deleterious effect on the future prospects of this community. This is lost on the Mayor, the city council, and many of the older citizens in our community. They argue that they want people from every age group in our community, but when has he gone to bat for the young people of this community? Actions speak louder than words. Tearing up swimming pools speaks volumes! I will argue that Hickory is very hostile towards young people, especially teens and twenty-somethings. This youth is where energy comes from and we are losing it folks. We are losing it.

Below is a discussion that we have had related to the issue of vibrant Downtowns. In an article from Wired magazine entitled The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think . Here is a quote from the article:

“As you might expect, smart jobs tend to cluster in cities—but not always the cities you’d imagine. The same forces of urban renewal that relaunched New York and Boston and San Francisco as bastions of livability during the 1990s have now taken hold in smaller municipalities. Even former industrial cities, without a big college or university, are finding that revived downtowns can help keep their most creative young people from moving away.”

In our discussion, I addressed the fact that certain members of the city council want to put an end to alcohol sales on Union Square - no mas Hickory Alive, Hickory Hops, or Octoberfest as we know them today. I agree that a vibrant Downtown is important. I told the group that I am ready to throw the towel in on Hickory. We're up to the 8 count and I am worried about the punch-drunk fighter getting killed (metaphorically speaking of course), because I don't see anyone stepping up to the plate to give an alternative viewpoint to the status quo, "business as usual,""All of one mindset crowd." Hickory's Downtown focuses on Rich Housewives as owners and patrons of businesses. That niche is too small to do what the Wired Magazine article and my fellow FEC members are promoting.

One of my fellow members of the FEC stated that the challenge is striking a balance with the needs of older residents as well. Downtown organizations and cities can play a critical role in facilitating discussions with residents (both young and older) and existing businesses around the appropriate mix of residential units vs. late night establishments; noise;cleanliness; parking; events; and the arts which are a critical component of a vibrant downtown.

To this I responded: that the Oldsters aren't going to have to worry (and they won't) about striking a balance. If we look at the census numbers, there won't be enough people under 45 to make a difference in the governance decision making process in another decade (probably sooner). Most of those who will be of the younger demographic will be Latinos willing to do the Fast Food/Lawn service/House Cleaning jobs on the cheap for the Seniors on fixed incomes.

The bottom line is that let's say you get 55 to 65 year olds to move in here. How much time does that buy us? When they move into the assisted living center or retirement village at age 80 who is going to buy their house? The fast food workers? The Lawn guy? The Cleaning lady? No one has answered that question yet. I have been waiting two years to hear the answer to that one.

Harry Hipps stated: How's this for irony. Hickory City Council has gone out of their way to kill nightclubs and establishments for the younger folk we are talking about here. The reasons always cited are alcohol use and noise. Well Hickory is certainly getting quieter. But as a freshman student recently told me: "there's nothing to do around here so that's why kids just go to each others houses and do drugs." I found out years ago that if there is nothing to attract and entertain younger folks they will either leave, or get drugged up for fun. Some of the most boring, small areas are often a hotbed of drug activity.

By running off entertainment venues we are creating the kind of behavior we don't want and keeping a lot of energetic, enthusiastic young people from locating here. Harry also stated, I don't think it necessarily has to be downtown. Some areas have done well by turning an older, run down street into an arts/culture area. Younger folks will like some of the same things as an older crowd, like paintings, crafts, creative food, etc. but there has to be room for garage bands (most of my older friends aren't too fond of indie rock and other genres favored by the younger set), hip comedians and the like. The location isn't specifically the issue, the cultural offerings are. We have to welcome those who are more tattooed, pierced and dyed than the norm. We all have our preferences, but more of a "live and let live" attitude would be a breath of fresh air.

To this another member of our group responded, "Somehow we need to uncinch a hole or two on the bible belt then. I'll be praying about that, quite literally."

