Gordon T. Long Interviews Charles Hugh-Smith: Why Things Fall Apart

Lauren Lyster Interviews Gata's Bill Murphy & Chris Powell On Gold/Silver Markets Manipulation

Eric Sprott Interviewed By Lauren Lyster On Gold & Silver

A great interview of Eric Sprott by Lauren Lyster on December 10, 2012 about gold and silver, and the big divergence betwen today's silver/gold ratio vs. the average over the decades...

Darryl Robert Schoon: Cat And Mouse And The Fiscal Cliff

Charlie Chaplin: The Greatest Speech Ever Made

From the Wikipedia entry for Charlie Chaplin and his film "The Great Dictator" from which this speech is taken and overlayed with new imagery:

The 1940s saw Chaplin face a series of controversies, both in his work and his personal life, which changed his fortunes and severely affected his popularity in America. The first of these was a new boldness in expressing his political beliefs. Deeply disturbed by the surge of militaristic nationalism in 1930s world politics,[223] Chaplin found that he could not keep these issues out of his work: "How could I throw myself into feminine whimsy or think of romance or the problems of love when madness was being stirred up by a hideous grotesque, Adolf Hitler?"[224] He chose to make The Great Dictator—a "satirical attack on fascism" and his "most overtly political film".[225] There were strong parallels between Chaplin and the German dictator, having been born four days apart and raised in similar circumstances. It was widely noted that Hitler wore the same toothbrush moustache as the Tramp, and it was this physical resemblance that formed the basis of Chaplin's story.[226]

 Chaplin spent two years developing the script,[227] and began filming in September 1939.[228] He had submitted to using spoken dialogue, partly out of acceptance that he had no other choice but also because he recognised it as a better method for delivering a political message.[229] Making a comedy about Hitler was seen as highly controversial, but Chaplin's financial independence allowed him to take the risk.[230] "I was determined to go ahead," he later wrote, "for Hitler must be laughed at."[231][note 8] Chaplin replaced the Tramp (while wearing similar attire) with "A Jewish Barber", a reference to the Nazi party's belief that the star was a Jew.[note 9] In a dual performance he also plays the dictator "Adenoid Hynkle", a parody of Hitler which Maland sees as revealing the "megalomania, narcissism, compulsion to dominate, and disregard for human life" of the German dictator.[233]

 The Great Dictator spent a year in production, and was released in October 1940.[234] There was a vast amount of publicity around the film, with a critic for the New York Times calling it "the most eagerly awaited picture of the year", and it was one of the biggest money-makers of the era.[235] The response from critics was less enthusiastic. Although most agreed that it was a brave and worthy film, many considered the ending inappropriate.[236] Chaplin concluded the film with a six-minute[237] speech in which he looked straight at the camera and professed his personal beliefs.[238] The monologue drew significant debate for its overt preaching and continues to attract attention to this day.[239] Maland has identified it as triggering Chaplin's decline in popularity, and writes, "Henceforth, no movie fan would ever be able to separate the dimension of politics from the star image of Charles Spencer Chaplin."[240] The Great Dictator received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor.[241]

Keiser Report: Colossal Collapse Coming (Episode #371)

Stacy and Max start the show with a look at the world's feudal lords in a rentier society: Banksters. They look at massive "rent seeking" and "financial dislocation" as the money lenders chase new alpha through higher rents of their massive REO inventory.

One beautiful phrase which Max uses: he calls Zero Interest Rates, which excludes 99.9% of us from the benefits within, as "Financial Jim Crow Laws".

As Max explains, if you're on the inside of Zero Interest Rates, or the Big House (as he aptly calls it) you're the first in line borrower of cheap money at Zero Interest. But if you're one of the 99%ers, you're out there in the fields, fighting for your meals, shopping at the "company store" (i.e. Walmart, Tedsco, etc.) you're going too pay through the nose with "interest charged" to buy your necessities of life.

Max also covers the "Bond Bubble" and what is about to happen in that realm when the bubble pops. He claims that KKR's move into offering new products to low net individuals is "a bell being rung" at the market top for the bond bubble. As he expalins, KKR is taking its long term security risk, packaging it for a gullible public of small investors, and the public will be, in essence, buying into KKR's long term interest rate risk. Max claims anyone buying into this new KKR scheme will be losing 75 to 90% of their investment, while KKR's risk will be insulated by taxpayers.

The last part of the show, Max interviews Ian Williams a specialist in gold/silver who says you want to buy silver in the coming precious metals bull market. Watch the video to see Williams reasoning.

BBC Documentary: "The Money Trap - How Banks Control The World Through Debt"

This is a short documentary which will speak to any of you who were ever a "revolver", i.e., the number one "mark" of Banksters who use debt to keep you trapped in a circle of hell. If you are reading this, you are lucky. You are already empowered. Many people have no clue what to do when they are ensnared in the Money Trap. 

This documentary looks at one man who took his life and the effect it has had on his family. A British bank executive blows the whistle on the evil which Banksters use to entrap the unsavvy consumer:

 

Black Friday In America 2012 - Happy Consumer Fest!

Walmart - Hark, the Herald Angels Sing!




Victoria's Secret - Silent Night

  



Target - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

Richard Heinberg: Who Killed Economic Growth?

