Economy

(SteveWatson) – Gold Prices Heading For Record Highs

Gold futures surged toward record highs Thursday as the stock market and the U.S. economy continued to flounder, leaving investors seeking a safe haven in hard assets. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – CHART OF THE DAY: Food Prices Are About To Explode – Read More Here

(Leap2020) – Global systemic crisis / Second half of 2010: The global system’s four single points of failure

Each day the news confirm the extent to which the global systemic crisis has now entered into the phase of global geopolitical dislocation, even if the media only timidly begin to interpret the historic upheavals which unfold before our own eyes. For LEAP/E2020, the second half of 2010 will thus correspond to a new step in the global geopolitical dislocation, characterized by an acceleration in the process of strategic, financial, economic and social convulsions centered on four single points of failure Read More Here

(MSNBC) – Home builders won’t lift the economy this time

Homebuilders are sending a message: They won’t be able to contribute much to the economic recovery now that government home-buying incentives have vanished. Read More Here

(InterForecaster) – Federal Reserve Purchases U.S. Sovereign Debt – Bob Chapman

We believe an inflationary depression began in February of 2009, and little has changed. Since then factory output has increased, as have inventories and other outward signs, such as retail sales. We believe that one-year spurt is ending, unless a new stimulus program is put in place. Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – 100 Italian Economists Say Austerity Will Destroy Europe

The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard points to a letter signed by 100 Italian economists (technically Keynesianites, but in the great Ponzi, the two have become synonymous) in which they note that “the austerity strategy imposed by Brussels/Frankfurt risks tipping Europe into a self-feeding downward spiral. Read More Here

(TheStreet) – Gold Prices Reach for $1,254

Gold prices were gunning to break their record high Thursday as an uncertain stock market fueled demand for gold as a safe haven asset. Read More Here

(CNNMoney) – Out-of-work job applicants told unemployed need not apply

The last thing someone who is unemployed needs to be told is that they shouldn’t even apply for the limited number of job openings that are available. But some companies and recruiters are doing just that. Read More Here

(Reuters) – More Than 90 Banks Miss TARP Payments – Read More Here

(June 16) – Video: Alex Newman Reveals Fed Manipulations & ‘Bernanke’s Trillions’ on Alex Jones Tv

New American journalist Alex Newman talks with Alex about his latest article, Fed Manipulations in the Crosshairs. “It turns out that under the guise of “stabilizing” the economy, the Federal Reserve banking cartel had set in motion a series of actions that would eventually transfer trillions to the bankers at taxpayers’ expense, all while decimating the investments of countless average Americans,” writes Newman. Alex also covers the news and takes your calls.

Economy

(SteveWatson) – Gold Surges As Euro Continues To Collapse

Highest gain for four weeks on fears of disintegration of Euro zone Read More Here

(Maclver) – Wisconsin Borrows $1.4 Billion from Feds for Unemployment Funds

Wisconsin’s loans place the state as one of the largest Unemployment Reserve debtors in the country. Read More Here

(Money&Markets) – The Biggest Shock of All

Why did the specter of collapse in far-away Hungary help sink the Dow by 323 points on Friday?

And why did similar scenarios in Greece, Spain, and Portugal trigger the Dow’s 1,000-point Flash Crash one month earlier? Read More Here

(ITN) – Impact of cuts will be enormous, warns PM

In a major speech on the economy, the Prime Minister will say the proposed cuts programme will affect “our whole way of life” and could be felt for decades, such is the scale of the debt problem. Read More Here

(WSJ) – Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse – Read More Here

(Globe&Mail) – Canada wins key fight against bank tax

Proponents of such a tax ­ including the United States and Europe ­ are free to go it alone, but the new plan allows the rest of the G20 to avoid the controversial idea and find other ways to reduce banking risks. Read More Here

(DailyReckoning) – Government Desperate. Gold Tax Imminent?

