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Monday, May 30, 2011

The Sputtering U.S. Recovery

Analysts worry that interest rates will rise after the Federal Reserve's massive bond buying program, aimed at spurring growth, comes to an end in June. There are concerns about further cutbacks from budget-strapped state and local governments. And last week's disappointing economic reports — unemployment claims rose and first-quarter consumer spending was softer than previously thought — prompted more forecasters to take out their erasers and lower their economic and job projections.-Positive signs in an anemic U.S. recovery

$5 a Gallon Gas By July!

Goldman Sachs' crystal ball is proclaiming that oil will soon soar to $135 a barrel, and likely have service stations jacking up fuel prices to $5 a gallon in New York just like the summer of 2008 that preceded the recession.

Indeed, analysts say Goldman and the other oil trading giant that also has the might to move prices, JPMorgan Chase, have already placed their energy bets for the summer. JPMorgan predicts oil hitting $130 a barrel in the coming weeks.


Comin' this summer... $5 gas

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Housing Meltdown

Home prices still declining....


The housing meltdown hasn’t ended yet, and it could ultimately spark another financial crisis, says renowned bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital.

“The housing market is dropping . . . and about to go to a new low," he tells CNBC. "I think we're looking at some type of echo in the credit crisis coming up here. That's what I'm afraid of."

He notes that the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index is approaching a new trough. The index measuring prices in 20 major cities dropped 3.3 percent in February from a year earlier, the biggest decline since November 2009.

Read more: Bond Expert Gundlach: Housing Collapse to Spark Second Financial Meltdown

Friday, May 27, 2011

Rising Food Prices - Nearly One Billion Go to Bed Hungry

Every day nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry. Rising and volatile food prices are causing pain and suffering for poor people around the world, driving 44 million people into extreme poverty in recent months.



Warning: U.S. dollar could collapse

The United Nations warned on Wednesday of a possible crisis of confidence in, and even a “collapse” of, the U.S. dollar if its value against other currencies continued to decline.

In a mid-year review of the world economy, the UN economic division said such a development, stemming from the falling value of foreign dollar holdings, would imperil the global financial system.-U.S. dollar could 'collapse': UN

World Winter of Discontent

Spain, the UK and Italy are next in line to suffer the long-term consequences of the economic “Panic of ‘08” … that has been only temporarily assuaged by the trillions pumped in by the central banks to keep the financial system afloat.

Economic conditions will continue to deteriorate for most European nations. The worse they get, the louder and more heated the protests will become. Entrenched political parties, unwilling to make adequate concessions or yield power, will intensify their crackdown efforts.

The youth-inspired Spanish demonstrations, sit-ins and camp-outs will serve as a template for the equally disenfranchised youth of other countries. In the absence of an economic miracle, divine intervention … or a fulfilled Doomsday Prophesy (in which case all forecasts are off), expect protests to mount throughout the summer of 2011 and continue into 2012 and beyond.

Arab Spring + European Summer = World Winter of Discontent

Astronomically High Number of Home Sales Are Foreclosure Sales

Foreclosure sales, which include homes purchased after they received a notice of default or were repossessed by lenders, hit the highest share of overall sales in a year during the first quarter, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc.-Foreclosure sales slow, but remain very high

Utah Legalizes Gold and Silver Currency

In order to provide its residents some much-needed security as the U.S. dollar continues to decline, the state of Utah has become the first to legalize gold and silver coins as currency. Sponsored by Republican state Rep. Brad Galvez, the same law exempts the sale of the coins from state capital gains taxes.


Utah Legalizes Gold and Silver Currency

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Spending cuts in exchange for Missouri tornado aid

Virginia U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor said Tuesday that any spending costs associated with federal disaster funding for Joplin, Missouri, tornado victims must be offset with spending cuts.

Read more: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/articles/rep-eric-cantor-spending-cuts-in-exchange-for-missouri-aid

Used Car Prices Rise

According to The Columbus Dispatch, “The lack of supply stems from the economic downturn. Automakers sold fewer new cars, which means that fewer recent models are out there to be traded in.”

The article fails to mention the Cash for Clunkers programs and its desired result of a reduced supply of used cars.

