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THE INTERNATIONAL FORECASTER
SATURDAY, October 6, 2012
Jim Corbett
For years now we’ve had to listen to the mainstream talking heads telling us about “green shoots” and “jobless recoveries,” half-heartedly warning about the “risk” of a “double-dip recession” while noting with relief that the stock markets are doing well. Readers of this publication know better. Behind the sunshine and smiles, we are entering an unprecedented phase of economic history as the largest bubble in the history of the world—the ticking derivatives time bomb—inches closer to a day of reckoning. Sometimes all it takes to put these things in perspective is to look behind the rhetoric at some of the numbers, so this week I present to you 6 statistics that should leave any thinking person concerned about the future…and more motivated than ever to prepare for the collapse of the current financial system.
#1 – Greek and Spanish youth unemployment broke the 50% mark in March
In March of this year, youth unemployment in both Greece and Spain broke the 50% barrier. Not coincidentally, these are two of the most perilously positioned Eurozone countries in the sovereign debt crisis and the two countries that have seen the most violent protests since the Eurozone crisis began.
It has become fashionable in recent months to downplay this figure by pointing out that the unemployment rate is determined by dividing the number of out-of-work workers in the pool (in this case under 25 year olds) by the total pool of workers. But since the total pool of under 25 year olds doesn’t include those who are currently in education or training, that means the number of unemployed youth is being measured against a much smaller pool than the overall unemployment rate, which is measured against the pool of all workers. By calculating the unemployment “ratio” (the number of unemployed youth by the total pool of under 25s, whether looking for work or not) one arrives at much more “reasonable” numbers: 19% youth unemployment in Spain and 13% in Greece.
I wouldn’t become too smug about these revised ratios, however. No matter how you break it down it means that less than half of the youth in Greece and Spain who are looking for a job can actually get one. I’ll repeat that: less than half. That’s the type of situation that starts revolutions, especially when it is effecting the youth who are already facing the prospect of a lifetime of debt servitude based on the sins of their political fathers (and mothers).
And it gets worse: Greece and Spain may just be the canaries in the coalmine. A report from the International Labor Organization earlier this year indicates that global youth unemployment has hit 75 million. Unemployment effects youth differently than adults. An adult who faces time out of work between jobs goes through all sorts of financial, personal and professional strains, but for a youth it is even more difficult. Losing out on experience and on-the-job training that generally occurs in the under-25 years make them less employable should the global situation actually improve. In other words, a workforce generation is growing up with a significant and potentially irreversible workforce handicap. It’s almost enough to make you want to stay at home. Which brings us to…
#2: 29% of 25 to 34 year olds in America have moved back to their parents’ home at some point
According to Pew Research, nearly three in ten Americans under 35 years old have moved back in with mom and dad at some point. While this is common in some parts of the globe, where children generally live with their families until they marry and start their own family (and even afterward), this is an unusual phenomenon in the US. Still, the new research shows that not only is this situation becoming more common as young workers struggle (and fail) to cope with the financial stress of living on their own, it’s also becoming more normalized in the culture. Of those polled, only 25% of these returning children think of this situation as a bad thing for their relationship with their parents. It’s even been given a name: the boomerang generation, because they return after leaving.
Every generation strives to provide a better life for their children, and for much of the 20th century Americans came to expect that quality of life for each subsequent generation would improve indefinitely. Things have been in decline for the average American family for decades now, however, as the old ideal of stable, lifetime employment, and raising a family on a single income has gradually been eroded. Single-income families are the exception these days, and even by those standards more and more families are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the luxuries they used to take for granted. Now, youth are finding it difficult to even find steady, gainful employment that will allow them to leave the home in the first place. And even when sharing the debt burden of the household, families are still managing to rack up their personal debt…
#3: Household debt is rising again
Either everyone has already forgotten the economic armageddon that has been kicked down the road by QE1, 2, 3… or people just can’t survive within their means anymore, but either way the Fed’s Z1 Flow Funds report from last month showed the first quarter of rising household debt since Q1 2008. Total household borrowing was up $157.3 billion in the second quarter of this year, the first rise in 16 quarters. That household debt has been contracting for four years only makes sense given the recession and deep global economic instability we’ve been experiencing. The first thing people do in times of crisis is cut discretionary spending, tighten the belt, and pay off credit card debt and other outstanding loans. Now, it seems, people have emerged from that tortoise shell to begin borrowing (and spending) again.
The economic talking heads will undoubtedly point to this as a sign of “green shoots” and that the economy is “back on track.” After all, this is surely a sign that consumer confidence is back and people have reached a level of stability in their job and income that they feel safe taking on more debt again.
Well, that’s what they’d like you to believe, anyway. Another interpretation is that people have tightened the belt as far as it will go and they are now turning to debt to fund the purchases that they can’t put off any longer. The other possibility is that people have begun to buy into the talking head talking points that the economy is recovering and are once again feeling that it’s safe to live outside their means. After all, the stock markets are doing just fine…
#4 AAPL closes at $666
Apple stock closed at $666 again this Thursday. Make of the numerological significance of that number what you will, but it also happens to be the precise stock price that Apple needed to hit in order to break the record for highest valuation ever. What a remarkable coincidence.
Even more telling than the numerology, however, is that Apple is the world’s most valuable corporation. One might very well ask why this is, and one might very well receive a number of answers from the various defenders of Steve Jobs’ legacy. But none of them would be logical. Apple had a remarkable run in the last decade, to be sure, coming back from the brink of obscurity to capture a larger percentage of the desktop and laptop computer market than it has ever enjoyed before and trailblazing new markets (iPod, iPad, iPhone, App Store) in the process. The synergistic rollout of these technologies was brilliant in itself, familiarizing even lifelong PC users with the Apple environment and convincing many to make the leap into other Apple products.
But there is almost nothing going in Apple’s favour at this point. Whatever edge the company held by being quick out of the gates in the tablet and smartphone markets is being lost as the competition gains ground and picks up steam. This is not aided by lacklustre additions to existing product line-ups in recent years (iPad 3, iPhone 4s), and a product rollout that has been an unmitigated disaster (Apple Maps). Even the Mac’s old selling point that it was virus-free has been dropped as OS viruses have begun popping up. Apple’s entire brand image and selling point has been its drive to emphasize slick design and ease of use, but that has backflipped in recent years and it is now cool to deride the hordes lining up outside of the Apple store for each new product release as vapid trendies who are just acting “cool.”
Fitting, then, that this is the flagship corporation of the SS America at this particular time in history. Here we have an economy built on style over substance, sizzle over steak, outsourced Chinese slave labor over American manufacturing, fudged happy numbers over depressing real numbers. It’s enough to make you believe that the modern American consumer will fall for anything…
#5 Unemployment just hit 7.8%
Whoopee! Celebration! QE3 is working! According to the latest figures, the U.S. unemployment rate just fell to 7.8%, down from 8.1% the month before. 118,000 jobs were added to the economy in September, beating out analysts’ estimate by a full 4,000. This is already being hailed as a major victory for Obama and the Federal Reserve, a sure sign if any were needed that the economy is back on the right track after Bernanke’s announcement of QE3 last month.
Unfortunately for those who are already planning their own ticker tape parade for Obama and his team, there’s a depressing reason for the drop in the (already fudged) rate: the largest surge in part-timers employed for economic reasons since 2003. One of the many (many many many) problems with the government’s fudged unemployment number is that it doesn’t take into account the quality of the jobs that have been added to the economy. Sadly, part-time positions don’t make for a sound economy, and the multi-generational degradation of the labor force from a full-time, lifelong employment model to a temporary or part-time, transient model of constantly changing jobs is a sign of the fundamental rot in the current economic paradigm. The number is not as significant as Team Obama wants you to believe, and coming as it does right before the next election, anyone who does not take the euphoria of the economic talking heads with a hefty pinch of salt is simply not thinking straight.
#6 – The projected shortfall in social security over the next 75 years is $134 trillion
Yes, you read that correctly. That’s trillion with a “t.”
According to the Washington News Tribune:
The projected shortfall in 2033 is $623 billion, according to the trustees’ latest report. It reaches $1 trillion in 2045 and nearly $7 trillion in 2086, the end of a 75-year period used by Social Security’s number crunchers because it covers the retirement years of just about everyone working today.
Add up 75 years’ worth of shortfalls and you get an astonishing figure: $134 trillion. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $30.5 trillion in 2012 dollars, or eight times the size of this year’s entire federal budget.
In present value terms, the Social Security Administration says the shortfall is $8.6 trillion. That means the agency would need to invest $8.6 trillion today, and have it pay returns of 2.9 percent above inflation for the next 75 years, to produce enough money to cover the shortfall.
That’s the rate of return Social Security expects to get from its trust funds. The problem, of course, is that Social Security doesn’t have an extra $8.6 trillion to invest.
Well, duh. You can try to spin this positively: ‘It’s only $8.6 trillion of today’s dollars if invested at 2.9 percent above inflation for 75 years!’ But the system is already broke and the only way to get those 8.6 trillion would be to fire up the printing presses and cause the very inflation that one is hoping to out-invest. ‘It’s only $30.5 trillion in 2012 dollars.’ This is the perfect illustration of the never-ending inflationary spiral that kills all long-term savings even in the rosiest government-approved inflation scenarios.
The sad truth is that the system is completely broke, and Romney and Obama arguing over cutting back the deficit by x percent or lowering taxes by y percent isn’t going to make any difference at all in that assessment. Those who are in a position to do so are advised to avoid relying on a social security net that almost certainly won’t exist in its current form for very much longer and to invest in building up your own inflation-proof supply of bullion and long-term storable foods to prepare for the economic collapse that is still taking place, no matter what spin they try to put on it.
corbettreport.com
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Flim Flam Substitutes for Debate
by Stephen Lendman
So-called presidential debates are well-rehearsed, prescripted theater. Theater of the absurd best describes them. Election outcomes aren’t influenced. They don’t edify. They insult. Wednesday night was no exception.
Even some media scoundrels were underwhelmed. At least one was honest as far as his editors let him. London Guardian contributor Charles Ferguson headlined “America’s duopoly of money in politics and manipulation of public opinion,” saying:
“Behind the divisiveness lies a deeper bipartisan consensus in which donors own democracy and there are no votes (for) reform.”
“Presidential campaigns aren’t where you look for honest, serious” policy discussions. Candidates prefer “slogans.” They steer clear of controversy.
“(S)ometimes, as with George W. Bush, we also get a moron.” This election is different. We’re “explicitly seeing the effects of America’s new political duopoly” up close and personal.
It’s not new. At most it’s repackaged to look that way, but not to observers who know how things in America work.
Obama and Romney “completely (avoided or remained) dishonest about (key) economic issues.” The bizarre was also evident. A Republican attacked a Democrat on unemployment. He, in turn, said give us more time. We’ll fix things.
Obama’s first term was spent wrecking them. Neither candidate plans undoing decades of damage.
Both know the score but won’t say so. They also claim they’ll “reform Washington.” Neither means it.
They avoided serious issues begging for discussion. They include “causes of the financial crisis; the lack of prosecution of banks and bankers; sharply rising inequality in educational opportunity, income and wealth (disparity)….the impact of industrialized food on” health and skyrocketing food and healthcare costs; budget deficits and national debt; disappearing jobs not being replaced, and war and peace.
How can what’s most important be omitted? How can either candidate claim he debated? Politics and honesty are mirror opposites. Both candidates ignore what most needs addressing.
Obama “can win because he’s somewhat less bad, somewhat less utterly bankrupt, than the other guy. Welcome to America’s new and improved two-party system.” It’s the same one, just more corrupt.
Salon editor at large Joan Walsh said Obama was “subdued, deferential, (and) over-prepared.” Romney shook his “(E)tch-a-Sketch and lied his way through the entire debate with no challenge from moderator Jim Lehrer” or Obama.
The New York Times headlined “An Unhelpful Debate,” saying:
Wednesday night “sunk into an unenlightening recitation of tired talking points and mendacity.” Voters perhaps walked away saying a pox on both candidates.
Romney avoiding discussing anti-populist policies he endorses. Obama failed to challenge the worst about him. He’s got plenty of his own crosses to bear.
Viewers weren’t helped by moderator Jim Lehrer’s pathetic performance. He never challenged either candidate on vital truths. Expect debates two and three to be painful repetitions of Wednesday night.
Why anyone bothers to watch shows the deplorable state of the US electorate. Most are uninformed, out of touch, and indifferent.
A Chicago Tribune editorial said Obama “skipped this debate. (He) slumped his shoulders, smiled mostly to himself, and for some reason kept staring mostly down.” Hope and change were gone. They never were there in the first place.
USA Today said both candidates “avoid(ed) reality in debate.” Key issues were unexamined.
The Washington Post said they “evaded the hard truths.” Canned talking points substituted. It didn’t surprise. It’s always that way.
Both candidates “studiously maintained the evasions and omissions at the heart of their policies. The debate was wonky (but not) honest.” Issues most important weren’t discussed.
Obama and Romney “were strikingly complicit in failing to confront the magnitude of the fiscal challenge the winner will face immediately. The overriding feature of the debate was a tacit conspiracy of avoidance.”
Russia Today (RT) called the evening “tepid.” Arguments and accusations heard before were repeated. Same old, same old doesn’t wash.
Domestic issues were stressed. Slogans and one-liners substituted for solutions. “(M)any Americans may well be confused as to what exactly the differences are between the two candidates.”
They’re in lockstep on issues mattering most. Overall, barely a dime’s worth of difference separates them. Duopoly power allows little wiggle room. What it says goes.
Alternative parties are excluded. RT quoted Ralph Nader telling Time magazine:
America’s “duopoly has every conceivable way to exclude and depress and harass a third party. Whether it’s ballot access. Whether it’s harassing petitioners on the street. Whether it’s excluding them from debates. Whether it’s not polling them.”
“And with a two-party, winner-take-all electoral system, it’s easy to enforce all those. Unlike multi-party Western countries where you have proportional representation, the voters (in America) know that if you get 10 per cent of the vote, you don’t get anything. Whereas in Germany, you get 10 per cent of the parliament.”
So voters say, ‘Let’s just vote for the least worst.” Half the electorate disses both sides and opts out.
Historian Gerald Horne told RT US voters lack alternatives. Party platforms and debates “exclude the critiques of the present dilemmas and problems that (American) people face, for example rising poverty, rising unemployment et cetera.”
Whether in office, campaigning or debating, rhetoric substitutes for commitment. The best from Obama was saying vote for me and I’ll try harder.
Press TV called his Wednesday night performance “weak.” Despite getting super-rich as a corporate predator, Romney ate his lunch. He dissed Obama’s economic policies.
They’re “not working. The proof of that is 23 million people out of work. The proof of that is 1 out of 6 people in poverty. (Wrong: one in two are or bordering on it according to Census data.) The proof of that is we’ve gone from 32 million on food stamps to 47 million on food stamps. The proof of that is that 50 percent of college graduates this year can’t find work.”
It’s hard arguing with truths. Too bad most others were excluded. Not a word on imperial lawlessness, permanent wars, $1.5 trillion spent annually on defense, everything related to it, homeland security, intelligence, and black budgets as far as the eye can see with estimates only on what’s in them.
What about banker bailouts, tens of billions in other corporate handouts, out-of-control corruption, a sham electoral process, and growing poverty at Great Depression levels!
What about past and planned domestic spending cuts when stimulus is urgently needed! What about tax cuts for corporations and rich elites when vital people needs go begging! What about bipartisan governance making America no fit place to live in and a threat to world peace!
