A World Overwhelmed By Western Hypocrisy...

By: Paul Craig Roberts

Western institutions have become caricatures of hypocrisy.
The International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank are violating their charters in order to bail out French, German, and Dutch private banks. The IMF is only empowered to make balance of payments loans, but is lending to the Greek government for prohibited budgetary reasons in order that the Greek government can pay the banks. The ECB is prohibited from bailing out member country governments, but is doing so anyway in order that the banks can be paid. The German parliament approved the bailout, which violates provisions of the European Treaty and Germany’s own Basic Law. The case is in the German Constitutional Court, a fact unreported in the US media.
US president George W. Bush appointed an immigrant, who is not impressed with the US Constitution and the separation of powers, to the Justice (sic) Department in order to get a ruling that the president has “unitary powers” that elevate him above statutory US law, treaties, and international law. According to this immigrant’s legal decisions, the “unitary executive” can violate with impunity the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which prevents spying on Americans without warrants obtained from the FISA Court. The immigrant also ruled that Bush could violate with impunity the statutory US laws against torture as well as the Geneva Conventions. In other words, the fictional “unitary powers” make the president into a Caesar.
Constitutional protections, such as habeas corpus, which prohibit government from holding people indefinitely without presenting charges and evidence to a court, and which prohibit government from denying detained people due process of law and access to an attorney, were thrown out the window by the US Department of Justice (sic), and the federal courts went along with most of it.
As did Congress, “the people’s representatives”. Congress even enacted the Military Tribunals Commissions Act of 2006, signed by the White House Brownshirt on October 17.
This act allows anyone alleged to be an “unlawful enemy combatant” to be sentenced to death on the basis of secret and hearsay evidence not presented in the kangaroo military court placed out of reach of US federal courts. The crazed nazis in Congress who supported this total destruction of Anglo-American law masqueraded as “patriots in the war against terrorism.”
The act designates anyone accused by the US, without evidence being presented, as being part of the Taliban, al-Qaeda, or “associated forces” to be an “unlawful enemy combatant,” which strips the person of the protection of law. Not even George Orwell could have conceived of such a formulation.
The Taliban consists of indigenous Afghan peoples, who, prior to the US military intervention, were fighting to unify the country. The Taliban are Islamist, and the US government fears another Islamist government, like the one in Iran that was blowback from US intervention in Iran’s internal affairs. The “freedom and democracy” Americans overthrew an elected Iranian leader and imposed a tyrant. American-Iranian relations have never recovered from the tyranny that Washington imposed on Iranians.
Washington is opposed to any government whose leaders cannot be purchased to perform as Washington’s puppets. This is why George W. Bush’s regime invaded Afghanistan, why Washington overthrew Saddam Hussein, and why Washington wants to overthrow Libya, Syria, and Iran.
America’s First Black (or half white) President inherited the Afghan war, which has lasted longer than World War II with no victory in sight. Instead of keeping with his election promises and ending the fruitless war, Obama intensified it with a “surge.”
The war is now ten years old, and the Taliban control more of the country than does the US and its NATO puppets. Frustrated by their failure, the Americans and their NATO puppets increasingly murder women, children, village elders, Afghan police, and aid workers.
A video taken by a US helicopter gunship, leaked to Wikileaks and released, shows American forces, as if they were playing video games, slaughtering civilians, including camera men for a prominent news service, as they are walking down a peaceful street. A father with small children, who stopped to help the dying victims of American soldiers’ fun and games, was also blown away, as were his children. The American voices on the video blame the children’s demise on the father for bringing kids into a “war zone.” It was no war zone, just a quiet city street with civilians walking along.
The video documents American crimes against humanity as powerfully as any evidence used against the Nazis in the aftermath of World War II at the Nuremberg Trials.
Perhaps the height of lawlessness was attained when the Obama regime announced that it had a list of American citizens who would be assassinated without due process of law.
One would think that if law any longer had any meaning in Western civilization, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, indeed, the entire Bush/Cheney regime, as well as Tony Blair and Bush’s other co-conspirators, would be standing before the International Criminal Court.
Yet it is Gadaffi for whom the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants. Western powers are using the International Criminal Court, which is supposed to serve justice, for self-interested reasons that are unjust.
What is Gadaffi’s crime? His crime is that he is attempting to prevent Libya from being overthrown by a US-supported, and perhaps organized, armed uprising in Eastern Libya that is being used to evict China from its oil investments in Eastern Libya.
Libya is the first armed revolt in the so-called “Arab Spring.” Reports have made it clear that there is nothing “democratic” about the revolt. http://www.english.rfi.fr/print/95867?print=now
The West managed to push a “no-fly” resolution through its puppet organization, the United Nations. The resolution was limited to neutralizing Gadaffi’s air force. However, Washington, and its French puppet, Sarkozy, quickly made an “expansive interpretation” of the UN resolution and turned it into authorization to become directly involved in the war.
Gadaffi has resisted the armed rebellion against the state of Libya, which is the normal response of a government to rebellion. The US would respond the same as would the UK and France. But by trying to prevent the overthrow of his country and his country from becoming another American puppet state, Gadaffi has been indicted. The International Criminal Court knows that it cannot indict the real perpetrators of crimes against humanity–Bush, Blair, Obama, and Sarkozy–but the court needs cases and accepts the victims that the West succeeds in demonizing.
In our post-Orwellian times, everyone who resists or even criticizes the US is a criminal. For example, Washington considers Julian Assange and Bradley Manning to be criminals, because they made information available that exposed crimes committed by the US government. Anyone who even disagrees with Washington, is considered to be a “threat,” and Obama can have such “threats” assassinated or arrested as a “terrorist suspect” or as someone “providing aid and comfort to terrorists.” American conservatives and liberals, who once supported the US Constitution, are all in favor of shredding the Constitution in the interest of being “safe from terrorists.” They even accept such intrusions as porno-scans and sexual groping in order to be “safe” on air flights.
The collapse of law is across the board. The Supreme Court decided that it is “free speech” for America to be ruled by corporations, not by law and certainly not by the people. On June 27, the US Supreme Court advanced the fascist state that the “conservative” court is creating with the ruling that Arizona cannot publicly fund election candidates in order to level the playing field currently unbalanced by corporate money. The “conservative” US Supreme Court considers public funding of candidates to be unconstitutional, but not the “free speech” funding by business interests who purchase the government in order to rule the country. The US Supreme Court has become a corporate functionary and legitimizes rule by corporations. Mussolini called this rule, imposed on Americans by the US Supreme Court, fascism.
The Supreme Court also ruled on June 27 that California violated the US Constitution by banning the sale of violent video games to kids, despite evidence that the violent games trained the young to violent behavior. It is fine with the Supreme Court for soldiers, whose lives are on the line, to be prohibited under penalty of law from drinking beer before they are 21, but the idiot Court supports inculcating kids to be murderers, as long as it is in the interest of corporate profits, in the name of “free speech.”
Amazing, isn’t it, that a court so concerned with ‘free speech” has not protected American war protesters from unconstitutional searches and arrests, or protected protesters from being attacked by police or herded into fenced-in areas distant from the object of protest.
As the second decade of the 21st century opens, those who oppose US hegemony and the evil that emanates from Washington risk being declared to be “terrorists.” If they are American citizens, they can be assassinated. If they are foreign leaders, their country can be invaded. When captured, they can be executed, like Saddam Hussein, or sent off to the ICC, like the hapless Serbs, who tried to defend their country from being dismantled by the Americans.
And the American sheeple think that they have “freedom and democracy.”
Washington relies on fear to coverup its crimes. A majority of Americans now fear and hate Muslims, peoples about whom Americans know nothing but the racist propaganda which encourages Americans to believe that Muslims are hiding under their beds in order to murder them in their sleep.
The neoconservatives, of course, are the purveyors of fear. The more fearful the sheeple, the more they seek safety in the neocon police state and the more they overlook Washington’s crimes of aggression against Muslims.
Safety uber alles. That has become the motto of a once free and independent American people, who once were admired but today are despised.
In America lawlessness is now complete. Women can have abortions, but if they have stillbirths, they are arrested for murder. http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=133808
Americans are such a terrified and abused people that a 95-year old woman dying from leukemia traveling to a last reunion with family members was forced to remove her adult diaper in order to clear airport security. http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/mother-41324-search-adult.html Only a population totally cowed would permit such abuses of human dignity.
In a June 27 interview on National Public Radio, Ban Ki-moon, Washington’s South Korean puppet installed as the Secretary General of the United Nations, was unable to answer why the UN and the US tolerate the slaughter of unarmed civilians in Bahrain, but support the International Criminal Court’s indictment of Gadaffi for defending Libya against armed rebellion. Gadaffi has killed far fewer people than the US, UK, or the Saudis in Bahrain. Indeed, NATO and the Americans have killed more Libyans than has Gadaffi. The difference is that the US has a naval base in Bahrain, but not in Libya.
There is nothing left of the American character. Only a people who have lost their soul could tolerate the evil that emanates from Washington.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously the editor of the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

 

King Obama?