According to the chart (right) in the paper, used car prices rebounded before the program began. But some of the later rise has to be attributed to 650,000 less used cars on the market due to the 2009 program, regardless the paper’s silence on the matter.

-Used car prices up: who would have guessed?

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Still Precious

We live in a literal financial house of cards. It is all paper. That house of cards has been in the process of collapsing since 2008. Astute market participants realize this and are buying bullion, one of the only financial assets with no counterparty risk, as a way to protect themselves from the coming storm.

Silver has more than doubled since Ben Bernanke began his high level terrorist attacks against the US dollar with “Quantitative Easing II,” announced in August of last year. Silver jumped from $18 to nearly $50.



Read more: Silver...Still Precious

The Social Security Ponzi Scheme

“The whole government is a Ponzi scheme.”-Bernie Madoff


If the Social Security is fundamentally flawed, the entire US Economy is fundamentally flawed. This financing mechanism the Fed provides creates NO REAL WEALTH, it merely creates cash out of thin air. Social Security then takes that cash and sets up a generational Ponzi Scheme to take from those that are working, to those that are not. Please don’t tell me that you paid in and that you are just taking out. The money that you put in years ago, got paid out almost immediately to those that were taking from the system back then. Those of you that are collecting money, are directly from workers who are working right now. What is worse, now we are paying people on money we have not even collected yet. With 80 million baby boomers coming to take from the Ponzi scheme this will end as badly as it did for Bernie Madoff’s victims.-Alan Greenspan Admits To Big Ponzi Scheme

Inflation Is Here: Coffee

“The J. M. Smucker Company…announced today that it increased the list price for the majority of its coffee products sold in the United States, primarily consisting of items sold under the Folgers®, Dunkin’ Donuts®, Millstone®, and Folgers® Gourmet Selections® brand names. Prices will increase an average of 11 percent on impacted items.”

J.M. Smucker increases prices an average 11% for its coffees

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

When Greece Defaults

It is when, not if. Financial markets merely aren’t sure whether it’ll be tomorrow, a month’s time, a year’s time, or two years’ time (it won’t be longer than that). Given that the ECB has played the “final card” it employed to force a bailout upon the Irish – threatening to bankrupt the country’s banking sector – presumably we will now see either another Greek bailout or default within days.
What happens when Greece defaults. Here are a few things:
- Every bank in Greece will instantly go insolvent.
- The Greek government will nationalise every bank in Greece.
- The Greek government will forbid withdrawals from Greek banks.
- To prevent Greek depositors from rioting on the streets, Argentina-2002-style (when the Argentinian president had to flee by helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to evade a mob of such depositors), the Greek government will declare a curfew, perhaps even general martial law.


What happens when Greece defaults

What is Apple doing right in the PC market?

What is Apple doing right in the PC market? And what, exactly, did it do wrong in the first quarter of 2006?

Those are the two questions that occur in looking at some of the numbers pushed out by Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham. He's posted an investment note on Apple which points out that Apple's Mac shipments have grown faster than the PC market for the past 20 quarters (that's five years in normal money).

He's also noted that in the first quarter of this year, when Mac shipments grew by 27.7% while the PC market shrank by 1.2% year-on-year (by IDC's numbers; Gartner's show a 0.94% fall) Mac shipment growth occurred in "every single regional market". In Europe, they grew 10% against a PC market down 17.5%; in Asia up 69.4% (v PC market up 8.8%); in Japan, up 21.1% (PCs down 16.1%). All figures are IDC data, and all year-on-year.


More: Apple computer sales grow faster than PC sales for five years - but why?

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Financial Consequences That Will “Dwarf Lehman Brothers”

Failure by the U.S. to get its fiscal house in order will trigger financial consequences that will “dwarf Lehman Brothers” and seriously diminish the nation’s role as a world economic leader, Jamie Dimon told a Denver audience Thursday night.

The CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase, whom The New York Times dubbed “the nation’s least hated Wall Street banker,” said political talk about not raising the U.S. debt ceiling could trigger a default on the nation’s financial obligations. He said that would constitute a “moral disaster” that will be nearly impossible for the U.S. to recover from.