What about holding politicians accountable when they lie and betray constituents that elected them! What about addressing issues mattering most and changing things! What about doing the right thing instead of same old, same old!
Priorities not discussed include ending imperial wars, downsizing America’s military, stimulating economic growth and creating jobs, holding criminal bankers and other corporate crooks accountable, addressing Depression level unemployment, homelessness, hunger, poverty, and overall human need no free society should tolerate.
What about fixing America’s broken infrastructure instead of waging wars and destroying it in one country after another! What about prioritizing populism instead of slash and burn budget cuts affecting ordinary people most!
What about giving government of, by, and for the people real meaning! What about doing what never was done before! What about making America beautiful instead of being hated for threatening humanity!
Don’t expect any of the above from Republicans and Democrats. Blackguards, scoundrels, scalawags, and menaces best describe them. Expect more of the same or worse post-election.
It doesn’t matter who wins. It’s the American way. It’s up to ordinary people to change things. They have to do it on their own. It won’t happen any other way.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at .
Drought – In the Midwest Continues
By Vincent Finelli
As you know, farmers are used to preparing for the worst. Not all years are goods years. Some, of course, are lean years.
For the first time in about four months, we have actually seen the grass grow. Grass in a pasture that would have been able to feed a herd of cows for three weeks was devoured in one week. As summer turns to fall the rate of growth of the grass has slowed due to the reduction in sun light. While the cool fall evenings are a blessing for plants as well as animals, grass production is reduced.
In short, we have not recovered from the drought. Although we have had seven inches of rain here on the farm since the drought started, ponds have only recovered to 10% of their capacity and our stream is still nonexistent. The drought is not over.
While supermarkets are offering loss leaders on select vegetable can goods, this phenomenon will be short lived. We suggest you stock up now.
On our morning broadcast today, USAPrepares.com science adviser, Dr. Richard Alan Miller, said “this is the worst drought in 800 years. The climate is changing rapidly and we must prepare and adapt.” We concur.
Because we are so concerned about the extreme changes in weather, the drought, and the engineered decline of the U.S. dollar, we have undertaken building the largest and most complete preparedness expo in the United States.
We would like to thank our International Forecaster Readers by offering a discounted pass to the Get Prepared EXPO – $8 per day or a complete weekend pass for $15. To receive your discount, please mention The International Forecaster, when purchasing your tickets.
Included at the are 175 seminars and exhibits.
On site will be doctors, authors, physicists, pilots, gardening experts, economists, survivalists, talk show hosts, alternative energy experts, freeze dry foods, storm shelters, alternative medicine, even Native American Medicine men and women.
Are you interested in water purification, water distillation, cell phones without contracts, long range shooting, gunsmithing, negotiating for your life, violent climate change, reducing your blood pressure, natural healing, bartering methods, wholesale batteries, generators, radiation detection, preparedness books, electromagnetic pulses, solar storms, or living off junk? This is just a small sample of what you will see, hear, and learn.
We are even serving a Freeze Dry Guy gourmet meal!
Prepare as if your life depends on it – because it does.
We broadcast twice daily 10am CST on GCN
Listen Live
Free Archives www.gcnlive.com/programs/USAprepares/archives.php
and 3pm CST on KWTO AM560 – KHFX AM1140 and www.RepublicBroadcasting.org
Delisting of RJ-CRB Index Futures and Continuous Commodity Index Contracts -
Submission Pursuant to Section 5c(c)(1) of the Act and Regulation 40.6
Pursuant to Section 5c(c)(1) of the Commodity Exchange Act, as amended (the “Act”) and Regulation 40.6(a), thereunder, ICE Futures U.S., Inc. (“Exchange”) submits by written certification, notice to the Commission that the Exchange will cease listing any new expiration months in the RJ-CRB Index and Continuous Commodity Index (“CCI”) Futures Contracts, and is delisting all expiration months in RJ-CRB Index Futures Contracts as of the open of business on September 26, 2012. There is no open interest in any of the RJ-CRB expiration months as of the close of trading today.
The Board of Directors determined to delist the RJ-CRB and CCI contracts on September 20, 2012, based on the low volume transacted year to date, as well as historically, which evinced a lack of trader interest in the products. As of the close of business today, the only CCI expiration months with open interest are the November 2012, January 2012, February 2013 and April 2013 expirations months; the latter expires on April 12, 2013, and upon such expiration trading of CCI Futures Contracts will cease.
The Exchange certifies that the delisting of the CCI and RJ-CRB comply with the Act and Commission regulations thereunder. No substantive opposing views were expressed by members or others with respect to delisting the RJ-CRB or CCI Index Futures Contracts. The Exchange further certifies that, concurrent with this filing, a copy of this submission was posted on the Exchange’s website at (https://www.theice.com/notices/RegulatoryFilings.shtml).
DHS Purchases 200 Million More Rounds of Ammunition
Following controversy over its purchase of around 1.2 billion bullets in the last six months alone, the Department of Homeland Security has put out a new solicitation for over 200 million more rounds of ammunition, some of which are designated to be used by snipers.
A series of new solicitations posted on the FedBizOpps website show that the DHS is looking to purchase 200 million rounds of .223 rifle ammunition over the next four years, as well as 176,000 rounds of .308 caliber 168 grain hollow point boat tail (HPBT) rounds in addition to 25,000 rounds of blank .308 caliber bullets.
As James Smith over at the Prepper Podcast website highlights, “It is the type of ammunition and not necessarily the quantity that is troubling.”
Smith points out that the DHS’ acquisition of .308 rounds is of concern because they are set to be used by well-trained snipers.
PIMCO: America could ‘resemble Greece’ before 2020
America could begin to resemble Greece before the turn of the decade if it does not cut spending and raise taxes to tackle its debt, according to Bill Gross, the head of the world’s largest bond fund.
Warnings That A Massive Stock Market Crash Is Imminent
In the financial world, the month of October is synonymous with stock market crashes. So will a massive stock market crash happen this year? You never know. The truth is that our financial system is even more vulnerable than it was back in 2008, and financial experts such as Doug Short, Peter Schiff, Robert Wiedemer and Harry Dent are all warning that the next crash is rapidly approaching. We are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world and Wall Street has been transformed into a giant casino that is based on a massive web of debt, risk and leverage. When that web breaks we are going to see a stock market crash that is going to make 2008 look like a Sunday picnic. Yes, the Federal Reserve has tried to prevent any problems from erupting in the financial markets by initiating another round of quantitative easing, but 40 billion dollars a month will not be nearly enough to stop the massive collapse that is coming. This will be explained in detail toward the end of the article. Hopefully we will get through October (and the rest of this year) without seeing a stock market collapse, but without a doubt one is coming at some point. Those on the wrong end of the coming crash are going to be absolutely wiped out.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/warnings-that-a-massive-stock-market-crash-is-imminent
US Postal Service to default on second $5B payment
The U.S. Postal Service, on the brink of default on a second multibillion-dollar payment it can’t afford to pay, is sounding a new cautionary note that having squeezed out all the cost savings within its power, the mail agency’s viability now lies almost entirely with Congress.
In an interview, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said the mail agency will be forced to miss the $5.6 billion payment due to the Treasury on Sunday, its second default in as many months. Congress has left Washington until after the November elections, without approving a postal fix.
For more than a year, the Postal Service has been seeking legislation that would allow it to eliminate Saturday mail delivery and reduce its $5 billion annual payment for future retiree health benefits. Since the House failed to act, the post office says it’s been seeking to reassure anxious customers that service will not be disrupted, even with cash levels running perilously low.
“Absolutely, we would be profitable right now,” Donahoe told The Associated Press, when asked whether congressional delays were to blame for much of the postal losses, expected to reach a record $15 billion this year.
He said the two missed payments totaling $11.1 billion for future retiree health benefits — payments ordered by Congress in 2006 that no other government agency or business is required to make — along with similar expenses make up the bulk of the annual loss. The remainder is nearly $3 billion in losses, he said, which would have been offset by savings if the service had been allowed to move to five-day mail delivery.
Donahoe said the post office will hit a low point in cash next month but avert immediate bankruptcy due to a series of retirement incentives, employee reductions and boosts in productivity among remaining staff that saved nearly $2 billion over the past year.
But the post office has few tools left to build its revenue, he said, without either having to pay upfront money it lacks or get approval from postal unions or Congress.
“We’ve done a lot to reduce cost out of our system,” Donahoe said. “The problem now is this: There’s nowhere to go.”
Postal unions also say Congress is mostly to blame for losses, but disagree that a reduction to five-day delivery is an answer.
“What is needed is for Congress to undo the harm it has done with the prefunding mandate and for the Postal Service to develop a balanced plan moving forward,” said Fredric Rolando, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers. He said cutting Saturday delivery would in particular hurt rural residents and the elderly who depend more heavily on the mail for prescription drugs and other goods.
The Postal Service last month failed to pay $5.5 billion, its first default ever on a payment. While it will miss a second payment Sunday, it expects to make a $1.4 billion payment due to the Labor Department on Oct. 15 for workers’ compensation. Cash levels are expected to hit a low after that labor payment before rising again due to increased volume from holiday and election mail, including ballots for early voting.
The mail agency said the two payment defaults will not affect day-to-day operations. Post offices will stay open, and suppliers and employees will get paid. Longer term, however, Donahoe has cautioned that a “crisis of confidence” over postal solvency could damage growth.
The post office also remains vulnerable to shifts in the economy that could suppress mail volume. Both FedEx Corp. and UPS recently have cut their earnings forecasts, citing in part slow global economic growth.
“The key thing is Congress must act during the lame-duck session and get this whole thing behind us,” said Donahoe, referring to the few weeks lawmakers will be in session after the election before a new Congress takes office in January. “We can’t have a Postal Service where customers are constantly worried about our ability to make payments.”
“That’s no way to run a business,” he said.
Congress will have a full agenda of pressing fiscal issues when it returns in November, and some lawmakers have raised the possibility that postal legislation will get pushed over to the next Congress. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is a sponsor of the House bill, has said he believes some kind of legislation can be passed in the lame-duck session, although it may not be as comprehensive as initially sought.
The Senate passed a postal bill in April that would have provided financial relief in part by reducing the annual health payments and providing an $11 billion cash infusion, basically a refund of overpayments the Postal Service made to a federal pension fund. The House, however, remains stalled over a separate bill that would allow for aggressive cuts, including an immediate end to Saturday delivery. Rural lawmakers in particular worry about the impact of post office closures in their communities.
The Postal Service originally planned to close low-revenue post offices in rural areas to save money, but after public opposition it now is moving forward with a new plan to keep 13,000 of them open with shorter operating hours. The Postal Service also will begin closing more than 200 mail processing centers next year, but the estimated annual savings of $2.1 billion won’t be realized until the full cuts are completed in late 2014.
“Once again, we are watching the days slip away before the U.S. Postal Service faces the second default of its history. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have now had 11 months to do the right thing and fix the serious, but solvable, financial challenges,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., a co-sponsor of the Senate bill. “Every day Congress delays fixing this problem, the financial challenge grows more difficult and the potential solutions become more expensive.”
The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive tax dollars for its day-to-day operations but is subject to congressional control.
Art Sackler, co-coordinator of the Coalition for a 21st Century Postal Service, a group representing the private-sector mailing industry, said many businesses are preparing their budgets for next year and have no idea whether to expect disrupted service or higher postage costs.
“Congress needs to act quickly on comprehensive postal reform,” he said. “These defaults, mounting debts and declining revenues aren’t just going to hurt the Postal Service; they’re going to hurt the 8 million Americans whose jobs depend on the mail.”
U.S. authorities eye retirement accounts as possible tax dodges
The U.S. Treasury Department is examining individual retirement accounts as vehicles for potential tax avoidance, a top tax official said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers released on Wednesday.
Democratic lawmakers have raised questions about the individual retirement account, or IRA, of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and asked the agencies to look into potential tax skirting by IRA holders. Romney has disclosed that his IRA contained up to $101 million, despite annual limits of much smaller amounts.
Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service “have been aware of this risk for a number of years and have been taking actions to curb abuses,” Mark Mazur, Treasury assistant secretary for tax policy, said in the Sept. 19 letter to three Democratic House of Representatives members.
The IRS organized a team last year to improve compliance and enforcement of retirement account tax issues, Mazur said.
The IRA and Treasury are trying to estimate the number of IRA audits that involve asset valuation issues and gauge the size of any tax compliance problems, Mazur said.
IRAs are subject to contribution limits, which prompted some speculation at the time about how Romney’s got so large, as shown in financial disclosure forms the former Massachusetts governor filed with federal election officials in August 2011.
“Gov. Romney has been eligible to contribute to retirement plans since he entered the workforce in 1975,” a Romney campaign spokeswoman said in a statement on Wednesday. “Likewise, the investments in the IRA have appreciated sharply.”
Aaron Albright, a spokesman for Democratic Representative George Miller, who received the Mazur letter, said: “Governor Romney’s financial disclosure forms raised significant issues on whether this presents a problem of how people possibly misevaluate their IRAs to evade taxes.”
House Democrats have called on the tax-writing committees in Congress to address IRA tax avoidance concerns.
Wall Street’s Brutal Job Cuts Are About To Get Much Worse
Believe it or not, investment banks have yet to make any meaningful reductions to their headcounts over the last several years because they’ve been expecting the economy to recover more quickly than it has, according to Nomura research…
But that’s about to change because these firms simply cannot justify their headcounts in relation to their revenue growth–which has been pretty dismal…
White House Hack Attack
Chinese hackers break in to White House military office network in charge of the president’s nuclear football Hackers linked to China’s government broke into one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive computer networks, breaching a system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands, according to defense and intelligence officials familiar with the incident…the cyber breach was one of Beijing’s most brazen cyber attacks against the United States and highlights a failure of the Obama
administration to press China on its persistent cyber attacks.
Disclosure of the cyber attack also comes amid heightened tensions in Asia, as the Pentagon moved two U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups and Marine amphibious units near waters by Japan’s Senkaku islands… http://freebeacon.com/white-house-hack-attack/
As the UN opens its General Assembly session, it is already thinking up new global taxes
A 1 percent tax on billionaires around the world. A tax on all currency trading in the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound sterling. Another “tiny” tax on all financial transactions, including stock and bond trading, and trading in financial derivatives. New taxes on carbon emissions and on airline tickets. A royalty on all undersea mineral resources extracted more than 100 miles offshore of any nation’s territory…
These latest global tax proposals have received various forms of endorsement at U.N. meetings over the spring and summer, and will be entered into the record during the 67th U.N. General Assembly session, which began this week…
FBI agents staying away from Benghazi for now
Two law enforcement officials say that for security reasons FBI agents are staying away from the Libyan city where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed… Separately, the State Department is further reducing the U.S. Embassy staff in Tripoli for security reasons…
JPMorgan Unit Is Sued Over Mortgage Securities Pools
The complaint contends that Bear Stearns and its lending unit, EMC Mortgage, defrauded investors who purchased mortgage securities packaged by the companies from 2005 through 2007…
Exchanges Cancel Trades That Sent Kraft Foods Up 29% Erroneous trades that sent Kraft Foods Group Inc. (KRFT) up as much as 29 percent in the first minute of trading were canceled by exchanges, the latest incident to fuel scrutiny of the electronic infrastructure of U.S. markets… [Manipulation too]
Bullard: Fed risks putting itself in a “box” by targeting unemployment
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/05/us-usa-fed-bullard-unemployment-idUSBRE89402P20121005
Apartment Lending Jumped 60% in 2011
Loans backed by apartment buildings rose by roughly $40 billion last year.