The thrust is that, as Mr. Steer says, “Adrian floats the disturbing possibility that governments, looking around for easy sources of revenue, may decide to tax the private ownership of gold.” Read More Here

(EconomicCollapse) – U.S. National Debt 2010 – Read More Here

(Economicrant) – By Christmas 50,000,000 Americans will be eating at the government trough

Other presidents get the picture on paper currency. Obama should have his picture on food stamps. There are now 40 million Americans who choose to have the government feed them rather than feed themselves. This is almost 1 in 7 people who depend on government food. Now do you see how totally and completely hopeless things are? Read More Here

(BusinessWeek) – Fed Denies Bernanke Attended Bilderberg – Read More Here

(CNSNews) – U.S. Will be Like Greece in ‘Seven to 10 Years,’ Say Congressmen, Experts

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), along with other members of Congress and leading financial experts, is warning that the United States is in danger of being in the same dire situation as Greece – national bankruptcy — in seven to 10 years if the nation doesn’t slash its debt and control spending, unless the federal government radically curtails spending. Read More Here

(ZeroHedge) – On The Imminent US Debt To GDP Parity – Tyler Durden

One of the most recurring and troubling topics on Zero Hedge is the imminent US Debt to GDP parity: even as the US economy is starting to roll over from a temporary sugar high into a double dip, the hangover effect of $2.1 trillion in debt incurred since March 2009 will linger for a long, long time. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – In 5 Years, UK Will Be Spending More On Interest Than Schools, Climate, And Transport Combined

Based on the calculations of the last government, in five years’ time the interest we are paying on our debt is predicted to be around £70bn. That is a simply staggering amount. No wonder the previous government refused to publish the information. Read More Here

(EconomicCollapse) – College Students This Is Your Future: High Unemployment And Student Loan Hell

Hundreds of thousands of college students all over the United States have just graduated and are getting ready for their first taste of the real world. Unfortunately for them, the real world is not always easy and it is not always fair. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP Chart of Day

President Barack Obama is poised to increase the U.S. debt to a level that exceeds the value of the nation’s annual economic output, a step toward what Bill Gross called a “debt super cycle.” The CHART OF THE DAY tracks U.S. gross domestic product and the government’s total debt, which rose past $13 trillion for the first time this month. Read More Here

(Fox) – Video: Peter Schiff on Fox Business News

Economy

(ZeroHedge) – With Local Gold Inventories Depleted, Panicking German Dealers Stage Run On Krugerrands – Tyler Durden

Last week we noted that several prominent Austrian and German gold dealers had run out of inventory and were no longer transacting with a European population that has suddenly discovered gold religion. As a result, dealers are now focusing procurement efforst outside of Europe, with South Africa receiving the brunt of Europe’s panic for physical precious metals. As the FT reports, “At the Rand refinery in South Africa, the phone has not stopped ringing this week.” Just imagine what will happen when the gold bug goes airborne and jumps across the Atlantic… Read More Here

(Rense) – Our Sympathies To The People Of Greece – It’s “déjà-vu all over again”!!! – Adrian Salbuchi

When Argentinians watch the news today and see the terrible things that are happening in Greece, we cannot but say, “Hey!! This is EXACTLY like Argentina in December 2001 and beginning of 2002!”. Then too, Argentina underwent its worst systemic banking, public debt and monetary collapse which led to social turmoil, mad violence, rioting, and social war. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Greece Considering Legal Action Against U.S. Banks for Crisis

Greece is considering taking legal action against U.S. investment banks that might have contributed to the country’s debt crisis, Prime Minister George Papandreou said. Read More Here

(ChartingStocks) – Federal Deficit Chart (1901 to 2010)

Federal Deficit chart from 1901 to present. It aint pretty! See comparisons of current deficit with that of World War 2 below. See Chart Here

(GlobalResearch) – Financial Fraud. How It Works. The Truth behind the Madoff Investment Scandal

