Truth is Liberty

Discovery Channel – An Inside Look at Gold

2011-09-14T03:38:00.000-04:00

Rahm Emmanuel Breaks Down into Profanity-Laced Tantrum in front of President of Teacher's Union

2011-09-09T21:05:00.000-04:00

Chicago Sun Times

CTU President Karen Lewis made the allegations in a Friday morning press release detailing a complaint filed by the union to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board over the ongoing battle between the union and City Hall.

“A couple of weeks ago I sat down with the mayor in his office to talk about how to roll out a longer school year and what components would go into making it a better school year for our students but he did not want to have that conversation,” said Lewis. “When I explained to him that a longer school day should not be used for warehousing or babysitting our youth he exploded, used profanity, pointed his finger in my face and yelled. At that point the conversation was over — soon thereafter we found ourselves subject to a full-scale propaganda war over a moot point.”

Asked for his version of the incident at an event Friday with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Emanuel said “I’m not going to get into a he-said, she-said. ... We had a good meeting. ... She hugged me at the end of the meeting.”

However, Lewis, the CTU and its parent union, the Illinois Federation of Teachers were conspicuously absent from Friday’s event featuring key players in passing Illinois new school reform bill. All had been invited.
Duncan took the opportunity to tell a crowd of mostly officials and reporters that “teachers have been beaten down too long” and “I think we need to double the salaries for teachers... Great teachers should make $130,000, $140,000, $150,000. They shouldn’t have to wait to age 55 to make a good living. They shouldn’t have to take a vow of poverty.”
The teachers union on Thursday filed its first major legal salvo in the battle over a longer school day as Lewis charged that district brass and the mayor had “declared war’’ on the union through an illegal campaign to bypass it.
The union’s complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board Illinois National Labor Relations Board came as teachers at a fourth school — Benjamin Mays Elementary in Englewood — voted to waive the existing CTU contract and add 90 more minutes to the school day in exchange for 2 percent raises and other perks.
At other schools, the CTU complaint alleged, the district conducted “sham elections” with non-union members, “intimidated” some teachers with the threat of layoffs and offered “inducements’’ to others “in an attempt to bypass the CTU’’ and the wages it already negotiated.
“They are going around us to negate the contract with our members, and that is unlawful,’’ Lewis said.
“This is just out-and-out disrespect and war. That’s what this is. This is an attempt to take down and make irrelevant the Chicago Teachers Union because if the CTU goes, they can roll over every union in the city.’’
Thursday’s CTU complaint contends waivers should be canceled at two schools — STEM Magnet and Skinner North — that allegedly conducted “sham elections’’ by allowing non-CTU members to vote. Systemwide, it asks that CPS be barred from “dealing directly’’ with employees about the length of the school day and extra compensation for it.
At STEM Magnet, the complaint charged, teachers were told the school STEM would be “the mayor’s new pet’’ if they approved a longer-day waiver. Mayor Emanuel later made his first school appearance of the new school year at STEM.
At Skinner, according to the complaint, the principal directed direced three non-CTU members who initially declined to vote to do so after the first ballot on the issue came back tied, 6-6.
CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll said the CTU contract gives individual schools the right to waive any part of the contract they want. She said the CTU complaint was “ill-advised” and “lacks merit.”

3rd World America in Prices

2011-09-06T21:23:00.001-04:00

MIT Billion Prices Project Puts US Annual Inflation @ 4%

2011-08-31T11:31:00.000-04:00

bpp.mit.edu

indexes are designed to provide real-time information on major inflation trends, not to forecast official inflation announcements. We are constantly adding new categories of goods, but we do not cover 100% of CPI goods and services. The price of services, in particular, are not easy to find online and therefore are not included in our statistics.

Methodology

Data collection: our data are collected every day from online retailers using a software that scans the underlying code in public webpages and stores the relevant price information in a database. The resulting dataset contains daily prices on the full array of products sold by these retailers. Our data include information on product descriptions, package sizes, brands, special characteristics (e.g. “organic”), and whether the item is on sale or price control.

Daily Online Price Index Computation: The daily online index is an average of individual price changes across multiple categories and retailers. The index uses a basket of goods that changes over time as products appear and disappear from a retailer’s webpage. It is updated on a daily basis and leveraged to estimate annual and monthly inflation. This index is not designed to forecast official inflation announcements, but to provide real-time information on major inflation trends.

Monthly Inflation: The monthly inflation rate is the percentage change between the average of the daily online price index of the last 30 days and the average of the previous month. For example, on the last day of September 2010, we compared the average of the daily index between September 1st and September 30th to the average of the daily index between August 1st and August 31st. On the last day of each month, the value of our monthly inflation is equivalent to the monthly statistic reported by official offices.

Annual Inflation: The annual inflation rate is the percentage change between the average of the daily online price index of the last 30 days and the average for the same period a year ago. For example, on the last day of September 2010, we compare the average of the daily index between September 1st and September 30th 2010 to the average of the daily index between September 1st and September 30th 2009. On the last day of each month, the value of our annual inflation is equivalent to the annual (year-to-year) statistic reported by official offices.

