Economy

(ZeroHedge) – The WSJ’s Hit Piece On Gold – Tyler Durden – Read More Here

(GoldScents) – ENDING PHASE?

I have to wonder, are we entering the ending phase of this cyclical bull?

For sometime now I’ve noticed the similarities between the `02-`07 cyclical bull and what we’ve experienced since March of last year. The one difference is that this time we’ve truncated the middle phase of the bull. I suspect that was a direct result of the massive liquidity Bernanke … and all central banks have pumped into the system. Read More Here

(InterForecaster) – Deflationary Depression and Purging To Come – 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. This past week we saw a $78 billion addition to unemployment benefits and Larry Summers has said they need an additional $200 billion. In order to keep the economy going sideways a total of another $800 billion will be needed. Read More Here

(KUT) – State Business Tax Receipts Down

RJ DeSilva with the State Comptroller’s Office says new figures show a ten percent decline from last year. Read More Here

(TimesOnline) – UK Welfare State = Family Breakdown, Emasculated Men – Read More Here

(WSWS) – Europe’s media warn of global social unrest – Read More Here

(ClickOrlando) – Want Ad: Unemployed Need Not Apply

Job hunters are facing a new trend: businesses asking recruitment companies to keep unemployed people out of their job pools. Read More Here

REPOST – (RawStory) – Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of BP stock before spill

Firm’s stock sale nearly twice as large as any other institution; Represented 44 percent of total BP investment Read More Here

(CityWire) – Why Rothschilds is piling into gold – Read More Here

(Money&Markets) – RED ALERT: Get out of vulnerable stocks IMMEDIATELY!

You don’t have much time.

A Dow meltdown is imminent, and if you want to protect yourself from losses, it’s time to get out of the vulnerable stocks in your portfolio — immediately. In this special edition, I will explain why. Read More Here

(BizJournals) – Hawaii bankruptcy filings up 34.4% – Read More Here

(Telegraph) – EU plans green taxes to cut debt – Read More Here

Economy

(NYTimes) – Germany Acts Alone to Protect the Euro and Big Banks Against Speculators

On Wednesday, the government’s partial ban on so-called naked short-selling took effect, as part of Berlin’s effort to protect its biggest financial institutions and the euro currency from investors who have been betting against them. Read More Here

(EconomicPolicyJournal) – 32 States Have Borrowed from the Federal Government to Make Unemployment Payments; California Has Borrowed $7 Billion – Read More Here

(WSJ) – FDIC: ‘Problem’ Banks at 775 – Read More Here

(USAWatchdog) – FDIC Insurance Fund Still $20 Billion in the Hole – Read More Here

(NoWorldSystem) – Senate Passes Wall Street Permanent Bailout Bill, It’s a Job Killer!

The Senate passes the Wall Street Reform Bill (S. 3217) by a 59-39 vote, if it passes the House it will kill jobs by making it difficult for small businesses to succeed and it will give permanent and unlimited bailout authority for the big banks on Wall Street. It would also do nothing to solve problems in the financial system and won’t prevent the next financial crisis. Read More Here

(Fox) – Video: Congressman Paul discusses gold and the markets with Stuart Varney on Fox Business – View Video Here

(Creators) – Confiscating Your Property – John Stossel

Your life and liberty may still be safe, but have you ever gone to a government surplus auction? Consumer reporters like me tell people, correctly, that they are great places to find bargains. People can buy bikes for $10, cars for $500.

But where did the government get that stuff? Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – The Financial Crisis as a Game of 3 Card Monte – You always think you are going to win until you lose – Danny Schechter

We live in a three card monte world. Follow the money as it moves from one shell to another. Now guess where it is. Most of us don’t know the hand can be quicker than the eye. That’s why mostly everyone who has ever been suckered into playing ends up losing except those who are allowed to win to keep the hustle going. We miss the tricks of the trade even as we swear we know where the winning card or money or ball is. Read More Here

(ImplodeOMeter) – One in Ten Mortgage Borrowers Will Lose Their Home To The Bank

New Observations is forecasting that a minimum of one in ten homes with a mortgage today will be lost to foreclosure in the next two years and that this loss represents a staggering five-million-unit addition to inventory-for-sale. Read More Here

(SilverBearCafe) – Dow’s New Highs All Lies

All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief. – Marcus T. Cicero. 106-43 BC, Great Roman Orator, Politician
As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words. To be sure the charts below quite clearly illustrate that the Dow has not put in a single new high in the past 3 years. Read More Here