JP Morgan’s Dimon Warns U.S. Government

The End of Keynesian Economics

I have been puzzled by the extent of the media coverage of some crank's prediction that the world would come to an end... People are always predicting the end of the world. So far they have always been wrong. Was there something about this particular prediction that was newsworthy? Did any significant number of people expect to wake up this morning and see graves opening and people ascending into Heaven? This morning, there were news stories to the effect that the world still exists. Really! Did reporters expect their readers to be surprised? Why, in short, was this silliness a major media event?

I wish reporters would pay as much attention to a more important failed prediction: the Obama administration's assurance that its policies, including the "stimulus," would foster job creation and prevent unemployment from reaching 8 percent.

Repent! The End of Keynesian Economics Is At Hand!

Hunger In Egypt

Egypt is running out of food, and, more gradually, running out of money with which to buy it. The most populous country in the Arab world shows all the symptoms of national bankruptcy - the kind that produced hyperinflation in several Latin American countries during the 1970s and 1980s - with a deadly difference: Egypt imports half its wheat, and the collapse of its external credit means starvation.


The hunger to come in Egypt

Thursday, May 19, 2011

LinkedIn Stock Surges After Going Public

The initial public offering was at roughly 45 dollars per share. That nearly doubled in mid-day trading. Is it valued dangerously high?

pp

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com




But is LinkedIn worth -- 100 dollars a share? The Daily Beast’s Gary Rivlin says, hype can be a dangerous thing. He talks with investment analyst David Menlow about those jumping and buying in too high.

“‘I’d put those people on suicide watch.’ … He anticipates those buyers will wind up paying ‘tree-top tall prices—and then finding the limb they’re out on breaking."




LinkedIn's Big Ripoff


Thinking of buying shares of LinkedIn, the social networking company scheduled to make its stock market debut on Thursday? You might want to reconsider after listening to David Menlow and other investment pros who spend their days monitoring the market for initial public offerings.

Sure, buying shares in LinkedIn makes sense if you’re a favored client of Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, or any of the other big banks putting together the LinkedIn deal and have access to the inside price, says Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com, an independent research company. But for those purchasing shares once LinkedIn starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange and the price soars?-With Facebook and Twitter still privately held, investors are hot for the next best thing with the networking site's public offering. But once the banks and insiders get their fill, Gary Rivlin asks, will mom and pop investors get burned?

US Dollar Doomed As Commodities Skyrocket

Economic ministers are meeting in Argentina this week to discuss the volatile nature of the commodity market. As prices continue to skyrocket, the World Bank says the global economy will find a light at the end of the tunnel of today's financial crisis. At the same time, however, the World Bank says the US dollar's dominance will be done by 2025. Harper's Magazine Contributing Editor Frederic Kaufman says new players in the money game need to stop treating the commodity market like the stock market if they want the volatility to cease.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Walk Away?

A strategic default may not be explainable now, but how about in a few years. If enough people walk away and mortgage lenders start lending again, a strategic default may not be looked at in the same light it is today. The key point Ms. Gaskin makes is that “credit remains tight across the board.” That means lenders are looking for reasons to turn down borrowers. When that wind changes, so will the view of a strategic default on a person’s credit report.

Hoak then throws out the canard that landlords won’t want to rent to someone who has strategically defaulted, with Gaskin saying this, “Landlords that make inquiry into credit history may be disinclined to rent to a strategic defaulter or may offer less favorable terms than to a consumer with a strong credit history.”

So we’re supposed to believe that a landlord would turn down a renter because the landlord notices that previously the potential renter made the savvy financial decision to walk away from an underwater mortgage?

Gaskin goes on and on. Your insurance rates will go up and you’ll even have to pay more for your cell phone if you walk away. People don’t walk away unless the numbers are very compelling. So, even if you had to pay another $10 a month for phone and a little more for insurance the thousands saved each month not feeding an underwater mortgage is still worth it.


FICO Says Don’t Walk Away

Future of the IMF

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the putative “public servant” overseeing the IMF, has been conducting himself in the classic tradition of lecherous, narcissistic, self-indulgent 18th century monarchs. And in the grand tradition of serfdom, we American taxpayers, along with working stiffs from 186 other “member countries,” transport the fruits of our labors inside the castle walls of the IMF. We are the ones who provide the capital that puts the “fund” in International Monetary Fund.