Overall, 2,653 different lenders provide $110 billion in new mortgages for residential buildings with five or more units, according to a report released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association…
http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/177_193/apartment-lending-jumped-60-percent-in-2011-10532641.html?CMP=OTCRSS&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
The 86 million invisible unemployed
There are far more jobless people in the United States than you might think.
While it’s true that the unemployment rate is falling, that doesn’t include the millions of nonworking adults who aren’t even looking for a job anymore. And hiring isn’t strong enough to keep up with population growth.
As a result, the labor force is now at its smallest size since the 1980s when compared to the broader working age population.
“We’ve been getting some job growth and it’s been significant, but it hasn’t yet been strong enough that you start to get people re-engaging in the labor market,” said Keith Hall, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/03/news/economy/unemployment-rate/index.htm
Money Printing Trumps Fundamentals
Stock markets around the world continue to levitate despite the fact that the fundamentals behind the global economy continue to deteriorate.
U.S. second quarter GDP was significantly revised downward last week from the previously reported 1.7%, to just 1.3%. The paltry 1.3% reading on GDP followed a first quarter print that was already an anemic 2%. Also reported last week was the worsening state of consumer’s income. Their take home pay (after taxes and inflation are considered) dropped 0.3% in August, as their savings rate fell to just 3.7%, from 4.1% during the prior month. Another worrisome report showed manufacturing activity in the Chicago region contracted for the first time in three years in the month of September, according to the MNI Chicago Report released on Friday.
But that weak and worsening economic data didn’t stop investors from sending stocks higher. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 4.3% and the S&P advanced 5.7% in the third quarter. However, any economic growth to support those moves was seriously lacking. The simple reason behind the ebullient stock market during last quarter was the Fed’s persistent threat to soon launch a massive amount of debt monetization. Mr. Bernanke followed through on that threat by announcing an open-ended counterfeiting scheme on September 13th.
Turing to Europe, the situation is much the same. Spanish unemployment has reached 25% and the bank of Spain warned last week that the country is in a “deep recession”, which will be its second in the last three years. Also, an audit of Spanish banks indicated that $76.3 billion of capital will be needed for their banks to ride out the next recession and that paved the way for the troubled nation to ask for an international bailout.
http://www.24hgold.com/english/news-gold-silver-money-printing-trumps-fundamentals.aspx?article=4078042956G10020&redirect=false&contributor=Michael+Pento
World food prices rise, stay close to crisis levels: UN
World food prices rose in September and are seen remaining close to levels reached during the 2008 food crisis, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday, while cutting its forecast for global cereal output. The worst drought in more than 50 years in the United States sent corn and soybean prices to record highs over the summer, and, coupled with drought in Russia and other Black Sea exporting countries, raised fears of a renewed crisis.
Grains prices have retreated in recent weeks due to rapid harvest progress and concerns about weak demand in a slowing global economy. But the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, rose 1.4 percent to an average of 216 points in September after remaining stable at 213 points in August. The rise reflected mainly higher dairy and meat prices, with more contained increases for cereals, it said.
“Prices are remaining high… prices are sustained, it’s highly unlikely we will see a normalisation of prices anytime soon,” FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters in a telephone interview. He added however that it was not clear whether the small increase in September meant prices were now on an upward trend, but he expected volatility in markets could intensify in coming months.
Parmjit Singh, head of the food and drink sector at law firm Eversheds, said higher prices would place further pressure on squeezed international food supply chains. “Manufacturers and producers will naturally want to pass on increased costs to their clients but they will meet with stiff resistance from retailers who are reluctant to increase checkout prices for increasingly value-conscious customers,” Singh said.
http://www.brecorder.com/business-a-economy/189/1244890/
Gas prices suddenly skyrocket in California
As wholesale gasoline prices set all-time highs, some filling stations run out of fuel and don’t buy more. Others stay open and pass along costs to customers.
Skyrocketing gasoline prices caused some local service stations to shut off their pumps Thursday while others shocked customers with overnight price increases of 30 cents or more.
California’s fuel industry isn’t running out of gasoline — supplies are only 2.5% lower than this time last year — but recent refinery and pipeline mishaps sent wholesale prices to all-time highs this week. As a result, some station owners weren’t buying fuel for fear they couldn’t sell it. Those who did buy simply kicked prices higher and bet customers would understand.
“If this keeps up, I’ll be looking at $5-a-gallon gas by next Thursday,” said Ali Mazarei, who owns an Arco station in Riverside County. On Thursday, Mazarei was charging $4.52 for a gallon of regular gasoline, up from $4.27 on Wednesday and $4.21 on Tuesday.
Video: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas-prices-20121005,0,2326954.story
Wal-Mart workers on strike
Employees protesting working conditions and retaliation are flexing their organizing muscle. But the first-of-its-kind strike carries risks.
Today, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s 50-year history, workers at multiple stores are out on strike. Minutes ago, dozens of workers at Southern California stores launched a one-day work stoppage in protest of alleged retaliation against their attempts to organize. In a few hours, they’ll join supporters for a mass rally outside a Pico Rivera, Calif., store. This is the latest – and most dramatic – of the recent escalations in the decades-long struggle between organized labor and the largest private employer in the world.
“I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared…” Pico Rivera Wal-Mart employee Evelin Cruz told Salon yesterday about her decision to join today’s strike. “But I think the time has come, so they take notice that these associates are tired of all the issues in the stores, all the management retaliating against you.” Rivera, a department manager, said her store is chronically understaffed: “They expect the work to be done, without having the people to do the job.”
Wal-Mart is entirely union-free in North America, and has worked aggressively to stay that way. Today’s strike is an outgrowth of a year of organizing by OUR Walmart, an organization of Wal-Mart workers. OUR Walmart is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, but hasn’t sought union recognition from Wal-Mart; its members have campaigned for improvements in their local stores and converged at Wal-Mart’s annual shareholder meeting.
http://www.salon.com/2012/10/04/walmart_workers_on_strike/
Google and Iran both warn of state-sponsored computer attacks
Google is warning thousands of Gmail customers this week that state-sponsored attackers may be trying to compromise their computers, an admonition that comes as authorities in Iran claim that their systems are coincidently being targeted as well.
Although neither Google nor Iran has explicitly singled-out a specific culprit or country as being behind the assaults, the Silicon Valley search engine says attacks on their servers are thought to be “state-sponsored.”
Mike Wiacek, the manager of the company’s information security team, tells The New York Times that suspicious activity is believed to be coming from “a slew of different countries” in the Middle East.
Google first informed customers in June that they suspected malicious activity was targeted a large chunk of their users, dispatching warnings at the time the suspected victims reading, “We believe state-sponsored attackers may be attempting to compromise your account or computer.”
Homeland Security gathers ‘crap intelligence’ and spies on Americans
The US Department of Homeland Security has endangered the civil liberties of Americans and spent millions on collecting not counterterrorism intel but “a bunch of crap,” a Senate subcommittee investigation of DHS data fusion centers has found.
The Senate’s bipartisan Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released on Tuesday their findings of a two-year-long probe that has left lawmakers scratching their heads over an array of mismanagement, multi-million-dollar flubs and direct violations of constitutionally-protected civil liberties taking place at fusion centers: special intelligence-processing facilities that now total 77 across the United States.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress tasked the DHS to begin implementing a coast-to-coast system of highly-connected fusion centers that would allow for greater ease in sharing terrorism-related information between state, local and federal authorities. Under the direction of Chairman Sen. Carl Levin and Ranking Minority Member Sen. Tom Coburn, though, the subcommittee that includes lawmakers from both sides of the aisle concludes that the initiative has all but failed at accomplishing its goals.
The Department of Homeland Security’s work with state and local fusion centers, the subcommittee writes, “has not produced useful intelligence to support federal counterterrorism efforts.” Instead, they add, so-called “intelligence” shared between facilities consisted of tidbits of shoddy quality that was often outdated and “sometimes endangering [to] citizen‘s civil liberties and Privacy Act protections.”
GOLD, SILVER, PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM
The Silver Response
A short while back I did an article explaining about the manipulation we see in the silver markets. I was happily surprised to see quite a few people email me with questions and further explanations. So I’d like to revisit some things about silver, and try and clarify in YOUR mind why I think that it is setting up for a break out run to the upside, despite showing you all how JPM and a handful of others were short almost half the entire COMEX silver market. Let me proceed..
Silver is a unique metal. For thousands of years it’s been a medium of exchange (money) because like it’s big brother gold… it has many interesting characteristics. (rare, easily divisible, etc.) But, besides being a form of real “money” it is one of the most widely used metals in the world. Yes steel (iron) and aluminum are without a doubt still the kings of industrial metal, silver is used in so many areas of electronics, so many areas of conductile parts, so many areas of medicine, so many areas of aerospace….that it’s manufacturing demand has risen between 2 and 9% per YEAR for the past 45 years. In fact, demand outstrips supply.
Whoa. Now wait a minute. If demand is bigger than supply, won’t we one day “run out?” YES. Inevitable. Write it down… Bob says one day we will run out of physical silver. Got it? Good. But there IS a catch. We will run out of physical silver AT THESE PRICES. See you can never really ever run out of a commodity, because if the price gets high enough, people will part with it. If the price gets high enough, more people will find some way to find more of it. They’ll mine areas that weren’t worth mining at 10 dollars the ounce, but will profit at 40. So at some point, we will indeed run out of supply…at today’s prices.
So if demand outstrips supply (it does) where are they getting the silver to supply manufacturing and investment? Most of it has been “inventory” silver. For instance the US right after WWII had some 4 billion ounces of the metal in our vaults. Over the years they’ve been pulling that out and “spending it” so to speak. Well, the US isn’t alone. Other sovereign nations around the globe have done the same thing. Consider it, you’re “Joe Blow” and you are the currency comptroller of your little third world country. You don’t have jobs for the people, and even the basic necessities of life are hard to come by. Yet you’ve got 500 million ounces of silver in the Government vault. Why not sell that silver on the open market, take in dollars, and go buy hookers and booze for your Government chums? Right, and that’s what they’ve been doing for 40 years.
Every single day, we get closer to the “reckoning” that “at these prices, there is no more silver available”. Don’t forget that in early 2009, silver was at 10.50. The supply available at that price was used up. It moved up and up and up. Despite large institutions naked shorting it, silver is up several hundred percent in 3 years. Up until now, the market manipulators have been very good at keeping the ball rolling. Knowing that if the people that need silver for their products were to think inventory wasn’t available, there’d be a tremendous run on buying up and storing silver, so what they’ve done is simply “supply the manufacturers first, so they don’t have any buying panic, and we’ll send the silver to the investors… if and when we have some”.
Don’t laugh. I’m not making this up. Several times in the past two years the mints have run out of metal. They supplied manufacturing with their silver, but there was none for the investor. This is a four part game they’ve been playing, by juggling naked shorts, with keeping supply to the manufacturers flowing, while screwing the hedge fund guys, and time delaying delivery. It works perfect, and from where I sit, JP Morgan is the lead criminal in the whole affair. So Bob… “it seems that silver is destined to be higher?” You bet.
The Bank Participation Report that I remarked on a couple weeks ago showed an enormous bounce in the amount of short contracts. I won’t rehash the entire article, just understand that these are purely NAKED shorts. The positions are also entirely illegal by the way. But evidently the CFTC doesn’t see any problems with the system. Go figure.
Now back to the story.. One bank is now short 30% of the entire WORLD production of silver. Do they have the silver to carry that short? Nope it’s “naked”. Backed by nothing. They just pushed a button and “boom” they were now short umpteen billions worth. Is that legal to hold such a manipulative position? Nope, not at all. Could they actually Move the price” of the metal doing that? You bet, that’s the plan. Now let’s suppose you’re a decent fund manager. You’ve got some percentage of your clients in precious metal. You set your black boxes to buy and sell on certain indicators. Well what do you think the black box does when it sees billions of dollars of short sales hit the market just a few cents above the current price? It SELLS and it sells hard. In a matter of hours, the real price of silver is dropping like a rock. In a few days, it could have fallen 2, 3, 4 dollars.
Then guess who buys the silver that the funds just panicked and sold? You got it, the same criminals that shorted it. The game being.. naked short it because it costs absolutely nothing to naked short.. the price of the Real Metal falls.. then you buy the metal at discount, and show big bids to drive it back up. Wash/rinse/repeat. This is billions upon billions that about 4 major banking institutions have been making over the past 30 years by doing this same damned thing over and over.
The question of course is this. It’s been going on for 35 years. Can they make it go on longer? Yes but each and every day the pressure mounts. Each day there is less physical available, and more manufacturing that needs it. Each day as the economy crumbles, more and more people are looking for a way to preserve their capital as savings accounts paying 0.9% don’t cut it. So, we have investment demand for coins and bars up, manufacturing demand up…supply falling, and criminals playing the single biggest economic con we’ve seen. I suggest that one day it all unravels and they lose control of it.
I think that the criminals didn’t really understood the power of Internet. Really. They never thought the average “Joey sixpack” would actually start buying silver as he has. But thank God that via the net and talk radio, people have woken up to the games of our Treasury, our Fed, and our Government and started realizing that silver is a “damned good investment”. It’s got the criminals in a bind. At “some” point, the investment demand, coupled with the manufacturing demand will have indeed exhausted ALL the physical that is available at “this” price. There will be more available at say 40 bucks. But. when that’s gone, they’ll have to go to 50 and so on.
My main point here folks is this…yes the metal is manipulated. But please don’t refuse to buy silver just because I’ve shown you how they manipulate the price. Why? Because it’s still risen from under 10 dollars to over 30 while all that manipulation was going on! They will continue to do their criminal thing, but they can’t heal the worlds economy, and they can’t stop manufacturing demand. The Price of silver is destined to go higher. How high? That’s hard to say, but I’m convinced that we’re going to see 70 to 100 dollar silver. Some really bright folks say you could see 500 or more. Maybe that’s possible, I don’t know. But I’m very comfy with 70+ just based on demand growth.
In the short term, just using the SLV chart as a road map, we see the 50-day moving average has crossed over and above the 200 day moving average, and that’s usually a bullish move. Add that to the fact that its been capped at the 34 level for a while now. If it busts over 34, with that recent moving average cross so new…silver could spurt considerably higher soon.
Oh and by the way, I know a lot of folks feel that doing anything with the SLV is bad because it’s run by the same criminals that fraud the rest of the market. They probably don’t even have the silver they say they have. I agree with that. But, I don’t believe in using the SLV as a silver “investment”. I use it as a trading vehicle. We bought 4K shares at 29.00/01, and now it’s breathing hard on 34.00. That’s 17% folks and as investors AND traders, we have no choice but to “invest” in the physical metal and use the equity market to make the money to buy more of it. So, while I know how criminal the SLV is, I will continue to use it as a trading vehicle only. I think that’s a wise move.
Bob Rinear
www.investyourself.com
$2.7 bn IMF gold sales profits to help poor
The International Monetary Fund approved Friday $2.7 billion in gold sales profits to boost financing to low-income countries.
The IMF executive board earmarked the money for the global lender’s concessional lending program, the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.
The distribution of the windfall profits will occur “only when members have given satisfactory assurances that an amount equivalent to at least 90 percent of the distribution will be made available to the PRGT,” the institution said in a statement.
Gold tipped to hit record $2,000 per ounce by the end of the year
Gold is back on the march. Once again, City analysts are dusting off their forecasts that the precious metal will hit a record $2,000 (£1,240) per ounce by the end of the year.