(Reason) – Confiscating Your Property

How asset forfeiture laws violate individual rights – Read More Here

(NakedEmperor) – Volcker Revelation: ‘Stiff’ New Tax Needed to Cover Obama Spending at 25% of GDP

“Stiff” new taxes? How about ’stiff’ new spending cuts. It’s no surprise spending like a drunken sailor (apology to drunken sailors everywhere) on shore leave isn’t sustainable. Video Link Here

(WashingtonsBlog) – Senate Passes Faux Financial “Reform” Bill

The Senate passed a financial “reform” bill today by a 59-39 vote which won’t fix any of the core problems in the financial system, and won’t prevent the next financial crisis. Read More Here

(MyBudget360) – FDIC next government trillion dollar bailout? Since January of 2000 to October of 2007 we had 27 bank failures. From January 2008 to May 2010 the FDIC has closed down 237 banks. Why 1,000 bank failures will occur before the Great Recession is over. – Read More Here

(MoneyAndMarkets) – Our SIXTH Warning: Dow in Danger!

On March 27, Mike Burnick warned you — right here in Money and Markets — that the big stock market rally of 2009-2010 “could come to a crashing end at any time.” Read More Here

(Reuters) – U.S. companies lobby Congress on derivatives-WSJ

At least 42 nonfinancial companies and trade associations are lobbying the U.S. Congress to push back on proposals that regulate the over-the-counter derivatives market, the Wall Street Journal said on Friday. Read More Here

(VancouverSun) – Wealth gap spurs revolts across Asia

Peasants left out of region’s economic miracle are rising up against their rulers, creating widespread security threats Read More Here

(Chron) – Texas leaders announce $1.2 billion in state cuts – Read More Here

(Reuters) – NYSE expects all U.S. stocks to have circuit breakers – Read More Here

(AP) – Mortgage delinquencies drag on economic recovery – Read More Here

(EconPolicyJournal) – German Finance Minister: Markets Out of Control

“I’m convinced the markets are really out of control,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told  FT. “That is why we need really effective regulation, in the sense of creating a properly functioning market mechanism.”

TRANSLATION: Governments are having a difficult time controlling markets, given we have screwed things up so terribly. If we don’t control this somehow, all our plans for a one world government, ruled by us elite, will collapse. – Source: Economic Policy Journal

(NewStatesman) – Grotesque Global Financial System: Greece. Economic Theft on an Unprecedented Scale – John Pilger

As Britain’s political class pretends that its arranged marriage of Tweedledee to Tweedledum is democracy, the inspiration for the rest of us is Greece. It is hardly surprising that Greece is presented not as a beacon, but as a “junk country” getting its comeuppance for its “bloated public sector” and “culture of cutting corners” (Observer). The heresy of Greece is that the uprising of its ordinary people provides an authentic hope unlike that lavished upon the warlord in the White House.

Economy

(RussiaToday) – Video: World economies in depression – Webster Tarpley – View Video Here

Video: Letterman – Brian Williams On The Stock Market Collapse – View Video Here

(Fox) – Video: Ron Paul on FOX News – “This is a currency crisis” – Video Link Here

Video: Senate Sellout Threatens Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed Bill – View Video Here

(AFP) – Merkel blasts ‘treacherous’ banks in Greek crisis

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday slammed “treacherous” practices by banks during the Greek crisis and said governments must crack down on speculators hunting profits in the turmoil. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – The Global Economic Crisis, The Great Depression of the XXI Century – Michel Chossudovsky

The following text is the Preface of The Global Economic Crisis. The Great Depression of the XXI Century, Michel Chossudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall (Editors), Montreal, Global Research, 2010, which is to be launched in late May.

Each of the authors in this timely collection digs beneath the gilded surface to reveal a complex web of deceit and media distortion which serves to conceal the workings of the global economic system and its devastating impacts on people’s lives. Read More Here

(C-SPAN) – Video: Ron Paul – Money Isn’t Worth What It Used To Be! – View Video Here

(Infowars) – Video: Bankers Laughing All the Way to the Bank

The ‘Audit the Fed’ bill has been watered down by Senator Bernard Sanders right at the last minute (a common strategy: pretend to be a populist, then at the last minute, the politician “gives in” in the spirit of compromise). The Audit the Fed bill could go to vote in the Senate any day now. View Video Here

(Infowars) – Video: Greg Palast Tells How The IMF Set-Up Iceland & Greece on Alex Jones TV – View Video Here

(StraitsTimes) – Romania braces for austerity

ROMANIA braced on Friday for a wave of protests after the president unveiled austerity cuts in public sector wages and pensions to meet a deficit target set by the IMF and avoid a Greek emergency scenario. Read More Here