4 Nigerian villagers go to the Hague and sue Big Oil multinational Shell over 50 years of pollution

Walmart workers threatening walkout on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, claims Google vs. Apple is the tech industry's defining fight

Gross: US Addicted to Budgetary Crystal Meth

 Meet Romney's Economic Bosses, Same As The Old Bosses

SEC Sues the One Rating Firm Not on Wall Street’s Take

Demand In Germany Rebounds, August Retail In Euro-Zone Recovers

Sheila Bair Explains Timothy Geithner's Adulation of Robert Rubin

Max Keiser On "Are You A Terrorist", the Bankstatocracy, and Interviews Frank Braun About Bitcoin And Shadowlife.cc

In episode 345 of the Max Keiser Report, we have Max go off on what comprises "terrorist" activity in the eyes of the US Government, what is up with the Bankstatocracy, and in the second part of the show he interviews a very interesting mysterious character named Frank Braun of shadowlife.cc and who knows an awful lot about bitcoin.

A very interesting show:

Real News Supplies Best Video, Commentary and English Captioning of Spanish Anti-Austerity Protests and Riots

At this point, Thursday morning Sep. 27th, 2012, this is by far the best close up reporting of the S 25 Protests (Spanish anti-austerity protests) from this week and uploaded to youtube.

In this video, you will see reporters up close in the melee, who are reporting as Policia beat not only protesters but the Press as well. You will view several Spanish citizens speak out against the current Spanish government, all of it translated into English, and you will also see and hear Policia fire rubber bullets into seated crowds while the crowd is throwing bricks and bottles at the Policia.

The crowd is comprised mostly of very young people and elderly folks; however, as was pointed out, even trade unionists, whose unions did not sign on to the protest, are in the streets because the government has labeled the protest a "coup-d'etat".

More Anti-Austerity Protesting Turns Into Rioting In Spain

Protesters savagely beaten back by Spanish Policia who have set up barricades around Spanish Parliament:

Here the Policia beat on a very young crowd which moves away from the swinging batons, only to reform and sit in the middle of a street in a classic civil disobedience move. The police quit their beating as the crowd, seated, yells chants at the Policia.

Unveiling The Tea Party For What It Is: Billionaire Puppet Masters & Corporate Hands Inside The Muppets

The full length documentary "The Billionaire's Tea Party" was finally released to youtube in August of this year. For months, we had been treated to the trailers for this film. Now you can view the entire film for free.

As the film points out early, middle class Americans were seduced into thinking the Tea Party began with Rick Santelli's rant on CNBC on February 9, 2009, not even a month after President Barack Obama was sworn into office.

You will learn how the Tea Party really got its start back in the 80s when the Koch Brothers started their fight for a privatized America which would close down any government agency or social safety nets so that Oligarchs, such as themselves, could reap the rewards of doing business without any regulations or fines, or so they could make a business out of something once done more equitably and better by government- all for a higher price to Americans and for fatter profit margins for Vulture Capitalists on the inside track.

The Koch Brothers, David and Charles,  are prominent figures in the Tea Party because it is their money which has funded a 3 decades war against the government inaugurating so-called grassroot campaigns around the country, giving to the lexicon a new word for that which it is not: astro-turf campaigns.

In the 80s, the Kochs preached government is a monster, crippling our Economy, devouring our personal liberties. Their screeds against government and for privatization read like much of the tinfoil hat conspiracy literature which their father,  the founder of the John Birch Society, put forth in the 50s and 60s when there were Communists hiding behind every tree in America.

David Koch even went so far as to run as the 1980 Vice-Presidential Candidate for the Libertarian Party with a poster titled "A Monster Is Loose Upon the Land", which was a screed against Government and for Big Business without regulation.

The 1980 Policy Platform for the Libertarian Party as seen on this poster declares:

To Be Abolished:

Department of Energy (DOE)
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA)
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Federal Reserve
Social Security
Welfare
Public Schools
Taxation

After reading that list, ask yourself which party, Republican or Democratic, has been captured by the Billionaires who are responsible for the Tea Party?

Without further adieu, here's your history lesson on how the Tea Party captured over 30% of Congressional seats in the 2010 elections. Prepare to learn why this was an astro-turf organization from Day 1 and who is really bankrolling "front" organizations which co-opted the early anger of Middle Class Americans about Too Big To Fail bank bailouts and switched it to a pro-Big Business stance on everything from Climate Change to Taxation.

It's a brilliant look at public suasion using tactics Edward Bernays would have been proud of.

Here it is, the entire documentary. "The Billionaire's Tea Party" runs 54:43 in its entire length. It is directed and produced by independent Australian film-maker, Taki Oldham.

Enjoy!

p.s. A quick addendum. Here's a quote to add to this blog:

"If billionaires were allowed to influence the results of American Idol instead of American elections, there would be rioting in the streets."

- David Borowitz

Slide show of Greek protest turning into riots, yesterday, September 26, 2012

Chris Hedges: How Do You Take Your Poison?

IMF: Global Financial System As Risky As Before The Credit Crisis

Credit Suisse banker arrested for role in Credit Crisis of 2008

Richard Heinberg: Don't Worry, There's Plenty of Oil

Germany Becomes First Country In The World To Surpass 30 GWp From Solar Power

Charles Hugh Smith: Why QE May Not Boost Stocks After All

New Marketing Pardigm For Cars: Buy A Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) Electric Car, Get Free Fuel From The Sun, Forever!

September 25, 2012 Video Of Riots In Spain

The riots in Spain are spreading. Here's an upload from Tuesday, Sep. 25, 2012 showing what austerity programs will get you in a country where over 50% of its youth is unemployed:

In Essence, Mitt Romney Called His Dad A Moocher: Watch Romney's Mom Explain How Mitt's Dad Was Once On Welfare Relief

We all have seen Mitt Romney telling a well heeled audience at a $50,000 a plate dinner that he's not going to waste his time going after 47% of Americans who don't pay taxes and who are "moochers" dependent on government assistance.