National European American Leadership Seminar on September 17, 2011

2011-08-28T14:22:00.000-04:00

David Duke, PhD

On September 17 there will be a full day and evening European American Leadership seminar focusing on the Tactics of White Awakening and mobilization. It will not a be a hand-wringing session bemoaning the sad condition of our people and nations, but a practical seminar concentrating solely on what we can do about it. Specifically, it concerns itself with the high mountain highway of White preservation, renewal and empowerment. It will deal primarily with the ideological and verbal war against our heritage and how to counter anti-White racist ideology and psychology pervading the media and academia. It will focus on methods for our activists and leaders to abandon the defensive positions of traditional conservatism and go on the ideological and psychological offense. Also, it will teach how people how to avoid the traps of the anti-White ideologues and show how the anti-White minions are the true racists and hypocrites on these critical matters. The Seminar will be interesting, entertaining, exciting and inspiring! There will also be music and great fellowship for like-minded people from all over the United States and from many parts of the Western World.

The seminar is organized by dedicated activists in the Knoxville, Tennessee area but will also be sponsored by The Derek and Don Black Radio Program and by David Duke. Dr. Duke will be a main presenter and will give a practical and inspiring after dinner talk the evening of September 17. The event will have interaction atmosphere with a purposefully limited attendance and lots of audience participation and a practical workshop setup.

The speakers will include, among others, the brilliant attorney and writer, Sam Dickson, activist Paul Fromm of Canada, European American talk show phenom, James Edwards, the witty White activist, philosopher Bob Whittaker, Horus the Avenger of White Rabbit fame, and others. Contributors will also include Dr. Ed Fields and other notable attendees who be announced on the Day of this exciting event.
The venue is situated in the Smokey Mountains and there are ample opportunities for you and your family to enjoy the considerable attractions of nature in the area. On Sunday, there will be an Mountain walk and mountaintop discussion with Dr. Duke and Derek Black which promises to be a very special event, which a number of activists expect to be one of the most memorable experiences in their life.
Registration is only $45 dollars per person for the event that will last from 9 am Saturday, September 17, to 10 pm that evening. With a break for a catered lunch and supper (at a moderate extra cost). The optional mountain walk and session will take place Sunday morning.
To register go to http://www.stormfront.org/forum/announcement.php?a=63
Simply go to this link and put in a donation of $45 for each person registering and in the note section specify that the donation is for the conference. Due to security considerations, the exact location will not be released until just prior to the event. It is suggested that you plan to arrive in the Knoxville area for Friday evening by air or automobile, but be sure to refrain from making any hotel reservations until you are notified so that you will find accommodation close to the venue. If you fly into Knoxville, you should arrange for a rental car in order to reach your accommodations and the venue efficiently. Again, you can make flight or auto trip planning now, but wait to make any lodging reservations until we inform you more details closer to the event. There will be plenty of reasonably-priced rooms available in the area close the event. Thank You!

Ron Paul: "FEMA Creates Many Of Our Problems"

2011-08-28T14:15:00.000-04:00

Warren Buffett Attempts to Stick-Save Bank of America, Stock Gets Hammered

2011-08-25T11:18:00.000-04:00

LA Times Reports

Bank of America, under fire from shareholders and analysts, is getting a $5-billion investment from Warren Buffett's investment company. The banking giant's stock soared this morning on the news.
The investment by Berkshire Hathaway is reminiscent of a $5-billion investment Buffett made in Goldman Sachs in September 2008 in the depths of the financial crisis. That injection of capital helped restore confidence in Goldman and helped the Wall Street firm attract other investments.
As with the Goldman infusion, Buffett negotiated extremely favorable terms from Bank of America. He is set to receive BofA preferred shares that will pay Berkshire a 6% dividend each year. If the bank wants to redeem the shares it has to pay Buffett a 5% premium.

Market-Ticker.org

Marc Faber Bloomberg 08/24/11

2011-08-24T13:06:00.002-04:00

Trends Journal Alert: China Offshoring The Collapse of the Western World

2011-08-22T14:43:00.001-04:00

Paul Craig Roberts opines

How big is planet earth? Large if compared to the moon, small if compared to the solar system, and infinitesimal if compared to the universe. The point is that the size of something depends on that to which it is being compared.

The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank www.frbsf.org and offshoring’s shills forgot this simple point. On August 8 the SF Fed put out an Economic Letter in which US imports of goods made in China (both by Chinese and US firms) were explained away as a mere 2.7 percent of US personal consumption expenditures.

I am confident that the staff of the SF Fed were competent to get the percentage correct. But does it mean anything? No.

For most Americans, their income is used up on housing, energy, car payments, food, and medical care. Very little income is left, especially these days, for durable (for example, furniture and household equipment) and nondurable (for example, clothing and shoes) manufactured goods.

The appropriate comparison of imports from China (from both Chinese owned and US owned corporations) would be with the percentage of personal consumption expenditures spent on durable and nondurable manufactures. As I do not think the US is yet importing cars from China, or at least not in any volume, we can deduct motor vehicles from US personal consumption expenditures on durables. The total personal consumption expenditures on furniture, household equipment, other durables, clothing and shoes comprise 9.9 percent of personal consumption expenditures.

This means that goods imported from China (those made by Chinese and US firms) account for 27% of US expenditures on durable and nondurable manufactured goods not including cars. In other words, imports from China absorb more than one-fourth of
Americans’ expenditures on manufactured goods. The relevant figure is thus ten times the figure delivered by the SF Fed’s Economic Letter, which was picked up and shouted by shills for offshoring.

As about half of US imports from China are the offshored production of US corporations, 13-14 percent of US personal consumption expenditures on manufactures (excluding cars) is on Chinese-made products of US firms.

