What started in Tunisia (the demand that Ben Ali step down over his corruption, oppression, high food prices, widespread unemployment and poverty and the humiliation by government agents that caused the desperate act of self immolation) has spread to Egypt with mass demonstrations that began Tuesday, continuing despite an official crackdown by the Mubarak regime. Through internet postings (Twitter and Facebook) larger demonstrations are planned for today in Cairo and other Egyptian cities. Former Chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei (and an Egyptian himself) has joined in the call for Mubarak to step down.
Yesterday saw thousands marching in Sanaa, the capitol of Yemen calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for 32 years to step down.All these countries are different unto themselves, but the people in all of them share similar circumstances of living under dictatorial rule with repression and oppression that brings personal humiliation, lack of respect and dignity toward the individual at the hands of their government, extreme poverty, unemployment, rising prices for necessities along with widespread official corruption.In all the Arab countries in rebellion their governments and their leaders are client states of the U.S. In the name of maintaining stability and our "war on terrorism" we have supported these country's autocrats with military hardware and training of their security forces.Significantly, none of these indigenous rebellions have anything to do with fundamentalist, Islamic Jihadist terrorism.
Monday, January 31, 2011
The Evolving Populist Political Rebellion in the Arab World
From the article:
The Real State of the Union, January 2011
Memo To Banks: You Are Toast
Inflation Is So Much Worse Than We're ToldBanks are not making any money in traditional lines of business—that is, by making loans. No one wants loans. The economy is down for the count. Other than pulling money out of loan loss reserves, banks can only make profits by revaluing assets.The write-downs of trashy mortgages need to be reversed. Banks trade trash with each other at higher prices, recording profits. They sell trash to the government at inflated prices—more on that below. And they jack up late fees on homeowners, credit card users, and other debtors. Even though none of those borrowers can actually pay the late fees, the banks book the revenue now.
8 Reasons College Tuition Is the Next Bubble to BurstInflation is actually much higher than what the BLS claims it is; something that purchasers of college tuition, pharmaceuticals, or health insurance know all too well.To give the BLS some credit, they must try and estimate a single rate of inflation that applies to everyone equally. But that is a completely impossible task. An octogenarian living in Seattle on a meager pension and taking lots of prescription medications will have a totally different inflation experience than an 18 year old living in their parent's basement eating Ramen noodles.But even after spotting the BLS some slack, there are some enormous and glaring errors in their methods that render the official inflation measure hopelessly - and dangerously - inaccurate.In this article... [it will be revealed that] US inflation numbers are badly understated, how this practice short-changes institutions and fixed-income individuals alike, and why this means fiscal and inflationary train-wrecks are the most probable outcome for the US -- and, by extension, the globe.
Tuition has been increasing at such an alarming rate that some say we’re witnessing yet another bubble in America — this time not in the stock market or in housing, but in college tuition.
China Bank Moves to Buy U.S. Branches
China's biggest bank signed an agreement that would make it the first Beijing-controlled financial institution to acquire retail bank branches in the U.S., though regulators could still block the deal.
Obama to Push New Spending: State of Union Speech to Call for Boosting 'Competitiveness' While Nodding to Need for Budget Cuts
President Barack Obama will call for new government spending on infrastructure, education and research in his State of the Union address Tuesday, sharpening his response to Republicans in Congress who are demanding deep budget cuts, people familiar with the speech said.Four Reasons Why The Government Is Destroying The Dollar
The United States government has four interrelated motivations for destroying the value of the dollar:
1. Creating money out of thin air on a massive basis is all that stands between the current state of hidden depression, and overt depression with unemployment levels in excess of those seen in the US Great Depression of the 1930s.
2. It is the weapon of choice being used to wage currency war and reboot US economic growth.
3. It is the most effective way to meet not just current crushing debt levels, but to deal with the rapidly approaching massive generational crisis of paying for Boomer retirement promises.
4. Political survival and enhanced power for incumbent politicians.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Fed Hides Major Accounting Change
From the article:
The Fed, [sneaking] into a regular weekly report... will move off the capital part of its balance sheet any losses the Fed may have on paper it purchased from Goldman Sachs, or anybody else for that matter. Here's Reuters via CNBC (My emphasis):
Concerns that the Federal Reserve could suffer losses on its massive bond holdings may have driven the central bank to adopt a little-noticed accounting change with huge implications: it makes insolvency much less likely.But they are averting asking the Treasury for money in the future by an accounting gimmick that will simply dump the debt off the capital part of the balance sheet, so it won't be reported as a loss, and make it a liability to the Treasury.