(CNSNews) – Sen. Shelby: Financial Reform Violates Privacy

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said that provisions in the new financial regulatory bill violate privacy rights by allowing the government to collect any financial information it wants from any financial institution it wants. Read More Here

(GlobalResearch) – Economic Slash and Burn: Greece’s Deadly Austerity Measures

The Greek government, and its citizens, are feeling the economic pinch. A brutal reaction to protestors who fear the winding back of the country’s social system has stunned visitors and the public alike. A general strike has been in progress that has crippled schools, hospitals, airline flights and ferries. Protestors have swarmed around the central square in front of Parliament. Read More Here

(USAWatchdog) – The Canary is Dead

In the early days of coal mining, canaries acted as a warning that odorless poisonous gas was present. If there was a dangerous gas build-up, the canary would be the first to keel over. You can use the “canary in a coal mine” metaphor to describe the situation in today’s financial world. Greece is the canary. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – The “Real” Unemployment Rate Jumps To 17.1%

The BLS’s U-6 number, which is sometimes called the “real” unemployment rate, because it takes into discouraged workers who aren’t looking for work ticked up in April from 16.9% to 17.1%. Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – SEC Probes Whether Shock Stock Plunge Exploited Illegally

U.S. regulators plan to examine whether securities professionals triggered yesterday’s stock- market plunge or exploited the turmoil to profit illegally, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Read More Here

(Xinhua) – Greek protesters encircle parliament as new austerity measures approved

Tens of thousands of Greek citizens marched in the center of Athens on Thursday afternoon, encircling the parliament building, while inside the bill on the new austerity measures was approved. Read More Here

(BusinessInsider) – Amazing Audio From The S&P 500 Pits As The Market Goes Into Complete Collapse – Audio Link Here

(PrisonPlanet) – Audit the Fed Amendment Modified – Allows Fed To Keep Secrets

Ron Paul just posted the following message on Facebook:

Ron Paul: “Bernie Sanders has sold out and sided with Chris Dodd to gut Audit the Fed in the Senate. His “compromise” is what the Administration and banking interests want: they’ll allow the TARP and TALF to be audited, but no transparency of the FOMC, discount window operations or agreement with foreign central banks. We need to take action and stop this!” Read More Here

(Neithercorp) – Economy Kept On Life Support While Global Governance Is Organized

While the mainstream media puts on the recovery song and dance, the fundamental problems of the collapse remain the same, and in some cases are growing ever more precarious. Subsections of the public, unaware of the real issues at hand, are holding a misguided jubilee in the tranquil eye of a hurricane, wrongly assuming that the storm has passed. Read More Here

(FireDogLake) – As Dow Swings, Obama To Come Out Against Audit the Fed Today – Read More Here

(Bloomberg) – Video: Marc Faber On Dow Plunge

“The governments are all bankrupt and they can only survive by printing money” – View Video Here

(PaulWatson) – EU Is Collapsing Like Tower Of Babel

But World Bank and IMF vultures are lying in wait to feed on the remains of Greece

MSM: Gore takes cash for water campaign from chemical firm

(Independent) – Al Gore, the self-styled squeakiest-clean and deepest-green politician in American history, has some explaining to do this weekend. His environmental
organisation has taken money to raise awareness about the need for clean water from a controversial chemicals company.

Dow Chemical, the US firm, is sponsoring Life Earth events in 150 cities today. The event aims to raise money for clean water programmes. Research by environmental organisations has found dangerous levels of highly toxic chemicals in rivers, lakes and other water supplies close to several other factories owned by Dow and its subsidiaries in countries including the United States, Brazil and South Africa. Read More Here

Sovereign Debt Fears Signal New Stage of Global Crisis

Stock markets in Europe and Asia fell sharply Friday in the second day of a near-panic selloff fueled by fears that the debt crisis facing weaker European economies will throw the world economy into a “double-dip” recession.

Video: Jim Rogers – Federal Reserve is worsening the depression

(CNBC) – “What would be the first two things you would do if you were in Mr Ben Bernanke’s seat?” Jim Rogers: “I would Abolish the Federal Reserve and Resign.”

Currency Warfare – Bob Chapman

This past week was one of utmost turmoil in world markets. In the midst of an American holiday, Dubai faced bankruptcy for some $100 billion. Another unsuspected untoward event. The exposure of the Dubai event coming as it did could have been discovered at any given time, thus, we question the timing. We can understand why the London market was off some 300 Dow points, but exposure to Dubai was very limited in Europe, the US and in Asia. Could it have been an excuse to take down the US and European markets and gold and silver? We do not know, but we have come to question everything that happens.