What is remarkable is Mitt Romney's dad, George, was once on government welfare after he became a refugee from Mexico.

Here's Mitt Romney's mom, Lenore, telling a TV interviewer back in the 60s how George Romney once depended on government assistance. Listen and hear for yourself how Mitt's dad was on government assistance for years.

This video only makes me admire George Romney all the more, and have more disdain for his spoiled, aristocratic son, Mitt. George knew what it was like to eat nothing more than potatoes for a year in Mexico. His son was born at home plate with a silver spoon in mouth and has just written off 47% of Americans as "moochers".

Latest survey says 68% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck

Analysts now think the commodities run is fading faster after each QE announcement, but that gold will continue to run

Deutsche Bank report says gold is money

How Troy, Michigan Saved Its Library From The Tea Party By Using Facebook & Guerilla Marketing Tactics

This was a brilliant campaign to electrify voters into showing up at the polls and voting "YES" to save Troy, Michigan's library:

Gas Pipeline Fire Kills 26 In Mexico Near US Border

Yikes! Household Income Less Today Than It Was During The Great Recession

Play It Smart: Say good-bye to smartphone contracts

Motley Fool: Ride This QE3 Rocket to $2,000 Gold and $50 Silver

How A California Parent's Group Is Using A Triggering Mechanism To Try And Take Over Public Schools

Fed Ex CEO On Conference Call: "I'm Amused Watching Observers 'Completely Underestimate' What The Export Slowdown Is Doing To China."

Fewer 1st and 2nd Lien Loans For Homeowners In the USA in 2011

Zillow: Home Prices Are Stalling

Bank of Japans Opts for Stimulus . . . Again . . . And Helps Push Gold to 6 Month High

Pravda: Iran To Kick Off World War III

Ambassador Stevens Was Not Raped Before Or After His Rescue:  

He Died From Smoke Inhalation In Libya

Spokesman for Total Oil confirms Peak Oil/Peak Growth and a huge "miss" in 2020

Macro Economics Blogger "Mish" Is Calling Election For Obama

Keiser Report: Banksters Bilking Billions and Max Interviews Reggie Middleton

In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss David Cameron appointing former bankers to Treasury. We look at another former banker who became a Treasury Secretary only to become a bankster - Robert Rubin - and his role in Citigroup bilking Abu Dhabi of billions.

In the second part of this Episode (starting at the 13:00 mark), Max interviews Reggie Middleton of the Boom Bust Blog. Reggie is brilliant in his look at the fraudulent way Goldman Sachs arranged the Facebook offering, how Apple is setting itself up for a loss vis a vis the Samsung lawsuit "win", and his feelings about why Central Banks are just covers for the Oligarchs destroying the middle class and what needs to be done in Europe. This is must see TV and fun to watch as Max's hyperkinetic delivery and Reggie's soft, but well thought out speech are great to have juxtaposed:

Dr. Housing Bubble Blog:Canadian housing bubble goes into full mania mode – Canadian debt-to-personal income ratio near 145% while US at peak of the housing bubble was at 125%.

Canadians risk new Recession with high debt/income ratio of 150%

Recession 'taking hold' in Eurozone, OECD says

Eurozone shoppers/consumers are tapped out

What The Economic Crisis Really Means, Why Perpetual Growth Is Imposible, What We Can Do About It

A simple video explaining what has gone wrong in the Global Economy, why it will continue to go wrong, and what we can do to prepare for a brighter future:

The Fracking Of Rachel Carson

Orion Magazine just published author Sandara Steingraber's excellent 50 bulleted notes on "The Fracking Of Rachel Carson". That same piece links to the following audio slideshow:

 

Summary: Author Sandra Steingraber, who is at the forefront of efforts to halt fracking across the Marcellus Shale deposits, reads excerpts from her essay about the fiftieth anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, accompanied by a full portfolio of fracking photos by Nina Berman.

 Author: Sandra Steingraber

Australian Journalist John Garnaut: "Is China Becoming A Mafia State?"

Australian journalist John Garnaut gives a wonderful overview of corruption in China at the highest levels. He gives numerous examples of government officials using the muscle of Chinese "triads" (Mafia like gangs) to force the kleptocratic agendas. And still, Garnaut spends the last half of this amazing presentation giving us hope for the Chinese people by talking about real heroes who are taking on the establishment through social media. This is a five star informative video clip on what is going on behind the scenes in the biggest kleptocracy on the planet.

You will be introduced to the brave men and women who are embracing truth to fight Chinese corruption. My favorite is Pu Zhiquigang, who is Garnaut's favorite Chinese hero and now mine too:

Wealthiest Porcine Female Mine Owner In Australia Importing 1,600 Africans Who Are Willing To Work For $2.00 Per Day

The Macroeconomics of the Chinese Kleptocracy

New Chinese Term For Chinese Kleptocrats On The Run: "Bare Squad"

Bubble: Rising Student Debt & Student Debt Delinquencies

China To Shut Hundreds of Coal Mines

More big rig truck fleets defect from diesel engines to natural gas engines: chain of nat gas retailers springing up at truck stops across America

OPEC slashing crude oil exports for delivery in October 2012

American multi-nationals prepare for a Greek exit from the Euro 

Jack Bogle thinks a train wreck is about to happen in the FIRE Economy due to 401ks

Gonzalo Lira Interviewed by RT: BRICS Meet About Non-Military Intervention & Global Economic

The US GDP is $15 Trillion. The Eurozone GDP is $16 Trillion. And the BRICS countries, (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) with 42% the world's population and 75% of the reserve currencies in their banks, are also the fastest growing economic group on the planet with largest group of GDP at $18 Trillion. As you will earn in this interview of Economic Analyst Gonzalo Lira by Russia Today, the intra-trade between these five countries is growing at a 30% clip yearly. More importantly, they are discussing how to clear trades among themselves with their own currencies, not with the US Dollar, the reserve currency.