Another member who is a nationally established, prominent creative tech guy had a couple of very good points related to this issue and how it related to other areas that he has lived in that have established creative communities:

"Speaking from a computer graphics perspective, the creatives I have gone to school with and incidentally worked with over the years want similar things wherever they choose to live. Mostly, the freedom to be creative. This is often reflected in their opinions, the clothes they wear, the music they prefer, and their personal and / or recreational preferences, such as frisbee golf, surfing, or playing guitar. None of these things make them undesirable people, but mostly exemplify what makes them creative and different in the first place. The West coast has dominated this attraction to the creative set because of it's ability to accept those who were not like them, as well as attract companies and industries that support the skills that young creatives have.

If you want creative people in industries that make a difference in the global economy, then the infrastructure (not simply technologically) has to be in place to support their lifestyle. That includes what they do for work as creatives, recreational needs, living and work space that is affordable, culture, personal freedoms without discrimination. If they have strange clothes, hair, tattoos, whatever. These things are superficial at best anyway, and have little to no influence over what these individuals can produce as professionals.

In short, open up a bit to the fact that not everyone was raised the same way, and may of these people will have to come from other places to change the place we live. Let's open our doors, minds, and communities and focus on building an environment for creative professions to call home. Plan to recruit and focus on what flowers attract the bees we want!"

And as I responded, "To me it isn't even about diversity. It is about freedom, liberty, and being able to express oneself as a human being. It is more about the individuality that makes us unique. The past factory owners in the community wanted this bred out of the workforce. They didn't want people to think. They wanted people to conform. They wanted people to do simple, repetitive tasks consistently and they didn't want their minds wandering. I think people within our group (the FEC) for the most part are what these Old School Factory Bosses would label as "Dreamers." They didn't want dreamers. Many of these people followed generations of generally accepted behavior within their community's caste/social system. If you were in the family of the people who owned this business and you were a male (for the most part) and one of daddy's favorites, then you ended up in a management position for life and if you were from the family that lived in the mill village, then you would work in the mill."

The Hound: The Mayor, whose sole focus seems to be upon the people of his generation, fully supports conservative ideals, when it comes to finances. For the most part this prudence should be applauded, but the problem is that socially he wants to impose his mindset and will upon others. This is a problem that pervades this community on many levels.

Not everyone wants to live in a Monastery or in a religious compound and this community should be careful not to enforce those ideals on others. It is a sad state of affairs that this type of "thing" is causing many young people to feel that their community is hostile and intolerant towards them. Young people should not be looked upon as though they are terrorists in waiting. All kids want to do is be able to mature, experience, and enjoy life. It may not be the way that certain people in this community choose, but if we don't allow our young people to have the same access to the community as adults, then why would they want to stay here when they become adults?

Without the young people, this community is on borrowed time and I will argue that that is where we are today. Look at the communities that are experiencing better economic growth. Those communities are the ones that are demographically younger. Those are the communities that invest and promote themselves to the younger generations. Our community is doing the exact opposite. Our public and private investment decisions seem to be totally centered around seniors and it seems that local leaders are obsessed with only attracting seniors to move here. As was pointed out to me the other day, many of the seniors who live in our community are living just above Social Security. Senior's money equals government money. This community pushes a notion that the Federal Government is bad and needs to be made smaller. Carry that to its logical conclusion and you will see that if we become a community that centers around people who derive most of their income from a smaller government, then our local economy is going to implode further.

I have spoken about this subject for almost 4 years now in the public arena. This is not a conviction against the older generations. This is about sowing seeds and laying a foundation for the future existence of Hickory. I am getting older myself. It would be easy to fall in line and only protect the interests of the older citizens. They will be gone to the great beyond by the time all of this plays out -- so no worries. As a person who represents these Senior Interests stated at a meeting I attended last week, "We need the younger people, because they will be the worker bees of the community."

Those younger people should not be looked upon as worker bees. They aren't supposed to be indentured servants for those winding down in life. They are the seeds that should be sown towards growth. That is what the generations of Earth's human life cycle have done. They pass along the earth to their progeny. The issue with me is that 20 years from now what impact are all of these decisions going to have on the viability of this community? And do people not worry about the legacy they are leaving behind to future generations?