It’s a simple equation. Gold tends to surge in value when people fear investing their money elsewhere, such as in the stock market or government bonds.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/markets/article-2212005/Gold-tipped-hit-record-2-000-ounce-end-year.html
Price of gold could reach $2,400/oz
Gold could hit an all-time high of $2,400 by next summer, driven up by a third round of quantitative easing in the US. The first round of QE in February 2009 caused the gold price to increase rapidly from a base of $900/oz – from which it has never looked back.
BlackRock fund manager Evy Hambro who invests in the precious metal and gold equities, predicted that QE3 could result in the gold price hitting US$2,400/oz by the middle of next summer.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/investing/gold/9587117/Price-of-gold-could-reach-2400oz.html
Pretium Resources Inc.: High-Grade Gold Intercepts Continue to Confirm Valley of the Kings Continuity
10/03/2012
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Pretium Resources Inc. is pleased to report that drilling in Brucejack’s Valley of the Kings continues to confirm the projection and continuity of high-grade gold, with numerous intervals grading over 1 kilogram per tonne gold.
HELLIX VENTURES INC. (TSX VENTURE:HEL)() – Frank Underhill, President, announces updates on its Athabasca project near Nelson, British Columbia, Canada.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA – Hellix has received results on its soil sampling program, initiated after several areas of elevated gold-in-soil geochemistry were found in 2011 (see Hellix news release dated September 16, 2011).
The 2012 infill sampling program within the eastern claim block area continues to return significant values of gold-in-soil, with several individual samples returning over 1000 ppb gold. Some samples may have been influenced by material released from the historic tram line that transferred ore from the historic Athabasca and Venus Mines to the mill site transecting part of the soil sample grid. This reasoning does not hold true however, for the significant results this program obtained at a distance of one hundred to two hundred metres (three hundred thirty to six hundred sixty feet) to the east of the old tram line. Further investigation of this area is warranted.
Hellix also announces it has assembled all personnel for its Athabasca drill program first announced March 28, 2012. Drilling will commence very shortly.
Soil Sampling Procedures
Sampling was conducted using pick and shovel to obtain “B” horizon soil samples. Sample positions were surveyed in the field with stations at 25 metre intervals. Line spacing was 100 metres, with 50 metre spaced lines in detailed areas. All samples were shipped to Acme Laboratories in Vancouver, BC, where they underwent the lab’s IF-03 process, where a 30 gram split from the prepared sample is analyzed for 37 elements by ICP-MS methodology.
The technical portion of this release has been reviewed by Qualified Person Laurence Sookochoff, P. Eng.
HELLIX VENTURES (TSX VENTURE:HEL) is engaged in the identification, acquisition, exploration and development of gold and silver properties in North America. Hellix has no debt (other than short-term trade payables), and has positive cash flow from fossil fuel production in Western Canada. All transactions stated or referred to herein are expressly subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval as well as all other applicable regulatory body approvals.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
HELLIX VENTURES INC.
Frank Underhill, President
The forgoing is for informational purposes only, and is not to be construed as an offer to buy or sell securities in any jurisdiction. It may contain forward-looking statements. While the data compiled by management is from sources deemed to be reliable, actual future results may vary materially. Hellix Ventures Inc. does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement and will not be responsible for any loss arising from the use of this information. Historically reported results may not be NI 43-101 compliant and therefore caution should be used in relying on such statements.
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Oil Up—or Oil Down?
by Alfred Adask for Discount Gold & Silver Trading
Last year’s “Arab Spring” toppled four Middle East governments and threatened thirteen more.
That regional uprising was partially inspired by the rising costs and falling supplies of food.
Modern agriculture has been described as the process of turning crude oil into food. The relationship between crude and food is seen in the petroleum-basis for fertilizer and for the gas and diesel fuels that power tractors in the field and trucks hauling produce to market.
Thus, the global price of crude oil will largely determine the global supply and price of food. Therefore, the price of crude will determine how many nations are destabilized, how many governments are overturned, how many people riot before they starve to death.
The price of crude oil has been anything but stable this year. In March it was, $117/barrel; in June, $90; back up to $105 in August; and currently, $89.
So where’s the price of oil headed? Up or down?
The answer’s important since lower crude oil prices should reduce food and energy prices and contribute to global stability.
This year, the price of crude becomes doubly important since the US is suffering the worst drought in more than 50 years. Because the US exports more food than anyone else, the American drought threatens the world’s food supply. If America can’t export enough food, the world can expect another year of political instability similar to the Arab Spring.
The global food shortage is aggravated by the fact that wheat crops in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have been devastated by drought. Australia and India have also been adversely affected.
Global food production is declining; global food demand is rising. Rising food prices will rise and falling food supplies may precipitate political upheavals.
Given the critical relationship of petroleum to modern agriculture, the price of crude oil will help determine whether the world erupts into chaos, or remains fairly stable.
So is the price of crude more likely to rise or fall over the next year?
Before I make my prediction, let’s look at some recent history:
“In Arab Spring, Obama Finds a Sharp Test. . . . Mr. Obama, on Feb. 1, 2011, told [Egyptian president] Mubarak that [he] had to step down. Minutes later, a grim Mr. Obama appeared before hastily summoned cameras. The end of Mr. Mubarak’s 30-year rule, Mr. Obama said, ‘must begin now.’ With those words, Mr. Obama upended three decades of American relations with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world, putting the weight of the United States squarely on the side of the Arab street.”
“It was a risky move by the American president, flying in the face of advice from elders on his staff at the State Department and at the Pentagon, who had spent decades nursing the autocratic—but staunchly pro-American—Egyptian government.
“Nineteen months later . . . anti-American protests broke out in Egypt and Libya [and] led to the deaths of four Americans, including the United States ambassador to Libya.
“Mr. Obama had learned hard lessons over almost two years of political turmoil in the Arab world: bold words and support for democratic aspirations are not enough to engender good will in this region.” —The New York Times
Nineteen months after President Obama helped topple Egypt’s former President Mubarak, Egypt’s new President, Mohamed Morsi, visited the US and said,
“Washington is asking Egypt to honor its treaty with Israel, [but] Washington should also live up to its own Camp David commitment to Palestinian self-rule. The United States must respect the Arab world’s history and culture, even when that conflicts with Western values . . .. The United States should not expect Egypt to live by its rules . . .. If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no room for judgment. When the Egyptians decide something, probably it is not appropriate for the U.S. When the Americans decide something, this, of course, is not appropriate for Egypt.”—The New York Times
Translation? Say, “bye-bye” to Egyptian support of US policies in the Middle East—including Egypt’s current treaty with Israel.
Say “Hello” to unprecedented Middle East turmoil.
And if the Middle East erupts into another Arab Spring, say “Hello” to higher petroleum prices, higher food prices, food shortages, food riots, and more political upheaval in the Middle East—which will fuel even higher petroleum prices, more food shortages, and more political instability. If the Middle East can’t be calmed, the spiral of higher crude oil prices, less food and more political stability will continue until the population of the Middle East is dramatically reduced.
“U.S. Is Preparing for a Long Siege of Arab Unrest. The White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Middle East.”—The New York Times
And here’s a beauty from the UK Telegraph:
“An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme. Cruisers, aircraft carriers and minesweepers from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.”
Warships from 25 nations in one small geographic area? That’s never happened before. That concentration of power in the Middle East is reminiscent of Revelation.
“Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s oil traded by sea. A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf.” UK Telegraph
• “With Obama policy crumbling, White House blames movie for Mideast unrest. With anti-American demonstrations exploding across the Muslim world, the White House insists that the deadly attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya and violent protests targeting U.S. facilities in Egypt and several other countries are entirely the result of an anti-Islamic video on YouTube.
“This is a fairly volatile situation and it is in response not to United States policy, not to the administration, not to the American people,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday. “It is in response to a video, a film that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting. That in no way justifies any violent reaction to it, but this is not a case of protests directed at the United States or at U.S. policy. This is in response to a video that is offensive to Muslims.”—The Washington Examiner
M’thinks the White House doth protest too much.
The truth behind the recent Middle East attacks on the US is probably closer to descriptions seen in several German newspapers:
“The deeply held American belief that all you have to do is liberate people from serfdom and dictatorship, and then democracy and a market economy will develop more or less on their own, burned to ash in the trial by fire of Iraq. A fact that academics and historically informed diplomats have always known can now be observed throughout the Arab world: Deeply ingrained cultural attitudes do not change simply because one political regime replaces another. In the long process of building a democratic society, it is not possible to simply skip stages.”—Allgemeine Zeitung
“President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy is in ruins. Like no president before him, he tried to win over the Arab world. After some initial hesitation, he came out clearly on the side of the democratic revolutions . . .. In this context, he has snubbed old close allies such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Egyptian military. . . . Anti-Americanism in the Arab world has even increased to levels greater than in the Bush era. It’s a bitter outcome for Obama. One thing is clear: If jihadists believe they can attack American installations and kill an ambassador on the anniversary of Sept. 11, then America’s deterrent power has declined considerably.”—Die Welt
“Three years after Obama’s speech in Cairo, which was supposed to initiate a new beginning in the Middle East, the United States now has even less support in the region than before. . . . It is the consequences of an American foreign policy that for decades favored power over democracy, and a hard line over human rights—and which will suffer from a credibility problem for a long time for precisely those reasons.”—Handelsblatt
So long as the US government’s credit was unlimited, the “petro-dollar” was the “world reserve currency,” and the Federal Reserve could “spin money out of thin air,” our government could buy or bribe every dictator in the world. Our status as the world’s only super-power status flowed from our “super-currency”.
As the US government’s credit rating falls, as the fiat dollar sheds its status as “world reserve currency,” and our Fed’s ability to “spin money” is compromised by rising inflation and dollar devaluation . . . our ability to buy or bribe dictators must decline.
In the end, our government is too arrogant and/or corrupt to inspire most people’s support based on its ideals or integrity. We’ve traded our status of “Land of the Free” for “Land of the World Reserve Currency”. Our government was thereby able to buy the support of foreign dictators and domestic welfare and subsidy recipients with “mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money.”
When the money stops flowing from Uncle Sugar, the support of the world and the American people for our national government will also stop.
In the Middle East, a region of Balkan-like instability and conflict, without a strong fiat dollar, there’s no longer a “strong hand” to support or even command stability and order. It’s going to be difficult, perhaps impossible, to contain Middle East tensions.
The prospect of one or more Middle East wars—not just political revolutions—grows daily. I won’t be surprised to see Israel and its adversaries “nuke it out”.
“Iran: Let’s Price Crude at $150 per Barrel”–Reuters
Iran’s oil minister was recently quoted as saying crude oil should be at least $150 per barrel and that oil prices weren’t high enough to threaten the world economy. I don’t know if that oil minister is doing drugs or standup comedy, but pricing crude at $150 won’t only push the global economy deeper into depression, it will precipitate food riots. The world economy and the impoverished people of the Middle East cannot survive $150 crude.
Unless The Powers That Be want a global depression and want Middle East madness, they won’t allow the price of crude oil to rise significantly.
In fact, those Powers should want the price of crude to fall.
Even if they don’t, there are market forces at work that will cause the price of crude to fall dramatically.
James Beck is the lead analyst of the Weekly Petroleum Supply Team for the Energy Information Administration, Office of Petroleum and Biofuels Statistics. He recently wrote:
“The data support the general point that total petroleum product demand is at 1997/98 levels. . . . These 15 years of demand destruction cannot be explained fully by increased efficiency or increased use of biofuels and renewables (these have, at most, a marginal effect). This is truly an indication of the real and continuing trouble in our economy, high unemployment and underemployment, loss of manufacturing, and reduction of shipping.
“Demand for gasoline continues to be below 2002 levels
“Distillate demand for April – June, it is down nearly 4.5% from last year . . . at its lowest level since 2002. Since diesel demand is a very good proxy for the health of the economy (all shipping uses diesel–trucking, rail, barge, etc.), this weakening from last year continues to be source of concern for the economy.
“Demand for jet fuel has also fallen dramatically from 2007/08 (it had also fallen dramatically after the 9/11 attacks, never fully recovering to the levels seen from 1999 – 2001). KJet demand continues to be at levels we have not seen since 1994/95.
“These numbers do not tell me that we are in a recovery.”
OK, if the global demand for crude oil has fallen to levels seen 15 years ago, I agree that the numbers don’t suggest we’re in a “recovery”. Instead, those numbers confirm what you and I already know: we’re at least in a recession and probably a global depression and the global economy is starting to crater. That’s not news.
However, according to Inflationdata.com, the price/barrel of crude ranged between $12 and $27 in A.D. 1997-98, and averaged about twenty bucks a barrel.
So far, this year, the price of crude oil has averaged about $92 per barrel.
So, if the current demand for crude oil is equal to the demand last seen in A.D. 1997-1998 (when prices averaged about $20/barrel), how do we justify today’s price of $89?
I know that there are factors other than demand (like supply and inflation) that affect the price of crude oil. Nevertheless, when the levels of global demand for crude oil in A.D. 2012 are similar to the levels seen in A.D. 1997, shouldn’t the prices also be similar?
Instead, we see the current price of crude is four times higher. Given the fall in demand, I don’t believe the current price can be sustained.
I’m not suggesting that the price of crude oil will soon drop to $20/barrel. But I am suggesting that the free market force of drastically diminished demand will drive the price considerably lower than it is right now.
The New World Order is finally about “order”. I know that they seek “ordo ab chao,” but there are some levels of chaos that are too chaotic to foster much order. The Middle East is crucial to the global supply of crude oil and to the maintenance of the global economy. But the Middle East is also so explosively unstable. I doubt that the “Powerz” will dare raise the price of crude, food and energy and risk further global destabilization.
Thus, for political reasons, the price of crude should fall.
For free market reasons (demand reduced to A.D. 1997 levels), the price of crude should fall.
My prediction? We’ll see $70 crude oil long before we see $150 crude oil.
If I’m mistaken and the price of crude rises to, say, $120, it will signal that the “Powerz” want the Middle East to explode. In that case, it will be wise to flee the Middle East.
It may even be wise to flee the Northern Hemisphere.
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This week’s Closing Numbers
|
Monday
10/1 |
Tuesday
10/2 |
Wednesday
10/3 |
Thursday
10/4 |
Friday
10/5 |
Weekly change | |
| DOW | 13515 | 13482 | 13494 | 13575 | 13610 | +95 |
| S & P | 1444 | 1445 | 1450 | 1461 | 1460 | +16 |
| NDQ | 3113 | 3120 | 3135 | 3149 | 3136 | +23 |
| Gold | 1777.10 | 1772.70 | 1777.30 | 1789.80 | 1777.00 | -0.10 |
| Silver | 34.82 | 34.67 | 34.62 | 34.99 | 34.41 | -0.41 |
| Copper | 3.78 | 3.79 | 3.77 | 1.79 | 3.76 | -0.02 |
| Platinum | 1677.80 | 1682.90 | 1690.30 | 1717.90 | 1703.30 | +25.50 |
| Palladium | 643.25 | 649.85 | 653.65 | 674.20 | 660.60 | +6.60 |
| Oil | 92.27 | 91.70 | 88.05 | 91.60 | 89.85 | -2.42 |
| Gas | 2.92 | 2.87 | 2.79 | 2.93 | 2.95 | +0.03 |
| Natural Gas | 3.75 | 3.76 | 3.68 | 3.69 | 3.68 | -0.07 |
| Swiss Fr | 93.72 | 93.52 | 93.77 | 92.95 | 92.84 | -0.88 |
| Yen | 77.94 | 78.08 | 78.47 | 78.40 | 78.63 | +0.69 |
| Pound | 1.61 | 1.61 | 1.31 | 1.62 | 1.61 | 0.00 |
| Canadian Dollar | 1.02 | 1.01 | 1.01 | 1.02 | 1.01 | -0.01 |
| Euro | 1.29 | 1.29 | 1.29 | 1.30 | 1.30 | +0.01 |
| Dollar | 79.79 | 79.74 | 79.96 | 79.36 | 79.37 | -0.42 |
| HUI | 517.56 | 513.91 | 505.24 | 518.74 | 513.93 | -3.63 |
| XAU | 192.10 | 190.81 | 188.02 | 193.46 | 191.53 | -0.57 |
| AEM | 52.72 | 52.47 | 52.52 | 53.81 | 53.57 | +0.85 |
| GG | 46.20 | 45.64 | 45.19 | 46.25 | 46.22 | +0.02 |
| HLLXF | 0.1799 | 0.18 | 0.16 | 0.1989 | 0.194 | +0.0141 |
| ABIZF | 0.143 | 0.1806 | 0.178 | 0.178 | 0.179 | +0.036 |
| AXU | 4.24 | 4.14 | 4.12 | 4.18 | 4.13 | -0.11 |
| PVG | 12.88 | 12.81 | 13.16 | 13.80 | 13.82 | +0.94 |
| SSRI | 15.9011 | 15.66 | 15.29 | 16.03 | 16.65 | +0.7489 |
CANADA
Non-Christian prison chaplains chopped by Ottawa
The federal government is cancelling the contracts of non-Christian chaplains at federal prisons, CBC News has learned.