King Obama?

Courtesy of rt.com

As the ICC puts out a warrant for one world leader — Libya's Muammar Gaddafi — some US lawmakers are beginning to feel like President Barack Obama is becoming a bit of a monarch himself and less of the voice of the people that elected him.
In front of Congress this week, James E. Risch (R-ID) recalled then-Senator Barack Obama discussing the lack of power the president has to go to war without Congressional approval. “The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation,” he quoted Obama. To White House officials, Risch asked, “Can you give me a simple answer, is that still his position?” With the White House saying that the Libyan mission is not in fact a war, they argue that President Obama is not in violation with the War Powers Resolution that would prohibit him from mobilizing military forces near Gaddafi’s regime.
Vijay Prashad, director of International Studies at Trinity College, says this isn’t okay at all. The idea that the White House is calling this a “limited engagement is absurd,” he says, and not only is the president violating the War Powers Resolution, but he has disregarded terms established by the UN as well. “None of this is actually making sense,” says Prashad.
While he disagrees with the White House’s stance, Prashad says this isn’t “an Obama problem,” and notes that presidents have acted similarly for decades now. “If the US had properly gone to war in Afghanistan, then it may not have been so unclear about the legalities of killing Osama bin Laden,” he says. Prashad claims that the US has improperly gone to war several times over the last 20 years, with commanders in chief leading troops into battle without Congressional approval ever since the Korean conflict.
“This is where you say 20/20 hindsight is actually something we should have at our benefit,” says Prashad. He argues that we should learn something from the Bush administration. After all, he says,“ if it didn’t work out so well in Iraq,” why would it work now?
“Look at history and say this is a reason not to do it again,” he says.

American Prisons are Going Private...

American Prisons are Going Private...

Courtesy of rt.com

Most Americans are unaware that private prisons in the country are on the rise. Is there a reason behind this trend that isn't going reported though?
Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks says that private prisons are thriving in America right now because of the profits they are generating, which most people are unaware of. Millions of dollars are going into lobbying for the institutions, and as more and more states relinquish their duties of running prisons, the private sector is reaping the benefits and pumping the profits back to the corporate entities that are backing them.
“Whenever a prison system is privatized,” says Kasparian, “the number one thing they’ll want to do is profit.” She recalls a case of a Pennsylvania judge who replaced all county detention centers for juveniles with privatized ones, who thus paid off the judge under the table. While that was only one case that leaked to the media, this is happening elsewhere across America.
Kasparian notes that, though many lawmakers are becoming more and more opposed to the decades-long “War on Drugs,” legislation is only becoming more stricter, so that prisons will soon be brimming with remote offenders. “The War on Drugs is an absolute failure (but) why are p[politicians ignoring that?” she asks. “Because they know that private prisons are fattening up their pockets…and making huge profits.”
“Pretty soon,” she says, “we are going to spend time in prison because of minor offenses.”
“There needs to be limits,” says Kasparian. “When it comes to corporations, it is never-ending. They get what they want because they have the money.”

As lobbyists continue to push for a transition to privatization, Kasparian says a political revolution needs to happen before everyone is behind bars for ridiculous laws. Corporations are the root of every single problem in the US, she says, and as corporations begin to take foot of the prison system, the problem is only worsening.

Health Alert: 32% of Organic Produce Contains Rocket Fuel Chemical...

Courtesy of infowars.com

It is common knowledge  that conventional produce contains a whole list of questionable chemicals and harmful pesticides. Linked to birth defects and lower IQ in children, conventional pesticides are known to be health disruptors. But what about organic produce? Perchlorate, a pollutant and powerful endocrine disruptor that is a key ingredient in rocket fuel, has been found in 32% of organic produce. In 2005 the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology published a study [1] on perchlorate levels in North America. They found:
“Conventionally and organically produced lettuce and other leafy vegetable samples were collected from production fields and farmers’ markets in the central and coastal valleys of California, New Mexico, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Quebec, and New Jersey. Results show that 16% of the conventionally produced samples and 32% of the organically produced samples had quantifiable levels of perchlorate using ion chromatography. Estimated perchlorate exposure from organically produced leafy vegetables was approximately 2 times that of conventional produce…”
Used by military defense contractors, aerospace programs, and various other military operations, perchlorate has been contaminated its way into drinking water, feed and edible plants, animals products, milk and breast milk, and both conventional and organic produce. It is so abundant in the food chain, in fact, that it has been found in virtually all humans tested [2]. The Colorado River is so thoroughly contaminated with perchlorate (1.5-8 micrograms per Liter) that 90% of the lettuce consumed during the winter months in the United States produced in the Lower Colorado River region was found to contain it [3].
The ability for health-conscious consumers to purchase contaminant-free organic produce is heavily threatened by this endocrine disrupting chemical. Purchasing locally grown high-quality organic foods from reputable farms is the best option for now, but action must be taken now before perchlorate contaminates the food supply even further. The study that found 32% of organic produce to contain perchlorate was from 2005, the number could be much higher at the present.
Sources:
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/164753132. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15871231
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15969537

NY Fed Won't Say How Much Money Went to Iraq...

 

GPS - Global Police State?

GPS - Global Police State?