The substantial part of the US economy that has been offshored to China is only part of the loss of US jobs, consumer incomes, tax base and GDP. US corporations sell to Americans their goods manufactured in Indonesia, Taiwan, S. Korea, Eastern Europe and elsewhere--anywhere labor can be employed at a wage below labor’s contribution to profits.

When you add up all the offshored production by US corporations that import their products back into the US to sell to Americans, who no longer have the jobs, or incomes from the jobs from producing the goods that they consume, we have a very high cost of offshoring that does not enter into the offshoring corporations’ costs of production.

Libertarians and “free market” economists praise Wal-Mart’s low prices achieved by offshoring, but these prices do not include the costs of the decimated state and local tax bases that are destroying American cities, the costs of the high unemployment and the personal depression, crime, and income support programs. These and other costs are expenses imposed on third parties by the movement of American jobs abroad in order to maximize profits.

The earnings of offshoring corporations and retailers do not include all of the real costs. If the costs of offshoring were included--the unemployment and destroyed careers, the cutback in public services, the impact of the trade deficit in reducing the exchange value of the US dollar, and so forth--offshoring would not pay and would not occur.

Here we see one of the greatest failures of capitalism--the ability to produce by imposing the costs of production on innocent third parties who do not participate in the gain.

We see the same high external costs imposed on societies and countries by the financial sector’s greed for profits. The smashing of people’s retirement hopes, the foreclosure of homes, the zero interest rate on the savings of the retired are all the result of a laissez faire financial sector that took the advantage and leveraged debt to previously unimaginable levels. When the bubble burst, the financial sector, both in the US and Europe, used government to raid the pocketbooks of ordinary people in order to prevent any loss to the financial sector from its fraud, greed, and utter irresponsibility.

Capitalism works only when the costs of production are included in the price of the product. With jobs offshoring this is not the case. Free trade works, if it works at all, only when capital and technology remain in the domestic economy and find their best use or comparative advantage. Offshoring is the contradiction of free trade. It is the pursuit of lowest factor cost and absolute advantage.

The loss of manufacturing to offshoring is not the only cost to Americans. Tradable professional services, such as software engineering, have been offshored, thus denying employment to US university graduates. In recent years, a college degree means unemployment, unserviceable student loans, and living with one’s parents.

Jobs offshoring has benefited Wall Street and corporate profits, but it has dismantled the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society. Yet, America’s political leaders have no clue. Recently President Obama said that part of the solution to the dragging US economy was to pass the “free trade” agreement with South Korea.

In other words, more jobs offshoring will solve the problem.

Many of the few who are aware of the problem blame China for “currency manipulation,” which is also a favorite scapegoat for offshoring’s shills. The argument is that China attracts jobs offshoring by keeping its currency undervalued to the dollar by “manipulating” its currency to keep it pegged to the dollar.

In other words, when the US government manipulates its currency by devaluing it, the Chinese currency follows it down.

This is just another false claim that originates from the offshoring corporations, the bought-and-paid-for economists and policymakers, and the presstitute media. China pegged its currency to the US dollar in order to assure the world that the questionable money of a communist country was as good as the dollar.

Because of US failures, the Chinese currency has become better than the dollar and is undervalued as a result of the peg. China has adjusted to this fact by replacing the fixed peg with a moving peg. The Chinese currency is gaining in US dollar value, but the dollar is depreciating faster than the moving peg is moving. Therefore, China’s currency remains overvalued.

But this is not the reason so many US corporations are producing in China for their American customers. As China, India, Indonesia, and other countries have large excess supplies of labor, labor can be hired at wages that are below labor’s contribution to profit.

The total lack of any patriotism by first world corporations toward their native lands is destroying, economically, Western civilization. As other factors are also destroying Western civilization, we are entering a collapse comparable to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the remaking of the world.

About the author: Former associate editor of The Wall Street Journal and columnist for Business Week, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts served on personal and committee staffs in the House and Senate, and served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan Administration.

Ron Paul Classic: Predicts Housing Bubble in Monetary Hearing with Alan Greenspan 2004

2011-08-22T10:37:00.000-04:00

Russia PM Putin Proposes Reemergence of 'Soviet Era' Economic Union

2011-08-19T12:35:00.001-04:00

Twenty years after the Soviet Union collapsed, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, may not, as is sometimes alleged, be trying to recreate it. But he is pursuing a different project – to build a “quasi-European Union” out of former Soviet states.

A customs union he launched a year ago between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan has already removed tariffs and customs controls along the three states’ internal borders.

Come January this is due to expand into a “common economic space”, ensuring free movement of goods, services and capital across a single market of 165m people – 60 per cent of the former Soviet population.

At a Moscow summit this month, prime ministers of the three states set an even more ambitious target – turning the grouping into a “Eurasian economic union” by 2013. There is even talk, down the line, of a common currency. - FT

Bill Black Calls S&P Downgrade Mega Publicity Stunt

2011-08-17T11:38:00.002-04:00

John Stewart Asks, "Why is the media ignoring Ron Paul?"

2011-08-16T12:22:00.001-04:00

Dylan Ratigan Goes off on Epic Rant

2011-08-10T10:43:00.000-04:00

Cliffs: Slams both Democrats & Republicans over fiscal insanity dealing with '70 trillion dollar debt. Massive amounts of debt extraction (theft) ongoing with no end in sight. Political parties can kicking in attempt to get re-elected. etc.