Economic Stories of Relevance in Today's World -- June 26, 2011

THE FINANCIAL HIJACKING OF AMERICA - Ellen Brown
How and why to escape the web of debt

This is a talk about the trillion dollar bailout of the too large to fail banks and how it relates to the underlying crisis caused by the private control of the US - and soon the world's - money supply. Brown has an intriguing theory that she sets out to prove: Congress was initially not very interested in a bailout of the banks and needed to be shown, she says, that the situation was serious and that more money than ever before had to flow from taxpayers and the Federal Reserve into the banking system. In part ONE of her talk Ellen Brown runs down the incidents that led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers. She asks whether Lehman was purposefully bombed with short and naked short sales, and then was left unsupported by fellow banks in order to prove to Congress and to us that the crisis was serious. She quotes from a NY Times headline: "Lehman had to die, it seems, so global finance could live."

In part TWO Ellen Brown covers the little known but highly consequential role of the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland. The BIS serves as a bank for central banks and is not accountable to any national government. It plays an increasingly important role in the ever centralizing global financial system. Brown points to the risk of formalizing the money system for the world as the unregulated and unaccountable private domain of private banks - a process that is taking place right now. And you are about to hear about the Bank of North Dakota, an amazing, little known, highly successful state owned bank founded in 1919 and flourishing today. She suggests that California adopt that model to solve both the budget and the overall financial crisis - as 5 states are already planning to do. Washington, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts and Virginia have bills pending for state owned banks.

Ellen Brown is the author of Web of Debt, a book about the Federal Reserve. She shows how the private banking cartel has usurped the power to create money, and how we the people can take back that power. Listen / Download mp3:

Part 1 (29:04): http://www.tucradio.org/HijackingAmerica_ONE.mp3
Part 2 (29:03): http://www.tucradio.org/HijackingAmerica_TWO.mp3
Source (TUC Radio Latest Programs): http://www.tucradio.org/new.html

Ellen Brown Links:
Web of Debt: http://www.webofdebt.com/
Web of Debt Blog: http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/
Public Banking: http://publicbanking.wordpress.com/


Federal Reserve Shipped Billions to Iraq Which Were Then Stolen ... Involved in Other Unsavory Activities - Washington's Blog - June 23, 2011 - CNBC reports today: The New York Fed is refusing to tell investigators how many billions of dollars it shipped to Iraq during the early days of the US invasion there, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction told CNBC Tuesday. The Fed's lack of disclosure is making it difficult for the inspector general to follow the paper trail of billions of dollars that went missing in the chaotic rush to finance the Iraq occupation, and to determine how much of that money was stolen.


Fed freezes policy despite slow US economy - Activist Post - June 23, 2011 - The Federal Reserve left monetary policy in neutral Wednesday as it slashed US economic growth estimates, saying the slowdown was in part due to factors that were "likely" to be temporary. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) unanimously decided to hold its near-zero interest rate, end a $600-billion bond-buying program by June 30 and continue to reinvest its principal payments from security holdings. The central bank's decisions were widely expected by economists and experts. "The Fed is trapped between the proverbial rock and a hard place," said RDQ Economics analysts John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros. "The economy is weaker than it would like to see and this prevents any reference to exiting from the current policy stance of near-zero rates and a massive Fed balance sheet."


Higher jobless claims indicate weak labor market - Reuters - Lucia Mutikani - June 23, 2011 - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, suggesting little improvement in the labor market this month after hiring stumbled badly in May. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed by 9,000 to 429,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists had expected claims to come in at 415,000. The claims report, which covers the survey period for the government's closely watched data on nonfarm payrolls for June, came a day after the Federal Reserve gave a downbeat assessment of the economy. The government's employment report for June will be released on July 8. Claims for unemployment benefits increased by 15,000 between the May and June survey periods, implying another soft month for jobs after employment rose by only 54,000 in May.    "The labor market remains in a funk, it doesn't seem like it has improved much this month and the rise in claims will keep expectations for June nonfarm payrolls in check," said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody's Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania.