Global Positioning System or Gigantic Police State? Soon the term GPS may mean both one in the same.
This autumn the Supreme Court will consider whether or not the government can affix GPS devices onto the automobiles of criminal suspects without even obtaining a warrant.
A petition filed to the Supreme Court this week comes in wake of a reversal in the decision of United States v. Antoine Jones. In that ordeal, officers had installed a GPS device on Jones’ automobile while it was parked in a public lot outside of Washington DC —  without ever obtaining a warrant. Authorities even tracked the car down days later and changed the battery in the device unbeknownst to Jones or the owner, his wife. The records obtained by monitoring his movement helped lead officers to nearly 100 kilograms of cocaine which yielded a conviction of life in prison for the DC nightclub owner. Until, that is, a Washington appeals court reversed the decision in 2010.
In response to the overruling, Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Capital Area said at the time, "We're gratified that a unanimous DC Circuit agreed that protecting civil liberties requires that the technology of the twenty-first century be evaluated on its own terms, and not as if it were still the technology of past decades.”
Now, however, the Supreme Court is being asked to evaluate those terms, and evaluate them hard.
The Justice Department is saying that “a person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another,” and is now demanding that justices undo the reversal of the Jones case. In a petition filed by the Obama administration this week, the Supreme Court will weigh the terms of the Fourth Amendment when coupled with modern technology, challenging the right to be secure from “searches and seizures.” Granted, the Framers of the Constitution probably didn’t have TomToms and Magellans on their mind when they were scribbling out the Bill of Rights, but if October’s decision favors law enforcement’s agenda, Big Brother will be able to secretly ride shotgun in the very near future.
In the petition filed this week, the Supreme Court is being asked to examine loopholes that authorities have to take to obtain a search warrant and how such procedures can “stifle the ability of law enforcement ages to follow leads at the beginning stages of an investigation.”
In the petition, which explicitly asks “Whether the warrantless use of a tracking device on a petitioner’s vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets violated the Fourth Amendment,” Obama administration officials argue that “GPS tracking is an important law enforcement tool,” and if not investigated fully, “the issue will … continue to arise frequently.”
While the Jones decision was eventually reversed, others that have been put in the same shoes did not turn out so lucky.
In United States v. Marquez, DEA agents placed a GPS on a truck that they believed was involved in drug trafficking, to which the Eighth Circuit concluded a warrant wasn’t necessary. In that case, the court said that “when police have reasonable suspicious that a particular vehicle is transporting drugs, a warrant is not required when, while the vehicle is parked in a public place, they install a non-invasive GPS tracking device on it for a reasonable period of time.”
In the case of United States v. Pineda-Moreno, authorities trailed a suspect for over four months using various types of mobile tracking devices. After officers noticed the car was en route from a suspected marijuana grow site, they pulled Pineda-Moreno over, smelled pot and arrested him. Attorneys argued that “the agents’ use of mobile tracking devices continuously to monitor the location of his Jeep violated his Fourth Amendment rights,” but the Ninth Circuit court rejected this, saying, “the only information the agents obtained from the tracking devices was as log of the locations where (his) car traveled — information the agents could have obtained by following the car.”
The DC circuit court that overruled Jones’ case felt otherwise. “A person who knows all of another’s travels can deduce whether he is a weekly churchgoer, a heavy drinker, a regular at the gym, an unfaithful husband, an outpatient receiving medical treatment, an associate of particular individuals or political groups — and not just one such fact about a person, but all such facts,” read their opinion.
After the Jones reversal, presiding judges issued an opinion that said, “It is one thing for a passerby to observe or even to follow someone during a single journey as he goes to the market or returns home from work . . . It is another thing entirely for that stranger to pick up the scent again the next day and the day after that, week in and week out, dogging his prey until he has identified all the places, people, amusements, and chores that make up that person‘s hitherto private routine.”
Regarding the “substantial and recurring importance” of the question of legalities, the petition notes that, “although in some investigations that government could establish probable cause and obtain a warrant before using a GPS device, federal law enforcement agencies frequently use tracking devices early in investigations, before suspicions have ripened into probably cause.”
It goes on to say that needing a warrant could keep authorities from gathering information to establish probable cause, thus “seriously imped[ing] the government’s' ability to investigate leads and tips on drug trafficking, terrorism and other crimes.”
In lay terms, the government wants to outfit your ride with a GPS before they have a case against you so that they can build one in the future.
Come later this year, authorities might be able to find all that out about you — whether or not you are aware and certainly without a warrant. In the meantime, it is advisable to take your Buick off the road and start checking your shoes for wires.

Lay-Offs Come to Wall Street...

Lay-Offs Come to Wall Street...

Courtesy of rt.com

As America pulls itself out of a recession, another financial crisis might be looming. Before it hits Main Street, USA, however, this collapse is coming to Wall Street. In fact, says Business Insider’s Katya Wachtel, it is already there.
“There was an idea that maybe a recovery was on the way because banks were making money again,” says Wachtel. As financial institutions upped salaries and brought more bankers on board, though, they quickly found out that the economy wasn’t growing as fast as they thought they would.
“People are going to be angry about it and there are going to be some unhappy faces on Wall Street, but if they aren’t making money they can’t be kept around,” she says.
Yesterday Business Insider’s Courtney Comstock told RT that job losses in the financial sector always seem to preface lay-offs elsewhere. Wachtel says that as Wall Street going broke might be a result of a downturned economy elsewhere, though.
“ I think that if there isn’t money being made on Main Street, that usually effects the financial sector as well.”
How did this come about? “Basically,” says Wachtel, “banks started making money again and these finance service firms started making money again.” Thinking a recession was gone, banks increased spending and expenses as the economy was believed to be getting better.
“Maybe there was hope,” she says.
In the meantime, hope is dwindling as Wall Street is looking to see some serious lay-offs. “Banks are scared. Banks are worried,” says Wachtel.
Unfortunately, cuts might be the only way to keep the rest of the country from collapsing.

Debt Crisis Worsens as Deadline Looms...

Debt Crisis Worsens as Deadline Looms...

Courtesy of rt.com

The US is only getting closer to the August 2 deadline when the budget is believed to become maxed out. Today President Obama is scheduled to meet with top Senate leaders to discuss the debt, but will anything change this late in the game?
“I think that this is all show,” says Mani Capital President Raj Doshi. He recalls House Speaker John Bohener speaking out against an increase in the debt ceiling, only to urge a cut with President Obama weeks later. Rather than attempting to accomplish anything, Doshi says this is just the latest act in a showing of political theatre.
Despite the White House's warning that we could default for the first time in United States history, Doshi says spending cuts don’t look promising. When asked if they could come from the Department of Defense, Doshi says, “Absolutely not,” adding that Obama’s continual bypassing of Congress and manipulation of NATO is keeping America in five incredibly costly wars.
Doshi doubts Americans are in favor of this “reckless spending,” as he puts it, but emphasizes that even if leaders vow to cut spending down the road — like new presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann makes claims to — US citizens should be weary.
“Our leaders might talk about spending cuts in the future, but that doesn’t really mean anything,” says Doshi. “You can only make cuts to the current year’s budget. Saying that they will cut spending over five, ten, 15 years in the future doesn’t really mean anything,” he adds.
What will happen as America continues to get closer to that August 2 deadline then? Lawmakers will continue to eat ice cream in air-conditioned rooms as the economy collapsing quicker and quicker, says Doshi.

Why the Jobs Situation Is Worse Than It Looks

We now have more idle men and women than at any time since the Great Depression...

Mortimer B. ZuckermanU.S. News & World Report
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. [Check out a roundup of political cartoons on the economy.]
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. [See a slide show of the 10 best cities to find a job.]
Don't pay too much attention to the headline unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. It is scary enough, but it is a gloss on the reality. These numbers do not include the millions who have stopped looking for a job or who are working part time but would work full time if a position were available. And they count only those people who have actively applied for a job within the last four weeks.
Include those others and the real number is a nasty 16 percent. The 16 percent includes 8.5 million part-timers who want to work full time (which is double the historical norm) and those who have applied for a job within the last six months, including many of the long-term unemployed. And this 16 percent does not take into account the discouraged workers who have left the labor force. The fact is that the longer duration of six months is the more relevant testing period since the mean duration of unemployment is now 39.7 weeks, an increase from 37.1 weeks in February. [See a slide show of the 10 cities with highest real income.]
The inescapable bottom line is an unprecedented slack in the U.S. labor market. Labor's share of national income has fallen to the lowest level in modern history, down to 57.5 percent in the first quarter as compared to 59.8 percent when the so-called recovery began. This reflects not only the 7 million fewer workers but the fact that wages for part-time workers now average $19,000—less than half the median income.
Just to illustrate how insecure the labor movement is, there is nobody on strike in the United States today, according to David Rosenberg of wealth management firm Gluskin Sheff. Back in the 1970s, it was common in any given month to see as many as 30,000 workers on the picket line, and there were typically 300 work stoppages at any given time. Last year there were a grand total of 11. There are other indirect consequences. The number of people who have applied for permanent disability benefits has soared. Ten years ago, 5 million people were collecting federal disability payments; now 8 million are on the rolls, at a cost to taxpayers of approximately $120 billion a year. The states today owe the federal insurance fund an astonishing $90 billion to cover unemployment benefits.

Economy in Dire Straits...

Economy in Dire Straits...

Courtesy of rt.com

Two and a half years after the collapse of this nation’s economy, the dust is still settling and decisions on how to best rebuild are still in the works.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says,“The economy needs to grow to create jobs."