The mass media is not telling the entire truth about the Bernie Madoff scandal and that is contributing to the suffering of the victims of the largest investment scandal in history. Massachusetts School of Law Dean Lawrence Velvel ought to know; he’s one of them.
“Let me tell you the things you don’t know,” said Velvel, who has written extensively on the complex subject in books and blogs and hosted several television programs dealing with the Madoff affair. “The media isn’t telling the whole story because they generally focus only on the very wealthy people who were taken in. But the vast majority of the victims are ordinary people, like you and me, and they are the ones who are now left twisting in the wind. It looks to us like the wealthy are being helped now while the average bloke who put in $500,000 or $750,000 and who needed to use the income in order to live is being hurt.” Read More Here

(InfoClearingHouse) – The Vicious Circle of Debt and Depression – It Is a Class War

Never before has so much debt been imposed on so many people by so few financial operatives—operatives who work from Wall Street, the largest casino in history, and a handful of its junior counterparts around the world, especially Europe. Read More Here

Will the Wall Street Banksters Ever Be Held Accountable? – Danny Schechter

We are all still stuck in the “big Muddy.” No, not the wars of old or even the oil disaster. The mud I am referring to is more like quicksand and it sucks anyone who wants to look at what happened in the financial crisis deeper and deeper into it.

Soon, you are buried in shifting sea of so-called “exotic financial instruments,” and tranches, derivatives, credit default swaps, naked short-selling, etc and so forth, ad fin item. It’s murkier in there than in the oil-infested waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Stop, my head hurts. Read More Here

Video: More Banking Propaganda Brought to You by a Division of The Royal Bank of Scotland –

PIMCO: The US Falls Into the Sovereign Debt Ring of Fire

In the latest PIMCO investor letter, Bill Gross brings up a chart he likes to call “The Ring of Fire.”

MSM: ‘AGW? I refute it THUS!’: Central England Temperatures 1659 to 2009

(Telegraph) – If there’s anyone left you know who STILL believes in Anthropogenic Global Warming, you might want to show them this chart.

Three Government Reports Point to Fiscal Doomsday

When our leaders have no awareness of the disastrous consequences of their actions, they can claim ignorance and take no action.

Unemployment Edges Up to Great Depression Level

Here is a chart released by the government that claims to show the percentage of unemployed people in the United States as of July, 2009. It is a fictional snapshot of the actual number of unemployed and under-employed people.

Fox to Guard Henhouse? Former Monsanto VP May Be Named To Head FDA Safety Working Group

Sometimes I’m just rendered speechless, and this is one of those times. Natasha Chart via Sustainable Food at Change.org:

Obama’s considering appointing a former Monsanto vice president, Mike Taylor, to head the Food Safety Working Group at the FDA.

The U.S. and the U.K. Will Both Default on Their Debt by the End of Summer

As anticipated by LEAP/E2020 as early as October 2008, on the eve of summer 2009, the question of the US and UK capacity to finance their unbridled public deficits has become the central question of international debates, thus paving the way for these two countries to default on their debt by the end of this summer.

The Death of the Dollar?

First, let me start with a few basic economic terms to get everyone on the same page:

inflation: a persistent, substantial rise in the general level of prices related to an increase in the volume of money and resulting in the loss of value of currency

The Annihiliation Of The Dollar’s Purchasing Power

This is the chart they don’t want you to see: the purchasing power of the dollar over the past 76 years has declined by 94%. And based on current monetary and fiscal policy, we have at least another 94% to go. The only question is whether this will be achieved in 76 months this time.

Stock Markets Record Worst January Ever!

The good news is: Non existent. The S&P 500 (SPX) finished its worst January ever, down 8.57%.

During the 1st year of the Presidential Cycle, since 1928, the SPX has been up 62% of the time, in January during the 1st year of the Presidential Cycle, with an average gain of 1.7%. Out of the 8 times the SPX has been down in January during the 1st year of the Presidential Cycle all but one turned out to be the beginning of a down year.