(Video) Rick Santelli Mega Rant: Defends the Tea Party

2011-08-09T11:19:00.003-04:00

Google Trends Signaling Sheeple are Awakening

2011-08-08T12:22:00.001-04:00

In the face of a historic credit downgrading of the world's largest economy for the first time in history and an 10%+ correction in the equity markets, it would appear the sheeple have been paying attention (Despite: NFL strike closing out and Jersey Shore Season 4 Italy Premiering)

Bank of America: We're All Set to Fail

2011-08-08T12:08:00.000-04:00

h/t Zerohedge

It smelling a lot like 2008 all over again. Recent weeks with a major sell-off in the markets, financials getting (BofA, Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citi, etc) whacked by 5% or more, treasuries selling hard... the only difference would be gold is now a flight to safety. Will Bank of America, now being recognized as the insolvent zombie that it is, set off Great Depression 2.0?

Via Forbes

Bank of America, the nation’s biggest bank, can’t seem to shake off the legacy of its mortgage-related sins, namely the purchase of Countrywide Financial, the poster-boy of reckless subprime lending.
Investors pushed down Bank of America’s stock by more than 13% on Monday morning, marking the third straight trading day that the bank has suffered a major share drop. The stock has now tumbled by 47% in 2011.

Via The Atlantic Wire

The American International Group is suing Bank of America over loses taken from mortgage-backed securities , The New York Times reports. A.I.G. is asking for a little more than a third of what they invested into Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial units, which works out to $10 billion over investments of $28 billion. The suit claims Bank of America "misrepresented the quality of the mortgages placed in securities and sold to investors," according to a Times source. A.I.G. isn't stopping after suing Bank of America either. They're also preparing suits against Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Deutsche Bank as part of a wider "litigation strategy" that hopes to recover billions in loses the now taxpayer-owned company sustained during the recession. There are at least 90 lawsuits over mortgage bonds right now asking for around $197 billion to change hands, according to an analyst who spoke to The Times. A.I.G. is expected to formally file the complaint to the New York Supreme Court on Monday.

Alan Greenspan on US Downgrade: No Problem, "We can always print money"

2011-08-08T11:02:00.001-04:00

via CNBC

"The United States can pay any debt it has because we can always print money to do that. So there is zero probability of default" said Greenspan on NBC's Meet the Press
"What I think the S&P thing did was to hit a nerve that there's something basically bad going on, and it's hit the self-esteem of the United States, the psyche" said Greenspan

Libyan War About Oil and Controlling China

2011-08-03T15:03:00.000-04:00

As the 'Arab Spring' continues unabated, the Libyan War, in which Obama promised would be "Days, not weeks", seems to be about more than just keeping the peace.

According to Dr. Paul Craig Roberts via PressTv

The crisis in Libya is mostly a “CIA operation and the US government is trying to get China out of Libya because China has extensive energy investments in Libya,” former Assistant Secretary to US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts told Press TV.

“The US is very disturbed by the recent reports from the International Monetary Fund that China will surpass the US as the number one economic power within 5 years,” Roberts added.

Indeed. Just as of last year China surpassed the United States in energy consumption

Geo-politically speaking, Libya is rather a small exporter of oil to the US. But as we examine Libyan exports the picture becomes increasingly clear.

Putin Slams US As "Parasite" on Global Economy

2011-08-01T21:10:00.001-04:00

Via AP

"They are living beyond their means and shifting a part of the weight of their problems to the world economy," Putin told the pro-Kremlin youth group Nashi while touring its lakeside summer camp some five hours drive north of Moscow.

"They are living like parasites off the global economy and their monopoly of the dollar," Putin said at the open-air meeting with admiring young Russians in what looked like early campaigning before parliamentary and presidential polls.

US President Barack Obama earlier announced a last-ditch deal to cut about $2.4 trillion from the U.S. deficit over a decade, avoid a crushing debt default and stave off the risk that the nation's AAA credit rating would be downgraded.

The deal initially soothed anxieties and led Russian stocks to jump to three-month highs, but jitters remained over the possibility of a credit downgrade.
"Thank god," Putin said, "that they had enough common sense and responsibility to make a balanced decision."

But Putin, who has often criticized the United States' foreign exchange policy, noted that Russia holds a large amount of U.S. bonds and treasuries.

"If over there (in America) there is a systemic malfunction,
this will affect everyone," Putin told the young Russians.

White House: Bipartisan Debt Deal Fact Sheet

2011-08-01T10:49:00.002-04:00

Via Zerohedge

Bipartisan Debt Deal: A Win for the Economy and Budget Discipline

Removes the cloud of uncertainty over our economy at this critical time, by ensuring that no one will be able to use the threat of the nation’s first default now, or in only a few months, for political gain;
Locks in a down payment on significant deficit reduction, with savings from both domestic and Pentagon spending, and is designed to protect crucial investments like aid for college students;
Establishes a bipartisan process to seek a balanced approach to larger deficit reduction through entitlement and tax reform;
Deploys an enforcement mechanism that gives all sides an incentive to reach bipartisan compromise on historic deficit reduction, while protecting Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries and low-income programs;
Stays true to the President’s commitment to shared sacrifice by preventing the middle class, seniors and those who are most vulnerable from shouldering the burden of deficit reduction. The President did not agree to any entitlement reforms outside of the context of a bipartisan committee process where tax reform will be on the table and the President will insist on shared sacrifice from the most well-off and those with the most indefensible tax breaks.