“Our basic challenge is to try to figure out how to make growth faster and more sustainable to translate into more jobs.”
The lack of jobs has led to widespread homelessness in many of this nation’s cities…and a foreclosure rate still too high to give most Americans any hope.
 “The majority of Americans are understanding that this is not the recession that they had experienced in the past, this is the second Great Depression,” said George Hemminger, Founder of Survive and Thrive TV.
The unemployment rate is still hovering above nine percent, and this already grim picture is painted even grimmer by economists.
 “In the United States I believe it’s 9.1 percent, but when you add in the under-employed, the part time workers who want full time work and can’t find it, discouraged workers, people who have dropped out of the labor market, it’s more like one-out-of-five Americans,” said Timothy Connova, a professor of economic law at Chapman University.
Michael Snyder, founder of TheEconomicCollapseBlog.com, says that when you take into account all of the unemployed and under-employed, the tally of those Americans approaches a quarter of a hundred million residents.
Snyder also adds that, given the current economic crisis in Greece, a ripple effect could come across the sea to cripple the American market.
“What you have in Greece is a situation where they are just kicking the can down the road,” says Synder. “If Greece defaults…it will affect all of Europe.”
From there, he says, America would soon follow.
A proposed solution to the economy was the $30 billion Small Business Lending Bill, signed into law in September by President Obama.  Only 869 applications have been filed, and so far zero dollars have been given out.  The majority of small banks haven’t even applied.
 “We do not have the capacity and the program does not give us the ability to force banks to lend,” said US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Many solutions proposed by the Obama administration continue to ignite anger.
 “Mr. Secretary, On behalf of the business owners in North Carolina and across this country, you are wrong,” said Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC)  at The House Small Business Committee Hearing.
 Also happening, and with no apparent progress, the struggle by Vice President Joe Biden and lawmakers to find an agreement to raise the debt ceiling.  As the deadline looms closer, there is increasing talks of a short-term agreement, as well as reports of lawmakers resorting to creative accounting and gimmicks to exaggerate the size of spending cuts.
Finally, with QE2 expected to end in a week, many worry about what lies ahead. Some are even concerned the US could soon be faced with the same issues as Greece, where austerity measures have already been put into place.
 “I don’t know what the end result will be but maybe will be a night when American people will get fed up with this and will storming the gates of Washington DC with pitchforks,” Hemminger said.

German Giant Says US Workers Lack Skills...

 

US Heading Toward Nuclear Disaster...

Courtesy of rt.com

With busted seals, broken nozzles and rusted pipes plaguing America’s nuclear power plants, a report released by The Associated Press today warns that the US is in danger of copycatting the catastrophe that ravaged the Fukushima facility in Japan.
After a yearlong investigation, the AP has concluded that many of the nation’s facilities are still in operation because the safety standards that they are held to have been repeatedly weakened as regulations become more and more lax.
The AP reviewed tens of thousands of pages of government and industry studies, alongside interviews and inspection reports that go back to the 1970s. As a result of the analysis, the AP says that are led to believe that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has regularly lessened restrictions as the NRC repeatedly argues that “safety margins could be eased without peril.” The AP responds that not only is the safety of much of America in danger, however, but the investigation also says that billions of dollars are at stake—as well as around one-fifth of America’s electricity supply.
Many of the problems that the AP identified could eventually lead to a nuclear disaster of epic proportions. Their report says that “thousands” of problems linked to aging were uncovered, including many instrumental components of facilities in less-than-stellar condition. In one example, it notes that leakage seeping through busted valves can today exceed up to 20 times the original limit. And as problems abound, the AP notes that no single official body in government or industry has studied the frequency in breakdowns in recent years while all the while NRC has extended licenses on dozens of reactors. The report says that 82 of America’s operating reactors are more than 25 years old, with 66 units having been re-licensed for an additional two decades. The report argues, though, that many of these facilities were built with the intention of new, updated facilities replacing them long before they would reach this condition.
In October 2009, President Obama went on the record to say that "There's no reason why, technologically, we can't employ nuclear energy in a safe and effective way.”
A year later the president reminded an audience that safe, new nuclear power plants are a "necessity,” offering up a federal loan of more than $8 billion to build the first new plant in decades.
“Investing in nuclear energy remains a necessary step,” the president said in October 2010. “What I hope is … we're underscoring both our seriousness in meeting the energy challenge and our willingness to look at this challenge, not as a partisan issue , but as a matter that's far more important than politics because the choices we make will affect not just the next generation but many generations to come.” These words came mere months before the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima 1 power plant.
While the NRC has responded since saying that American facilities are indeed up to par, the AP’s report argues that the reason is not massive overhauls and improvements, but rather a lessening of restrictions.
Only days before the AP released their report, commissioners at the NRC spoke at the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing on nuclear safety and told an audience that US nuclear reactors are safe, but noted that additional regulations would be needed to ensure a disaster wouldn’t happen again on American soil.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said, in fact, that civilian nuclear power in the United States has an extremely strong safety record.
“It’s important for Americans to know … that we’re taking very seriously the importance of making their operation safer and safer,” said Alexander.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., however, accused the NRC of getting the Department of Justice to intervene in a dispute over a plant in Vermont. The state’s Yankee nuclear reactor was scheduled to close in 2012, but the NRC has since approved a two-decade extension on the license.
Speaking to the AP, nuclear safety scientist Dana Powers says the trend is easy to see.
“They're … trying to get more and more out of these plants,” says Powers.
Since 2005, the NRC has filed over 200 alerts on emerging safety problems, with 113 stemming from aging. In 2008, they noted that 70 percent of potentially serious safety problems resulted from “degraded conditions,” as licenses are continued to be renewed as restrictions weakened.

America’s Forgotten Homeless Students...

Courtesy of rt.com

President Obama has said he is committed to education to keep America competitive. But at a time when so many American families deal with the consequences of the economic crisis, academic success is becoming more elusive.
In California alone, some 2.2 million children are living in poverty. Of these, 13 percent are homeless, that’s almost 300 thousand children experiencing homelessness each year.
As a homeless child, Tokoyo Palmer has been forced to grow up faster than most kids.
“I don’t want no kids to go through this, I’m 14 years old, this is a lot of tragedy for me,” said Palmer.
After losing everything in Hurricane Katrina, he and his father headed west, but their move to California has only led to poverty, unemployment and ultimately homelessness.
“It’s not a good thing that a kid should go through at all,” said Palmer. "Because I’ve been on skid row, I’ve been everywhere,” Palmer added.
Tokoyo is among the growing number of homeless children in Los Angeles and around the nation. Last year, the Department of Education reported that there were nearly one million homeless students in America’s public schools.There are 13,000 homeless students in the Los Angeles area alone. That is more than a 50 percent increase in five years
Student counselor Alejandro Macias has seen this steady rise in homeless students since the housing crash.
“These families that we help, that are homeless, they’re looking for employment. They want employment and quite frankly, there isn’t employment right now,” said Macias.
Tokoyo must take two public transit buses to get to school. After class he returns to a shelter, which just happens to be next to one of the largest hotel skyscrapers in Los Angeles. A night in the hotel can cost more than 400 dollars a night, and guests can enjoy massages at the Ritz-Carlton spa, the type of luxuries Tokoyo and other children in his situation can only dream of.
“I feel, especially in the government, that they are so high standard, so high class, that they don’t have to worry about anybody. Put yourself in my shoes,” said Palmer.
The constant insecurity that homeless students encounter makes it nearly impossible to succeed in school and move up in economic status — a challenge likely to increase as legislators in Washington debate making cuts to programs which help our nation’s hungry.
Tokoyo’s father believes the debate is not really considering the people who are suffering on the streets.
“We’ve got a war right here. We have to fight to get our American people off the street,” said Ralph Palmer.
Tokoyo knows he will get a good lunch at school, but having dinner or even having a place to stay at night is always uncertain.
The National Center on Homelessness tested a portion of California’s 34,000 homeless high school students and found that only nine percent were proficient at reading and only five percent were proficient in math — a problem which will likely worsen as job losses, foreclosures and evictions push more families to the streets.
“The world needs to know what it is to be homeless because my secret to get through homelessness is school,” said Tokoyo Palmer.
Despite dealing with poverty and discrimination, Tokoyo still dreams of being a basketball player or musician, or perhaps even the president of the United States.Until he reaches high office, he has a message for those who are in power now.
“You’re giving money to other people, but there are kids who are homeless. Children in your state. And you can’t help them out?” said Palmer.
A challenge – expressed with the clarity of childhood- to the nation’s elite.