Inmates of other faiths, such as Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jews, will be expected to turn to Christian prison chaplains for religious counsel and guidance, according to the office of Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who is also responsible for Canada’s penitentiaries.
Toews made headlines in September when he ordered the cancellation of a tender issued for a Wiccan priest for federal prisons in B.C.
Toews said he wasn’t convinced part-time chaplains from other religions were an appropriate use of taxpayer money and that he would review the policy.
In an email to CBC News, Toews’ office says that as a result of the review, the part-time non-Christian chaplains will be let go and the remaining full-time chaplains in prisons will now provide interfaith services and counselling to all inmates.
“The minister strongly supports the freedom of religion for all Canadians, including prisoners,” the email states. “However, the government … is not in the business of picking and choosing which religions will be given preferential status through government funding. The minister has concluded … chaplains employed by Corrections Canada must provide services to inmates of all faiths.”
57% of inmates Christian
There are nearly 15,000 inmates in federal custody and a large majority of them identify themselves as Christian:
- 37.5% are Catholic.
- 19.5% are Protestant.
- 4.5% are Muslim.
- 4% First Nations spirituality
- 2% are Buddhist.
- less than 1% are Jewish.
- less than 1% are Sikh.
Figures obtained by CBC News show that before the contract cancellations — which will take effect by the end of March 2013 — there were about 80 full-time chaplains across the country and all but one are Christian. There are about 100 part-time chaplains, 20 of them non-Christian.
The total cost of the chaplain program is about $6.4 million a year and it’s not clear what amount will be saved by the cancellations.
Chaplains concerned
The decision has raised concern among representatives of non-Christian faiths, such as B.C. Sikh chaplain Harkirat Singh.
“I believe this is discrimination,” Singh said. “How can a Christian chaplain provide spirituality to the Sikh faith, because they don’t have that expertise.”
Rabbi Dina-Hasida Mercy called the cancellations “un-Canadian” and said she was concerned about the inmates she counsels.
“My first reaction is, ‘What am I going to tell the guys that I see,’” Mercy said. “These people are all going to be out on the street someday, and unless we do some work while they’re in prison to help them become good citizens when they’re on the outside, it’s not going to happen.”
Surrey Muslim Imam Aasim Rashid said he doubted that Christians could properly minister to Muslims.
“It’s not very practical and frankly I don’t even think it’s possible,” Rashid said. “I don’t think it’s been done yet anywhere where you have a person of one faith who is catering to the spiritual or religious needs of all the other faiths.”
Canada Update
By Peter Gordon
Maple Syrup Heist Update
$30 million in Canadian maple syrup recently stolen from a warehouse facility in Quebec has now been seized from a maple syrup facility in New Brunswick. This one made the media because of its obvious Canadian connotations. But it was quite the theft. Between 600 and 800 barrels of the stuff were hauled away in the seizure. It has come out of this story that there is such thing as a Quebec Maple Syrup Federation and they act much like a cartel, controlling the flow of the sweet stuff for pancakes. The syrup that was sucked by hoses out of the Quebec warehouse facility was part of a strategic reserve to buffer market fluctuations in the price of maple syrup. Consider the comparison of this Canadian maple syrup to the US strategic oil reserve.
XL Foods Meat Recall
A beef recall is under way in Canada. Beef from XL Foods meat facility has been identified as being the source of an E-coli across Canada. XL Foods of Alberta has now been closed after contaminated meat has been distributed far and wide across Canada. There are major PR campaigns kicking in to contain the damage, especially with companies like McDonald’s so dependent on meat that does not contain E-coli to shove between buns that they sell as a savory calorie bomb. XL Foods, in public announcements, has taken full responsibility for the outbreak. But while XL Foods appears to be doing their part, others are looking up and around, asking where were the food inspectors to be found in recent weeks? More finger pointing has now started up and it appears delays in the sharing of valuable information in the case has led to people ingesting sickening bacteria.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/10/04/beef-recall-expansion-xl-foods.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/food-safety-questions-point-to-delays-in-passing-information/article4586942/?cmpid=rss1
Gary Bettman – Persona non grata in Canada
For the third time on his watch, Gary Bettman has locked out NHL hockey players. Now the first two weeks of regular season play in the NHL have been cancelled. It is only a short matter of time before the mobs of hockey players and fans amass carrying torches and pitchforks to his office in Manhattan. Anger has been flowing for weeks over the Internets. In the wake of the lockout, billions of dollars of hockey business are on hold for 30 teams and cities across the US and Canada. Bettman’s ability to kill the game on his whims is absolutely ridiculous. NHL hockey is quickly becoming the laughing stock of the sporting world, thanks to you, Gary. Why don’t you just quit?
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2012/10/hockey-players-lash-out-after-games-cancelled.html
Quebec Construction Industry Racketeering Scandal
It comes as no surprise to much of anyone, really, that the mob has its fingers in the Quebec construction industry. Reports and stories have surfaced for decades of corruption and scandals with kickbacks, back room deals, and shady characters. The Charbonneau Commission was undertaken to investigate the extent of corruption to the construction industry and many revelations have come out since it has began its work. Companies paid a tax to the mob to ensure that things ran smoothly. Municipal bids were influenced. Companies took turn bidding low to win a bid, while others bid artificially high. A star mafia witness said there is a cartel like organization lording over the Quebec construction industry, and money found its way to the well-known mafia crime organization, La Cosa Nostra.
Among the revelations was that it was such common knowledge among everybody in the business and in different levels of government for so long, and yet it continued.
The police have now raided the home and city hall offices of Laval Mayor Gilles Vaillancourt. Laval is a suburb adjacent to Montreal. Mayor Vaillancourt says he has done nothing wrong and will not step down. The saga continues. We can only hope that changes made to the construction business truly put the mafia out of the construction racketeering business, and not drive it underground even further.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Charbonneau+Commission+Detective+lists+construction+firms+linked+Mafia/7308561/story.html
EUROPE
Multiplying Europe’s fiscal suicide (technical)
The entire EU austerity plan is based on a false premise. This disastrous error is now clear beyond any reasonable doubt.
The Teuto-Calvinists believe – or profess to believe, since much of their dogma is national self-interest dressed up as theory – that the fiscal multiplier is around 0.5.
That is to say, fiscal retrenchment worth 1pc of GDP will cut output by half as much, or around 0.5pc over two years. There is pain, but at least there is gain.
This is based on the IMF’s analysis of fiscal crises over the decades.
Eurozone inflation in surprise rise in September
Inflation in the 17 countries that use the euro rose unexpectedly to a six-month high in September, official figures showed Friday, weakening expectations of another interest rate cut from the European Central Bank…prices in the eurozone were 2.7 percent higher in September than the year before, up from the previous month’s 2.6 percent rate. The consensus in the markets was for a decline to 2.4 percent.
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120928/business/709289900/print/
German Chancellor Angela Merkel must “come clean at long last” and admit that Greece will need help for another seven or eight years, the German opposition leader said over the weekend.
Portugal announces sweeping tax hikes
Portugal will raise taxes across the board to ensure the country collects enough revenues to meet tough budget goals under its 78-billion-euro bailout, Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said on Wednesday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/03/us-portugal-budgeidUSBRE8920U420121003
Greek PM says funds will run out next month
Greece cannot ask its people to accept a further austerity squeeze, prime minister Antonis Samaras said on Friday, while warning that his debt-wracked country would run out of funds next month.
In a wide-ranging interview in German daily Handelsblatt, Samaras also reiterated that Greece needed more time to implement deep cuts demanded by international creditors rather than a fresh injection of cash.
Asked how long Greece could survive without the next slice of aid, Samaras said: “Until the end of November. Then the coffers are empty.”
“I cannot and I will not deny it: Greek democracy is facing perhaps its biggest ever challenge,” stated the prime minister.
In return, Greece has signed up to a vast programme of austerity and cuts to satisfy the demands of the so-called “troika” of creditors – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Officials from the so-called “troika” – are currently in Greece assessing the country’s progress in fulfilling the terms for receiving the aid.
“The cuts we have already made have cut to the bone. We are at the limits of what we can ask of our people,” he said.
“People are at the point where they are saying ‘we are prepared to make sacrifices but we want to see light at the end of the tunnel.’ Otherwise everything is in vain,” added Samaras.
“It’s about the cohesion of our society, which is being threatened by rising unemployment, like at the end of the Weimar Republic in Germany,” he continued, referring to the collapse of the government that ushered in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.
“What we need is more time for budgetary consolidation — but not necessarily more aid,” he pledged, amid concerns in Germany that Europe will eventually have to stump up more to keep Greece afloat.
France halves growth forecast
France’s national statistics institute INSEE on Thursday halved its 2012 growth forecast to 0.2 percent, predicting zero growth in the third and fourth quarters and claiming “The French economy is stuck in neutral.”
The French economy appears to be settling into a period of no growth according to the INSEE national statistics institute, which halved late Thursday its 2012 growth forecast to 0.2 percent.
The new forecast puts INSEE just below the government’s forecast of 0.3 percent growth to bring France’s public deficit to 4.5 percent of GDP as pledged to the European Union.
The French economy is stuck in neutral, said the head of INSEE’s forecasting unit Cedric Audenis.
“It is not in ‘drive’ like the United States, but neither ‘in reverse’ like the eurozone overall” which is in recession, he added.
INSEE believes France will continue to escape recession, but stagnate with zero growth in the third and fourth quarter, as opposed to its previous forecasts in June of 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent growth respectively.
That would make for five consecutive quarters of no growth, an unprecedented stagnation for the French economy since World War II.
It would also make it more difficult for the French government to achieve next year its target of squeezing the public deficit to the EU limit of 3.0 percent of GDP, which is based on a growth forecast of 0.8 percent.
Audenis said 0.3 percent growth in each quarter would be necessary in 2013 to hit that target if the economy posts no growth in the final half of 2012.
INSEE also forecast on Thursday that unemployment in mainland France will reach 10.0 percent in the third quarter of 2012, the first time since 1999, and end the year at 10.2 percent.
Top bank fires traders aiding tax dodgers
Germany’s biggest bank has dismissed several traders who systematically helped clients evade VAT, a German newspaper reported. The move is apparently part of a new clean-up drive at Deutsche Bank.
At least five of the company’s employees have been asked to clear their desks, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Thursday.
The bank would not comment on the specific report, but pointed to “culture change” recently announced by the new joint CEOs Jürgen Fitschen and Anshu Jain, who declared that “not everything that was legal was legitimate.”
The co-chairmen promised that the bank would no longer engage in business that damages its reputation. “We mean it seriously,” Jain said recently.
The dismissed workers reportedly cooperated with an international group that deprived the German state of several hundred million euros by trading CO2 emissions credits. A number of firms were awarded illegitimate tax rebates by capitalizing on so-called VAT “carousel frauds,” the paper said.
Deutsche Bank came under pressure over the affair after it emerged that Frankfurt’s state prosecutors suspected at least seven of the bank’s traders of being involved in the carousels for several years.
The bank’s previous CEO Josef Ackermann long denied that there was any evidence of criminal activity at the bank. But the rhetoric became more cautious earlier this year, shortly before he was replaced.
German investigations revealed that the British tax authorities had warned Deutsche Bank’s London branch at the end of 2009 that between 85 and 95 percent of CO2 emissions trading in the European Union was “riddled with criminal fraud.”
The bank reportedly continued its involvement with the schemes despite the warning, and one senior manager in London is said to have personally taken advantage of the trading.
EU foreign ministers call for new Iran sanctions
Germany, Britain and France officially called for new European Union sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, diplomats said Sunday.
The foreign ministers of the three countries wrote to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton last week calling for tougher measures as the showdown with Tehran becomes more tense, a European diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The EU is working on more sanctions as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad seeks to counter the pressure on his country at this week’s UN General Assembly in New York.
Ahmadinejad met UN leader Ban Ki-moon on Sunday as the EU foreign policy chief held talks on Iran and other topics with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in New York.
Details of the new EU measures are still being worked on but foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc will discuss the move at a meeting in Brussels on October 15.
The United States and its European allies say that Iran is working toward a nuclear bomb. Iran says its research is for peaceful energy purposes. There has been mounting speculation in recent months that Israel is planning a military strike on Iran’s bunkered nuclear facilities.
The United States, Britain and France warned at the UN Security Council last week that time is running out for a negotiated solution with Iran.
“It is necessary that we sharpen the sanctions,” said a second western official, confirming the request by foreign ministers William Hague of Britain, Laurent Fabius of France and Guido Westerwelle of Germany.
“We think there is still time for a political solution, a diplomatic solution, and this is what we are working for. But we cannot accept nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran,” said the official, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
Ashton is to chair a meeting in New York on Thursday of the six nations – the EU three, plus the United States, Russia and China – who have been seeking to negotiate a solution with Iran.
The international community has pursued a dual track of pressure through sanctions while seeking to negotiate. But the US and European nations say Iran is refusing to talk.
UN chief Ban “urged Iran to take the measures necessary to build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme,” said a UN spokeswoman, Vannina Maestracci.
Ban and Ahmadinejad also discussed the war in Syria and the protests in the Muslim world against a US-made film that mocks Islam.
The showdown with Iran is one of the key topics at the UN assembly where Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also scheduled to speak.
Ahmadinejad, who will address world leaders on Wednesday, is probably making his last appearance at the UN assembly where he has become a controversial figure.
Western nations regularly walk out of his speeches in protest at his anti-Israeli comments.
MIDDLE EAST
Iran police on watch after currency protests
Iran deployed riot police at key Tehran intersections on Thursday, after tensions flared over the nation’s plunging currency in the most widespread display of anger linked to the country’s sanctions-hit economy.
The show of force reflects the authorities’ concerns in the wake of sporadic protests Wednesday over the plummeting currency, which has sharply driven up prices. It has also put Iranian leaders under the most pressure from dissent since crushing the opposition movement after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
Most shops in Tehran’s main bazaar were reopened on Thursday, the first day of the Iranian weekend, and no unrest was reported.
Iran’s Rial: Bad policy or Western sanctions?
As the country’s currency value hits a record low we ask what is really behind the Rial’s continuing downward spiral.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under growing pressure over the sharp drop of his country’s currency.