Mechanics of the Debt Deal

Immediately enacted 10-year discretionary spending caps generating nearly $1 trillion in deficit reduction; balanced between defense and non-defense spending.
President authorized to increase the debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion, eliminating the need for further increases until 2013.
Bipartisan committee process tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction, including from entitlement and tax reform. Committee is required to report legislation by November 23, 2011, which receives fast-track protections. Congress is required to vote on Committee recommendations by December 23, 2011.
Enforcement mechanism established to force all parties – Republican and Democrat – to agree to balanced deficit reduction. If Committee fails, enforcement mechanism will trigger spending reductions beginning in 2013 – split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending. Enforcement protects Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries, and low-income programs from any cuts.

1. REMOVING UNCERTAINTY TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN ECONOMY

Deal Removes Cloud of Uncertainty Until 2013, Eliminating Key Headwind on the Economy: Independent analysts, economists, and ratings agencies have all made clear that a short-term debt limit increase would create unacceptable economic uncertainty by risking default again within only a matter of months and as S&P stated, increase the chance of a downgrade. By ensuring a debt limit increase of at least $2.1 trillion, this deal removes the specter of default, providing important certainty to our economy at a fragile moment.
Mechanism to Ensure Further Deficit Reduction is Designed to Phase-In Beginning in 2013 to Avoid Harming the Recovery: The deal includes a mechanism to ensure additional deficit reduction, consistent with the economic recovery. The enforcement mechanism would not be made effective until 2013, avoiding any immediate contraction that could harm the recovery. And savings from the down payment will be enacted over 10 years, consistent with supporting the economic recovery.

2. A DOWNPAYMENT ON DEFICIT REDUCTION BY LOCKING IN HISTORIC SPENDING DISCIPLINE – BALANCED BETWEEN DOMESTIC AND PENTAGON SPENDING

More than $900 Billion in Savings over 10 Years By Capping Discretionary Spending: The deal includes caps on discretionary spending that will produce more than $900 billion in savings over the next 10 years compared to the CBO March baseline, even as it protects core investments from deep and economically damaging cuts.
Includes Savings of $350 Billion from the Base Defense Budget – the First Defense Cut Since the 1990s: The deal puts us on track to cut $350 billion from the defense budget over 10 years. These reductions will be implemented based on the outcome of a review of our missions, roles, and capabilities that will reflect the President’s commitment to protecting our national security.
Reduces Domestic Discretionary Spending to the Lowest Level Since Eisenhower: These discretionary caps will put us on track to reduce non-defense discretionary spending to its lowest level since Dwight Eisenhower was President.
Includes Funding to Protect the President’s Historic Investment in Pell Grants: Since taking office, the President has increased the maximum Pell award by $819 to a maximum award $5,550, helping over 9 million students pay for college tuition bills. The deal provides specific protection in the discretionary budget to ensure that the there will be sufficient funding for the President’s historic investment in Pell Grants without undermining other critical investments.

3. ESTABLISHING A BIPARTISAN PROCESS TO ACHIEVE $1.5 TRILLION IN ADDITIONAL BALANCED DEFICIT REDUCTION BY THE END OF 2011

The Deal Locks in a Process to Enact $1.5 Trillion in Additional Deficit Reduction Through a Bipartisan, Bicameral Congressional Committee: The deal creates a bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Committee that is charged with enacting $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reduction by the end of the year. This Committee will work without the looming specter of default, ensuring time to carefully consider essential reforms without the disruption and brinksmanship of the past few months.
This Committee is Empowered Beyond Previous Bipartisan Attempts at Deficit Reduction: Any recommendation of the Committee would be given fast-track privilege in the House and Senate, assuring it of an up or down vote and preventing some from using procedural gimmicks to block action.
To Meet This Target, the Committee Will Consider Responsible Entitlement and Tax Reform. This means putting all the priorities of both parties on the table – including both entitlement reform and revenue-raising tax reform.

4. A STRONG ENFORCEMENT MECHANISM TO MAKE ALL SIDES COME TOGETHER

The Deal Includes An Automatic Sequester to Ensure That At Least $1.2 Trillion in Deficit Reduction Is Achieved By 2013 Beyond the Discretionary Caps: The deal includes an automatic sequester on certain spending programs to ensure that—between the Committee and the trigger—we at least put in place an additional $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction by 2013.
Consistent With Past Practice, Sequester Would Be Divided Equally Between Defense and Non-Defense Programs and Exempt Social Security, Medicaid, and Low-Income Programs: Consistent with the bipartisan precedents established in the 1980s and 1990s, the sequester would be divided equally between defense and non-defense program, and it would exempt Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement. Likewise, any cuts to Medicare would be capped and limited to the provider side.
Sequester Would Provide a Strong Incentive for Both Sides to Come to the Table: If the fiscal committee took no action, the deal would automatically add nearly $500 billion in defense cuts on top of cuts already made, and, at the same time, it would cut critical programs like infrastructure or education. That outcome would be unacceptable to many Republicans and Democrats alike – creating pressure for a bipartisan agreement without requiring the threat of a default with unthinkable consequences for our economy.