IMF And Greenspan Predict Gloom For US Economy...

IMF And Greenspan Predict Gloom For US Economy...

Courtesy of rt.com

In the International Monetary Fund’s latest assessment of the US economy, the IMF warns America that it is “playing with fire” unless it makes some immediate changes.
In April the IMF predicted that the US gross domestic product would grow only a meager 2.8 percent in 2011. Now only two months later, the global lender forecasts that growth will be more along the lines of 2.5 percent. They also estimate that growth in 2012 will only come at around 2.7 percent, compared to the 2.9 prediction they issued earlier this year.
Reuters reports that Jose Vinals of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department says that "We have now entered very clearly into a new phase of the (global) crisis, which is, I would say, the political phase of the crisis.”
The United States, says Vinals, is one of four countries that has “the biggest homework” to do if they want to restore their public finances to “a reasonable situation” in terms of debt levels. Also in trouble: Greece, Ireland and Japan.
"You cannot afford to have a world economy where these important decisions are postponed because you're really playing with fire,” says Vinals.
The IMF isn’t the only one predicting doom and gloom for the global economy. Speaking to Charlie Rose this week, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says that a default by Greece is “almost certain” to drive the US back into a recession.
“The chances of Greece not defaulting are very small,” says Greenspan.
Those chances, he adds, are “so high that you almost have to say there’s no way out.” If that default happens, which Greenspan seems almost certain it will, he says some US banks will be “up against the wall.”
The nuclear disaster that struck Japan earlier this year is also one of the “negative surprises” that the IMF says led to disappointing figures in the worldwide economy.
IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard adds that the little amount of growth it expects in US will not be enough to bring the unemployment rate down from 9.1 percent. That current statistic is more than double what it was in 2006.
The “political stalemate” over the deficit issue is also impeding the nation’s economy from thriving, says the IMF. Lawmakers are less than six weeks away from the August 2 deadline when the Treasury Department says the US will have exhausted its borrowing authority.
The $14.3 trillion debt, says Greenspan, is “horrendously dangerous.”
Although the IMF predict that the GDP will grow — albeit at a staggering speed — Greenspan doubts lawmakers will fix the debt crisis within the next year.
Others are even more certain that these scenarios are more than just hypothetical. Mark Spitznagel is betting his hedge fund Universa on the impending collapse. Business Insider editor Courtney Comstock reveals that Spitznagel predicts that the S&P will fall 40 percent and is so certain that he’s putting his money on it — all $6 billion.

Americans Are Tired Of Wars...

Americans Are Tired Of Wars...

Courtesy of rt.com

The media is finally reporting on what most of America has known all along: they are sick of war.
A new poll conducted by Pulse Opinion Research shows that 72 percent of likely voters in the US believe that the country is involved in too many efforts abroad. With operations continuing overseas and new ones always on the horizon, when will the military finally step back and listen to the people?
“The American people are catching up on what we were saying. It’s time to bring this open ended war to an end,” says Jake Diliberto, a RT blogger and war veteran. Diliberto says that, with thousands of American deaths adding it, the country is sick and tired of foreign wars and now we have the statistics to back it up.
Diliberto says that if you ask anyone in America about what they want, they’ll all answer the same. “They want money in their pocketbooks. They want freedom. They want their own identity,” he says. “Certainly Americans in general don’t want to be killing American people,” says Diliberto. Another certainty is that Americans don’t want their tax dollars taking from them and put towards a senseless war, he adds.
With Americans searching for a way out, little is being done under an administration that campaigned under on a ticket of ending war and instead dragging the US into more. As a solution, Diliberto points towards Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, who just this week called the war efforts both “endless” and “unwinnable.”
“People say Ron Paul can’t win. I actually think he can,” says Diliberto. He goes on to say that, especially given the competition, the vote for Paul seems obvious.
Regarding Mitt Romney, Diliberto calls him “the biggest joke on the Republican ticket.” And the rest of the GOP? “Pawletny, Bachman and Herman Cain are no better,” he adds.
With America on the lookout for keeping their cash in their wallets, costly wars aren’t offering much for them. Paul will have to focus his attention more on money and less on the legalization of heroin and marijuana, says Diliberto. While Paul may have a lot of support, the “heroin and shenanigans,” as Diliberto puts it, needs to go if he wants to break into the race for good.

Senators Unconcerned About Massive Consequences Of Criminalizing Embedding YouTube Videos

Senators Unconcerned About Massive Consequences Of Criminalizing Embedding YouTube Videos

Mike MasnickTechDirt 

This is really no surprise, but the same Senate Judiciary Committee that unanimously approved the PROTECT IP Act, despite worries frominternet experts and major media about how it would break the internet, has now also unanimously approved the anti-internet streaming bill that makes it a felony to stream certain videos online — potentially putting people in jail for embedding YouTube videos or just putting up YouTube lip synching videos.

What’s really troubling here is that the media and plenty of concerned citizens have directly raised the issues about the unintended consequences of this law. And while Senators Amy Klobuchar, John Cornyn and Christopher Coons continue to insist that (of course) the law is not intended to be used against such people, they have made no move to fix the bill. Even supporters of this bill, who insisted that we were wrong about what the bill allowed, eventually conceded that our argument was accurate and that this bill could be used to put people in jail for embedding a YouTube video or doing a lip synch video.

And that’s a huge, huge problem. Of course, no one thinks the bill is for that purpose directly or that it’s going to be widely used for such purposes. However, the bill, as written, clearly allows law enforcement to charge people with a felony for that, assuming it meets a few other conditions. But those conditions are pretty minimal (ads on your page? you’re in trouble…). The risk here of abuse is a serious risk, and it’s incredibly troubling that Klobuchar, Cornyn and Coons failed to change or adapt the bill, and worse that the rest of the Senate Judiciary Committee allowed the bill to move forward in such a broken state. They were clearly made aware of problems with the bill, but directly chose not to make any changes. How do you explain that other than incompetence or corruption?

Trading Of Over The Counter Gold And Silver To Be Illegal Beginning July 15...

One small step toward Executive Order 6102 part 2, and one giant leap for corruptcongressmankind.

From: FOREX.com <info@forex.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 6:11 PM
Subject: Important Account Notice Re: Metals Trading
To: xxx

Important Account Notice Re: Metals Trading
We wanted to make you aware of some upcoming changes to FOREX.com’s product offering. As a result of the Dodd-Frank Act enacted by US Congress, a new regulation prohibiting US residents from trading over the counter precious metals, including gold and silver, will go into effect on Friday, July 15, 2011.
In conjunction with this new regulation, FOREX.com must discontinue metals trading for US residents on Friday, July 15, 2011 at the close of trading at 5pm ET. As a result, all open metals positions must be closed by July 15, 2011 at 5pm ET.
We encourage you to wind down your trading activity in these products over the next month in anticipation of the new rule, as any open XAU or XAG positions that remain open prior to July 15, 2011 at approximately 5:00 pm ET will be automatically liquidated.
We sincerely regret any inconvenience complying with the new U.S. regulation may cause you. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our customer service team.
Sincerely,
The Team at FOREX.com