Why is the Stock Market Rising While Unemployment is Soaring?

(WashingtonsBlog) – Daniel Gross points out that part of the reason that the American stock markets are going up even though unemployment is rising and the real economy suffering is because multinational corporations headquartered in the U.S. are experiencing strong sales abroad:

U.S. Inflation to Appear Next in Food and Agriculture

The National Inflation Association today released the following statement:
“While most mainstream economists such as Nouriel Roubini are warning of deflationary threats to the U.S. economy, it is our belief that massive price inflation has already begun. The Federal Reserve’s policy of massive monetary inflation in 2009 has caused the Dow Jones to bounce over 50% from its low, oil to rise 100% from its low, and gold to surge to a new all time nominal high. One NIA co-founder just saw his health insurance premium rise 16% over a year ago; and the average tuition for a four-year public college increased this year by 6.5%.

How a Crashing Dollar Hides Trends

Many Americans have a hard time wrapping their mind around a declining currency or the hidden tax that is inflation.  The U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve understands this and for decades has exploited this issue to slowly siphon off the buying power of the U.S. dollar.

Dow Target 6,617, October 25, 2009: Here Is Why

History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. I have been in the camp that this is a bear market rally. That is what I thought we would be getting in March. I’m also in the camp that because of the need to deleverage debt in most of the developed world, we will likely be heading into a global economic depression and perhaps at worse case, a collapse in the banking system.

Wall Street Ponzi Scheme Continues Unabated

The Dow is at 10,000, the Federal deficit is breaking records, unemployment is skyrocketing and money is cheap ~ so let’s inflate the same debt bubble, continue Wall Street’s derivative Ponzi scheme and let Main Street take the risk while Wall Street takes the profit: Allen L Roland

The Robber Barons Are Back — Hide Your Money!

The Dow’s at 10,000, and the bankers are reaping huge bonuses, but the economy in which the rest of us live is a disaster.

Video: Gerald Celente on Social Security

Russia Today – October 17th, 2009

U.S. Stock Markets Disconnected from Reality

(C4L) – Earlier this year, I predicted that the 2009 rally in U.S. stocks could bring the Dow Jones Index as high as 10,000. It looks like that level has been achieved. If, at this point, the index reverses course, I would have made a fairly good prediction.

The Biggest Bust Will Follow the Biggest Bubble

Our “Crash Alert” flag goes back up the pole…
October is almost half over. Will we get through the month without a major sell-off?

Video: Portfolio Manager Says Dow Will Fall To 6,300 By Year End

(CNBC) – With the prospect of higher unemployment hanging over the markets, some experts expect a correction. So are they right? Michael Cuggino, president and portfolio manager at Permanent Portfolio Funds, and John Lekas, CEO and portfolio manager at Leader Capital, shared their insights.

US: Over a quarter million jobs lost in September

The US unemployment rate reached 9.8 percent and the economy lost 263,000 jobs in September, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department. The latest figures undermine claims of an imminent economic recovery and point to the likelihood that the US economy will remain mired in recession for the foreseeable future.

CAUTION: Crash/Collapse Dead Ahead Say Faber, Rogers, Dent and Celente

After a massive upswing in US stocks over the last six months, the recent rally may finally be coming to an end. It seems that the trend of rising stocks on bad or better than expected news may be in a reversal, as evidenced by market participants’ caution over the last couple of weeks. For those that follow contrarian investors like Marc Faber, Jim Rogers, Gerald Celente and Harry Dent, this should come as no surprise.

On anniversary, stock market closes at exact 9/11 level

Eerie coincidence or coded Wall Street tribute?
FDR famously said, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Whether or not that mantra extends to business, everyday life or the ‘free’ market is up for debate, and perhaps subject to one’s personal convictions.

MSM: Forbes Reports the Dollar Has Collapsed

The U.S. dollar reached its lowest point against the euro this year due to a myriad of forces including rising global stocks and commodities prices, low interest rates, and investors diversifying out of Treasury debt and into other assets including U.S. stocks with the Dow Jones industrial average approaching 9500 in late afternoon trading.

Signals of Depression: U.S. Nears Financial Brink, Personal Finances in Tatters

The statistics are shockingly grim. As Congress relentlessly works to pile on more and more big spending programs, deficits near $2 trillion. Meanwhile, government revenues are plummeting, with Treasury reporting a 57% drop in corporate income tax revenue since 2007. An 18% drop in tax revenue is expected for the year overall, the biggest annual decline since the Great Depression.