5. A BALANCED DEAL CONSISTENT WITH THE PRESIDENT’S COMMITMENT TO SHARED SACRIFICE

The Deal Sets the Stage for Balanced Deficit Reduction, Consistent with the President’s Values: The deal is designed to achieve balanced deficit reduction, consistent with the values the President articulated in his April Fiscal Framework. The discretionary savings are spread between both domestic and defense spending. And the President will demand that the Committee pursue a balanced deficit reduction package, where any entitlement reforms are coupled with revenue-raising tax reform that asks for the most fortunate Americans to sacrifice.
The Enforcement Mechanism Complements the Forcing Event Already In Law – the Expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts – To Create Pressure for a Balanced Deal: The Bush tax cuts expire as of 1/1/2013, the same date that the spending sequester would go into effect. These two events together will force balanced deficit reduction. Absent a balanced deal, it would enable the President to use his veto pen to ensure nearly $1 trillion in additional deficit reduction by not extending the high-income tax cuts.
In Securing this Bipartisan Deal, the President Rejected Proposals that Would Have Placed the Sole Burden of Deficit Reduction on Low-Income or Middle-Class Families: The President stood firmly against proposals that would have placed the sole burden of deficit reduction on lower-income and middle-class families. This includes not only proposals in the House Republican Budget that would have undermined the core commitments of Medicare to our seniors and forced tens of millions of low-income Americans to go without health insurance, but also enforcement mechanisms that would have forced automatic cuts to low-income programs. The enforcement mechanism in the deal exempts Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare benefits, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement.

Business Insider Presents: The College Bubble Visualization

2011-07-28T11:52:00.000-04:00

The theory behind the higher education bubble says that while the cost of an education increases, the ability to pay back student loans decreases.
The theory has its roots in the late 1980s when Secretary of Education William Bennett, Jr. suggested student loans could be leading to drastic tuition increases and a coming education bubble.
The following chart offers some perspective on the rate of tuition increases compared to the consumer price index and home prices.

Original Article

A Historical Perspective of Usury

2011-07-27T11:01:00.004-04:00

"For the love of money is the root of all evil" -- II Timothy 6:10

Money

"The most sinister and anti-social feature about bank-deposit money is that it has no existence. The banks owe the public for a total amount of money which does not exist. In buying and selling, implemented by cheque transactions, there is a mere change in the party to the whom the money is owed by the banks. As the one depositor's account is debited, the other is credited and the banks can go on owing for it all the time.

"The whole profit of the issuance of money has provided the capital of the great banking business as it exists today. Starting with nothing whatever of their own, they have got the whole world into their debt irredeemably, by a trick.

"This money comes into existence every time the banks 'lend' and disappears every time the debt is repaid to them. So that if industry tries to repay, the money of the nation disappears. This is what makes prosperity so 'dangerous' as it destroys money just when it is most needed and precipitates a slump.

"There is nothing left now for us but to get ever deeper and deeper into debt to the banking system in order to provide the increasing amounts of money the nation requires for its expansion and growth. An honest money system is the only alternative." -- Frederick Soddy, M.A., F.R.S., Nobel Prize Winner, 1921

As the above makes clear, banks are able to manipulate "money" using various methods like the debiting of one account and the crediting of another, and so on, thus "balancing" the accounts. Banks also "create" money in more ways than one, through a trick that will be looked at later on.

Economists use the term "create" when observing the process by which money comes into being. Thus, creation means making something that did not exist before.

A sawmill makes boards, workers build houses from timber, a glass-blower makes fancy glass ornaments. In these examples, they did not "create", but converted already existing materials into a more usable, and thus more valuable form.

However, money "creation" is somewhat different. Here, and here alone, man "creates" something out of nothing. Pieces of worthless paper are printed, given various denominational values, which can be used to purchase, for example, a glass ornament. Its value (of the money, or piece of paper) has been "created" literally out of thin air.

As we can see from the above, manufacturing money is dirt cheap, and whoever does the "creating" and issuing stands to make impressive profits (Click below for full article)

The Supply of Money

"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes its laws" -- Attributed to Mayer Amschel (who later changed his surname to Rothschild and founded the largest financial dynasty ever to exist in its influence and power).

The proper use, distribution and supply of money is of vital importance to the efficient running of society. Modern societies are completely reliant on an adequate supply of money.

Without money, industry would grind to a halt, farms would become mere self-sustaining units, surplus food would disappear, jobs requiring one or more workers would remain unfinished, transport of all goods would cease, hungry populations would kill and steal to stay alive, and government would collapse leading to complete anarchy. It is not hard to imagine the catastrophic conditions created if money was to completely vanish.

Money remains the life-blood of society; money flows throughout society just as vital nutrients flow throughout the body, giving sustained growth, development and vitality.

Money is the method by which goods and services are exchanged; remove money or hamper supply and the results will be disastrous. We need only recall Australia's Great Depression of the 1930's.

Money for Peace? No! Money for War? Yes!

Australians all know about the Great Depression and the extremely hard times it brought about; but what of its causes?

In 1930, Australia did not lack industrial capacity, fertile farmland, or skilled, industrious and willing workers, residing in both the city and country. Already, extensive systems of reasonably efficient transport and communications were in place. War had not ravaged the cities or countryside, nor had famine devastated the land and its population. The one thing that industry and commerce lacked was a sufficient supply of money.

In the early 1930s, Bankers, who were the only source of new money or credit, deliberately refused loans to industry, commerce and agriculture. However, payment on outstanding loans was demanded, which led to a rapid decrease in the circulation of real money.

This caused a complete standstill; jobs could not be done, goods and services could not be purchased. This ploy by the greedy Bankers placed Australia in the Great Depression of the 1930s, and moreover, placed extensive amounts of businesses, private dwellings and farms in the hands of these same Bankers.