The Investment Sentiment Wheel Infographic

Trustable Gold

Business Insider: The Secret Of Bridgewater's Success Is In Its Understanding Of The Recession"

The Automatic Earth: "Global Demise Of Pension Plans"

Mish shows us that the Australian Housing Crash is now "ON"

Republicans to discuss putting US back on the gold standard, which would explode gold prices to $10,000 an oz. and beyond

Dr. Housing Bubble blog looks at housing's future with a shrinking middle class and an overburdened younger demographic

Gasoline/Oil Futures Jump On Hurricane Issac Closures In The Gulf And the Massive Refinery Explosion In Venezuela

Lauren Lyster Interviews Peter Baxter On The Kondratieff Winter Which Is Upon Us

It's such a pleasure to have Lauren, a beauty with brains, bring us so many different authors of books pertaining to macro-economics. Here she interviews Peter Baxer of kondratieffwinter.com. Before she speaks to Peter, she give us a very simplified look at what the four Kondratieff cycles are.

Mike Maloney On Russia Today: ''Close The Federal Reserve"

Mike Maloney, author of "Guide to Investing in Gold and Silver", founder of Goldsilver.com and wealthcycles.com,  is interviewed on Russia Today by Lauren Lyster.

Mike points out that the United States did not have an income tax system in place until after the Federal Reserve was created in 1913. Malone and Lauren both discuss how the Fed banking cartel depends on taxpayers to keep going the ponzi scheme whereby our taxes go to pay for more wealth transfer to the banksters at the top. As Mike explains and Lauren concurs, taxes pay for the creation of more fiat currency, a currency (in this case the US Dollar) which is backed by nothing more than IOUs which we the taxpayers pay interest on to the Oligarchs and banksters at the top.

Enjoy the interview:

Matt Taibbi on Current TV: Why Wall Street Criminals Have No Fear

Matt Taibbi tells us the only way we can stop the continuing growth of Moral Hazard and no punishment of Wall Street criminals is to elect prosecuting attorney's who have "guts".

And Now Peak Growth Has Come To China

We can say good-bye to the double digit growth which used to be the norm in the Chinese Republic.

NBC News looks at the slowdown which the Chinese government is trying to coverup:

 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Max Keiser: Bernanke Has Created A Self-Feeding Cow With Wall Street

Stacy and Max appear in one of the funniest, shortest clips of this year. It all starts innocently enough when Stacy reads a news report of the drought and how it has taken a toll on feed for cattle. Stacy goes on to tell us about one enterprising cattle rancher who bought second-hand candy and fed that to his cattle. The candy was beneficial. It was cheaper than silage. And it supplied more fat per pound fed to the cattle.

Max takes the tip and runs. "So, if someone shows up to your door on Halloween dressed as a cow, it could actually be a cow" . . . and from there, Max and Stach make one of the funniest stretches of analogy concerning Bernanke, the Fed, and Wall Street banksters.

Without giving away the rest of the humor, watch this short clip about the self-feeding cows of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve:

Bain Capital Kills Off Another US Factory; Picks Meat Off The Bones Of Working Americans

The Guardian U.K. published a great article the other day titled 'I'm sick to my stomach': anger grows in Illinois at Bain's latest outsourcing plan, to which I've added some questions and picked out some prime quotes below:

How would you feel if I brought in foreign workers at your job and said, "I'd like all of you to train these people in what you do because they are your replacements"?

The shock of losing a precious job in a town afflicted by high unemployment is always hard. A foundation for a stable family life and secure home instantly disappears, replaced with a future filled with fears over health insurance, missed mortgage payments and the potential for a slip below the breadline. 

But for Bonnie Borman – and 170 other men and women in Freeport, Illinois – there is a brutal twist to the torture. Borman, 52, and the other workers of a soon-to-be-shuttered car parts plant are personally training the Chinese workers who will replace them. 

Wait. I'm also going to begin dismantling your plant where you've made your livelihood for years and start shipping the machinery overseas to China, how would you feel about that?

It's a surreal experience, they say. For months they have watched their plant being dismantled and shipped to China, piece by piece, as they show teams of Chinese workers how to do the jobs they have dedicated their lives to. 

"It's not easy to get up in the morning, training them to do your job so that you can be made unemployed," said Borman, pictured, a mother of three who has worked for 23 years at the Sensata auto sensors plant. 

Well, America, this is Bain Capital's way of bringing jobs to America in August of 2012. But you are one of his apologists who plans to still vote for him, because Mitt no longer is the CEO? Still, he owns millions of shares of the Bain funds which control Sensata:

But, in the midst of the 2012 presidential election, Freeport is different. For Sensata is majority-owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm once led by Mitt Romney, that has become a hugely controversial symbol of how the modern globalised American economy works. Indeed, Romney still owns millions of dollars of shares in the Bain funds that own Sensata.

So as Sensata strips out costs by sacking American workers in favour of Chinese ones, the value of Romney's own investments could rise, putting money into the pockets of a Republican challenger who has placed job creation in America at the heart of his bid for the White House.