So far we have only received this warning from Forex.com. We are waiting to see which other dealers inform their customers that trading gold and silver over the counter will soon be illegal.
It appears that Forex.com’s interpretation of the law stems primarily from Section 742(a) of the Dodd-Frank act which “prohibits any person [which again includes companies]from entering into, or offering to enter into, a transaction in any commodity with a person that is not an eligible contract participant or an eligible commercial entity, on a leveraged or margined basis.”
Some prehistory from Hedge Fund Law Blog:

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Act”) has changed a number of laws in all of the securities acts including the Commodity Exchange Act.  Two specific changes deal with certain transactions in commodities on the spot market.  Specifically, Section 742 of the Act deals with retail commodity transactions.  In this section, the text of the Commodity Exchange Act is amended to include new Section 2(c)(2)(D) (dealing with retail commodity transactions) and new Section 2(c)(2)(E) (prohibiting trading in spot forex with retail investors unless the trader is subject to regulations by a Federal regulatory agency, i.e. CFTC, SEC, etc.).  According to a congressional rulemaking spreadsheet, these are effective 180 days from the date of enactment.
We provide an overview of the new sections and have reprinted them in full below.
New CEA Section 2(c)(2)(D) – Concerning Spot Commodities (Metals)
The central import of new CEA Section 2(c)(2)(D) is to broaden the CFTC’s power with respect to retail commodity transactions.  Essentially any spot commodities transaction (i.e. spot metals) will be subject to CFTC jurisdiction and rulemaking authority.  There is an exemption for commodities which are actually delivered within 28 days.  While the CFTC wanted an exemption in which commodities would need to be delivered within 2 days, various coin collectors were able to lobby congress for a longer delivery period (see here).
It is likely we will see the CFTC propose regulations under this new section and we will keep you updated on any regulatory pronouncements with respect to this new section.
New CEA Section 2(c)(2)(E) – Concerning Spot Forex
The central import of new CEA Section 2(c)(2)(E) is to regulate the spot forex markets.  While the section requires the CFTC to finalize regulations with respect to spot forex (which were proposed earlier in January), it also, interestingly, provides  oversight of the markets to other federal regulatory agencies such as the CFTC.  This means that in the future, different market participants may be subject to different regulatory regimes with respect to trading in same underlying instruments.  A Wall Street Journal article discusses the impact of this with respect to firms which engage in other activities in addition to retail forex transactions.  The CFTC’s proposed rules establish certain compliance parameters for retail forex transactions, requires registration of retail forex managers and requires such managers to pass a new regulatory exam called the Series 34 exam.  We do not yet know whether the other regulatory agencies will adopt rules similar to the CFTC or if they will write rules from scratch.

Next, from Henderson & Lyman:

The prohibition of Section 742(a) does not apply, however, if such a transaction results in actual delivery within 28 days, or creates an enforceable obligation to deliver between a seller and a buyer that have the ability to deliver, and accept delivery of, the commodity in connection with their lines of business. This may be problematic as in most spot metals trading virtually all contracts fail to meet these requirements. As a result, although the courts’ interpretation of Section 742(a) is unknown, Section 742(a) is likely to have a significantly negative impact on the OTC cash precious metals industry. Here too, it is essential that those who offer to be a counterparty to OTC metals transactions seek professional help to discuss possible operational and regulatory contingency plans.

The actual rule language exempts a transaction if it “results in actual delivery within 28 days or such other period as the Commission may determine by rule or regulation based upon the longer period as the Commission may determine by rule or regulation based upon the typical commercial practice in cash or spot markets for the commodity involved;” Alas, the commission has decided not to intervene and keep the exemption status window so small as to affect virtually all exchanges which transact in the gold and silver spot market.
More here:
Elimination of OTC Forex
Effective 90 days from its inception, the Dodd-Frank Act bans most retail OTC forex transactions. Section 742(c) of the Act states as follows:

…A person [which includes companies] shall not offer to, or enter into with, a person that is not an eligible contract participant, any agreement, contract, or transaction in foreign currency except pursuant to a rule or regulation of a Federal regulatory agency allowing the agreement, contract, or transaction under such terms and conditions as the Federal regulatory agency shall prescribe…

This provision will not come into effect, however, if the CFTC or another eligible federal body issues guidelines relating to the regulation of foreign currency within 90 days of its enactment. Registrants and the public are currently being encouraged by the CFTC to provide insight into how the Act should be enforced. See CFTC Rulemakings regarding OTC Derivatives located at the following website address, under Section XX – Foreign Currency (Retail Off Exchange). It is essential that OTC forex participants seek professional help to discuss possible operational and regulatory contingency plans.
Elimination of OTC Metals
As for OTC precious metals such as gold or silver, Section 742(a) of the Act prohibits any person [which again includes companies]from entering into, or offering to enter into, a transaction in any commodity with a person that is not an eligible contract participant or an eligible commercial entity, on a leveraged or margined basis. This provision intends to expand the narrow so called “Zelener fix” in the Farm Bill previously ratified by congress in 2008. The Farm Bill empowered the CFTC to pursue anti-fraud actions involving rolling spot transactions and/or other leveraged forex transactions without the need to prove that they are futures contracts. The Dodd-Frank Act now expands this authority to include virtually all retail cash commodity market products that involve leverage or margin – in other words OTC precious metals.
The prohibition of Section 742(a) does not apply, however, if such a transaction results in actual delivery within 28 days, or creates an enforceable obligation to deliver between a seller and a buyer that have the ability to deliver, and accept delivery of, the commodity in connection with their lines of business. This may be problematic as in most spot metals trading virtually all contracts fail to meet these requirements. As a result, although the courts’ interpretation of Section 742(a) is unknown, Section 742(a) is likely to have a significantly negative impact on the OTC cash precious metals industry. Here too, it is essential that those who offer to be a counterparty to OTC metals transactions seek professional help to discuss possible operational and regulatory contingency plans.
Small Pool Exemption Eliminated
Pursuant to Section 403 of Act, the “privateadviser” exemption, namelySection 203(b)(3) of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”), will be eliminated within one year of the Act’s effective date (July 21, 2011). Historically, many unregistered U.S. fund managers had relied on this exemption to avoid registration where they:
(1) had fewer than 15 clients in the past 12 months;
(2) do not hold themselves out generally to the public as investment advisers; and
(3) do not act as investment advisers to a registered investment company or business development company.
At present, advisers can treat the unregistered funds that they advise, rather than the investors in those funds, as their clients for purposes of this exemption. A common practice has thus evolved whereby certain advisers manage up to 14 unregistered funds without having to register under the Advisers Act. Accordingly, the removal of this exemption represents a significant shift in the regulatory landscape, as this practice will no longer be allowable in approximately one year.
Also an important consideration, the Dodd-Frank Act mandates new federal registration and regulation thresholds based on the amount of assets a manager has under management (“AUM”). Although not yet underway, it is possible that various states may enact legislation designed to create a similar registration framework for managers whose AUM fall beneath the new federal levels.
Accredited Investor Qualifications
Section 413(a) of the Act alters the financial qualifications of who can be considered an accredited investor, and thus a qualified as eligible participant (“QEP”). Specifically, the revised accredited investor standard includes only the following types of individuals:
1) A natural person whose individual net worth, or joint net worth with spouse, is at least $1,000,000, excluding the value of such investor’s primary residence;
2) A natural person who had individual income in excess of $200,000 in each of the two most recent years or joint income with spouse in excess of $300,000 in each of those years and a reasonable expectation of reaching the same income level in the current year; or
3) A director, executive officer, or general partner of the issuer of the securities being offered or sold, or a director, executive officer, or general partner of a general partner of that issuer.
Based on this language, it is important to note that the revised accredited investor standard only applies to new investors and does not cover existing investors. However, additional subscriptions from existing investors are generally treated as requiring confirmation of continuing investor eligibility.
On July 27th, 2010, the SEC provided additional clarity regarding the valuation of an individual’s primary residence when calculating net worth. In particular, the SEC has interpreted this provision as follows:

Section 413(a) of the Dodd-Frank Act does not define the term “value,” nor does it address the treatment of mortgage and other indebtedness secured by the residence for purposes of the net worth calculation…Pending implementation of the changes to the Commission’s rules required by the Act, the related amount of indebtedness secured by the primary residence up to its fair market value may also be excluded. Indebtedness secured by the residence in excess of the value of the home should be considered a liability and deducted from the investor’s net worth.