For what reason? So that the IMF can give some of our capital back to us if we get into financial difficulty. At least that’s the stated rationale for this large-scale larceny.

Officially, the IMF functions to:

* Promote international monetary cooperation.
* Facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade.
* Promote exchange rate stability.
* Assist in maintaining a multilateral system of payments.
* Provide resources to members experiencing balance of payments difficulties.

Unofficially, the IMF operates to fund the debauchery of lechers, while also bailing out profligate nations who may or may not repay the bailouts. Under the IMF’s existing quota, the US is the largest member, representing 17.75% of the pie. In exchange for this membership, the US has provided the IMF with about $58 billion. Furthermore, this allocation will nearly double, thanks to the IMF’s “Fourteenth General Quota Review.”

Read more: Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the Future of the IMF

Will Our Psychopathic Elite Blame China for the Collapse of the Dollar?

The Elite will never take responsibility for their actions, like true Psychopaths. They will instead blame everyone else in the world for their/our problems. Ultimately, I believe that they will blame China for the collapse of the American Dollar. They could pull a economic false flag and blame China for a crash in the bond market. They could pull a military false flag by sinking an Aircraft carrier in the Pacific. Some way, some how, the Elite are going to make a move to turn the tides for global power back to the West.

China has been very wise not to directly confront the West. China has a very bad history of nations raping China for all of their wealth like the Opium Wars and the Rape of Nanking. China has instead chose to move slowly and surely to ensure victory without firing a single shot. This is the land of Sun Tzu after all. They have accumulated massive dollar reserves, copied our technology and manufacturing. With the opening of the new Hong Kong Mercantile Exchange they are taking the next major step of cutting into the heart of the Anglo American Empire, the dollar stranglehold on the world’s commodities. This will not sit well with the Western Elite and will not go unchallenged.-Read More: China The Video Game Enemy Now…

Rising Prices and Stagnant Incomes

The trouble with inflation today is that it is the worst kind of inflation. It makes prices go up…but not incomes, at least not in the US. Incomes are rising in Asia. So, people can buy more cars and more meat – and push up prices. Then, Americans pay higher prices…while their incomes don’t rise.

Why don’t their incomes rise too? Because the US is in a Great Correction. It spent too much and borrowed too much in the boom/bubble years. Now, it’s paying the price. That’s why so few houses are being built; we built today’s houses yesterday. And it’s why so little money is being borrowed and spent today; we already spent it.

The Land of Rising Prices and Stagnant Incomes

After QE2

We've been wondering who would step in to buy Timmy the Tax Cheat's $1.6 trillion annual debt issuance when the Fed stops printing money out of thin air to monetize it.

Who will buy America's debt when the Fed stops QE2?




Over the past several days, quite a few readers have been asking us why we are so confident that QE3 (in some format: it does not and likely will not be in the form of the Large Scale Asset Purchases that defined QE1 and 2 - the Fed could easily disclose that it will henceforth sell Treasury puts, a topic discussed previously, or engage any of the other proposals from Vince Reinhart disclosed in June of 2003, or worse yet, do what the BOJ does and buy ETFs, REITs and other outright equities) will eventually be implemented by the Fed. Luckily, instead of engaging in a lengthy explanation of the logical, Nomura's Richard Koo comes to our rescue with his latest research piece. While we disagree with Koo on various interpretations of his about monetary theory (namely that the Fed is not in effect "printing" money and thus creating inflation - this is semantics and leads to a paradoxical binary outcome, whereby if there Fed was successful in boosting the economy, the economy would indeed be flooded with the nearly $2 trillion in excess reserves held with reserve banks. And good luck trying to contain this surge by changing the IOER - if the Fed indeed pushed the IOER to the required 5%+ level it would immediately destroy money markets, leading to the same liquidity freeze that marked the post-Lehman days, confirming the "Catch 22" nature of Quantitative Easing that we have observed since its beginning) we do agree with his analysis of what would happen to the economy if either stocks or commodities are in a bubble (and judging by the violent opinions out there, most investors believe that either one or the other has indeed reached bubble territory), should QE2 end cold turkey: "Viewed objectively, the central banks are trying to push up asset prices using quantitative easing and the portfolio rebalancing effect. The resultant rise in asset prices based on this effect represented a potential bubble—or at least a liquidity-driven event—from the start. The question is whether the real economy can keep pace with asset prices formed in those liquidity-driven markets. If it cannot, higher asset prices will be considered a bubble and will collapse at some point. The resulting situation could be much more severe than if quantitative easing had never been implemented to begin with." Bingo.-Richard Koo Explains Why An Unwind Of QE2, With Nothing To Replace It, Could Lead To The Biggest Depression Yet