Vietnam: Chemical companies, US authorities knew the dangers of Agent Orange

August 10, 2009, was the first Orange Day organised in Vietnam – not only to be remembered by victims of Agent Orange but to mark Vietnam’s common pain. Those responsible for exposing Vietnamese citizens and US troops to toxic defoliants kept silent about known health implications, a review of documents finds.

MSM: Monsanto, Dow stack up the genes

(AsiaTimes) – The most complex genetically engineered corn (maize) yet has been approved for use next year in Canada and the United States without its potential health and environmental risks being investigated, anti-biotech activists claim.

US job cuts, foreclosures mount

This week brought new indications that any economic “recovery” in the US will not be shared by the working class. Telecommunications giant Verizon announced that it would eliminate 8,000 jobs by the end of the year, new data showed that the foreclosure crisis is continuing to mount, and weekly initial jobless benefit claims rose.

As jobless claims rise, Wall Street celebrates corporate profit reports

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by 30,000 in the week ended July 18, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The total for the week was 554,000.

The privately owned Federal Reserve runs our Country

We have a situation socially similar to that of the early 1990s, only this time it is twice as bad. Blue-collar workers know they won’t get their high paying jobs back, because our transnational elitist conglomerates have stolen them. They not only took our jobs, they took our dignity as well, and are hiding their profits offshore depriving our Treasury of badly needed revenue. Unemployment will continue to deteriorate thru to the end of the year and next year will only hold its own. That is going to see the rebirth of the militia movement in America.

MSM: JP Morgan 36% profit surge highlights split between Wall St and Main St

(Guardian) – The US bank JP Morgan gave a glimpse of a widening rift in fortunes between Wall Street and Main Street as lucrative business on the financial markets pushed its profits up by 36%, despite worsening defaults on its credit cards and home loans by recession-hit grassroots customers.

The TRUTH …

The United States is now the most indebted civilization in the history of the world and ground zero for the financial crisis.

‘Sucker’s Rally’ Beginning To Unwind?

U.S. stocks are falling again following a massive plunge at the end of the last week amidst signs that the “sucker’s rally” we warned about back in May could now be unwinding, in line with the Bilderberg Group’s 2009 agenda.

Seven More Banks Fail

Oh, the joys of not having to get up with the first ring of the alarm clock!  But then, as I laid in bed this morning wondering what to write about, it came to me in a flash:  There have been numerous alarming signs and portents in the markets this week, if one knows where to look.

MSM: Dow 10,000 … then deflation?

(MarketWatch) – Commentary: A top newsletter see more gains for equities, followed by economic collapse

Is the Fed Juicing the Stock Market?

Why has the stock market been on a 3-month tear when the economy is undergoing the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression? The S&P 500 has shot up 40% from its low on March 9 and the Dow Jones Industrials have followed close behind. Is this a typical bear market rally or is the invisible hand of the Fed goosing the markets?

The Second Crash – On the Way and Unstoppable

Don’t believe it? In a moment you will, when you see the scariest graph of the year.

Wall Street rallies as unemployment rate soars – US shed another half-million jobs in April

The official US unemployment rate jumped by 0.4 percentage points to reach 8.9 percent last month, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department. The economy lost another 539,000 jobs in April, as total job losses reached 5.7 million since the start of the recession in December 2007.

Don’t Be Fooled by Inflation – Peter Schiff

By throwing money at the problem, all the government is creating is inflation. Although this can often look like growth, it is no more capable of creating wealth than a hall of mirrors is capable of creating people.

French Take To The Streets In May Day Anti-Sarkozy Protest

(AFP) -Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across France Friday in May Day marches in a fresh show of force against President Nicolas Sarkozy’s handling of the economic crisis.

Video: Peter Schiff vs. Keynesian Economist

Peter Schiff talks about the markets and takes on the Keynesian Harvard professor and “economist” Greg Mankiw, who wrote a crazy op-ed for the New York Times. This is the April 20, 2009 edition of The Schiff Report.

MSM: Dow sues Canadian government over Que.’s pesticide ban

U.S. Dow AgroSciences has gone ahead with a threatened suit against the federal government under the North American Free Trade Agreement, seeking a repeal of Quebec’s ban on lawn pesticides containing 2,4-D and at least $2 million in damages.

The Looting of America

The New York Times on Thursday published a front-page article that provides further insight into the economic and class interests that are being served by the Obama administration’s economic “recovery” policies.