Riot police in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have fought with protesters angry over the sharp fall in Iran’s currency, the Rial.
Hundreds of demonstrators turned out on Wednesday to demand the governor of the central bank step down. They also accused their president of financial mismanagement.
Video:http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2012/10/20121056470377845.html
Iran Rial Dives, Cleric Says Currency Speculation
The rial has dropped some 18 percent in a day, reaching 35,000 to the dollar…That’s almost triple the official value of 12,260 rials per dollar set by the central bank, a rate to which most Iranians don’t have access…
Iran’s economy is suffering after the U.S. and European Union tightened trade and financial sanctions in the past year…
The restrictions, aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program, have limited Iran’s ability to sell oil, its biggest export, and other goods in return for currencies such as dollars and euros…
Iran’s inflation rate rose to 23.5 percent in the month that ended on Aug. 20 from 22.9 percent the previous month, according to the central bank. The real rate is 29 percent, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said last month, according to Shargh newspaper…
Insightful people understand that the US is waging an economic war against Iran. One of the key components of this war is to crush the value of its currency, the rial, so the necessities of life soar in value and the inflation foments public unrest.
Ironically, this type of economic warfare is being applied in the US on a more gradual basis. But eventually its effect will be the same.
Turkey issues new warnings to Syria – Friday 5 October 2012
UN security council condemns Aleppo bombings
Erdogan says Turkey ‘not far from war’
Thousands of protesters call for reform in Jordan
Ahmadinejad cameraman hands nuclear tapes to CIA, Israel’s Debka reports
The Iranian cameraman assigned to document President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent trip to the UN has defected, and new reports claim that with his exit he has handed the US a trove of never-before-seen footage of his homeland’s nuclear facilities.
Hassan Golkhanban, a journalist for the Iranian News Network, was among the 140-people that accompanied President Ahmadinejad to the United Nations headquarters in New York last week. Unlike the rest of the Iran head’s entourage, however, the videographer vanished before returning home and has since asked the US State Department to grant him political asylum.
Now Israel’s Debka news agency reports that with his application for asylum, Golkhanban has made good with America’s request for information on a rumored nuclear warhead program being ramped up overseas.
ASIA
Iron ore faces longest bear market in 20 years
Iron ore, the commodity most leveraged to China’s growth and Australia’s biggest export earner, is heading for the longest bear market in 20 years.
Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, which control about two-thirds of seaborne iron ore supply, are spending about $US47 billion ($46 billion) on new and bigger iron ore mines from Brazil to Australia. The new cargoes are set to reach the global market just as China changes gear to lower growth expectations, following what may become its weakest performance since 1990.
AFRICA
Platinum mine sacks 12,000 in South Africa
World’s top producer of metal says workers failed to show up to disciplinary hearings and have three days to appeal.
Officials at the Anglo American Platinum mine in South Africa have announced that they will dismiss 12,000 out of 21,000 striking miners they say are engaging in an “illegal strike”.
The world’s largest platinum producer said on Friday the 12,000 dismissed workers failed to turn up to disciplinary hearings which began on Tuesday.
They will have three working days to appeal.
Anglo American had been threatening the strikers with dismissal for a week now via text messages to its workers.
The sackings were the first such actions by all of the mines where illegal strikes have taken place.
The announcement came on a day the body of a mine worker was found near the Anglo American mine, located in North West province, according to a strike leader.
Gaddafi Mdoda, one of the miners taking part in the three-week-long strike, said the body belonged to another striker who had died from rubber-coated bullets shot to disperse the protesters on Thursday night.
Neither police nor mine owners have commented on the claim.
Miners determined
Al Jazeera’s Tania Page, reporting from Rustenberg on Friday, said the miners she spoke to reiterated that the sackings would not deter their protests.
“They were so determined to get this money that they were never going to back down from a big pay raise,” she said.
The striking miners are seeking a raise from what they say is a salary of $500 per month to $2,000.
The demonstrations have now spread to seven of the nation’s nine provinces.
Over 75,000 South African miners workers, who amount for 15 per cent of the nation’s work force, are on strike.
The walkouts began four weeks ago when 15,000 miners walked off the job at the world’s fourth largest gold producer, Gold Fields.
On August 16, police shot and killed 46 platinum miners in Marikana, near Rustenburg.
The strikes then spread to coal, diamond, chrome and iron mines.
For two weeks now, 20,000 lorry drivers have also gone on strike, leaving several petrol stations without fuel and automated teller machines without cash.
The drivers have called on their colleagues in South Africa’s ports to join in their protest starting next week.
AUSTRALIA
AUSSIE NEWS
SEPTEMBER MANUFACTURING DECLINE: Australian manufacturing contracted at an accelerating pace in September, with a significant drop in new orders leading the decline. The Australian Industry Group’s Performance of Manufacturing Index fell 1.2 points to 44.1 last month, with a reading below 50 indicating the industry is contracting – the further below 50, the steeper the fall. Survey responses indicated that a pullback in mining-related activity, strong competition from imports (due largely to the high Australian dollar) and rising utility costs were among the factors negatively affecting manufacturing. The three manufacturing sub-sectors which had expanded in August – food and beverages, wood products and furniture and miscellaneous – all fell back into contraction in September. Textiles, clothing and footwear saw moderate growth (recording an index reading of 55.3). Paper, printing and publishing posted the biggest surprise result, with a massive improvement from contraction in August to an index reading of 69.6 indicating strong growth in September.
ANNUAL INFLATION 2.4 PER CENT: A leading private sector measure of consumer prices shows inflation remained in check during September, giving the RBA scope to cut rates. The TD Securities-Melbourne Institute Monthly Inflation Gauge shows consumer prices rose 0.2 per cent in September after a 0.6 per cent rise in August. That result leaves annual inflation running at 2.4 per cent for the year to September, slightly up on August’s 2.2 per cent result, but still below the midpoint of the Reserve Bank’s 2-3 per cent inflation target band. The RBA’s preferred underlying measure, which removes the most volatile price changes, rose 0.1 per cent in September and 2.3 per cent over the past year. However, despite inflation remaining under control and recent weakness in commodity prices and many other economic and financial indicators, TD Securities head of Asia-Pacific research Annette Beacher believes the RBA will wait another month to cut official interest rates.
HOUSE PRICES UP: Australian capital city home prices surged 1.4 per cent in September, however they have not yet recovered the falls of the previous year. Last month’s home price rise across Australia’s eight capital cities was the largest in two-and-a-half years and comes on the back of 125 basis points of rate cuts over the past year. The RP Data-Rismark home value index shows the price gains were strongest in Adelaide (2.4 per cent) but then broadly spread against the other big capital cities which posted gains between 1.6 per cent (Perth) and 1.1 per cent (Brisbane). Prices in Hobart and the territory capitals all went slightly backwards in the month, while regional houses fell 1.2 per cent, although those rest-of-state figures only run to the end of August. RP Data’s research director Tim Lawless says the improvement in capital city home prices, which are now up 2 per cent over the past three months, is largely due to interest rate cuts. “It’s no coincidence that housing market conditions bottomed out at the end of May after the Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points,” he said in the report. “A further cut of 25 basis points in June and the anticipation of further rate cuts in the pipeline appear to have instilled renewed confidence in the housing market which has driven the growth in home values.”
RBA DROPS CASH RATE: The Reserve Bank has cut interest rates by 25 basis points, taking the official cash rate to 3.25 per cent. That level of official interest rates is only just above the low of 3 per cent reached during the height of the global financial crisis in 2009. The move, if passed on in full by the major banks, would take their standard variable mortgage rates down around the 6.5-6.6 per cent range. That would save a household with a $300,000 mortgage on a 25-year term just under $50 a month in repayments. The Reserve Bank’s move surprised most economists, with only nine out of 28 surveyed by Bloomberg expecting a cut this month, with many expecting the RBA to move rates in November, as it has done every year for the past six. Currency traders were also caught slightly off guard, with the Australian dollar dipping around 0.7 cents against the greenback immediately after the announcement, and since recovering slightly to 103.15 US cents at 2:40pm (AEST). A fall in the currency would have been one of the desired effects the bank was seeking in lowering rates today, with the Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens noting that the Australian dollar has remained stubbornly high. “The exchange rate has remained higher than might have been expected, given the observed decline in export prices and the weaker global outlook,” he said in his regular post-meeting statement. The main reasons for the cut appear to be concerns about the global economic slowdown, falling commodity prices and risks that international financial conditions may take a sudden further turn for the worse. “Financial markets have responded positively over the past few months to signs of progress in addressing Europe’s financial problems, but expectations for further progress remain high,” Mr Stevens explained. The bank also appears to have slightly lowered its expectations for the size and duration of the resources construction boom. Mr Stevens says other parts of the economy will need to pick up the slack as resources projects are completed or shelved. “Looking ahead, the peak in resource investment is likely to occur next year, and may be at a lower level than earlier expected,” he said. “As this peak approaches it will be important that the forecast strengthening in some other components of demand starts to occur.” “The RBA is trying to stay ahead of the activity curve and take out a bit of insurance because they are probably a little less optimistic about the pipeline and resources investments so they are trying to stimulate parts of the non-mining sector,” he told Reuters. The Reserve Bank governor also expressed concern that lending growth has softened recently despite recent rate cuts and that the official unemployment figures may be understating weakness in the jobs market. Interestingly, despite figures released this morning showing home prices surging by the most in two-and-a-half years in September, for the first time this year the governor’s statement omitted any reference to the property market.
TRADE DEFICIT SOARS: Australia’s trade deficit has blown out to more than $2 billion, with figures for the previous two months also downwardly revised. Bureau of Statistics figures show Australia imported $2.03 billion worth of goods and services more than it exported in August. That is the worst monthly result since March 2008. Adding to August’s disappointing result are steep revisions to the previous two results from July and June. July’s deficit has almost trebled from the original $556 million result to $1.53 billion, while June’s deficit has been revised down again to nearly $800 million. The fall in Australia’s trade position was due to a 3 per cent slump in exports during August, while imports eased 1 per cent. The value of exports fell $844 million in August, largely due to a 7 per cent ($464 million) fall in the value of metal ore and mineral exports, led by iron and copper ores. Exports of coal and related products slid 11 per cent, or $372 million. Most of the fall in export revenue was due to falling prices, with the volume of iron ore and coking coal shipped actually increasing. UBS Australia chief economist Scott Haslem expects Australia’s trade position to deteriorate further this year. TASMANIAN GOVERNMENT CREDIT RATING CUT: The Tasmanian Premier, Lara Giddings, has refused to rule out further budget cuts amid Moody’s downgrading of the state’s credit rating. The credit agency has Tasmania’s on Aa1 but is stable. In a statement, the agency says the ratings downgrade reflects persistent large deficits which first emerged in 2008 and the likelihood the debt burden will not show any significant decline over the medium term. It cites slow growth in GST receipts despite weakness in the local economy and spending outpacing revenue. Moody’s also blames the high Australian dollar and global uncertainty for the downturn in the woodchip, manufacturing and tourism industry, resulting in the state’s slow growth nationally by less than one per cent in 2010-11. However, the agency says the stable outlook reflects the Government’s commitment to reducing the budget deficit. The credit rating influences the interest rate Tasmania pays on state debt, impacting on the budget. It could also have a further impact on business confidence. The Premier, Lara Giddings, has admitted the downgrading will mean the government will pay more interest on loans, but could not say how much.
MINING DIP HITS SERVICES SECTOR: A key private index of services sector activity has found the recent slump in commodity prices is feeding through to companies supporting the miners. The Australian Industry Group – Commonwealth Bank Performance of Services Index (PSI) fell 0.5 points in September to 41.9 – a reading below 50 indicates the sector is contracting, with a lower reading indicating a faster pace of contraction. The report found ongoing weakness in manufacturing and construction were the main drags on services activity, but businesses also complained of uncertainty about projects in the mining sector weighing on trade. Only two of the sub-sectors – health and community services and accommodation, cafes and restaurants – reported an improvement in activity. However, the pace of contraction slowed in other interest rate sensitive consumer sectors such as wholesale and retail, indicating that previous interest rate cuts may be gaining some traction. The Ai Group’s chief executive Innes Willox says further rate cuts are needed to maintain that momentum.
RETAIL DOWN , HOUSING UP: Retail sales grew at half the pace expected in August, while building approvals recovered slightly off the back of a steep fall. Bureau of Statistics figures show retail turnover rose 0.2 per cent in August, but that followed a 0.8 per cent fall in July. Economists had generally expected retail sales to bounce back from July’s slump with a stronger 0.4 per cent rise. Brian Redican says Federal Government carbon tax compensation payments drove a 1.2 per cent rise in June, but the underlying trend is fairly weak.
CONSTRUCTION SLUMP: The construction industry’s multi-year slump worsened at its fastest pace in the past year during September. The Australian Industry Group – Housing Industry Association Performance of Construction Index declined 1.3 points to 30.9 last month – a reading below 50 indicates contraction, and the further below 50, the faster the contraction. The index shows the construction sector has been going backwards for 28 consecutive months. Apartment construction was the worst sector (at 26), with house building also struggling (at 28.5). Australian Industry Group chief economist Julie Toth says mining-related building work is simply not making up for the extreme weakness in home building.
BANK OF QUEENSLAND LOSS: Bank of Queensland is heading for a full-year loss, after revising down its profit forecast for the second half of the year.The large regional bank made a first-half loss of $90.6 million, and is now forecasting a second-half net profit of $70-75 million, leaving it on track for a full-year loss around $15-20 million. AAP is reporting that it would be the first full-year loss by an Australian bank since ANZ lost $579 million in its 1991-92 financial year. Bank of Queensland shares fell 5.4 per cent to $7.53 by 12:29pm (AEST) on the news, in a broader market that is rising and has seen gains for all four major banks. The loss is largely due to a $15 million increase in bad debt provisions due to the economic and property market downturn in south-east Queensland. Those extra provisions take the bank’s bad debt expense for the second half to between $70-75 million, which is around $10-15 million above previous analyst forecasts.
MARKET WRAP: Mining and banking stocks drove a strong rally on the Australian share market ahead of some key monthly jobs data due in the US tonight. Official US figures showed unemployment benefits rose only slightly last week, raising hopes tonight’s closely watched non-farm payrolls report would show improvement. By the close of trade the All Ordinaries index added 41 points to 4,514 and the ASX 200 index gained 42 points to 4,494. Three of the big four banks passed on some of the Reserve Bank’s official 25-basis point interest rate cut to their customers. Westpac will lower its standard variable mortgage rates by 18 basis points from next Friday. NAB and the Commonwealth Bank have announced a cut of 20-basis points and the ANZ will announce whether it will move next Friday. Elsewhere in the sector, shares in regional lender Bank of Queensland slumped over 5 per cent after it announced its bad debts for the second half of the year will be up to $15 million more than analysts expected. Mining stocks staged a recovery which saw BHP Billiton jump 1 per cent and rival Rio Tinto add 1.6 per cent. Woolworths is creating a new property investment company. It is transferring 69 of its shopping centres in Australia and New Zealand into an investment trust worth $1.4 billion. The new company is expected to start trading on the ASX at the end of next month. Investors liked the news and Woolworths shares jumped 1.3 per cent Rival Wesfarmers, the owners of Coles, gained 0.8 per cent. Billabong has been forced to confirm the $700 million takeover approach from TPG is intact. Its shares lost 1.4 per cent, building on yesterday’s 18 per cent loss. The steelmakers did well today – Bluescope Steel added 4.4 per cent and Arrium added 7.4 per cent. At 5:20pm (AEST) the Australian dollar was buying 102.53 US cents, 78.81 euro cents, 80.37 Japanese Yen, 63.63 British pence and 1.25 New Zealand. Spot gold prices were up for a fifth session as stimulus measures from major central banks increased gold’s appeal as an inflation hedge. It was worth $US1,791 an ounce which is close to an 11-month high. West Texas crude oil jumped to $US91.69 a barrel.