Gold $6500, Silver $600?

Get ready. We are now entering the final stages in the collapse of the U.S. dollar...

And it's not going to be pretty.

The massive increases in money supplies will tank the value of the dollar and erode the very fabric of America's economic security.

As a result, gold and silver prices are will no doubt skyrocket, despite the short-term major volatility we've recently seen.

Many investors have been rushing to me asking if it's too late to buy precious metals with gold in the $1,500/oz range and recently spiking to nearly $50/oz. I keep telling them the same thing...

Despite whatever the price of gold or silver is today, both metals will be worth more than twice as much within 12 months.

That means $3,000 gold this time next year! After that, I think gold could break $6,500 an ounce.

And as you know, silver's gains will be much greater. When the bull market is all said and done, there's no doubt we could be looking at silver prices exceeding $600 an ounce.

And we can all thank the crooks in D.C. for it...



Gold Aimed at $6,500/oz, Silver... $600/oz

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Walmart's Shrinking Sales

You know the economy is in real trouble when even discount retail giant Walmart is struggling to maintain sales. I just recently got a Sam's Club memebership, but don't personally shop there much, however, Sam's Club sales, which make up 12% of Walmart's total, are helping the company as they the warehouse division improves its sales and goes more upscale to compete better with their rival warehouse store, while flagship Walmart is losing same store sales.


...U.S. Wal-Marts are expected to post another quarter of shrinking sales at stores open at least a year, the eighth such decline in a row.- Sam's Club Buoys Retail Giant


Wal-Mart Leans on Overseas Business
.

U.S. Housing Starts Unexpectedly Fall to 523,000 Pace

Housing Starts Unexpectedly Fall

Monday, May 16, 2011

Jim Rogers: 'US the largest debtor nation in history'

While US and China are holding talks in Washington DC the question arises - who has the upper hand in this negotiation? Co-founder of the Quantum Fund Jim Rogers says he would always like to be a creditor, not a debtor.


Thursday, May 12, 2011

Government Thieves Want Your Pension

In the US, public pensions have been raided for years, Congress routinely ‘borrows’ from Social Security to make up budget shortfalls. This is what talking heads mean when they play down concerns of a $14 trillion debt “because we owe it to ourselves–” $4.6 trillion of the debt is owed to intragovernmental agencies like Social Security.

Chances of this money being repaid to Social Security in full? Slim. The trend is more debt, not paying off existing debt. In fact, I’m convinced that politicians have their eyes firmly fixed on the trillions of dollars in private, individual retirement accounts (IRAs) in the United States to fund new spending.

Here’s how it will go down:

First, there will be some event… some sort of financial cataclysm, similar to the market meltdown we saw in 2008 after Lehman.

Read more: How the US government will seize your retirement account

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Fewer fill-ups

Demand for gasoline in the U.S. fell by the largest amount in seven weeks, the Energy Information Administration said, a signal that consumers are conserving money as gas prices near a national average of $4 a gallon. Gas futures fell almost 8 percent. Crude oil fell back below $100 a barrel, a loss of more than 4 percent.

Fewer fill-ups may be an early sign of a broader drop in consumer and business spending as customers forgo trips to malls and restaurants and companies ship fewer products. That, in turn, could lead to lower corporate earnings and halt a stock rally that has sent the stock market up 7 percent this year.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Slumping-oil-commodity-prices-apf-1730479577.html

Flooding Driving Up Gas Prices

Flooding along the Mississippi River is driving up gas prices over fears that refineries could become inundated in coming weeks, especially as the deluge heads downriver for Louisiana.