The Collapse of Nations All By The Hand Of Corrupt Bankers...

Bob ChapmanInternational Forecaster

As far as we can discern the US Treasury thus far has spent and borrowed about $100 billion from the federal pension accounts. Unless there is a vote on the cash debt extension prior to August 2nd, government will probably have borrowed some $250 billion to $300 billion. The Treasury is paying virtually no interest on this debt. Three-month Treasury bills are currently yielding zero percent. Our question is how will the funds be generated to fulfill the Treasury’s obligation to the pension fund? What happens if on August 2nd if legislation is not passed? Does this go on forever? We will keep you apprised on new developments.

The current situation regarding the state of recovery in the US has turned from precarious to dismal and as we predicted a year ago May we will have to be treated to QE3 something no one really wants, but as we said before it is inevitable. The Fed and their controllers, the member bank owners of the Fed, know the present approach doesn’t work and it is only a matter of time, as a result of their policies, when more stimulus will be needed, which in turn leads to more inflation.
Due to the current state of affairs Fed Chairman Bernanke has been making one appearance on TV after another. He gets grilled over and over again and he doesn’t like the public reception at all. He shouldn’t, as more and more observers see that two quantitative easings haven’t worked. They cost at least $3.6 trillion in funds created out of thin air, and all they have done is prolong the agony. The flip side is the policy has caused higher inflation. What else can one expect when deficits astound and the Fed has to buy $1.6 trillion in Treasury bonds. A large percentage of this debt is used to wage perpetual war for perpetual peace. During this process the President has bypassed the Constitution and is deliberately repressing the freedoms of American citizens. There no longer is a separation of powers, but virtual dictatorship bought and paid for by Wall Street and banking.
It should be firmly implanted in your mind that your masters in government and those controlling government brazenly and arrogantly believe that they know better what is good for you, than you do. That is why when they speak to you their answers are dripping with condescension – as if to say, how dare you question what we tell you. Fed Chairman, Mr. Bernanke, is a perfect example of this. He, others and his predecessors have created a false economy based upon perpetual debt and upon money and credit being created out of thin air. Today that is accompanied with zero interest rates, a combination that in time can only bring a falling dollar, inflation and a collapsing economy. Mr. Bernanke appears to believe that an increased supply of money has little or no effect on the comparison between money and the prices of goods. He has to be living in a fairy tale land. Thinking such as this can only end up making a bad economic situation worse.
For more than a month the US has been faced with the task of extending the short-term debt limit. The game that is being played is that one side wants to cut the deficit and the other side does not. In reality both sides do not want to cut anything, or should we say the elitists who control these supposed representatives of the people do not want anything cut. They want the game to continue, so they can continue to loot the economy, an interesting take on this sideshow is if Treasury debt is not increased the situation grinds to a standstill.
Congress, the President and the so-called negotiators want an increase in this short-term debt of $2.4 trillion. That would be a short-term debt limit of $16.7 trillion to carry the debt limit past the next election. The offset of reduced spending is to come over the next ten years. How ridiculous and ludicrous. Do they really expect us to buy this charade?
The most recent strategy by the elitists is to keep Japan’s problems under wraps. Just do not let it into the media, even though some Japanese officials say the island could become uninhabitable. This is also why President Obama went to see Chancellor Merkel in Berlin. He urged her to make a deal to settle the Greek problem. He doesn’t understand that such a deal would make her and her party, the CDU, unelectable for a long time. The German citizens want Greece cut loose. They’ll take the losses and the result is many banks will go under. The President is as well trying to bolster his approval ratings.
The propaganda is flowing to keep Americans from panicking in the face of not recovering, no short-term debt extension, municipal and state failures and Europe starting to collapse. The elitists are in serious trouble due to these problems. The icing on the cake for them is the disaster that the Bilderberg meeting turned into in Switzerland.
US consumer confidence is lower now than it was at the beginning of the credit crisis. That isn’t unexpected when unemployment is rising, retail is falling and the manufacturing numbers out of Chicago and New York are falling steeply.
What professionals for the most part do not seem to understand is that the events of 2006/07 have never been solved. On February 2009 the inflationary depression began. There has now been a double dip since then. What we have witnessed is slight revivals caused by the injection of money and credit. Unemployment is close to the same level it was 2-1/2 to 3 years ago. That phenomenon has been the same in the UK and Europe. In the UK the Bank of England and in Europe the ECB are doing the same thing the Fed is doing and that is buying government debt by creating money and credit out of thin air. The City of London, Wall Street and Frankfurt would have you believe these injections into the systems were working, when in fact all they have done is temporarily bail out Wall Street and the City of London and the European financial centers as well as the governments involved. Nothing has been done to structurally assist the system and put people back to work. What readers have to understand is that what has been done to these economies does not work and the participants know it doesn’t work. Professionals, who are not connected with the elitists, have panicked, because they do not understand what is going on – what is being done to them. The market was ripe to fall, but there is another important factor, Wall Street wants a short-term debt extension with little or no spending cutbacks. The new conservatives say no, we are not going to do that. The market will be taken lower until these representatives see the light. How far are they willing to take the market down, probably to between 8,500 to 10,000 on the Dow, or until Congress gives them what they want. In the meantime they will attack commodities, gold and silver, so no one can profit. Unfortunately for them, that isn’t working this time. They are lower, but come back every time they are artificially pushed down. We believe that is what this market correction is all about. Wall Street will take the market down as far as they have to in order to get what they want. In the meantime the Middle East and Europe are in turmoil and wars abound in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Those on the inside understand that the market is fueled by major deficit spending and the injection of money and credit, as government inflates debt away. The economy and the market for the last two years have not justified stock prices at the level they have maintained during that period. The same is true for the UK and Europe.
Most of the professionals do not understand what is really going on and what is being done to them and their clients. Data is weak and getting weaker as economic statistics continue to fall and point to more problems ahead. This is ample justification for a falling market to aid the deliberate reduction in prices. We must remember that the only bastion of gains for the public left is the market. If it comes down Congress will hear from constituents loud and clear. That is what is supposed to force the issue on passing the short-term debt extension.
As a reaction to this free spending foreign governments have slowed or stopped their purchase of Treasury and Agency bonds leaving the job to the Fed. This problem is going to worsen as we go forward. Now it is not only foreign governments that are slowing purchases, but also American households as well. They are selling more than $1 trillion annually and sales are increasing, as mom, pop and hedge funds dump government paper.
As QE2 nears an end investors are getting emotional. It is called panic. They can expect little from the FOMC next week, Europe can expect the same from the EU meeting the following week. Greece is in a state of revolution and there is no agreement in sight. In fact, the banks, governments, the EU and the IMF cannot agree on anything. The Greeks want a break in terms. If they do not get one it is default.
We predicted Greece would pursue these ends and we told them to do so several times on radio, TV and in the press. A Greek default will not only bring the euro down, it will take down the European banking system and that was our intention from the beginning.
Greece and the other countries in financial and economic trouble should have never been included in the euro zone. They simply were not qualified and the solvent countries not only knew that, but also stood by as these countries cooked the books with the help of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. We wrote about it 11 years ago, but no one was listening.
The Greeks after a year of austerity have had enough of it, and are in no mood to give away their country to the bankers. An interest in the telecom company was recently sold to the Germans for $0.30 on the dollar. The Greeks are not going to stand still for anymore such sweetheart deals. When Greece entered the euro zone on January 1, 2001, they were happy to have an austerity program for entry in as much as they had the highest inflation rate in Europe. Their deficits were higher than any other EU country at that time, but the bank and sovereign loans kept coming, because it was political. The EU and the euro zone were to be the template for the new world currency and the new world government. That is why Greece and others were rushed into the euro zone. Then there was the novel and stupid concept of one interest for all, which we said at the time guaranteed disaster, and that is what we have ten years later.