Perhaps you will come back at me at say, "It appears the left would rather see them close shop vs. keep going elsewhere," as some poster on Motley Fool replied yesterday.

I'd like to direct that Motley Fool poster's attention to this part of the Guardian story:

Workers insist their operation is profitable and makes top quality auto sensors. "I understand business needs to make a profit. But this product has always made a ton of money. It's just that they think it is not enough money. They are greedy," said Tom Gaulraupp, who has put in 33 years at the plant and is facing the prospect of becoming jobless at the age of 54. 

 Mark Shreck, a 36-year-old father-of-three, confessed he was one of the few workers not surprised at the layoffs, as this is the second time his job has moved to China. "I feel this is what companies do nowadays," he said.

To which I say there comes a point when enough is enough.

Does a corporation or vulture fund have to squeeze the very last pennies of margin from an operation just to prop up a stock price and fuck the expense to what it does to our country?

Think about what Bain is doing.

A worker of 33 years, who takes his paycheck, banks in one of our nation's small towns, spends his money at other businesses in that small town, invests in its future by paying taxes that support the schools, the fire department, the police, the infrastructure, is now thrown out of work with no job prospects paying him anywhere near as much as he made at this factory.

Not only that, after hollowing out this town's soul all the more, Bain watches its investment notch upward as poorly paid Chinese workers use the same equipment which used to sit on a factory floor in America to pad its margins in its investment in this company.

Meanwhile, the former factory workers without jobs in Freeport, IL can no longer go out and buy a new car with parts their own factory used to supply. And as they are on the unemployment lines, they are thinking about their Chinese counterparts - men and women they were forced to train - how are they being treated? When will they lose their jobs to a Philipino or Vietnamese guy who might work for $.25 cents less?

There's a reason Bain Capital should be called "Bain Vulture Fund". Companies like this swoop in with their sociopathic bean counters. "How can we maximaize profits in minimum time?" And always, to the moneyed men worth millions and billions, its about breaking the back of labor. It's about picking the meat off the bones of the carcasses of American workers they left as roadkill with no second thoughts whatsoever.

What if every factory in the USA moved overseas tomorrow?

Who would drive the domestic consumption of autos, trucks, washing machines, new homes, boats, jet skis,  etc., if everyone was on the dole?

The 1% is called the 1% for a good reason. There's one of them for every 99 of us.

If us 99ers cannot afford to buy anything durable, what will drive consumption in a hollowed out shell of an economy?

We are killing the middle class.

The middle class is what drove our economy in the 50s and 60s and parts of the 70s after WWII. Back then, one breadwinner per family could support a whole family. Inflation was not built on fractional reserve lending, but a solid currency attached to something of value.

When Nixon shut the gold window on Aug. 15, 1971, that's when hockey stock inflation of our money supply took off. That's when the money men of Wall Street realized, "Aha, now we can print money from thin air and back it with nothing more than debt. We don't need gold or silver to back it up. We can wish money into being."

Then old Reagan showed us how to take care of the unions with the breakup of the air traffic controllers he tossed out of their jobs.

Then it was game on for Vulture Funds.

Cheap money - lots of it loaned at below market rates to banksters with no consciences - a greed is good ethic -  and a world of poor people willing to do the work of non-bankster Americans at a much cheaper rate. Borrow money, buy a company, sell off the pieces, ship jobs overseas, improve margins, cash in options, wash, rinse, repeat, and voila, here we are with an America with tens of millions of people working service jobs for minimum wage which won't buy you a cup of Starbucks every day if you have rent to pay, food to buy, gasoline to purchase, and a car or motorbike which needs maintenance. And don't even talk about our failing public transportation which is being shut down piecemeal all over the land.


Bain Capital is as anti-American a firm as a firm selling military technology to an enemy that it is not supposed to sell to. It's as dirty as a bank funneling cocaine profits from a bloody South American cartel.

Bain Vulture Fund is what is wrong with our country. It hides behind the flag while it's pulling down the pants of everyone in our middle class and bending them over barrel.

Money rules uber alles.

Forget the lives of Americans they are destroying here.

These men are doing Satan's work and laughing about it on the golf courses at the 19th hole, or as they are parking their cars on the elevator to one of their manses. How easy it is to make money in America when you are born on 3rd base and you know how and are connected enough to borrow gobs of cheap fiat currency to purchase an asset which really needs capital to get back on its feet, but which is much easier to sell off and scrape huge profits from.

The 1% are killing America.

And now the want to raise our taxes and reduce theirs even more?

These 1%ers are pushing their luck.

That Texas judge who thinks an Obama election will forment insurrection? I laugh at such idiocy. He has no clue, no clue whatsoever what this country would face if the Oligarchs get the last crumbs on the table.

Once our ex-middle class wakes up from its sixpack/TV induced stupor and learns how the deconstruction of America really took place, it will be a matter of time before a real revolution takes place and the Republican Party becomes a memory the future generations will Google on their smart glasses.

If we don't get this country back to work at jobs that pay a decent wage, we will be in bigger turmoil than when the Republic was first formed. Except this time we won't be revolting against an English king, but the Lords and Aristocrats of the Oligarchy who raped our Economy.

The once booming Vietnamese real estate market is now in full free fall

Looks like the bloom is coming off the Chinese Miracle-Gro Rose for old Jim Rogers

Climate Change And The 2012 Drought: NOW Interviews Dr. Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute and Eric Bates of Rolling Stone

Alex Wagner on NBC's NOW interviews Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He talks about the drought plaguing the U.S., its political implications, and what it means about changing the views of denialists on climate change.