"When we've had flood waters in this part of Louisiana before, it has closed up to 12 refineries," said Peter Beutel, analyst with energy risk management firm Cameron Hanover, referring to the impact of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. "The fear here is that we could see refineries close again."


The nationwide average price for unleaded gasoline climbed 1.1 cents to $3.962 per gallon on Wednesday, according to motorist group AAA, reversing the downward trend of the previous five days.

Floods drives up gas prices

Ahmadinejad on the U.S. Dollar

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strongly criticizes US economic policies, saying that the paper currency created by the American government is taking a heavy toll on the global economy.


The Iranian president also pointed that the US foreign debt now approaching over USD 14.6 trillion, while the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States stands at around USD 14 trillion.

President Ahmadinejad stated that such figures clearly explain the plunder of national wealth in many countries, and the upsurge in poverty and underdevelopment across the globe.-'Paper dollar destroying world economy'

Monday, May 9, 2011

"When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose - they lose it."

Gerald Celente is known to love to make the following statement: "When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose - they lose it." Sadly, Celente is exactly right about this. As the U.S. economy continues to collapse, Americans are going to becoming increasingly frustrated, and this frustration will inevitably boil over into rioting and violence. Could we be starting to see the start of this already? The number of Americans that have "gone wild" seems to be escalating. Years ago, losing a job was not that big of a deal. Now a job loss is enough to cause some Americans to snap and go over the edge. We are seeing restaurant brawls and open violence in the streets that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. All over the nation people are losing it and are literally going crazy. The news stories and the videos posted below of "Americans gone wild" are very graphic and very shocking. - Americans Gone Wild








Sunday, May 8, 2011

The Government Orchestrated Silver Sell-Off



Real Estate Depression Coming Soon?

The foreclosure problem is getting worse. Seventy-five percent of the top 200 markets in the nation saw their foreclosure activity go up at the end of 2010 year-over-year. And, the foreclosure trouble is not just in the four most troubled states either namely – California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. It’s spreading across the nation.

Real Estate Depression Coming Soon

Gold and Silver to Explode Again After Consolidation

With fierce action in the gold and silver markets...King World News interviewed John Hathaway of the Tocqueville Gold Fund. When asked about the smash in the metals Hathaway stated, “I think people go crazy over these price changes and I understand that. I understand how it affects the psyche and all that, but the idea is you have physical (metal), it’s an asset. Whatever it’s valued at one day to another in paper money is irrelevant, you don’t price your house every day.”

Hathaway - Gold & Silver to Explode Again After Consolidation

Price, Truth and Myth

The first thing that most people associate with competition and marketing is price. That’s because they think that price is the most important factor for customers in a buying decision. Well the truth is just the opposite.

“PRICE is most important factor for customers in a buying decision” – Truth or Myth

Ban On Scientific Collaboration with China

A two-sentence clause included in the U.S. spending bill approved by Congress a few weeks ago threatens to reverse more than three decades of constructive U.S. engagement with the People’s Republic of China.

The clause prohibits the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from coordinating any joint scientific activity with China.

Congress Bans Scientific Collaboration with China, Cites High Espionage Risks

US Economy In Peril!

The US economy is facing one of its most devastating downturns in its history. Even though some believe that the crisis may be over, but there are also those who believe the turn is downwards.

In this edition of News Analysis, financial journalist Max Keiser, prof. at California University Paul Sheldon Foote and political expert Eugene Sensenig-Dabbous debate on the US economy.



The Banking Vortex

The American banking system is based on pure faith. Usually when the topic comes up in conversation I will ask someone if they know what backs the green cash in their wallet. One of the common responses is “there is gold in Fort Knox” or another typical response is that it is backed by U.S. assets. Unfortunately both of these answers are incorrect. In fact all of our money deposited in the banking system is backed by the pure faith in our U.S. government. Now for decades this implicit belief was fine because we actually were a creditor and exporter nation. We also had a higher savings rate. Today we have a system where we continually spend more than we produce and expect this dynamic to somehow function long term as if we found an endless well of Kool-Aid. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures each individual account up to $250,000. Given that one in three Americans has zero dollars to their name and most others have a sum nowhere close to this amount, many go forward with an unstated faith in the system. However the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund is largely running on fumes. This shouldn’t be such a big issue aside from the fact that the American banking system has over $7 trillion in deposits.