‘We now have more idle men, women than at any time since Great Depression’ - US News and World Report - Motimer Zuckerman - June 20, 2011 - The Great Recession has now earned the dubious right of being compared to the Great Depression. In the face of the most stimulative fiscal and monetary policies in our history, we have experienced the loss of over 7 million jobs, wiping out every job gained since the year 2000. From the moment the Obama administration came into office, there have been no net increases in full-time jobs, only in part-time jobs. This is contrary to all previous recessions. Employers are not recalling the workers they laid off from full-time employment. The real job losses are greater than the estimate of 7.5 million. They are closer to 10.5 million, as 3 million people have stopped looking for work. Equally troublesome is the lower labor participation rate; some 5 million jobs have vanished from manufacturing, long America's greatest strength. Just think: Total payrolls today amount to 131 million, but this figure is lower than it was at the beginning of the year 2000, even though our population has grown by nearly 30 million. The most recent statistics are unsettling and dismaying, despite the increase of 54,000 jobs in the May numbers. Nonagricultural full-time employment actually fell by 142,000, on top of the 291,000 decline the preceding month. Half of the new jobs created are in temporary help agencies, as firms resist hiring full-time workers. Today, over 14 million people are unemployed. We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression. Nearly seven people in the labor pool compete for every job opening. Hiring announcements have plunged to 10,248 in May, down from 59,648 in April. Hiring is now 17 percent lower than the lowest level in the 2001-02 downturn. One fifth of all men of prime working age are not getting up and going to work. Equally disturbing is that the number of people unemployed for six months or longer grew 361,000 to 6.2 million, increasing their share of the unemployed to 45.1 percent. We face the specter that long-term unemployment is becoming structural and not just cyclical, raising the risk that the jobless will lose their skills and become permanently unemployable.



A European's Warning to America - The perils of following us toward greater regulation, higher taxes and centralized power - Wall Street Journal - March 11, 2011 - Why is a European politician urging America to avoid Europeanization? As a Briton, I see the American republic as a repository of our traditional freedoms. The doctrines rooted in the common law, in the Magna Carta, and in the Bill of Rights found their fullest and most sublime expression in the old courthouse of Philadelphia. Britain, as a result of its unhappy membership in the European Union, has now surrendered a large part of its birthright. But our freedoms live on in America. Which brings me to my country's present tragedy. The fears that the American patriot leaders had about a Hanoverian tyranny were exaggerated. The United Kingdom did not develop into an absolutist state. Power continued to pass from the Crown to the House of Commons. Until now. Nearly two and a half centuries after the Declaration of Independence, the grievances it adumbrated are belatedly coming true. Colossal sums are being commandeered by the government in order to fund bailouts and nationalizations without any proper parliamentary authorization. Legislation happens increasingly through what are called standing orders, a device that allows ministers to make laws without parliamentary consent—often for the purpose of implementing EU standards. How aptly the British people might today apply the ringing phrases of the Declaration of Independence against their own rulers, who have "combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws." So you can imagine how I feel when I see the U.S. making the same mistakes that Britain has made: expanding its government, regulating private commerce, centralizing its jurisdiction, breaking the link between taxation and representation, abandoning its sovereignty. You deserve better, cousins. And we expect better.


The Chinese Government Is Buying Up Economic Assets And Huge Tracts Of Land All Over The United States - The American Dream - June 19, 2011 - In 2011, America is for sale and the communist Chinese are eager buyers. The Chinese government is using sovereign wealth funds and Chinese state-owned enterprises to buy up economic assets and huge tracts of land all over the United States. Many of our politicians hail all of this “foreign investment” as something that is “good for America”, while many others see something much more sinister going on here. In any event, this is a trend that is rapidly accelerating and that is causing great concern among patriotic Americans.    In my recent article entitled “China Wants To Construct A 50 Square Mile Self-Sustaining City South Of Boise, Idaho“, I examined a potential deal that Sinomach (a company controlled by the Chinese government) wants to do with the government of Idaho. There will be more on this deal in a minute. But first it is important to note that this is a phenomenon that is happening all across the United States. For example, a Chinese investment group is buying up a very large chunk of real estate in Toledo, Ohio... Even more disturbing is what has been happening down in Texas recently. The Chinese have been gobbling up our oil and gas fields. The following is a quote from one local Texas news source about one of these deals….


Can the US grow its way out of a currency collapse?