We have recommended the purchase of gold and silver coins, bullion and shares since June 2000, after we got subscribers and others out of the stock market in the second week of April 2000, two weeks after the top. We did the same thing at Dow 14,000 and predicted a bottom at 6,600. The fall was to 6,550. We got subscribers out of the real estate market starting in June of 2005. As you can see we have been on top of things all those years. The call on the destruction of the euro we hope will be our best call yet. The perceived risk from our point of view is that Greece will default and leave the euro to be followed by Ireland and Portugal and later Belgium, Spain and Italy. It will probably take two to three years for this to become reality. Germans do not want the euro and never have wanted it. We believe within three years every country will be back with their own currencies and the dream of one world government for now in Europe will be a dead issue.
The Greek fallout will take down a number of too big to fail European banks, and could cause serious harm to lender countries. These mistakes will not be anything they will do again, anytime soon. We do not believe the Fed will be able to bail out European banks this time. The American public won’t stand for it after having to go to federal appellate court and traverse two years to find out the Fed lied and overstepped its charter by being banker to the world. The problems in the US are similar to those of Europe and it is only a matter of time before the US financially blows up. If Greek yields can go to 17-1/2%, so can yields in all countries in trouble, and there are plenty of them. The taxpayers in the US, UK and Europe are fed up with paying the bill for all of this speculation and mad political escapades. That will soon come to an end. It has too, as bankruptcy seems to be the only option. Three-month Treasury bills yield zero percent, and 2-year bills yield 0.40%, as the 10’s yield 2.91%. There now is only one way for yields to go and that is up. There is a limit to credit creation, but we are not at the juncture as yet. It is probably two years off, perhaps three years.
One of the aspects of the debt disease we haven’t really discussed is the fallout from Greece if and when it goes under. Thirty-three European banks hold large amounts of bonds in the PIIG countries, and they could all go under if the 5 or 6 weak countries go bankrupt. In addition, there are the countries and others who are loaded with these bonds. Like the Fed the ECB has been bailing out banks and it is against the rules, so that could put the officers in legal jeopardy. The very fact that these bankers broke the rules is onerous. The big question is are they headed for jail? If they have made mistakes the taxpayer has to pay the bills. We believe they should be in jail. The bill for exposure to the debt of the 5 financially weak nations could be $625 billion. The ECB has done the same thing the Fed has done and that is bankroll insolvent banks by buying the toxic waste they own and putting it on their balance sheets, which the public get to pay for. It is the socialization of corporate debt, fascist style. Most of the garbage has no value or little value. We always wonder what prices the Fed and the ECB pay for the soiled merchandise. Both refuse to tell us.
It is said the ECB is using 24 to 1 leverage with only $116 billion in capital and reserves. If assets fall 4.25% its entire capital base would be wiped out. That could easily happen if Greece and the other four PIIGS default. We call that ominous because none of the problem countries want to repay the debt to a gaggle of bankers who are nothing but criminals. Our take is the 5 will eventually default and perhaps Belgium as well. That means the ECB is insolvent and the major banks throughout the euro zone are as well, including many central banks. Professionals do not have a clue about how serious this is to the entire world financial system. Perhaps we are wrong. The ECB only has $268 billion in Greek bonds. That is simply a trifle for such big socialist hitters. Yet, it is double their capital base.
A Greek default would put 94% of the direct losses on European creditors and 5% would be shared by US creditors. The other side of the equation is US companies making some 90% of all losses being owed by US writers of default insurance. These US banks have sold $120 billion of credit default swaps to European banks. These are the banks that are too big to fail, which American taxpayers will have to pick up the losses for. Have those US banks hedged their exposure? We do not know, but we do know what they have done is irrational and incompetent. That is unless the US or the Fed had to for some reason guarantee losses. Something similar to what we suspected in the US banks’ sale of toxic waste to these same European banks. If the Fed, the Treasury and the Exchange Stabilization Fund are audited we will find out. These numbers are staggering, but their exposure to $100 billion in Irish debt is equally as onerous.
Such speculation and secret deals have to come to an end if we are going to survive financially. We definitely need to re-pass the Glass-Steagall Act that we fought hard to protect 13 years ago.
We can promise you that if Greece defaults eventually the ECB will be insolvent. We have dreamed of that day for 12 years. The destruction of the ECB and the euro zone, which would in part destroy the Illuminist drive into world government.
We think in order to avoid such a catastrophe the ECB would simply print more money as the Fed has, prolonging the agony. The real bailout mechanism would be France and Germany to put up their gold to save the euro zone and the euro. That is if the US allows Germany to have their gold. We can promise you that if the politicians of these two countries attempted to use their countries gold as collateral or propose its sale they would be lynched.
Like the Fed, the ECB has no credibility left. It is obvious that these two central banks only mission is to save the financial system that owns them. When are people going to smarten up? The ECB and the bankers thought Greece and the Greek people would be a pushover. The bankers thought they would just move in and loot the country. Once the Greeks were educated on the issues they made the proper choices. That is why we spent so much time on radio, TV and in the press there. Now they know the truth and the bankers, the euro and the EU are screwed. The ECB, as a result, is dead meat whether they realize it or not.
World debt is unpayable, especially that of the US, UK and the euro zone. The only solution is collapse. There can be no saving the system. It is only a matter of time and what the catalyst is. It could be Greece.
The International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for U.S. economic growth on Friday and warned Washington and debt-ridden European countries that they are “playing with fire” unless they take immediate steps to reduce their budget deficits. The IMF, in its regular assessment of global economic prospects, said bigger threats to growth had emerged since its previous report in April, citing the euro zone debt crisis and signs of overheating in emerging market economies.
The Washington-based global lender forecast that U.S. gross domestic product would grow a tepid 2.5 percent this year and 2.7 percent in 2012. In its forecast just two months ago, it had expected 2.8 percent and 2.9 percent growth, respectively.
Overall, the IMF slightly lowered its 2011 global growth forecast to 4.3 percent, down from 4.4 percent in April. Its forecast for 2012 growth remained unchanged at 4.5 percent.
The IMF said it was slightly more optimistic about the euro area’s growth prospects this year, but a lack of political leadership in dealing with Europe’s debt crisis and the wrangling over budget in the United States could create major financial volatility in coming months.
“You cannot afford to have a world economy where these important decisions are postponed because you’re really playing with fire,” said Jose Vinals, director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department.
“We have now entered very clearly into a new phase of the (global) crisis, which is, I would say, the political phase of the crisis,” he said in an interview in Sao Paulo, where the updates to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook and Global Financial Stability Report were published.
In the United States, the political problems include a fight over raising the legal ceiling on the nation’s debt. A first-ever U.S. default would roil markets and Fitch Ratings said even a “technical” default would jeopardize the country’s AAA rating.
Olivier Blanchard, the fund’s chief economist, told reporters that while the risk of a double-dip recession in the United States is small, growth is unlikely to be fast enough to quickly bring down the 9.1 percent U.S. unemployment rate.
The IMF said the outlook for the U.S. budget deficit this year has improved somewhat due to higher-than-expected revenues. In a separate report, it forecast a deficit of 9.9 percent of GDP — still high, but better than the deficit of 10.8 percent of GDP it foresaw in April.
U.S. securities regulators are weighing civil fraud charges against some credit-rating companies for their role in developing the mortgage-bond deals that helped unleash the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s long-running probe into the deals has widened to the major credit-rating firms, including Standard & Poor’s, the people said.
The leading ratings companies have been criticized by lawmakers as “key enablers” of the financial meltdown, helping to fuel the $1 trillion Wall Street mortgage-securities machine before the boom ended.
But the major ratings firms have largely avoided any regulatory crackdown. [From our point of view they should be charged criminally. Bob]