Banking in darkness – FDIC system insures over $7 trillion in deposits with a dwindling insurance fund. Americans are offered close to zero percent interest rates to stuff their money into this banking vortex.

Oil Prices Drop

Though notice the headline touts the "Second Biggest Drop in History" of oil prices, they are still much higher after the drop than they were a year ago ($75 a barrel in May of 2010, $97 a barrel now).

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Friday, May 6, 2011

At the Heart of the Matter is What Is Money? and How Does Money Maintain its Value? We've Run to the End of this Long Keynesian Experiment

Larry Lepard, is a 54 year old investment manager, Harvard Business School M.B.A., and Ron Paul supporter - Ron Paul supporter in that he's shelled out quite a few bucks to run ads and support RP campaigning.

Alex Jones Reminds Everyone: "You Are The Resistance!!"

Goldman Sachs and the Food Crisis

In a shocking report by Frederick Kaufman that has been featured on the Foreign Policy website, the role of Goldman Sachs and its Wall Street cohort in creating the food crisis has been revealed.

Frederick uncovers the 1991 scheme where Goldman bankers lead by Gary Cohn created a derivative that tracked 24 raw minerals; including coffee, cocoa, cattle, corn, hogs, soy and wheat and how that scheme was then manipulated to raise food commodity prices.-Did Goldman Sachs Help to Create the Current Food Crisis?

Final Fight of Physical and Paper Silver

The Elite have literally thrown everything they have at the silver markets to try to make silver investors weak in the knees and cry uncle. Like a bully trying to take your lunch money by twisting your arm. This can only end one of two ways; you give up and the banksters laugh or you stand up and say enough! These tactics may work on some paper traders who are literally forced by margin calls. For those who have listened to me, and bought only physical, this recent manipulation is only a subsidized discount to buy more, for less.

...

The Real Silver high is close to $450, not the nominal high of $50. I even made the historical case for $960 silver. Gold has almost doubled it’s 1980 nominal high and silver barely touched it, and now it is 30% below that in 4 days. Seriously, are people really worried about $36 silver?! I will be sleeping like a baby tonight. We are only back to when we roaring about the silver bull 5 weeks ago…

The very fact that the CME has not raise the requirements on commodities like oil, corn, or gold should show how important it is for the banksters to keep silver under control. After this knock down, we will reach a point where any weak hands will be gone for good. At that point the debt ceiling will be raised and the Fed will continue to print the money necessary to fund the nearly $4 trillion of debt that needs to be rolled over the next 2 years. Once this raid is done, the all clear will be signaled and the physical market will recover just as quickly as the paper market got smacked down.
-The Final Fight

Climate Change To Blame For Higher Food Prices?

Farms across the planet produced 3.8 percent less corn and 5.5 percent less wheat than they could have between 1980 and 2008 thanks to rising temperatures, a new analysis estimates. These wilting yields may have contributed to the current sky-high price of food, a team of U.S. researchers reports online May 5 in Science. Climate-induced losses could have driven up prices of corn by 6.4 percent and wheat by 18.9 percent since 1980. Read more: Climate Change Wilts Farming Yields

Corporate Tax Cut In Year Of Record Profits

As nationwide budget protests continue this week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is prepared to unveil the Obama administration’s plan to lower the top corporate tax rate from the current 35 percent to less than 30 percent, and as low as 26 percent.

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In order to pay for the cuts, the proposal calls for closing loopholes and slashing exemptions. Politico reports that Geithner has already begun meeting privately with CEOs, academics, labor unions, and liberal and conservative think tanks, and his aides say he is “encouraged by the response.”

Part of that optimism stems from the fact that Democrats and Republicans are both allies of the business world.-Read more: Obama Administration Plans Corporate Tax Cut In Year Of Record Profits



Well, the two parties are two peas in a pod. Yes, cut taxes, but while we're at it, cut all crony capitalism and corporate welfare as well. Ah, but that won't ever happen, not with the corporation controlled US Congress!

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