Ms. Wagner also has on Eric Bates, Executive Editor of Rolling Stone Magazine, which recently published an alarming and much discussed story about climate change, Global Warming's Terrifying New Math by Bill McKibben. Published more than a month ago on its website, this story is still the number one article on its "Most Popular" sidebar.

Both Wagner and Bates lacerate lobbyists and big money men from Big Oil -such as the Koch Brothers - who buy and payoff politicians to give distorted views on science and the environment.

As climate change causes more disturbances in weather, and as more Americans wake up to how climate change can negatively affect farmers, food prices, and those businesses, small and large, downstream, the more pressure will be put on the Kochs, Murdochs and Trumps of this world who deny climate change is here and is for real:

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Watch the Rise of High Frequency Trading; bonus: Max Keiser "What If Algo Bot Shrugged?"

Here's a very quick . . .  and silent . . . five year look at high frequency trades on the US's major stock market. Notice that in 2007, the volume spikes were clearly noticeable at the morning's open and the afternoon's close.

As time moves forward in this short video, notice how the high frequency trades become bigger and noisier between the open and closes.

By the time we read 2012, the high frequency trading is so prevalent, that the live representation on this graph looks like a pink noise generator used by sound men to set the equalization in a new arena or room where they are setting up a multi-million dollar PA.

Check this out. This shows why most of the volume in the stock markets now is not by longterm investors, many of whom have fled the exits years ago after losing faith in a rigged casino where the rule of law was tossed out the Penthouse windows of the Banksters who control the action:



p.s. As a bonus, here is a very short Max Keiser and Stacy clip talking about HFT being 86% of the NYSE daily volume and how just yesterday, a key executive of one of Australia's largest retail stock brokerages, just blew the lid off the damage HFT was doing to that country and it's stock exchange.

Mike Maloney's 90 Minute Speech On Gold, Silver, Fiat Currencies, the Fed, Manias And What To Do Soon

We've all scoffed at the thought of $2,000 gold in the past. (I can remember people on a certain Motley Fool discussion board saying gold would never cross the $1,000 line.) But what do you say to the thought - the possibility - that gold might one day be priced at $20,000 per ounce?

How would it get there from here?



Even if you don't believe in $20,000 an ounce gold, but you feel something "just isn't right in the world economy", you will want to watch this video to learn what is happening to world markets in stocks, bonds, real estate and other cyclical assets

Mike Maloney, founder of Goldsilver.com, and the writer of a definitive book on gold & silver investing, Rich Dad's Advisors: Guide to Investing In Gold and Silver: Protect Your Financial Future, gives one of the very best 90 minute seminars - with accompanying screen shots of graphs, diagrams and photos which make his concise, brilliant talk come alive.

Not only is Maloney one of the best speakers on gold, silver, money and currency in the world, he also knows the history of gold, silver, manias, stock markets, the Federal Reserve and a dozen more macro-economic topics which he covers very well in only 1 1/2 hours.


And now, grab a cup of tea or java. Find a comfy seat. Sit and watch this video without any interruptions. Just absorb it like a sponge. You might know a lot of what Maloney covers, but its those historical tidbits about past crashes, government debt, government crisis, etc., which will make you admire the man and his thesis all the more.

After viewing this, you will feel like gold will definitely blow past the $2,000 an ounce mark even if $20,000 might be a stretch. But as Mike stresses, silver is an even better buy at this time in history. And he explains why in a way which shows how silver could outsprint gold for future returns.


Once you've seen this video, be sure to share it with your family and friends:

Max Keiser And Stacy: London Banksters vs. U.S. Banksters

"The City" (of London) is extremely upset with Wall Street. They are at war. The old empire vs. the new empire.

Max and Stacy explain why the two nation's are at each other's throats over the global banking system which both claim to oversee.

300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds

I was introduced to this short video in the Acknowledgments of Richard Heinberg's "The End of Growth", a book I am currently reading (along with "The Fourth Turning" by William Strauss and Neil Howe) and after viewing it just moments ago, I wanted to share this with people who have never seen it.

Enjoy "300 Years Of Fossil Fuels In 300 Seconds":

Chart of the Day: US Garbage Indicator

Hat tip to businessinsider.com for bringing this one to my attention. It is pretty much self-explanatory, but if you don't catch on at first, there is a businessinsider.com explanation below.

businessinsider.com / by Sam Ro / Jul. 26, 2012, 4:53 AM

Among the 21 categories of items shipped by rail, none have a tighter correlation to GDP than waste.

According to a 2010 piece on Bloomberg, economists Michael McDonough and Carl Riccadonna note that waste has an 82 percent correlation to US economic growth. This should be pretty intuitive. The more you produce, the more you throw out.

McDonough, a Bloomberg BRIEF economist, tweeted out an update on the indicator. And frankly, it stinks. Waste carloads are way down. Business Insider

Investors Are Leaving The Stock Market In Droves Because Of One Main Reason

A short piece from Andrew Sorkin of the New York Times explains in his DealBook column why American investors are giving up on US equities. From the article titled "Why Are Investors Fleeing Equities? Hint: It's Not The Computers"

Let me offer a more straightforward explanation of why investors have left the stock market: it has been a losing proposition.

 His letter came after he had sent a Twitter post that read: “Boomers can’t take risk. Gen X and Y believe in Facebook but not its stock. Gen Z has no money.”