Surprise blowout in the trade deficit
Australia recorded its widest trade deficit since March 2008 as coal exports dropped, sending the dollar to the lowest level in almost a month.
Imports exceeded exports by $2.03 billion in August, from a revised $1.53 billion shortfall in July that initially was reported as a $556 million deficit, the Bureau of Statistics said in a report today. Economists had expected the trade gap to come in at $685 million.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/surprise-blowout-in-the-trade-deficit-20121003-26yj1.html
Services sector shrinks for eighth consecutive month, says AIG
The services sector shrank for the eighth consecutive month in September, dragged down by weakening construction and manufacturing activity, an industry study shows.
The Australian Industry Group/Commonwealth Bank performance of services index (PSI) fell 0.5 points to 41.9 in September, with a reading below 50 indicating contraction. The PSI has been below 50 each month since February.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/services-sector-shrinks-for-eighth-consecutive-month-says-aig/story-fn91v9q3-1226487127571
Patersons Securities warns of further cost cuts
Mid-tier stockbroking firm Patersons Securities has warned it may be forced into a fresh round of cost-cutting to offset lower trading volumes and weak deal flow after plunging into the red last financial year.
According to accounts filed with the corporate regulator, the Perth-based Patersons posted a $5.1 million loss for the year to June 30, down from a $6m profit the previous year, as revenue slumped 28.3 per cent to $106m.
Brokerage revenue slumped 29 per cent to $56.5m while underwriting and corporate finance income slid a sharper 33 per cent to $35m.
New house sales hit a 15-year low
New house sales fell to a 15-year low in August, underscoring the mixed picture for the housing market, a day after the Reserve Bank cut interest rates.
The Housing Industry Association new home sales report fell by 5.3 per cent in August, after a 5.6 per cent drop in July, led lower by a “persistently weak” detached house market.
HIA said new house sales fell 5.8 per cent in August, while apartments fell 2.5 per cent.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/new-house-sales-hit-a-15year-low-20121003-26yh4.html
HEALTH
Herbalist – Wendy Wilson
STRONG CONSTITUTION
Webster’s gives several definitions for constitution. One refers to a government’s structure and the other refers to person’s health and vitality. Today as a nation, America and individual Americans possess a weak constitution. We become weak when our defenses are down. Should we be surprised and can we become strong again? Let’s take a look.
NO SURPRISE
It should not be a surprise that America is in decline. The health of the land and its people are in a troubled state. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear we can turn this situation around. America is doing what countless other nations have done through the centuries; we have forgotten from whence we came.
LOSSES
The losses we are seeing are significant and we were warned this would happen. Some of them are:
Our Heritage Our Children
We have a growing number of women with fertility issues. So much so we have allopathic fertility clinics costing couples thousands of dollars for assisted reproductive technology offering the hope of having a baby. When some of our children are born they have health problems. According to the CDC, nearly 10% are low birth weight, 12% are premature and 27% die from sudden infant death syndrome or congenital deformities or low birth weight (Source http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/infant_health.htm and http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/). Also, we have close to 1 million reported abortions performed annually in America.
Food
Looking at the logo for the US National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) it says “Agriculture Counts.” In 1905, the USDA Crop Reporting Board was created and is known today as the NASS. This entity was originally created to distribute crop and livestock stats to assist farmers but it worked against the farmer in the commodities market when it came to getting a fair price for goods. The agriculture which remains in the US has had to deal with new fungus and molds, drought, GMO’s and government regulations destroying our crops. New disease threatens livestock brought about by shoddy animal husbandry, antibiotics and corrupted animal feed. America’s livestock industry has more than 25 diseases to deal with (Source:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/animal_diseases/).
Disease
According to the Royal Society of Biological Science the “discovery curve” for new viral pathogens is 10 to 20 new strains annually and we have identified at least 1400 pathogens (Source http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1647/2111.full). According to the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, we are also seeing a disturbing increase in the number of what once was strictly an animal disease is now transferable to humans. You can see the increase in the number of diseases since 1901 here http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/275/1647/2111.full.
THE WARNING
I mentioned that we were warned this would happen. When? Where? Does the saying, “My people perish for lack of knowledge” ring a bell? Here is the instruction of Deuteronomy 28, which we’ve tossed aside. All instruction from God is beneficial.
“And it shall come to pass, if you hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord God, to observe and do all His Commandments, the Lord God will set you above all nations of the earth. And these blessings will come upon you and overtake you; blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed is your offspring, blessed is your harvests and livestock, blessed be your storehouse and store, blessed you will be as come in and go out. He will destroy your enemy who rises up against you. If your enemy comes against you one way God makes them flee seven ways. And whatever you set your hand to do God will bless it.
Obviously these are the blessings if we seek the ways of God. If we don’t, here is the warning.
“But it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken unto the voice of the Lord God, to observe and do all His commandments, His statutes which He commands, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you; cursed you will be in the city and in the field, cursed is your storehouse and store, cursed is your offspring, your harvests, your livestock. Cursed you will be when you come in and go out. The Lord God will curse all you set your hand to do and destroy you. God will bring upon you every sickness and every plague. The Lord will kill you with pestilence, consumption, fever, inflammation, burning, the sword, blasting and mildew until you perish. Your land will have drought and become dust. He will rise up your enemies to come against you, oppress you and remove your kingdom (country) from the earth.”
Time after time throughout history when a nation sinned, God sent their enemies to destroy them. Does an American rule in the White House? Your enemy destroys you from within. Man has choices and free will and when it is exercised foolishly he sins; there are consequences and innocent people can get hurt. You can’t get more innocent than an unborn child and our Supreme Court of the land ruled it was just to kill the likeness of God. Don’t blame God, He spelled it out. We are unwise and destroy ourselves with sin.
“Wisdom is greater than strength.” Eccl 9:16
“Wisdom is better than weapons of war.” Eccl 9:18
We have the power to turn this around; if we stop our foolishness and seek God’s help. The churches have “fallen away”, bailed on their duty. However, each of us who believes in Jesus Christ has an individual duty called “the great commission.” (Matt 28:18-20) If God be for us who can be against us? (Rom 8:31) Solomon summed it up this way; “Let us here the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.”(Eccl 11:13) Will God save America? His will be done. It is up to us to seek His face, repent and humbly ask. Otherwise, we can expect the violence, lies, cheating, disease and death to escalate. Dr. Rebecca Carley has a radio show called What’s Ailing America? I can tell you that according to the Word of God what is ailing American; it is sin. God is longsuffering (patient) but He eventually judges sin.
Best is the man who gives himself unto the Lord.
PROTECTION
Things may seem dire but we are not without protection. Stay close to God in prayer and pestilence will not come near you (Psalms 91). Do your due diligence and keep the body God gave you healthy and clean. God said, “Herbs are here for the service of man” (Psalms 104). “Herbs are meat.” (Gen 1). Call Apothecary Herbs for organic herbal products to cleanse away toxins and herbs to strengthen your immune system. Call Apothecary Herbs , http://www.thepowerherbs.com, where your healthcare options just became endless. Don’t forget to check out their Cold & Flu and BOGO sections to stock up and save. The toll free number has been restored and we apologize for any inconvenience.
NEW COLD & FLU SECTION
Apothecary Herbs has added a special Cold & Flu section to their website to assist you in finding herbal products designed to boost immunity and shorten duration of illness during the cold and flu season. You have the option to pick the formulas you want or purchase the Cold & Flu Package (Standard or Deluxe) to cover a wide range of pathogens. You will save 20% on the Deluxe Cold & Flu Package. Visit Apothecary Herbs http://www.thepowerherbs.com or call , to get prepared for winter flu season and SAVE.
COMING UP ON HERB TALK LIVE
Herbalist Wendy Wilson will talk with John Monroe from www.drbanker.com on natural solutions to vision problems on Tuesday 10/2/12 at 7 pm EST on AVR and on Saturday 10/6/12 7 am EST on GCN. Wendy will talk with Dr. Rebecca Carley on Sat. 10/13/12 7 am EST on GCN and Tuesday 10/16/12 at 7 pm on AVR. Go to http://www.thepowerherbs.com Herb Talk Live & Radio Archive area for network link access and past shows to download and share. For Android users you can download a FREE app for Herb Talk Live on GCN. See the download link under radio archives at top of page at http://www.thepowerherbs.com.
PANDEMIC NEWS
Do you have your Pandemic Kit yet? Here is what folks are saying about the 100% organic Pandemic Kit made by Apothecary Herbs. “I have this kit and recommend everyone have at least one on hand (or more depending on family size) for a pandemic.” Rebecca Carley, MD, Hickory, NC and “I have one and glad I do; just in case. I like the long shelf life.” Melody Cedarstrom, Port Matilda, PA (more customer freedback at http://www.thepowerherbs.com) or call to order your kit today.
PURE ENERGY
Pure energy is organic and instantly absorbed – transporting nutrition to every cell in your body. It is a super food for the body to repair, build and fortify itself. Where do you get it? It’s called Body Foundation Food Mix and is at Apothecary Herbs , International http://www.thepowerherbs.com. This pure energy food source is so efficient; you won’t feel hungry between meals and can safely lose weight.
THE POWER HERBS e-BOOK
By popular demand The Power Herbs e-book is available with symptom/herb reference guide, information on organ cleansing and how to make your own herbal tinctures plus a whole lot more. Go to http://www.thepowerherbs.com and click on The Power Herb book cover on the right side of the home page to order. You must have email to order and receive the e-book download version of The Power Herb book for just $14.99. At this time, we do not offer this title in hard copy.
TWO NEW PRODUCTS
Apothecary Herbs has released a new product called Liver Detox Tea. You can layer this tea with Milk Thistle Tincture for a gentle yet effective liver cleanse. This is a nice option if you can’t do the Liver/Gall Bladder Flush using olive oil. You will find this new product under Herbal Teas at http://www.thepowerherbs.com. Also New is the Liver & Gall Bladder Tincture with dandelion root for more anticancer protection. This formula is available in 1 oz, 2 oz and 4 oz sizes. You will find this item under Organ Body Cleanses at http://www.thepowerherbs.com. You can layer this tincture with the Liver Detox Tea and be well!
BE PREPARED
Being prepared is never a waste of time. Get your own organic garden growing and stock as much healthy foodstuffs as you can. You’ll also need backup medicine but the over-the-counter and prescription medicines have a limited shelf life of two years or less. However, your organic medicines have a ten year shelf life without side effects. Call the folks at Apothecary Herbs for their Natural Medicine Starter Stock-up Package or make sure you get one of their many herb kits for boosting immune system and protecting you from viruses, bacteria and other pathogens. Call Apothecary Herbs , International online http://www.thepowerherbs.com, where your healthcare options just became endless.
ALLERGY RELIEF
If you suffer from allergies (sneezing, itchy watery eyes, stuffy or runny nose, sinus pressure or sinus infections) try the Echinacea Deluxe formula and Herbal Eyewash both around $20.00 from Apothecary Herbs. Call now toll free http://www.thepowerherbs.com.
APOTHECARY HERBS VITAMIN VAULT – STOCK UP AND SAVE!
You already know that you can save on the half and full case discounts in the Vitamin Vault area at http://www.thepowerherbs.com. Apothecary Herbs has added a new item called the Natural Medicine Starter Stock-up Package. This package is designed for those preparing for their medical future and contains immune boosting, pain & inflammation, organ cleanses, vitamin, mineral, amino acid and protein products plus a Pandemic Kit and it comes with a savings of $150.00. Visit http://www.thepowerherbs.com or call toll free to order your Starter Stock-up Package , International . Mail in your check or money order for this package and save an additional 15% ($242.00) before shipping.
MALE & FEMALE ORGAN CLEANSES KITS – Don’t give disease a foothold. You will have the power to cleanse the bowel, urinary, liver, gall bladder and blood system with this cleanse package. For added cleansing, ask about how you can upgrade your order to include the prostate cleanse for men or the Kidney/Bladder cleanse for females. Go to http://www.thepowerherbs.com or call their 24-hour live customer service line , International .
MALE HORMONE FORMULA (use with the Prostate Kit)
Apothecary Herbs brand new formula to help balance male hormones – Male Hormone Formula. Call , International http://www.thepowerherbs.com
MORE PROTECTION from EMF, RADIATION
The folks at admitters are correct that every modern house has EMF hotspots, which are sometimes caused by appliances, electronics, bad grounding just to name a few. You will want to make sure your bed or your children’s beds are not in direct line of these hotspots. How do you find out? You purchase an affordable and accurate meter from Admitters. Radmeters has a direct link http://www.radmeters.com/tph or you can click their link under “links” at http://www.thepowerherbs.com. I wouldn’t recommend them if I didn’t have one of their meters myself – Herbalist Wendy Wilson.
PROSTATE KIT THAT WORKS! Go to Apothecary Herbs http://www.thepowerherbs.com and type in “Prostate” in the search box or for more information or call , International . Layer this kit with their Male Hormone formula.
ONE-YEAR SUPPLY OF HERBAL MEDICNE (shelf life 10 to 15 years)
See Apothecary Herbs One Year Supply of Herbal Medicine at http://www.thepowerherbs.com or call , . Call for a customized year supply or to set up installment payment for this package.
Monsanto Fails at Attempt to Explain Away Tumors Cause by GM Corn
Monsanto’s efforts to dismiss new evidence linking its genetically modified (GM) corn to tumors has been thoroughly debunked in a public briefing by the food sustainability nonprofit Earth Open Source.
“NK603 must be immediately withdrawn from the market and all GMOs must be subjected to long-term testing,” the briefing concludes.
In a two-year study, a team of French researchers led by Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini found that rats fed Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” corn developed significantly more tumors than a control group not fed GM corn. The rats fed a GM diet also developed tumors that appeared earlier and behaved more aggressively, and died sooner than rats in the control group.
The study found similar effects in rats exposed to Roundup herbicide at levels currently considered safe by most regulators.
“Roundup Ready” crops have been engineered for resistance to Monsanto’s top-selling herbicide glyphosate, marketed under the trade name Roundup. In the scientific literature, Roundup Ready corn is also known as NK603.
Monsanto’s faulty defenses
Responding to the study, Monsanto claimed that the findings were not significant because tumor rates in the rats fed GM corn were “within historical norms for this strain of laboratory rats, which is known for a high incidence of tumors.” In other words, the company has claimed that the rats developed tumors simply because of their genetics, and that the tumor rates seen in the rats fed GM corn were similar to tumor rates in rats not fed GM corn in other studies.
In response to Monsanto’s “tumor prone rats” argument, the briefing notes that while tumors did in fact occur in both groups of rats, they were both more common and more aggressive in the experimental group – and it is the difference between the two groups that is relevant for scientific study.
“This is a basic principle of science and it is worrying that attempts are being made by pro-GM lobbyists to override it in the interests of keeping the products of powerful multinational biotechnology companies on the market,” the briefing reads.
The briefing also debunks Monsanto’s “historical data” argument. First of all, the historical tumor data cited by Monsanto actually comes from a completely different strain of rats (Charles River Labs SD rats) than those used in the study (Harlan SD rats). In fact, the researchers did compare their findings to historical tumor rates in Harlan SD rats, and found that all their results remained statistically significant. For example, the rate of tumors in rats fed GM corn was three times higher than the historical average tumor rates for the same strain of rats.