The people, not understanding the system, were in a helpless position, and were cruelly robbed of their hard-earned savings and property; they were told things like "times are hard", "money is short", "everyone is suffering." These same statements come to mind when recalling them being made during Australia's recent so-called "recession".

This was "a 'recession' we had to have," the politicians proclaimed; and one I'm sure the banks loved to have. If you should have the opportunity, a check on how the banks faired during the so-called "recession" will reveal sustained and increased profits, with an abnormal increase in acquired property assets!

Usury

"Who goeth a borrowing goeth a sorrowing" -- Benjamin Franklin

The main method through which new money (not true, real money, but "credit" representing a debt) can go into circulation in Australia is when it is borrowed from Bankers. When large amounts of money are borrowed and utilised within society, an illusion of prosperity appears. Thus, when "credit" is loaned out to borrowers, more wealth circulates within society giving the outward appearance of abundance. Of course when it comes to paying that money back, there is the question of usury or interest. As "credit" is borrowed out, interest accumulates at ever-increasing rates as we will soon see.

The transaction of borrowing money proceeds as thus:

The applicant applies to borrow X amount of dollars from a Banker. The Banker, by the stroke of his pen, issues the applicant the principal (the amount borrowed), i.e. "creates" the borrowed amount. This amount does not come from individual bank accounts. The Banker lends the applicant nothing tangible (i.e. gold, silver, paper or ink) on credit, they lend the applicant intangible CREDIT on credit!

Thus, the problem of limited supply is circumvented; the Bankers are lending noTHING which means they can go on lending forever. A highly profitable venture indeed.

To conceal the fraud of lending nothing, Bankers charge interest, whereby borrowers (of nothing) agree to return more imaginary "credit" than they borrowed.

The borrower whose original loan consisted of principal only, must also pay an extra amount that the Banker specifies (interest). Therefore, the new money never equals the new debt added. The amounts needed to pay the interest on the original loan is not "created", and therefore does not exist!

Under this insidious system, the new debt will always be larger than the new money; as more money is needed to pay back interest, less money becomes available. This whole system is particularly unjust when one realises that he/she is repaying intangible principle ("created" by the bank) as well as interest (which is conceived from the "created" principal!)

The above can be illustrated by the following:

The applicant borrows $60,000 to purchase a home, farm or business, and the Bank has the borrower agree to pay back the loan PLUS interest. At just 14%, the borrower must repay $710.92 per month for 30 years. The Bank obtains its "mortgage" over the property and the borrower receives a $60,000 cheque from the Bank which is credited to his/her bank account. The borrower then writes cheques to the builder, contractors, other institutions etc. These persons in turn write cheques. Some $60,000 of new cheque-book money has been added to the money supply.

However, the flaw with this usury system is this: the only new money created and injected into circulation is the principal of $60,000. The money required to pay the interest was NOT created and was not put into circulation.

In the above case, the borrower must earn and take out of circulation $255,931, almost $200,000 more than he put into circulation when he borrowed the original $60,000. Every new loan, big or small, puts this same process into operation. The borrower adds a small amount of money to the total supply of money and deducts more than quadruple the original sum (as in above example) to meet his "obligations".

Another example given below illustrates the year by year progression of a loan for $100,000 at 20% interest for 15 years. Take note that the borrower has repaid the principle after five years of payments! The borrower continues to pay the bank a total of $216,134 over the next ten years.

The inevitable outcome of this system is the diminishment of money in circulation to the point where a depression will be imminent. Money increasingly disappears into the Bankers coffers leaving less and less in circulation. Debtors struggle against each other, vying for new loans which will mean more "created" money and more interest. The banker accrues vast sums of real money and credit that he will gamble on the stockmarket, etc. The Banker will also accumulate all types of property assets, snatched from bankrupt farmers, businessmen etc.

The Banker who produces nothing of value, slowly, then more rapidly, gains a death grip over the land, buildings and labour of future generations. The borrowers have become the servants of the lenders and have placed themselves on the economic treadmill of debt.

Banks Always Prosper -- Through the Bad and Good Times

Though millions of financial transactions are carried out every year, very little money actually changes hands. 95% of all "cash" transactions are done by cheque. The Banker is perfectly safe in "creating" the so-called "loan" by writing the cheque or deposit slip, not against real money, but against your promise to pay it back! The cost to the banker is stationary and wages.

The Greatest Swindle Ever

"Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it all back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits" -- Sir Josiah Stamp (President of the Bank of England in the 1920s, the second richest man in Britain).

Hidden under a veneer of respectability, integrity and competitiveness, the Banker awaits his next unsuspecting victim. The Banker is partaking in the biggest swindle of all time, and he knows it. The Banker's wealth, power and influence extends the world.

We are ruled by a capitalist Bank-owned Mammon that has usurped the mantle of government, and set about to pauperise and control the people. It is now a centralised power-hungry apparatus which promotes war, steals the people's wealth and uses every type of propaganda to keep its position.

The Banker realises that an under-educated, ignorant and confused population is easier to subvert than a healthy and intelligent people. The ruling Establishment therefore promotes all manner of degeneracy, decadence and corruption including drug use, sexual perversion and trivialities.

Through the use of high technologies, the Banker and his other plutocratic cohorts will have a most efficient and complete control over a nations finance and thus increased powers to amass even more wealth through their evil use of usury.