An entire generation of investors hasn’t made a buck. “The cult of equity is dying,” Bill Gross, the founder of Pimco, wrote in his monthly letter last week. “Like a once bright green aspen turning to subtle shades of yellow then red in the Colorado fall, investors’ impressions of ‘stocks for the long run’ or any run have mellowed as well,” Mr. Gross wrote.

Hottest USA Weather On Record Since Record Keeping Began in 1895

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Why Investors Are Slow To Come Back Into The Markets: HFT Parasites Are Killing The Market Host

Chris Martenson interviews Joe Saluzzi. Joe Saluzzi, expert on algorithmic trading -- also known as high-frequency trading, or HFT -- returns as a guest this week to explain how the players behind this machine-driven process act as parasites that are destroying our financial markets (and, increasingly, even themselves).

"Burning Our Rivers: The Water Footprint of Electricity" (This study looks at the mis-allocation of fresh water in the use of cooling off gigantic machinery used in the making of electricity at coal fired, nuclear and natural gas plants. Fascinating read.

Thermoelectric energy (including coal, nuclear and natural gas) is the fastest growing use of freshwater resources in the country. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports that 53% of all of the fresh, surface water withdrawn from the environment for human use in 2005 went to operating our thirsty electrical grid.1 


 Water behind dams is not included in USGS numbers. So, while all other sectors of society are reducing per capita water use and overall water diversion rates, the electrical industry is just getting started. 


 This report is a snapshot of the current water impacts of electrical production and an introduction to the choices we face as a nation trying to sustain water and energy in a warming world. Many watersheds in the United States (U.S.) are already running out of water to burn—especially in the Southeast, the Great Lakes and in many parts of the West. Over the last several years, Georgia has experienced water stress because Georgia Power’s two nuclear plants require more water than all of the water consumed by residents of downtown Atlanta, Augusta and Savannah combined.2 


 In 2011, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reported that, in at least 120 vulnerable watersheds across the U.S., power plants are a factor contributing to water stress.3





James Kunstler: "Hostage Racket" (Kunstler's latest blog describes his self-education as to what was medically wrong with his own body and mentions his newly published book which pokes holes in techno "magic" which makes thinks all the worse.)


Anyone seeking to understand the deplorable physical condition of the general public need only stroll through the supermarket aisles and see the endless stacks of manufactured sugary shit that pretends to be food in this culture. That whole matrix is coming to and end, too, by the way, but probably not soon enough to save the multitudes programmed into metabolic disorder. They will just have a shorter life-span, aggravated by loss of income in a cratering economy and everything that comes with being impoverished. The doctors themselves by and large know almost nothing about nutrition, and make no organized effort to militate against the homicidal processed food industry - which brings me to the second side note.


Namely, that the diminishing returns of extreme bureaucratization and turbo-specialization in medicine has only made the doctors generally stupider and more inept. My own situation is a case in point. For two years I suffered an array of peculiar symptoms ranging from numb hands to supernatural fatigue. My ex-GP showed no interest in investigating the cause. Even my request for a toxicology workup was essentially shrugged off. I had to become my own doctor. For a while I suspected Lyme disease, which is raging in my corner of the country. I went to see a Lyme specialist who didn't accept insurance (because the insurance companies did not recognize his aggressive treatment protocols as falling within the current "standards of practice" - and this because the medical establishment doesn't know its ass from a hole in the ground about Lyme disease).


Anyway, I asked the Lyme specialist to include a test for cobalt levels in my bloodwork because I thought there was an outside chance I had cobalt poisoning. The reason I thought this was because Google searches of my symptoms kept pointing to metal-on-metal hip replacement failure. I had gotten just such a metal-on-metal hip replacement in 2003. The hardware was developed because the orthopedists wanted to give younger patients a longer-lasting implant. That's when the diminishing returns of technology stepped in and kicked everybody's ass, including mine.


My cobalt blood test came back off-the-charts high. (My many Lyme tests all came back negative.) Wouldn't you know, though, that the Lyme specialist wanted to treat me for Lyme anyway. He ignored the cobalt numbers and wrote out a prescription for $400 worth of antibiotics. He was the proverbial guy with a hammer to whom everything looked like a nail. I declined that course of treatment and instead went to my new GP for a first appointment and asked for an additional cobalt test, along with one for chromium. (My hip implant is an alloy of titanium, cobalt, and chromium.) They both came back way over the toxic level. Apparently, the rotation of the metal joint has been shedding metal ions into my system for nine years.

German Army Peak Oil Study

Begin Planning For A Post Growth World Due To Peak Oil

Peak Energy forces Boeing to make newer planes with better fuel consumption: reign of the 747 ends after a 23 year run

It Looks Like Gold And Silver Have Put In A Bottom

Slowing Global Growth, Competition, Higher Capital Outlays Taking It's Toll On Australian Coal Miners

Spains Ailing Banks Threaten Country's Finances

This is an interesting film about peak oil, peak gas and suburbia. What the experts in this documentary got wrong is their claim peak natural gas was happening at the time this film was made mid-last decade. In their defense, what was noticeably missing was the word "fracking" in their interviews. Fracking is a new drilling process which has revolutionized the gas and oil drilling industry in the USA since 2008-2009.

 

Still, one wonders how supporters of gas and oil drillers in the USA - who use fracking to open up fissures in rock thousands of feet below the surface to allow trapped oil and gas to come to the surface - are able to continue ignoring growing environmental concerns.