The briefing further notes that the very idea of using “historical data” to dismiss statistically significant findings is shoddy science, and the technique is rejected by serious scientists. Any legitimate scientific study includes a control group that is tested at the same time as the experimental group, because this is the best way to actually control as many variables as possible and make sure any differences observed are due to the variable being tested (in this case, consumption of GM corn). Rats in other studies may have been fed different diets, been at different phases of their life cycles, been exposed to other environmental pollutants, had a different genetic background, or been exposed to any number of other potentially relevant factors.
“The use of historical control data is an unscientific strategy used by industry and some regulators to dismiss statistically significant findings of toxicity in … studies intended to evaluate safety of pesticides, chemicals, and GMOs,” the briefing notes.
http://www.naturalnews.com/037437_Monsanto_GM_corn_rat_tumors.html
Medication linked to meningitis deaths may have reached 23 states –CDC
A steroid medication linked to the fungal meningitis deaths of at least five people may have been administered to patients in 23 states, the Centers for Disease Control said on Thursday.
The CDC said in a briefing that five people have died and 35 have been struck by fungal meningitis in six states. The outbreak first was reported in Tennessee, where two people died.
All the cases have so far been traced to three lots of Methylprednisolene Acetate from a pharmaceutical compounding plant in Massachusetts, according to the briefing.
The New England Compounding Center, Inc, a pharmacy in Framingham, Massachusetts, prepared the medication, which has been voluntarily recalled. A fungus linked to the steroid medication has been identified in specimens from five patients, according to the CDC’s Dr. Benjamin Park.
The CDC said the fungal contamination was detected in the examination of one of the sealed vials taken at that company.
Fungal meningitis is rare and life threatening, but is not contagious from person to person. Meningitis can be passed to humans from steroid medications that weaken the immune system. Symptoms include a sudden onset of fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea and vomiting, according to the CDC web site. (Reporting By Greg McCune; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)
Vaccines – The True Weapons of Mass Destruction
Dr. Rebecca (Roczen) Carley received her Bachelor’s degree in Diagnostic Ultrasound, attended medical school (and received the Samuel L. Kountz award for clinical excellence in surgery at graduation), and trained to be a general surgeon at State University of New York at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. Dr. Carley also worked as an attending Emergency Room physician at Kings County Medical Center in Brooklyn (which is the primary training affiliate for Downstate students), and is the largest hospital (and busiest trauma center) in the United States.
Dr. Carley left the practice of General Surgery and “allopathic” medicine after realizing that no one was actually being healed of their diseases, and she started researching “alternative” medicine while taking time off to start a family.
After Dr. Carley’s only child was brain damaged as a result of inoculations he received, Dr. Carley learned how to reverse the damage with homeopathy and other natural supplements, and subsequently realized that inoculations of disease are causing the corruption in the immune system which leads to all autoimmune diseases and cancer. Dr. Carley has developed the Hippocrates Protocol which has successfully reversed all autoimmune diseases (including autism) and cancer in over 2,000 clients (including pets) over the past 9 years. She has written the definitive paper explaining the mechanism whereby inoculations with disease are causing VIDS (Vaccine Induced Diseases), which has been featured in multiple publications all over the world and is available under the title “Inoculations: the True Weapons of Mass Destruction” on her website at www.drcarley.com. She has offered a $10,000 reward for any vaccine promoter to come on her internet radio show and refute the documents she has authored. No one has stepped forward to do so. Dr. Carley has been qualified in court as an expert witness in VIDS, Legal Abuse Syndrome, Vaccinology, and child abuse…
Video: http://undergrounddocumentaries.com/vaccines-the-true-weapons-of-mass-destruction-full-lecture/
French bees make green and blue honey after M&M’s feast
Beekeepers in north eastern France have been scratching their heads after the hives began to produce a weird colored substance instead of regular honey. They think candy M&Ms are to blame.
The bees around the town of Ribeauville in the Alsace region have been carrying an unidentified colored substance back to their hives since August. The keepers have done a bit of sleuthing and think the Agrivolar biogas plant around 4 kilometers away is to blame.
The enterprise has been processing waste from a Mars factory producing the colored M&M’s. The waste products have been stored in open containers and the bees could easily access the contents.
“We discovered the problem at the same time they did. We quickly put in place a procedure to stop it,” Reuters quotes Agrivalor manager Philippe Meinrad as saying. The plant said they would now store waste indoors and in tightly closed containers.
The beekeepers have already suffered high bee mortality due to the coldness of last winter. They are now wondering what to do with the colored honey and whether their bees will survive after dealing with the chemicals, Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists’ union said. Also they will have to face a decline in sales, as they won’t be able to make much money out of the blue and green honey.
“For me, it’s not honey. It’s not sellable,” Frieh says adding that the substance still tastes like honey.
France is among the major producers of honey in the EU. There are around 2,400 beekeepers in the Alsace region producing about 1,000 tons of honey per year, according to the region’s chamber of agriculture.
Popcorn recalled over Listeria contamination
Federal health officials are warning the public to avoid a U.S.-made popcorn because it may be contaminated with the Listeria bacteria.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says two lots of Indiana brand Aged White Cheddar popcorn are affected by the recall.
The best-before dates are Feb. 18 and 25, 2013.
The popcorn was imported by UNFI Canada Inc., and sold in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The CFIA says it may have been distributed in other provinces as well.
There are no reported illnesses associated with eating the affected popcorn.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1267195–popcorn-recalled-over-listeria-contamination
From a Subscriber:
Dear readers,
Friday at 12:00pm EDT we had a SPECIAL guest on the program, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts Visit: www.centralmetalscorp.com
Also, this week on Gold Radio Cafe we had a SPECIAL guest, Mr. Harley Schlanger from the Lyndon Larouche organization.
Harley says there will be nothing left in 401K’s when you need it.
Bosko Kacarevic Central Metals Corp.
2679 Howard Ave., Windsor, ON N8X 3X2
From a Subscriber:
LOOKS LIKE WE NEED TO GO ON A BUYING SPREE!
MARLIN FIREARMS CLOSING ITS DOORS
Marlin Firearms is already closing its doors! They are doing it to us, America! Even if you do not own a gun you need to know this. This needs to be spread to all gun owners and sportsman. We cannot rely on the media to inform us of these types of matters. Something You May Not Know That Is Happening … Who is buying companies, manufacturing guns??? For the last several years a company called The Freedom Group has been buying up gun and ammunition manufacturers. Some of the companies are Bushmaster, Marlin, Remington, DPMS, Dakota Arms and H&R. Some people worry that this Freedom Group is going to control most of the firearms companies in the United States. If you control the manufacturers you can decide to stop selling to civilians. What a perfect way to control guns. Now if you do some digging you will see that The Freedom Group is owned by a company called Cerberus Capital Management. Guess who controls Cerberus??? GEORGE SOROS!!! He wants to restrict or ban all civilian guns. Please pass this on to all your freedom loving friends. This needs to come out. Why have we not heard about this in the “mainstream” media? I would think this would be BIG news. (Soros also owns Progressive Insurance). If you don’t know who George Soros is, you need to do some Research. He backed Obama with millions of dollars and Obama is a puppet on a string controlled by Soros. Send this to every gun owner in America .
From a Subscriber:
WOW…take a look at these cuts. With Paul Ryan as Romney’s V.P., we know he knows how to cut a budget. Take a look at the crap that has been in it.
Please send this to everyone you know.
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From a Subscriber:
If you need a good swift kick in the ass, well get ready cause here it comes.
GOD BLESS AMERICA
This is a waste of time if you do not pass it on to those who need to see
the facts.
Presidential
EXECUTIVE ORDERS ISSUED:
Teddy Roosevelt 3
Others to FDR NONE
FDR 11 in 16 years
Truman 5 in 7 years
Ike 2 in 8 years There is a big difference, can you see it?????
Kennedy 4 in 3 years
LBJ 4 in 5 years
Nixon 1 in 6 years
Ford 3 in 2 years
Carter 3 in 4 years
Reagan 5 in 8 years
Bush 3 in 4 years
Clinton 15 in 8 years
George W. Bush 62 in 8 years
Obama 923 in 3 1/2 years!
Subject: Executive Orders …. where’s the media? If you don’t get the implications, you’re not paying attention. How many warnings do you need?
923 Executive Orders in 40 Months
During my lifetime, all Presidents have issued Executive Orders, for reasons
That vary, some more than others. When a President issued as many as 30 Ex.
Orders during a term in office, People thought there was something amiss. WHAT
DO YOU THINK ABOUT 923 EX. ORDERS IN ONE PART OF ONE TERM?
YES, THERE IS A REASON.
IT IS THAT THE PRESIDENT IS DETERMINED TO TAKE CONTROL AWAY FROM THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE.
Even some Democrats in the House have turned on him, plus a very small number of Democrat Senators question him.
HE SHOULD BE QUESTIONED. WHAT IS HE REALLY TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH???
Not really surprising that he appointed “Czars” to be in charge of everything.
Emperor Obama?
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
THIS IS NOT FUNNY, AND IF YOU VOTE FOR HIM AGAIN, YOU CAN EXPECT
MORE! Remember what he told Russia: “I’ll be more flexible after I’m re-elected”. THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Obama has signed 923 Executive Orders in 40 months!
What did Congress do in those 40 months? (The House – considerable. The Senate
-nothing, not even a budget nor allowing any House bill to be considered.) A
Whole new order must prevail in Wash. DC as a result of this next election!
Now Look at these:
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990 allows the government to take over all modes of Transportation and control of highways and seaports.
-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995 allows the government to seize and control the
Communication media.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997 allows the government to take
over all electrical power,
Gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998 allows the
government to take over all food resources and Farms.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000 allows the government to mobilize civilians into work Brigades under government supervision.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001 allows the government to take over all health, education And welfare functions.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002 designates the of all persons.
Postmaster General to Operate a national registration-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11003 allows the government to Take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial
aircraft.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11004 allows the Housing and Finance Authority to
relocate Communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be
Abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.-EXECUTIVE ORDER
11005 allows the government to take over railroads, inland Waterways and public storage facilities.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11049 assigns emergency preparedness function to federal Departments and agencies, consolidating 21 operative Executive Orders issued Over a fifteen year period.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11051 specifies the
responsibility of the Office of Emergency Planning and gives authorization to put all Executive Orders into effect in Times of increased international tensions and economic or financial crisis.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11310 grants authority to the Department of Justice to enforce;
The plans set out in Executive Orders, to institute industrial support, to Establish judicial and legislative liaison, to control all aliens, to operate Penal and correctional institutions, and to advise and assist the President.-EXECUTIVE ORDER 11921 allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to Develop plans to establish control over the mechanisms of production and Distribution, of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money.
In U.S. Financial institution in any undefined national emergency. It also
Provides that when a state of emergency is declared by the President,
Congress Cannot review the action for six months. Feel free to verify the “executive
orders” at will… And these are just the Major ones I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of the “Frog in the Pot”.. You All comfortable???
Watch Obama’s actions, not his words! By his actions he will show you where
America is headed.. Just this week, Obama has issued a new executive order
that seeks to “harmonize” U.S. Economic regulations with the rest of the world. This new
executive order is yet another incremental step that is pushing us closer to a
North American Union and a one world economic system.
Unfortunately, most Americans have absolutely no idea what is happening.
The American people need to understand that Barack Obama is constantly
looking for ways to integrate the United States more deeply with the rest of the
world.
The globalization of the world economy has accelerated under Obama, and this
latest executive order represents a fundamental change in U.S. economic
policy.
Now federal regulators will be required to “harmonize” their work with the
international community.
From a Subscriber:
Press 3 for Arabic
BE AFRAID
I actually called the Michigan Dept. of Human Services, and yes, option 3 is Arabic! I went to the website for them in the link below and sure enough, on the right side of the page, there is an application for food assistance PDF file in English, Spanish and Arabic! I opened the file to see for myself and it’s there alright. Have we gone completely nuts!!?…
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Muslim men are allowed to have as many as 4 wives. Many Muslims have immigrated into the U.S. and brought their 2-3-or 4 wives with them, but the U.S. does not allow multi marriages, so the man lists one wife as his, and signs the other 2 or 3 up as extended family on welfare and other free Government programs!
So now in Michigan when you call the Public Assistance office you are told to “Press 1 for English. Press 2 for Spanish, or Press 3 for Arabic”! Here is the number 1-. Every time you add a new language to an American program it requires an additional number of persons fluent in that language to process those persons who refuse to learn English in order to live here at an additional cost to the taxpayer! Why are we even allowing persons to immigrate here who cannot provide for themselves, and putting them in our welfare system? Check it out for yourself. |
From a Subscriber:
Check out the new billboard on Rte 466 at The Villages in Florida . It’s making a big hit!!
From a Subscriber:
DECAPITATIONS CALLED SOLUTION FOR CRITICISM OF ISLAM
A jihadi writer who has praised the murderer of a Dutch filmmaker is offering a suggestion to cut down on the criticism of Islam around the globe: Behead the critics and post their heads along roads.
Oh, and post a sign that says, “This is the punishment of those who insult our prophet.”
The report comes from the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor, a unit of the Middle East Media Research Center.
The organization, which monitors Middle East media, said the comments were made by Muhib Ru’yat al-Rahman, a senior writer of a leading jihadi forum called Shumoukh al-Islam.
He suggested that Muslims living in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. kill Westerners who criticize Islam and display their decapitated heads along roads.
US – LINKS
Proof recession is forcing drivers off the road as petrol sales now 12 per cent down on pre-slump level
Keiser Report: Debt Erasers (E348)
Bolivarianism v. Fake US Democracy
by Stephen Lendman
Keiser Report: Defraudsters (E347)
Max Keiser: World Gov’t, World Tax is Here!
Derivatives complex & international financial grid
America’s Sham Electoral Process
by Stephen Lendman
Manipulation Of Crude For Political Gain? Election? Can’t Be…Right! By Gregory Mannarino
Julian Assange Declared Enemy of the State
by Stephen Lendman
Sub-prime feeding frenzy haunts Wall Street five years on
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9583149/Sub-prime-feeding-frenzy-haunts-Wall-Street-five-years-on.html
Lakota Sioux Nation Leaves America
by Stephen Lendman
Keiser Report: Cadavers Collateralized Debt (E349)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqN5GGYXNF0&feature=g-all-u
GOLD – LINKS
Why You Should Care: Feds seize your gold (E22)
SOUTH AMERICA – LINKS
Inciting Unrest in Venezuela
by Stephen Lendman
Chavez Opposition Disintegrating
by Stephen Lendman
MIDDLE EAST – LINKS
Pressure Builds for Full-Scale War on Syria
by Stephen Lendman
‘MKO terrorists work with Mossad’
Cowardly Terrorists Murder Syrian Civilians
by Stephen Lendman
Libya: How Many Dirty Western Hands?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-how-many-dirty-western-hands/
Warmonger Netanyahu at UN
by Stephen Lendman
Pentagon Has No Intention Of Ending The Occupation Of Afghanistan
Living with the Enemy
by Stephen Lendman
Neocon Uber-Hawks Want War on Iran
by Stephen Lendman
Palestine: One or Two State Solution
by Stephen Lendman
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2012/10/palestine-one-or-two-state-solution.html
ASIA – LINKS
China manufacturing PMI slightly higher but still contractionary
Thumbs-up from Singapore over increased US presence
AFRICA – LINKS
Platinum, gold, coal, diamonds, iron ore. No end in sight for SA mine strikes
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page72068?oid=159647&sn=Detail&pid=92730
AUSTRALIA – LINKS
Households ripe for tax hit