The future will give way to an even larger increase in financial transfers done not only by cheque but by computer transfers that the consumer/borrower will execute from ATMs (Automatic Teller Machines) and home computers. When 100% of all transactions are processed in this manner, the cashless society will have been reached -- a Banker's paradise. The cashless society will be the ultimate instrument in social control; no more tax evasion, no more "extra money on the side", no existence outside the system.

So what can we do about this incredible rip-off? We can warn as many people as possible about this deceitful system and we can tell them not to participate AT ALL. The evil that lurks behind usury must not under any circumstance be supported or encouraged. When enough people realise this iniquity they will develop alternative methods of raising funds. They will come together in new community structures; independent from the old, decrepit worn-out Establishment.

For the love of money is the root of all evil; and the evil that exists at the base of materialistic societies will one day be rooted out and forever destroyed.

Link to Original Article

The Enemy is Washington

2011-07-22T13:31:00.002-04:00

Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal. He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand.

The Enemy is Washington

Recently, the bond rating agencies that gave junk derivatives triple-A ratings threatened to downgrade US Treasury bonds if the White House and Congress did not reach a deficit reduction deal and debt ceiling increase. The downgrade threat is not credible, and neither is the default threat. Both are make-believe crises that are being hyped in order to force cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

If the rating agencies downgraded Treasuries, the company executives would be arrested for the fraudulent ratings that they gave to the junk that Wall Street peddled to the rest of the world. The companies would be destroyed and their ratings discredited. The US government will never default on its bonds, because the bonds, unlike those of Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are payable in its own currency. Regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the Federal Reserve will continue to purchase the Treasury’s debt. If Goldman Sachs is too big to fail, then so is the US government.

There is no budget focus on the illegal wars and military occupations that the US government has underway in at least six countries or the 66-year old US occupations of Japan and Germany and the ring of military bases being constructed around Russia.
The total military/security budget is in the vicinity of $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70% -75% of the federal budget deficit.

In contrast, Social Security is solvent. Medicare expenditures are coming close to exceeding the 2.3% payroll tax that funds Medicare, but it is dishonest for politicians and pundits to blame the US budget deficit on "entitlement programs."

Entitlements are funded with a payroll tax. Wars are not funded. The criminal Bush regime lied to Americans and claimed that the Iraq war would only cost $70 billion at the most and would be paid for with Iraq oil revenues. When Bush’s chief economic advisor, Larry Lindsey, said the Iraq invasion would cost $200 billion, the White House Moron fired him. In fact, Lindsay was off by a factor of 20. Economic and budget experts have calculated that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have consumed $4,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future costs. In other words, the ongoing wars and occupations have already eaten up the $4 trillion by which Obama hopes to cut federal spending over the next ten years. Bomb now, pay later.
As taxing the rich is not part of the political solution, the focus is on rewarding the insurance companies by privatizing Medicare at some future date with government subsidized insurance premiums, by capping Medicaid, and by loading the diminishing middle class with additional Social Security tax.

Washington’s priorities and those of its presstitutes could not be clearer. President Obama, like George W. Bush before him, both parties in Congress, the print and TV media, and National Public Radio have made it clear that war is a far more important priority than health care and old age pensions for Americans.

The American people and their wants and needs are not represented in Washington. Washington serves powerful interest groups, such as the military/security complex, Wall Street and the banksters, agribusiness, the oil companies, the insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and the mining and timber industries. Washington endows these interests with excess profits by committing war crimes and terrorizing foreign populations with bombs, drones, and invasions, by deregulating the financial sector and bailing it out of its greed-driven mistakes after it has stolen Americans’ pensions, homes, and jobs, by refusing to protect the land, air, water, oceans and wildlife from polluters and despoilers, and by constructing a health care system with the highest costs and highest profits in the world.

The way to reduce health care costs is to take out gobs of costs and profits with a single payer system. A private health care system can continue to operate alongside for those who can afford it.
The way to get the budget under control is to stop the gratuitous hegemonic wars, wars that will end in a nuclear confrontation.

The US economy is in a deepening recession from which recovery is not possible, because American middle class jobs in manufacturing and professional services have been offshored and given to foreigners. US GDP, consumer purchasing power, and tax base have been handed over to China, India, and Indonesia in order that Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate CEOs can earn more.
When the goods and services produced offshore come back into America, they arrive as imports. The trade balance worsens, the US dollar declines further in exchange value, and prices rise for Americans, whose incomes are stagnant or falling.

This is economic destruction. It always occurs when an oligarchy seizes control of a government. The short-run profits of the powerful are maximized at the expense of the viability of the economy.
The US economy is driven by consumer demand, but with 22.3% unemployment, stagnant and declining wages and salaries, and consumer debt burdens so high that consumers cannot borrow to spend, there is nothing to drive the economy.

Washington’s response to this dilemma is to increase the austerity! Cutting back Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, forcing down wages by destroying unions and offshoring jobs (which results in a labor surplus and lower wages), and driving up the prices of food and energy by depreciating the dollar further erodes consumer purchasing power. The Federal Reserve can print money to rescue the crooked financial institutions, but it cannot rescue the American consumer.

As a final point, confront the fact that you are even lied to about "deficit reduction." Even if Obama gets his $4 trillion "deficit reduction" over the next decade, it does not mean that the current national debt will be $4 trillion less than it currently is. The "reduction" merely means that the growth in the national debt will be $4 trillion less than otherwise. Regardless of any "deficit reduction," the national debt ten years from now will be much higher than it presently is.

Link to Original Article

A Few Charts Depicting US Economic Woes

2011-07-22T12:02:00.000-04:00

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