Money For Politics Is Too Tight To Mention With FIRE Economy Honchos

Earlier this morning I was replying to a post on a popular housing blog as to what I thought was happening with diminishing donations to the GOP this voting season. My guess was the lobbyists for and direct donations from the bigshots running construction, financing, insurance and real estate companies have had to pull back on trying to sway elected officials because stupid money is no longer being made in the building of new homes.


A recent bit of news tells the tale. From the Chicago Tribune:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The share of privately-owned U.S. homes fell to a 15-year low in the first quarter as falling house prices and stringent lending conditions push younger Americans, in particular, into renting.

The homeownership rate slipped to 65.4 percent, the lowest since the first quarter of 1997, the Commerce Department said on Monday, with the rate for Americans under the age of 35 dropping to an 18-year low.

With homeownership at a 15-year low, how badly could the FIRE Economy honchos be suffering in an era where so few are buying homes?


Well, my suspicions about lobbying money being short for the party which loves big business, the GOP,  were just confirmed in a Sacremento Bee article titled "Real estate bust sinks GOP fundraising". From the piece:

The nearby Los Angeles region is collecting donations at a rate that’s a bit better than half the speed of 2008. The view is just as bad if you zoom in on Orange County: about $2.6 million so far this election cycle, compared with almost $4.8 million at the same point in the 2008 race. Across the county, home values have slipped more than $150,000 since the crash.

The takeaway is clear: When real estate suffers, it depletes an entire ecosystem of developers, contractors, builders, sellers and designers who step back from presidential giving. One place that occurred is in Miami, where GOP giving plummeted 35 percent.

Through March 2008, donors from the real estate industry had given $14.5 million to Republican presidential candidates, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. That total is down 57 percent, to $6.2 million. 

The crunch highlights the nexus between private capital and political sway. In an up economy, whales — in finance, real estate and other sectors — lean on deal partners in order to bundle checks. The fewer number of deals, though, the less campaign cash. 

“There are many, many people — very close friends of mine — that spent their whole careers in real estate, and they’re not in a position to be major contributors this time around,” said Jeff Kottkamp, Florida’s lieutenant governor until 2011 and a former backer of Rick Perry.

To which I will add, if it's that bad for GOP coffers, how can the Party of Big Business expect to win back the Congress and win the Senate and Presidency to once again establish One Party Rule as they had under George W. Bush for four of his eight years?


This is going to be a tough political season for all. But especially the GOP, which is used to gathering bigger from the frontlines of Big Business.


Campaigns are more expensive than ever and money is too tight to mention. 


I look for more mud-slinging than ever, the kind which will garner a candidate an above-the-fold free PR as politicians try to work around the shortage of contributions from their former well heeled friends.

XL Pipeline Would Not Lower Energy Prices In The U.S.

Jim Kunstler: "The Choices We Make" 

The Winds Of War Are Blowing From The Military Industrial Complex Again

Which Hi-Tech Companies Sell Spyware To Torturing Dictators?

That Toxic Soup You Breathe In When You Buy A New Car

South Sudan Shuts Down All Oil Production And Picks Fight With Sudan Words Over Oil Transport Through Sudanese Oil Pipeline

Monsanto Found Guilty Of Chemical Poisoning In France

Oil Giants Commit Ecocide In Nigeria For Over One Generation: Current 1400F Degree Oil Fire In Its Second Month


Cuba ready to start commercial oil drilling

Big Oil Gets Away With Ecocidal Murder In Nigeria

History says Real Estate is a bad investment

Oversupply of Natural Gas Sends Prices To 10 Year Low

Briggs and Stratton Closing Factories and Laying Off 767 Employees

Almost 1 in 4 Spaniard Workers Are Now Un-employed

Why Home Prices Have Much Further to Fall

U.S. New Home Sales Were The Worst Ever In 2011: Data Goes Back More Than 50 Years

Samsung reports record breaking $4.7 Billion quarter; plans to spend $22 Billion this year on CapEx . . . esecially in chips and flat screens

Supreme Irony: Online Recruitment Firm, Monster.com, lays off 400 workers

Department of Energy Dramatically Slashes Natural Gas Estimate In The Marcellus Shale Reseve

The 8 Industries Which the USA Has Ceded To China Already

Amazon Getting Ready To Take On Netflix? 

Complacency Screams "Get Out" Short Term

The Sure Fire Way To End Online Piracy

Mish on Newt Gingrich's Insane Approach To Economics, Intervention In Cuba, the Drug War and More

India Starts Paying for Iranian Oil With Gold Instead of US Dollars


Republican State Senator From Oklahoma Wants To Ban Human Fetuses In Food

Americans Start Jumping Off The "Living     Below Your Means" Wagon

Guess who is raising money for Romney? 

Retail sales weak, jobless claims up

Home Depot To Hire 70,000 Seasonal (Spring) Workers

Archer Daniels Midland Cuts 1,000 People From Its Payrolls

Air Force lays off 44 civilian jobs at Alaskan airbase

Up to 150 layoffs in Lorrain, OH schools

Sikorsky to layoff 20% of its workforce 

Realty Trac Expects a 25% Jump In Home Foreclosures In 2012

Why Zombie Banks Do Not Want Transperency


Chrysler To Begin Selling Natural Gas Trucks In 2012

The Myth of Japan's Failure

CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton: “Concentrated Positions Have the Ability to Manipulate Markets”

Is Sears the next Berkshire Hathaway? 


Barry Minkow: All-American con man

OPEC Oil Supply Hits 3 Year High

Romney's Tax Plan

Climate Change Affecting Maple Syrup Production

American Manufacturing Is On The Rebound

Motley Fool: Avoid Investing In Repression