The significant shift was tucked quietly into the Fed's weekly report on its balance sheet and phrased in such technical terms that it was not even reported by financial media when originally announced on Jan. 6.
But the new rules have slowly begun to catch the attention of market analysts. Many are at once surprised that the Fed can set its own guidelines, and also relieved that the remote but dangerous possibility that the world's most powerful central bank might need to ask the U.S. Treasury or its member banks for money is now more likely to be averted.
Grocery prices skyrocket faster than official inflation
David Gutierrez, staff writer of NaturalNews.com, states in his article that:
From our research here at LA 4 Liberty, Education (Universities and Colleges) is the only sector in America to have price increases greater than food and medical care over the past several decades. We believe a bubble is about to burst in that sector, because the increases are due to the student loan subsidies from the Federal government. Student loans now make up the majority of personal loan debt in the US.
Grocery prices increased at more than 50 percent the rate of inflation in 2010, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Food prices increased an average of 1.7 percent between November 2009 and November 2010, in comparison with a general inflation rate of only 1.1 percent. The greatest price increases were seen among meat, poultry, fish and eggs, which went up in cost by 5.8 percent. The price of sugar and sweets increased 1.2 percent, the price of fats and oils increased 3 percent and the price of dairy-based products increased 3.8 percent.
The only commodities to go up in price more than food were medical care and transportation.
From our research here at LA 4 Liberty, Education (Universities and Colleges) is the only sector in America to have price increases greater than food and medical care over the past several decades. We believe a bubble is about to burst in that sector, because the increases are due to the student loan subsidies from the Federal government. Student loans now make up the majority of personal loan debt in the US.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Day of Rage
The Day of Rage: Thousands clash with police as protests boil over on streets of Egypt and Lebanon
Thousands of anti-government protesters inspired by the Tunisian revolution clashed with riot police in the centre of Cairo today demanding the overthrow of president Hosni Mubarak.
Police responded with water cannon and attacked crowds with batons and tear gas to clear crowds demanding an end to the country's grinding poverty.
The prostest, the largest Egypt has seen for years, began peacefully, with police showing unusual restraint in what appeared to be a concerted government effort not to provoke a Tunisia-like mass revolt.
As the crowds in central Cairo's main Tahrir square continued to build, however, security personnel changed tactics and the protest turned violent.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Quote for January 24, 2011.
"Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim."
- Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)
CIA Fun Facts, Submitted by Bruce Krasting of FinancialSense.com
I would not say that these Facts are Fun, but they are instructive. Every year, and updated weekly, the CIA publishes the World FactBook, a publication that Wikipedia says is:
Here are some quite telling excerpts from the article that demonstrate an ominous economic future:
The Global Economy...
The US Contribution to the Global Economy...
The US Money Supply...
The US Consumer Debt...
Global Farming...
A reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with almanac-style information about the countries of the world.
It provides a two- to three-page summary of the demographics, geography, communications, government, economy, and military of 267 entities[3] including U.S.-recognized countries, dependencies, and other areas in the world.The World Factbook is prepared by the CIA for the use of U.S. government officials, and its style, format, coverage, and content are primarily designed to meet their requirements.[4] However, it is frequently used as a resource for academic research papers.[5] As a work of the U.S. government, it is in the public domain in the United States.[6]
Here are some quite telling excerpts from the article that demonstrate an ominous economic future:
The Global Economy...
The fiscal stimulus packages put in place in 2009-10 required most countries to run budget deficits - government balances have deteriorated for 14 out of every 15 countries. Treasuries issued new public debt - totaling $5.5 trillion since 2008 - to pay for the additional expenditures. To keep interest rates low, many central banks monetized that debt, injecting large sums of money into the economies. As economic activity picks up, central banks will face the difficult task of containing inflation without raising interest rates so high they snuff out further growth.
Public debt is on the rise... a small increase... from 56.2% to 58.3% of GDP. Only 2.1% [increase]. That doesn’t seem like a big change, right? But look at the implications. Total PSD [Public Sector Debt] rises by 3.4T while global GDP rises by only 3.2T. This means that it takes $1.06 of new debt to create $1 of growth. What better evidence do you need that what we are doing is unsustainable?
The US Contribution to the Global Economy...
World GDP [is] up 4.6% to 74.4 trillion (3.2T YoY).
The US is 20% of total GDP. It contributed only 14% of the total growth. Just a bit more evidence the US economic clout is on the wane.
The US Money Supply...
M1 and M3 (indicators of the total supply of US Dollars)... are rising at 7 and 11% respectively.
If the yearly growth of the US GDP is 3%, then the supply of money is growing twice as fast. This is another reason to buy Precious Metals, true money, such as Gold and Silver.
The US Consumer Debt...
Domestic credit increases by $10 Trillion (10%) in just one year! Total credit is rising at a rate of 3Xs that of real GDP. Guys like [Economist Paul] Krugman will tell you that this is a good thing. To me it is a sign that hyperinflation can’t be very far off.
Again, go buy "The Metals"!
Global Farming...
More than one-third of the global population are farmers. But they only produce 6% of GDP. Conclusion(s)? We have inefficient farmers all over the world. Food prices are going up...
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tunisia and Us by Karen Kwiatkowski
Money quote of article:
Today, Americans choose their news like we choose our comfort foods. We are predictably uninterested in the global empire we fund and pursue. We are predictably unaware of the unfree, economically shriveled, and conflict-ridden world that the US reaction to 9/11 has helped foster and grow. We are predictably unsympathetic to desperately poor people, particularly if they are Muslim... Do what you are told, say the majority of Americans, to the world, and to each other as we struggle weakly and not at all against our pupating fascism. And as Lew Rockwell succinctly noted a few years ago,But what is fascism? It is a real ideology, not just an epithet. It is characterized by belligerent nationalism, militarism, aggressive war, suppression of civil liberties, use of religion in the service of the state, exaltation of the executive, opposition to free markets domestically and internationally, corporatism, welfarism, domestic spying, torture, and detestation of the Other, in this case Muslims and Arabs.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
letter sent to elected representatives by Jim Babka of DownsizeDC
I would like to applaud the fact that the Constitution was read in the House of Representatives last week. But instead I must CONDEMN the fact that most House members didn't stick around to HEAR the reading.
What good does it do to read something if the people who need the information aren't there to HEAR IT!
And you guys desperately DO NEED TO KNOW what the Constitution says.That way perhaps one of you would have noticed immediately that a whole page was being skipped during the reading.
After this display of incompetence do you really expect me to have confidence when you assert the right and the power to do more complicated things?
Needless to say, I have no confidence in the House's new "read the bill" rule. I do NOT believe that any member of the House will use the 3-day waiting period that rule requires to do any reading of any legislation. Most of you couldn't even sit still to hear the Constitution read!
This is why I will continue to pressure you to pass DownsizeDC.org's "Read the Bills Act." THAT would be a real reform because it requires . . .
* A quorum to be present while every word of every bill is read
* You to sign an affidavit that you have read, or heard read, every word of the bill before you cast an affirmative vote
* That courts hold citizens blameless against any legislation passed in violation of these requirements
Please, quit with the meaningless symbolism. Be responsible for a change. Do something real. Introduce DownsizeDC.org's "Read the Bills Act."
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
NIA's Top 10 Predictions for 2011
From article:
The National Inflation Association is pleased to announce its top 10 predictions for 2011.
1) The Dow/Gold and Gold/Silver ratios will continue to decline.
2) Colleges will begin to go bankrupt and close their doors.
3) U.S. retailers will report declines in profit margins and their stocks will decline.
4) The mainstream public will begin to buy gold.
5) We will see a huge surge in municipal debt defaults.
6) We will see a large decline in the crude oil/natural gas ratio.
7) The median U.S. home will decline sharply priced in silver.
8) Food inflation will become America's top crisis.
9) QE2 will disappoint and the Federal Reserve will prepare QE3.
10) Sarah Palin will announce she is running for President as a Republican.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Ron Paul Talks With Ratigan About the Kabuki Theatre of Debt Reduction
Reagan promised much the same in the 1980s and the national debt exploded.
Stations prepped to hike gas prices, analyst says
Tony V. Martin, file | The Times - A customer pumps gas at the Speedway station on U.S. 41 in Schererville. Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with gasoline price search website GasBuddy.com, said a regular gallon of unleaded gasoline was expected to increase Thursday to between $3.15 and $3.19 in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky.
Gas prices are set to rise 20 cents a gallon today. But on a lighter note, here's some humor
Barack Obama - Either Doing His Best In One of The Most Difficult Times In American History, Or Hitler
Monday, January 3, 2011
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